In Part One of this guide on ways to build your accounting web presence, we provided in-depth information on the following topics:
- Online Challenges For Accounting Businesses
- Online Opportunities For Accounting Businesses
- Your Web Pages
- Improving Your Web Content
In this section, we continue looking at more ways to grow your accounting business online. Topics covered include:
- Improving Web Traffic
- Generating Leads & Enquiries With WordPress-Based Tools
- WordPress Plugins That Can Help To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Traffic
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, see these articles:
Your Accounting Website – How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation With Plugins
Your web traffic is vital to your online business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic using WordPress.
Optimize Your Site For SEO With WordPress
There are loads of ways that WordPress helps optimize your accounting or financial services website for search engines:
- SEO-Friendly – WordPress lets you set the permalinks to use the title of the posts as the URL of your pages.
- Tags – WordPress lets you choose the keywords that you want search engines to index your article pages for.
- Categories – Create search engine-friendly categories for your posts and products.
- Excerpts – Set an excerpt that search engines will display in their search result pages.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your content images for better search engine results.
- Content Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that lets you easily create internal links for faster indexing of your web content
- Pinging – Set up your WordPress site to automatically notify other search directories the moment a new post is published on your website.
Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using Plugins
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, the WP community makes available a number of plugins that improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic to your site.
For example, you can install the plugins below 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 (for visitors)
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your site’s SEO)
Other things you can do to improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors to your business are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social sharing. Here are some more fantastic plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – This free plugin lets you set up your own social network on your WordPress site, with member profiles, activity streams, messaging, user groups, and more.
- bbPress – Run your own discussion forum on your website.
- E-Newsletter – This plugin lets you send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP site.
- Disqus – This plugin lets you power discussions and helps to increase user engagement on your website or blog.
- Social Media Feather – Easily add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online to your website.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site with free or inexpensive plugins)
Ways To Generate Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress-Based Tools
Let’s take a look now at how to improve your sales and generate leads and enquiries online.
Providing An Email Newsletter
Adding a newsletter is a great way to build a list of subscribers. It provides several benefits and advantages including:
- Drives targeted traffic to your site
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides useful updates
- Provides you with a targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to offer special products or services to a select audience
- Increases user interaction
- Provides you with additional opportunities for your content to be shared around with other potential customers
A proven way to entice visitors to subscribe to your email newsletter is to provide them with content of high value and give them a free gift in exchange for their details. This can be a guide, checklists for handling tax, access to financial calculators, coupons, membership access to courses, contests, etc.
Adding A Contact Form
Contact forms make it easy and simple for prospective clients to get in touch with you. A contact form also lets users report issues, contact specific departments, ask for quotes, give suggestions and more.
A contact form provides several benefits and advantages, like:
- Reducing spam
- Automated response
- Gives you control over what is sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- They can be added to any post or page
- Looks professional
- Is convenient for site visitors
One of the most popular WordPress contact form plugins is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 WordPress Plugin)
This free contact form plugin is easy to install and set up and allows you to insert multiple contact forms, customize your forms and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, and Akismet spam filtering is supported.
Something to consider is to segment your contact form so users can choose the aspect of your business they are contacting your company about. This ensures that contact form requests reach the right person.
Maps
Adding a map helps your visitors and clients find you.
Inserting maps, such as Google Maps, into your website also provides visitors with a number of benefits, such as:
- A map helps to improve local SEO
- Visitors can easily find you
- Show location of events
(Adding a map helps your visitors and clients find you)
Here are just some popular plugins that let you embed, customize and display maps on your WordPress site:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
How To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With WordPress Plugins
Accounting Plugins For WordPress
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your accounting website that will immediately add a range of functional tools for site visitors. Here are just some of the plugins you can choose from:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators WordPress Plugin)
This is a free collection of 400+ calculators. You can embed these into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. The plugin also supports internationalization
Note: Most of them aren’t focused specifically on accounting, but there are a few for:
- 401k
- Rate of return
- CD
- Debit
- And many more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin For WordPress)
This free plugin gives you a widget that shows a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can show as many portfolios as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes WordPress Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker – WordPress Plugin)
This plugin lets you place a custom stock ticker on any sidebar, post or page using shortcodes.
The plugin provides several customizable ticker. You can 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 individual categories.
