In Part One of this step-by-step guide on ways to improve your accounting web presence, we covered the following areas:
- Online Challenges For Accounting Businesses
- Opportunities For The Accounting Profession In The Digital Economy
- How To Improve Your Web Pages
- How To Improve Your Content
In this section, we continue looking at more ways to grow your accounting business online. Areas covered include:
- Ways To Improve Web Traffic
- How To Generate Leads & Enquiries
- Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Generate More Traffic Using WordPress Plugins & Themes
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
- Add New Features And Functionality To Your Blog With WordPress Plugins
- WordPress For Beginners – An Overview Of WP Themes
Improve Website Traffic Using WordPress
Your web traffic is vital to your business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic using WordPress.
Optimize Your Site For Search Engines
There are loads of ways that WordPress helps improve your website’s SEO:
- Search Engine-Friendly URLs – Set the permalinks to use the title of the post.
- Tags – Specify the keywords that you want your article pages to be indexed for in the search engines.
- Categories – Create categories for your posts and products.
- Excerpts – Set an excerpt that will display in search results.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your content images for improved search results.
- Content Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that lets you easily link your content to other posts and pages on your site
- Post Notification – WordPress can be set up to automatically notify other sites and directories immediately upon publishing new content on your website.
WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Better User Engagement And Traffic Generation
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, there are dozens of plugins that improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your site.
For example, you can use the plugins below to improve your SEO:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress XML sitemap plugin (for search engines)
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(A plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your SEO)
Other things you can do to improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your website are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing features. Here are a few more plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – This free plugin allows you to run your own social network on your site.
- bbPress – Set up an online discussion forum on your site.
- E-Newsletter – Use this plugin to send professional email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress site.
- Disqus – use this WordPress plugin to power discussions and increases user engagement on your website.
- Social Media Feather – This plugin lets you add social sharing features and buttons on your site.
(You can add social features to your website easily using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
How To Generate Leads & Enquiries
Let’s now take a look at how to improve sales and generate new leads and enquiries.
Provide A Newsletter
Adding a newsletter is an excellent way to build a subscriber list. Adding newsletters] provides a number of benefits including:
- Drives targeted traffic
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Provides updates
- Provides you with a highly targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to provide special services or products to a select audience
- Provides new opportunities for user engagement
- Provides additional opportunities for your content to be shared with new prospective customers
A proven way to attract subscribers to your newsletter is to provide high value information and give users free gifts or bonus items in exchange for their details. This can be a guide, checklists for handling finances, access to tax calculators, coupons, access to subscriber-only content, contests, etc.
Provide Contact Forms
Contact forms provide an easy and simple way for prospective customers to contact you. Users can raise concerns, contact specific departments, request quotes, give suggestions and more.
Contact forms provide a number of benefits including:
- Reducing spam
- Set up automated responses
- Giving you control over what gets sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- Contact forms can be added to any post or page
- Improves the professional look of your website
- Convenience for visitors
One of the most popular WordPress contact form plugins is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin For WordPress)
Contact Form 7 is easy to install and set up and allows you to create and manage multiple contact forms on your site, customize the forms and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, and spam filtering is supported.
Something to consider is adding sections to your contact form so prospective customers can choose which aspect of your business they are contacting your company about. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Provide Maps
Adding maps helps your visitors and clients find you.
Adding maps, such as Google Maps to your website also provides a number of benefits, such as:
- A map increases local SEO
- Visitors can easily find you
- Display location of events
(A map helps your visitors and clients find you)
Below are just some popular plugins that let you embed, customize and display Google maps on your site:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Better User Engagement And Web Traffic Generation
Financial Plugins For WordPress
WordPress makes available a number of plugins you can add to your accounting or financial services website that will immediately make available a range of practical tools for users. Here are just some of these plugins:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators WP Plugin)
This plugin provides a free collection of 400+ calculators. You can embed them into your pages, posts, or sidebars using shortcodes. Internationalization is supported.
Most of the calculators aren’t focused on accounting, but there are a few you can use for:
- 401k
- Payments
- Leases
- Credit
- And more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin)
This plugin lets you add a widget that displays a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can show as many widgets 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 place custom stock tickers on any post, page or sidebar with shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker offers loads of customizable features. You can choose to use built-in themes or customize it yourself. It’s easy to customize it so it matches your site. You can also add custom stocks to individual categories.
Customize the appearance by changing height, width, background color, scrolling speed, opacity, number of stocks displayed at one time, font size, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress)
This free calculator lets your users calculate indicative repayments. This is a useful financial tool for car loans, property, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator Plugin – Loan Calculator)
The plugin also contains an application form that sends a notification message to the email address you specify.
