Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accounting professionals today face increasing challenges.

Online Challenges For Accounting & Financial Firms

Accountants today must work harder than ever before to remain in business. Not only do you have to maintain an active presence in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop a strong presence online. This includes having a website and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to investing dollars advertising offline on newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and tv, etc., you will probably find that in order to compete, you will need to allocate a bigger share of your budget towards developing and maintaining a website that will attract clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and increase your presence online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your pages have to load fast, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change over time and sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires a sound website and content management strategy in place.

Another challenge that accountancy firms face, and most other businesses for that matter, is that you have an average of thirty seconds or less to help visitors find the information they are searching for or they will go 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 Accounting Businesses In The Web Economy

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also many online opportunities available to accounting businesses that can adapt to meet digital challenges and can think progressively in terms of improving their online marketing skills.

This comprehensive article will help you uncover a number of ways to source more business and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress content management system 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 (CMS), see these articles:

• Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• Learn How To Grow Your Business Using WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

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

If you need additional information about website planning, check out the detailed step-by-step guide we have written here: A Cost-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Essential Pages

All websites require a number of basic web pages. Let’s review the pages your  should have and how to structure your website for best results.

Services Description Page

It’s essential to have a page that explains your products and services.

Your page should include all the services and products you offer, such as:

• Business – business planning, formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, bookkeeping, budgeting, financing, forecasting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, 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, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about the benefits of using these services and direct them to your contact or 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, philanthropical programs, etc.

This page should list any awards, certifications, recognitions, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote the company and position it above your competitors.

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

Core Team

If you are searching for quicker and easier ways to sell more products or services online or get people to stay longer on your site, then help prospective clients get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

People need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees. It should include a photo and a brief biography. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in 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, don’t be afraid to show the human side of your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to highlight your 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.

(Add a page that introduces your staff members to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to add an easy-to-maintain simple staff directory in your site using a free plugin, see this tutorial: How To Easily Create A Simple Staff List For Your WordPress Site

Recruitment

List any career opportunities within your company. It can include training offered, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your organization, etc. It should include stories of graduates who have established a solid career path thanks to your company and information such as the job outlook and upcoming 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 this page, join your updates list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials

Customer reviews and case studies are a great way to show prospective clients what it’s like to do business with your organization. Adding a web page with case studies and client reviews also helps your accounting or financial services site to provide visitors social proof.

(Add a page with client reviews and case studies. Image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

We have created a detailed article about using case studies, testimonials and user reviews to improve your business results online. For more details: Discover How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads Using Knockout Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include the following:

• Company Name
• Address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Google Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Social media links
• Interactive chat

If you operate in multiple locations you want to make this clear when displaying your address and contact information.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog

A blog is a powerful marketing tool. Most blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like company announcements, company updates, training articles and tutorials, discussions on current topics, videos, media presentations, etc.

If you already have an established website, then consider adding a WordPress-driven blog to promote your business.

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing website is very hard to manage or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can act as both your business website and business blog.

Not many people know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that will help deliver targeted traffic to your site, simply by publishing content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

Go here to learn more: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Turn Your WordPress Blog Into An Automated Traffic Machine

Legal Pages

It’s vital to ensure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building trust with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws and regulations are being breached wherever your business services clients.

Adding the legal pages below to your website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, 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 Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

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

Improving Your Web Content

In today’s ultra competitive digital 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 information and tips, you will get your visitors to share your content with others and come back for more information. Using content is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your products and services.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Risk prevention
• How to structure 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 educational articles that will help your your prospective clients gain a better understanding of accounting services, such as finance accounting, small business accounting, business budgeting, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use keywords and terms in your content that your readers would search for.

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 high-quality content that will add value to your site visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Experience

Improving your user experience (known as UX) helps keep visitors coming back and engaging with your site. This section will show you different ways to improve visitor engagement and user experience.

Using RSS Feeds

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

If you provide valuable information, other businesses may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Allows for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides links to your content
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using feed readers)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to adding syndicated content to your site from other websites, 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 respected industry bodies.

Here are examples of feeds you may want to consider adding 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

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

Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. They can provide useful instructions and resources to complete tasks. Forms and checklists are great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

Providing useful online 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 great tools to add to accounting websites. Other applications could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section, we will be discussing a number of online tools you can add to your site using WordPress plugins and themes that 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 part one.

To continue reading, click this link:

• Grow Your Accounting Website – How To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic To Your Business Generation With WordPress Plugins

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