Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today are facing increasingly difficult challenges created by the digital economy.

Challenges Professional Accountants Face Online

Now, more than ever, accountants must work harder and find smarter ways to remain competitive, source new clients, and keep their current clientele. Not only do you have to become more involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop a strong digital presence. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better promote your business services online.

As well as spending dollars in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are also finding that they need to assign a bigger share of their marketing budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that will bring in prospective clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and help to increase their marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your web pages have to be fast-loading, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs may change over time and sections will need to be updated frequently. This requires a well-planned web and content management strategy in place.

Another difficult challenge that accountants face with their websites, and most professions for that matter, is that you have around thirty seconds or less to give visitors 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

As well as facing many business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting sector that can adapt to meet the demands of the digital economy and who can think progressively when it comes to marketing themselves better online.

In this detailed guide, you will learn about a number of ways to increase web traffic and establish stronger online credibility for your business.

As well as providing useful website improvement tips, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System to power your accounting business website.

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

• Learn Why A Poorly Designed Website Can Cost You Customers And What To Do About It
• A Complete Guide To Growing A Business Using A WordPress Site

Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

This section explains how to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We show you what pages you need, what type of content works best for accounting and financial services websites, navigation structure, etc.

If you need additional information about website planning, see this guide: A Cost-Saving Guide To Website Planning For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All websites require several essential pages. Let’s go over these.

Services And Products

You need a page that describes your services and any products that you offer.

It should include all the services you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – planning, company formation, general accounting, payroll, preparing financial statements, book keeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparing, 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 businesses, transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide. Educate your visitors about what these services do and why they should choose you.

Who We Are

This page should give a description of your business and what it stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

It’s important to include any awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote the company and set it above your competitors.

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

Your Staff

If you are searching for cost-effective ways to sell more products online or get people to engage more with your site, then help prospects get to know you and your business better.

You want prospects to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff or team members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t be very well-versed in accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. It should also explain what those specialties mean. It should even include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow individual team members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to outline each person’s expertise and qualifications, how their skills and knowledge add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

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

To learn more about how to easily add a list directory of staff or team members to WordPress using a free WordPress plugin, see this step-by-step tutorial: WordPress Plugin Tutorial: How To Add A Staff Directory To Your Site

Work For Us

List any career opportunities available within your firm. This page can include type of training provided, employee benefits, professional development, etc. It should include stories of trainees who have established a solid career path thanks to your firm and information such as the job outlook and career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Include also a positions available section in this 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 and testimonials from past clients are a great way to show potential clients businesses minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with case studies and client reviews, you are also helping to provide visitors social proof online.

(Add a page to your site with case studies and client reviews. Screenshot source: pcg-services.com)

To learn more about using testimonials, case studies and reviews to improve your business results online, go here: Discover How To Turn More Visitors Into Prospects Using Captivating Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a functional contact page is essential.

It should include some or all of the following:

• Name Of Your Organization
• Location of office
• Phone
• Facsimile
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Online chat

If your business operates in multiple areas you will want to make this clear when showing the address and contact info.

Consider also including links to commonly-asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content like company news, product releases, training articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can help deliver new visitors to your web site, simply by adding regular content to your website.

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

Go here to learn more: WordPress Website Traffic Blueprint – How To Turn Your WordPress Blog Into A Web Traffic Machine

Legal Information Pages

It’s important to make sure they have a compliant website, not just for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being contravened in whichever location you service.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding the following legal pages to your site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

If you want to learn more about adding legal pages to your site, refer to this article: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, content generosity has become one of the key success factors for businesses.

You want to provide great content with information and tips that will get your readers sharing your content with others online and coming back for more. Content marketing is the most effective way to inform and teach site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about doing business with your organization.

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

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning tips
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure a self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s 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 accounting services, such as software accounting, tax accounting, business auditing, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords in your articles that your prospective clients would search 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 teach you how to drive more traffic to your web 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!

Ways Of Improving Visitor Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provide lots of benefits for your site.

If you provide useful content, other sites may want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

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
• Your feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• RSS provides several ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. view your content on their mobile device using different applications)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also a number of benefits to providing great information on your site from other sites, such as the fact that you don’t have to write, manage or update the content.

You can find RSS feeds with loads of useful content by visiting sites of relevant government departments or key industry bodies.

Here are some feeds containing useful information that you could 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

(Use RSS feeds to improve your website’s user experience.)

Add Downloadable Forms

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. They can provide step-by-step instructions and resources to complete necessary tasks. Forms and checklists can also be great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Add Online Tools

Providing unique online tools, gadgets and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Other tools can include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this guide, we take a look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can use in your site that can help to improve your seo, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section 1.

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

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