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 Plugin)
WP-Invoice is ideal for WordPress users with clients to bill.
WP-Invoice integrates billing into WordPress. You can send clients itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand plugin functionality with free and premium add-ons that let you manage locations, accept electronic signatures from clients, create PDF invoices, create quotes, create checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into your WordPress user management database to keep track of your clients and their information, and integrates with payment processors like PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and many others.
The plugin gives you the ability to add custom payments and charges, create pre-defined line items and discounts, view invoice status and progression, easily filter and find invoices, show invoice receipts and invoice history, create notification e-mail templates, access reports (collected vs uncollected invoices, 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)
This is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with ticketing system, CRM and many additional features.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin For WordPress – Client Invoice)
The plugin supports different 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 Plugin)
iBilling is a scalable business software that lets you manage and communicate with clients, tracks your company’s net worth and cash flow, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin For WordPress – Invoicing)
It integrates with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting Themes For WordPress
To benefit the most from using WordPress, we recommend choosing a theme specifically for accounting businesses. Here is a list of some of the best accountancy themes available. With these themes you can have a professional-looking accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro – WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme is a turn-key theme for accountants and accounting firms. It’s a responsive theme with a drag-and-drop page-builder, offers several page templates, custom menu features, a content composer (which improves on the standard WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, auto-resized images, and a whole lot more.
Accounting Pro can be customized with premium add-ons.
For more details, go here:
Accountancy
(Accountancy)
This premium theme for WordPress offers a variety of built-in styles and layouts that helps give your accounting site a professional look and feel.
This responsive (mobile-friendly) theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, it’s lightweight, SEO friendly, and fast loading. Accountancy provides the features your business needs without bloating your theme. Free updates and 1 year of support is included with the cost of purchasing.
To learn more about this WordPress theme, visit the theme site:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme)
This one includes a drag-and-drop builder so you can design your website any way you want. It also has unlimited sidebars and custom widgets, four different header types, a custom admin panel, four color schemes, custom slider, three different blog types, and is mobile-friendly. It is a clean-looking, modern and fast loading theme.
Visit the theme site to learn more this theme:
Kathryn
(Kathryn)
This premium theme for WordPress was developed for accounting businesses. It has a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, many colors, is easy to use, search engine optimized, and is mobile-friendly. Although this theme 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.
For more information, go here:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – Theme For WordPress)
This one was developed to exude professionalism within the accounting industry. Every color, layout element, icon, menu item, page structure, call-to-action, etc., was designed specifically 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 details section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials, and a blog.
Go here for more info:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate – WordPress Theme)
This is a corporate theme designed specifically for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate also includes a custom post type for employee profiles and can also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s clean-looking and loads fast.
Go here for more info:
Divi
(Divi WordPress Theme)
This theme 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 modify your layout to your heart’s content.
The builder transforms web elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and easily edit the structure of their page without editing a single line of code.
(Divi WP Theme – Page Builder)
It comes with 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. This includes accordion, blurb, contact form, email optin, gallery, map, person, slider, social media follow, text, fullwidth image, fullwidth portfolio, fullwidth slider, and more.. It is mobile-friendly and completely customizable. Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to over 80 themes.
For more details, go here:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme)
This premium theme was specifically built to create great-looking corporate sites.
It has a page-based home page design with a nice slider. It also has a blog design. It has six unique color schemes. It also comes with multiple page templates that include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to over 80 sleek business themes.
Go here to learn more about using this WordPress theme:
Adviser
(Adviser)
This theme was developed to help finance industry professionals build trust online with a clean business design. It’s ideal for businesses that provide services like investing advice or tax help. The Adviser theme includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications. It also includes a built-in lease calculator. It includes multiple shortcodes and widgets, and includes the drag-and-drop visual composer.
For more information about using this theme, visit the theme site:
Tax Help
(Tax Help – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme was specifically designed for financial organizations, tax and finance advisors, and those providing tax assistance. It’s designed to show your services in a professional way to help establish your professional reputation. It provides different blog styles, uses a drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and many custom shortcodes.
More information:
Finance Business
(Finance Business – WordPress Theme)
Finance Business Theme was specifically designed for organizations that provide financial services such as consulting, tax help, corporate, insurance, finance, accounting, loans, and more. Finance Business includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin. It also has around one hundred shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content. It also includes the custom drag-and-drop composer, 2 premium sliders, page options, color management features, animations, and lots more.
For more details about using this WordPress theme, visit the theme site:
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, you have found this guide on how to improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and increase web traffic generation with plugins helpful.
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