In Part One of this comprehensive article on ways to grow your accounting business online, we provided in-depth information on the following areas:
- Online Challenges For Accounting & Financial Businesses
- Opportunities For The Accounting Profession In The Web Economy
- Improving Your Website Pages
- Improving The Content On Your Site
In this section, we will continue exploring more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Areas covered include:
- Improving Web Traffic Using WordPress
- Generate Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress-Based Tools
- Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using Plugins
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, go here:
Tips For Improving Traffic
Web traffic is an important part of your business growth. This section will help you improve your web traffic using WordPress.
Optimize Your Website For Search Engines (SEO)
There are so many ways that WordPress helps optimize your accounting website for search engines:
- Search Engine-Friendly URLs – Set the permalinks to create search engine-optimized web addresses for your articles and posts.
- Tags – Specify the keywords that you want your posts to be indexed for in the search engines.
- Categories – Add SEO-friendly categories for archiving and organizing your content.
- Post Excerpts – Create the description for your posts that visitors will see in the search engine results.
- Images – title your images with keywords for improved search results.
- Internal Content Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that allows you to easily create internal links
- Pinging – WordPress can be set up to automatically notify other sites and directories immediately upon publishing a new post on your website.
How To Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With WordPress Plugins
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, there are dozens of WordPress plugins that will improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.
For example, you can install the plugins below to improve your website’s SEO:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your site’s search engine optimization)
Other things you can do to improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your website are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social features. Here are some more fantastic WordPress plugins that can help (many of the plugins described below are also free):
- BuddyPress – This free WordPress plugin lets you set up a social community on your site, with member profiles, activity streams, messaging, user groups, and more.
- bbPress – bbPress can be used to set up your own community forum on your site.
- E-Newsletter – Send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP dashboard.
- Disqus – This WordPress plugin lets you power discussions and helps to increase user engagement on your website or blog.
- Monarch – Use this WordPress plugin to add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online to your pages and posts.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their website with WordPress plugins)
Generate More Leads & Enquiries
Let’s now discuss ways to improve your sales and generate leads and enquiries online.
Provide A Newsletter
Adding a newsletter is a great way to build a subscriber list. It] provides several benefits including:
- Drives targeted traffic
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Keeps readers updated
- Provides a targeted marketing channel
- Allows you to provide special services or products to a select audience
- Increases interaction
- Provides additional opportunities for your content to be shared around with others
One of the best ways to get visitors to subscribe to your newsletter is to provide high value content and give users free gifts in exchange for their personal details. This could be a special report, checklists for handling finances, access to financial calculators, coupons, access to subscriber-only content, contests, etc.
Add Contact Forms
A contact form provides an easy and simple way for readers to get in touch with you. A contact form also lets users provide feedback, ask questions to specific departments, ask for a quote, and more.
A contact form provides a number of benefits and advantages including:
- Reduces spam
- Automated response
- Giving you control over what is sent to you
- You can keep your email address private
- They can be added to any page or post
- Improves the professional look of your website
- More convenient for users
One of the most popular contact form plugins is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin lets you add and manage multiple contact forms into any page on your site, customize the forms and the email contents, add fields, and more.
The plugin also supports international languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, Akismet spam filtering and so on.
Something else to consider is adding sections to your contact form so visitors can select the aspect of your business they are contacting your company about. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Add A Map
Adding maps to your site helps your visitors and customers find you.
Inserting maps, such as Google Maps, into your WordPress site also provides users with a number of benefits, such as:
- Maps help to increase local SEO
- Helps visitors find your office easily
- Displays location of events
(Adding maps to your site helps your visitors and customers find you)
Some of the most popular Google Maps plugins include:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
WordPress Plugins & Themes That Improve Your SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation
WordPress Plugins
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your site that will immediately make available a range of functional tools for site visitors. Here are some of the plugins you can choose from:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin)
This plugin provides a free collection of 400+ calculators. You can embed them into your pages, posts, or sidebars using shortcodes. Internationalization is supported.
Note: Most of the calculators aren’t focused on accounting, but there are quite a few you can use for:
- Interest rate
- Payments
- Leases
- Debit
- And more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress Plugin)
This plugin lets you add a widget that shows up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can show as many portfolios as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes WP Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker – WordPress Plugin)
With this plugin you can add custom stock tickers to any sidebar, page or post with shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker comes with several customizable ticker. You can choose from built-in themes or customize these yourself to match your site. You can also add custom stocks to specific categories.
