In Part One of this step-by-step article on ways to improve your accounting business presence online, we provided in-depth information on the following topics:
- Challenges Accountants Face Online
- Online Opportunities For Professional Accountants
- How To Improve Your Website Pages
- Tips For Improving Your Content
In this section, we discuss more ways to grow your accounting business online. Areas covered below include:
- Improving Web Traffic With WordPress
- Tips For Generating Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress-Based Tools
- WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Creating Better User Engagement And Web Traffic Generation
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, see these articles:
- WordPress Plugins – Enhance Your Web Site’s Capabilities
- WordPress For Beginners – An Overview Of WordPress Themes
Improving Web Traffic
Web traffic is an integral part of your online business growth. In this section, we explore ways to improve your accounting business online using WordPress plugins and themes.
Optimizing Your Website For Search Engines With WordPress
There are lots of ways WordPress can help to optimize your website for search engines:
- URLs – Set the permalinks to use the title of the posts as the web address of your pages.
- Post Tags – Choose the keywords that you want your articles to be indexed for in the search engines.
- Post Categories – Create categories for your posts and products.
- Excerpts – Create an excerpt that will display to search engine users.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your images for better search engine results.
- Internal Content Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that allows you to easily create internal links
- Pinging – Configure your site to automatically notify other sites and directories immediately upon publishing new content on your website.
WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Better User Engagement And Traffic Generation
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, there are a number of plugins that will improve your accounting website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors to your business.
Here are some plugins you can use to improve your SEO:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress XML sitemap plugin
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your SEO)
Other WordPress plugins you can add to improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic to your business are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social features. Here are some more powerful WordPress plugins that can help (many of the plugins listed below are also free):
- BuddyPress – This free plugin helps you run your own social network on your site, with member profiles, messaging, user groups, activity streams, and more.
- bbPress – This plugin can be used to run a community forum on your site.
- E-Newsletter – Use E-Newsletter to send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress site.
- Disqus – Disqus lets you power discussions and increases engagement on your website or blog.
- Monarch – Add powerful social sharing features to your site.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
Generate Leads & Enquiries
This section looks at how to improve your sales and generate new leads and enquiries online.
Adding A Newsletter
Providing an email newsletter is an excellent way to grow and retain your readership. It] provides many benefits, like:
- Sends targeted traffic
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Provides useful updates
- Provides you with a targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to provide special services or products to a select audience
- Increases user interaction
- Provides you with additional ways for your content to be shared with other prospective customers
One of the things you can do to get visitors to subscribe to your newsletter is to provide users with valuable information and offer them free gifts in exchange for their details. This can be a guide, tips for handling tax, access to financial calculators, discount coupons, membership access to videos, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
A contact form makes it easy and simple for prospective customers to get in touch. Users can report issues, ask questions to specific departments, ask for a quote, send suggestions for improvements and more.
A contact form provides many benefits including:
- Reducing spam
- Set up automated responses
- Giving 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 site
- Convenience for visitors
One of the most popular WordPress contact form plugins is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7)
This plugin is easy to install and configure and allows you to insert and manage multiple contact forms on your pages and posts, customize your forms and the email contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, and Akismet spam filtering is also supported.
Something to consider is adding sections to your contact form so prospects can choose the topic they are contacting your company about. This ensures that visitors get the comment to the right person.
Provide A Map
Adding a map to your site helps your visitors and customers find you.
A map is a great tool for several reasons:
- A map helps to increase local SEO
- Visitors can easily find you
- Show location of events
(Adding maps to your site helps your visitors and clients find you)
Below are just some of the more plugins that let you embed, customize and display Google maps on your WordPress site:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
WordPress Plugins And Themes That Can Help Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation
Accounting And Financial Services Plugins For WordPress
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your site that will immediately make available a range of practical tools for your site visitors. Here are some of these plugins:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators)
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. The plugin also supports internationalization
Note: Most of them aren’t focused on accounting, but there are quite a few for:
- Mortgage
- Loans
- Tax
- Equity
- And more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes)
This plugin gives you a widget that shows up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many portfolios as you like.
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker WordPress Plugin)
With this plugin you can add custom stock tickers to any sidebar, post or page with shortcodes.
