In Part One of this article on ways to grow your accounting business web presence, we covered the following areas:
- Challenges Professional Accountants Face Online
- Opportunities For Accounting Professionals
- Your Web Pages
- Improve Your Web Content
In this section, we continue looking at more ways to grow your accounting business online. Topics covered include:
- Ways To Improve Traffic Using WordPress
- Ways To Generate New Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress
- Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors With Plugins And Themes
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, see these articles:
- Using WP Plugins Extend Your Blog’s Features
- WordPress For Newbies – An Overview Of WordPress Themes
Improving Web Traffic Using WordPress
Your web traffic is vital to your business growth. This section discusses WordPress plugins & themes that can improve SEO, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your website.
Optimizing Your Site For SEO
There are so many ways that WordPress helps optimize your accounting or financial services website for search engines:
- URLs – WordPress lets you set the permalinks to use the title of the posts as the web address of your pages.
- Tags – WordPress lets you select the keywords that you want search engines to index your article pages (posts) for.
- Categories – Create SEO-friendly categories for your posts and products.
- Post Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose an excerpt that search engines will show in their search results.
- Images – title your images with keywords for improved search engine results.
- Content Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that allows you to easily link your content to other posts and pages
- Pinging – Configure your site to automatically notify other search directories immediately upon publishing a new post on your website.
WordPress Plugins That Can Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, there are a number of plugins for WordPress that improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.
For example, here are some plugins you can use to improve your SEO:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress XML sitemap plugin
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your site’s search engine optimization)
Other things you can do to improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors to your business are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing features. Here are a few fantastic plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – Run a social network on your website, with member profiles, activity streams, messaging, user groups, and more.
- bbPress – This free WordPress plugin lets you run a forum on your site.
- E-Newsletter – Use this plugin to send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP site.
- Disqus – This WordPress plugin lets you power discussions and helps to increase engagement on your site.
- Social Media Feather – Easily add social sharing features on your website or blog.
(You can add social sharing to your website easily using WordPress plugins)
Tips For Generating New Leads & Enquiries
Let’s take a look now at how to improve your sales and generate leads and enquiries for your accounting or financial services business.
Providing A Newsletter
Adding an email newsletter is an excellent way to build a subscriber list. Adding a newsletter provides many benefits and advantages, like:
- Sends targeted traffic to your website
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Provides updates
- Provides a targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to provide special services or products to a select audience
- Increases interaction
- Provides you with an additional way for subscribers to share your content
An effective strategy for attracting newsletter subscribers is to provide high value information and offer users additional bonuses for free in exchange for their personal details. This could be a handy guide, tips for handling tax, access to financial calculators, discount coupons, access to subscriber-only content, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
Contact forms make it easy and simple for prospective customers to get in touch with you. A contact form also lets users provide feedback, ask questions to specific departments, ask for quotes, send suggestions for improvements and more.
Contact forms provide many benefits, like:
- Reducing 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
- Looks professional
- Convenience for users
One of the most popular WordPress contact form plugins is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin)
This plugin lets you add multiple contact forms, customize the forms and the email contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, and Akismet spam filtering is also supported.
Another feature you may want to consider is adding sections to your contact form so visitors can select which aspect of your business they are contacting you about. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Adding A Map
Adding a map to your website helps your visitors and customers find you.
Maps are a very useful tool for several reasons:
- A map helps to increase local SEO
- Helps visitors find your office easily
- Displays location of events
(A map helps your visitors and clients find you)
Popular map plugins include:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Better User Engagement And Traffic Generation
Accounting – WordPress Plugins
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your accounting or financial services website that will immediately make available a range of practical tools for your site visitors. Here are just some of these:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin)
This plugin provides a free collection of over 400 calculators that you can display on your website and embed into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. It also supports internationalization
Note: Most of the calculators aren’t focused specifically on accounting, but there are a few for:
- Interest rate
- Loans
- CD
- Equity
- And lots more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes)
With this plugin you get a widget that shows up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many portfolios as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker)
This free plugin lets you add a custom stock ticker to any sidebar, post or page using shortcodes.
This plugin comes with loads of customizable ticker. Choose from built-in themes or customize these yourself. It’s easy to customize it so it matches your website. You can also create custom stocks for individual categories.
