In Part 1 of this guide on ways to build your accounting web presence, we covered the following topics:
- Challenges Accountants Face Online
- Opportunities For Accountants In The Online Economy
- Improve Your Website Pages
- Ways To Improve The Content On Your Site
In this section, we discuss more ways to grow your accounting business online. Areas covered below include:
- How To Improve Traffic
- Tips For Generating Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress
- WordPress Plugins That Can Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic To Your Website Generation
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, go here:
Ways To Improve Traffic Using WordPress
Web traffic is an important part of your online business growth. This section discusses WordPress plugins for improving SEO, increasing user engagement and traffic generation.
Optimizing Your Site For SEO With WordPress
There are loads of ways WordPress can help to improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO:
- SEO-Friendly – Set the permalinks to use the title of the post.
- Post Tags – Specify the keywords that you want your articles to be indexed by in the search engines.
- Categories – Add search engine-friendly categories for your posts and products.
- Post Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose descriptions for your posts that will appear in search results.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your content images for improved search results.
- Internal Content Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that allows you to easily link your content to other posts and pages on your site
- Post Notification – Configure your site to automatically notify other sites and directories immediately upon publishing a new post on your website.
WordPress Plugins That Can Help Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, the WP developer community makes available also a number of plugins that improve your website’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your website.
For example, you can use the plugins below to improve your site’s search engine optimization:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin (for search engines)
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your website’s search engine optimization)
Other things you can do to improve your accounting or financial services site’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your site are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social sharing features. Here are a few powerful WordPress plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – This plugin allows you to set up a social networking community on WordPress, with member profiles, messaging, activity streams, user groups, and more.
- bbPress – This free plugin allows you to set up a forum on WordPress.
- E-Newsletter – Send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP dashboard.
- Disqus – This plugin lets you power discussions and helps to increase engagement on your website.
- Monarch – This WordPress plugin lets you add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online on your website.
(You can add social sharing buttons to your website easily using WordPress plugins)
Generate More Leads & Enquiries With WordPress
This section will show you how to improve sales and generate new leads and enquiries online.
Provide A Newsletter
Adding an email newsletter is an excellent way to grow and retain your readership. It provides several benefits and advantages including:
- Drives targeted traffic to your website
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides practical tips and advice
- Provides a highly targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to provide special products or services to a select audience
- Provides new opportunities for improving user engagement
- Provides you with an additional way for your content to be shared around with new potential clients
A proven way to get your visitors to become subscribers is to provide users with information of high value and offer them free gifts or bonus items in exchange for their details. This could be an exclusive guide, checklists for handling tax, access to tax calculators, coupons, access to subscriber-only content, contests, etc.
Add A Contact Form
A contact form makes it easy and simple for prospective customers to contact you. Users can report issues, ask questions to specific departments, ask for quotes, give suggestions for new services or products and more.
A contact form provides several benefits and advantages including:
- Reducing spam
- Automated response
- Gives you control over what is sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- Different forms can be added to any page or post
- Improves the professional look of your site
- Is convenient for users
One of the most popular contact form plugins is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin For WordPress)
Contact Form 7 is easy to install and configure and allows you to create and manage multiple contact forms on your posts and pages, customize your forms and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, and spam filtering is also supported.
Something to consider is adding sections to your contact form so users can choose which department they want to contact. This will help you to get the comment to the right person.
Map Integration
A map helps your visitors and customers find you.
Inserting maps (e.g. Google Maps), into your site also provides many benefits, such as:
- They increase local SEO
- Helps visitors find you easily
- Shows location of events
(Adding maps helps your visitors and customers 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 That Can Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation
Financial Plugins For WordPress
WordPress makes available a number of plugins you can add to your accounting website that will immediately make available a range of functional tools for your site visitors. Here are some of these plugins:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators WordPress Plugin)
This is a free collection of 400+ calculators that you can provide to users on your website. Internationalization is supported.
Note: Most of them aren’t focused specifically on accounting, but there are a few for:
- Interest rate
- Payments
- Tax
- Debit
- And more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress Plugin)
This plugin gives you a widget that displays a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can show as many widgets as you like.
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin For WordPress – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker Plugin)
With this plugin you can add custom stock tickers to any sidebar, page or post using shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker offers a number of customizable ticker. Choose from built-in themes or customize these yourself to match the look and feel of your site. You can also create custom stocks for individual categories.
