In Part One of this comprehensive article on ways to grow your accounting business presence online, we provided many practical tips and suggestions on the following areas:
- Online Challenges For Accounting And Financial Businesses
- Opportunities For The Accounting Profession In The Web Economy
- Basic Web Pages
- Improve The Content On Your Website
In this section, we explore more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Topics covered include:
- Improve Web Traffic
- Generating Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress
- How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Visitors To Your Website Using Plugins
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, see these articles:
- Adding New Features And Functionality To Your WP Website With Plugins
- WordPress For Beginners – An Overview Of Themes
Your Accounting Website – Improve Your Business Online With WordPress
Web traffic is vital to your business growth. In this section, you will learn WordPress plugins and themes that improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more traffic.
Optimize Your Site For Search Engines Using WordPress
There are loads of ways that WordPress helps optimize your accounting or financial services website for search engines:
- SEO-Friendly – Set the permalinks to create search engine-optimized web addresses for your articles and posts.
- Post Tags – WordPress lets you choose the keywords that you want search engines to index your articles for.
- Categories – Create SEO-friendly categories for keeping your content organized and easy to find.
- Post Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose the description for your posts that will display in search results.
- Images – title your images with keywords for improved search results.
- Content Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that allows you to easily link your content to other posts on your site
- Post Notification – Configure your site to automatically notify other sites and directories whenever a new post is published on your site.
How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using Plugins
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, there are quite a number of WordPress plugins that will improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your site.
For example, here are some plugins you can use to improve your SEO:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress XML sitemap plugin (lists all of your posts and pages for indexing by search engines)
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin
(A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your SEO)
Other ways to improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your website are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social sharing. Here are a few fantastic WordPress plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – BuddyPress lets you set up a social networking community on WordPress.
- bbPress – This free plugin can be used to run a forum on your WordPress site.
- E-Newsletter – Send professional email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress dashboard, without requiring 3rd-party subscriptions.
- Disqus – Power discussions and increases user engagement on your website or blog.
- Social Media Feather – Use this WordPress plugin to add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online on your website.
(WordPress users can easily add social features to their site using WordPress plugins)
Generating More Leads & Enquiries With WordPress
Let’s now discuss ways to improve sales and generate leads and enquiries online.
Provide An Email Newsletter
Providing a newsletter is an excellent way to build a subscriber list. It] provides a number of benefits including:
- Drives targeted traffic
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides useful information and advice
- Provides a highly targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to provide special services or products to a select audience
- Provides regular opportunities for increasing user engagement
- Provides you with another way for readers to share your content
One of the things you can do to get visitors to become subscribers is to provide high value information and offer users something for free in exchange for their details. This can be a handy guide, tips for handling tax, access to tax calculators, coupons, access to subscriber-only content, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
A contact form makes it easy and simple for readers to contact you. A contact form also allows users to report issues, ask questions to specific departments, request a quote, and more.
Contact forms provide many benefits including:
- Reducing spam
- Automated response
- Gives you control over what is 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
- Is convenient for site visitors
A popular contact form plugin is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin)
Contact form 7 is a free plugin that is easy to install and configure and lets you add multiple contact forms into any page or post, customize your form and the email contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, and spam filtering is also supported.
Another feature you may want to consider is adding sections to your contact form so visitors can select which topic they are contacting your company about. This ensures that contact form requests reach the right person.
Provide Maps
A map helps your visitors and customers find you.
Integrating maps, such as Google Maps, with your site also provides users with a number of benefits, such as:
- A map helps to increase local SEO
- Visitors can easily find you
- Show location of events
(Adding maps to your site helps your visitors and clients find you)
Popular Google Maps plugins include:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
Improving SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins
Accounting And Financial Services Plugins For WordPress
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your accounting or financial services site that will immediately add a range of practical 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 plugin provides a free collection of 400+ calculators. You can embed them into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. The plugin also supports internationalization
Most of them aren’t focused specifically on accounting, but there are a few for:
- 401k
- Payments
- Leases
- Debit
- And lots more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress 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 Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker WP Plugin)
With this plugin you can add custom stock tickers to any sidebar, page or post using shortcodes.
The plugin comes with 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 specific categories.
Customize the appearance by changing colours, size, speed, text, and symbols, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress)
This free plugin allows users to calculate indicative repayments. It’s great for calculating automotive loans, real estate loans, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator – Loan Calculators)
This plugin also contains an application form that sends a notification 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 – WordPress Plugin)
WP-Invoice lets you send itemized invoices to clients.
