In Part 1 of this comprehensive article on ways to build your accounting business web presence, we provided many practical tips and suggestions on the following areas:
- Online Challenges For Accountants
- Opportunities For Accounting Businesses In The Web Economy
- Basic Website Pages
- Ways To Improve The Content On Your Site
In this section, we explore more ways to grow your accounting business online. Areas covered include:
- Ways To Improve Web Traffic
- Ways To Generate More Leads & Enquiries
- How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Generate More Visitors To Your Website Using Plugins
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, see these articles:
Ways To Improve Traffic With WordPress
Your web traffic is an integral part of your online business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic using WordPress.
Optimize Your Site For Search Engines
There are loads of ways that WordPress helps optimize your website for search engines:
- Search Engine-Friendly URLs – configure the permalinks to create search engine-optimized URLS for your article pages (called posts).
- Tags – WordPress lets you select the keywords that you want your article pages to be indexed for in the search engines.
- Post Categories – Create search engine-friendly categories for archiving and organizing your content.
- Post Excerpts – Create descriptions for your posts that will show in search results.
- Images – title images used in your content with keywords for better search engine results.
- Internal Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that allows you to easily link your content to other posts on your site
- Post Notification – WordPress can be set up to automatically notify other sites and directories whenever a new post is published on your site.
How To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using Plugins
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, the WP developer community makes available various plugins that improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors to your site.
For example, you can install the plugins below to improve your website’s search engine optimization:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin (for search engines)
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your website’s search engine optimization)
Other WordPress tools you can add to improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social sharing. Here are some WordPress plugins that can help (many of the plugins listed below can be downloaded at no cost):
- BuddyPress – This free WordPress plugin allows you to set up and run a social networking community on WordPress, with member profiles, messaging, user groups, activity streams, and more.
- bbPress – This plugin lets you run a forum on your site.
- E-Newsletter – E-Newsletter lets you send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP dashboard.
- Disqus – Power discussions and increases user engagement on your website.
- Floating Social – This WordPress plugin lets you add social sharing features and buttons to your pages and posts.
(You can easily add social sharing features to your website with WordPress plugins)
Ways To Generate New Leads & Enquiries
In this section we will show you how to improve sales and generate new leads and enquiries online.
Providing An Email Newsletter
Providing a newsletter is a great way to grow and retain your readership. It] provides a number of benefits, like:
- Sends targeted traffic to your website
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides useful updates
- Provides you with a targeted marketing channel
- Allows you to offer special services or products to a select audience
- Increases user interaction
- Provides another way for your content to be shared around with others
A proven way to attract subscribers is to provide them with content of high value and offer them free gifts in exchange for their personal details. This can be a guide, checklists for handling finances, access to tax calculators, discount coupons, membership access to courses, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
A contact form makes it easy and simple for readers to get in touch with you. Contact forms also allow users to send feedback, contact specific departments, request quotes, send suggestions and more.
Contact forms provide a number of benefits and advantages including:
- Reduces spam
- Set up automated responses
- Gives you control over what is sent to you
- You can keep your email address private
- Different forms can be added to any post or page
- Looks professional
- Convenient for site visitors
A popular contact form plugin for WordPress is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7)
This plugin allows you to create and manage multiple contact forms into any post or page, customize your forms and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
Supports international languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, Akismet spam filtering and so on.
Another feature to consider is to add sections to your contact form so prospective clients can choose which topic they are contacting your company about. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Maps
Adding a map helps your visitors and clients find you.
A map is a great tool for several reasons:
- They help to improve local SEO
- Visitors can find your office more easily
- Display location of events
(Adding maps helps your visitors and clients find you)
Here are just some plugins that let you embed, customize and display Google maps on your website:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With Plugins
Accounting And Financial Services Plugins For WordPress
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your website that will immediately make available a range of functional tools for visitors. Here are just some of these plugins:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin For WordPress)
This is a free collection of over 400 calculators. You can embed these into your pages, posts, or sidebars using shortcodes. The plugin supports internationalization
Note: Most of the calculators 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)
With this plugin you get a widget that shows up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can show as many widgets as you like.
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin For WordPress – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker – WordPress Plugin)
This free plugin lets you add a custom stock ticker to any sidebar, post or page with shortcodes.
The plugin includes a number of 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.
