In Part 1 of this step-by-step guide on ways to improve your accounting web presence, we provided in-depth information on the following areas:
- Online Challenges For The Accounting & Financial Services Profession
- Opportunities For Professional Accountants
- How To Improve Your Web Pages
- Improving Your Web Content
In this section, we discuss more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Topics covered below include:
- Tips For Improving Web Traffic
- Generate More Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress
- How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins & Themes
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, go here:
- Adding New Functionality To Your Web Site With Plugins
- WordPress For Beginners – An Introduction To Themes
Grow Your Accounting Website – Improve Your Business Online Using WordPress Plugins and Themes
Web traffic is vital to your online business growth. In this section, you will learn ways of improving your business online using WordPress plugins and themes.
Optimize Your Site For SEO
There are so many ways that WordPress helps improve SEO:
- URLs – WordPress lets you set the permalinks to use the title of the post.
- Tags – Choose the keywords that you want your articles to be indexed by in the search engines.
- Post Categories – Add SEO-friendly categories for archiving and organizing your content.
- Post Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose the description for your posts that will display in search results.
- Images – title images used in your content with keywords for improved search results.
- Internal Content Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that allows you to easily link your content to other posts and pages on your site
- Pinging – Configure your site to automatically notify (ping) other search directories immediately upon publishing a new post on your website.
Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With Plugins
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, the WP development community makes available various plugins that will improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your website.
For example, you can install the plugins below to improve your SEO:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress XML sitemap plugin (for search engines)
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your site’s SEO)
Other things you can do to improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your website are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing. Here are some more WordPress plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – Run your own social community on your WordPress website.
- bbPress – Use bbPress to set up and run a community forum on your site.
- E-Newsletter – E-Newsletter lets you send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP dashboard, without requiring 3rd-party subscriptions.
- Disqus – Power discussions and increases user engagement on your website.
- Floating Social – Easily add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online to your pages and posts.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site using WordPress plugins)
Generate Leads & Enquiries With WordPress
Let’s now discuss ways to improve your sales and generate new leads and enquiries.
Providing A Newsletter
Adding an email newsletter is an excellent way to build a subscriber list. It] provides several benefits, like:
- Drives targeted traffic
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Provides useful information and advice
- Provides a targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to provide special products or services to a select audience
- Provides new opportunities for improving user engagement
- Provides you with additional opportunities for subscribers to share your content
An effective way to attract new subscribers to your email newsletter is to provide them with content of high value and give them free gifts in exchange for their personal details. This can be an exclusive report, tips for handling finances, access to tax calculators, coupons, membership access to subscriber-only content, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
Contact forms make it easy and simple for readers to get in touch. Visitors can raise problems, contact specific departments, ask for quotes, send suggestions and more.
Contact forms provide several benefits including:
- Reducing spam
- Automated response
- Giving you control over what gets sent to you
- You can keep your email address private
- They can be added to any page or post
- Improves the professional look of your site
- More convenient for visitors
A very popular contact form plugin for WordPress is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7)
This plugin is easy to install and set up and allows you to insert and manage multiple contact forms, customize the form and the email contents, add fields, and more.
Supports international languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, spam filtering and so on.
Something to consider is to add sections to your contact form so users can choose which topic they are contacting your company about. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Add Maps
Adding a map to your site helps your visitors and customers find you.
Maps are a very useful tool for several reasons:
- A map increases local SEO
- Helps visitors find your office easily
- Displays location of events
(Adding maps helps your visitors and clients find you)
Popular map plugins include:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
WordPress Plugins & Themes For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Better User Engagement And Generating More Visitors
WordPress Plugins
WordPress makes available a number of plugins you can add to your accounting or financial services site that will immediately add a range of practical tools for users. Here are some of these:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators)
This plugin provides a free collection of 400+ calculators. You can embed these into your pages, posts, or sidebars using shortcodes. Internationalization is supported.
Most of them aren’t focused on accounting, but there are a few for:
- Mortgage
- Payments
- Tax
- Credit
- And lots more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes WordPress Plugin)
With this plugin you get a widget that displays up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can show as many widgets as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin For WordPress – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker WP Plugin)
This plugin lets you place custom stock tickers on any post, page or sidebar with shortcodes.
The plugin offers loads of customizable ticker. Choose from built-in skins or customize it yourself to match the look and feel of your website. You can also create custom stocks for individual categories.
Customize the appearance by changing colours, size, symbols, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin)
This free plugin allows users to calculate indicative repayments online. It’s great for calculating vehicle loans, real estate loans, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator – Loan Calculators)
The Finance Calculator plugin also contains an application form that will send a message to a specified email address.
