In Part One of this guide on ways to improve your accounting web presence, we covered the following topics:
- Online Challenges For Accounting Businesses
- Opportunities For Accountants
- Your Website Pages
- Improve Your Content
In this section, we will continue exploring more ways to grow your accounting business online. Areas covered include:
- Improve Traffic
- Generating More Leads & Enquiries
- WordPress Plugins And Themes For Improving SEO, Creating Better User Engagement And Generating More Traffic
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
How To Improve Website Traffic
Your web traffic is an important part of your online business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic.
Optimizing Your Site For SEO With WordPress
There are lots of ways WordPress can help to improve SEO:
- URLs – WordPress lets you set the permalinks to use the title of the post.
- Post Tags – WordPress lets you select the keywords that you want search engines to index your article pages (posts) for.
- Categories – Create search engine-friendly categories for archiving and organizing your content.
- Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose the description for your posts that will show in search results.
- Images – title images with keywords for better search engine results.
- Internal Content Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that lets you easily link internal content
- Post Notification – Configure your site to automatically notify (ping) other search directories immediately upon publishing a new post on your website.
Improving Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Increase User Engagement And Generate More Visitors Using Plugins
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, the WordPress community makes available also a number of plugins that improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic to your website.
Here are some plugins you can use to improve your website’s search engine optimization:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress XML sitemap plugin (for search engines)
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin
(A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your SEO)
Other WordPress plugins you can add to improve your accounting site’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic to your site are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social sharing. Here are a few more powerful plugins that can help (many of the plugins described below can be downloaded at no cost):
- BuddyPress – This free WordPress plugin can be used to run your own social network on your WordPress website, with member profiles, messaging, activity streams, user groups, and more.
- bbPress – bbPress lets you run your own community forum on your website.
- E-Newsletter – Use this WordPress plugin to send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress dashboard, without requiring a 3rd party subscription.
- Disqus – Power discussions and increases engagement on your website or blog.
- Monarch – Use this WordPress plugin to add powerful social sharing features and buttons to your pages and posts.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website using free or inexpensive plugins)
Ways To Generate New Leads & Enquiries
In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve sales and generate more leads and enquiries online.
Provide An Email Newsletter
Adding a newsletter is an excellent way to build a list of subscribers. Adding newsletters] provides a number of benefits and advantages, like:
- Sends targeted traffic to your site
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Provides updates that can save businesses time and money
- Provides a targeted marketing channel
- Allows you to provide special products or services to a select audience
- Provides regular opportunities for engaging with your users
- Provides you with an additional way for subscribers to share your content
An effective strategy for attracting subscribers is to provide them with high value content and offer them free gifts or bonus items in exchange for their personal details. This could be a handy guide, checklists for handling tax, access to financial calculators, discount coupons, access to courses, contests, etc.
Adding Contact Forms
A contact form provides an easy and simple way for prospective customers to get in touch with you. A contact form also allows visitors to report issues, ask questions to specific departments, request quotes, and more.
Contact forms provide several benefits and advantages, like:
- Reduces spam
- Automated response
- Gives you control over what is sent to you
- You can keep your email address private
- Can be added to any post or page
- Improves the professional look of your site
- More convenient for visitors
One of the most popular contact form plugins is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin is easy to install and configure and allows you to create and manage multiple contact forms, customize your form and the email contents, add fields, and more.
Contact Form 7 supports international languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, Akismet spam filtering and so on.
Another option you may want to consider is adding sections to your contact form so prospective clients can select which department they want to contact. This will help you to get the comment to the right person.
Add Maps
Adding a map helps your visitors and customers find you.
Integrating maps (e.g. Google Maps), with your WordPress site also provides users with a number of benefits, such as:
- They increase local SEO
- Allows customers to better plan their meeting or appointments
- Display location of events
(Adding maps to your site helps your visitors and clients find you)
Some of the most popular Google Maps plugins for WordPress include:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation Using Plugins
Accounting And Financial Services Plugins For WordPress
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your website that will immediately make available a range of practical tools for your site visitors. Here are just some of these:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators – WordPress Plugin)
This plugin provides a free collection of 400+ calculators that you can provide to users on your website. Internationalization is supported.
Note: Most of the calculators aren’t focused specifically on accounting, but there are a few you can use for:
- Mortgage
- Payments
- Tax
- Equity
- And more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin For WordPress)
With this plugin you get a widget that displays a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many portfolios as you like.
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker Plugin)
With this plugin you can add a custom stock ticker to any page, post, or sidebar with shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker includes several customizable features. You can choose to use built-in themes or customize these yourself. It’s easy to customize it so it matches your site. You can also create custom stocks for individual categories.
Appearance customizations include size, symbols, colours, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin)
This free calculator lets your users calculate indicative repayments online. It’s great for vehicle loans, property loans, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator – WordPress Plugin – Loan Calculators)
The plugin also contains an application form that sends a message to a specified email address.
Other features of this plugin include displaying payment protection, calculating 12 to 60 months loans and creating forms that can be placed in any page or post.
For more details, go here}:
WP-Invoice
(WP-Invoice Plugin For WordPress)
WP-Invoice is ideal for WordPress site owners with clients to bill.
WP-Invoice integrates billing into WordPress. You can send itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand plugin functionality with both free and premium add-ons that let you manage business, accept electronic signatures from clients, create PDF invoices, create quotes, create single-page checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into the WP user management database to keep track of your clients and their information, and integrates with PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and several others.
