In Part One of this article on ways to improve your accounting web presence, we provided in-depth information on the following areas:
- Online Challenges For The Accounting & Financial Services Profession
- Opportunities For Professional Accountants
- Improving Your Web Pages
- Ways To Improve Your Content
In this section, we discuss more ways to grow your accounting business online. Areas covered below include:
- How To Improve Traffic
- Ways To Generate New Leads & Enquiries
- Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, see these articles:
Your Accounting Website – Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Traffic To Your Business Generation With Plugins And Themes
Your web traffic is vital to your business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic.
Optimizing Your Website For Search Engines (SEO) With WordPress
There are loads of ways WordPress can help to improve your website’s SEO:
- URLs – WordPress lets you set the permalinks to create search engine-optimized URLS for your posts.
- Tags – Specify the keywords that you want search engines to index your article pages (posts) for.
- Categories – Add SEO-friendly categories for your posts and products.
- Excerpts – Create an excerpt that will display in search results.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your content images for improved search engine results.
- Content Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that lets you easily link your content to other posts and pages on your site
- Pinging – WordPress can be configured to automatically notify (ping) other search directories the moment a new post is published on your website.
Improving SEO, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Traffic With Plugins
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, the WordPress community makes available dozens of plugins that improve your accounting website’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your website.
For example, you can use the plugins below to improve your site’s search engine optimization:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress XML sitemap plugin (for search engines)
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your SEO)
Other things you can do to improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing features. Here are a few more WordPress plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – This plugin allows you to set up your own social community on your WordPress site.
- bbPress – This plugin helps you run your own forum on your WordPress site.
- E-Newsletter – E-Newsletter allows you to send professional email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP site.
- Disqus – Power discussions and helps to increase user engagement on your website or blog.
- Social Media Feather – Add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online to your posts and pages.
(You can add social features to your site easily using free or inexpensive plugins)
Tips For Generating Leads & Enquiries With WordPress-Based Tools
Let’s discuss now how to improve sales and generate new leads and enquiries online.
Provide An Email Newsletter
Providing a newsletter is an excellent way to build a list of subscribers. It provides a number of benefits including:
- Drives targeted traffic to your site
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides practical tips and advice
- Provides you with a highly targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to offer special products or services to a select audience
- Provides new opportunities for increasing user interaction
- Provides additional ways for subscribers to share your content
One of the best ways to get visitors to subscribe is to provide high value content and offer users a free gift in exchange for their details. This can be a guide, checklists for handling finances, access to financial calculators, coupons, membership access to subscriber-only content, contests, etc.
Adding A Contact Form
Contact forms make it easy and simple for readers to get in touch. Contact forms also let users send feedback, contact specific departments, ask for a quote, and more.
Contact forms provide many 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
- Looks professional
- Convenience for site visitors
A very popular contact form plugin for WordPress is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 – WordPress Plugin)
Contact Form 7 is easy to install and set up and allows you to insert 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 to add sections to your contact form so prospects can select the topic they are contacting your company about. This helps you get the comment to the right person.
Provide Maps
Adding a map to your site helps your visitors and customers find you.
A map is a very useful tool for several reasons:
- A map improves local SEO
- Helps visitors find your office easily
- Display location of events
(Adding a map helps your visitors and clients find you)
Below are just some of the more popular plugins that let you embed, customize and display maps on your WordPress site:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Visitors To Your Accounting Site With Plugins
WordPress Accounting Plugins
WordPress provides a number of plugins you can add to your accounting site to immediately add a range of practical tools for your site 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 400+ calculators that you can display on your website and embed into your pages, posts, or sidebars using shortcodes. Internationalization is supported.
Note: Most of the calculators aren’t focused specifically on accounting, but there are quite a few you can use for:
- Interest rate
- Rate of return
- CD
- Debit
- And lots more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress Plugin)
This free plugin gives you a widget that displays a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many portfolios as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes WordPress Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker Plugin)
This plugin lets you place a custom stock ticker on any post, page or sidebar using shortcodes.
This plugin comes with several customizable ticker. 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 individual categories.
