Grow Your Accounting Business Online With WordPress

The digital age has not only transformed the way business is done globally, it has also created a number of difficult challenges and great opportunities for accountants.

Online Challenges For Accountants

Today, more than ever, accounting firms must work hard and find smarter ways to remain competitive, source new business, and keep their current clients. Not only do they have to actively participate in the communities and industries they serve, they must also develop an active web presence. This includes having an effective website and learning better ways to promote your business online.

As well as spending money in offline marketing activities such as advertising on local newspapers, ads in industry publications and magazines, radio and television, etc., you will probably find (if you haven’t already) that in order to remain competitive, increasingly larger amounts of their marketing budget will need to be assigned towards the development and maintenance of a website that drives new prospects, engages visitors, outranks the competition in search engines and gives you wider marketing exposure online.

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

Another problem that accounting businesses face (as all other professions do for that matter), is that your site has an average of thirty seconds to give visitors what they need or they will go 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 Certified Public Accountants In The Web Economy

As well as facing significant business and technology changes, there are also loads of online opportunities available for businesses in the accounting profession that can evolve to meet online economy demands and who can think strategically when it comes to marketing their business services better online.

In this article, you will learn about ways to attract more clients and establish stronger online credibility for your accounting or financial services business.

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

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

• Why A Poorly Designed Web Site Can Lose You Money
• Everything You Need To Know About Growing A Successful Business Using WordPress

Practical Tips For Improving Your Accounting Or Financial Services Website

In this section we will start with the basics and show you ways to improve your accounting website and get better results online. We will look at what pages a financial services website needs, what type of content you need, ways of improving your site’s layout and navigation structure, etc.

If you need help with website planning, check out the detailed guide we have written here: The Website Planning Process Explained - A Practical Primer For Non-Technical Business Owners

Your Website Pages

Professional business websites need several essential web pages. Let’s go over these.

Description Of Services

You need to include a page that explains your products and services.

This page should include all the services you offer, such as:

• Business accounting – planning, company formation, general accounting, payroll, financial statement compilation, book keeping, forecasting, budgeting, financing, strategic planning, consulting services, etc.
• Taxation – preparation, planning, reviewing, auditing, advising, 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, 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 the benefits of using your services and why they should choose you.

About Us Page

The ‘About Us’ page should give a description of your business and what your business stands for, its unique approach, community participation, etc.

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

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

Core Team

If you are searching for quicker and simpler ideas to grow your business online, then make it easier for your prospective clients to get to know, like and trust your business better.

You want potential clients to relate to your business. A great way to do that is to have a page that introduces your people. It should include a photo and a brief biography. 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. This page should also 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 team member’s experience, why they are an asset to your team, and more importantly, how they will help add value to your clients’ business.

(Add a staff page. Screenshot image source: deepsky.com)

To learn more about how to create and add an easy-to-maintain simple employee directory in your website using free WP plugins, go here: Adding An Employee Directory: WordPress Plugin Tutorial

Job Opportunities Page

This is a listing of career opportunities available within the organization. This page should include training offered, employee benefits, advancement opportunities, etc. You should also include information about additional career opportunities in the accounting industry.

Maintain a positions available section in your page. If there are no positions currently available, consider inviting people to return periodically to the page, subscribe to your announcements list, follow you on social media, etc.

Testimonials & Case Studies

Case studies and testimonials from past clients are a great way to show prospective clients them minimize tax, increase profitability, or grow strategically. By adding a page with client reviews and case studies, you will also help to are also establishing social proof.

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

If you want to learn more about using testimonials, case studies and client reviews, refer to this article: Achieve Better Results Online Using Compelling Testimonials

Contact Us

Having a functional contact page is crucial.

It should include the following:

• Business Name
• Physical address
• Phone
• Fax
• Email address
• Map and directions
• Web address
• Contact form
• Contact name
• Links to social media networks
• Chat feature

If your business operates from different locations you want to make this clear when showing your address and contact info.

Consider also including links to the most commonly asked questions, useful pages, special offers, support page, newsletter, blog, etc.

Add A Blog Section

A blog can be a very powerful marketing tool for your business. Many blogging platforms are built around a content management system that is simple to use and allows you to promote your business using content like company news, updates, useful information, discussions on current topics, promotional videos, media presentations, etc.

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

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

Something few businesses know about, is that an expertly configured WordPress site can turn into an automated traffic-generation machine that will help deliver an ongoing stream of targeted traffic to your site, simply by publishing new content on a regular basis to your website.

(WordPress can generate web traffic automatically to your site)

Go here to learn more about this: WordPress Web Site Traffic Blueprint – Discover How To Create An Automated Web Traffic-Getting Machine

Legal Information

It’s essential for professional organizations to ensure they have a compliant website, not just for establishing trust and credibility with visitors, but also to ensure that no laws and regulations are being contravened wherever you service clients.

Adding some or all of the legal pages below to your 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 Links Policy
• Financial Disclaimers
• Refund Policy
• Video/Audio Terms
• and others

We have written a comprehensive article about adding legal pages to your website. For more details: What You Need To Know About Adding Legal Pages To Your WordPress Site

Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site

In today’s globally competitive economy, the sooner you begin to publish great content on your site, the quicker you will begin to differentiate yourself from competing businesses.

You will want to provide great content with useful advice and tips that will get your visitors sharing your content and coming back for more. Publishing content is the most effective way to educate site visitors and prospects about your business.

For example, topics for an accounting business can cover:

• How balance sheets work
• Overlooked tax deductions
• Duties and legal responsibilities of company directors
• Presenting accounts for non-profit activities
• Business cashflow planning
• Business insurance
• Risk prevention
• How to structure your 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 services, such as forensic accounting, small business accounting, using office accounting software, reducing debt, understanding financial concepts, etc.

Remember to include keywords 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 teach you how to drive more traffic to your website or blog, save money creating useful content that will add value to 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!

Ways Of Improving User Experience

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

Use RSS Feeds

RSS feeds can help to improve your visitor engagement and UX in many ways.

If you provide content that adds value to others, other businesses will want to syndicate your content to their visitors.

Some of the benefits of syndicating your content to other websites using RSS feeds, include:

• All of your updates are kept in one place
• your content distribution doesn’t rely on email
• Feeds can be shared
• RSS feeds allow for subscribing
• A feed provides a way for links to point back to your site
• Feeds can be submitted to RSS directories and aggregator services
• There are a number of ways your readers can receive your content (e.g. subscribers can read the 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 providing content on your website 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.

Below we have listed some feeds you may want to add 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

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

Adding Checklists & Forms

Adding checklists and forms to your site is a fantastic way to increase visitor engagement and add value to your audience. They can provide visitors with useful instructions and resources to get necessary tasks performed. They are also great business planning tools.

You can provide a range of online or downloadable forms and checklists (or links to these) covering subjects such as:

• How To Set Up A Business
• Rental Property Worksheet
• Fundraising Governance Checklist
• Disclosure Requirements
• Company Tax Checklist
• Self Managed Super Fund Tax Checklist
• Income Tax Variation Forms

Adding Unique Tools

Providing unique tools and applications for businesses on your website can help increase visitor engagement and significantly add value to your target audience. Calculators, such as loan and tax calculators, are some of the most popular tools for accounting websites. Other applications would include time cards, or retirement and interest calculators.

In part two of this guide, we look at a several WordPress plugins and themes you can add to your website that improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.

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This is the end of section one.

To continue reading, click this link:

• Tips For Accountants – WordPress Plugins And Themes For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Better User Engagement And Traffic Generation

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