In Part One of this comprehensive guide on ways to improve your accounting business web presence, we covered the following areas:
- Challenges Professional Accountants Face Online
- Opportunities For Accounting Businesses In The Online Economy
- Your Website Pages
- Improve Your Content
In this section, we explore more ways to grow your accounting business online. Areas covered below include:
- Ways Of Improving Traffic
- Generate New Leads & Enquiries With WordPress-Based Applications
- How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using Plugins And Themes
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, go here:
Improving Website Traffic
Your web traffic is an important part of your business growth. This section explores how to improve your website using WordPress plugins and themes.
Optimizing Your Site For Search Engines
There are many ways WordPress can help to optimize your accounting or financial services website for search engines:
- Search Engine-Friendly URLs – configure the permalinks to create search engine-optimized URLS for your article pages.
- Post Tags – WordPress lets you choose the keywords that you want your posts to be indexed for in the search engines.
- Post Categories – Add SEO-friendly categories for keeping your content organized and easy to find.
- Excerpts – Create the description for your posts that will show to search engine users.
- Images – title your images with keywords for improved search engine results.
- Internal Content Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that lets you easily link your content to other posts and pages
- Pinging – Set up your WordPress site to automatically notify (ping) other search directories whenever a new post is published on your website.
WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increasing User Engagement And Generating More Visitors To Your Website
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, there are a number of plugins that will improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic 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 XML sitemap plugin
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin
(A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your website’s 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, commenting, and social features. Here are some more WordPress plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – This plugin allows you to set up a social networking community on WordPress, with member profiles, user groups, activity streams, messaging, and more.
- bbPress – bbPress lets you set up your own forum on your website.
- E-Newsletter – E-Newsletter allows you to send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress dashboard.
- Disqus – Power discussions and increases user engagement on your website or blog.
- Monarch – Use this WordPress plugin to add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online on your posts and pages.
(You can easily add social sharing buttons to your site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
How To Generate New Leads & Enquiries
Let’s now take a look at ways to improve sales and generate more leads and enquiries online.
Provide An Email Newsletter
Adding a newsletter is an excellent way to retain and grow your readership. It provides a number of benefits including:
- Sends targeted traffic
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Keeps readers updated
- Provides a targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to provide special products or services to a select audience
- Increases user engagement
- Provides another way for your content to be shared around with others
A proven way to attract new subscribers to your newsletter is to provide high value information and give users free gifts in exchange for their personal details. This could be a guide, checklists for handling finances, access to financial calculators, coupons, access to subscriber-only content, contests, etc.
Add A Contact Form
A contact form makes it easy and simple for prospective clients to get in touch. Contact forms also let readers provide feedback, contact specific departments, ask for a quote, and more.
Contact forms provide a number of benefits and advantages including:
- Reduces spam
- Automated response
- Gives you control over what is sent to you
- You can keep your email address private
- Contact 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 Plugin)
This free plugin allows you to insert and manage multiple contact forms on your website, customize the form and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, and Akismet spam filtering is also supported.
Something else to consider is to add sections to your contact form so prospective clients can choose the aspect of your business they are contacting you about. This helps visitors get the comment to the right person.
Add A Map
A map helps your visitors and clients find you.
A map is a useful tool for several reasons:
- A map increases local SEO
- Helps visitors find your office easily
- Displays location of events
(Adding maps to your site helps your visitors and clients find you)
Below are just some popular plugins that let you embed, customize and display maps on your site:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
Improving SEO, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Traffic With Plugins
WordPress Accounting Plugins
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your site that will immediately make available a range of practical tools for visitors. Here are some of these plugins:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin)
This plugin provides a free collection of 400+ calculators that you can provide to users on your website and embed into your pages, posts, or sidebars using shortcodes. Internationalization is supported.
Most of them aren’t focused on accounting, but there are a few for:
- Mortgage
- Rate of return
- Leases
- Credit
- And more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin)
This plugin lets you add a widget that displays a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many widgets as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin For WordPress – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker WP Plugin)
This plugin lets you add a custom stock ticker to any sidebar, page or post with shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker includes several customizable features. Choose from built-in skins or customize it yourself. It’s easy to customize it so it matches your site. You can also add custom stocks to specific categories.