Customize the appearance by changing width, height, scrolling speed, opacity, background color, number of stocks displayed simultaneously, font size, text color, font family, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator)
This free calculator allows your visitors to calculate indicative repayments online. It’s great for calculating repayments on auto loans, real estate loans, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress – Loan Calculators)
The plugin also contains an application form that will send 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 Plugin For WordPress)
WP-Invoice is ideal for WordPress site owners with clients to bill.
This plugin integrates billing into WordPress. You can send itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand functionality with free and premium add-ons that let you manage business, accept electronic signatures, create PDF versions of invoices, provide quotes, create checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into the WordPress user management database to keep track of clients and their information, and integrates with payment processors like PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, 2Checkout, Interkassa, and others.
Plugin features include adding custom payments and charges, inserting 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 email templates, displaying 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)
This is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with ticket system, client relationship management and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application WordPress Plugin – Client Invoicing)
All In One Business Management Application supports different languages, is fully customizable and provides additional tools like 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 customer 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 Accounting and Billing Software integrates with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Financial WordPress Themes
To benefit the most from using WordPress to grow your business online, it’s best to choose a theme specifically for accounting businesses. Below is a list of some of the best WordPress themes available for accountancy businesses. With the themes below you can have a professional-looking accounting website within minutes and save hundreds to thousands of dollars on the cost of web design.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro Theme)
This premium theme is a turn-key theme created for accountants and accountancy firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, offers several page templates, custom menu features, a content composer (gives you an improved WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, auto-resizing for images, and lots more.
You can customize this theme using premium add-ons.
To learn more about about this WordPress theme, go here:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme)
This premium WordPress 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, loads fast, and is responsive. Accountancy provides what your business needs without bloating your theme. Free updates and one year of support is included with your purchase.
More info:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme for WordPress includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to 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, a custom slider, three different blog types, and is responsive (mobile-friendly). It is a clean-looking, modern and fast loading theme.
More information:
Kathryn
(Kathryn)
This one is designed specifically for accountants. The theme offers a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, flexible rotator, many colors, is easy to use, search engine optimized, and is mobile-friendly. Although this theme could easily suit any profession you want it to, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy WordPress slider plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
For more information, go here:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme was created with the idea of professionalism within the accounting industry. It features authoritative colors and elements designed specifically to 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 accounting services, contact details section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials section, and a blog.
Go here for more info:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate – WordPress Theme)
WP Advocate is a free corporate theme built specifically for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. It also includes a custom post type adding employee profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is a clean-looking and fast-loading theme.
For more information, go here:
Divi
(Divi)
Divi is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ entire theme collection. Divi lets you create any kind of professional website you want using the page builder or beautiful pre-made layouts. You can change your layout as much as you need.
The builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and easily change the structure of their page without editing code.
(Divi – Page Builder)
It comes with 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. Modules include audio player, call to action, code, email optin, image, map, portfolio, sidebar, tabs, text, fullwidth image, fullwidth menu, fullwidth slider, and more.. It is mobile-friendly and fully customizable. Prices start at $69 per year and includes access to all professional themes.
More info:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme For WordPress)
The Corporation was developed specifically to create good-looking corporate sites.
This theme has a sleek and professional page-based home page design with a nice slider, blog design, six different 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 full access to all themes.
For more information, go here:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme was designed specifically to help finance industry professionals build trust online with a clean business design. It’s ideal for businesses that provide services like investment advice or tax advice. Adviser includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications. It also includes a built-in lease calculator. It includes widgets and multiple shortcodes, and includes the drag-and-drop visual composer.
For more details, go here:
Tax Help
(Tax Help – WordPress Theme)
Tax Help Theme was developed for financial organizations, tax and finance advisors, and firms that offer tax assistance. It’s designed to show your services in a professional way to help establish your business reputation. It has a range of blog styles, uses a drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and additional custom shortcodes.
More information:
Finance Business
(Finance Business Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was designed specifically for businesses that provide financial services including consulting, tax help, finance, corporate, insurance, accounting, loans, and more. This theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around one hundred shortcodes that includes charts and financial content, custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page settings, color management, animations, and lots more.
Visit the theme site to learn more about using this 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 comprehensive guide has helped you learn ways to improve your accounting business online using WordPress plugins and themes.
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