In Part One of this article on ways to grow your accounting web presence, we provided in-depth information on the following areas:
- Online Challenges For The Accounting Profession
- Online Opportunities For Accountants
- Ways To Improve Your Website Pages
- Tips For Improving The Content On Your Site
In this section, we will continue exploring more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Topics covered below include:
- Ways To Improve Web Traffic With WordPress
- Tips For Generating More Leads & Enquiries
- How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Generate More Web Traffic Using Plugins And Themes
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
- WP Plugins – The Easy Way To Enhance Your Website’s Functionality
- A Basic Guide To Understanding Themes
Ways Of Improving Web Traffic
Web traffic is an important part of your business growth. This section explores ways of improving your accounting website using WordPress.
Optimizing Your Site For Search Engines (SEO)
There are many ways WordPress can help to optimize your accounting or financial services website for search engines:
- SEO-Friendly – Set the permalinks to create search engine-optimized web addresses for your content posts.
- Tags – WordPress lets you specify the keywords that you want your article pages to be indexed by in the search engines.
- Categories – Create SEO-friendly categories for archiving and organizing your content.
- Excerpts – Create the description for your posts that will show in search results.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your images for better search engine 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 – Configure your site to automatically notify other search directories immediately upon publishing a new post on your site.
WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increasing User Engagement And Driving More Visitors To Your Website
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, the WordPress developer community makes available many plugins that will improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.
For example, here are some plugins you can use to improve your site’s SEO:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your SEO)
Other things you can do to improve your website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors to your business are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social features. Here are a few fantastic WordPress plugins that can help (many of the plugins described below are also free):
- BuddyPress – Use the BuddyPress plugin to set up and run an online social network on your site.
- bbPress – Run your own online discussion forum on your website.
- E-Newsletter – Send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP dashboard, without a 3rd party subscription.
- Disqus – Power discussions and helps to increase user engagement on your website.
- Floating Social – This WordPress plugin lets you add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online to your posts and pages.
(You can easily add social sharing features to your website using free or inexpensive plugins)
Tips For Generating More Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress-Based Tools
Let’s discuss now ways to improve sales and generate new leads and enquiries online.
Adding An Email Newsletter
Adding a newsletter is a great way to build a subscriber list. It] provides a number of benefits and advantages, like:
- Drives targeted traffic to your website
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Provides practical tips and advice
- Provides you with a highly targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to offer special products or services to a select audience
- Increases user engagement
- Provides you with another way for your content to be shared online with other prospective clients
An effective way to attract subscribers is to provide high value information and give users a free gift in exchange for their personal details. This could be a useful report, tips for handling tax, access to financial calculators, discount coupons, access to courses, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
A contact form makes it easy and simple for readers to get in touch. Users can report issues, contact specific departments, request a quote, give suggestions for improvements and more.
A contact form provides several benefits and advantages, like:
- Reducing spam
- Set up automated responses
- Gives you control over what gets sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- They can be added to any post or page
- Improves the professional look of your website
- Convenience for site visitors
A very popular WordPress contact form plugin is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 WP Plugin)
This free contact form plugin is easy to install and configure and lets you create multiple contact forms into any page on your site, customize your forms and the email contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, and spam filtering is also supported.
Another feature you may want to consider is to add sections to your contact form so prospects can select the department they want to contact. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Maps
Adding a map to your website helps your visitors and customers find you.
A map is a great tool for several reasons:
- Maps improve local SEO
- Visitors can easily find you
- Show location of events
(A map 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
How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins & Themes
WordPress Financial Plugins
WordPress makes available a number of plugins you can add to your accounting website that will immediately make available a range of functional tools for users. Here are some of the plugins you can choose from:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin provides a free collection of over 400 calculators. You can embed these into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. Internationalization is supported.
Note: Most of them aren’t focused on accounting, but there are a few you can use for:
- 401k
- Loans
- CD
- Equity
- And many more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes 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 WordPress Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker Plugin For WordPress)
With this plugin you can add a custom stock ticker to any page, post, or sidebar with shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker comes with loads of customizable ticker. You can choose to use built-in skins or customize these yourself. It’s easy to customize it so it matches your website. You can also add custom stocks to specific categories.
Appearance customization features include width, height, scroll speed, opacity, number of stocks displayed simultaneously, typeface, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator WordPress Plugin)
This free calculator lets your users calculate indicative repayments. This is a useful tool for calculating repayments on car loans, property, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress – Loan Calculators)
Finance Calculator also contains an application form that will send a message to the email address you specify.
