In Part One of this article on ways to grow your accounting business web presence, we covered the following topics:
- Online Challenges For The Accounting & Financial Services Profession
- Online Opportunities For Accounting Businesses
- Basic Website Pages
- How To Improve Your Web Content
In this section, we will continue exploring more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Topics covered include:
- Improve Traffic Using WordPress
- How To Generate Leads & Enquiries
- WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increasing User Engagement And Web Traffic Generation
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
Grow Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins & Themes For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Generating More Traffic
Your web traffic is a vital part of your online business growth. This section will help you improve your web traffic using WordPress.
Optimizing Your Site For Search Engines
There are so many ways that WordPress helps improve your accounting website’s SEO:
- SEO-Friendly – WordPress lets you set the permalinks to create search engine-optimized web addresses for your content posts.
- Post Tags – Specify the keywords that you want your article pages to be indexed by in the search engines.
- Categories – Create search engine-friendly categories for archiving and organizing your content.
- Post Excerpts – Create the description for your posts that will show in search results.
- Images – title your images with keywords for better search engine results.
- Internal Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that allows you to easily create internal links
- Pinging – Set up your WordPress site to automatically notify (ping) other search directories immediately upon publishing a new post on your site.
WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Better User Engagement And Driving More Visitors
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, the WP development community makes available also a number of plugins that will improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your site.
For example, here are some plugins you can use to improve your SEO:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress XML sitemap plugin
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your site’s SEO)
Other WordPress tools you can add to improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your site are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing features. Here are some useful WordPress plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – This free plugin lets you run your own social networking community on your WordPress website.
- bbPress – This free plugin allows you to run a forum on WordPress.
- E-Newsletter – This plugin lets you send 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.
- Monarch – Add powerful social sharing features on your site.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their site with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
Generating Leads & Enquiries
This section will show you ways to improve your sales and generate new leads and enquiries online.
Add A Newsletter
Providing an email newsletter is a great way to build a subscriber list. It provides several benefits, like:
- Drives targeted traffic to your site
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides updates that can save businesses time and money
- Provides a targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to offer special services or products to a select audience
- Provides regular opportunities for improving user engagement
- Provides other ways for subscribers to share your content
An effective way to entice visitors to subscribe is to provide them with valuable information and give them free gifts or bonus items in exchange for their personal details. This could be a guide, tips for handling finances, access to tax calculators, coupons, access to subscriber-only content, contests, etc.
Provide A Contact Form
Contact forms provide an easy and simple way for readers to get in touch. Visitors can report problems, ask questions to specific departments, request a quote, give suggestions for improvements and more.
Contact forms provide many benefits including:
- Reduces spam
- Set up automated responses
- 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
- Looks professional
- Convenient for users
A popular contact form plugin is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7)
This plugin is easy to install and configure and allows you to create and manage multiple contact forms, customize your form and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, and Akismet spam filtering is also supported.
Something else to consider is to segment your contact form so visitors can select the department they want to contact. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Adding Maps
Adding a map to your site helps your visitors and clients find you.
A map is a useful tool for several reasons:
- They improve local SEO
- Visitors can find you more easily
- Show location of events
(A map helps your visitors and customers find you)
Popular map plugins for WordPress include:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
How To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Web Traffic Using WordPress Plugins
Financial WordPress Plugins
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your accounting site that will immediately make available a range of practical tools for visitors. Here are some of these plugins:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators – WordPress Plugin)
This is a free collection of 400+ calculators. You can embed these into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. Internationalization is supported.
Most of them aren’t focused specifically on accounting, but there are quite a few you can use for:
- Interest rate
- Rate of return
- CD
- Debit
- And more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes WordPress Plugin)
This free plugin gives you a widget that shows a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many widgets as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker Plugin For WordPress)
With this plugin you can add custom stock tickers to any page, post, or sidebar using shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker comes with a number of customizable ticker. Choose from built-in skins or customize it yourself. It’s easy to customize it so it matches your site. You can also create custom stocks for individual categories.
Customize the appearance by changing height, width, background color, opacity, scrolling speed, number of stocks displayed at one time, font size, text color, font family, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress)
This free plugin lets users calculate indicative repayments. This is a useful tool for calculating repayments on automotive loans, property, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator Plugin – Loan Calculators)
This plugin also contains an application form that will send a notification message to the email address you specify.
