In Part 1 of this step-by-step guide on ways to improve your accounting web presence, we covered the following topics:
- Online Challenges For Accountants
- Opportunities For Accounting Businesses In The Digital Economy
- Your Website Pages
- Ways To Improve The Content On Your Site
In this section, we will continue looking at more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Areas covered include:
- Ways To Improve Web Traffic With WordPress
- Tips For Generating More Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress
- WordPress Plugins And Themes For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increasing User Engagement And Traffic Generation
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, go here:
Your Accounting Website – How To Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins And Themes
Your web traffic is an important part of your business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic using WordPress.
Optimize Your Site For Search Engines Using WordPress
There are so many ways that WordPress helps improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO:
- Search Engine-Friendly URLs – configure the permalinks to create search engine-optimized web addresses for your content posts.
- Tags – Choose the keywords that you want your article pages to be indexed for in the search engines.
- Post Categories – Create search engine-friendly categories for your posts and products.
- Post Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose an excerpt that will appear in search results.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your images for improved search results.
- Internal Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that lets you easily create internal links for better page indexing
- Pinging – Configure your site to automatically notify other sites and directories immediately upon publishing a new post on your website.
WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increasing User Engagement And Traffic Generation
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, the WordPress community makes available also a number of plugins that will improve your website’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your website.
For example, you can use the plugins below to improve your website’s search engine optimization:
- 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 to improve your website’s SEO)
Other things you can do to improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing features. Here are a few useful WordPress plugins that can help (many of the plugins described below are also free):
- BuddyPress – Use this plugin to set up a social network on your site, with member profiles, messaging, user groups, activity streams, and more.
- bbPress – This free WordPress plugin allows you to set up a forum on your website.
- E-Newsletter – E-Newsletter lets you send professional email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress dashboard.
- Disqus – Disqus lets you power discussions and increases user engagement on your website or blog.
- Social Media Feather – Easily add social sharing features on your website.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their site with free or inexpensive plugins)
Tips For Generating More Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress
Let’s now take a look at how to improve your sales and generate new leads and enquiries for your business.
Add A Newsletter
Adding an email newsletter is an excellent way to retain and grow your readership. Adding email newsletters] provides a number of benefits and advantages including:
- Drives targeted traffic to your website
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Keeps readers updated
- Provides you with a targeted marketing channel
- Allows you to provide special services or products to a select audience
- Increases user interaction
- Provides you with other ways for readers to share your content
An effective way to attract subscribers is to provide users with valuable content and offer them free gifts or bonus items in exchange for their details. This can be a guide, checklists for handling finances, access to financial calculators, coupons, membership access to videos, contests, etc.
Add Contact Forms
A contact form makes it easy and simple for readers to get in touch. Contact forms also let visitors report issues, ask questions to specific departments, ask for a quote, and more.
Contact forms provide several benefits including:
- Reduces spam
- Automated response
- Giving you control over what is 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 site
- More convenient for visitors
A popular WordPress contact form plugin is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin is easy to install and configure and lets you create multiple contact forms on your posts and pages, customize your forms and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
The plugin also supports international languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, spam filtering and so on.
Something to consider is to segment your contact form so prospects can choose the department they want to contact. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Map
Adding maps to your website helps your visitors and clients find you.
A map is a useful tool for several reasons:
- A map helps to increase local SEO
- Customers can better plan their visits and appointments
- Show location of events
(Maps help your visitors and clients find you)
Some of the most popular Google Maps plugins for WordPress include:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation With Plugins And Themes
WordPress Plugins
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your accounting website that will immediately add a range of functional tools for your site visitors. Here are just some of these:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators)
This plugin provides a free collection of 400+ calculators that you can provide to users on your website. Internationalization is supported.
Most of them aren’t focused on accounting, but there are a few you can use for:
- 401k
- Payments
- CD
- Credit
- And many more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin gives you a widget that shows a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can show as many portfolios as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin For WordPress – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker Plugin For WordPress)
This free plugin lets you add custom stock tickers to any sidebar, post or page using shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker offers several customizable ticker. Choose from built-in themes or customize it yourself to match the look and feel of your website. You can also add custom stocks to specific categories.