Customize the appearance by changing height, width, background color, number of stocks displayed simultaneously, text color, font family, font size, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin)
This free calculator allows your users to calculate indicative repayments online. This is a great financial tool for car loans, property loans, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress – Loan Calculators)
This plugin also contains an application form that sends a message to the email address you specify.
Other features of this plugin include showing 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.
This plugin lets you integrate billing into WordPress. You can send out itemized invoices. It also allows you to set up recurring billing. It can be expanded through both free and premium add-ons, like business location, electronic signature, PDF creation, quote creation, single-page 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, and many others.
Plugin features include adding custom payments and charges, creating pre-defined line items and discounts, viewing invoice status and progression, filtering and finding invoices, seeing invoice receipts and invoice history, creating email notification templates, accessing 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 WordPress Plugin)
This is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with ticketing management system, CRM and many added features.
(All In One Business Management Application – Client Invoice)
All In One Business Management Application 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)
This is a scalable business software that lets you manage client data and invoices, track your company’s net worth and cash flow, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software – WordPress Plugin – Invoice)
iBilling Accounting and Billing Software integrates with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
WordPress Themes For Accounting And Financial Services
To benefit the most from using WordPress to grow your business online, we recommend choosing a theme specifically suited for accounting businesses. Here is a list of some of the best accountancy themes available. 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 website design.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro)
This premium theme for WordPress is an inexpensive turn-key theme for accountants and accounting firms. It’s a responsive theme with a drag-and-drop page-builder, has several page templates, custom menu features, a content composer (gives you an improved WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, auto-resized images, and a whole lot more.
You can easily customize Accounting Pro by installing premium add-ons.
More info:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme for WordPress has 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 section, 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. Your purchase includes free updates and one year of support.
Visit this site to learn more about this theme:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme For WordPress)
Accounting 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 administration panel, different color schemes, custom slider, three different blog types, and is responsive (mobile-friendly). Accountancy looks clean and modern and loads fast.
Go here for more details:
Kathryn
(Kathryn – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was developed specifically for accountants. Kathryn 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 color choices, is easy to use, inexpensive, search optimized, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). Although it can easily fit any profession you like, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
For more information, go here:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WordPress Theme)
This theme was built to exude professionalism within the accounting industry. It features authoritative colors and elements designed specifically 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 responsive and includes pages for your accounting services, contact section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials, and a blog.
For more information, go here:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate – WordPress Theme)
This is a free corporate theme built specifically for professional service providers such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate includes a custom post type adding staff profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is a clean-looking and fast-loading theme.
Visit this site to learn more about using this WordPress theme:
Divi
(Divi – WordPress Theme)
Divi is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ collection. You can create any kind of professional site you want using its page builder or beautiful and unique pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout to your heart’s content.
The builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and edit the structure of their page without editing any code.
(Divi Theme For WordPress – Flexible Page Builder)
It has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. Modules include multiple layouts, a slider, you can place pricing tables, testimonials, call-to-action, and lots more. It is fully responsive and completely customizable. Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to 80+ sleek business themes.
For more details, go here:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme for WordPress from Elegant Themes was created specifically to create great-looking corporate websites.
The Corporation has a sleek and professional page-based home page design with a nice slider. It also has a blog design. It comes with six color schemes. It also has multiple page templates that include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to 80+ beautifully-designed themes.
Go here for more details:
Adviser
(Adviser WP Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was built specifically to help finance professionals build trust online with a clean business design. It’s perfect for those that provide services like investments or tax help. Adviser includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications. It also includes a built-in lease calculator. It includes multiple shortcodes and widgets, and includes the drag-and-drop visual composer.
More info:
Tax Help
(Tax Help – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was built for financial organizations, tax and financial advisors, and businesses that offer tax services. This theme is designed to show your services professionally and help build your professional reputation. It comes with a range of blog styles, uses a drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and additional custom shortcodes.
Visit the theme site to learn more about this WordPress theme:
Finance Business
(Finance Business Theme)
Finance Business was designed for organizations that provide financial services including tax help, consulting, insurance, finance, corporate, accounting, loans, and more. This theme 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 the custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page settings, color management features, 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
We hope that you have found this article on ways to improve SEO, improve user engagement and drive more traffic with plugins and themes helpful.
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