In Part 1 of this step-by-step article on ways to improve your accounting business web presence, we covered the following topics:
- Online Challenges For The Accounting Profession
- Opportunities For Accounting Services
- Your Website Pages
- Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site
In this section, we explore more ways to grow your accounting business online. Topics covered include:
- Ways To Improve Traffic
- How To Generate Leads & Enquiries
- Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Drive More Web Traffic With Plugins
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, go here:
Grow Your Accounting Website – Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins & Themes
Web traffic is an integral part of your online business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic.
Optimizing Your Website For Search Engines (SEO)
There are loads of ways that WordPress helps improve your accounting website’s SEO:
- URLs – Set the permalinks to create search engine-optimized URLS for your articles and posts.
- Tags – WordPress lets you specify the keywords that you want search engines to index your article pages for.
- Categories – Add categories for your posts and products.
- Excerpts – Create the description for your posts that will display to search engine users.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your content images for better search engine results.
- Internal Content Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that allows you to easily link internal content
- Pinging – Configure your site to automatically notify other sites and directories the moment a new post is published on your site.
Improving SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With WordPress Plugins
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, there are quite a number of plugins that improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your site.
For example, you can install the plugins below 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
(A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your 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 some plugins that can help (many of the plugins described below are also free):
- BuddyPress – This free WordPress plugin helps you set up your own social network on your website, with member profiles, user groups, messaging, activity streams, and more.
- bbPress – This free plugin can be used to set up and run your own discussion forum on your site.
- E-Newsletter – Send professional email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress dashboard.
- Disqus – Disqus lets you power discussions and increases engagement on your site.
- Floating Social – This plugin lets you add social sharing features to your website or blog.
(WordPress users can easily add social features to their site with WordPress plugins)
Generate More Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress
Let’s now discuss how to improve sales and generate more leads and enquiries online.
Add A Newsletter
Adding an email newsletter is a great way to build a list of subscribers. It] provides several benefits, like:
- Sends targeted traffic
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Provides useful updates
- 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 user engagement
- Provides additional ways for readers to share your content
An effective strategy for attracting newsletter subscribers is to provide them with content of high value and give them a free gift in exchange for their details. This can be a time-saving guide, checklists for handling finances, access to financial calculators, coupons, membership access to courses, contests, etc.
Adding Contact Forms
A contact form makes it easy and simple for readers to get in touch with you. Visitors can send feedback, contact specific departments, request a quote, and more.
Contact forms provide many benefits and advantages including:
- Reduces spam
- Automated response
- Giving you control over what gets 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 very popular contact form plugin for WordPress is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin)
This plugin lets you create multiple contact forms on your posts and pages, customize your forms and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, and Akismet spam filtering is also supported.
Another feature to consider is adding sections to your contact form so users can select which aspect of your business they are contacting you about. This ensures that contact form requests reach the right person.
Map Integration
Maps help your visitors and customers find you.
Adding maps, such as Google Maps to your site also provides a number of benefits, such as:
- They increase local SEO
- Visitors can easily find you
- Displays location of events
(Adding a map to your site helps your visitors and clients find you)
Below are some popular plugins that let you embed, customize and display Google maps on your site:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
WordPress Plugins And Themes For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Better User Engagement And Driving More Web Traffic
WordPress Plugins - Accountants
WordPress provides a number of plugins you can add to your accounting or financial services site that will immediately add a range of functional tools for visitors. Here are just some of these plugins:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators WordPress Plugin)
This is a free collection of 400+ calculators that you can provide to users on your website and embed into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. Internationalization is supported.
Note: Most of them aren’t focused specifically on accounting, but there are a few you can use for:
- Interest rate
- Rate of return
- Tax
- Credit
- And many more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin For WordPress)
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 Plugin For WordPress – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker WP Plugin)
This plugin lets you add a custom stock ticker to any post, page or sidebar using shortcodes.
The plugin includes a number of customizable features. You can choose to use built-in themes or customize these yourself. It’s easy to customize it so it matches your site. You can also create custom stocks for specific categories.
