Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face significant challenges.

Challenges Accounting And Financial Services Face Online

Now, more than ever, certified public accountants must work hard and find smarter ways to stand out from the competition, find new clients, and keep their current clients. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop and maintain an active presence online. This includes having a website and searching for better ways to grow your business online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete with other accounting businesses, you will need to designate a larger part of your marketing budget to developing and maintaining a website that attracts clients, engages users, outranks the competition in search engines and helps increase your marketing reach online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, your web 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 in time and sections will need to be frequently updated. This requires a well-developed web and content management strategy in place.

One other problem that accounting organizations (and most other professions) face, is that your site has only about thirty seconds to help visitors find the information they are looking 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 The Accounting Profession In The Digital Economy

As well as facing a number of significant challenges, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting industry that are willing to adapt to meet online challenges and can think strategically about improving their online business marketing skills.

In this article, you will learn opportunities to source more accounts and improve your business results online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your accounting business online, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System to power your accounting or financial services business website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, go here:

• How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Potential Buyers And What To Do About It
• Everything You Need To Know To Grow A Successful Business Using WordPress

Useful Tips For Improving Your Website

This section looks at ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages a financial services site needs, what type of content you need, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need help with website planning, see this detailed guide: A Practical Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners

Basic Pages

All websites require some basic web pages. Let’s take a look at these.

Products And Services Page

You need to include a page that describes your services or products.

This page will include services such as:

• Business – planning, incorporation of companies, accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, 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 a business, asset 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 book an appointment.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

Remember to also list any awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that you can use to promote the company and set it above your competitors.

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

Core Team

Are you looking for inexpensive ideas to sell more products or services online? Then something you can do, is help prospective clients get to know you and your business better.

You want people to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors are probably not that well-versed in accounting terms your 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 so your visitors can follow some of your staff members on their social networks.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your people with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each team member’s expertise and qualifications, 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 page that introduces your staff or team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have created a detailed tutorial about how to easily add an easy-to-update list directory of staff members in your website here: How To Create A Simple Employee List In Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Job Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your company. This page could include training offered, benefits, professional development, social activities sponsored by your organization, etc. You can also include stories of graduates who have worked their way up in your organization and information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Also include 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 announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies And Testimonials

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to show potential clients the benefits of doing business with your organization. Adding a page with case studies and client reviews also provides social proof.

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

To learn more about using case studies, testimonials and reviews, refer to this article: All You Need To Know To Achieve Better Results Online Using Sales Boosting Testimonials

Contact Us

A clean contact page is essential.

It should provide the following information:

• Company Name
• Physical address
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Map
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Live chat feature

If your business services multiple locations you should make this clear when displaying the address and contact information.

You could also include links to an FAQ page, frequently-visited pages, special offers, helpdesk, newsletter, blog, etc.

Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content such as news and events, company updates, training articles and tutorials, informative posts, videos, webinars, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting site is hard to keep updated or not delivering you the results you want, then WordPress can be used as both your business website and blog.

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation system that can begin driving a stream of new visitors to your web site, simply by publishing new content on a consistent basis to your website.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can automate your traffic generation)

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

Legal Information Pages

It’s vital for accounting businesses to have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for building credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not contravening any local, regional or federal laws or regulations wherever your do business in.

Adding the legal pages below to your accounting 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 Us
• 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

Go here to learn more about adding legal pages to your site: How To Add Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving Your Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

Providing great content with advice and tips will get your readers to share your content with others and come back for more information. Publishing content is a great way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your business.

For example, for an accounting or financial services business, topics could cover:

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure a self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your services, such as forensic accounting, tax accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords in your articles that your readers will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive a comprehensive series of training emails with easy-to-digest information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating useful content that will add value to 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!

Tips For Improving User Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in many ways.

If you provide useful content, other sites 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 kept in one place
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared online
• Feeds allow users to subscribe
• An RSS feed provides links to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides a number of ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing valuable content on your site 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, search online for finance-related government departments and key industry bodies.

For example, here are a few RSS feeds you could 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

(RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your site’s user experience.)

Provide Online Checklists

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your readers. Checklists and forms can provide useful step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks completed. Checklists and forms are great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Checklist
• Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

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

In the next section of this detailed article, we look at a several WordPress plugins you can use in your site that can help to improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

Click on this link to continue:

• A Complete Step-By-Step Guide On How To Build And Grow An Accounting Or Financial Services Business Online Successfully With WordPress – Part Two

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