In Part 1 of this article on ways to improve your accounting web presence, we provided in-depth information on the following areas:
- Online Challenges For Accountants
- Online Opportunities For Professional Accountants
- Your Web Pages
- Ways To Improve The Content On Your Site
In this section, we explore more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Areas covered include:
- Ways Of Improving Web Traffic
- Generating More Leads & Enquiries
- WordPress Plugins & Themes For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Traffic Generation
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, see these articles:
Tips For Accountants – WordPress Plugins That Can Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Drive More Web Traffic
Web traffic is vital to your business growth. This section will help you improve your web traffic.
Optimize Your Website For Search Engines (SEO)
There are loads of ways that WordPress helps improve your website’s SEO:
- URLs – Set the permalinks to create search engine-optimized web addresses for your articles and posts.
- Tags – WordPress lets you choose the keywords that you want search engines to index your posts for.
- Categories – Create categories for your posts and products.
- Post Excerpts – Set the description for your posts that visitors will see in the search engine results.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your images for improved search engine results.
- Internal Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that allows you to easily link your content to other posts and pages on your site
- Pinging – Configure your site to automatically notify (ping) other search directories as soon as a new post is published on your website.
WordPress Plugins That Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Improve User Engagement And Drive More Web Traffic
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, the WordPress community makes available many plugins that improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors to your site.
For example, you can install the plugins below to improve your SEO:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin (lists all of your pages and posts for indexing by search engines)
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your website’s search engine optimization)
Other WordPress tools you can use to improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your website are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing. Here are a few useful plugins that can help (many of the plugins described below can be downloaded at no cost):
- BuddyPress – Run an online social network on your WordPress website.
- bbPress – bbPress can be used to set up and manage a forum on your site.
- E-Newsletter – Use this WordPress plugin to send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP dashboard.
- Disqus – This plugin lets you power discussions and increases engagement on your site.
- Floating Social – Easily add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online on your posts and pages.
(You can easily add social features to your site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
Generate Leads & Enquiries With WordPress
This section explains ways to improve your sales and generate more leads and enquiries for your business.
Adding A Newsletter
Providing a newsletter is an excellent way to grow and retain your readership. Adding email newsletters] provides a number of benefits and advantages including:
- Drives targeted traffic to your website
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides updates
- Provides you with a targeted marketing channel
- Allows you to provide special products or services to a select audience
- Increases user engagement
- Provides you with additional opportunities for your content to be shared with new prospective clients
An effective strategy for getting visitors to subscribe to your newsletter is to provide them with valuable content and offer them free gifts or bonus items in exchange for their personal details. This could be a time-saving guide, tips for handling finances, access to tax calculators, coupons, membership access to videos, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
Contact forms provide an easy and simple way for prospective clients to get in touch. Visitors can report issues, ask questions to specific departments, request a quote, and more.
A contact form provides many benefits, like:
- Reduces spam
- Automated response
- Giving you control over what gets sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- They can be added to any page or post
- Looks professional
- Convenience for site visitors
One of the most popular contact form plugins for WordPress is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 – WordPress Plugin)
Contact form 7 is a free plugin that lets you create multiple contact forms to your posts and pages, customize the form and the email contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, and spam filtering is supported.
Something to consider is to add sections to your contact form so users can choose which department they want to contact. 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.
Maps are very useful tools for several reasons:
- A map improves local SEO
- Visitors can find you more easily
- Show location of events
(Maps help your visitors and clients 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
How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors To Your Accounting Services Site With Plugins
Financial Plugins For WordPress
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your website that will immediately make available a range of practical tools for users. Here are some of the plugins you can choose from:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin)
This is a free collection of over 400 calculators. You can embed them into your pages, posts, or sidebars using shortcodes. It supports internationalization
Note: Most of the calculators aren’t focused on accounting, but there are a few you can use for:
- Mortgage
- Rate of return
- Leases
- Debit
- And more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin gives you a widget that shows up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can show as many widgets as you like.
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker WordPress Plugin)
This plugin lets you add custom stock tickers to any sidebar, page or post with shortcodes.
This plugin comes with loads of customizable features. Choose from built-in skins or customize these yourself to match your site. You can also create custom stocks for individual categories.
Appearance customizations include height, width, scroll speed, opacity, background color, number of stocks displayed simultaneously, font family, font size, text color, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress)
This free calculator allows your visitors to calculate indicative repayments online. This is a useful financial tool for calculating vehicle loans, real estate, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator Plugin – Loan Calculator)
Finance Calculator also contains an application form that sends a notification message to the email address you specify.