Customize the appearance by changing colors, size, text, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator – WordPress Plugin)
This free plugin allows your users to calculate indicative repayments. It’s great for calculating vehicle loans, property, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator – Loan Calculator)
The Finance Calculator plugin also contains an application form that sends 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 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 both free and premium add-ons that let you manage locations, accept electronic signatures from clients, create PDF versions of invoices, create quotes, create checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into your WP user management database to keep track of clients and their information, and integrates with payment processors like 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 notification e-mail templates, viewing 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 is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with ticketing management system, CRM and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin For WordPress – 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)
iBilling is a scalable business software that lets you manage clients and invoices, tracks your company’s net worth and cash flow, send single-click payment reminders and payment confirmations, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin – Invoice)
iBilling integrates with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting Themes For WordPress
To get the best features and professional look for your website, we recommend choosing a theme specifically for accounting businesses. Here is a look at some of the best accountancy themes available. With these themes you can own a professional-looking accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro WP Theme)
This is an inexpensive turn-key theme created for accountants and accounting firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, offers several page templates, custom menus, a content composer (gives you an improved WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, performs auto resizing for images, and lots more.
You can easily customize Accounting Pro through premium add-ons.
Go here to learn more this theme:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme For WordPress)
This premium WordPress theme comes with a variety of built-in styles and layouts that helps make your accounting website look and feel professional.
This responsive (mobile-friendly) theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, it’s lightweight, SEO friendly, and fast loading. It provides the features your business needs without bloating your theme. Free updates and 1 year of support is included in the cost of purchasing.
More info:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme for WordPress includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your website any way you want. The theme also provides unlimited sidebars and custom widgets, four different header types, a custom administration panel, different color schemes, a custom slider, three different blog types, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). It is a clean-looking, modern and fast loading theme.
To learn more about using this theme, visit the theme site:
Kathryn
(Kathryn – WordPress Theme)
Kathryn is a child theme for the Genesis Framework that’s created specifically for accounting services. It has a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, a variety of color choices, is easy to use, inexpensive, search optimized, and is responsive. Although this theme could easily suit any profession, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy slider plugin and must be purchased separately from the Genesis Framework.
Go here for more info:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was developed to exude professionalism within the accounting industry. It features authoritative colors and layout elements designed specifically to give your accounting site 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 (mobile-friendly) and includes pages for your accounting services, contact details section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials section, and a blog.
Go here for more info:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate Theme)
This is a free corporate theme specifically designed for professional service providers such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate also includes a custom post type for staff profiles and can also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is a clean-looking and fast-loading theme.
Go here for more information:
Divi
(Divi)
This theme is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection. You can create a professional website using its page builder or beautiful and unique pre-made layouts. You can change your layout to your heart’s content.
Divi’s page builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and edit the structure of their web pages without editing a single line of code.
(Divi – WordPress Theme – Flexible Page Builder)
Divi has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. Modules include audio player, call to action, circle counter, divider, image, map, portfolio, shop, social media follow, toggle, fullwidth code, fullwidth menu, fullwidth post title, and more.. Divi is fully responsive and fully customizable. Themes start at $69 per year and includes full access to 80+ beautifully-designed themes.
More info:
The Corporation
(The Corporation)
This premium theme for WordPress from Elegant Themes was created specifically to make corporate sites look great.
This theme has a sleek page-based home page design with a prominent 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 which include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to 80+ sleek business themes.
More information:
Adviser
(Adviser)
The Adviser Theme was specifically developed to help professionals in the financial industry to build trust through clean web design. It’s ideal for those that provide services such as investing or tax help. Adviser 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..
More info:
Tax Help
(Tax Help – WordPress Theme)
Tax Help was developed specifically for financial organizations, tax and financial advisors, and those providing tax services. The theme is designed to show your services in a professional way to help establish your business reputation. It comes with different blog styles, uses the drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and additional custom shortcodes.
To learn more about using this theme, go here:
Finance Business
(Finance Business)
This premium WordPress theme was developed for organizations that provide any type of financial service such as consulting, tax help, corporate, finance, insurance, accounting, loans, and more. This theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around one hundred shortcodes that includes charts and financial content, a custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page settings, color management features, animated elements, and lots more.
To learn more about this theme, visit the theme website:
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 article has helped you learn how to improve your business online with WordPress.
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