Other features of this plugin include showing 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 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 functionality with both free and premium add-ons, like business location, electronic signature, PDF creation, quote creation, checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into the WP user management database to keep track of your clients and their information, and integrates with PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, 2Checkout, PayPal Payments Pro, and others.
The plugin lets you add custom payments and charges, insert pre-defined line items and discounts, view invoice status and progression, easily filter and find invoices, show invoice receipts and invoice history, create notification email templates, access reports (collected vs uncollected invoices, ten 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)
This complete business management solution includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with knowledgebase and support ticket management system, CRM and many additional features.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin For WordPress – Client Invoicing)
The plugin 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 WP Plugin)
iBilling is a scalable business software that lets you manage and communicate with customers, tracks your company’s cash flow and net worth, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin – Client Invoice)
iBilling Accounting and Billing Software allows you to get paid faster by integrating with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Financial WordPress Themes
To get the most benefit out of growing your business online with WordPress, it’s best to choose a theme specifically for accounting. Here is a list of some of the best accountancy themes available. These themes allow you to own a professional-looking accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro Theme)
This premium WordPress theme is a turn-key theme designed for accountants and accountancy firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, offers several page templates, custom menu features, a content composer (gives you an improved WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, auto-resizing for images, and a whole lot more.
You can customize this theme through premium add-ons.
More information:
Accountancy
(Accountancy)
This theme has a variety of built-in styles and layouts to make your accounting site look and feel professional.
This responsive theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, it’s lightweight, search engine optimized, and loads fast. Accountancy provides the flexibility you need without bloating your theme with features you don’t need. Free updates and 1 year of support is included with your purchase.
More info:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme For WordPress)
This theme includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your site any way you want. It also has unlimited sidebars and custom widgets, four different header types, a custom administration panel, four color schemes, custom slider, three different blog types, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). It is a clean-looking, modern and fast loading theme.
Go here for more information:
Kathryn
(Kathryn WP Theme)
This one is a premium WordPress child theme for the Genesis Framework built for accounting businesses. Kathryn provides a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, widgetized home page, flexible rotator, call to action boxes, author boxes for single or multiple bloggers, a variety of color options, is easy to use, inexpensive, search engine optimized, and is fully responsive. Although this theme could easily suit any profession, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy plugin and must be purchased separately from the Genesis Framework.
More information:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This premium theme was built to enhance professionalism within the accounting industry. It features an authoritative color scheme and layout elements specifically designed to make your accounting business website look professional while not 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 services, contact form section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials section, and a blog.
More information:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate WordPress Theme)
This is a free corporate theme built for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate also includes a custom post type adding 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 premium theme for WordPress is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ collection. You can create any style of professional site you want using its page builder or pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout as much as you need.
Divi’s page builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and easily change the structure of their web pages without touching any code.
(Divi WP Theme – Flexible Page Builder)
Divi has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. This includes audio player, blurb, circle counter, countdown timer, filterable portfolio, number counter, portfolio, shop, testimonial, toggle, fullwidth image, fullwidth portfolio, fullwidth slider, and more.. Divi is mobile-friendly and completely customizable. Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to 80+ professional themes.
Go here for more details:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme for WordPress was created specifically to create good-looking corporate sites.
It has a sleek and professional page-based home page design with a nice slider, blog design, six different color schemes, multiple page templates that include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to all stunning themes.
For more details, go here:
Adviser
(Adviser WP Theme)
Adviser was designed specifically to help professionals in the financial industry to build trust online through clean design. It’s perfect for businesses that provide services such as investment advice or tax help. Adviser 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..
More information:
Tax Help
(Tax Help Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was specifically built for financial organizations, tax and finance advisors, and firms that offer tax services. Tax Help is designed to show your services in a professional way and help grow your business reputation. It comes with different blog styles, uses a drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and additional custom shortcodes.
Go here for more information:
Finance Business
(Finance Business Theme For WordPress)
This one was built specifically for firms that provide financial services such as consulting, tax help, insurance, corporate, finance, loans, accounting, and more. It 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 settings, color management features, animations, and a whole lot more.
For more information about using this WordPress 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 ways to improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more visitors with WordPress plugins and themes.
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