In Part One of this article on ways to improve your accounting web presence, we provided in-depth tips and suggestions on the following areas:
- Online Challenges For Accountants
- Opportunities For Accounting Businesses In The Online Economy
- Your Website Pages
- Improving Your Content
In this section, we explore more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Areas covered include:
- Ways Of Improving Traffic
- Generating More Leads & Enquiries With WordPress
- WordPress Plugins That Can Help To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Web Traffic
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, see these articles:
- Add New Features And Functionality To Your Site With WordPress Plugins
- WP For Beginners – An Introduction To WordPress Themes
Your Accounting Website – How To Improve Your Business Online With WordPress
Web traffic is a vital part of your business growth. In this section, you will learn ways of improving your accounting or financial services business online with WordPress plugins and themes.
Optimize Your Site For SEO
There are so many ways that WordPress helps improve your website’s SEO:
- SEO-Friendly – configure the permalinks to create search engine-optimized web addresses for your article pages.
- Tags – Specify the keywords that you want search engines to index your article pages for.
- Categories – Create categories for archiving and organizing your content.
- Post Excerpts – Set the description for your posts that visitors will see in the search engine results.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your content images for improved search engine results.
- Internal Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that lets you easily link your content to other posts and pages on your site
- Post Notification – WordPress can be set up to automatically notify (ping) other sites and directories whenever a new post is published on your website.
Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors To Your Site With WordPress Plugins
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, there are dozens of plugins that will improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic to your website.
Here are some plugins you can use to improve your website’s search engine optimization:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin (for search engines)
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your site’s search engine optimization)
Other ways to improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more traffic to your site are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing features. Here are some plugins that can help (many of the plugins listed below are also free):
- BuddyPress – Set up an online social networking community on your website.
- bbPress – This free plugin can be used to run your own discussion forum on your site.
- E-Newsletter – Send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress dashboard.
- Disqus – use this WordPress plugin to power discussions and increases user engagement on your website.
- Monarch – This WordPress plugin lets you add social sharing features to your posts and pages.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their website using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
How To Generate New Leads & Enquiries
In this section we discuss how to improve your sales and generate leads and enquiries.
Provide A Newsletter
Providing a newsletter is a great way to build a list of subscribers. It provides a number of benefits and advantages, like:
- Sends targeted traffic
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Provides useful updates
- Provides you with a highly targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to offer special services or products to a select audience
- Increases user engagement
- Provides additional ways for your content to be shared online with others
An effective strategy for attracting subscribers is to provide them with information of high value and give them free gifts in exchange for their personal details. This could be a time-saving guide, checklists for handling tax, access to tax calculators, coupons, access to courses, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
Contact forms make it easy and simple for readers to get in touch with you. A contact form also lets readers report issues, ask questions to specific departments, ask for a quote, and more.
A contact form provides several benefits including:
- Reducing 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 page or post
- Improves the professional look of your site
- Convenient for users
One of the most popular WordPress contact form plugins is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin lets you create multiple contact forms, customize the forms and the email contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, and spam filtering is also supported.
Something to consider is to segment your contact form so users can choose which topic they want to discuss. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Add A Map
A map helps your visitors and clients find you.
Adding maps, such as Google Maps to your site also provides visitors with many benefits, such as:
- A map increases local SEO
- Visitors can easily find you
- Displays location of events
(A map helps your visitors and clients find you)
Below are some plugins that let you embed, customize and display maps on your website:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
WordPress Plugins & Themes That Improve Your Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors
WordPress Accounting Plugins
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your accounting site that will immediately make available a range of functional tools for site visitors. Here are just some of these plugins:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators – WordPress Plugin)
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 a few for:
- Interest rate
- Loans
- CD
- Credit
- And more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin)
This plugin gives you a widget that displays a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can show as many portfolios 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 place custom stock tickers on any sidebar, post or page with shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker provides a number of customizable ticker. Choose from built-in themes or customize these yourself. It’s easy to customize it so it matches your website. You can also create custom stocks for individual categories.
Appearance customization features include width, height, background color, scroll speed, opacity, number of stocks displayed simultaneously, font size, text color, font family, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator WP Plugin)
This free plugin allows your site visitors to calculate indicative repayments online. It’s great for automotive loans, real estate loans, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator – Loan Calculators)
The plugin also contains an application form that sends a notification message to a specified email address.
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 WordPress blog owners send itemized invoices to their clients.
