Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The information economy has not only transformed businesses globally, it has also created growing challenges and opportunities for certified public accountants and financial service providers.

Challenges Professional Accountants Face Online

Accountants today must work harder than ever to remain competitive. Not only do you have to participate in the communities and industries your business serves, you must also maintain an active web presence. This includes having an effective website and learning how to better promote your business online.

As well as spending money marketing offline, you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, you will need to designate a more significant share of your marketing budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that can drive clients, engage users, outperform the competition in search engines and social media, and help you gain a wider degree of marketing reach online.

This means that your site not only has to look professional, load fast, and your website has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change over time and many aspects will need to be updated frequently. This requires the implementation of a well-planned website and content management strategy.

Another challenge that accounting businesses face online (as most businesses do for that matter), is that you have only around 30 seconds or less to help users find the information they are searching for or they will look 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 Web Economy

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for accounting firms that are willing to evolve to meet online economy challenges and think progressively when it comes to improving their online marketing skills.

This article will help you uncover new ways and opportunities to find new potential clients and establish online credibility for your business.

As well as providing general website improvement tips, we also recommend that you consider using WordPress to power your accounting website.

For more information about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS), see these articles:

• Discover How A Poorly Built Website Can Cost You Potential Customers And What To Do About It
• The Beginner’s Guide To Growing Your Business Using A WordPress Blog

Useful Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

This section covers how 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, useful tips for improving your site’s navigation structure, etc.

If you need specific help with website planning, check out the article we have written here: How To Plan Your Business Website: A Useful Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All websites need several basic web pages. Let’s go over these.

Products And Services

You need a page that explains your products or services.

It should include services such as:

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

Make sure to list all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what these services do and why they should book an appointment with you.

About Us Page

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

It should also include any industry awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, associations, publications, etc., that can be used to promote your company and position it above the competition.

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

Staff Page

If you are looking for ways to sell more products online or get people to stay longer on your site, then make it easier for prospective clients to get to know your organization better.

You want people to relate to your business. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your employees or team members. This page should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors won’t 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 also include social buttons that will allow your prospective clients to follow your staff members on their social pages.

On this page, make sure to highlight each person’s experience, how their skills contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

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

We have written a detailed tutorial about how to easily add an easy-to-manage simple team members directory in your site using free WP plugins here: How To Add A Simple Staff List On Your WordPress Site With No Coding Skills

Recruitment

List any career opportunities available within the firm. It should include training, benefits, opportunities for advancement, social aspects of working for your firm, etc. You can include information about career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Include also 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 contact list, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials And Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials are a great way to show prospective clients businesses minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with case studies and testimonials from previous clients, you are also helping to establish social proof online.

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

We have created a comprehensive article about using client testimonials and reviews to improve your business results online here: Learn How To Improve Your Sales Conversions With Knockout Testimonials

Contact Us Page

A clean contact page is absolutely necessary.

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

• Business Name
• Location of premises
• Phone number
• Fax number
• Contact email address
• Google Map
• Website URL
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Interactive chat feature (optional)

If your business operates out of several locations you will want to make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.

You should also include a few links for commonly-asked questions, main pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog

A blog can be a very powerful business marketing tool. Blogs typically include a content management system that allows you to promote your business using timely content like company news, updates, training information, opinions and discussions, how-to videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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 serve both as your business website and business blog.

Very few businesses know that WordPress can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that can attract targeted visitors to your website, simply by publishing new content to your website on a consistent basis.

(WordPress can automate your traffic generation)

To learn more about this go here: Web Site Traffic Blueprint – How To Create An Automated Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Information

As a professional business, having a compliant website is vitally important, not just for building trust and credibility with prospective clients, but also to ensure that you are not breaching laws or regulations wherever you service clients.

Adding some or all of the following legal pages to your accounting website will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential sources of legal threats and inconveniences:

• Contact Page
• Privacy Statement
• Terms And Conditions
• Website Disclaimer
• Affiliate Agreement
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Compensation Disclosure
• DMCA Notice
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• etc.

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

Ways To Improve Your Web Content

In today’s globally competitive economy, content marketing has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

By committing to providing great content with useful information and tips, you will get your readers sharing your content and coming back for more. This is the most effective way to inform and educate site visitors and prospective clients about your business and about doing business with your company.

For example, topics for an accounting business could include:

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Do’s 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 prospective clients gain a better understanding of accounting services, such as finance accounting, tax accounting, tax planning for small business, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords and terminology in your content that your prospective clients would search for.

We recommend subscribing to our Content Marketing Email Training Series. You will receive regular training emails with actionable information that will teach you how to drive more traffic to your site, save money creating high-quality content for 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!

Improve User Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

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

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

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

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• Users can subscribe to your feed
• It provides a way for external links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are multiple ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can view the content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

There are also benefits to providing great content 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 RSS feeds with useful content by searching online for finance-related government departments and industry bodies.

For example, here are examples of useful RSS feeds you may want to consider adding 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 feeds to improve your accounting website’s UX.)

Provide Forms And Checklists

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase user engagement and add value to your visitors. Forms and checklists can provide visitors with step-by-step instructions and resources to perform a necessary task. Checklists and forms are also great business planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Individual Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Online Tools

Providing useful online tools and applications for businesses (or links to these tools) can help increase visitor engagement and add significant value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools to add to accounting websites. Other tools could include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part 2, we discuss a number of WordPress-based tools you can add to your website that improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part 1.

Click on this link to view the rest of this guide:

• How To Build And Grow Your Accounting Website – Part Two

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