Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

Accountants today face many new challenges brought about by the online economy.

Online Challenges For Accountants

Now, more than ever, accounting organizations must work hard to stand out from the crowd, source new clients, and keep their current clients. Not only do they have to become actively involved in the communities and industries their business serves, they must also maintain an active presence online. This includes having a dynamic website and learning how to better market your services online.

In addition to investing dollars advertising offline, businesses in the accounting industry are now also finding that increasingly larger amounts of their budget will need to be assigned towards the development and management of a website that can attract clients, engage users, outrank the competition in search engines and social media, and help to increase their marketing exposure online.

This means that your site not only has to look great, load fast, and your site layout has to be easy to navigate, but it’s also important to keep in mind that the needs of your website will change over time and sections may need to be updated frequently. This requires having a sound web and content management strategy.

Another challenge that accountancy firms (and all other businesses) face with their websites, is that you have only around 30 seconds or less to give visitors 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 Professional Accountants

As well as facing many new business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available to businesses in the accounting industry that can evolve to meet the challenges of the online economy and think outside the box about improving their online business marketing skills.

This article will help you uncover ways and opportunities to attract and engage new visitors and improve your business results online.

As well as providing practical tips and information on ways to improve your accounting web presence, we also emphasize the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) to power your accounting or financial services website or blog.

To learn more about the benefits and advantages of using the WordPress Content Management System, go here:

• Learn How A Poorly Constructed Website Can Lose You Money And What To Do About It
• WordPress For Small Business – An Online Guide To Growing A Business With WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Website

In this section we will start with the basics and show you how to improve your website and get better results online. We show you what pages an accounting website needs, what type of content works best for accounting and financial services websites, your navigation structure, etc.

If you need website planning assistance, visit this page: Planning Your Small Business Web Site: A Comprehensive Guide For Business Owners

Your Web Pages

All websites need some essential pages. Let’s review the pages your  need and how to structure your accounting website for best results.

Services And Products Page

It’s essential to include a page that explains your services and any products that you offer.

This page will include services such as:

• Business – planning, incorporation of companies, accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, bookkeeping, financing, forecasting, 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 businesses, asset transfers, etc.
• Lending and leasing

List all of the services you provide, not just the ones you specialize in. Educate your visitors about what these services do and direct them to your contact or appointment booking page.

About Us

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

It’s important to also mention any accounting awards, certifications, accreditations, recognitions, publications, associations, etc., that you can use to promote the company and position it above your competitors.

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

Staff Page

If you are looking for inexpensive ways to sell more products online and get people to interact more on your site, then one of the things you can do, is help your prospects get to know 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. It should include a photo and a brief bio. Since most visitors are probably not that 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 visitors to follow your staff members on their social networks.

In this page, make sure to outline your employee’s qualifications, how their skills and knowledge add value or contribute to the success of your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Make sure to add a page that introduces your employees to prospective new clients. Screenshot image sourced from: deepsky.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial on how to create and add an easy-to-maintain directory of employees to your site using free plugins here: How To Easily Add An Employee Directory To Your WordPress Site: WordPress Plugin Tutorial

We’re Hiring

List any career opportunities within your company. This page could include type of training provided, employee benefits, professional development, social activities sponsored by your firm, etc. You can also include information such as the job outlook and upcoming 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 updates list, follow you on social media, etc.

Case Studies

Case studies and client reviews are a great way to show potential clients minimise tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. Adding a page with case studies and client reviews also provides social proof online.

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

To learn more about using testimonials, case studies and reviews improve your business online, go here: How To Convert More Visitors Into Qualified Leads With Highly Effective Testimonials

Contact Us Page

Having a contact page is absolutely necessary.

It should provide:

• Name
• Location
• Phone number
• Facsimile number
• Email address
• Google Map
• Web URL
• Contact form
• Request for information – contact details
• Links to social media networks
• Chat (optional)

If you operate out of several locations you should make that clear when displaying your address and contact info.

Consider also including links to an FAQ section, useful pages, special offers, support area, newsletter opt-in form, blog, etc.

Add An Accounting Blog Section

A blog is a very powerful marketing tool. Blogs are built around a content management system that allows you to easily promote your business by publishing timely content such as industry news, product releases, useful articles, informative posts, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

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

If you don’t have a website yet, or your existing accounting or financial services website is very hard to manage or not giving you the results you want, then WordPress can serve both as your website and business blog.

You may not be aware of this, but an expertly configured WordPress site can become an automated traffic system that can help drive targeted visitors to your site, simply by adding regular content to your site.

(An expertly configured WordPress site can generate new traffic automatically to your website)

For more details, go here: Web Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create An Automated Web Traffic Generation Machine

Legal Information

Having a compliant website is essential, not just for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no local, regional and federal laws or regulations are being contravened wherever your business is located.

Adding the following legal pages to your accounting site will help you stay out of trouble with most regulatory authorities, third-party service providers, 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
• Financial/Health Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a detailed article about adding legal pages to your site. Go here to learn more: How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website

How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, having a well-planned content marketing strategy has become one of the key differentiators for businesses.

You want to provide great content with advice and tips that will get your readers sharing your content online and coming back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to inform and educate your visitors and prospective clients about your business and about using your services and products.

For example, topics for an accounting business could cover:

• Explanations of balance sheets
• Profit and loss statements
• Directors’ duties and legal responsibilities
• How to present accounts for fundraising activities
• Business cashflow planning advice
• Business insurance
• Risk protection
• Structuring a self-managed retirement fund
• Dos and don’ts of … (e.g. purchasing insurance, claiming business expenses, etc.)

You can also create a series of informative articles that will help your prospective clients gain a better understanding of your accounting services, such as software accounting, tax accounting, business auditing, reducing debt, financial concepts made simple, etc.

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

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 you how to drive more traffic to your web site, save money creating useful 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!

Improving User Experience

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

Add RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve visitor engagement and user experience in a number of different ways.

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

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

• All of your content updates are kept in one place
• Doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• RSS feeds allow users to subscribe
• A feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Your feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregators
• There are several ways 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 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.

To find RSS feeds with loads of useful content for your website, search online for tax-related government departments and industry bodies.

For example, here are some RSS feeds containing useful information that 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

(Adding RSS feeds can help to improve your website’s UX.)

Adding Online Checklists

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a great way to increase visitor engagement, add value to your visitors and provide something unique. Checklists and forms can give them useful instructions and resources to complete a necessary task. Checklists and forms are also great business planning tools.

Checklists and forms can cover subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Company
• Negative Gearing Checklist
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Checklists
• Company Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Unique Tools

Providing useful tools, gadgets and applications for businesses can help increase visitor engagement and add value to potential clients. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are useful tools you can add to accounting websites. Others can include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part 2, we look at a number of online tools you can use in your accounting or financial services website using WordPress plugins that improve seo, improve user engagement and generate more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of part one.

Click on this link to view Part 2:

• Grow Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increasing User Engagement And Generating More Web Traffic

Want To Get Automatically Notified When New WordPress Tutorials Get Published? Then Subscribe To WPCompendium.org!

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