This plugin lets you integrate billing into WordPress. You can send clients 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 checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into WP’s user management database to keep track of clients and their information, and integrates with payment processors like PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, 2Checkout, PayPal Payments Pro, and many others.
Plugin features include adding custom payments and charges, adding pre-defined line items and discounts, viewing invoice status and progression, easily filtering and finding invoices, seeing 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)
This is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with knowledgebase and ticketing management system, CRM and many more features.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin – Client Invoice)
The plugin supports international languages, is fully customizable and provides powerful tools such as document management, to do app, 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 clients and invoicing, tracks your company’s net worth and cash flow, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software – Invoicing)
iBilling Accounting and Billing Software allows you to get paid faster online by integrating with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
WordPress Themes For Accounting Businesses
To get the best features and professional look for your website, it’s best to choose a theme specifically for accounting businesses. Here is a list of some of the best accounting themes available. With the themes listed below you can own a professional accounting website within minutes and save hundreds to thousands of dollars on the cost of website design.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro Theme)
Accounting Pro is an inexpensive turn-key theme designed for accountants and accountancy firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, has several page templates, custom menus, a content composer (which improves on the standard WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, performs auto resizing for images, and lots more.
Accounting Pro can be expanded with premium add-ons.
For more information, go here:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme For WordPress)
This premium WordPress theme offers a variety of built-in styles and layouts to give your accounting site a professional look and feel.
This responsive theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, it’s lightweight, search engine optimized, and loads fast. Accountancy provides the flexibility you need without bloating your theme with features you don’t need. Your purchase price includes free updates and one year of support.
For more information about using this theme, visit this site:
Accounting
(Accounting)
This premium WordPress theme includes a drag-and-drop builder so you can design your site any way you want. It also has unlimited sidebars and custom widgets, four different header types, a custom admin panel, different color schemes, custom slider, 3 blog types, and is fully responsive. Accountancy looks clean and modern and is fast to load.
For more information, go here:
Kathryn
(Kathryn Theme For WordPress)
Kathryn is a premium child theme for the Genesis Framework that’s built specifically for accounting businesses. It allows you to use WordPress as a true content management system and offers multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, many color options, is easy to use, inexpensive, search engine optimized, and is mobile-friendly. Although this theme can easily fit any profession you like, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy slider plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
More information:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This premium theme was built to enhance professionalism within the accounting industry. Every color, layout element, icon, menu item, page structure, call-to-action, etc., is designed specifically to give your accounting site a professional look. It’s a turn-key installation but you can still modify it if you want. It’s responsive and includes pages for your services, contact section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials section, and a blog.
Go here to learn more about using this theme:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate – WordPress Theme)
This is a corporate theme specifically designed for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. Use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate also includes a custom post type for employee profiles and can also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s a clean-looking and fast-loading theme.
More information:
Divi
(Divi Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection. Divi lets you create a unique, professional site using its page builder or beautiful 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 edit the structure of their pages without touching any code.
(Divi Theme – Page Builder)
Divi has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. These include multiple layouts, a slider, you can place pricing tables, testimonials, call-to-action, and lots more. It is responsive and completely customizable. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to all sleek business themes.
More info:
The Corporation
(The Corporation – WordPress Theme)
This theme was designed specifically to make corporate sites look great.
This theme has a sleek and professional page-based home page design with a eye-catching slider, blog design, six unique color schemes, multiple page templates which include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to all sleek business themes.
Go here to learn more about using this WordPress theme:
Adviser
(Adviser)
This premium WordPress theme was built to help businesses in the financial industry to build trust with a clean business design. It’s perfect for businesses that provide services such as investments or tax advice. The Adviser theme includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, lease calculator, widgets and multiple shortcodes, and a drag-and-drop visual composer..
To learn more about this WordPress theme, go here:
Tax Help
(Tax Help Theme For WordPress)
This one was designed specifically for financial organizations, tax and financial advisors, and those providing tax assistance. Tax Help is designed to showcase your services in a professional way and help establish your business reputation. It comes with different blog styles, uses a drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and many custom shortcodes.
For more details, go here:
Finance Business
(Finance Business WP Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was specifically developed for organizations that provide financial services including tax help, consulting, insurance, finance, corporate, accounting, loans, and more. Finance Business includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around 100 shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content, custom drag-and-drop composer, 2 premium sliders, page options, color management, animated elements, and a whole lot more.
For more information, 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 ways of improving search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more traffic with WordPress plugins & themes.
Subscribe below to receive 101+ useful WordPress tips that will help you grow your business …
***
"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie
***