Appearance customizations include 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)
This free plugin allows your visitors to calculate indicative repayments online. It’s great for calculating car loans, real estate, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator – WordPress Plugin – Loan Calculators)
The plugin also contains an application form that will send a notification message to the email address you specify.
Other features of this plugin include displaying 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 is ideal for WordPress users with clients to bill.
This plugin integrates billing into WordPress. You can send clients itemized invoices. It also 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 clients and their information, and integrates with PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and others.
WP-Invoice features include adding custom payments and charges, inserting pre-defined line items and discounts, viewing invoice status and progression, easily filtering and finding invoices, seeing invoice receipts and invoice history, creating email notification templates, viewing 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 WP Plugin)
This complete business management system includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with knowledgebase and support ticketing system, client relationship management and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin For WordPress – Client Invoicing)
The plugin supports international languages, is fully customizable and provides additional tools like 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 invoicing, tracks your company’s net worth and cash flow, send single-click payment reminders and payment confirmations, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software – WordPress Plugin – Invoicing)
iBilling integrates with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
WordPress Themes
To get the most benefit out of growing your business online with WordPress, it’s best to choose a theme specifically suited for accounting businesses. Here is a look at some of the best themes themes available for accounting businesses. 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)
This premium theme for WordPress is an inexpensive turn-key theme designed for accountants and accountancy firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, offers several page templates, a custom menu feature, a content composer (which improves on the standard WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, auto-resizing for images, and a whole lot more.
Accounting Pro can be expanded using premium add-ons.
Go here for more information:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme For WordPress)
This one comes with a variety of built-in styles and layouts to help give your accounting site a professional look and feel.
This fully responsive theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, it’s lightweight, search optimized, and loads fast. It provides the flexibility you need without bloating your theme with features you don’t need. Your purchase includes free updates and one year of support.
Go here to learn more this theme:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your site any way you want. The theme also provides unlimited sidebars and custom widgets, four different types of headers, a custom admin panel, different color schemes, a custom slider, three different blog types, and is mobile-friendly. Accountancy looks clean and modern and loads fast.
More info:
Kathryn
(Kathryn)
This one is a premium child theme for the Genesis Framework that’s developed specifically for accounting businesses. It has a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, author boxes for single or multiple bloggers, various color options, is easy to use, search optimized, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). Although this theme can easily fit any profession, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy WordPress responsive slider plugin and must be purchased separately from the Genesis Framework.
To learn more about this theme, go here:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
Accounting WordPress Theme was created to enhance professionalism within the accounting industry. It features authoritative colors and elements 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 services, contact section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials, and a blog.
Visit this website for more details about this theme:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate)
This is a free corporate theme built specifically 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 for employee profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s a clean and fast-loading theme.
Go here for more details:
Divi
(Divi)
This premium theme is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection. Divi lets you create any type of professional website you want using its page builder or pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout to your heart’s content.
Divi’s page builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and easily redesign the structure of their pages without touching code.
(Divi WordPress Theme – Page Builder)
It has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. Modules include bar counter, blog, contact form, divider, image, login, post title, shop, testimonial, toggle, fullwidth code, fullwidth map, fullwidth slider, and more.. Divi is fully responsive and completely customizable. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to all themes.
More info:
The Corporation
(The Corporation – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was designed specifically to create great-looking corporate websites.
This theme has a sleek and professional page-based home page design with a eye-catching slider, blog design, 6 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 access to over 80 beautifully-designed themes.
Go here to learn more about using this WordPress theme:
Adviser
(Adviser)
This one was built specifically to help finance professionals build trust online through clean web design. It’s ideal for businesses that provide services such as investing or tax help. The Adviser theme includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, lease calculator, multiple shortcodes and widgets, and a drag-and-drop visual composer..
To learn more about this WordPress theme, go here:
Tax Help
(Tax Help)
This premium theme was built specifically for financial companies, tax and finance advisors, and firms providing tax services. Tax Help is designed to showcase your services professionally and help grow your business reputation. It provides different blog styles, uses the drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and many custom shortcodes.
More info:
Finance Business
(Finance Business)
This premium theme for WordPress was designed for businesses that provide financial services such as tax help, consulting, insurance, corporate, finance, accounting, loans, and more. The theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around 100 shortcodes that includes charts and financial content, the custom drag-and-drop composer, 2 premium sliders, page options, color management, animations, and a lot more.
Visit the theme site to learn more about this theme:
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 WordPress plugins that can help to improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and increase web traffic generation.
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