Appearance customizations include size, text, colors, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator WP Plugin)
This free calculator lets your visitors calculate indicative repayments. It’s great for car loans, real estate, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator – WordPress Plugin – Loan Calculator)
This plugin also contains an application form that sends a message to a specified email address.
Other features of this plugin include showing payment protection, calculating 12 to 60 months loans and creating a form 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 out 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 WP’s user management database to keep track of clients and their information, and integrates with payment processors like PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and several others.
Plugin features include adding custom payments and charges, adding pre-defined line items and discounts, quickly viewing invoice status and progression, filtering and finding invoices, seeing invoice receipts and invoice history, creating notification email templates, accessing reports (collected vs uncollected invoices, 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 – WordPress Plugin)
This complete business management solution includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with knowledgebase and support ticket 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 international languages, is fully customizable and provides additional tools like document management, notice board, and more.
For more details, go here}:
iBilling – Accounting And Billing Software
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software)
This 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 – Invoicing)
It integrates with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Financial Themes For WordPress
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 look at some of the best WordPress themes available for accounting firms. These themes allow you to own a professional-looking accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro)
This is a turn-key theme developed for accountants and accountancy 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, performs auto resizing for images, and lots more.
You can easily expand Accounting Pro through premium add-ons.
For more details, go here:
Accountancy
(Accountancy – WordPress Theme)
Accountancy Theme offers a variety of styles and layouts to help make your accounting website look and feel professional.
This mobile-friendly theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, it’s lightweight, search engine optimized, and fast loading. Accountancy provides the features you need without bloating your theme. Free updates and 1 year of support is included in your purchase.
For more details, go here:
Accounting
(Accounting – WordPress Theme)
This theme includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your site any way you want. The theme also has unlimited sidebars and custom widgets, four different types of headers, a custom administration panel, four color schemes, custom slider, three different blog types, and is mobile-friendly. It looks clean and modern and loads fast.
For more details, go here:
Kathryn
(Kathryn WP Theme)
Kathryn is designed specifically for accountants. The theme allows you to use WordPress as a true CMS and offers a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, various colors, is easy to use, inexpensive, search optimized, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). Although it 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.
More information:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme was built to enhance professionalism within the accounting industry. It features an authoritative color scheme and layout elements designed specifically to make your accounting website look professional without 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 section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials, and a blog.
Go here for more details:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate Theme)
This is a corporate theme built for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. It includes a custom post type for employee profiles and can also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s clean and loads fast.
For more details, go here:
Divi
(Divi Theme)
This theme is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ collection. Divi lets you create a unique, professional site using its page builder or beautiful and unique pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout as much as you need.
The builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and redesign the structure of their page without editing any code.
(Divi – Flexible Page Builder)
Divi comes with 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. It has audio player, blurb, circle counter, email optin, filterable portfolio, number counter, person, slider, testimonial, video slider, fullwidth image, fullwidth map, fullwidth post title, and more.. Divi is responsive and completely customizable. Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to over 80 themes.
Go here for more info:
The Corporation
(The Corporation)
The Corporation Theme was developed specifically to create good-looking corporate websites.
It has a sleek and professional page-based home page design with a nice slider. It also has a blog design. It comes with 6 unique color schemes. It also has 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 beautifully-designed themes.
More info:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme For WordPress)
The Adviser Theme was designed specifically to help finance industry professionals build trust with a clean business design. It’s perfect for those that provide services such as investment advice or tax help. The theme includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications. It also includes a built-in lease calculator. It includes multiple shortcodes and widgets, and includes the drag-and-drop visual composer.
More info:
Tax Help
(Tax Help WP Theme)
This premium theme was designed for financial organizations, tax and finance advisors, and those that provide tax assistance. The theme is designed to show your services professionally to help grow your professional reputation. It has different blog styles, uses the drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and many custom shortcodes.
Go here to learn more this theme:
Finance Business
(Finance Business Theme For WordPress)
This premium WordPress theme was built for organizations that provide financial services such as consulting, tax help, finance, corporate, insurance, accounting, loans, and more. The theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin. It also has around one hundred shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content. It also includes a custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page options, color management features, animated elements, and lots more.
For more details, go here:
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 how to improve your accounting or financial services website using WordPress helpful.
Subscribe below to receive 101+ useful WordPress tips that will help you grow your business …
***
"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
***