In Part One of this article on ways to grow your accounting web presence, we provided in-depth information on the following topics:
- Online Challenges For Accountants
- Opportunities For Professional Accountants
- Essential Website Pages
- Improve Your Content
In this section, we discuss more ways to grow your accounting business online. Areas covered include:
- Improve Traffic
- How To Generate More Leads & Enquiries
- How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With Plugins
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, see these articles:
Online Business Tips For Accountants – Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Web Traffic Using WordPress Plugins
Your web traffic is vital to your online business growth. In this section, you will learn ways of improving your accounting or financial services website with WordPress.
Optimize Your Site For SEO
There are many ways that WordPress helps optimize your website for search engines:
- Search Engine-Friendly URLs – configure the permalinks to create search engine-optimized web addresses for your article pages (called posts).
- Post Tags – WordPress lets you choose the keywords that you want your article pages (posts) to be indexed by in the search engines.
- Categories – Create search engine-friendly categories for keeping your content organized and easy to find.
- Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose an excerpt that visitors will see in the search engine results.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your images for better search results.
- Content Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that allows you to easily link your content to other posts on your site
- Pinging – WordPress can be configured to automatically notify other search directories whenever a new post is published on your site.
How To Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Improve User Engagement And Drive More Traffic Using WordPress Plugins
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, the WP development community makes available various plugins that improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic to your site.
For example, you can use the plugins below to improve your SEO:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin (lists all of your posts and pages for indexing by search engines)
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin
(A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your SEO)
Other things you can do to improve your accounting site’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your website are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing features. Here are a few plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – This free plugin lets you set up and run your own social network on your WordPress site, with member profiles, user groups, messaging, activity streams, and more.
- bbPress – Use the bbPress plugin to run a discussion forum on your WordPress website.
- E-Newsletter – Send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress dashboard, without 3rd-party subscriptions.
- Disqus – This WordPress plugin lets you power discussions and increases user engagement on your site.
- Monarch – This WordPress plugin lets you add powerful social sharing features and buttons on your pages and posts.
(You can add social sharing features to your website easily using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
Ways To Generate Leads & Enquiries With WordPress-Based Applications
Let’s now discuss ways to improve sales and generate more leads and enquiries.
Add An Email Newsletter
Adding a newsletter is a great way to build a list of subscribers. Adding a newsletter provides many benefits including:
- Drives targeted traffic
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- 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
- Increases user engagement
- Provides additional opportunities for your content to be shared with others
A proven strategy for attracting subscribers is to provide users with valuable information and offer them a free gift in exchange for their personal details. This can be a handy guide, checklists for handling finances, access to tax calculators, coupons, membership access to courses, contests, etc.
Adding A Contact Form
A contact form provides an easy and simple way for readers to get in touch. Contact forms also allow users to raise concerns, contact specific departments, request a quote, give suggestions and more.
Contact forms provide several benefits including:
- Reduces spam
- Automated response
- Giving you control over what gets sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- Contact forms can be added to any post or page
- Looks professional
- Convenience for users
A popular contact form plugin is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7)
This free contact form plugin is easy to install and configure and lets you create multiple contact forms, customize the forms and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, and Akismet spam filtering is also supported.
Something else to consider is adding sections to your contact form so users can select the topic they want to discuss. This ensures that visitors get the comment to the right person.
Maps
Adding maps helps your visitors and clients find you.
Adding maps, such as Google Maps to your WordPress site also provides many benefits, such as:
- A map helps to increase local SEO
- Allows customers to better plan their meeting and appointments
- Display location of events
(Adding a map helps 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
WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Generating More Visitors To Your Accounting Or Financial Services Site
Accounting And Financial Services WordPress Plugins
WordPress makes available a number of plugins you can add to your accounting or financial services website to immediately add a range of practical tools for visitors. Here are just some of these:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators – WordPress Plugin)
This is a free collection of over 400 calculators that you can provide to users on your website. It supports internationalization
Most of the calculators aren’t focused on accounting, but there are quite a few for:
- Mortgage
- Payments
- Leases
- Debit
- And many more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin lets you add a widget that shows 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 free plugin lets you add a custom stock ticker to any sidebar, post or page using shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker includes a number of customizable ticker. Choose from built-in themes or customize it yourself. It’s easy to customize it so it matches your site. You can also add custom stocks to individual categories.
