In Part One of this step-by-step article on ways to build your accounting business presence online, we covered the following areas:
- Online Challenges For The Accounting & Financial Services Profession
- Opportunities For Accountants
- Essential Pages
- How To Improve Your Content
In this section, we will continue looking at more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Topics covered include:
- Ways Of Improving Traffic Using WordPress
- How To Generate More Leads & Enquiries
- Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Generate More Traffic Using Plugins And Themes
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
Grow Your Accounting Website – Improve Your Business Online Using WordPress Plugins and Themes
Your web traffic is an important part of your business growth. This section will help you improve your web traffic.
Optimize Your Website For SEO
There are many ways WordPress can help to improve your website’s SEO:
- URLs – Set the permalinks to use the title of the post.
- Tags – WordPress lets you specify the keywords that you want search engines to index your article pages for.
- Categories – Add SEO-friendly categories for keeping your content organized and easy to find.
- Excerpts – Set an excerpt that visitors will see in the search engine results.
- Images – title images used in your content with keywords for better search engine results.
- Internal Content Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that lets you easily create internal links for better page indexing
- Pinging – Set up your site to automatically notify (ping) other search directories as soon as a new post is published on your website.
How To Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, there are a number of plugins that improve your website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors 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 sitemap plugin (for search engines)
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your SEO)
Other things you can do to improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your website are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social features. Here are a few plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – Run a social network on WordPress.
- bbPress – bbPress lets you set up and run your own forum on WordPress.
- E-Newsletter – Use E-Newsletter to send professional email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP site.
- Disqus – use this plugin to power discussions and helps to increase user engagement on your site.
- Floating Social – This WordPress plugin lets you add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online on your website or blog.
(You can add social sharing buttons to your website easily using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
Tips For Generating More Leads & Enquiries
Let’s discuss now how to improve sales and generate leads and enquiries.
Provide A Newsletter
Providing a newsletter is a great way to build a list of subscribers. It] provides many benefits, like:
- Drives targeted traffic to your website
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides updates
- Provides a highly targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to offer special services or products to a select audience
- Increases engagement with users
- Provides other ways 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 users with content of high value and give them free gifts or bonus items in exchange for their details. This can be a special report, tips for handling tax, access to tax calculators, coupons, membership access to subscriber-only content, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
Contact forms make it easy and simple for readers to contact you. A contact form also lets users report concerns, contact specific departments, request a quote, and more.
Contact forms provide many benefits and advantages including:
- Reduces spam
- Set up automated responses
- Giving you control over what is sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- Can be added to any page or post
- Looks professional
- Convenience for visitors
A very popular contact form plugin for WordPress is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 WP Plugin)
This free plugin allows you to create and manage multiple contact forms into any post or page, customize your forms and the email contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, and Akismet spam filtering is also supported.
Something else to consider is to segment your contact form so prospective customers can choose the aspect of your business they are contacting you about. This ensures that contact form requests reach the right person.
Map
A map helps your visitors and clients find you.
Integrating maps (e.g. Google Maps), with your site also provides many benefits, such as:
- Maps increase local SEO
- Helps visitors find your office easily
- Show location of events
(A map helps your visitors and customers find you)
Below are just some popular 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
WordPress Plugins And Themes 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 site that will immediately make available a range of functional tools for your site visitors. Here are some of these plugins:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin provides a free collection of over 400 calculators. You can embed these into your pages, posts, or sidebars using shortcodes. The plugin supports internationalization
Most of them aren’t focused specifically on accounting, but there are a few for:
- 401k
- Payments
- CD
- Equity
- And more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin)
This plugin lets you add a widget that displays up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display 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 Plugin For WordPress)
With this plugin you can add custom stock tickers to any post, page or sidebar with shortcodes.
This plugin offers several customizable ticker. You can choose from built-in themes or customize it yourself to match the look and feel of your website. You can also create custom stocks for specific categories.
Customize the appearance by changing colors, size, speed, text, and symbols, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator)
This free calculator lets users calculate indicative repayments online. This is a great financial tool for calculating repayments on vehicle loans, property, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator – WordPress Plugin – Loan Calculators)
Finance Calculator also contains an application form that sends a message to a specified email address.
