In Part One of this article on ways to grow your accounting web presence, we covered the following areas:
- Online Challenges For Accountants
- Opportunities For Accounting Businesses
- Improve Your Web Pages
- Tips On How To Improve Your Content
In this section, we discuss more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Topics covered include:
- Improving Traffic
- Ways To Generate Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress
- How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Drive More Web Traffic With WordPress Plugins
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
Grow Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Better User Engagement And Driving More Visitors
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
There are lots of ways WordPress can help to improve SEO:
- SEO-Friendly – Set the permalinks to create search engine-optimized URLS for your content posts.
- Tags – Specify the keywords that you want your article pages (posts) to be indexed by in the search engines.
- Categories – Create search engine-friendly categories for archiving and organizing your content.
- Excerpts – Set an excerpt that visitors will see in the search engine results.
- Images – title your images with keywords for better search engine results.
- Internal Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that allows you to easily create internal links for faster indexing of pages
- Pinging – WordPress can be set up to automatically notify (ping) other search directories the moment a new post is published on your website.
WordPress Plugins That Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Visitors
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, there are quite a number of plugins that improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.
For example, you can use the plugins below to improve your SEO:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin (lists all of your posts and pages for search engines)
- 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 tools you can add to improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your site are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing features. Here are some fantastic plugins that can help (many of the plugins described below are also free):
- BuddyPress – Set up a social network on your website, with member profiles, user groups, messaging, activity streams, and more.
- bbPress – This free WordPress plugin lets you set up your own community forum on your WordPress website.
- E-Newsletter – E-Newsletter allows you to send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP dashboard.
- Disqus – This WordPress plugin lets you power discussions and helps to increase engagement on your website.
- Monarch – Easily add powerful social sharing features on your website.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their website using free or inexpensive plugins)
Generating More Leads & Enquiries With WordPress-Based Applications
Let’s take a look now at ways to improve sales and generate leads and enquiries for your business.
Adding A Newsletter
Providing a newsletter is an excellent way to build a list of subscribers. Adding an email newsletter provides a number of benefits including:
- Drives targeted traffic to your site
- 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 additional opportunities for your content to be shared with new prospective clients
An effective way to get visitors to become subscribers is to provide high value content and offer users free gifts in exchange for their details. This can be a time-saving guide, checklists for handling tax, access to financial calculators, discount coupons, access to videos, contests, etc.
Adding A Contact Form
Contact forms make it easy and simple for readers to get in touch with you. Visitors can report issues, contact specific departments, request a quote, send suggestions for improvements and more.
A contact form provides several benefits, like:
- Reduces 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
- Improves the professional look of your website
- Convenient for site visitors
One of the most popular WordPress contact form plugins is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin)
Contact Form 7 lets you create and manage multiple contact forms to your posts and pages, customize the form and the email contents, add fields, and more.
Contact Form 7 also supports international languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, spam filtering and so on.
Another option to consider is to segment your contact form so prospective clients can select the aspect of your business they are contacting you about. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Provide A Map
Maps help your visitors and customers find you.
Inserting maps (e.g. Google Maps), into your website also provides users with a number of benefits, such as:
- A map improves local SEO
- Visitors can easily find you
- Shows location of events
(Adding a map to your site helps your visitors and customers find you)
Popular Google Maps plugins for WordPress include:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
WordPress Plugins That Can Improve Your Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic To Your Accounting Site Generation
Financial WordPress Plugins
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your website that will immediately add a range of practical tools for your site visitors. Here are just some of these plugins:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin)
This plugin provides a free collection of 400+ calculators that you can provide to users on your website. Internationalization is supported.
Note: Most of the calculators aren’t focused specifically on accounting, but there are quite a few you can use for:
- 401k
- Rate of return
- Leases
- Equity
- 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 display as many widgets as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker WordPress Plugin)
With this plugin you can place a custom stock ticker on any post, page or sidebar using shortcodes.
The plugin offers several customizable features. Choose from built-in skins or customize these yourself to match the look and feel of your site. You can also add custom stocks to individual categories.
Customize the appearance by changing width, height, scroll speed, opacity, background color, number of stocks displayed at one time, text color, 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 auto loans, property, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator Plugin – Loan Calculators)
Finance Calculator also contains an application form that sends a notification message to a specified email address.
