Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today face many new challenges created by the web economy.

Online Challenges For Accountants

Accountants today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do they have to actively participate in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also develop an active digital presence. This includes having an effective website and learning smarter ways to market your business online.

As well as spending dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget need to be directed to develop and manage a website that brings in clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and social media, and helps increase their marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your site has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change in time and sections will need to be updated frequently. This requires implementing well-developed website and content management strategy.

Another difficult challenge that accounting firms face with their websites (as most businesses do for that matter), is that your site has only around 30 seconds or less to give users the information they are searching for or they will go away.

“Websites have evolved into central information hubs where service information is still present but enhanced with web portals, hyperlinks to state and federal sites, and a variety of free tools.”

Michael Alter, http://www.accountingweb.com/technology/accounting-software/tips-for-improving-your-website

Opportunities For Professional Accountants

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for accounting firms that can evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and think progressively about marketing themselves better online.

In this guide, you will learn ways to attract more clients and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your accounting business online, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your accounting website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, go here:

• Learn Why A Poorly Constructed Website Can Cost You Business
• Using A WordPress Site To Grow A Successful Business

Useful Tips To Improve Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you how to improve your accounting website and get better results. We show you what web pages you need, what content you need, tips for improving your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need any help with website planning, read this detailed guide: The Web Site Planning Process: A Comprehensive Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional business websites need some basic pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your  should have and how to structure your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Description Of Products And Services

It’s essential to include a page that lists your services and any products that you offer.

It will include all the services and products you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – planning, company formation, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, budgeting, forecasting, financing, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, problem resolution
• Investment strategies
• Corporate accounting
• Wealth creation
• Superannuation/retirement plan (401k) advice
• Audit risk assessment and assurance
• Quickbooks – setup, training, tune up, and support
• Specialist services – mergers, acquisitions, information technology, secretarial, rentals, trusts, fiduciary accounting, succession planning, selling a business, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what your services do and why they should book an appointment.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, community participation, etc.

Remember to also include any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote the company and set it above your competitors.

(List all of your industry awards recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc. in the About page. Image sourced from: deloitte.com)

Meet The Team

If you are searching for quicker, simpler and cost-effective ideas to sell more products online, then help prospects get to know you, your team and your organization better.

You want potential clients to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not very well-versed in accounting terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow selected staff members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight each team member’s qualifications, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a page that introduces your team to prospective new clients. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)

For a detailed tutorial about how to add an easy-to-update list directory of employees to your website, go here: Adding A Staff Directory

Job Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities available within your organization. It could include type of training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can include information about career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Include also a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, subscribe to your updates list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies & Testimonials

Testimonials from previous clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients businesses minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies, you are also helping to provide potential clients with social proof online.

(Add a page to your site with case studies and reviews from clients. Screenshot image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

For a detailed article about using testimonials, case studies and reviews get better results online, go here: Learn How To Improve Your Sales Conversions Using Standout User Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should provide visitors with the following information about your business:

• Business Name
• Location of office
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Email address
• Google Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Online chat (optional feature)

If your business services multiple locations you want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact information.

You can also include a few links for commonly-asked questions, main pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content such as announcements, product releases, training articles, discussions on current topics, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your firm.

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing website is hard to manage or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can serve both as your business website and your blog.

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that can attract a stream of targeted visitors to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

(WordPress can generate traffic automatically to your website)

Go here to learn more about this: Web Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Growing Your Website Traffic Automatically With WordPress

Legal Info Pages

As a professional accountant or financial services provider, having a compliant website is extremely important, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws and regulations are being contravened wherever you provide services to.

Depending on the products and services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting or financial services website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website here: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

By committing to providing great content with advice and tips, you will get your readers sharing your content with others and coming back for more information. Using content is a great way to inform and educate site visitors and prospects about your business and about doing business with your company.

For example, topics for an accounting business could cover the following:

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of your services, such as finance accounting, business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing debt, understanding accounting concepts, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords and terminology in your articles that prospective clients would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

Improving website user experience (often referred to as UX) helps you keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve your visitor engagement and UX.

RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in many ways.

If you provide useful content, other businesses may want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other businesses using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides links to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are several ways readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits when it comes to providing content on your site from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find RSS feeds with loads of useful content by visiting sites of relevant government departments or industry bodies.

Below we have listed some exaples of feeds containing useful information that you could consider adding to your accounting site:

• Taxation Policy Center: http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/press/rss.cfm
• Australian Taxation Office: https://www.ato.gov.au/RSS-news-feeds.aspx
• Canada Revenue Agency: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/rssfeeds/
• UK HM Revenue and Customs: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rss/rss.htm
• South Africa Revenue Service: http://www.sars.gov.za/Pages/RSS-Feeds.aspx

(Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your site’s user experience.)

Checklists And Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase user engagement, add value to your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. Forms and checklists can provide users with step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a necessary task. Checklists and forms can also be great planning tools.

Checklists and forms can address subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Online Tools

Providing useful tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) can help increase visitor engagement and add value to users. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Other tools can include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part two, we look at a several WordPress plugins you can add to your site that improve seo, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

To view Part Two, click this link:

• A Step-By-Step Guide On How To Successfully Build And Grow An Accounting Or Financial Services Online Presence – Part Two

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