In Part 1 of this guide on ways to grow your accounting business presence online, we covered the following areas:
- Online Challenges For Accounting Businesses
- Opportunities For Accounting Businesses In The Web Economy
- Your Web Pages
- Tips On How To Improve Your Web Content
In this section, we continue looking at more ways to grow your accounting business online. Topics covered below include:
- Improving Traffic With WordPress
- Tips For Generating More Leads & Enquiries
- WordPress Plugins That Can Help To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Create Better User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
- WP Plugins – The Easy Way To Extend Your Website’s Features
- WordPress For Newbies – An Introduction To Themes
Improve Web Traffic With WordPress
Web traffic is an integral part of your online business growth. In this section, you will learn WordPress plugins and themes that can improve SEO, increase user engagement and generate more web traffic.
Optimizing Your Website For Search Engines Using WordPress
There are loads of ways that WordPress helps optimize your website for search engines:
- URLs – Set the permalinks to create search engine-optimized URLS for your articles and posts.
- Post Tags – Choose the keywords that you want search engines to index your articles for.
- Post Categories – Add SEO-friendly categories for archiving and organizing your content.
- Excerpts – Set an excerpt that visitors will see in the search engine results.
- Images – title images used in your content with keywords for improved search engine results.
- Internal Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that allows you to easily link your content to other posts and pages
- Post Notification – Configure your site to automatically notify other search directories immediately upon publishing new content on your site.
WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Generating More Web Traffic
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, there are also a number of plugins for WordPress that will improve your accounting website’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business.
For example, you can install the plugins below to improve your SEO:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin
(A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your website’s SEO)
Other things you can do to improve your accounting or financial services site’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more traffic to your website are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing. Here are some more fantastic WordPress plugins that can help (many of the plugins described below are also free):
- BuddyPress – Set up your own social community on WordPress, with member profiles, messaging, user groups, activity streams, and more.
- bbPress – Run your own community forum on your website.
- E-Newsletter – Use E-Newsletter to send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress dashboard, without requiring third-party subscriptions.
- Disqus – Power discussions and increases user engagement on your site.
- Monarch – Add social sharing features on your posts and pages.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their site with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
Ways To Generate More Leads & Enquiries With WordPress
Let’s take a look now at how to improve sales and generate leads and enquiries.
Adding An Email Newsletter
Adding a newsletter is an excellent way to build a subscriber list. It provides many benefits and advantages, like:
- Sends targeted traffic to your site
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Keeps readers updated
- Provides you with a highly targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to offer special products or services to a select audience
- Provides regular opportunities for increasing engagement with your users
- Provides additional opportunities for readers to share your content
An effective strategy for attracting new subscribers to your newsletter is to provide high value content and give users free gifts or bonus items in exchange for their details. This could be a guide, tips for handling finances, access to financial calculators, coupons, access to videos, contests, etc.
Add Contact Forms
A contact form makes it easy and simple for prospective customers to get in touch. Contact forms also allow visitors to provide feedback, contact specific departments, request a quote, and more.
A contact form provides a number of benefits and advantages including:
- Reducing spam
- Automated response
- Giving you control over what gets sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- They can be added to any page or post
- Looks professional
- Convenient for users
A very popular WordPress contact form plugin is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 – WordPress Plugin)
This free plugin is easy to install and set up and lets you add multiple contact forms on your pages and posts, customize your form and the email contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, and spam filtering is supported.
Another option to consider is to segment your contact form so prospective clients can choose the topic they want to discuss. This will help you to get the comment to the right person.
Add Maps
Adding maps helps your visitors and clients find you.
Integrating maps, such as Google Maps, with your WordPress site also provides users with a number of benefits, such as:
- A map increases local SEO
- Visitors can easily find you
- Display location of events
(Adding a map helps your visitors and customers find you)
Below are some 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
WordPress Plugins That Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation
Accounting And Financial Services WordPress Plugins
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your accounting or financial services site that will immediately make available a range of practical tools for visitors. Here are some of the plugins you can choose from:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators WordPress Plugin)
This plugin provides a free collection of 400+ calculators. You can embed them into your pages, posts, or sidebars using shortcodes. It supports internationalization
Most of them aren’t focused specifically on accounting, but there are a few for:
- Interest rate
- Payments
- CD
- Credit
- And more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress Plugin)
This plugin lets you add a widget that displays up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many widgets as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes WP Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker)
With this plugin you can add custom stock tickers to any post, page or sidebar using shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker provides loads of customizable features. You can choose from built-in themes or customize it yourself to match your website. You can also create custom stocks for individual categories.
