In Part 1 of this step-by-step article on ways to grow your accounting business online, we covered the following topics:
- Challenges Accounting & Financial Businesses Face Online
- Online Opportunities For Professional Accountants
- Your Website Pages
- Tips On How To Improve Your Web Content
In this section, we discuss more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Areas covered below include:
- Improve Web Traffic With WordPress
- Tips For Generating Leads & Enquiries With WordPress
- WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Creating Better User Engagement And Generating More Visitors To Your Site
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, go here:
Your Accounting Website – Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic To Your Business Generation Using Plugins And Themes
Your web traffic is an important part of your business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic.
Optimizing Your Site For Search Engines (SEO) With WordPress
There are so many ways that WordPress helps optimize your accounting website for search engines:
- SEO-Friendly – configure the permalinks to create search engine-optimized web addresses for your content posts.
- Tags – Specify the keywords that you want your article pages to be indexed by in the search engines.
- Post Categories – Add SEO-friendly categories for your posts and products.
- Post Excerpts – Create an excerpt that will display in search results.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your content images for improved search results.
- Internal Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that allows you to easily create internal links
- Pinging – Configure your site to automatically notify other sites and directories as soon as a new post is published on your website.
WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Better User Engagement And Traffic Generation
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, the WordPress community makes available a number of plugins that improve your website’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your website.
For example, you can use the plugins below to improve your website’s search engine optimization:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin (for search engines)
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(A plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your SEO)
Other things you can do to improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors to your website are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing features. Here are a few more WordPress plugins that can help (many of the plugins described below are also free):
- BuddyPress – Set up an online social community on WordPress.
- bbPress – This free WordPress plugin allows you to run your own discussion forum on your site.
- E-Newsletter – Use this WordPress plugin to send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress site.
- Disqus – Disqus lets you power discussions and helps to increase user engagement on your website.
- Floating Social – Easily add social sharing features and buttons on your website.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website using WordPress plugins)
Ways To Generate Leads & Enquiries
Let’s now take a look at ways to improve sales and generate new leads and enquiries online.
Adding A Newsletter
Adding a newsletter is an excellent way to build a list of subscribers. Adding email newsletters] provides a number of benefits and advantages, like:
- Sends targeted traffic to your site
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Provides updates that could save businesses time and money
- Provides a highly targeted marketing channel
- Allows you to provide special services or products to a select audience
- Increases engaging with users
- Provides other ways for readers to share your content
An effective strategy for attracting newsletter subscribers is to provide users with valuable information and give them free gifts or bonus items in exchange for their personal details. This can be an exclusive report, tips for handling tax, access to financial calculators, coupons, membership access to courses, contests, etc.
Adding A Contact Form
Contact forms provide an easy and simple way for prospective clients to contact you. Readers can raise problems, contact specific departments, request quotes, and more.
Contact forms provide a number of benefits, like:
- Reduces spam
- Automated response
- Gives you control over what gets sent to you
- You can keep your email address private
- Can be added to any post or page
- Looks professional
- Convenient for visitors
A popular contact form plugin for WordPress is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 WordPress Plugin)
This free contact form plugin is easy to install and configure and allows you to create and manage multiple contact forms, customize the forms and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, and spam filtering is supported.
Something else to consider is adding sections to your contact form so visitors can choose which department they want to contact. This helps visitors get the comment to the right person.
Map Integration
A map helps your visitors and customers find you.
Inserting maps, such as Google Maps, into your site 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 maps to your website helps your visitors and clients find you)
Some of the most 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 Traffic Generation
Accounting Plugins For WordPress
WordPress provides a number of plugins you can add to your accounting site that will immediately add a range of functional tools for visitors. Here are just some of the plugins you can choose from:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin For WordPress)
This is a free collection of over 400 calculators that you can provide to users on your website. The plugin also supports internationalization
Most of them aren’t focused specifically on accounting, but there are a few you can use for:
- Mortgage
- Payments
- CD
- Equity
- And more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes WP Plugin)
This plugin lets you add a widget that displays up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can show as many portfolios as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker)
With this plugin you can add custom stock tickers to any post, page or sidebar using shortcodes.
This plugin includes several customizable features. You can 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 individual categories.
Appearance customization features include width, height, scroll speed, opacity, number of stocks displayed simultaneously, font family, text color, font size, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress)
This free plugin lets your visitors calculate indicative repayments online. This is a useful financial tool for calculating repayments on automotive loans, property loans, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator WordPress Plugin – Loan Calculators)
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 a form that can be placed in any page or post.
For more details, go here}:
WP-Invoice
(WP-Invoice – WordPress Plugin)
WP-Invoice lets you send itemized invoices to clients.