Other features of this plugin include displaying payment protection, calculating 12 to 60 months loans and creating forms 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, set up recurring billing and expand plugin functionality with both free and premium add-ons that let you manage business, accept electronic signatures from clients, create PDF invoices, create 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 PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and others.
The plugin gives you the ability to add custom payments and charges, insert pre-defined line items and discounts, view invoice status and progression, easily filter and find invoices, see invoice receipts and invoice history, create e-mail notification templates, display reports (collected vs uncollected invoices, most 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 Plugin For WordPress)
This complete business management solution includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with support ticket system, client relationship management and many additional features.
(All In One Business Management Application – Invoicing)
All In One Business Management Application supports multiple 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 – WordPress Plugin)
This is a scalable business software that lets you manage customer data and invoices, tracks your company’s net worth and cash flow, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin – Invoicing)
It lets you get paid faster online by integrating with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
WordPress Themes - Accounting
To get the best features and professional look for your website, it’s best to choose a theme specifically suited for accounting. Below is a list of some of the best themes themes available for accounting. With the themes below you can have a professional-looking accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress is a turn-key theme created for accountants and accountancy firms. It’s a responsive theme with a drag-and-drop page-builder, offers several page templates, a custom menu feature, a content composer (gives you an improved WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, performs auto resizing for images, and a whole lot more.
Accounting Pro can be expanded through premium add-ons.
More info:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme For WordPress)
Accountancy Theme comes with a variety of built-in styles and layouts to help give your accounting website a professional look and feel.
It includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, and more. It’s lightweight, search engine optimized, fast loading, and is responsive. Accountancy provides what your business needs without bloating your theme. Your purchase includes free updates and one year of support.
More info:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your site any way you want. It also provides unlimited sidebars and custom widgets, four different types of headers, a custom administration panel, different color schemes, custom slider, three different blog types, and is responsive. It looks clean and modern and loads fast.
More information:
Kathryn
(Kathryn WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was built specifically for accounting services. It allows you to use WordPress as a true content management system and provides a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, various color choices, is easy to use, inexpensive, SEO friendly, and is responsive (mobile-friendly). Although it can easily fit 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.
For more details about this WordPress theme, visit the theme website:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WordPress Theme)
This theme was developed with the idea of professionalism within the accounting industry. It features an authoritative color scheme and layout 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 responsive (mobile-friendly) and includes pages for your accounting services, contact form section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials section, and a blog.
More information:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate)
This is a free corporate theme built specifically for professional service providers 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 staff profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is clean-looking and fast-loading.
Go here for more details:
Divi
(Divi)
This theme is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ collection. You can create any type of professional website you want using its page builder or pre-made layouts. You can change your layout to your heart’s content.
Divi’s page builder transforms web elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and easily edit the structure of their web pages without editing a single line of code.
(Divi Theme – Page Builder)
It has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. Modules include accordion, blog, circle counter, email optin, filterable portfolio, map, portfolio, slider, tabs, text, fullwidth header, fullwidth portfolio, fullwidth post title, and more.. It is responsive and completely customizable. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to over 80 stunning themes.
To learn more about this theme, visit this website:
The Corporation
(The Corporation WP Theme)
This one from Elegant Themes was specifically designed to make corporate websites look good.
This theme has a sleek page-based home page design with a prominent, flashy slider, blog design, 6 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 access to all themes.
More information:
Adviser
(Adviser WordPress Theme)
This theme was built specifically to help those in the financial industry to build trust with a clean business design. It’s ideal for businesses that provide services like investing advice or tax help. Adviser includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, lease calculator, widgets and multiple shortcodes, and the drag-and-drop visual composer..
To learn more about this WordPress theme, go here:
Tax Help
(Tax Help WP Theme)
This one was specifically developed for financial companies, tax and finance advisors, and those that provide tax services. This theme is designed to showcase your services in a professional way to help establish your professional reputation. It has a range of blog styles, uses the drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and additional custom shortcodes.
Visit this website for more information about this WordPress theme:
Finance Business
(Finance Business – WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was built for businesses that provide financial services including tax help, consulting, finance, corporate, insurance, loans, accounting, and more. Finance Business includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin. It also has around one hundred shortcodes that includes charts and financial content. It also includes a custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page options, color management features, animated elements, and a whole lot more.
Go here for more information about this WordPress 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, you have found this comprehensive guide on ways to improve your accounting or financial services business online using WordPress useful.
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