Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today are facing increasingly difficult challenges created by the web economy.

Online Challenges For The Accounting Profession

Accounting businesses today must work harder than ever before to remain competitive. Not only do you have to become more involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your services online.

As well as spending dollars advertising offline on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be directed to developing and maintaining a website that can bring new clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and give them a wider degree of exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and sections will need to be updated often. This requires a well-planned web and content management strategy.

Another problem that accounting organizations (and most professions) face with their websites, is that your site has an average of thirty seconds to help users find the information they need or they will go elsewhere to get their needs met.

“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 Businesses In The Digital Economy

As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for accounting companies that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and can think strategically about improving their online marketing skills.

In this detailed guide, you will learn new ways to attract new potential clients and establish stronger online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

As well as providing tips and information on cost-effective ways to improve your business online, we also recommend that you consider using WordPress 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:

• How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Money And What To Do About It
• A Complete Guide To Growing A Successful Small Business Using WordPress

Tips To Improve Your Website

In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We will look at what web pages you need, what content works best, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need help with website planning, see this detailed guide we have written: The Web Site Planning Process - A Useful Blueprint For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

All business websites need several essential web pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  should have and how to structure your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Your Services And Products

You need a page that lists your products and services.

This page will include services such as:

• Business accounting – business planning, incorporation of companies, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, 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 businesses, asset 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 your services do and why they should choose you.

Who We Are

This page needs to describe your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, causes supported, etc.

Remember to list any accounting awards, recognitions, accreditations, certifications, publications, associations, etc., that can be used to promote your company and position it above the competition.

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

Meet Our Team

If you are searching for simple ideas to sell more products or services online, then one of the things you can do, is make it easier for prospective clients to get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

Prospective clients need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with accounting terms it 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 so your site visitors can follow your team members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to highlight each team member’s 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 page. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to easily create and add an updatable simple staff directory to your WordPress site using a free WordPress plugin, go here: Tutorial: Adding A Staff Directory To Your Site

We’re Hiring

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your company. This page can include training provided, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, social activities encouraged or sponsored by your organization, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and new career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Also include 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 newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to show prospective clients what it’s like to do business with your organization. By adding a page with client reviews and case studies, you will also help to establish social proof.

(Add a page with case studies and testimonials. Screenshot image source: pcg-services.com)

To learn more about using testimonials, case studies and client reviews, refer to this article: Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects Using Compelling Client Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a clean contact page is crucial.

It should include some or all of the following information about your company:

• Business Name
• Address
• Phone number
• Facsimile
• Email
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media networks
• Online chat

If your business services different locations you want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact info.

Consider also including a few links for the most commonly asked questions, useful pages, special offers, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content such as news, updates, useful information, informative posts, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing accounting or financial services site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your company.

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting or financial services site is hard to add new content to or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can serve both as your business website and your blog.

Very few businesses know that WordPress can become an automated traffic system that will help begin driving targeted traffic to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can generate new visitors automatically to your website)

For more details: Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Automatically Increase Your Website Traffic For Your Business

Legal Pages

It’s crucially important to make sure they have a compliant website, not just for establishing credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being contravened in whichever location you provide services to.

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

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms Of Use
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. Go here to learn more: Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Improve Your Web Content

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

By committing to providing great content with useful advice and tips, you will get your visitors to share your web pages online with others and come back for more. Using content is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospects about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting business could cover:

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning tips
• 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 informative articles that will help your readers gain a better understanding of accounting services, such as forensic accounting, business accounting, business budgeting, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords in your content that your prospective clients would search for online.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful content for your 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!

Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in several ways.

If you provide valuable information, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides a way for links to point back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides various ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can read the content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

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

You can find many useful RSS feeds by visiting sites of relevant government departments and well-known industry bodies.

For example, here are some exaples of 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 accounting site’s user experience.)

Adding Forms

Checklists and forms are a great way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with useful step-by-step instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. They are also great business planning tools.

You can provide online or downloadable checklists and forms (or links to these) covering a range of areas such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) on your website is a great way to 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 tools could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part two of this guide, we will look at a number of online tools you can use in your website using WordPress plugins that can help 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 1.

To view Part 2, click here:

• How To Build And Grow An Accounting Or Financial Services Web Presence Successfully With WordPress – Part Two

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