In Part 1 of this article on ways to grow your accounting business online, we provided in-depth information on the following areas:
- Online Challenges For Accounting Businesses
- Opportunities For Accountants
- Basic Pages
- Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site
In this section, we discuss more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Topics covered below include:
- Ways Of Improving Web Traffic With WordPress
- Generate New Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress
- Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Generate More Visitors Using WordPress Plugins
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, see these articles:
- Add New Features And Functionality To Your Website With WordPress Plugins
- A Newbie’s Guide To WP Themes
Online Business Tips For Accountants – Improve Your Business Online Using WordPress Themes And Plugins
Web traffic is a vital part of your business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic using WordPress.
Optimize Your Site For Search Engines (SEO)
There are many ways that WordPress helps optimize your accounting or financial services website for search engines:
- Search Engine-Friendly URLs – configure the permalinks to use the title of the posts as the web address of your pages.
- Post Tags – Specify the keywords that you want search engines to index your article pages for.
- Post Categories – Create categories for your posts and products.
- Post Excerpts – Create descriptions for your posts that will appear in search results.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your content images for improved search engine results.
- Internal Content Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that allows you to easily create internal links
- Pinging – Set up your site to automatically notify (ping) other sites and directories whenever a new post is published on your site.
How To Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Improve User Engagement And Generate More Web Traffic With WordPress Plugins
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, there are a number of WordPress plugins that will improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your website.
Here are some plugins you can use to improve your website’s SEO:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin
- 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 traffic to your business are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social sharing. Here are a few more WordPress plugins that can help (many of the plugins listed below can be downloaded at no cost):
- BuddyPress – BuddyPress allows you to set up your own social network on your WordPress website, with member profiles, activity streams, user groups, messaging, and more.
- bbPress – This free plugin helps you run a community forum on your site.
- E-Newsletter – Use this plugin to send professional email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP dashboard, without third-party subscriptions.
- Disqus – Power discussions and increases user engagement on your site.
- Social Media Feather – Use this WordPress plugin to add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online to your website or blog.
(You can add social features to your website easily using free or inexpensive plugins)
Generate Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress-Based Applications
Let’s discuss now how to improve sales and generate more leads and enquiries for your accounting business.
Provide An Email Newsletter
Providing an email newsletter is an excellent way to build a list of subscribers. It provides several benefits and advantages including:
- Drives targeted traffic
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Provides updates that could save businesses time and money
- Provides you with a targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to provide special products or services to a select audience
- Provides regular opportunities for improving interaction
- Provides additional opportunities for your content to be shared around with new potential clients
A proven way to entice your visitors to become subscribers is to provide high value information and give users free gifts or bonus items in exchange for their details. This can be an exclusive report, tips for handling tax, access to tax calculators, discount coupons, access to videos, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
Contact forms provide an easy and simple way for prospective clients to contact you. Visitors can provide feedback, ask questions to specific departments, request a quote, give suggestions and more.
A contact form provides several benefits, like:
- Reduces spam
- Set up automated responses
- Giving you control over what is sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- Contact forms can be added to any post or page
- Improves the professional look of your website
- Convenience for visitors
A popular WordPress contact form plugin is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7)
This plugin is easy to install and configure and lets you insert multiple contact forms on your posts and pages, customize your form and the email contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, and spam filtering is supported.
Another feature to consider is to add sections to your contact form so prospective clients can select which topic they are contacting your company about. This ensures that contact form requests reach the right person.
Map Integration
Adding a map helps your visitors and customers find you.
A map is a useful tool for several reasons:
- A map improves local SEO
- Visitors can find your office more easily
- Show location of events
(Adding maps to your site helps your visitors and customers find you)
Below are 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
WordPress Plugins That Can Help Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation
WordPress Accounting Plugins
WordPress makes available a number of plugins you can add to your accounting site that will immediately add a range of practical tools for 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 them into your pages, posts, or sidebars using shortcodes. The plugin supports internationalization
Note: Most of the calculators aren’t focused on accounting, but there are quite a few for:
- 401k
- Rate of return
- Tax
- Credit
- And lots more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes)
This plugin lets you add a widget that displays up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can show as many widgets as you like.
(Show Stock Quotes – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker)
This plugin lets you add custom stock tickers to any sidebar, page or post with shortcodes.
This plugin provides several customizable features. You can choose to use built-in themes or customize it yourself to match the look and feel of your site. You can also create custom stocks for individual categories.