It will display payment protection, calculate 12 to 60 months loans and create a form that can be placed in any page or post.
For more details, go here}:
WP-Invoice
(WP-Invoice)
WP-Invoice lets WordPress blog owners send itemized invoices to their clients.
WP-Invoice lets you integrate billing into WordPress. You can send clients itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand functionality with both free and premium add-ons, like business location, electronic signature, PDF creation, quoting, single-page checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into WP’s user management database to keep track of 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, insert pre-defined line items and discounts, view invoice status and progression, easily filter and find invoices, see invoice receipts and invoice history, create notification e-mail templates, access 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 Plugin For WordPress)
This complete business management solution includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with knowledgebase and ticketing management system, CRM and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application WordPress Plugin – Invoice)
All In One Business Management Application supports international languages, is fully customizable and provides additional 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 WordPress Plugin)
This is a scalable business software that lets you manage and communicate with customers, track your company’s net worth and cash flow, send single-click payment reminders and payment confirmations, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software – Invoice)
iBilling allows you to get paid faster by integrating with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting And Financial Services – WordPress Themes
To benefit the most from using WordPress to grow your business online, we recommend choosing a theme specifically for accounting businesses. Here is a look at some of the best accountancy themes available. With these themes you can have a professional accounting website within minutes and save hundreds to thousands of dollars on the cost of web design.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro)
This premium theme for WordPress is an inexpensive 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-resizing for images, and a whole lot more.
Accounting Pro can be customized using premium add-ons.
To learn more about using this WordPress theme, go here:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme For WordPress)
This inexpensive theme offers a variety of built-in styles and layouts to help make your accounting website look and feel professional.
This mobile-friendly theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, it’s lightweight, search engine friendly, and fast loading. 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 Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme for WordPress includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your website any way you want. The theme also has unlimited sidebars and custom widgets, four different types of headers, a custom administration panel, different color schemes, custom slider, 3 blog types, and is mobile-friendly. Accountancy is a clean-looking, modern and fast loading theme.
For more details, go here:
Kathryn
(Kathryn Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was developed for accountants. It allows you to use WordPress as a true CMS and offers multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, many colors, is easy to use, search optimized, and is responsive. Although it could easily suit any profession, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy slider plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
Go here for more details:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was developed with the idea of professionalism within the accounting industry. Every color, layout element, icon, menu item, page structure, call-to-action, etc., was specifically designed to help give your accounting website a professional look while not looking dull. It’s a turn-key installation but you can still modify it if you want. It’s fully 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.
Go here for more information about this WordPress theme:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate Theme)
This is a corporate theme developed specifically for professional service providers such as accountants and attorneys. Use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. It 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.
For more information, go here:
Divi
(Divi WP Theme)
This is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection of WordPress themes. Divi lets you create a professional website using its page builder or beautiful pre-made layouts. You can change your layout as much as you need.
Divi’s page builder transforms web elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and redesign the structure of their page without editing a single line of code.
(Divi Theme – Flexible Page Builder)
It comes with 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. Modules include accordion, blurb, contact form, countdown timer, image, map, post title, sidebar, testimonial, video slider, fullwidth header, fullwidth map, fullwidth post title, and more.. Divi is responsive and fully customizable. Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to all sleek business themes.
Go here for more info:
The Corporation
(The Corporation – WordPress Theme)
This one was specifically built to make corporate sites look good.
The Corporation has a sleek page-based home page design with a prominent, flashy slider, blog design, 6 different color schemes, multiple page templates which include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Themes start at $69 per year and includes full access to 80+ sleek business themes.
For more details, go here:
Adviser
(Adviser)
This premium theme for WordPress was designed to help finance professionals build trust online through clean web design. It’s ideal for businesses that provide services like investments or tax advice. Adviser 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.
More info:
Tax Help
(Tax Help Theme For WordPress)
Tax Help was specifically designed for financial companies, tax and finance advisors, and those offering tax services. Tax Help is designed to showcase your services professionally and help build your professional reputation. It provides different blog styles, uses a drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and additional custom shortcodes.
Go here for more information:
Finance Business
(Finance Business – WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was built for organizations that provide any type of financial service such as tax help, consulting, insurance, corporate, finance, loans, accounting, and more. The theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around one hundred shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content, custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page options, color management, animations, and lots more.
Go here for more info:
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 comprehensive guide has helped you learn WordPress plugins and themes for improving SEO, better user engagement and driving more visitors.
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