In Part 1 of this guide on ways to grow your accounting web presence, we provided in-depth information on the following areas:
- Online Challenges For Accountants
- Opportunities For Accounting Businesses In The Digital Economy
- Essential Pages
- Ways To Improve The Content On Your Site
In this section, we discuss more ways to grow your accounting business online. Areas covered below include:
- Tips For Improving Web Traffic Using WordPress
- Generate More Leads & Enquiries
- Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With WordPress Plugins & Themes
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, go here:
Your Accounting Website – How To Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With Plugins & Themes
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 lots of ways that WordPress helps optimize your accounting or financial services website for search engines:
- Search Engine-Friendly URLs – configure the permalinks to use the title of the posts as the URL of your pages.
- Post Tags – WordPress lets you select the keywords that you want your article pages (posts) to be indexed by in the search engines.
- Categories – Add SEO-friendly categories for keeping your content organized and easy to find.
- Post Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose an excerpt that will display to search engine users.
- Images – title your images with keywords for better search engine results.
- Content Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that lets you easily link internal content
- Post Notification – Set up your site to automatically notify (ping) other search directories whenever a new post is published on your site.
WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Better User Engagement And Traffic Generation
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, there are also a number of plugins that will improve your website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors to your site.
For example, you can install the plugins below to improve your SEO:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin (lists all of your pages and posts for search engines)
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin
(A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your SEO)
Other things you can do to improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic to your site are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social sharing. Here are some WordPress plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – Use this plugin to set up and run your own online social network on your WordPress site, with member profiles, messaging, user groups, activity streams, and more.
- bbPress – This free plugin can be used to run a discussion forum on your website.
- E-Newsletter – Send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress site.
- Disqus – Disqus lets you power discussions and helps to increase user engagement on your website or blog.
- Social Media Feather – Use this plugin to add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online on your posts and pages.
(WordPress users can easily add social features to their site with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
Generate New Leads & Enquiries
In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve sales and generate leads and enquiries for your business.
Providing A Newsletter
Adding an email newsletter is a great way to build a subscriber list. Adding newsletters] provides several benefits and advantages, like:
- Sends targeted traffic to your website
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Provides useful updates
- Provides a highly targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to offer special services or products to a select audience
- Increases user engagement
- Provides you with additional opportunities for subscribers to share your content
An effective way to attract subscribers is to provide high value information and offer users additional bonuses for free in exchange for their details. This could be a time-saving guide, tips for handling tax, access to financial calculators, discount coupons, membership access to courses, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
A contact form makes it easy and simple for readers to get in touch. Users can provide feedback, ask questions to specific departments, request quotes, and more.
A contact form provides many benefits and advantages, like:
- Reducing spam
- Automated response
- Giving you control over what is sent to you
- You can keep your email address private
- Different forms can be added to any page or post
- Looks professional
- Convenient for users
A popular contact form plugin is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 WP Plugin)
This plugin is easy to install and set up and lets you create multiple contact forms, customize your forms and the email contents, add fields, and more.
Supports international languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, spam filtering and so on.
Another option to consider is adding sections to your contact form so prospective clients can select the topic they are contacting your company about. This helps visitors get the comment to the right person.
Provide Maps
Adding a map to your site helps your visitors and clients find you.
Maps are a very useful tool for several reasons:
- Maps increase local SEO
- Allows clients to better plan their meeting or appointments
- Display location of events
(Adding maps to your website helps your visitors and customers find you)
Here are just some of the more plugins that let you embed, customize and display maps on your WordPress site:
- 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 Web Traffic Using WordPress Plugins And Themes
WordPress Plugins
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your accounting website to immediately add 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 over 400 calculators that you can provide to users on your website and embed into your posts, pages, 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:
- Interest rate
- Loans
- Tax
- Equity
- And many more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress Plugin)
This plugin installs a widget that shows up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can show as many portfolios as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker Plugin)
With this plugin you can add custom stock tickers to any sidebar, page or post using shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker provides a number of customizable features. You can choose to use built-in themes or customize it yourself to match your website. You can also add custom stocks to individual categories.
Appearance customizations include width, height, background color, opacity, scrolling speed, number of stocks displayed simultaneously, font size, font family, text color, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator WordPress Plugin)
This free calculator allows users to calculate indicative repayments online. This is a great financial tool for car loans, property, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator WordPress Plugin – Loan Calculator)
The Finance Calculator plugin also contains an application form that sends a notification message to the email address you specify.
