In Part One of this article on ways to improve your accounting web presence, we provided many practical tips and suggestions on the following topics:
- Challenges Professional Accountants Face Online
- Opportunities For The Accounting Profession In The Digital Economy
- Improve Your Web Pages
- How To Improve Your Web Content
In this section, we will continue exploring more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Areas covered include:
- Tips For Improving Web Traffic
- Generate More Leads & Enquiries With WordPress
- How To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic To Your Website Generation With Plugins & Themes
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
Tips For Improving Web Traffic
Web traffic is vital to your business growth. This section will help you improve your web traffic using WordPress.
Optimizing Your Site For SEO
There are loads of ways WordPress can help to improve your website’s SEO:
- URLs – configure the permalinks to use the title of the post.
- Post Tags – WordPress lets you choose the keywords that you want search engines to index your article pages for.
- Categories – Add categories for keeping your content organized and easy to find.
- Post Excerpts – Set the description for your posts that will show to search engine users.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your images for improved search engine results.
- Internal Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that lets you easily link your content to other posts
- Post Notification – Set up your WordPress site to automatically notify other search directories whenever a new post is published on your website.
Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Visitors To Your Website Using WordPress Plugins
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, there are a number of plugins for WordPress that improve your accounting website’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your website.
For example, here are some plugins you can use to improve your SEO:
- Yoast 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 site’s SEO)
Other WordPress tools you can add to improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic to your business are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social sharing features. Here are a few more powerful plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – BuddyPress allows you to run a social network on WordPress, with member profiles, messaging, activity streams, user groups, and more.
- bbPress – bbPress helps you set up a forum on your site.
- E-Newsletter – Use this plugin to send professional email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress dashboard, without requiring a third party subscription.
- Disqus – use this plugin to power discussions and helps to increase engagement on your website or blog.
- Floating Social – Easily add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online to your pages and posts.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
Generating Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress
Let’s now take a look at how to improve sales and generate more leads and enquiries for your accounting or financial services business.
Adding An Email Newsletter
Adding an email newsletter is an excellent way to build a list of subscribers. Adding newsletters] provides a number of benefits including:
- Drives targeted traffic to your website
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides updates
- Provides a highly targeted marketing channel
- Allows you to provide special products or services to a select audience
- Increases user engagement
- Provides additional opportunities for your content to be shared online with other potential customers
One of the best ways to get visitors to become subscribers is to provide high value information and offer users a free gift in exchange for their personal details. This could be an exclusive report, tips for handling tax, access to financial calculators, coupons, access to videos, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
A contact form provides an easy and simple way for readers to get in touch. A contact form also allows users to raise concerns, ask questions to specific departments, request a quote, and more.
A contact form provides a number of benefits and advantages, like:
- Reducing spam
- Set up automated responses
- Giving you control over what gets sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- Can be added to any page or post
- Looks professional
- Convenient for users
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 lets you insert multiple contact forms, customize the form and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
Contact Form 7 also supports international languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, Akismet spam filtering and so on.
Something else to consider is adding sections to your contact form so prospective customers can select which topic they want to discuss. This ensures that contact form requests reach the right person.
Map
Maps help your visitors and clients find you.
A map is a useful tool for several reasons:
- A map improves local SEO
- Allows customers to better plan their visits and appointments
- Display location of events
(Adding a map helps your visitors and clients find you)
Some of the more popular map plugins include:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
WordPress Plugins & Themes For Improving SEO, Better User Engagement And Web Traffic Generation
WordPress Plugins For Accountants
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your accounting site that will immediately make available a range of practical tools for visitors. Here are just some of these:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators – WordPress Plugin)
This plugin provides a free collection of 400+ calculators that you can display on your website and embed into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. It supports internationalization
Note: Most of the calculators aren’t focused on accounting, but there are quite a few you can use for:
- Interest rate
- Rate of return
- CD
- Credit
- And more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes)
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 – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker Plugin For WordPress)
This free plugin lets you place custom stock tickers on any sidebar, post or page using shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker includes several customizable features. You can choose to use 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.