Customize the appearance by changing colours, speed, text, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin)
This free calculator allows your users to calculate indicative repayments. It’s great for calculating automotive loans, property, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress – Loan Calculators)
The plugin also contains an application form that sends a message to a specified email address.
It will display payment protection, calculate 12 to 60 months loans and create a form that can be placed in any page or post.
For more details, go here}:
WP-Invoice
(WP-Invoice WordPress Plugin)
WP-Invoice lets you send itemized invoices to clients.
This plugin lets you integrate billing into WordPress. You can send itemized invoices. It even allows you to set up recurring billing. It can be expanded through 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 your clients and their information, and integrates with payment processors like PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, 2Checkout, USAePay, and several others.
WP-Invoice 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, showing invoice receipts and invoice history, creating notification e-mail 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)
This is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with ticketing system, client relationship management and many more features.
(All In One Business Management Application WordPress Plugin – Invoice)
All In One Business Management Application supports multiple languages, is fully customizable and provides additional tools such as document management, to do app, and more.
For more details, go here}:
iBilling – Accounting And Billing Software
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software)
iBilling is a scalable business software that lets you manage client data and invoices, tracks your company’s cash flow and net worth, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software – Client Invoice)
It integrates with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
WordPress Accounting Themes
To benefit the most from using WordPress, it’s best to choose a theme specifically for accounting. Below is a list of some of the best accountancy themes available. With these themes you can have a professional-looking accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro)
This premium theme is a turn-key theme built for accountants and accounting firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, offers several page templates, custom menu features, a content composer (which improves on the standard WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, auto-resized images, and lots more.
You can expand this theme by installing premium add-ons.
To learn more about about this WordPress theme, go here:
Accountancy
(Accountancy WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress has a variety of built-in styles and layouts to give your accounting website a professional look and feel.
It includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, and more. It’s lightweight, search engine friendly, fast loading, and is responsive. It provides what you need without bloating your theme. Your purchase includes free updates and 1 year of support.
Visit the theme site to learn more this WordPress theme:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme 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 admin panel, four color schemes, custom slider, 3 blog types, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). It is a clean-looking, modern and fast loading theme.
More info:
Kathryn
(Kathryn Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was developed for accounting services. It has a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, a variety of colors, is easy to use, search optimized, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). Although this theme can easily fit 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.
More info:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This one was developed to enhance professionalism within the accounting industry. It features an authoritative color scheme and layout elements designed specifically to make your accounting business site 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 and includes pages for your services, contact section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials, and a blog.
More information:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate WordPress Theme)
WP Advocate is a free corporate theme built for professional service providers such as accountants and attorneys. Use the bundled images or upload your own. It includes a custom post type for employee profiles and can also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is clean and loads fast.
More information:
Divi
(Divi Theme)
Divi is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection of WordPress themes. You can create a professional website using the page builder or beautiful and unique pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout as much as you need.
Divi’s page builder transforms web elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and edit the structure of their pages without touching code.
(Divi – WordPress Theme – Page Builder)
It comes with 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. These include audio player, blog, circle counter, divider, gallery, map, portfolio, shop, tabs, video slider, fullwidth header, fullwidth portfolio, fullwidth slider, and more.. It is mobile-friendly and fully customizable. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to all sleek business themes.
More info:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme For WordPress)
This theme was created specifically to make corporate sites look good.
The Corporation has a sleek and professional page-based home page design with a prominent slider, blog design, six different different color schemes, multiple page templates which include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Prices start at $69 per year and includes access to 80+ stunning themes.
For more details about this theme, go here:
Adviser
(Adviser – WordPress Theme)
This one was developed to help professionals in the financial industry to build trust with a clean business design. It’s ideal for businesses that provide services such as investments 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)
This theme was specifically built for financial companies, tax and finance advisors, and those that offer tax assistance. Tax Help is designed to showcase your services professionally and help build your business reputation. It has a range of blog styles, uses the 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 – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was specifically built for organizations that provide financial services such as tax help, consulting, insurance, corporate, finance, accounting, loans, and more. It includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin. It also has around 100 shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content. It also includes the custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page options, color management, animated elements, and a lot more.
To learn more about using this WordPress theme, 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 WordPress plugins that can improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and increase traffic generation useful.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum
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