Other features of this plugin include displaying payment protection, calculating 12 to 60 months loans and creating forms that can be placed in any page or post.
For more details, go here}:
WP-Invoice
(WP-Invoice Plugin For WordPress)
WP-Invoice lets you send itemized invoices to clients.
WP-Invoice integrates billing into WordPress. You can send clients itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand functionality with free and premium add-ons that let you manage locations, accept electronic signatures, 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 several 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, seeing invoice receipts and invoice history, creating email notification templates, viewing reports (collected vs uncollected invoices, ten 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 WP Plugin)
This complete business management solution includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with support ticket management system, client relationship management and many added features.
(All In One Business Management Application – Client Invoicing)
The plugin supports international 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)
This is a scalable business software that lets you manage and communicate with clients, track your company’s cash flow and net worth, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software WordPress Plugin – Invoice)
It lets you get paid faster online by integrating with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Financial Themes For WordPress
To benefit the most from using WordPress to grow your business online, it’s best to choose a theme specifically for accounting. Here is a list of some of the best themes themes available for accounting. With the themes below you can 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 premium theme is an inexpensive turn-key theme built for accountants and accounting firms. It’s a responsive theme with a drag-and-drop page-builder, has several page templates, a custom menu feature, a content composer (which improves on the standard WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, auto-resizing for images, and lots more.
Accounting Pro can be expanded with premium add-ons.
More info:
Accountancy
(Accountancy)
This premium theme for WordPress comes with a variety of built-in styles and layouts that helps make your accounting site look and feel professional.
This fully responsive theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, it’s lightweight, SEO friendly, and fast loading. Accountancy Theme provides the features your business needs without bloating your theme. Free updates and 1 year of support is included in the price.
Visit this site to learn more about this WordPress theme:
Accounting
(Accounting – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress includes a drag-and-drop builder so you can design your site any way you want. It also provides unlimited sidebars and custom widgets, four different header types, a custom admin panel, different color schemes, a custom slider, three different blog types, and is fully responsive. Accountancy looks clean and modern and is fast to load.
Go here for more details:
Kathryn
(Kathryn – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was created specifically for accounting businesses. Kathryn provides multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, widgetized home page, flexible rotator, call to action boxes, author boxes for single or multiple bloggers, many color choices, is easy to use, inexpensive, search optimized, and is fully responsive. Although it can easily fit any profession, 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.
Go here for more info:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WordPress Theme)
This one was designed to exude professionalism within the accounting industry. Every color, layout element, icon, menu item, page structure, call-to-action, etc., was specifically designed to make your accounting business site look professional while not 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 details section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials, and a blog.
To learn more about this theme, go here:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate)
This is a corporate theme developed for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the bundled images or upload your own. It also includes a custom post type for staff profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s clean and loads fast.
To learn more about about using this theme, visit the theme website:
Divi
(Divi – WordPress Theme)
This is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire theme collection. You can create a unique, professional site 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 easily edit the structure of their web pages without editing code.
(Divi WP Theme – Page Builder)
It has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. It has multiple layouts, a slider, you can place pricing tables, testimonials, call-to-action, and lots more. Divi is mobile-friendly and fully customizable. Themes start at $69 per year and includes full access to all stunning themes.
For more details, go here:
The Corporation
(The Corporation – WordPress Theme)
This theme was specifically created to create good-looking corporate websites.
This theme has a 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. Prices start at $69 per year and includes access to all stunning themes.
For more information, go here:
Adviser
(Adviser – WordPress Theme)
This one was developed to help finance industry professionals build trust online through clean design. It’s ideal for businesses that provide services such as investing or tax help. It includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications. It also includes a lease calculator. It includes multiple shortcodes and widgets, and includes the drag-and-drop visual composer.
More info:
Tax Help
(Tax Help Theme)
This premium theme was built specifically for financial organizations, tax and financial advisors, and firms providing tax assistance. Tax Help is designed to show your services in a professional way to help build your professional reputation. It has different 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)
Finance Business was developed specifically for businesses that provide financial services including consulting, tax help, corporate, finance, insurance, accounting, loans, and more. The theme 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, 2 premium sliders, page settings, color management features, animated elements, and lots 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, this article has helped you learn WordPress plugins and themes for improving SEO, increasing user engagement and generating more visitors.
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