Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital economy has not only transformed business globally, it has also created difficult challenges and opportunities for certified public accountants.

Online Challenges For Accounting And Financial Firms

Today, more than ever, certified public accountants must find smarter ways to stand out from the crowd, source new business, and retain current clients. Not only do they have to become more involved in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop and maintain a strong presence online. This includes having an effective website and searching for better ways to grow your business services online.

In addition to investing money marketing offline, you will probably find that in order to remain competitive, you will need to designate a larger part of your budget towards the development and maintenance of a website that can bring in prospective clients, engage visitors, outperform the competition in search engines and help to increase your presence online.

This means that your website not only has to look great, load fast, and your website layout has to be easy to navigate, but even more importantly, your site’s needs will change in time and sections will need to be updated frequently. This requires a well-planned website and content management strategy.

Another problem that accounting firms face (as most other professions do for that matter), is that they have only about 30 seconds or less to give users the information they are looking for or they will go elsewhere to get their needs met.

“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 Professional Accountants

As well as facing many new challenges, there are also plenty of online opportunities available for accounting businesses that are willing to adapt to meet the demands of the online economy and who can think progressively about marketing themselves better online.

In this guide, you will learn about ways to source new business and improve your business online.

As well as providing tips and information on ways to improve your accounting web presence, we also recommend that you consider using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your accounting website.

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

• Learn Why A Poorly Built Web Site Can Cost You Money And What To Do About It
• How To Grow Your Small Business With WordPress

How To Improve Your Website

This section covers ways to improve your website and get better results online. We will look at what pages you need, what type of content you need, your layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: How To Plan A Website: A Useful Blueprint For Business Owners

Basic Pages

All websites need several essential web pages. Let’s review these.

Your Services And Products

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

This page should include services such as:

• Business accounting – planning, incorporation of companies, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, financing, forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, consulting, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advice, problem resolution
• Investment strategies
• Corporate finance
• 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

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 why they should book an appointment.

About Us

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

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

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

Core Team

Are you searching for ways to sell more products online and get prospects to stay longer on your site? Then something you can do, is make it easier for visitors to get to know, like and trust you, your team and your organization better.

Your business needs to be relatable. One great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your team. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors will not tend to be very well-versed in accounting terms your descriptions should tell who they are and what their specialties are. You may also want to explain what those specialties mean. This page should even include social buttons so your visitors can follow selected staff members on their social pages.

In 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 a page that introduces your staff to prospective new clients. Screenshot source: deepsky.com)

If you need help how to easily add a simple and easy-to-update simple staff directory in WordPress using a free WordPress plugin, refer to this step-by-step tutorial: How To Add A Simple Employee List To Your WordPress Site Without Editing Code

Career Opportunities

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the company. This page would include type of training provided, benefits, professional development, social activities promoted or encouraged by your organization, etc. It should include information such as the job outlook and additional career opportunities in the accounting and financial services industry.

Maintain 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 newsletter, follow your social pages, etc.

Testimonials

Case studies and testimonials from past clients are a great way to show prospective clients what type of solutions you will implement to help them solve problems. Adding a web page with case studies and reviews from clients also provides social proof.

(Add a page to your site with reviews from clients and case studies. Screenshot image sourced from: pcg-services.com)

We have written a comprehensive article on using testimonials, case studies and user reviews get better results online. Go here to learn more: Create Better Results Online Using Powerful Customer Testimonials

Contact Us

A functional contact page is absolutely necessary.

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

• Company Name
• Address
• Telephone number
• Fax number
• Contact email
• Map and directions
• Website address
• Contact form
• Request for more information – contact details
• Links to social media pages
• Live chat

If you operate out of multiple areas you should make that clear when showing the address and contact info.

You should also include links to an FAQ section, useful pages, special offers, support page, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Or Financial Services Blog

A blog is a powerful marketing tool for your business. Blogs are built around a content management system that is easy to use and allows you to easily promote your business using timely content like announcements, product updates, training articles and tutorials, opinions and discussions, videos, infographics, etc.

If you already have an accounting or financial services site, then consider adding a WordPress blog to promote your business.

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

Not many businesses know this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic-generation machine that will help begin driving an ongoing stream of web traffic to your business, simply by adding new content on a consistent basis to your website.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can drive new visitors automatically to your website)

For more details, go here: Web Traffic Blueprint – How To Create An Automated Web Traffic-Getting Machine With WordPress

Legal Pages

It’s crucial to have a compliant website, not just for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws or regulations are being broken in whatever location you do business in.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your accounting or financial services website will help keep you out of legal hot water with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers (e.g. Google), and other potential legal threats or inconveniences:

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

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. For more details: The Importance Of Adding Legal Pages To Your Site

Tips For Improving The Content On Your Site

In today’s ultra competitive online economy, the sooner you begin to engage in the practice of content marketing, the sooner you will begin to see results and differentiate yourself from your competitors.

You will want to provide great content with information and tips that will get your visitors to share your web pages with others and come back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to educate your 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 include:

• How balance sheets work
• Profit and loss statements
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• How to present accounts for non-profit activities
• Cashflow planning advice
• Maximizing business insurance cover
• Protecting revenues
• Structuring your self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing vs leasing, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your your prospective clients understand your services, such as finance accounting, small business accounting, business budgeting, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

Remember to use specific keywords and terminology in your articles that 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 actionable information and practical tips that will show exactly how to drive more traffic to your website, save money creating high-quality content for your visitors and grow your business online using content marketing strategies. It’s not only a great course with loads of useful information, it’s also 100% FREE!

Ways To Improve Visitor Engagement And User Experience

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

RSS Feeds – Content Syndication

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

If you provide valuable information, other businesses may 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
• Content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared and picked up by other sites online
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• It provides links back to your content
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories
• There are several ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. users can read your content on their mobile device using a feed reader)
• It’s built into WordPress

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

To find useful RSS feeds for your website, visit sites of relevant government departments or key industry bodies.

Here are a few 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

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

Provide Checklists

Checklists and forms are a fantastic way to help increase user engagement, add value to your audience and provide something unique. Forms and checklists can give them step-by-step instructions and resources to complete a task. Forms and checklists are great planning tools.

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

• How To Set Up A Company
• Rental Property Checklist
• Fundraising Activity Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Sole Trader Tax Checklist
• Trust Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Provide Online Tools

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

In part 2, we look at a number of WordPress-based tools you can use in your accounting or financial services website that can help improve seo, increase user engagement and generate more visitors to your business.

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This is the end of section one of this step-by-step guide on ways to grow your accounting business presence online.

Click on this link to continue reading:

• How To Grow An Accounting Website Successfully With WordPress – Part Two

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