WP-Invoice integrates 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 from clients, create PDF invoices, create quotes, create checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into WP’s user management database to keep track of clients and their information, and integrates with payment processors like PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and several others.
WP-Invoice lets you add custom payments and charges, add 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, display 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 complete business management system includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with knowledgebase and support ticketing management system, CRM and many more features.
(All In One Business Management Application WordPress Plugin – Client Invoice)
All In One Business Management Application supports different languages, is fully customizable and provides powerful tools such as document management, notice board, and more.
For more details, go here}:
iBilling – Accounting And Billing Software
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin For WordPress)
iBilling is a scalable business software that lets you manage customers and invoicing, tracks your company’s cash flow and net worth, send single-click payment reminders and payment confirmations, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software WordPress Plugin – Client Invoicing)
iBilling lets you get paid faster by integrating with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
WordPress Accounting Themes
To benefit the most from using WordPress, we recommend choosing a theme specifically suited for accounting. Below is a list of some of the best accountancy themes available. These themes allow you to have a professional-looking accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro Theme)
This premium WordPress theme is an inexpensive turn-key theme designed for accountants and accounting firms. It’s a responsive theme with a drag-and-drop page-builder, has several page templates, a custom menu feature, a content composer (gives you an improved WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, performs auto resizing for images, and a whole lot more.
Accounting Pro can be expanded with premium add-ons.
More information:
Accountancy
(Accountancy WordPress Theme)
This theme offers a variety of styles and layouts to help give your accounting site a professional look and feel.
It includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, and more. It’s lightweight, search engine optimized, loads fast, and fully responsive. It provides the flexibility you need without bloating your theme with features you don’t need. Your purchase price includes free updates and one year of support.
Go here to learn more this theme:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme For WordPress)
Accounting Theme includes a drag-and-drop builder so you can design your site any way you want. It also provides unlimited sidebars with custom widgets, four different header types, a custom administration panel, four color schemes, a custom slider, three different blog types, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). Accountancy looks clean and modern and loads fast.
More information:
Kathryn
(Kathryn Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was created specifically for accountants. Kathryn comes with a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, widgetized home page, a variety of color choices, is easy to use, inexpensive, search engine optimized, and is fully responsive. Although it could easily suit any profession you want it to, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy WordPress responsive slider plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
More info:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This one was created to exude professionalism within the accounting industry. It features authoritative colors and elements designed specifically to help give your accounting website a professional look 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 services, contact section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials section, and a blog.
More info:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate WordPress Theme)
WP Advocate is a corporate theme designed specifically for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the 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 clean-looking and fast-loading.
Go here for more details:
Divi
(Divi Theme For WordPress)
Divi is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection. Divi lets you create a professional site using the page builder or pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout to your heart’s content.
Divi’s page builder transforms web elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and easily redesign the structure of their pages without editing a single line of code.
(Divi Theme For WordPress – Flexible Page Builder)
Divi has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. Modules include bar counter, blurb, circle counter, divider, filterable portfolio, login, person, slider, testimonial, video, fullwidth code, fullwidth portfolio, fullwidth post title, and more.. It is responsive and fully customizable. Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to all sleek business themes.
For more details, go here:
The Corporation
(The Corporation – WordPress Theme)
The Corporation was specifically created to make corporate websites look good.
It has a sleek and professional page-based home page design with a prominent, flashy slider. It also has a blog design and features that toggle on and off. It comes with six color schemes. It also comes with multiple page templates that include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Themes start at $69 per year and includes full access to 80+ stunning themes.
For more details about this theme, visit the theme website:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme For WordPress)
Adviser was built to help businesses in the financial industry to build trust through clean design. It’s perfect for businesses that provide services such as investing advice or tax advice. The theme includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications. It also includes a lease calculator. It includes widgets and multiple shortcodes, and includes the drag-and-drop visual composer.
More information:
Tax Help
(Tax Help Theme For WordPress)
This premium WordPress theme was designed for financial companies, tax and financial advisors, and those that provide tax assistance. The theme is designed to show your services in a professional way and help build your professional reputation. It provides different blog styles, uses the drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and many custom shortcodes.
To learn more about this WordPress theme, visit this site:
Finance Business
(Finance Business Theme)
Finance Business was specifically built for firms that provide financial services such as tax help, consulting, insurance, finance, corporate, accounting, loans, and more. This theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around 100 shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content, custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page options, color management, animated elements, and a whole 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
Hopefully, you have found this article on ways of improving your business online with WordPress helpful.
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