Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only revolutionised the way business is done globally, it has also created new challenges and opportunities for accountants.

Challenges Accounting And Financial Services Face Online

Certified Public Accountants today must work harder than ever to remain in business. Not only do you have to participate 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.

As well as investing dollars marketing offline, businesses in the accounting industry are now finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be assigned towards developing and maintaining a website that will attract clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help to create wider reach online.

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

Another problem that accounting organizations face with their websites (as other professions do for that matter), is that you have around thirty seconds or less to give users what they are searching for or they will go elsewhere to find what they need.

“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 Accountants In The Web Economy

As well as facing a number of business and technology changes, there are also many online opportunities available for accounting firms that can evolve to meet online challenges and think strategically when it comes to marketing their business better online.

This detailed guide will help you uncover ways and opportunities to increase traffic and improve your business results 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 business website.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, see these articles:

• Learn How A Poorly Constructed Web Site Can Cost You Business And What To Do About It
• The Small Business Owner’s Guide To Using WordPress

Practical Tips To Improve Your Accounting Site

Let’s start by going over some basic information you need. In this section, we’ll look at how to improve your accounting website and get better results. We will look at what pages a financial services website needs, what content works best for accounting websites, your layout and navigation, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your website, see this article: A Comprehensive Guide To Web Site Planning For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

Professional websites require a number of essential web pages. Let’s review 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 describes your services and any products that you offer.

This page should include services such as:

• Business – business planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting services, 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, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using these services and why they should book an appointment.

About Us

The ‘About Us’ page needs to describe your business and explain to visitors what your business stands for, its unique approach, philanthropy, etc.

Remember to mention any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote the company and position it above other competitors.

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

Staff Page

If you are looking for quicker and easier ways to grow your business online and get people to engage more on your site, then make it easier for prospective clients to get to know, like and trust your business better.

Potential clients need to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in accounting terms your bio 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 site visitors to follow some of your staff members on their social pages.

In this page, don’t be afraid to humanize your team members with personal stories, hobbies, etc., but make sure to outline each employee’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 or team members to prospective new clients. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to easily create and add an updatable directory of staff or team members to your web site using free WordPress plugins here: How To Easily Add A Simple Staff Directory To Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Recruitment

List any career opportunities within the company. It can include type of training provided, benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You can also include case studies of trainees who have worked their way up in your organization and information about additional career opportunities in the accounting 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.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Reviews from clients and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what it’s like to do business with your company. By adding a page with case studies and client reviews, you will also help to provide prospective clients with social proof.

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

We have written extensively about using client case studies and client reviews improve your business online. Go here to learn more: How To Improve Your Conversions With Standout Customer Testimonials

Contact Us

A contact page is crucial.

It should provide the following information about your company:

• Business Name
• Address
• Telephone
• Fax
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Links to social media pages
• Interactive chat (optional feature)

If you operate from several locations you want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.

Consider also including a few links for the most commonly asked questions, frequently-visited pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Blog

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Most blogging platforms typically include a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business by publishing content like industry news, product releases, educational articles and tutorials, informative posts, promotional videos, infographics, etc.

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

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 serve as both your business website and business blog.

Something not many businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic-generation machine that can help begin delivering targeted visitors to your web site, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(WordPress can drive new traffic automatically to your website)

To learn more about this go here: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Turn Your Website Into A Traffic Machine

Legal Information Pages

It’s vital to make sure they have a website that complies will all legal requirements online, not just for establishing trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not contravening local, regional and federal laws and regulations in whatever location you service.

Depending on what products and services you provide, adding the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential 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 Linking Policy
• Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

Go here for a detailed article about adding legal pages to your website: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Site

How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s ultra competitive online economy, content marketing has become one of the key business differentiators.

Providing great content with useful advice and tips will get your visitors sharing your web pages and coming back for more information. This is a great way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about doing business with your organization.

For example, topics for an accounting business could cover 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
• Business insurance
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure your self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, setting up payroll systems, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your prospective clients understand accounting services, such as forensic accounting, small business accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, understanding accounting concepts, etc.

Remember to include the same keywords in your articles that prospective clients will be searching for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with easy-to-digest 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 visitors and grow your business online using content marketing. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways To Improve User Experience

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

Using RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and user experience in many ways.

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

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other sites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your updates are in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared
• Feeds allow for subscribing
• An RSS feed provides links back to your site
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• RSS provides multiple ways for readers to receive your content (e.g. users can view the content on their mobile device using different applications)
• RSS is built into WordPress

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

You can find many useful RSS feeds by searching online for tax-related government departments or industry bodies.

Below we have listed some exaples of 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

(Add RSS feeds to improve your site’s user experience.)

Adding Downloadable Checklists

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your readers and set yourself apart from the competition. They can provide users with step-by-step instructions and resources to get necessary tasks completed. They can also be great business planning tools.

Checklists and forms can include topics such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Partnership Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

Providing unique tools and applications for businesses can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are popular tools for accounting websites. Other tools could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part two, we will look at a number of WordPress plugins you can use in your accounting or financial services site that can help to improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this article on ways to grow your accounting business presence online.

To continue, click here:

• A Practical Step-By-Step Guide On How To Build And Grow Your Accounting Web Presence – Part 2

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