It will show 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)
WP-Invoice lets you send itemized invoices to clients.
This plugin integrates billing into WordPress. You can send itemized invoices. It even allows you to set up recurring billing. WP-Invoice can be expanded through both free and premium add-ons that let you manage business, accept electronic signatures from clients, create PDF invoices, provide 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, 2Checkout, Interkassa, and several others.
You can add custom payments and charges, create pre-defined line items and discounts, quickly view invoice status and progression, filter and find invoices, show invoice receipts and invoice history, create notification email templates, view reports (collected vs uncollected invoices, 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 For WordPress)
This complete business management system includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with knowledgebase and ticketing system, client relationship management and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application – WordPress Plugin – Invoice)
All In One Business Management Application supports international languages, is fully customizable and provides additional 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 Plugin)
iBilling is a scalable business software that lets you manage clients and invoicing, tracks 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 – Client Invoice)
It integrates with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting – WordPress Themes
To get the best features and professional look for your website, we recommend choosing a theme specifically suited for accounting businesses. Here is a look at some of the best WordPress themes available for accounting. These themes allow you to own a professional-looking accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro WP Theme)
This premium theme is a turn-key theme designed for accountants and accounting 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, auto-resizing for images, and a whole lot more.
You can easily customize Accounting Pro with premium add-ons.
Go here for more information about using this theme:
Accountancy
(Accountancy – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress comes with a variety of built-in styles and layouts to make your accounting site look and feel professional.
This mobile-friendly theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, it’s lightweight, search optimized, and fast loading. It provides what you need without bloating your theme with features you don’t need. The cost of purchase includes free updates and 1 year of support.
Visit the theme website to learn more this WordPress theme:
Accounting
(Accounting – WordPress Theme)
This theme includes a drag-and-drop builder so you can design your website any way you want. The theme also provides 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. It looks clean and modern and loads fast.
More info:
Kathryn
(Kathryn)
This premium WordPress theme was designed specifically for accountants. It has a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, widgetized home page, flexible rotator, call to action boxes, author boxes for single or multiple bloggers, many colors, is easy to use, search optimized, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). Although it can easily fit any profession, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy responsive slider plugin and must be purchased separately from the Genesis Framework.
Go here for more information:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WordPress Theme)
Accounting WordPress Theme was created to exude professionalism within the accounting industry. Every color, layout element, icon, menu item, page structure, call-to-action, etc., is specifically designed to help make your accounting business site look professional without 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 services, contact form section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials section, and a blog.
To learn more about about using this WordPress theme, visit the theme website:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate – WordPress Theme)
This is a corporate theme developed for professional service providers such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the bundled images or upload your own. It includes a custom post type for employee profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s a clean-looking and fast-loading theme.
To learn more about this theme, visit this website:
Divi
(Divi)
This premium WordPress theme is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection of WordPress themes. Divi lets you create a unique, professional site using its page builder or beautiful and unique pre-made layouts. You can change your layout as much as you need.
Divi’s page builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and change the structure of their pages without touching code.
(Divi Theme – Flexible Page Builder)
It comes with 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. This includes audio player, blog, code, countdown timer, gallery, number counter, portfolio, slider, tabs, video slider, fullwidth image, fullwidth menu, fullwidth slider, and more.. Divi is mobile-friendly and fully customizable. Themes start at $69 per year and includes access to over 80 sleek business themes.
For more information, go here:
The Corporation
(The Corporation – WordPress Theme)
This theme from Elegant Themes was designed specifically to make corporate sites look good.
It has a sleek page-based home page design with a eye-catching slider. It also has a blog design. It has 6 unique color schemes. It also comes with multiple page templates which include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to all beautifully-designed themes.
For more details, go here:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was specifically built to help finance professionals build trust online through clean design. It’s perfect for those that provide services such as investment advice or tax advice. Adviser includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, lease calculator, multiple shortcodes and widgets, and a drag-and-drop visual composer..
Go here to learn more about this WordPress theme:
Tax Help
(Tax Help Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was designed specifically for financial organizations, tax and financial advisors, and those offering tax services. 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.
To learn more about about using this WordPress theme, go here:
Finance Business
(Finance Business WP Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was built for businesses that provide any type of financial service such as tax help, consulting, insurance, finance, corporate, loans, accounting, and more. This 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, animations, and a whole lot more.
For more information about this WordPress theme, go here:
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 for improving SEO, increasing user engagement and web traffic generation.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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