Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress
The digital age has not only revolutionised the way business is done around the world, it has also created an increasing number of challenges and great opportunities for businesses in the accounting and financial services industry.
Online Challenges For The Accounting Profession
Today, more than ever, accountants must find smarter ways to remain competitive, source new business, and keep their current business. Not only do they have to actively participate in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective web presence and figuring out smarter ways to market your business services online.
In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, you will need to delegate a larger share of your budget to develop and maintain a website that will attract clients, engage visitors, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and give you wider reach 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, the needs of your website will change in time and sections may need to be frequently updated. This requires the implementation of a sound website and content management strategy.
One other challenge that accounting organizations face (as do other professions for that matter), is that they have around thirty seconds or less to help users 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 Accounting Businesses In The Online Economy
As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting profession that can evolve to meet online challenges and who can think progressively about marketing themselves better online.
This guide will help you uncover ways to attract new business and improve your business online.
As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your accounting or financial services website or blog.
To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress CMS platform, go here:
- Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
- How To Grow Your Small Business With A WordPress Site
How To Improve Your Accounting Website
In this section we’ll start with the basics and show you how to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We show you what pages a financial services site needs, what content works best for accounting and financial services sites, your navigation structure, etc.
If you need help with website planning, go here: A Basic Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners
Basic Pages
Professional websites need several essential pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your should have and how to structure your accounting or financial services website for best results.
Services And Products
It’s essential to have a page that explains your products or services.
This page should include services such as:
- Business – planning, company formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, financing, budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
- Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, 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, transfers, etc.
- Lending and leasing
List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what your services do and why they should book an appointment.
Who We Are
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 also include any accounting awards, accreditations, recognitions, certifications, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your company and set it above the competition.
(List all of your industry awards accreditations, certifications, recognitions, associations, publications, etc. in the About page. Screenshot image source: deloitte.com)
Team Profile
If you are searching for simple ideas to sell more products or services online or get people to stay longer on your site, then something you can do, is help prospective clients get to know, like and trust you and your business better.
Prospects need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. It should include a photo and a brief biography. 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 also include social buttons so your prospective clients can follow some of your staff members on their social pages.
In this page, make sure to highlight your person’s expertise, why they are an invaluable asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.
(Make sure to add an employee description page. Image sourced from: deepsky.com)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about how to easily create and add a simple and easily updatable simple staff directory to your website without coding skills, go here: How To Add A Simple Employee List On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills
Work With Us
List any career opportunities within the company. This page can include training provided, benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.
Maintain a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, join your updates list, follow your social pages, etc.
Testimonials & Case Studies
Case studies and reviews from clients are a great way to show potential clients minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies also establishes social proof online.
(Add a page to your site with reviews from clients and case studies. Screenshot image sourced from: pcg-services.com)
We have written extensively on using testimonials, case studies and user reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more: How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using Awesome Testimonials
Contact Us
Having a functional contact page is essential.
Your contact page should provide some or all of the following information about your company:
- Company Name
- Your address
- Phone
- Facsimile number
- Contact email
- Google Map and directions
- Web URL
- Contact form
- Request for information – contact details
- Links to social media pages
- Live Chat/Skype
If your business services different locations you will want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.
You can also include a few links for the most commonly asked questions, main pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.
Blog Section
A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business using content like company announcements, product updates, training articles and tutorials, discussions on current topics, videos, webinars, etc.
If you already have an existing accounting or financial services website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your company.
If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing site is very hard to manage or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can serve as both your website and blog.
Very few businesses know that an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation system that will help attract new targeted traffic to your site, simply by publishing new content on a regular basis to your website.
(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)
Go here to learn more: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Learn How To Attract More Website Traffic For Your Business
Legal Pages
It’s vitally important to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being contravened wherever your business services clients.
Depending on the services and products you provide, adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services website will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential legal threats and inconveniences:
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms And Conditions
- Website Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreement
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- DMCA Notice
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Health/Financial Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- etc.
To learn more about adding legal pages to your website, refer to this article: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site
Ways To Improve Your Web Content
In today’s globally competitive economy, the ability to deliver valuable content free of charge has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.
By committing to providing great content with useful information and tips, you will get your visitors to share your content with others and come back for more information. Content marketing is the most effective way to educate your visitors and prospects about your business.
For example, topics for an accounting or financial services business can cover:
- Explanations of balance sheets
- Profit and loss statements
- Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
- How to present accounts for non-profit activities
- Business cashflow planning advice
- Business insurance
- Protecting revenues
- Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
- Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)
You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your your readers understand your services, such as forensic accounting, business accounting, office accounting software, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.
Remember to use specific keywords and terminology in your articles that your readers will be searching 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 website, save money creating high-quality 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 completely FREE!
Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience
Improving your site’s user experience (generally referred to as UX) helps keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you different ways to improve your visitor engagement and user experience.
RSS Feeds – Content Syndication
An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides many benefits for your business.
If you provide useful information, other businesses will want to syndicate your content.
Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other websites using RSS feeds, include:
- All of your updates are in one place
- Doesn’t rely on email
- Feeds can be shared
- RSS feeds allow for subscribing
- A feed provides links back to your content
- RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
- RSS provides various ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. read the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
- It’s built into WordPress
There are also 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 loads of useful content for your website, visit sites of relevant government departments and industry bodies.
For example, here are examples of RSS feeds containing useful information that you may want to add 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 feeds to provide your visitors with a better UX.)
Checklists And 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 users with step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a task. Checklists and forms can also be great planning tools.
You can provide checklists and forms (or links to these) covering a range of topics such as:
- How To Set Up A Business
- Rental Property Checklist
- Fundraising Governance Checklist
- Disclosure Checklists
- Sole Trader Tax Checklist
- Capital Gains Tax Checklist
- Income Tax Variation Forms
Other Tools
Providing unique online tools and applications for businesses on your website can help increase visitor engagement and add value to your potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Other tools can include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.
In the next section, we discuss a number of online tools you can use in your accounting or financial services website using WordPress plugins that can improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.
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This is the end of part 1.
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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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