Customize the appearance by changing speed, symbols, colors, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator WP Plugin)
This free plugin lets your users calculate indicative repayments online. This is a useful financial tool for calculating repayments on auto loans, property loans, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator Plugin – Loan Calculator)
Finance Calculator also contains an application form that will send a message to a specified email address.
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)
WP-Invoice is ideal for WordPress site owners with clients to bill.
WP-Invoice lets you integrate billing into WordPress. You can send itemized invoices. It also allows you to set up recurring billing. WP-Invoice can be expanded through both free and premium add-ons, like business location, electronic signature, PDF creation, quote creation, checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into your WordPress 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 others.
You can add custom payments and charges, insert pre-defined line items and discounts, quickly view invoice status and progression, filter and find invoices, show invoice receipts and invoice history, create email notification templates, display 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 Plugin For WordPress)
This is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with knowledgebase and ticketing system, CRM and many more features.
(All In One Business Management Application – WordPress Plugin – Invoicing)
All In One Business Management Application supports different languages, is fully customizable and provides powerful tools like document management, notice board, and more.
For more details, go here}:
iBilling – Accounting And Billing Software
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin)
This 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 allows you to get paid faster online by integrating with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
WordPress Financial Themes
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. These themes allow you to own a professional-looking accounting website within minutes and save hundreds to thousands of dollars on the cost of website design.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro WP Theme)
This is a turn-key theme for accountants and accounting firms. It’s a responsive theme with a drag-and-drop page-builder, has 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.
More information:
Accountancy
(Accountancy WordPress Theme)
This one comes in a variety of styles and layouts to give your accounting site a professional look and feel.
It includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, and more. It’s lightweight, SEO friendly, loads fast, and is responsive. It provides the features you need without bloating your theme. Free updates and 1 year of support is included in the cost of purchase.
For more information, go here:
Accounting
(Accounting – WordPress Theme)
Accounting includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your website any way you want. It also has unlimited sidebars with custom widgets, four different header types, a custom admin panel, four color schemes, custom slider, three different blog types, and is responsive. Accountancy looks clean and modern and is fast to load.
More information:
Kathryn
(Kathryn)
This one is a premium child theme for the Genesis Framework developed for accountants. Kathryn allows you to use WordPress as a true CMS and provides multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, flexible rotator, a variety of color options, is easy to use, inexpensive, search engine optimized, and is mobile-friendly. Although this theme can easily fit any profession, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
For more information, go here:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WordPress Theme)
This theme was developed with the idea of professionalism within the accounting industry. Every color, layout element, icon, menu item, page structure, call-to-action, etc., was specifically designed to make your accounting site look professional while not looking dull. It’s a turn-key installation but you can still modify it if you want. It’s mobile-friendly and includes pages for your services, contact section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials, and a blog.
More info:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate Theme For WordPress)
WP Advocate is a free corporate theme built specifically for professional service providers such as accountants and attorneys. Use the bundled images or upload your own. It also includes a custom post type for employee profiles and can also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s clean and fast-loading.
More information:
Divi
(Divi – WordPress Theme)
Divi is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire theme collection. You can create a unique, professional website using the page builder or pre-made layouts. You can change your layout as much as you need.
Divi’s page builder transforms web elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and change the structure of their page without touching a single line of code.
(Divi Theme – Flexible Page Builder)
Divi has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. It has bar counter, blurb, circle counter, divider, gallery, map, post title, shop, social media follow, text, fullwidth header, fullwidth portfolio, fullwidth post title, and more.. Divi is responsive and completely customizable. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to over 80 sleek business themes.
More info:
The Corporation
(The Corporation)
This premium theme for WordPress was specifically developed to make corporate sites look good.
This theme has a page-based home page design with a prominent 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 full access to 80+ professional themes.
More info:
Adviser
(Adviser WP Theme)
This premium theme was built specifically to help finance professionals build trust online 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, multiple shortcodes and widgets, and a drag-and-drop visual composer..
Go here to learn more about using this theme:
Tax Help
(Tax Help – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was designed for financial companies, tax and finance advisors, and those providing tax services. It’s designed to show your services professionally to help establish your business reputation. It comes with 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 – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was developed for firms that provide any type of financial service including tax help, consulting, corporate, finance, insurance, accounting, loans, and more. It includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin. It also has around one hundred shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content. It also includes a custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page settings, color management, animated elements, and lots more.
Go here to learn more 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, this guide has helped you learn WordPress plugins and themes for improving SEO, better user engagement and driving more visitors.
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