Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress
The digital age has not only transformed business worldwide, it has also created difficult challenges and opportunities for accounting businesses.
Challenges Professional Accountants Face Online
Now, more than ever, accounting firms must work harder to stand out from the crowd, obtain new business, and keep their current business. Not only do you have to become more involved in the communities and industries you serve, you must also develop and maintain a strong web presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your business services online.
As well as investing dollars marketing offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be directed to developing and maintaining a website that can bring new prospects, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help to give your business wider exposure online.
This means that your site not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of the website may change in time and some areas may need to be frequently updated. This requires implementing sound website and content management strategy.
Another problem that accounting organizations face (as do all other professions for that matter), is that they have only around 30 seconds to give users the information they need or they will go elsewhere.
“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
Online Opportunities For Professional Accountants
As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to accounting companies that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and who can think strategically about marketing their services better online.
This detailed guide will help you uncover opportunities to attract and engage new visitors and improve your business presence online.
As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using WordPress to power your accounting or financial services website or blog.
To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see these articles:
- Learn Why A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Business And What To Do About It
- Learning WordPress – A Small Business Owner’s Guide
Tips To Improve Your Website
This section will show you ways to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages a financial services website needs, what type of content works best for accounting websites, suggestions for improving your layout and navigation, etc.
If you need website planning assistance, check out the detailed step-by-step guide we have written here: A Comprehensive Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners
Ways To Improve Your Website Pages
Professional business websites need some basic web pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your should have and how to set up your website for best results.
Your Services And Products
It’s essential to include a page that lists your services and any products that you offer.
This page should include services such as:
- Business – business planning, incorporation of companies, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
- Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, problem resolution
- Investment strategies
- Corporate finance
- 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 businesses, transfers, etc.
- Lending and leasing
Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what these services do and direct them to your appointment booking page.
About Us
This page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.
It should mention any awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote the company and set it above your competitors.
(List all of your industry awards accreditations, recognitions, certifications, publications, associations, etc. in the About page. Image sourced from: deloitte.com)
Your Staff
Are you searching for cost-effective ways to sell more products online? Then something you can do, is help prospective clients get to know you, your team and your organization better.
People need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not well-versed in accounting terms your bio descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should also include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow your staff members on their social networks.
In this page, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline your staff member’s experience, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.
(Add a page that introduces your team to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)
If you need help how to add an easy-to-maintain list directory of staff or team members to your website using free plugins, refer to this tutorial: WordPress Plugin Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory To Your Site
Work For Us
List any career opportunities within your organization. It could include training offered, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You should also include information about career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.
Maintain a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your newsletter, follow you on social media, etc.
Testimonials & Case Studies
Case studies and testimonials from previous clients are a great way to show prospective clients what type of accounting solutions you will implement to help them solve their problems. By adding a page with reviews from clients and case studies, you are also helping to provide social proof.
(Add a page to your site with reviews from clients and case studies. Screenshot source: pcg-services.com)
For a detailed article about using client testimonials and reviews improve your business online, go here: How To Improve Your Visitor-To-Sales Conversions With Meaningful Customer Testimonials
Contact Us
Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.
It should include some or all of the following information:
- Company Name
- Your physical location
- Telephone
- Facsimile number
- Contact email address
- Map and directions
- Website URL
- Contact form
- Name of person to contact
- Social media links
- Live Chat/Skype (optional)
If your business operates in multiple areas you will want to make this clear when showing your address and contact information.
You should also include links to an FAQ section, useful pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.
Blog Section
A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business using content like company announcements, updates, training articles and tutorials, informative posts, how-to videos, infographics, etc.
If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your organization.
If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting or financial services site is very hard to add new content to or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can act both as your business website and business blog.
Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic machine that will help deliver targeted visitors to your web site, simply by publishing new content to your website on a regular basis.
(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)
If you would like to know more here: WordPress Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Turn Your WordPress Web Site Into A Web Traffic Machine
Legal Pages
It’s crucially important to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any local, regional and federal laws and regulations in whatever area you service.
Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms Of Use
- Website Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreement
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- DMCA Notice
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Health Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- and others
We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website
Tips For Improving Your Content
In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from competing businesses.
By committing to providing great content with useful information and tips, you will get your readers sharing your content and coming back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your business.
For example, for an accounting or financial services business, topics can cover:
- How balance sheets work
- Overlooked tax deductions
- Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
- How to present accounts for non-profit activities
- Business cashflow planning
- Maximizing business insurance cover
- Protecting revenues
- Tips on structuring your self-managed retirement fund
- Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)
You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your services, such as software accounting, business accounting, business budgeting, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.
Remember to use relevant keywords in your content that readers would search for.
We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
Ways Of Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience
Improving website user experience (known as UX) will help keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and UX.
Use RSS Feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide lots of benefits for your website.
If you provide valuable content, other sites may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.
Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other websites using RSS feeds, include:
- All of your content updates are kept in one place
- Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- RSS feeds can be shared
- Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
- An RSS feed provides a way for external links to point back to your content
- Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
- There are a number of ways readers can receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
- It’s built into WordPress
There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.
You can find many useful RSS feeds for your website by visiting sites of relevant government departments or industry bodies.
For example, here are examples of feeds you may want to consider adding to your 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
(Using RSS feeds can help to improve your accounting website’s UX.)
Checklists And Forms
Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. Checklists and forms can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. Forms and checklists can also be great business planning tools.
You can provide a range of forms and checklists (or links to these) covering topics such as:
- How To Set Up A Company
- Rental Property Checklist
- Fundraising Activity Checklist
- Disclosure Checklists
- Sole Trader Tax Checklist
- Capital Gains Tax Checklist
- Income Tax Variation Forms
Online Tools
Providing unique online tools and applications for businesses on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are great tools to add to accounting websites. Other applications would include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.
In the next section of this detailed article, we will be discussing a several online tools you can add to your accounting or financial services website using WordPress plugins and themes that can help improve seo, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.
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This is the end of part one of this guide on ways to improve your accounting business web presence.
Click on this link to read Part 2:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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