Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face growing challenges.

Online Challenges For Certified Public Accountants

Now, more than ever, accountants must find smarter ways to stand out from the competition, find new business, and keep their current clients. Not only do you have to become more involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having a dynamic web presence and learning how to better promote your business services online.

In addition to spending money marketing offline, businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that they will need to designate a larger portion of their budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that drives prospective clients, engages visitors, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps to increase their presence online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to load fast, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change over time and some aspects will need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a well-planned web and content management strategy.

One other challenge that accounting firms face with their websites, as most businesses do for that matter, is that your site has only about 30 seconds to help visitors find what they need 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 Accounting Professionals

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available for accounting firms that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and think strategically when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.

This detailed guide will help you uncover new ways to increase web traffic and build more online credibility for your business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your accounting or financial services website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system, see the articles below:

• Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Customers
• WordPress For Small Business – A Complete Guide To Growing Your Business With WordPress

Tips To Improve Your Accounting Website

In this section we will show you ways to improve your website and get better results. We show you what web pages you need, what content works best, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: The Website Planning Process - A Money-Saving Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Improving Your Web Pages

All websites need a number of basic web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Services And Products

It’s essential to include a page that describes your products or services.

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

• Business – business planning, company structures, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, 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. Educate your visitors about what your services do and why they should choose you.

Who We Are

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, supported community projects, etc.

It should mention any awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote the company and set it above the competition.

(List all of your awards certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc. in your About Us page. Image source: deloitte.com)

Meet Our Team

Are you searching for quicker and easier ways to grow your business online or get prospects to engage more with your site? Then make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know you and your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be familiar with 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. This page should even include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow individual team members on their social networks.

On this page, make sure to highlight each staff member’s qualifications, how their skills and knowledge add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add an employee page. Image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to create and add an easy-to-maintain simple team members directory to WordPress using a free WP plugin, refer to this tutorial: Plugin Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory To Your Site

Job Opportunities Page

List any career opportunities available within the company. This page would include type of training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can include information about upcoming career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Also include a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, subscribe to your updates list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to show potential clients what kind of accounting solutions you will implement to help them solve problems. Adding a web page with case studies and client reviews also provides social proof.

(Add a web page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies. Screenshot source: pcg-services.com)

We have created a comprehensive article on using testimonials, case studies and user reviews to grow your business online. Go here to learn more: Improve Your Sales With Awesome Testimonials

Contact Page

A contact page is essential.

It should provide:

• Company Name
• Your address
• Phone
• Facsimile number
• Email address
• Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – who to contact
• Social media links
• Live Chat/Skype (optional)

If you operate out of different locations you will want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

Consider also including links to commonly-asked questions, useful pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add A Blog

A blog is a powerful business marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content like company announcements, updates, useful information, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing site, then consider adding a WordPress-powered blog to promote your services.

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing website is hard to keep updated or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can be used both as your website and blog.

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that can begin to deliver web traffic to your web site, simply by adding new content to your website on a regular basis.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

To learn more about this go here: Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Create An Automated Web Traffic Generation Machine With WordPress

Legal Info Pages

As a professional business, ensuring that you have a compliant website is crucially important, not just for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being breached wherever your business is located.

Depending on what services you provide, adding 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 sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• 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 comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your site. If you are interested in learning more here: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

Improving The Content On Your Site

In today’s highly competitive online economy, the practice of content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

Providing great content with useful information and tips will get your visitors sharing your content and coming back for more information. Publishing content 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 could cover:

• How balance sheets work
• Profit & loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk prevention
• Tips on structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of your accounting services, such as software accounting, small business accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, understanding financial conventions, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terms in your articles that your prospective clients would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Improving Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

RSS feeds provide many benefits for your business.

If you provide useful information, other sites will want to syndicate your content.

Some of the benefits of having other businesses syndicate your content, include:

• All of your updates are in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Your feeds can be shared
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides links back to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides a number of ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

To find useful RSS feeds just visit sites of relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

Below we have listed examples of useful RSS feeds you may want to 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

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your accounting website’s UX.)

Checklists & Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. They can give them useful instructions and resources to get necessary tasks done. Forms and checklists are also great business planning tools.

Forms and checklists can cover subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Company Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing unique tools and applications for businesses on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Other tools could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part 2, we take a look at a several WordPress plugins you can add to your accounting or financial services website that can help improve your seo, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1 of this article on ways to grow your accounting business web presence.

To continue, click here:

• Your Accounting Website – Improving SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Visitors To Your Site Generation Using Plugins

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