Customize the appearance by changing colours, size, speed, text, and symbols, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator – WordPress Plugin)
This free calculator lets users calculate indicative repayments. It’s great for calculating automotive loans, property, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator Plugin – Loan Calculator)
The Finance Calculator plugin also contains an application form that sends a notification message to the email address you specify.
It will show payment protection, calculate 12 to 60 months loans and create forms 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 users with clients to bill.
This plugin integrates billing into WordPress. You can send out itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand functionality with free and premium add-ons that let you manage locations, accept electronic signatures from clients, create PDF invoice versions, provide 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 PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and several others.
You can add custom payments and charges, create pre-defined line items and discounts, quickly view invoice status and progression, easily filter and find invoices, show invoice receipts and invoice history, create notification email templates, display reports (collected vs uncollected invoices, 10 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, helpdesk with support ticketing management system, client relationship management and many added features.
(All In One Business Management Application – Client Invoice)
The plugin 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)
iBilling is a scalable business software that lets you manage client data and invoicing, track your company’s cash flow and net worth, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software – WordPress Plugin – Invoice)
It integrates with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Financial WordPress Themes
To benefit the most from using WordPress, 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 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 – WordPress Theme)
This 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, custom menu features, a content composer (gives you an improved WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, performs auto resizing for images, and a whole lot more.
Accounting Pro can be customized by installing premium add-ons.
More info:
Accountancy
(Accountancy)
This premium WordPress theme offers a variety of built-in styles and layouts to help make your accounting website look and feel professional.
It includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, and more. It’s lightweight, SEO friendly, fast loading, and fully responsive. Accountancy Theme 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.
More info:
Accounting
(Accounting)
This theme includes a drag-and-drop builder so you can design your website any way you want. It also provides 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 (mobile-friendly). It is a clean-looking, modern and fast loading theme.
Visit the theme website for more details about using this theme:
Kathryn
(Kathryn – WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was designed for accountants. Kathryn provides a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, widgetized home page, flexible rotator, call to action boxes, author boxes for single or multiple bloggers, many colors, is easy to use, search optimized, and is fully responsive. Although this theme could easily suit 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 – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme was designed with the idea of 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 website a professional look without looking dull. 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 form section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials section, and a blog.
More info:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate – WordPress Theme)
WP Advocate is a free corporate theme built 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. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is a clean and fast-loading theme.
For more details, go here:
Divi
(Divi Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme for WordPress 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 its page builder or beautiful pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout to your heart’s content.
The builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and redesign the structure of their pages without touching a single line of code.
(Divi Theme For WordPress – Page Builder)
Divi has 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. It is fully responsive and fully customizable. Prices start at $69 per year and includes access to all sleek business themes.
Go here for more details:
The Corporation
(The Corporation WordPress Theme)
This premium theme from Elegant Themes was created specifically to create good-looking corporate sites.
The Corporation has a page-based home page design with a eye-catching slider, blog design, 6 different color schemes, multiple page templates which include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Themes start at $69 per year and includes access to all professional themes.
Go here to learn more this WordPress theme:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme For WordPress)
This theme was designed specifically to help finance industry professionals build trust through clean web design. It’s ideal for those that provide services such as investment advice or tax help. Adviser includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications. It also includes a lease calculator. It includes widgets and multiple shortcodes, and includes the drag-and-drop visual composer.
More info:
Tax Help
(Tax Help Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme was specifically designed for financial organizations, tax and finance advisors, and businesses that provide tax assistance. Tax Help is designed to showcase your services professionally 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 information, go here:
Finance Business
(Finance Business WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was designed specifically for firms that provide financial services such as tax help, consulting, insurance, corporate, finance, loans, accounting, and more. It includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin. It also has around 100 shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content. It also includes a custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page options, color management, animated elements, and a whole lot more.
Visit this website to learn more 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, you have found this guide on WordPress plugins & themes for improving search engine optimization, better user engagement and driving more web traffic helpful.
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