Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The information economy has not only revolutionised business worldwide, it has also created a growing number of challenges and opportunities for businesses offering accounting services.

Challenges Accountants Face Online

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

As well as investing dollars in offline marketing, you will probably find that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be allocated towards the development and management of a website that will drive new prospective clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help give your business a wider amount of exposure online.

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

Another challenge that accounting organizations face online (and most professions for that matter), is that your site has only about thirty seconds to give visitors what they are searching for or they will look 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

Opportunities For Professional Accountants

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting profession that are willing to adapt to meet the challenges of the online economy and think outside the box in terms of improving their online business marketing skills.

The article below will help you uncover ways to attract more visitors and create significant improvements in your business presence online.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using WordPress to power your accounting or financial services business 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 Designed Website Can Cost You Business And What To Do About It
• Using WordPress To Grow A Successful Business Online

How To Improve Your Accounting Website

Let’s start by reviewing the basics. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your accounting website and get better results. We will look at what pages an accounting website needs, what type of content you need, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need help with website planning, visit this page: A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional business websites require several basic web pages. Let’s review the pages your  need to have and how to structure your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Description Of Products And Services

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

This page should include all the services you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – business planning, company formation, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, budgeting, forecasting, financing, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, 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 a business, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your appointment booking page.

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, causes supported, etc.

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

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

Staff

Are you searching for quicker, easier and cheaper ideas to grow your business online? Then help your prospective clients get to know, like and trust your organization better.

You want your business to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors are probably not familiar with 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 prospective clients to follow your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to outline each person’s experience, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a team profile page. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to add an easy-to-maintain list directory of employees to your site with no coding skills required here: How To Easily Add An Employee List Directory

Job Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities within the firm. It could include type of training provided, benefits, professional development, social aspects of working with your organization, etc. It should include case studies of recruits who have risen within your firm and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Maintain 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 announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials from past clients are a great way to show potential clients businesses minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a web page with testimonials from past clients and case studies also establishes social proof.

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

We have created a detailed article on using client testimonials and client reviews to grow your business online. Go here to learn more: How To Convert More Visitors Into Prospects With Knockout User Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a contact page is essential.

It should provide:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Physical address
• Telephone
• Facsimile number
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media profiles
• Chat feature (optional)

If you operate in different areas you want to make that clear when showing your address and contact information.

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

Add An Accounting Blog

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing content like company events, company updates, training articles, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an existing 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 very hard to keep updated or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can serve as both your business website and your blog.

Something few businesses know about, is that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic machine that can help begin driving an ongoing stream of targeted visitors to your web site, simply by publishing regular content to your website.

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

You can learn more about this here: Web Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Create A Web Traffic Generation Machine With WordPress

Legal Information Pages

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

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:

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

If you want to learn more about adding legal pages to your site, see this article: Why You Need To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin engaging in the practice of content marketing, the sooner 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 online with others and coming back for more. Using content is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your services and products.

For example, topics for an accounting or financial services business could include the following:

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning tips
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Risk protection
• Tips on structuring your 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 prospective clients understand your services, such as software accounting, tax accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use relevant keywords and terms in your articles 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 easy-to-digest information and practical tips that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content for your 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 To Improve Visitor Experience

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

Syndicating Content - RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

If you provide useful information, other sites may 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
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Your feed can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are various ways readers can receive your content (e.g. view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits when it comes to providing information on your website from other websites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

To find RSS feeds with useful content for your website, visit sites of relevant government departments or well-known industry bodies.

Below we have listed some exaples of feeds containing useful information that 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

(RSS feeds can help to improve your site’s UX.)

Adding Downloadable Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Forms and checklists can give them step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. They can also be great business planning tools.

You can provide online or downloadable checklists and forms covering a range of subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Unique Tools

Providing useful tools and applications for businesses can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools for accounting websites. Other tools would include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part two of this detailed guide, we look at a number of online tools you can add to your website using WordPress plugins that improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.

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

To keep reading, click this link:

• A Complete Step-By-Step Guide To Growing An Accounting Or Financial Services Web Presence – Part 2

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