The plugin gives you the ability to add custom payments and charges, add pre-defined line items and discounts, quickly view invoice status and progression, easily filter and find invoices, show invoice receipts and invoice history, create e-mail notification templates, view reports (collected vs uncollected invoices, 10 most valuable clients and top grossing line items), and more.
For more details, go here}:
All In One Business Management Application
(All In One Business Management Application WP Plugin)
This is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with support ticketing management system, client relationship management and many additional features.
(All In One Business Management Application WordPress Plugin – Client Invoice)
All In One Business Management Application supports international languages, is fully customizable and provides powerful tools such as document management, to do app, and more.
For more details, go here}:
iBilling – Accounting And Billing Software
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software)
This is a scalable business software that lets you manage and communicate with customers, track your company’s net worth and cash flow, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin – Client Invoice)
iBilling Accounting and Billing Software lets you get paid faster by integrating with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
WordPress Financial Themes
To get the most benefit out of growing your business online with WordPress, it’s best to choose a theme specifically suited for accounting. Here is a look at some of the best accounting themes available. These themes allow you to own a professional-looking accounting website within minutes and save hundreds to thousands of dollars on the cost of web design.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro WP Theme)
This premium WordPress theme is a turn-key theme for accountants and accountancy firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, has several page templates, custom menus, a content composer (gives you an improved WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, auto-resized images, and a whole lot more.
Accounting Pro can be expanded using premium add-ons.
Go here for more details about this theme:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress comes with a variety of built-in styles and layouts to make your accounting website look and feel professional.
This fully responsive theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, it’s lightweight, search optimized, and loads fast. It provides what you need without bloating your theme with features you don’t need. Your purchase includes free updates and 1 year of support.
More info:
Accounting
(Accounting – WordPress Theme)
Accounting includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your website any way you want. It also has unlimited sidebars and custom widgets, four different types of headers, a custom administration panel, four color schemes, a custom slider, three different blog types, and is mobile-friendly. It looks clean and modern and loads fast.
To learn more about about this WordPress theme, visit the theme site:
Kathryn
(Kathryn WP Theme)
This premium theme was designed for accounting services. It provides multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, author boxes for single or multiple bloggers, a variety of color options, is easy to use, inexpensive, search optimized, and is responsive (mobile-friendly). Although it can easily fit any profession you like, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy plugin and must be purchased separately from the Genesis Framework.
To learn more about this WordPress theme, visit this website:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – Theme For WordPress)
This one was developed with the idea of professionalism within the accounting industry. Every color, layout element, icon, menu item, page structure, call-to-action, etc., is specifically designed to make your accounting business website look professional without looking dull. It’s a turn-key installation but you can still modify it if you want. It’s responsive (mobile-friendly) and includes pages for your services, contact form section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials section, and a blog.
For more details about using this theme, visit the theme website:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate WordPress Theme)
This is a corporate theme specifically designed for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. Use the bundled images or upload your own. It also includes a custom post type adding employee profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is clean-looking and loads fast.
To learn more about this theme, visit the theme website:
Divi
(Divi – WordPress Theme)
Divi is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection. Divi lets you create a unique, professional site using the page builder or beautiful pre-made layouts. You can change your layout as much as you need.
The builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and redesign the structure of their page without touching a single line of code.
(Divi – WordPress Theme – Flexible Page Builder)
Divi comes with 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. This includes modules such as bar counter, call to action, contact form, countdown timer, gallery, number counter, person, pricing table, social media follow, video slider, fullwidth code, fullwidth portfolio, fullwidth post title, and more.. Divi is responsive and fully customizable. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to 80+ themes.
To learn more about this theme, visit the theme website:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme For WordPress)
The Corporation WordPress Theme from Elegant Themes was developed specifically to create good-looking corporate sites.
This theme has a sleek and professional page-based home page design with a prominent, flashy slider. It also has a blog design. It has six different color schemes. It also comes with multiple page templates that include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to all professional themes.
More info:
Adviser
(Adviser – WordPress Theme)
The Adviser WordPress Theme was built specifically to help finance industry professionals build trust with a clean business design. It’s perfect for businesses that provide services such as investing or tax help. It includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications. It also includes a built-in lease calculator. It includes widgets and multiple shortcodes, and includes the drag-and-drop visual composer.
For more information, go here:
Tax Help
(Tax Help – WordPress Theme)
Tax Help was designed for financial organizations, tax and financial advisors, and firms that provide tax assistance. The theme is designed to show your services professionally to help build your professional reputation. It provides a range of blog styles, uses a drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and additional custom shortcodes.
To learn more about this theme, go here:
Finance Business
(Finance Business WordPress Theme)
Finance Business was built specifically for organizations that provide financial services including consulting, tax help, finance, insurance, corporate, loans, accounting, and more. The theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around 100 shortcodes that includes charts and financial content, custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page options, color management, animations, and a lot more.
More information:
Avada
(Avada Finance WordPress Theme)
Avada is a fully responsive and versatile multipurpose theme that lets you easily build, configure, and run any kind of website you want without touching code, including a website for an accounting or finance-related organization.
To learn more about the Avada theme for WordPress, go here: Avada
We hope that you have found this guide on ways to improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors with WordPress plugins useful.
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