In Part One of this comprehensive article on ways to grow your accounting web presence, we provided in-depth tips and suggestions on the following areas:
- Challenges Accountants Face Online
- Opportunities For Accountants In The Web Economy
- Ways To Improve Your Website Pages
- How To Improve Your Content
In this section, we explore more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Areas covered include:
- Improving Traffic With WordPress
- Generating New Leads & Enquiries With WordPress-Based Tools
- WordPress Plugins & Themes For Improving SEO, Creating Better User Engagement And Traffic Generation
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
Improve Web Traffic With WordPress
Web traffic is an important part of your online business growth. In this section, you will learn ways to improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and increase web traffic generation using WordPress plugins & themes.
Optimize Your Site For Search Engines (SEO)
There are so many ways that WordPress helps improve your accounting website’s SEO:
- URLs – Set the permalinks to create search engine-optimized URLS for your posts.
- Post Tags – WordPress lets you choose the keywords that you want your article pages to be indexed by in the search engines.
- Categories – Add SEO-friendly categories for archiving and organizing your content.
- Excerpts – Set an excerpt that will display in search results.
- Images – title images used in your content with keywords for improved search results.
- Internal Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that allows you to easily create internal links for better indexing of your content
- Post Notification – Set up your site to automatically notify (ping) other sites and directories the moment a new post is published on your site.
Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Visitors To Your Site Using WordPress Plugins
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, there are also a number of plugins for WordPress that improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors to your business.
For example, you can install the plugins below to improve your SEO:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress XML sitemap plugin (lists all of your pages for search engines)
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin
(A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your website’s SEO)
Other things you can do to improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors to your site are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social features. Here are some more plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – Set up an online social networking community on your WordPress site.
- bbPress – bbPress helps you set up your own forum on your site.
- E-Newsletter – E-Newsletter allows you to send professional email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP dashboard, without third-party subscriptions.
- Disqus – use this WordPress plugin to power discussions and helps to increase user engagement on your website or blog.
- Monarch – Add powerful social sharing features on your posts and pages.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website using free or inexpensive plugins)
How To Generate Leads & Enquiries
This section looks at ways to improve your sales and generate leads and enquiries for your accounting business.
Adding A Newsletter
Providing a newsletter is a great way to build a subscriber list. Adding a newsletter provides many benefits, like:
- Sends targeted traffic
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides updates that could save businesses time and money
- Provides a highly targeted marketing channel
- Allows you to provide special services or products to a select audience
- Increases user engagement
- Provides other ways for your content to be shared around with others
An effective way to attract subscribers is to provide high value content and give users free gifts in exchange for their details. This could be a time-saving guide, tips for handling finances, access to tax calculators, coupons, membership access to courses, contests, etc.
Add A Contact Form
Contact forms make it easy and simple for readers to get in touch with you. Contact forms also let visitors provide feedback, ask questions to specific departments, request quotes, give suggestions and more.
A contact form provides many benefits, like:
- Reducing spam
- Set up automated responses
- Gives you control over what gets sent to you
- You can keep your email address private
- Different forms can be added to any post or page
- Looks professional
- Convenient for site visitors
One of the most popular contact form plugins for WordPress is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin)
This free plugin is easy to install and configure and lets you create multiple contact forms to your posts and pages, customize the forms and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
Contact Form 7 also supports international languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, spam filtering and so on.
Something to consider is to add sections to your contact form so users can choose which department they want to contact. This ensures that contact form requests reach the right person.
Maps
Adding a map helps your visitors and customers find you.
Inserting maps (e.g. Google Maps), into your site also provides users with many benefits, such as:
- A map helps to improve local SEO
- Helps visitors find your office easily
- Shows location of events
(A map helps your visitors and customers find you)
Popular Google Maps plugins for WordPress include:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
How To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Generate More Visitors To Your Website With WordPress Plugins & Themes
Accounting And Financial Services WordPress Plugins
WordPress makes available a number of plugins you can add to your website that will immediately make available a range of functional tools for visitors. Here are some of these:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin For WordPress)
This is a free collection of over 400 calculators that you can provide to users on your website and embed into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. Internationalization is supported.
Most of them aren’t focused on accounting, but there are a few for:
- Interest rate
- Rate of return
- CD
- Credit
- And many more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes)
This plugin lets you add a widget that shows a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many widgets as you like.
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker)
This plugin lets you place custom stock tickers on any sidebar, post or page using shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker includes loads of customizable ticker. You can choose to use built-in skins or customize it yourself. It’s easy to customize it so it matches your site. You can also add custom stocks to specific categories.