This plugin provides several customizable features. Choose from built-in skins or customize these yourself. It’s easy to customize it so it matches your website. You can also add custom stocks to specific categories.
Appearance customization features include width, height, scrolling speed, opacity, number of stocks displayed at one time, font family, text color, font size, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress)
This free calculator lets your visitors calculate indicative repayments. This is a great financial tool for calculating automotive loans, real estate loans, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator Plugin – Loan Calculator)
This 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 forms 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.
This plugin lets you integrate billing into WordPress. You can send 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 versions of your invoices, create quotes, create 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 others.
The plugin gives you the ability to add custom payments and charges, add pre-defined line items and discounts, quickly view invoice status and progression, easily filter and find invoices, see invoice receipts and invoice history, create email notification templates, view 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 Plugin For WordPress)
This complete business management system includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with knowledgebase and ticket system, CRM and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin For WordPress – Invoice)
All In One Business Management Application supports multiple languages, is fully customizable and provides powerful tools such as document management, notice board, and more.
For more details, go here}:
iBilling – Accounting And Billing Software
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software)
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 – Client Invoice)
It integrates with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting And Financial Services WordPress Themes
To get the best features and professional look for your website, we recommend choosing a theme specifically suited for accounting businesses. Here is a list of some of the best themes themes available for accounting firms. These themes allow you to own a professional-looking accounting website within minutes and save hundreds to thousands of dollars on the cost of web design.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro)
This premium WordPress theme is an inexpensive turn-key theme designed for accountants and accounting firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, has several page templates, custom menu features, a content composer (which improves on the standard WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, auto-resizing for images, and a whole lot more.
You can expand Accounting Pro by installing premium add-ons.
For more details, go here:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme)
This one offers a variety of built-in styles and layouts to help make your accounting site look and feel professional.
It includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, and more. It’s lightweight, search optimized, fast loading, and is 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.
For more details, go here:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme For WordPress)
Accounting includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your website any way you want. It also provides unlimited sidebars with custom widgets, four different header types, a custom admin panel, different color schemes, a custom slider, three different blog types, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). Accountancy is a clean-looking, modern and fast-to-load theme.
More information:
Kathryn
(Kathryn – WordPress Theme)
Kathryn is created for accounting services. It allows you to use WordPress as a true content management system and offers multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, widgetized home page, flexible rotator, call to action boxes, author boxes for single or multiple bloggers, a variety of colors, is easy to use, inexpensive, search engine optimized, and is fully responsive. Although it could easily suit any profession you like, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy WordPress slider plugin and must be purchased separately from the Genesis Framework.
More info:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WordPress Theme)
This theme was designed 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 website look professional while not looking dull. It’s a turn-key installation but you can still modify it if you want. It’s mobile-friendly and includes pages for your services, contact details section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials section, and a blog.
More info:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate WP Theme)
WP Advocate is a corporate theme built for professional service providers such as accountants and attorneys. 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. WP Advocate is a clean-looking and fast-loading theme.
Visit the theme website to learn more about this WordPress theme:
Divi
(Divi WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ collection. You can create any type of professional website you want using its page builder or beautiful pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout as much as you need.
The builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and edit the structure of their pages without editing code.
(Divi WordPress Theme – Flexible 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. Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to 80+ sleek business themes.
Go here for more information:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme for WordPress from Elegant Themes was specifically developed to make corporate websites look great.
The Corporation has a sleek page-based home page design with a eye-catching slider, blog design, six unique different color schemes, 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 access to all professional themes.
Go here for more info:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was developed specifically to help finance professionals build trust online through clean design. It’s perfect for businesses that provide services such as investing or tax help. It includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, lease calculator, multiple shortcodes and widgets, and a drag-and-drop visual composer..
To learn more about this theme, visit this site:
Tax Help
(Tax Help)
Tax Help WordPress Theme was specifically developed for financial organizations, tax and financial advisors, and businesses providing tax services. Tax Help is designed to show your services professionally to help establish your professional reputation. It comes with a range of blog styles, uses the drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and many custom shortcodes.
More information:
Finance Business
(Finance Business WordPress Theme)
This theme was specifically designed for businesses that provide any type of financial service including consulting, tax help, corporate, finance, insurance, loans, accounting, and more. Finance Business 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 features, 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 your website with WordPress.
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