In Part 1 of this guide on ways to improve your accounting business online, we provided practical tips and suggestions on the following areas:
- Online Challenges For Accountants
- Opportunities For Accountants In The Online Economy
- Your Website Pages
- Improve Your Web Content
In this section, we continue exploring more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Areas covered include:
- Improve Traffic With WordPress
- Ways To Generate More Leads & Enquiries
- How To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using Plugins & Themes
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
Ways To Improve Traffic
Your web traffic is vital to your business growth. This section explores how to improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and increase web traffic generation using WordPress plugins and themes.
Optimizing Your Website For Search Engines
There are lots of ways that WordPress helps improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO:
- URLs – WordPress lets you set the permalinks to use the title of the post.
- Tags – WordPress lets you select the keywords that you want your article pages (posts) to be indexed by in the search engines.
- Post Categories – Create categories for keeping your content organized and easy to find.
- Excerpts – Set an excerpt that will show in search results.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your images for improved search results.
- Content Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that allows you to easily link internal content
- Post Notification – Set up your site to automatically notify other search directories as soon as a new post is published on your website.
How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors To Your Website With WordPress Plugins
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, there are dozens of WordPress plugins that will improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors to your website.
For example, you can install the plugins below to improve your SEO:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your website’s search engine optimization)
Other things you can do to improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your site are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing features. Here are a few more powerful plugins that can help (many of the plugins listed below are also free):
- BuddyPress – Run your own online social community on your site.
- bbPress – Run your own forum on your site.
- E-Newsletter – E-Newsletter allows you to send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress dashboard, without requiring a third party subscription.
- Disqus – This plugin lets you power discussions and helps to increase user engagement on your website.
- Social Media Feather – Easily add social sharing features on your pages and posts.
(You can add social sharing to your website easily with free or inexpensive plugins)
How To Generate New Leads & Enquiries
Let’s now discuss how to improve sales and generate new leads and enquiries.
Provide A Newsletter
Adding an email newsletter is a great way to build a subscriber list. Adding a newsletter provides many benefits including:
- Sends targeted traffic
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Provides updates
- Provides you with a targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to provide special services or products to a select audience
- Increases interaction
- Provides you with additional opportunities for your content to be shared around with new prospective clients
A proven strategy for attracting new subscribers to your email newsletter is to provide users with information of high value and offer them free gifts or bonus items in exchange for their personal details. This can be a handy guide, tips for handling finances, access to tax calculators, coupons, access to subscriber-only content, contests, etc.
Provide A Contact Form
A contact form provides an easy and simple way for prospective customers to contact you. Contact forms also let users report issues, contact specific departments, request a quote, and more.
Contact forms provide several benefits and advantages including:
- Reducing spam
- Automated response
- Gives you control over what is sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- Can be added to any post or page
- Looks professional
- More convenient for users
A very popular contact form plugin is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin For WordPress)
This free plugin allows you to insert and manage multiple contact forms into any page or post, customize your forms and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, and Akismet spam filtering is also supported.
Something to consider is adding sections to your contact form so visitors can select which topic they want to discuss. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Add A Map
Adding a map to your website helps your visitors and clients find you.
Integrating maps (e.g. Google Maps), with your website also provides a number of benefits, such as:
- A map helps to increase local SEO
- Allows clients to better plan their meeting or appointments
- Show location of events
(Adding maps to your website helps your visitors and customers find you)
Below are some plugins that let you embed, customize and display maps on your website:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Generate More Visitors With WordPress Plugins
Accounting WordPress Plugins
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your site that will immediately make available a range of functional tools for site visitors. Here are just some of the plugins you can choose from:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin For WordPress)
This is a free collection of 400+ calculators. You can embed them into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. Internationalization is supported.
Most of them aren’t focused on accounting, but there are a few you can use for:
- Mortgage
- Payments
- Leases
- Credit
- And lots more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress Plugin)
This plugin lets you add a widget that shows up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many widgets as you like.
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker WordPress Plugin)
With this plugin you can add a custom stock ticker to any page, post, or sidebar with shortcodes.
This plugin provides a number of customizable ticker. You can choose from built-in skins or customize it yourself. It’s easy to customize it so it matches your website. You can also add custom stocks to individual categories.
Customize the appearance by changing colors, speed, text, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator WP Plugin)
This free calculator lets your visitors calculate indicative repayments. This is a useful tool for calculating automotive loans, property loans, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator – WordPress Plugin – Loan Calculator)
This plugin also contains an application form that sends a message to a specified email address.
Other features of this plugin include showing payment protection, calculating 12 to 60 months loans and creating a form that can be placed in any page or post.
For more details, go here}:
WP-Invoice
(WP-Invoice Plugin For WordPress)
WP-Invoice lets WordPress blog owners send itemized invoices to their clients.
