Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face increasingly difficult challenges created by the digital economy.

Challenges Accounting & Financial Firms Face Online

Accounting businesses must work harder than ever before to remain in business. Not only do you have to become actively involved in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also develop a strong web presence. This includes having a website and learning how to better promote your services online.

In addition to spending money in offline marketing activities, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to compete, increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be delegated to develop and maintain a website that brings new clients, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and helps you create wider marketing exposure online.

This means that your website not only has to look professional, your pages have to be fast-loading, and be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs may change in time and sections will need to be updated often. This requires having a sound website and content management strategy.

Another challenge that accounting businesses face online, and other professions for that matter, is that your site has an average of thirty seconds to provide users with what they need or they will go away.

“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 Digital Economy

As well as facing many challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting sector that are willing to evolve to meet the challenges of the digital economy and who can think progressively in terms of improving their online marketing skills.

In this detailed guide, you will learn about ways to increase web traffic and improve your business online.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also place special emphasis on the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress platform to power your accounting website or blog.

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

• Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Business
• Understanding WordPress – A Business Owner’s Guide

How To Improve Your Accounting Site

This section explains ways to improve your accounting website and get better results. We will look at what pages you need, what content works best for accounting websites, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, check out the article we have written here: The Web Site Planning Process Explained: A Cost-Saving Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Basic Web Pages

All websites require a number of essential web pages. Let’s review the pages your  need and how to set up your accounting or financial services website for best results.

Your Services And Products

It’s essential to include a page that explains your products or services.

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

• Business accounting – business planning, company structures, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, forecasting, financing, budgeting, 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, 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 these services do 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, causes supported, etc.

It’s important to list any CPA awards, recognitions, certifications, accreditations, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your company and set it above the competition.

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

Our Team

Are you searching for quicker and simpler ways to sell more products or services online? Then make it easier for your visitors to get to know, like and trust you and your organization better.

People need to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your staff. This page should include a photo and a mini bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be well-versed in accounting terms it 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 your team members on their social pages.

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

(Add an employee description page. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to create and add a simple and easily updatable directory of employees or team members to your website using free plugins, go here: Step-By-Step Tutorial: Adding An Employee List Directory To Your WordPress Site

Work For Us

This is a listing of career opportunities within your organization. It could include type of training provided, employee benefits, opportunities for advancement, social activities sponsored by your organization, etc. It should include case studies of graduates who have worked their way up in your organization and information such as the job outlook and upcoming career opportunities in the accounting and financial services 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, subscribe to your contact list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Client reviews and case studies are a great way to show potential clients what kind of financial solutions you will implement to help solve their problems. Adding a page with testimonials from previous clients and case studies also provides visitors social proof online.

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

For a detailed article on using testimonials and reviews improve your business online, go here: How To Turn More Visitors Into Prospects With Knockout User Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a functional contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should include:

• Company Name
• Physical address
• Phone
• Fax
• Email
• Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for more information – who to contact
• Social media links
• Chat/Skype (optional)

If your business operates from several areas you should make this clear when displaying your address and contact information.

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

Blog

A blog is a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content such as industry news, company updates, training articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an accounting site, then consider adding a WordPress 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 as both your business website and blog.

Very few people know that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can begin to deliver targeted visitors to your website, simply by adding new content on a consistent basis to your website.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive web traffic automatically to your site)

Go here to learn more about this: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – A Complete Guide To Generating More Web Traffic Automatically

Legal Info Pages

Having a website that complies will all legal requirements online is very important, not just for building trust with prospective clients, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being breached wherever your do business in.

Depending on what services and products you provide, adding the following legal pages to your accounting site will help keep you 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 Statement
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

To learn more about adding legal pages to your website, refer to this article: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Website

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the faster you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from the competition.

You will want to provide great content with useful information and tips that will get your readers sharing your web pages and coming back for more. Publishing content is a great way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your products and services.

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

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Understanding profit & loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Things to look for when … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your readers gain a better understanding of your accounting services, such as finance accounting, business accounting, business budgeting, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to include keywords 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 actionable information that will show you how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating useful content that will add value to your visitors and grow your business online using content. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also completely FREE!

Ways To Improve User Experience

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

Syndicating Content 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 content, other sites may want to syndicate your content.

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

• All of your updates are in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your RSS feed
• An RSS feed provides links back to your content
• RSS feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• RSS provides several ways for readers to 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 when it comes to adding syndicated content to your site 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 for your website by visiting sites of relevant government departments and respected industry bodies.

Below we have listed a few useful RSS feeds you could add to your accounting 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

(Add RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to improve your accounting website’s user experience.)

Provide Downloadable Checklists

Checklists and forms are a great way to increase user engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Checklists and forms can give them useful step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a necessary task. Forms and checklists are great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Not-For-Profit Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Capital Gains Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Other Tools

Providing unique tools, gadgets and applications for businesses on your website is a great way to increase visitor engagement and add value to users. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools you can add to accounting websites. Other tools could include time cards, and retirement and interest calculators.

In the next section of this guide, we will be discussing a several WordPress plugins and themes you can use in your website that improve your seo, increase user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of part one of this article on ways to grow your accounting web presence.

To continue, click this link:

• A Complete Guide To Building And Growing An Accounting Or Financial Services Website Successfully – Part Two

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