Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress
Accounting professionals today face growing challenges.
Online Challenges For Certified Public Accountants
Today, more than ever, certified public accountants must work harder and find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd, find new clients, and keep their current clientele. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and learning how to better promote your business services online.
In addition to investing money in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget need to be assigned to develop and manage a website that can drive prospective clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and help create wider marketing reach online.
This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs may change in time and some areas will need to be frequently updated. This requires a well-developed web and content management strategy in place.
Another problem that accounting firms face (as do other professions for that matter), is that your site has only around 30 seconds or less to help visitors find the information they need or they will find what they are looking for 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 The Accounting Profession In The Digital Economy
As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting profession that are willing to adapt to meet online demands and think progressively when it comes to improving their online business marketing skills.
In this detailed guide, you will discover a number of ways to source new potential clients and build more online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.
As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also focus on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to power your accounting business website or blog.
To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress content management system (CMS), see these articles:
- Discover How A Poorly Designed Website Can Lose You Money
- Learn How To Grow Your Small Business With WordPress
Practical Tips For Improving Your Website
In this section we will start with the basics and show you how to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what pages you need, what content works best for accounting and financial services websites, layout and navigation structure, etc.
If you need assistance or help planning your accounting website, visit this page: The Web Site Planning Process Explained - A Basic Guide For Non-Technical Business Owners
Your Website Pages
Professional business websites need several essential pages. Let’s take a look at the pages your need and how to set up your website for best results.
Your Products And Services
You need to include a page that lists your services and any products that you offer.
Your page should include services such as:
- Business accounting – business planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, 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, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about what your services do and why they should choose you.
Who We Are
This page should give a description of your business and explain to visitors what it stands for, its unique approach, sponsored community projects, etc.
Remember to include any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that could be used to promote your company and position it above the competition.
(List all of your awards recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc. in your About page. Image sourced from: deloitte.com)
Core Team
Are you looking for simple ideas to sell more products online and increase user interaction on your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.
You want your business to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff members. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in accounting terms it should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons so your site visitors can follow individual staff members on their social networks.
On this page, make sure to outline 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 a staff page. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)
We have created a detailed tutorial on how to easily create and add a list of staff members in your website using free plugins here: Adding A Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site
Job Opportunities Page
List any career opportunities within the firm. This page could include training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, etc. It should include stories of trainees who have worked their way up in your company and information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the accounting industry.
Include also 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 newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.
Testimonials
Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what type of financial solutions you are capable of implementing to help them solve problems. By adding a page with case studies and reviews from clients, you will also help to establish social proof.
(Add a web page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients. Screenshot image source: pcg-services.com)
We have written extensively about using testimonials, case studies and user reviews to improve your business results online. Go here to learn more: Learn How To Turn More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects With Sales Boosting Testimonials
Contact Us
Having a contact page is crucial.
It should include the following:
- Company Name
- Your address
- Phone
- Fax
- Contact email
- Google Map and directions
- Web URL
- Contact form
- Contact name
- Links to social media pages
- Chat
If you have different areas you want to make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.
Consider also including links to an FAQ page, useful pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.
Blog Section
A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically comprise of a content management system that allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as industry events, product releases, useful articles, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, infographics, etc.
If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your organization.
If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting website is hard to keep updated with new content or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used as both your website and blog.
Not many businesses know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation system that will help begin delivering new targeted traffic to your website, simply by publishing regular content to your site.
(WordPress can generate web traffic automatically to your website)
You can learn more here: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Automatically Generate More Website Traffic For Your Business
Legal Info Pages
As a professional accountant or financial services provider, having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is extremely important, not just for building credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no local, regional or federal laws and regulations are being breached wherever you service clients.
Depending on the services you provide, adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Facebook), and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:
- Contact Page
- Privacy Policy
- Terms Of Use
- Website Disclaimer
- Affiliate Agreement
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- DMCA Notice
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Health/Financial Disclaimers
- Refund Policy
- Video/Audio Terms
- and others
To learn more about adding legal pages to your website, see this article: Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site
Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Website
In today’s globally competitive economy, the earlier you begin to publish great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.
Providing great content with advice and tips will get your readers to share your content and come back for more. Using content is a great way to inform and teach your visitors and prospective clients about your business and about doing business with your organization.
For example, topics for an accounting business could cover:
- Explanations of balance sheets
- Overlooked tax deductions
- Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
- Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
- Business cashflow planning tips
- Business insurance
- Protecting revenues
- Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
- Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)
You can also create a series of educational articles that will help your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your accounting services, such as finance accounting, small business accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, understanding financial concepts, etc.
Remember to use relevant keywords and terms in your articles that readers will be searching for online.
We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest information that will teach exactly how to drive more traffic to your web site, 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 completely FREE!
Improving User Experience
Improving your user experience (known as UX) will help keep visitors coming back and using your site. This section will show you ways you can improve visitor engagement and user experience.
Adding RSS Feeds
RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.
If you provide content that adds value to others, other sites may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.
Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other businesses using RSS feeds, include:
- All of your updates are in one place
- Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
- RSS feeds can be shared online
- Allows for subscribing
- An RSS feed provides links to your site
- RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
- There are a number of ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
- RSS is built into WordPress
There are also benefits when it comes 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.
To find useful RSS feeds just visit sites of relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.
Here are a few feeds containing useful information that you could consider adding to your accounting 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
(Using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your site’s user experience.)
Provide Downloadable Checklists & Forms
Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your audience. Forms and checklists can provide useful instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. Checklists and forms are also great business planning tools.
You can provide a range of checklists and forms covering topics such as:
- How To Set Up A Company
- Negative Gearing Worksheet
- Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
- Disclosure Requirements
- Partnership Tax Checklist
- Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
- Income Tax Variation Forms
Adding Other Tools
Providing unique online 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 your users. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Others would include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.
In part two of this guide, we look at a number of online tools you can use in your accounting site using WordPress plugins that can help improve your search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.
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This is the end of section one.
To view the rest of this guide, click here:
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