It will display payment protection, calculate 12 to 60 months loans and create forms that can be placed in any page or post.
For more details, go here}:
WP-Invoice
(WP-Invoice Plugin)
WP-Invoice lets WordPress blog owners send itemized invoices to their clients.
This plugin integrates billing into WordPress. You can send itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand plugin functionality with free and premium add-ons that let you manage locations, accept electronic signatures, create PDF invoice versions, create quotes, create 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, and others.
Plugin features include adding custom payments and charges, creating pre-defined line items and discounts, viewing invoice status and progression, easily filtering and finding invoices, seeing invoice receipts and invoice history, creating email notification templates, displaying 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 WP Plugin)
This is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with support ticketing management system, client relationship management and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin For WordPress – Client Invoice)
All In One Business Management Application supports multiple languages, is fully customizable and provides powerful tools like document management, to do app, 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 customer data and invoices, track your company’s cash flow and net worth, send single-click payment reminders and payment confirmations, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software WP Plugin – Client Invoicing)
iBilling Accounting and Billing Software allows you to get paid faster by integrating with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Financial Themes For WordPress
To get the best features and professional look for your website, we recommend choosing a theme specifically for accounting. Below is a list of some of the best WordPress themes available for accounting. These themes allow you to have a professional-looking accounting website within minutes and save hundreds to thousands of dollars on the cost of web design.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro Theme)
This is a turn-key theme built for accountants and accounting firms. It’s a responsive theme with a drag-and-drop page-builder, has several page templates, custom menu features, a content composer (gives you an improved WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, auto-resizing for images, and lots more.
You can expand Accounting Pro with premium add-ons.
Visit the theme website to learn more about this theme:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme)
This premium WordPress theme offers a variety of styles and layouts that helps give your accounting site a professional look and feel.
This mobile-friendly theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, it’s lightweight, search engine optimized, and loads fast. It provides the features you need without bloating your theme. Free updates and one year of support is included in the cost of purchase.
Go here for more info:
Accounting
(Accounting – WordPress Theme)
Accounting 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, a custom slider, three different blog types, and is responsive. Accountancy is a clean-looking, modern and fast loading theme.
For more details about this WordPress theme, go here:
Kathryn
(Kathryn – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme was designed specifically for accountants. It has a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, many colors, is easy to use, search optimized, and is responsive (mobile-friendly). Although it could easily suit any profession you like, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
More information:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
Accounting WordPress Theme was created to exude professionalism within the accounting industry. Every color, layout element, icon, menu item, page structure, call-to-action, etc., is designed specifically to help make your accounting business site look professional without looking dull. It’s a turn-key installation but you can still modify it if you want. It’s mobile-friendly and includes pages for your accounting services, contact section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials section, and a blog.
Go here to learn more this theme:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate WordPress Theme)
WP Advocate is a corporate theme specifically designed for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. Use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. It includes a custom post type for staff profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s a clean and fast-loading theme.
Visit this site for more information about using this theme:
Divi
(Divi)
This premium theme is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection. Divi lets you create a professional website using the 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 you to understand and easily edit the structure of their pages without editing code.
(Divi – Page Builder)
Divi comes with 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. Divi is mobile-friendly and fully customizable. Prices start at $69 per year and includes access to 80+ themes.
More info:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme)
This one was specifically created to create great-looking corporate sites.
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. Themes start at $69 per year and includes access to all themes.
Go here to learn more about using this theme:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme)
Adviser was specifically designed to help finance industry professionals build trust with a clean business design. It’s perfect for those that provide services like investment advice or tax help. The Adviser theme includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, a built-in lease calculator, widgets and multiple shortcodes, and the drag-and-drop visual composer..
To learn more about using this theme, visit the theme website:
Tax Help
(Tax Help Theme For WordPress)
This theme was developed specifically for financial companies, tax and finance advisors, and those that offer tax services. The theme is designed to show your services in a professional way to help build your professional reputation. It provides a range of blog styles, uses a drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and many custom shortcodes.
For more details, go here:
Finance Business
(Finance Business)
Finance Business was developed specifically for firms that provide any type of financial service such as consulting, tax help, insurance, corporate, finance, loans, accounting, and more. The theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin. It also has around 100 shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content. It also includes the custom drag-and-drop composer, 2 premium sliders, page settings, color management, animated elements, and a lot more.
Go here to learn more about 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
We hope that you have found this comprehensive guide on ways to improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more traffic using WordPress plugins useful.
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