Customize the appearance by changing colours, speed, text, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress)
This free calculator allows your site visitors to calculate indicative repayments. It’s great for automotive loans, property loans, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator – WordPress Plugin – Loan Calculators)
The Finance Calculator plugin also contains an application form that will send a message to the email address you specify.
It will display payment protection, calculate 12 to 60 months loans and create forms that can be placed in any page or post.
For more details, go here}:
WP-Invoice
(WP-Invoice Plugin For WordPress)
WP-Invoice lets WordPress blog owners send itemized invoices to their clients.
WP-Invoice integrates 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 that let you manage business, accept electronic signatures, create PDF invoice versions, provide quotes, create single-page checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into your WordPress 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 many others.
WP-Invoice lets you add custom payments and charges, insert pre-defined line items and discounts, quickly view invoice status and progression, easily filter and find invoices, see invoice receipts and invoice history, create notification email 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 – WordPress Plugin)
This complete business management system includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with knowledgebase and ticketing management system, CRM and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin – Client Invoicing)
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)
This is a scalable business software that lets you manage client data and invoices, 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 Plugin – Client Invoice)
It lets you get paid faster online by integrating with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting WordPress Themes
To benefit the most from using WordPress to grow your business online, we recommend choosing a theme specifically for accounting businesses. Here is a look at some of the best accounting themes available. With the themes below you can have a professional accounting website within minutes and save hundreds to thousands of dollars on the cost of website design.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro Theme For WordPress)
Accounting Pro is an inexpensive turn-key theme for accountants and accountancy firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, offers 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 customized by installing premium add-ons.
Go here to learn more about using this theme:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme)
This inexpensive theme comes in a variety of built-in styles and layouts to give your accounting website a professional look and feel.
This mobile-friendly theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, it’s lightweight, search optimized, and loads fast. Accountancy Theme provides the features your business needs without bloating your theme. The cost of purchasing includes free updates and one year of support.
Go here for more info:
Accounting
(Accounting WP Theme)
Accounting includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your site 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, a custom slider, 3 blog types, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). Accountancy is a clean-looking, modern and fast loading theme.
For more details, go here:
Kathryn
(Kathryn)
This one is a child theme for the Genesis Framework that’s developed for accounting services. It has a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, call to action boxes, many color choices, is easy to use, inexpensive, SEO friendly, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). Although this theme could easily suit any profession, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy slider plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
Visit the theme website to learn more this WordPress theme:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WordPress Theme)
This one was developed to enhance 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 while not looking dull. It’s a turn-key installation but you can still modify it if you want. It’s responsive and includes pages for your services, contact section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials section, and a blog.
For more details, go here:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate WordPress Theme)
WP Advocate is a free corporate theme specifically designed for professional service providers such as accountants and attorneys. Use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. It includes a custom post type adding staff profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is a clean-looking and fast-loading theme.
Visit the theme site to learn more about using this WordPress theme:
Divi
(Divi)
This premium theme is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire theme collection. You can create a professional website using the page builder or beautiful pre-made layouts. You can change your layout to your heart’s content.
Divi’s page builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and easily edit the structure of their pages without editing any code.
(Divi – Flexible Page Builder)
It has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. These include multiple layouts, a slider, you can place pricing tables, testimonials, call-to-action, and lots more. It is fully responsive and fully customizable. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to all themes.
Go here to learn more about using this theme:
The Corporation
(The Corporation)
This theme from Elegant Themes was specifically created to create great-looking corporate sites.
The Corporation has a sleek and professional page-based home page design with a eye-catching slider. It also has a blog design. It has 6 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 access to 80+ stunning themes.
To learn more about this theme, go here:
Adviser
(Adviser WP Theme)
The Adviser WordPress Theme was developed to help finance industry professionals build trust online through clean web design. It’s perfect for businesses that provide services like investing advice or tax help. The Adviser theme 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.
Go here for more details about using this WordPress theme:
Tax Help
(Tax Help)
This premium theme for WordPress was designed for financial organizations, tax and finance advisors, and businesses offering tax assistance. The theme is designed to show your services professionally and help build your professional reputation. It has a range of blog styles, uses the drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and additional custom shortcodes.
More info:
Finance Business
(Finance Business WordPress Theme)
This theme was specifically built for firms that provide financial services such as tax help, consulting, finance, corporate, insurance, accounting, loans, and more. This theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around 100 shortcodes that includes charts and financial content, a custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page options, color management, animations, and a lot more.
For more information about using this 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
We hope that you have found this article on ways of improving search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more visitors with plugins useful.
Subscribe below to receive 101+ useful WordPress tips that will help you grow your business …
***
"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
***