Customize the appearance by changing colours, speed, symbols, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin)
This free plugin allows users to calculate indicative repayments. It’s great for calculating auto loans, real estate loans, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator – WordPress Plugin – Loan Calculator)
Finance Calculator 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 forms 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 lets you integrate billing into WordPress. You can send itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand plugin functionality with both free and premium add-ons, like business location, electronic signature, PDF creation, quoting, 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, 2Checkout, Interkassa, and others.
Plugin features include adding custom payments and charges, adding pre-defined line items and discounts, quickly viewing invoice status and progression, easily filtering and finding invoices, showing invoice receipts and invoice history, creating notification e-mail templates, accessing 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 system includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with knowledgebase and ticket management system, CRM and many additional features.
(All In One Business Management Application WP Plugin – Client Invoicing)
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)
This is a scalable business software that lets you manage client data and invoicing, track your company’s cash flow and net worth, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin – Invoicing)
iBilling allows you to get paid faster online by integrating with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
WordPress Themes
To get the most benefit out of growing your business online with WordPress, we recommend choosing a theme specifically for accounting businesses. Here is a list of some of the best WordPress themes available for accounting. These themes allow you to own a professional accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme for WordPress is an inexpensive turn-key theme developed for accountants and accountancy firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, has several page templates, a custom menu feature, a content composer (which improves on the standard WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, auto-resizing for images, and lots more.
You can customize Accounting Pro through premium add-ons.
More info:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme)
This one has a variety of built-in styles and layouts that helps make your accounting site look and feel professional.
This mobile-friendly theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, it’s lightweight, search engine friendly, and loads fast. Accountancy Theme provides the flexibility you need without bloating your theme with features you don’t need. Free updates and one year of support is included in the cost of purchase.
For more information, go here:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress includes a drag-and-drop builder so you can design your site any way you want. The theme also has unlimited sidebars with custom widgets, four different types of headers, a custom administration panel, different color schemes, a custom slider, three different blog types, and is mobile-friendly. Accountancy is a clean-looking, modern and fast loading theme.
More information:
Kathryn
(Kathryn Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was designed for accounting businesses. Kathryn allows you to use WordPress as a true content management system and comes with multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, widgetized home page, various color choices, is easy to use, search optimized, and is fully responsive. 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 is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
More info:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – Theme For WordPress)
Accounting WordPress Theme was created to exude professionalism within the accounting industry. It features authoritative colors and elements designed specifically to make your accounting site look professional while not 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 section, and a blog.
For more information, go here:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate – WordPress Theme)
This is a free corporate theme developed for professional service providers 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 a clean and fast-loading theme.
Go here for more info:
Divi
(Divi Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire theme collection. Divi lets you create a professional site using the page builder or beautiful pre-made layouts. You can change your layout as much as you need.
Divi’s page builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and change the structure of their page without editing any code.
(Divi Theme – Flexible Page Builder)
Divi comes with 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. It has 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 all professional themes.
Go here for more information about using this theme:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme For WordPress)
This theme was developed specifically to create great-looking corporate websites.
This theme has a page-based home page design with a nice slider, blog design, 6 different unique 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 over 80 themes.
More information:
Adviser
(Adviser – WordPress Theme)
This theme was designed to help finance professionals build trust through clean design. It’s ideal for those that provide services like investment advice or tax help. The 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)
Tax Help WordPress Theme was specifically developed for financial companies, tax and finance advisors, and businesses that provide tax services. The theme is designed to show your services in a professional way to help grow your business 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.
Visit this site to learn more about using this WordPress theme:
Finance Business
(Finance Business Theme)
This one was developed for businesses that provide financial services including consulting, tax help, finance, insurance, corporate, loans, accounting, and more. The theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around 100 shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content, the custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page settings, color management, animated elements, and a lot more.
To learn more about using this theme, visit this 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, this comprehensive guide has helped you learn WordPress plugins & themes for improving search engine optimization, better user engagement and driving more visitors to your accounting site.
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