In Part 1 of this step-by-step guide on ways to improve your accounting business online, we provided in-depth information on the following areas:
- Online Challenges For Accountants
- Opportunities For Accounting Businesses In The Online Economy
- Ways To Improve Your Web Pages
- Tips For Improving Your Content
In this section, we discuss more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Areas covered below include:
- Tips For Improving Web Traffic Using WordPress
- Generate More Leads & Enquiries With WordPress-Based Tools
- How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Generate More Web Traffic Using WordPress Plugins & Themes
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, go here:
How To Improve Traffic
Web traffic is an important part of your online business growth. In this section, we discuss WordPress plugins and themes that can help improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and increase web traffic generation.
Optimizing Your Site For Search Engines (SEO) Using WordPress
There are many ways WordPress can help to optimize your accounting or financial services website for search engines:
- Search Engine-Friendly URLs – Set the permalinks to create search engine-optimized web addresses for your articles and posts.
- Post Tags – WordPress lets you select the keywords that you want search engines to index your articles for.
- Categories – Create categories for archiving and organizing your content.
- Excerpts – Set descriptions for your posts that visitors will see in the search engine results.
- Images – title your images with keywords for improved search results.
- Internal Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that lets you easily link your content to other posts and pages
- Post Notification – WordPress can be set up to automatically notify (ping) other sites and directories as soon as a new post is published on your website.
WordPress Plugins That Can Help To Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, the WP community makes available various plugins that will improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.
For example, you can install the plugins below to improve your SEO:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress XML sitemap plugin
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your SEO)
Other things you can do to improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic to your business are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social sharing features. Here are a few more plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – This free WordPress plugin lets you set up and manage a social networking community on your WordPress website, with member profiles, user groups, messaging, activity streams, and more.
- bbPress – Run your own online forum on WordPress.
- E-Newsletter – E-Newsletter lets you send professional email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress site.
- Disqus – Power discussions and helps to increase engagement on your website or blog.
- Floating Social – This plugin lets you add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online on your website or blog.
(You can add social sharing buttons to your website easily with free or inexpensive plugins)
Generate New Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress
Let’s take a look now at ways to improve sales and generate leads and enquiries online.
Provide An Email Newsletter
Adding an email newsletter is a great way to build a subscriber list. It provides a number of benefits and advantages including:
- Drives targeted traffic to your site
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides useful updates
- Provides you with a highly targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to provide special products or services to a select audience
- Provides regular opportunities for user interaction
- Provides you with an additional way for your content to be shared around with others
A proven way to entice your visitors to subscribe is to provide high value content and give users free gifts in exchange for their details. This could be a useful report, tips for handling finances, access to financial calculators, coupons, membership access to courses, contests, etc.
Adding Contact Forms
A contact form provides an easy and simple way for prospective customers to get in touch with you. Contact forms also let readers raise problems, ask questions to specific departments, request a quote, send suggestions for improvements and more.
A contact form provides many benefits including:
- Reducing spam
- Automated response
- Giving you control over what is sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- Can be added to any post or page
- Looks professional
- Convenience for users
A popular WordPress contact form plugin is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin is easy to install and configure and allows you to create and manage multiple contact forms on 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.
Something else to consider is to segment your contact form so prospective customers can choose the department they want to contact. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Adding A Map
Adding maps helps your visitors and customers find you.
Maps are useful tools for several reasons:
- They increase local SEO
- Visitors can find you more easily and plan their trips better
- Shows location of events
(Adding a map helps your visitors and customers find you)
Here are just some of the more plugins that let you embed, customize and display maps on your website:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Visitors To Your Website With Plugins & Themes
WordPress Plugins
WordPress makes available a number of plugins you can add to your accounting or financial services site that will immediately make available a range of functional tools for users. Here are just some of these plugins:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin For WordPress)
This is a free collection of over 400 calculators. You can embed them into your pages, posts, or sidebars using shortcodes. It supports internationalization
Most of them aren’t focused on accounting, but there are quite a few for:
- Interest rate
- Loans
- Tax
- Equity
- And lots more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin lets you add a widget that displays up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many widgets as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin For WordPress – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker – WordPress Plugin)
With this plugin you can add a custom stock ticker to any page, post, or sidebar with shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker offers loads 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 individual categories.
