Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress
Accounting professionals today face a number of challenges.
Online Challenges For Accounting And Financial Businesses
Now, more than ever, accountants must find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd, find new clients, and retain current clientele. Not only do you have to participate in the communities and industries you serve, you must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic web presence and learning how to better market your business online.
As well as investing dollars in offline marketing activities, you will probably find that in order to compete, you will need to designate a larger amount of your marketing budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that attracts prospective clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and helps you create wider marketing reach online.
This means that your site not only has to look great, your pages have to load fast, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, the needs of your website may change in time and some aspects will need to be updated frequently. This requires implementing well-developed web and content management strategy.
Another problem that accounting firms (and other professions) face online, is that your site has around thirty seconds to help visitors find the information they are looking 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 Certified Public Accountants
As well as facing a number of significant business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for accounting businesses that can adapt to meet the demands of the digital economy and who can think progressively in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.
The article below will help you uncover a number of ways to attract and engage new visitors and establish stronger online credibility for your business.
As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using WordPress to power your accounting business website or blog.
To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), go here:
- Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Prospective Customers
- Learn How To Grow Your Business With A WordPress Site
Practical Tips For Improving Your Website
In this section we’ll show you how to improve your accounting website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what content you need, ways to improve your navigation structure, etc.
If you need website planning assistance, check out the guide we have written here: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners
Your Web Pages
All websites need some essential web pages. Let’s go over these.
Services And Products Page
You need to include a page that describes your products or services.
This page should include services such as:
- Business – planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, budgeting, forecasting, financing, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
- Taxation – preparing, 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, asset transfers, etc.
- Lending and leasing
List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.
Who We Are
The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.
Remember to mention any business awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote the company and position it above other competitors.
(List all of your business awards certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc. in your About Us page. Screenshot image sourced from: deloitte.com)
Meet The Team
Are you searching for simple ideas to grow your business online? Then make it easier for visitors to get to know you and your business better.
You want prospective clients to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. This page should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons that will allow your site visitors to follow your staff members on their social pages.
In this page, make sure to highlight your person’s expertise and qualifications, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.
(Make sure to add a staff description page. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)
We have created a detailed tutorial on how to add an easy-to-maintain list directory of employees or team members to your web site here: Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding A Staff List Directory
We’re Hiring
This is a listing of career opportunities available within your firm. This page could include training, employee benefits, professional development, etc. It should include stories of graduates who have risen within your company and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the accounting industry.
Include also a positions available section in this page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to this page, join your newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.
Testimonials & Case Studies
Testimonials and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what it’s like to do business with your firm. By adding a page with case studies and client reviews, you will also help to provide social proof.
(Add a web page with case studies and reviews from clients. Image sourced from: pcg-services.com)
We have created a detailed article on using testimonials, case studies and client reviews to grow your business online. For more details, go here: Discover How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using Awesome Testimonials
Contact Page
A contact page is essential.
It should include some or all of the following information:
- Name
- Address
- Telephone
- Facsimile
- Email address
- Map
- Website address
- Contact form
- Name of person to contact
- Social media URLs
- Interactive chat feature (optional)
If your business services multiple areas you should make this clear when showing your address and contact info.
Consider also including links to the most commonly asked questions, useful pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.
Add A Blog Section
A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content such as news and events, product releases, educational information, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, webinars, etc.
If you already have an accounting website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your firm.
If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing website is hard to add new content to or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used both as your website and business blog.
Not many people know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation system that can help drive a stream of targeted traffic to your site, simply by adding new content on a consistent basis to your website.
(An expertly configured WordPress site can generate traffic automatically to your site)
Go here to learn more: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create A Web Traffic-Getting Machine With WordPress
Legal Information Pages
It’s vital to make sure they have a compliant website, not just for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaking any laws or regulations wherever you service clients.
Depending on what products and services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms And Conditions
- 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
Go here if you would like to learn more about adding legal pages to your site: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site
Improve Your Web Content
In today’s fiercely competitive global economy, being generous with content that educates and informs readers has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.
You want to provide great content with information and tips that will get your readers to share your content and come back for more. Publishing content is a great way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your services and products.
For example, for an accounting or financial services business, topics could include the following:
- How balance sheets work
- Overlooked tax deductions
- Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
- How to present accounts for fundraising activities
- Cashflow planning
- Maximizing business insurance cover
- Protecting revenues
- Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
- Do’s and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)
You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your accounting or financial services, such as forensic accounting, tax accounting, tips on using business accounting software, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.
Remember to include keywords and terminology in your content that your prospective clients would search for online.
We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!
Improving User Experience
Improving user experience (often referred to as UX) will help to keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and UX.
Using RSS Feeds
RSS feeds provide lots of benefits for your site.
If you provide useful content, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.
Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:
- All of your content updates are kept in one place
- your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- Can be shared
- Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
- It provides links to your content
- Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
- RSS provides multiple ways for your readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
- It’s built into WordPress
There are also a number of benefits to providing valuable information on your site from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.
To find RSS feeds with useful content just visit sites of finance-related government departments and well-known industry bodies.
For example, here are some useful RSS feeds you may want to add to your website:
- 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
(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your site’s user experience.)
Adding Checklists
Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. Checklists and forms can provide users with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete tasks. They can also be great business planning tools.
You can provide online or downloadable forms and checklists (or links to these) covering a range of areas such as:
- How To Set Up A Company
- Negative Gearing Checklist
- Non-Profit Activity Checklist
- Disclosure Checklists
- Partnership Tax Checklist
- Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
- Income Tax Variation Forms
Other Tools
Providing useful online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools you can add to accounting websites. Others could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.
In the next section, we will be discussing a several online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins and themes that can help to improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.
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This is the end of section one.
Click on this link to access Part 2:
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
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