This plugin lets you integrate billing into WordPress. You can send out itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand plugin functionality with free and premium add-ons that let you manage business, accept electronic signatures, create PDF versions of your invoices, create quotes, create checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into your WP user management database to keep track of your clients and their information, and integrates with PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, 2Checkout, Interkassa, and others.
The plugin gives you the ability to add custom payments and charges, create pre-defined line items and discounts, quickly view invoice status and progression, filter and find invoices, see invoice receipts and invoice history, create notification e-mail templates, access reports (collected vs uncollected invoices, 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 Plugin For WordPress)
This is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with knowledgebase and support ticket system, CRM and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin – Client Invoicing)
The plugin supports different languages, is fully customizable and provides additional tools such as document management, notice board, and more.
For more details, go here}:
iBilling – Accounting And Billing Software
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software)
iBilling is a scalable business software that lets you manage and communicate with clients, tracks your company’s net worth and cash flow, send single-click payment reminders and payment confirmations, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin – Invoice)
It integrates with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting – WordPress Themes
To get the best features and professional look for your website, it’s best to choose a theme specifically suited for accounting businesses. Below is a list of some of the best accounting themes available. With these themes you can own a professional-looking accounting website within minutes and save hundreds to thousands of dollars on the cost of website design.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro Theme For WordPress)
Accounting Pro is an inexpensive turn-key theme for accountants and accounting firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, has several page templates, a custom menu feature, a content composer (which improves on the standard WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, auto-resizing for images, and a whole lot more.
You can expand Accounting Pro with premium add-ons.
More information:
Accountancy
(Accountancy WP Theme)
This theme comes with a variety of styles and layouts to give your accounting site a professional look and feel.
This responsive theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, it’s lightweight, search engine friendly, and fast loading. Accountancy provides the features your business needs without bloating your theme. Free updates and one year of support is included in the cost of purchase.
Go here to learn more about using this theme:
Accounting
(Accounting – WordPress Theme)
This theme includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your site any way you want. The theme also provides unlimited sidebars with custom widgets, four different header types, a custom administration panel, different color schemes, custom slider, three different blog types, and is responsive. Accountancy is a clean-looking, modern and fast loading theme.
More information:
Kathryn
(Kathryn WP Theme)
This one is developed specifically for accounting services. It comes with multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, call to action boxes, many color options, is easy to use, inexpensive, SEO friendly, and is responsive. Although this theme can easily fit any profession you like, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy slider plugin and must be purchased separately from the Genesis Framework.
To learn more about this WordPress theme, go here:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This theme was created to enhance professionalism within the accounting industry. Every color, layout element, icon, menu item, page structure, call-to-action, etc., is specifically designed to help 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 fully responsive and includes pages for your accounting services, contact form section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials section, and a blog.
Go here to learn more about using this theme:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate Theme For WordPress)
WP Advocate is a corporate theme built specifically for professional service providers such as accountants and attorneys. Use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate includes a custom post type adding employee profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is a clean and fast-loading theme.
To learn more about this WordPress theme, visit the theme site:
Divi
(Divi)
This premium theme for WordPress is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection of WordPress themes. You can create a unique, professional website using the page builder or beautiful and unique pre-made layouts. You can change your layout as much as you need.
Divi’s page builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and easily edit the structure of their pages without touching code.
(Divi WP Theme – Flexible Page Builder)
Divi has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. Modules include multiple layouts, a slider, you can place pricing tables, testimonials, call-to-action, and lots more. Divi is responsive and fully customizable. Themes start at $69 per year and includes access to 80+ sleek business themes.
More info:
The Corporation
(The Corporation)
This premium WordPress theme from Elegant Themes was created specifically to make corporate websites look great.
It has a page-based home page design with a eye-catching slider, blog design, six different color schemes, multiple page templates which include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Prices start at $69 per year and includes access to 80+ beautifully-designed themes.
Visit the theme website to learn more about using this theme:
Adviser
(Adviser WordPress Theme)
Adviser was specifically developed to help professionals in the financial industry to build trust online with a clean business design. It’s ideal for businesses that provide services like investment advice or tax help. The theme includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications. It also includes a lease calculator. It includes multiple shortcodes and widgets, and includes the drag-and-drop visual composer.
Visit the theme website for more details about using this theme:
Tax Help
(Tax Help)
Tax Help was designed specifically for financial organizations, tax and finance advisors, and those providing tax assistance. Tax Help is designed to showcase your services in a professional way and help grow your professional reputation. It has different blog styles, uses the drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and many custom shortcodes.
More info:
Finance Business
(Finance Business Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme for WordPress was specifically designed for businesses that provide financial services such as tax help, consulting, insurance, finance, corporate, loans, accounting, and more. This theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin. It also has around one hundred shortcodes that includes charts and financial content. It also includes the custom drag-and-drop composer, 2 premium sliders, page settings, color management features, animated elements, and lots more.
Go here to learn more about using this theme:
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
Hopefully, this article has helped you learn WordPress plugins and themes that can help to improve SEO, increase user engagement and increase traffic generation.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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