Customize the appearance by changing width, height, background color, scroll speed, opacity, number of stocks displayed at one time, font size, font family, text color, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin)
This free plugin lets your site visitors calculate indicative repayments online. It’s great for calculating repayments on auto loans, property loans, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator – Loan Calculator)
The Finance Calculator plugin also contains an application form that will send a notification message to a specified email address.
It will display 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 Plugin For WordPress)
WP-Invoice lets you send itemized invoices to clients.
WP-Invoice lets you integrate billing into WordPress. You can send itemized invoices. It even 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, quoting, checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into your WP user management database to keep track of your clients and their information, and integrates with payment processors like PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, 2Checkout, USAePay, and others.
You can add custom payments and charges, insert pre-defined line items and discounts, view invoice status and progression, easily filter and find invoices, see invoice receipts and invoice history, create notification e-mail templates, view 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 is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with knowledgebase and support ticketing management system, client relationship management and many more features.
(All In One Business Management Application WP Plugin – Invoicing)
All In One Business Management Application supports international 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 Plugin For WordPress)
iBilling is a scalable business software that lets you manage client data and invoices, tracks your company’s net worth and cash flow, send single-click payment reminders and payment confirmations, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin – Invoice)
It lets you get paid faster by integrating with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
WordPress Financial Themes
To get the best features and professional look for your website, it’s best to choose a theme specifically suited for accounting businesses. Here is a list of some of the best accountancy themes available. With these themes you can own a professional-looking accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro – WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme is a turn-key theme for accountants and accounting firms. It’s responsive, has 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, performs auto resizing for images, and a whole lot more.
You can customize Accounting Pro with premium add-ons.
Go here for more info:
Accountancy
(Accountancy WP Theme)
This premium WordPress theme has a variety of styles and layouts that helps give your accounting website a professional look and feel.
This mobile-friendly theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, it’s lightweight, search optimized, and fast loading. Accountancy Theme provides the flexibility you need without bloating your theme with features you don’t need. Free updates and one year of support is included in the cost of purchasing.
Go here for more details:
Accounting
(Accounting – WordPress Theme)
Accounting includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your website any way you want. It also provides unlimited sidebars with custom widgets, four different types of headers, a custom administration panel, different color schemes, a custom slider, 3 blog types, and is fully responsive. It is a clean-looking, modern and fast-to-load theme.
Go here to learn more about using this WordPress theme:
Kathryn
(Kathryn – WordPress Theme)
This one is created for accountants. The theme comes with multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, author boxes for single or multiple bloggers, many color options, is easy to use, search optimized, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). Although this theme can easily fit any profession, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy slider plugin and must be purchased separately from the Genesis Framework.
Go here for more info:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – 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 specifically designed to help 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 (mobile-friendly) and includes pages for your accounting services, contact form section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials, and a blog.
Go here for more details:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate)
This is a corporate theme specifically designed for professional service providers such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. It includes a custom post type for staff profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is clean and loads fast.
Go here for more details:
Divi
(Divi WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection. Divi lets you create a professional website using the page builder or beautiful pre-made layouts. You can change your layout as much as you need.
The builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and easily edit the structure of their pages without editing any code.
(Divi Theme – Page Builder)
Divi 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 mobile-friendly and fully customizable. Prices start at $69 per year and includes access to all beautifully-designed themes.
Go here for more information:
The Corporation
(The Corporation – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was built specifically to create good-looking corporate sites.
The Corporation has a sleek page-based home page design with a prominent, flashy slider, blog design, six different unique color schemes, 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 80+ stunning themes.
More info:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme)
The Adviser WordPress Theme was designed to help professionals in the financial industry to build trust through clean design. It’s perfect for those that provide services like investment advice or tax advice. Adviser includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, a built-in lease calculator, multiple shortcodes and widgets, and a drag-and-drop visual composer..
Visit the theme website to learn more about this WordPress theme:
Tax Help
(Tax Help Theme For WordPress)
Tax Help was specifically designed for financial organizations, tax and finance advisors, and firms that offer tax assistance. This theme is designed to showcase your services professionally to help establish your business reputation. It has different blog styles, uses a drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and many custom shortcodes.
More information:
Finance Business
(Finance Business)
This theme was built specifically for firms that provide financial services including tax help, consulting, finance, insurance, corporate, loans, accounting, and more. Finance Business includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around 100 shortcodes that includes charts and financial content, custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page settings, color management, animated elements, and a lot more.
Go here for more information 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
We hope that you have found this article on WordPress plugins for improving SEO, better user engagement and generating more traffic useful.
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