It will show 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 For WordPress)
WP-Invoice lets WordPress blog owners send itemized invoices to their clients.
WP-Invoice integrates billing into WordPress. You can send clients itemized invoices. It also allows you to set up recurring billing. WP-Invoice can be expanded through both free and premium add-ons that let you manage business, accept electronic signatures, create PDF invoices, provide quotes, create single-page checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into your WordPress 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 features include adding custom payments and charges, adding pre-defined line items and discounts, quickly viewing invoice status and progression, filtering and finding invoices, showing invoice receipts and invoice history, creating notification email templates, viewing 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 For WordPress)
This is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with knowledgebase and support ticket management system, client relationship management and many additional features.
(All In One Business Management Application 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 Plugin For WordPress)
This is a scalable business software that lets you manage clients and invoicing, track your company’s cash flow and net worth, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin – Client Invoice)
iBilling Accounting and Billing Software integrates with several 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 for accounting businesses. Here is a list of some of the best WordPress themes available for accounting. With the themes listed below you can have a professional-looking accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro)
This premium theme is an inexpensive turn-key theme for accountants and accountancy firms. It’s a responsive theme with a drag-and-drop page-builder, offers several page templates, custom menus, a content composer (which improves on the standard WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, auto-resized images, and lots more.
Accounting Pro can be expanded using premium add-ons.
Visit this website for more information about using this WordPress theme:
Accountancy
(Accountancy – WordPress Theme)
Accountancy Theme has a variety of styles and layouts to help make your accounting website look and feel professional.
This responsive theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, it’s lightweight, search engine optimized, and loads fast. It provides what you need without bloating your theme. Free updates and one year of support is included with the price.
Go here for more information:
Accounting
(Accounting)
This premium theme includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your website any way you want. It also provides unlimited sidebars with custom widgets, four different types of headers, a custom administration panel, four color schemes, custom slider, 3 blog types, and is responsive (mobile-friendly). Accountancy is a clean-looking, modern and fast loading theme.
More info:
Kathryn
(Kathryn WP Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was developed for accounting businesses. The theme allows you to use WordPress as a true CMS and comes with multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, many color options, is easy to use, inexpensive, search engine optimized, and is mobile-friendly. Although this theme can easily fit any profession, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
Go here to learn more this WordPress theme:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WordPress Theme)
Accounting WordPress Theme was built to exude professionalism within the accounting industry. It features authoritative colors and layout elements designed specifically 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 responsive and includes pages for your accounting services, contact form section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials, and a blog.
More information:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate Theme For WordPress)
This is a corporate theme developed specifically for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. Use the bundled images or upload your own. It also includes a custom post type for staff profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is a clean-looking and fast-loading theme.
More info:
Divi
(Divi)
This premium theme is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection. Divi lets you create a unique, professional website using the page builder or beautiful and unique 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 you to understand and change the structure of their web pages without editing code.
(Divi – Flexible Page Builder)
Divi has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. This includes modules such as multiple layouts, a slider, you can place pricing tables, testimonials, call-to-action, and lots more. It is fully responsive and fully customizable. Prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to all beautifully-designed themes.
For more details about using this theme, go here:
The Corporation
(The Corporation WordPress Theme)
This one was specifically created to make corporate websites look good.
This theme has a page-based home page design with a prominent, flashy slider, blog design, six unique different color schemes, 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 full access to over 80 themes.
More information:
Adviser
(Adviser)
This premium theme was built to help finance industry professionals build trust through clean web design. It’s perfect for businesses that provide services such as investments or tax advice. The Adviser theme includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, lease calculator, widgets and multiple shortcodes, and the drag-and-drop visual composer..
Go here for more information about using this WordPress theme:
Tax Help
(Tax Help)
This one was designed specifically for financial companies, tax and financial advisors, and firms that provide tax services. This theme is designed to showcase your services professionally and help establish your professional reputation. It has a range of blog styles, uses the drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and additional custom shortcodes.
Visit the theme site to learn more this theme:
Finance Business
(Finance Business – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was built for businesses that provide financial services such as consulting, tax help, finance, corporate, insurance, accounting, loans, and more. Finance Business includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin. It also has around 100 shortcodes that includes charts and financial content. It also includes the custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page settings, color management, animations, and lots 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, this comprehensive guide has helped you learn ways to improve your business online using WordPress.
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