In Part One of this article on ways to grow your accounting business online, we provided in-depth information on the following areas:
- Challenges Accounting Professionals Face Online
- Opportunities For The Accounting Profession In The Digital Economy
- Improve Your Web Pages
- Improving Your Content
In this section, we discuss more ways to grow your accounting business online. Topics covered include:
- Ways To Improve Web Traffic With WordPress
- Ways To Generate Leads & Enquiries
- Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors To Your Website Using WordPress Plugins
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
Tips For Improving Web Traffic With WordPress
Web traffic is a vital part of your online business growth. This section will help you improve your web traffic.
Optimize Your Site For SEO With WordPress
There are lots of ways WordPress can help to optimize your website for search engines:
- URLs – configure the permalinks to create search engine-optimized web addresses for your articles and posts.
- Post Tags – WordPress lets you choose the keywords that you want search engines to index your articles for.
- Post Categories – Add search engine-friendly categories for your posts and products.
- Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose an excerpt that will display to search engine users.
- Images – title images with keywords for improved search engine results.
- Internal Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that lets you easily create internal links
- Post Notification – Set up your WordPress site to automatically notify (ping) other sites and directories immediately upon publishing new content on your website.
Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic To Your Business Generation With WordPress Plugins
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, there are dozens of WordPress plugins that will improve your website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more web 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 XML sitemap plugin (for search engines)
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your website’s search engine optimization)
Other ways to improve your website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more traffic to your website are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social features. Here are a few powerful WordPress plugins that can help (many of the plugins described below can be downloaded at no cost):
- BuddyPress – This plugin can be used to run your own social network on your WordPress site.
- bbPress – This free WordPress plugin helps you run a forum on WordPress.
- E-Newsletter – Send professional email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP dashboard, without a third party subscription.
- Disqus – Power discussions and helps to increase engagement on your site.
- Floating Social – This WordPress plugin lets you add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online to your site.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
Generating Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress-Based Applications
In this section we will discuss how to improve your sales and generate leads and enquiries.
Adding A Newsletter
Adding an email newsletter is a great way to retain and grow your readership. Adding email newsletters] provides many benefits and advantages including:
- Sends targeted traffic to your site
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides updates
- Provides a highly targeted marketing channel
- Allows you to offer special services or products to a select audience
- Provides new opportunities for user interaction
- Provides an additional way for readers to share your content
A proven way to entice visitors to subscribe to your email newsletter is to provide users with high value content and offer them something valuable for free in exchange for their details. This could be a handy 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 prospective customers to contact you. A contact form also allows visitors to report issues, ask questions to specific departments, request quotes, and more.
A contact form provides a number of benefits and advantages, like:
- Reducing spam
- Set up automated responses
- Gives you control over what is sent to you
- You can keep your email address private
- Can be added to any page or post
- Looks professional
- Convenience for users
One of the most popular contact form plugins is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 – WordPress Plugin)
This free contact form plugin allows you to add multiple contact forms, customize the form and the email contents, add fields, and more.
The plugin also supports international languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, spam filtering and so on.
Something to consider is to add sections to your contact form so prospects can choose which topic they are contacting you about. This helps visitors get the comment to the right person.
Map
Adding a map helps your visitors and clients find you.
Maps are a very useful tool for several reasons:
- Maps help to increase local SEO
- Visitors can find your office more easily
- Display location of events
(Adding maps 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
How To Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Web Traffic Using WordPress Plugins
Financial Plugins For WordPress
WordPress makes available a number of plugins you can add 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 – WordPress Plugin)
This plugin provides a free collection of over 400 calculators that you can provide to users on your website and embed into your pages, posts, or sidebars using shortcodes. It also supports internationalization
Note: Most of the calculators aren’t focused specifically on accounting, but there are a few for:
- Mortgage
- Rate of return
- Tax
- Equity
- And many more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin installs a widget that displays a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can show as many portfolios as you like.
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker Plugin)
This free plugin lets you add custom stock tickers to any page, post, or sidebar using shortcodes.
The plugin comes with a number of customizable ticker. You can choose from built-in skins or customize it yourself to match the look and feel of your site. You can also create custom stocks for specific categories.