Customize the appearance by changing width, height, scroll speed, opacity, number of stocks displayed simultaneously, font size, font family, 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. This is a great tool for calculating vehicle loans, real estate loans, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator – Loan Calculators)
The plugin also contains an application form that will send a 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 WordPress blog owners send itemized invoices to their clients.
This plugin integrates billing into WordPress. You can send out 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 locations, accept electronic signatures, create PDF versions of invoices, provide quotes, create checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into WP’s 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, insert pre-defined line items and discounts, view invoice status and progression, filter and find invoices, see invoice receipts and invoice history, create e-mail notification templates, display 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 – WordPress Plugin)
This complete business management solution includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with knowledgebase and support ticketing system, CRM and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application WordPress Plugin – Client Invoice)
The plugin supports different languages, is fully customizable and provides powerful tools such as document management, notice board, and more.
For more details, go here}:
iBilling – Accounting And Billing Software
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software WP Plugin)
This is a scalable business software that lets you manage customers and invoicing, tracks your company’s cash flow and net worth, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin For WordPress – Client Invoicing)
iBilling integrates with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting Themes For WordPress
To benefit the most from using WordPress, we recommend choosing a theme specifically for accounting. Below is a list of some of the best accounting themes available. These themes allow you to have a professional-looking accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro Theme)
Accounting Pro is an inexpensive turn-key theme built for accountants and accounting firms. It’s responsive, has 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 a whole lot more.
Accounting Pro can be expanded by installing premium add-ons.
More information:
Accountancy
(Accountancy – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress comes in 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, SEO friendly, fast loading, and is responsive. It provides the flexibility you need without bloating your theme with features you don’t need. Free updates and 1 year of support is included with the cost of purchasing.
Visit this site to learn more this WordPress theme:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme includes a drag-and-drop builder so you can design your website any way you want. The theme also provides unlimited sidebars with custom widgets, four different header types, a custom admin panel, different color schemes, a custom slider, 3 blog types, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). Accountancy is a clean-looking, modern and fast loading theme.
More information:
Kathryn
(Kathryn Theme)
This premium theme was built specifically for accountants. Kathryn allows you to use WordPress as a true CMS and offers multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, a variety of color options, is easy to use, inexpensive, search engine optimized, and is 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.
To learn more about using this WordPress theme, go here:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was built to exude professionalism within the accounting industry. Every color, layout element, icon, menu item, page structure, call-to-action, etc., is specifically designed to give your accounting site a professional look. It’s a turn-key installation but you can still modify it if you want. It’s mobile-friendly and includes pages for your services, contact details section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials section, and a blog.
Go here for more information about this theme:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate – WordPress Theme)
WP Advocate is a corporate theme developed for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate includes a custom post type adding employee profiles and can also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is a clean and fast-loading theme.
More info:
Divi
(Divi WP Theme)
This premium theme is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection of WordPress themes. You can create a professional site using the page builder or beautiful and unique pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout to your heart’s content.
Divi’s page builder transforms web elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and easily redesign the structure of their web pages without editing any code.
(Divi – WordPress Theme – Page Builder)
Divi comes with 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 responsive and fully customizable. Prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to all beautifully-designed themes.
To learn more about this theme, go here:
The Corporation
(The Corporation – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress from Elegant Themes was created specifically to make corporate websites look good.
The Corporation has a page-based home page design with a nice slider. It also has a blog design and features that toggle on and off. It comes with 6 unique color schemes. It also has multiple page templates that include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to all beautifully-designed themes.
Go here for more details:
Adviser
(Adviser)
The Adviser WordPress Theme was designed to help finance professionals build trust online through clean web design. It’s perfect for businesses that provide services like investing advice or tax help. Adviser includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, a built-in lease calculator, multiple shortcodes and widgets, and the drag-and-drop visual composer..
Go here for more details:
Tax Help
(Tax Help)
Tax Help Theme was developed for financial companies, tax and finance advisors, and those offering tax assistance. The theme is designed to showcase your services professionally to help build 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 this WordPress theme, go here:
Finance Business
(Finance Business WP Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was specifically built for businesses that provide any type of financial service including tax help, consulting, insurance, corporate, finance, loans, accounting, and more. The theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin. It also has around 100 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 a lot more.
Go here for more details:
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 & themes that can improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more visitors.
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