Customize the appearance by changing colours, size, text, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator – WordPress Plugin)
This free plugin allows your visitors to calculate indicative repayments online. It’s great for calculating repayments on vehicle loans, property, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress – Loan Calculators)
Finance Calculator also contains an application form that sends a message to the email address you specify.
It will display payment protection, calculate 12 to 60 months loans and create a form that can be placed in any page or post.
For more details, go here}:
WP-Invoice
(WP-Invoice)
WP-Invoice lets you send itemized invoices to clients.
WP-Invoice integrates billing into WordPress. You can send out itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand plugin functionality with both free and premium add-ons, like business location, electronic signature, PDF creation, quote creation, checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into WP’s user management database to keep track of your clients and their information, and integrates with payment processors like PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and several others.
The plugin lets you add custom payments and charges, add 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, view reports (collected vs uncollected invoices, ten 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)
This complete business management system includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with knowledgebase and ticket management system, client relationship management and many more features.
(All In One Business Management Application WordPress Plugin – Client Invoicing)
The plugin supports multiple languages, is fully customizable and provides powerful tools like document management, to do app, 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 customer data and invoicing, track your company’s cash flow and net worth, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin – Invoice)
It integrates with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting And Financial Services Themes For WordPress
To benefit the most from using WordPress, it’s best to choose a theme specifically suited for accounting. Here is a look at some of the best accountancy themes available. These themes allow you to own a professional-looking accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro)
This premium theme is a turn-key theme 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, auto-resized images, and lots more.
You can easily customize Accounting Pro using premium add-ons.
More information:
Accountancy
(Accountancy)
This inexpensive theme offers a variety of 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 Theme provides what you need without bloating your theme with features you don’t need. The price includes free updates and 1 year of support.
More info:
Accounting
(Accounting)
This premium theme includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your site any way you want. It also has unlimited sidebars and custom widgets, four different header types, a custom administration panel, four color schemes, a custom slider, 3 blog types, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). Accountancy looks clean and modern and loads fast.
More information:
Kathryn
(Kathryn Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme was created for accountants. It offers multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, call to action boxes, various color options, is easy to use, inexpensive, search engine optimized, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). Although it can easily fit any profession you want it to, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
Go here to learn more this WordPress theme:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
Accounting WordPress Theme was built to enhance professionalism within the accounting industry. Every color, layout element, icon, menu item, page structure, call-to-action, etc., was specifically designed to help make your accounting business website look professional while not looking dull. 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 CSV), testimonials, and a blog.
More info:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate – WordPress Theme)
This is a free corporate theme developed specifically for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate also 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.
For more details, go here:
Divi
(Divi WP Theme)
This premium WordPress theme is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection. Divi lets you create a professional website using the page builder or pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout to your heart’s content.
The builder transforms web elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and edit the structure of their web pages without editing any code.
(Divi WordPress Theme – Page Builder)
Divi comes with 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. This includes modules such as multiple layouts, a slider, you can place pricing tables, testimonials, call-to-action, and lots more. Divi is mobile-friendly and fully customizable. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to over 80 sleek business themes.
Go here for more info:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme from Elegant Themes was specifically created to make corporate websites look good.
The Corporation has a page-based home page design with a eye-catching slider. It also has a blog design and features that toggle on and off. It comes with 6 different color schemes. It also comes with multiple page templates that include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to over 80 beautifully-designed themes.
For more details, go here:
Adviser
(Adviser – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme was designed to help finance professionals build trust online with a clean business design. It’s ideal for those that provide services such as investing advice or tax help. The theme 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 WordPress Theme)
Tax Help WordPress Theme was specifically designed for financial organizations, tax and finance advisors, and firms offering tax services. This theme is designed to showcase your services professionally and help grow your business reputation. It has different blog styles, uses the drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and additional custom shortcodes.
Visit this site to learn more about using this theme:
Finance Business
(Finance Business WP Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was specifically developed for firms that provide any type of financial service including tax help, consulting, corporate, insurance, finance, accounting, loans, and more. Finance Business includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around one hundred shortcodes that includes charts and financial content, a custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page options, color management, animated elements, and a lot more.
To learn more about this theme, 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 article has helped you learn WordPress plugins for improving SEO, better user engagement and traffic generation.
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
***