Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants face a number of challenges in the digital economy, especially in terms of growing their presence online.

Online Challenges For Accounting Firms

Now, more than ever, accounting firms must find smarter ways to remain competitive, source new clients, and retain current clients. Not only do they have to participate in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also maintain a strong digital presence. This includes having an effective web presence and figuring out smarter ways to market your business online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be delegated to develop and manage a website that attracts clients, engages users, outperforms the competition in search engines and helps create a wider 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 layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that your site’s needs will change in time and sections will need to be frequently updated. This requires a sound website and content management strategy.

Another challenge that accountants face, as most professions do for that matter, is that your site has around thirty seconds to help users find what they are looking for 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 Online Economy

As well as facing many challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for accounting companies that can evolve to meet the demands of the digital economy and think strategically in terms of marketing their services better online.

The guide below will help you uncover ways to drive more traffic and establish 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 website or blog.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using WordPress, see the articles below:

• How A Poorly Built Web Site Can Lose You Prospective Customers
• Mastering WordPress – The Business Owner’s Guide

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Site

We’ll start first by going over some basics. In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We show you what pages you need, what content works best for accounting and financial services sites, layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need assistance or help planning your accounting website, visit this page: The Website Planning Process - A Useful Primer For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All business websites need some basic web pages. Let’s discuss the pages your  need to have and how to set up your accounting website for best results.

Description Of Services

It’s essential to include a page that lists your products and services.

It will include all the products and services you offer, such as:

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

Make sure to list all of the services you provide. Provide your visitors with information that will educate them about the benefits of using your services and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

Who We Are

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

Remember to mention any awards, accreditations, certifications, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that could be used to promote the company and position it above other competitors.

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

Core Team

Are you searching for quicker and simpler ideas to sell more products online or get visitors to stay longer on your site? Then one of the things you can do, is help prospective clients get to know, like and trust your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team members. This page should include a photo and a mini biography. Since most visitors are probably not 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. It should even include social buttons that will allow your visitors to follow some of your team members on their social pages.

In this page, make sure to outline each team member’s expertise, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they can help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a staff page. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to add an easy-to-maintain simple staff directory to your WordPress site with no coding skills required, go here: How To Easily Add A Simple Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

We’re Hiring

This is a listing of career opportunities available within your company. This page would include type of training provided, benefits, professional development, etc. You can include case studies of trainees who have worked their way up in your firm and information such as the job outlook and upcoming 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 newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials from past clients are a great way to show potential clients them minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with testimonials and case studies, you will also help to establish social proof online.

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

We have written a comprehensive article on using case studies, testimonials and user reviews to grow your business online. To learn more about this go here: Learn How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Prospects With Standout Testimonials

Contact Page

Having a functional contact page is crucial.

Your contact page should provide some or all of the following information:

• Company Name
• Location of office
• Phone
• Fax
• Email
• Map
• Web address
• Contact form
• Name of person to contact
• Social media web addresses
• Live Chat/Skype (optional feature)

If your business operates in multiple areas you should make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

You could also include links to commonly-asked questions, useful pages, special offers, support area, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to promote your business by publishing timely content such as industry events, product updates, useful articles and tutorials, informative posts, videos, webinars, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing site is very hard to keep updated with new content or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can act both as your business website and your blog.

Something few businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn your web presence into an automated traffic system that can help begin driving a stream of new targeted traffic to your site, simply by publishing content on a consistent basis to your website.

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

Go here to learn more: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Automatically Get More Web Visitors For Your Business Using WordPress

Legal Information

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is essential, not just for building trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that you are not contravening laws and regulations wherever you provide services to.

Depending on the services and products you provide, adding the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services site will help you stay out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of threats and legal inconveniences:

• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions 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

We have written a comprehensive article on adding legal pages to your website. For more details, go here: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

How To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, content generosity has become one of the key differentiators for businesses that sell similar products or provide similar services.

By committing to providing great content with information and tips, you will get your visitors to share your web pages and come back for more information. This is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about doing business with your firm.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• How to structure a self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, 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 finance accounting, small business accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing business debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

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

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 high-quality content for your site 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!

Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in a number of different ways.

If you provide useful information, other sites will want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your content updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• RSS feeds can be shared online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• A feed provides links to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

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

To find RSS feeds with loads of useful content just visit sites of relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed some exaples of feeds you may want to 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

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

Add Forms And Checklists

Checklists and forms are a great way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. Checklists and forms can give them step-by-step instructions and resources to complete tasks. They are also great business planning tools.

Forms and checklists could cover areas such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Checklist
• Non-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund 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 some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Other tools would include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In part two, we will be discussing a number of online tools you can add to your accounting or financial services site using WordPress plugins that 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 of this guide on ways to build your accounting business web presence.

To continue, click this link:

• How To Build And Grow Your Accounting Or Financial Services Online Presence – Part Two

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