Appearance customizations include colours, size, speed, text, and symbols, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator)
This free plugin lets users calculate indicative repayments online. It’s great for calculating repayments on automotive loans, real estate loans, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator WordPress Plugin – 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)
WP-Invoice lets you send itemized invoices to clients.
This plugin lets you integrate billing into WordPress. You can send out itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand functionality with both free and premium add-ons, like business location, electronic signature, PDF creation, quoting, 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 PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, 2Checkout, PayPal Payments Pro, and many others.
The plugin gives you the ability to add custom payments and charges, add pre-defined line items and discounts, view invoice status and progression, filter and find invoices, show invoice receipts and invoice history, create email notification templates, access 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 Plugin)
This complete business management solution includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with support ticketing system, CRM and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin – Client Invoice)
The plugin supports different languages, is fully customizable and provides powerful tools such as document management, to do app, and more.
For more details, go here}:
iBilling – Accounting And Billing Software
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software – WordPress Plugin)
iBilling is a scalable business software that lets you manage and communicate with clients, track your company’s cash flow and net worth, send single-click payment reminders and payment confirmations, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software WP Plugin – Invoice)
It integrates with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Financial WordPress Themes
To get the most benefit out of growing your business online with WordPress, it’s best to choose a theme specifically suited for accounting businesses. Here is a list of some of the best accounting themes available. With the themes below you can have a professional-looking accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress is a turn-key theme for accountants and accountancy firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, offers several page templates, custom menu features, a content composer (which improves on the standard WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, performs auto resizing for images, and lots more.
You can customize Accounting Pro by installing premium add-ons.
Go here for more information:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme)
This theme has a variety of styles and layouts to make your accounting site look and feel professional.
This fully responsive (mobile-friendly) theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, it’s lightweight, search optimized, and loads fast. Accountancy Theme provides what you need without bloating your theme with features you don’t need. Your purchase includes free updates and one year of support.
For more information, go here:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme for WordPress includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to 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, custom slider, three different blog types, and is fully responsive. Accountancy is a clean-looking, modern and fast loading theme.
More information:
Kathryn
(Kathryn WP Theme)
This one is created for accounting services. The theme allows you to use WordPress as a true CMS and comes with a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, many colors, is easy to use, inexpensive, search engine friendly, and is mobile-friendly. Although it could easily suit any profession you like, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy responsive slider plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
More information:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting 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., was designed specifically to give your accounting site a professional look 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 accounting services, contact details section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials, and a blog.
Go here for more information:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate WP Theme)
This is a free corporate theme developed for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate also includes a custom post type adding staff profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s a clean and fast-loading theme.
Go here for more information about using this theme:
Divi
(Divi Theme)
Divi is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection. Divi lets you create a professional site using its page builder or beautiful pre-made layouts. You can change your layout to your heart’s content.
The builder transforms web elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and easily edit the structure of their page without touching any code.
(Divi Theme For WordPress – Flexible Page Builder)
Divi comes with 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. This includes multiple layouts, a slider, you can place pricing tables, testimonials, call-to-action, and lots more. It is mobile-friendly and fully customizable. Prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to 80+ beautifully-designed themes.
More information:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme from Elegant Themes was designed specifically to make corporate websites look great.
The Corporation has a sleek page-based home page design with a nice slider. It also has a blog design. It comes with six color schemes. It also comes with 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 over 80 beautifully-designed themes.
To learn more about using this theme, go here:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme For WordPress)
This premium WordPress theme was designed to help finance industry professionals build trust through clean web design. It’s perfect for those that provide services such as investment advice or tax help. It 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 was designed specifically for financial companies, tax and financial advisors, and firms providing tax services. It’s designed to show your services professionally to help grow your business 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.
To learn more about about using this WordPress theme, visit this website:
Finance Business
(Finance Business Theme For WordPress)
Finance Business was designed specifically for firms that provide financial services including consulting, tax help, insurance, corporate, finance, loans, accounting, and more. The theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin. It also has around one hundred shortcodes that includes charts and financial content. It also includes a custom drag-and-drop composer, 2 premium sliders, page options, color management, animated elements, and lots more.
Go here for more info:
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 comprehensive guide on how to improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and increase web traffic generation with plugins useful.
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