In Part 1 of this guide on ways to build your accounting web presence, we provided in-depth information on the following topics:
- Challenges Professional Accountants Face Online
- Opportunities For The Accounting Profession In The Digital Economy
- Your Website Pages
- Improving Your Content
In this section, we discuss more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Topics covered below include:
- Ways Of Improving Traffic
- How To Generate New Leads & Enquiries
- Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors Using WordPress Plugins
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
- Using WP Plugins – The Easy Way To Extend Your Site’s Features And Functionality
- Themes – An Overview
Ways To Improve Website Traffic
Web traffic is a vital part of your online business growth. In this section, you will learn ways of improving SEO, improve user engagement and increase visitors to your site generation using plugins.
Optimize Your Website For Search Engines
There are many ways WordPress can help to optimize your website for search engines:
- SEO-Friendly – Set the permalinks to create search engine-optimized web addresses for your posts.
- Tags – WordPress lets you select the keywords that you want search engines to index your posts for.
- Post Categories – Add categories for archiving and organizing your content.
- Post Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose descriptions for your posts that will display to search engine users.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your content images for improved search engine results.
- Internal Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that lets you easily create internal links
- Pinging – WordPress can be set up to automatically notify other search directories the moment a new post is published on your site.
How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Visitors With WordPress Plugins
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, there are many plugins for WordPress that will improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more traffic to your site.
For example, you can install the plugins below to improve your SEO:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress XML sitemap plugin
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin
(A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your site’s SEO)
Other ways to improve your accounting or financial services site’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic to your website are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing features. Here are a few powerful WordPress plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – BuddyPress can be used to set up your own social networking community on your site.
- bbPress – This free WordPress plugin allows you to set up a discussion forum on WordPress.
- E-Newsletter – Use E-Newsletter to send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress dashboard, without a third party subscription.
- Disqus – Disqus lets you power discussions and helps to increase user engagement on your website.
- Floating Social – This plugin lets you add social sharing features and buttons on your site.
(You can add social features to your site easily with WordPress plugins)
Tips For Generating Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress-Based Applications
Let’s now take a look at ways to improve sales and generate new leads and enquiries online.
Provide An Email Newsletter
Providing a newsletter is a great way to build a list of subscribers. It] provides several benefits, like:
- Sends targeted traffic to your site
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Keeps readers updated
- Provides a targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to offer special services or products to a select audience
- Increases user engagement
- Provides additional ways for your content to be shared with others
A proven way to get your visitors to subscribe is to provide high value content and offer users something valuable for free in exchange for their details. This could be a guide, tips for handling finances, access to tax calculators, coupons, access to courses, contests, etc.
Adding Contact Forms
A contact form provides an easy and simple way for prospective customers to contact you. Contact forms also allow users to report issues, contact specific departments, ask for a quote, and more.
A contact form provides several benefits and advantages including:
- Reducing spam
- Set up automated responses
- Gives you control over what gets sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- They can be added to any page or post
- Improves the professional look of your site
- Convenience for site visitors
One of the most popular contact form plugins for WordPress is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 WordPress Plugin)
This plugin allows you to create and manage multiple contact forms, customize the forms and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, and spam filtering is also supported.
Another option you may want to consider is adding sections to your contact form so prospects can choose the topic they want to discuss. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Adding Maps
Adding a map to your website helps your visitors and customers find you.
Maps are very useful tools for several reasons:
- A map helps to improve local SEO
- Customers can better plan their meeting and appointments
- Show location of events
(Maps help your visitors and customers 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 Web Traffic Generation
Accounting WordPress Plugins
WordPress provides a number of plugins you can add to your accounting or financial services site that will immediately make available a range of practical tools for visitors. Here are just some of these plugins:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators WP Plugin)
This plugin provides a free collection of 400+ calculators. You can embed these into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. Internationalization is supported.
Most of the calculators aren’t focused specifically on accounting, but there are a few for:
- Interest rate
- Payments
- Tax
- Debit
- And lots more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin)
This plugin lets you add a widget that shows a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many portfolios as you like.
(Show Stock Quotes – 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 using shortcodes.
