In Part One of this guide on ways to build your accounting business web presence, we provided in-depth information on the following areas:
- Online Challenges For Accounting And Financial Businesses
- Opportunities For Accountants In The Digital Economy
- Improving Your Web Pages
- Improve Your Web Content
In this section, we discuss more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Topics covered include:
- Ways To Improve Traffic Using WordPress
- Ways To Generate New Leads & Enquiries
- Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Web Traffic With Plugins
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, go here:
Tips For Improving Web Traffic Using WordPress
Your web traffic is a vital part of your online business growth. This section will help you improve your web traffic using WordPress.
Optimizing Your Site For SEO With WordPress
There are many ways WordPress can help to improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO:
- URLs – configure the permalinks to create search engine-optimized web addresses for your articles and posts.
- Tags – WordPress lets you choose the keywords that you want search engines to index your article pages for.
- Post Categories – Create categories for archiving and organizing your content.
- Post Excerpts – Create an excerpt that will appear in search results.
- Images – title images with keywords for better search engine results.
- Internal Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that allows you to easily create internal links for faster indexing of your web pages
- Pinging – Configure your site to automatically notify (ping) other sites and directories immediately upon publishing new content on your website.
Improving Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Increase User Engagement And Generate More Visitors Using WordPress Plugins
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, there are various WordPress plugins that improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your site.
For example, here are some plugins you can use to improve your website’s SEO:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress XML sitemap plugin
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(A plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your website’s SEO)
Other things you can do to improve your accounting site’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors to your business are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social sharing features. Here are some more WordPress plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – Set up a social networking community on your website, with member profiles, activity streams, user groups, messaging, and more.
- bbPress – Use bbPress to set up and run a discussion forum on your website.
- E-Newsletter – E-Newsletter allows you to send professional email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP dashboard, without requiring third-party subscriptions.
- Disqus – use this plugin to power discussions and helps to increase engagement on your website.
- Floating Social – Easily add social sharing features and buttons on your website or blog.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their site with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
Generate New Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress-Based Applications
This section will show you how to improve your sales and generate more leads and enquiries for your accounting or financial services business.
Adding An Email Newsletter
Adding a newsletter is a great way to retain and grow your readership. Adding an email newsletter provides many benefits and advantages including:
- Drives targeted traffic to your site
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Provides updates
- Provides you with a highly targeted marketing channel
- Allows you to provide special services or products to a select audience
- Increases user interaction
- Provides additional ways for readers to share your content
A proven way to get visitors to subscribe is to provide users with content of high value and give them something for free in exchange for their details. This can be an exclusive guide, checklists for handling tax, access to financial calculators, coupons, membership access to videos, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
Contact forms make it easy and simple for readers to contact you. Contact forms also allow visitors to report issues, ask questions to specific departments, ask for a quote, and more.
Contact forms provide several benefits and advantages, like:
- Reducing spam
- Automated response
- Gives you control over what gets sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- They can be added to any post or page
- Improves the professional look of your website
- Convenient for site visitors
One of the most popular WordPress contact form plugins is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin For WordPress)
Contact Form 7 is easy to install and set up and allows you to create and manage multiple contact forms, customize the forms and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
The plugin supports international languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, Akismet spam filtering and so on.
Something else to consider is adding sections to your contact form so prospective clients can choose which topic they are contacting you about. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Adding Maps
Adding a map to your website helps your visitors and customers find you.
A map is a great tool for several reasons:
- A map increases local SEO
- Visitors can easily find you
- Shows location of events
(Adding a map to your website helps your visitors and clients find you)
Popular Google Maps plugins include:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins
Financial Plugins For WordPress
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your website that will immediately add a range of practical tools for users. Here are some of the plugins you can choose from:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators)
This is a free collection of over 400 calculators. You can embed these into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. Internationalization is supported.
Note: Most of them aren’t focused specifically on accounting, but there are quite a few you can use for:
- Mortgage
- Loans
- CD
- Equity
- 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 display as many widgets as you like.
(Show Stock Quotes – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker Plugin For WordPress)
With this plugin you can add a custom stock ticker to any post, page or sidebar with shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker provides several customizable ticker. Choose from built-in skins or customize it yourself. It’s easy to customize it so it matches your website. You can also create custom stocks for specific categories.