Customize the appearance by changing speed, text, colors, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator – WordPress Plugin)
This free plugin lets your site visitors calculate indicative repayments. It’s great for calculating repayments on automotive loans, property loans, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator Plugin – Loan Calculator)
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 – WordPress Plugin)
WP-Invoice is ideal for WordPress business users with clients to bill.
This plugin integrates billing into WordPress. You can send out itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand plugin functionality with both free and premium add-ons, like business location, electronic signature, PDF creation, quoting, checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into the WP user management database to keep track of clients and their information, and integrates with PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and many others.
You can add custom payments and charges, create pre-defined line items and discounts, quickly view invoice status and progression, easily filter and find invoices, show invoice receipts and invoice history, create email notification 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 Plugin)
This complete business management system includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with knowledgebase and ticket management system, CRM and many added features.
(All In One Business Management Application – Invoice)
All In One Business Management Application supports multiple languages, is fully customizable and provides additional tools like 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 customer data and invoices, track your company’s net worth and cash flow, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin For WordPress – Client Invoice)
iBilling integrates with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting And Financial Services – WordPress Themes
To benefit the most from using WordPress to grow your business online, 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 these themes you can own a professional accounting website within minutes and save hundreds to thousands of dollars on the cost of website design.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro)
Accounting Pro is an inexpensive turn-key theme created for accountants and accountancy firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, has several page templates, custom menus, a content composer (which improves on the standard WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, performs auto resizing for images, and a whole lot more.
Accounting Pro can be expanded with premium add-ons.
To learn more about this WordPress theme, visit this website:
Accountancy
(Accountancy WordPress Theme)
Accountancy Theme comes with a variety of styles and layouts to give your accounting website a professional look and feel.
It includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, and more. It’s lightweight, search engine optimized, loads fast, and is responsive. Accountancy Theme provides what you need without bloating your theme. Your purchase includes free updates and one year of support.
More info:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme For WordPress)
This theme includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your site any way you want. It also has unlimited sidebars and custom widgets, four different types of headers, a custom admin panel, four color schemes, custom slider, three different blog types, and is responsive (mobile-friendly). It looks clean and modern and is fast to load.
More information:
Kathryn
(Kathryn WP Theme)
Kathryn is created for accountants. Kathryn allows you to use WordPress as a true content management system and offers multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, a variety of color choices, is easy to use, SEO friendly, and is mobile-friendly. Although this theme can easily fit any profession you want it to, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
Go here for more details:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This theme was designed to enhance professionalism within the accounting industry. It features an authoritative color scheme and elements designed specifically to make your accounting business website look professional while not looking dull. It’s a turn-key installation but you can still modify it if you want. It’s responsive (mobile-friendly) and includes pages for your accounting services, contact section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials section, and a blog.
More info:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate Theme)
This is a free corporate theme built for professional service providers such as accountants and attorneys. Use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate also includes a custom post type adding staff profiles and can also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s a clean-looking and fast-loading theme.
More information:
Divi
(Divi Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection of WordPress themes. You can create any style of professional website you want using the page builder or pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout as much as you need.
Divi’s page builder transforms web elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and easily edit the structure of their web pages without editing a single line of code.
(Divi Theme For WordPress – Page Builder)
Divi 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 fully responsive and fully customizable. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to 80+ beautifully-designed themes.
More information:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was developed specifically to make corporate websites look good.
The Corporation has a page-based home page design with a prominent slider, blog design, six unique color schemes, 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 over 80 themes.
For more details, go here:
Adviser
(Adviser – WordPress Theme)
This theme was built to help businesses in the financial industry to build trust with a clean business design. It’s ideal for businesses that provide services like investing or tax advice. The Adviser theme includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, a lease calculator, widgets and multiple shortcodes, and a drag-and-drop visual composer..
More information:
Tax Help
(Tax Help Theme For WordPress)
Tax Help WordPress Theme was designed for financial organizations, tax and financial advisors, and firms that provide tax assistance. This theme is designed to show your services professionally to help grow your business reputation. It comes with different blog styles, uses the drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and many custom shortcodes.
Go here for more information:
Finance Business
(Finance Business – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was designed for organizations that provide financial services including tax help, consulting, insurance, corporate, finance, accounting, loans, 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, two premium sliders, page options, color management features, animated elements, and a whole lot more.
Go here to learn more about this theme:
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 comprehensive guide has helped you learn ways to improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more traffic with plugins & themes.
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