This plugin comes with several customizable ticker. Choose from built-in themes or customize it 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 speed, symbols, colours, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator)
This free plugin lets users calculate indicative repayments online. It’s great for calculating car loans, real estate, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress – Loan Calculator)
This plugin also contains an application form that will send a notification message to a specified email address.
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 clients itemized invoices. It even allows you to set up recurring billing. WP-Invoice can be expanded through both free and premium add-ons that let you manage business, accept electronic signatures, create PDF invoices, provide quotes, create single-page 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.
The plugin gives you the ability to add custom payments and charges, add 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, 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 support ticket management system, CRM and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application – Client Invoicing)
The plugin supports different languages, is fully customizable and provides additional 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)
This 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 Plugin For WordPress – Invoice)
iBilling Accounting and Billing Software allows you to get paid faster by integrating with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting – WordPress Themes
To get the most benefit out of growing your business online with WordPress, we recommend choosing a theme specifically for accounting. Here is a look at some of the best WordPress themes available for accounting. These themes allow you to own 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 for WordPress is a turn-key theme built 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 (which improves on the standard WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, performs auto resizing for images, and lots more.
You can easily expand this theme by installing premium add-ons.
Go here to learn more about using this theme:
Accountancy
(Accountancy – WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme comes in a variety of styles and layouts that helps make your accounting site look and feel professional.
This responsive theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, it’s lightweight, search optimized, and fast loading. Accountancy provides what 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 WordPress Theme)
This premium theme includes a drag-and-drop builder so you can design your website any way you want. The theme also provides unlimited sidebars with custom widgets, four different header types, a custom administration panel, different color schemes, custom slider, 3 blog types, and is responsive. Accountancy looks clean and modern and is fast to load.
Go here to learn more about using this WordPress theme:
Kathryn
(Kathryn)
This one is created for accounting businesses. It allows you to use WordPress as a true CMS and offers a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, widgetized home page, flexible rotator, call to action boxes, author boxes for single or multiple bloggers, many colors, is easy to use, inexpensive, search optimized, and is fully responsive. Although this theme can easily fit any profession you like, 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 info:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – Theme For WordPress)
This theme was created to exude professionalism within the accounting industry. Every color, layout element, icon, menu item, page structure, call-to-action, etc., was designed specifically to help give your accounting business site a professional look. 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 a CSV file), testimonials, and a blog.
Visit this site for more details about this WordPress theme:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate WordPress Theme)
WP Advocate is a free corporate theme developed for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate includes a custom post type adding employee profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s a clean-looking and fast-loading theme.
More information:
Divi
(Divi WP Theme)
This theme is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection of WordPress themes. Divi lets you create any type of professional website you want using the page builder or beautiful 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 redesign the structure of their web pages without editing a single line of code.
(Divi – WordPress Theme – Page Builder)
It comes with 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. It has multiple layouts, a slider, you can place pricing tables, testimonials, call-to-action, and lots more. It is responsive and completely customizable. Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to over 80 stunning themes.
For more information, go here:
The Corporation
(The Corporation WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was designed specifically to create good-looking corporate websites.
The Corporation has a sleek and professional page-based home page design with a eye-catching slider, blog design, six different unique 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 80+ themes.
More information:
Adviser
(Adviser – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was designed specifically to help finance professionals build trust online with a clean business design. It’s perfect for businesses that provide services such as investments or tax advice. It 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 information:
Tax Help
(Tax Help)
Tax Help was specifically developed for financial organizations, tax and finance advisors, and firms offering tax assistance. It’s designed to showcase your services in a professional way to help grow your business reputation. It provides a range of blog styles, uses a drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and many custom shortcodes.
For more information, go here:
Finance Business
(Finance Business Theme For WordPress)
This one was specifically built for firms that provide financial services such as tax help, consulting, corporate, finance, insurance, accounting, loans, and more. It includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around one hundred shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content, a custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page settings, color management features, animated elements, and a lot more.
For more information, 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
Hopefully, this comprehensive guide has helped you learn how to improve SEO, improve user engagement and generate more web traffic using WordPress plugins.
Subscribe below to receive 101+ useful WordPress tips that will help you grow your business …
***
"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
***