Appearance customizations include colors, size, text, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator – WordPress Plugin)
This free calculator lets your users calculate indicative repayments. It’s great for calculating repayments on car loans, property, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator – WordPress Plugin – Loan Calculators)
This plugin 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 Plugin)
WP-Invoice lets WordPress blog owners send itemized invoices to their clients.
This plugin 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 locations, accept electronic signatures from clients, create PDF invoices, create quotes, create checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into your WP user management database to keep track of clients and their information, and integrates with payment processors like PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and others.
Plugin features include adding custom payments and charges, adding 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, 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 – WordPress Plugin)
This is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with knowledgebase and support ticketing management system, client relationship management and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin – Client Invoicing)
All In One Business Management Application supports international 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 Plugin)
iBilling is a scalable business software that lets you manage customers and invoices, track your company’s net worth and cash flow, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software – Invoicing)
iBilling Accounting and Billing Software lets you get paid faster online by integrating with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting – WordPress Themes
To benefit the most from using WordPress, we recommend choosing a theme specifically suited for accounting. Here is a look at some of the best themes themes available for accounting. These themes allow you to own a professional accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro – WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme is an inexpensive turn-key theme created for accountants and accountancy 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-resizing for images, and a whole lot more.
You can customize Accounting Pro with premium add-ons.
More info:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme)
Accountancy Theme comes with a variety of styles and layouts to give your accounting website a professional look and feel.
It includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, and more. It’s lightweight, search optimized, fast loading, and fully responsive. It provides the flexibility 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)
This premium theme for WordPress includes a drag-and-drop builder so you can design your website any way you want. The theme also has unlimited sidebars with custom widgets, four different header types, a custom admin panel, four color schemes, custom slider, 3 blog types, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). Accountancy looks clean and modern and is fast to load.
For more information, go here:
Kathryn
(Kathryn Theme)
This one is designed specifically for accountants. It offers multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, a variety of colors, is easy to use, inexpensive, search engine optimized, and is responsive. Although this theme could easily suit 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.
Go here to learn more about this theme:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This one was developed to exude professionalism within the accounting industry. It features an authoritative color scheme and elements specifically designed 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 services, contact section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials section, and a blog.
More info:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate Theme For WordPress)
This is a corporate theme developed specifically for professional service providers such as accountants and attorneys. You can 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. It’s a clean and fast-loading theme.
Go here for more information:
Divi
(Divi – WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire theme collection. Divi lets you create a unique, professional site using the page builder or beautiful pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout to your heart’s content.
Divi’s page builder transforms web elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and edit the structure of their pages without touching code.
(Divi WP Theme – Page Builder)
Divi has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. Modules include multiple layouts, a slider, you can place pricing tables, testimonials, call-to-action, and lots more. It is fully responsive and fully customizable. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to all professional themes.
More information:
The Corporation
(The Corporation WordPress Theme)
This theme from Elegant Themes was designed specifically to make corporate websites look great.
The Corporation has a sleek and professional page-based home page design with a nice slider, blog design, six unique color schemes, multiple page templates that include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to 80+ beautifully-designed themes.
More info:
Adviser
(Adviser – WordPress Theme)
This theme was designed specifically to help finance professionals build trust online through clean web design. It’s perfect for those that provide services like investing or tax help. It includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, a lease calculator, widgets and multiple shortcodes, and a drag-and-drop visual composer..
Go here to learn more about this theme:
Tax Help
(Tax Help – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme was specifically developed for financial organizations, tax and financial advisors, and those offering tax assistance. Tax Help is designed to show your services in a professional way to help establish your professional reputation. It has different blog styles, uses a drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and additional custom shortcodes.
Go here for more info:
Finance Business
(Finance Business WP Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was developed for firms that provide any type of financial service such as consulting, tax help, insurance, finance, corporate, accounting, loans, and more. Finance Business includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around one hundred shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content, the custom drag-and-drop composer, 2 premium sliders, page options, color management, animations, and a lot more.
More info:
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 guide on ways of improving your website with WordPress plugins and themes helpful.
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