Customize the appearance by changing width, height, scrolling speed, opacity, background color, number of stocks displayed at one time, text color, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress)
This free plugin allows your visitors to calculate indicative repayments online. It’s great for car loans, property, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress – Loan Calculator)
Finance Calculator also contains an application form that will send a notification message to the email address you specify.
It will show 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)
WP-Invoice lets you send itemized invoices to clients.
This plugin integrates billing into WordPress. You can send clients itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand functionality with both free and premium add-ons that let you manage locations, accept electronic signatures, create PDF invoice versions, create quotes, create 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 several others.
Plugin features include adding custom payments and charges, inserting pre-defined line items and discounts, quickly viewing invoice status and progression, easily filtering and finding invoices, seeing invoice receipts and invoice history, creating e-mail notification templates, displaying 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 is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with ticket system, CRM and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application 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)
iBilling is a scalable business software that lets you manage client data and invoices, track your company’s cash flow and net worth, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software – WordPress Plugin – Client Invoicing)
iBilling allows you to get paid faster by integrating 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, it’s best to choose a theme specifically for accounting. Here is a list of some of the best WordPress themes available for accounting. With these themes you can have a professional accounting website within minutes and save hundreds to thousands of dollars on the cost of web design.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme is an inexpensive turn-key theme created for accountants and accountancy 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, auto-resized images, and lots more.
Accounting Pro can be expanded by installing premium add-ons.
Visit the theme website for more details about this WordPress theme:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme For WordPress)
This theme offers a variety of styles and layouts that helps give your accounting site a professional look and feel.
This responsive (mobile-friendly) theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, it’s lightweight, search optimized, and fast loading. Accountancy provides what your business needs without bloating your theme. Your purchase includes free updates and one year of support.
More information:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme For WordPress)
This theme includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your website any way you want. It also has 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 responsive. It looks clean and modern and loads fast.
More info:
Kathryn
(Kathryn)
This one is a child theme for the Genesis Framework that’s built specifically for accounting services. Kathryn comes with a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, various color choices, is easy to use, inexpensive, search optimized, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). Although it could easily suit any profession you want it to, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
Visit the theme website to learn more about this theme:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme was designed to enhance professionalism within the accounting industry. It features an authoritative color scheme and layout elements designed specifically to help give your accounting website a professional look. It’s a turn-key installation but you can still modify it if you want. It’s fully responsive and includes pages for your services, contact details section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials, and a blog.
More information:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate WordPress Theme)
WP Advocate is a corporate theme developed for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate includes a custom post type adding employee profiles and can also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is a clean-looking and fast-loading theme.
More info:
Divi
(Divi)
This premium theme is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ collection. Divi lets you create a unique, professional website using its page builder or beautiful pre-made layouts. You can change your layout to your heart’s content.
The builder transforms web elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and easily change the structure of their web pages without touching code.
(Divi – Flexible Page Builder)
It 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 completely customizable. Themes start at $69 per year and includes full access to over 80 professional themes.
More info:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme)
The Corporation from Elegant Themes was specifically built to create good-looking corporate websites.
The Corporation has a page-based home page design with a prominent, flashy slider. It also has a blog design and features that toggle on and off. It has 6 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 full access to 80+ beautifully-designed themes.
More info:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme)
Adviser was built to help finance professionals build trust through clean web design. It’s ideal for those that provide services such as investment advice or tax advice. Adviser includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications. It also includes a built-in lease calculator. It includes widgets and multiple shortcodes, and includes the drag-and-drop visual composer.
More information:
Tax Help
(Tax Help Theme)
This premium theme was designed for financial companies, tax and financial advisors, and those offering tax services. Tax Help is designed to showcase your services professionally and help build your business reputation. It has different 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 – WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was designed specifically for businesses that provide financial services including consulting, tax help, corporate, insurance, finance, accounting, loans, and more. Finance Business includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around one hundred shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content, custom drag-and-drop composer, 2 premium sliders, page options, color management features, animations, and lots more.
More info:
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 guide has helped you learn how to improve your website using WordPress plugins and themes.
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