This plugin integrates billing into WordPress. You can send itemized invoices. It also allows you to set up recurring billing. It can be expanded through both free and premium add-ons that let you manage locations, accept electronic signatures, create PDF invoice versions, provide quotes, create single-page checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into your WordPress user management database to keep track of clients and their information, and integrates with payment processors like PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and others.
WP-Invoice 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 notification e-mail templates, display 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 complete business management system includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with knowledgebase and support ticketing system, CRM and many additional features.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin – Invoice)
All In One Business Management Application supports international 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 WordPress Plugin)
This is a scalable business software that lets you manage client data and invoices, tracks your company’s net worth and cash flow, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software – Invoice)
iBilling Accounting and Billing Software integrates with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting Themes For WordPress
To benefit the most from using WordPress, we recommend choosing a theme specifically for accounting businesses. Below is a list of some of the best WordPress themes available for accounting. These themes allow you to own a professional-looking accounting website within minutes and save hundreds to thousands of dollars on the cost of website design.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro Theme For WordPress)
This is an inexpensive turn-key theme built for accountants and accounting firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, has several page templates, a custom menu feature, a content composer (gives you an improved WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, performs auto resizing for images, and lots more.
You can easily expand this theme by installing premium add-ons.
Go here for more info:
Accountancy
(Accountancy – WordPress Theme)
Accountancy Theme has a variety of styles and layouts that helps make your accounting site look and feel professional.
It includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, and more. It’s lightweight, SEO friendly, fast loading, and is responsive. Accountancy provides what you need without bloating your theme. Free updates and one year of support is included in the cost of purchasing.
For more details, go here:
Accounting
(Accounting – WordPress Theme)
Accounting Theme includes a drag-and-drop builder so you can design your website any way you want. The theme also has unlimited sidebars with custom widgets, four different types of headers, a custom admin panel, four color schemes, custom slider, three different blog types, and is mobile-friendly. It looks clean and modern and is fast to load.
For more details about this theme, visit this website:
Kathryn
(Kathryn – WordPress Theme)
This one is a premium child theme for the Genesis Framework built specifically for accountants. Kathryn allows you to use WordPress as a true content management system and provides a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, widgetized home page, flexible rotator, call to action boxes, author boxes for single or multiple bloggers, many color options, is easy to use, inexpensive, search optimized, and is mobile-friendly. Although it could easily suit any profession you want it to, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy slider plugin and must be purchased separately from the Genesis Framework.
To learn more about using this theme, go here:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WordPress Theme)
Accounting WordPress Theme was built with the idea of professionalism within the accounting industry. It features authoritative colors and elements specifically designed to help make your accounting business website look professional without looking dull. It’s a turn-key installation but you can still modify it if you want. It’s fully responsive (mobile-friendly) and includes pages for your services, contact form section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials, and a blog.
Go here to learn more about using this WordPress theme:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate Theme)
WP Advocate is a free corporate theme designed specifically for professional service providers such as accountants and attorneys. Use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. It includes a custom post type adding employee profiles and can also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s clean-looking and fast-loading.
Go here for more details:
Divi
(Divi)
This premium theme for WordPress is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ entire theme collection. You can create a unique, professional website using its page builder or pre-made layouts. You can change your layout to your heart’s content.
Divi’s page builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and change the structure of their page without editing code.
(Divi – WordPress Theme – Flexible Page Builder)
It has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. These modules include audio player, blog, contact form, divider, image, map, portfolio, sidebar, testimonial, video, fullwidth image, fullwidth map, fullwidth slider, and more.. Divi is mobile-friendly and fully customizable. Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to all stunning themes.
For more details, go here:
The Corporation
(The Corporation)
The Corporation Theme from Elegant Themes was created specifically to make corporate sites look great.
The Corporation has a sleek page-based home page design with a eye-catching slider. It also has a blog design. It has 6 color schemes. It also comes with multiple page templates which include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to 80+ stunning themes.
Go here for more info:
Adviser
(Adviser WP Theme)
This one was designed specifically to help finance professionals build trust through clean design. It’s ideal for businesses that provide services like investing or tax advice. It includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, a built-in lease calculator, widgets and multiple shortcodes, and a drag-and-drop visual composer..
To learn more about using this theme, go here:
Tax Help
(Tax Help Theme)
Tax Help Theme was specifically designed for financial companies, tax and finance advisors, and firms that offer tax services. This theme is designed to showcase your services professionally and help establish your professional reputation. It has a range of blog styles, uses the 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)
This premium WordPress theme was developed specifically for businesses that provide any type of financial service including tax help, consulting, insurance, finance, corporate, loans, accounting, and more. Finance Business includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin. It also has around one hundred 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, animations, and a lot more.
More information:
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 ways of improving SEO, improve user engagement and drive more web traffic with plugins & themes useful.
Subscribe below to receive 101+ useful WordPress tips that will help you grow your business …
***
"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now
***