In Part 1 of this article on ways to grow your accounting web presence, we covered the following areas:
- Challenges Accounting & Financial Businesses Face Online
- Opportunities For Accounting Businesses In The Online Economy
- Basic Pages
- How To Improve The Content On Your Website
In this section, we explore more ways to grow your accounting business online. Areas covered include:
- How To Improve Traffic
- Generating Leads & Enquiries
- Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins & Themes
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
Tips For Improving Website Traffic
Your web traffic is vital to your online business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic.
Optimizing Your Website For Search Engines
There are loads of ways that WordPress helps optimize your website for search engines:
- Search Engine-Friendly URLs – WordPress lets you set the permalinks to use the title of the posts as the URL of your pages.
- Tags – WordPress lets you select the keywords that you want your article pages (posts) to be indexed by in the search engines.
- Categories – Create search engine-friendly categories for your posts and products.
- Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose descriptions for your posts that will display to search engine users.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your content images for improved search results.
- Internal Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that allows you to easily create internal links for faster indexing of your content
- Post Notification – Set up your WordPress site to automatically notify other search directories immediately upon publishing new content on your website.
WordPress Plugins That Can Help To Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Increase User Engagement And Generate More Visitors
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, there are quite a number of WordPress plugins that improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors to your website.
Here are some plugins you can use to improve your website’s search engine optimization:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress XML sitemap plugin (for search engines)
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your SEO)
Other things you can do to improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing. Here are some more powerful plugins that can help (many of the plugins listed below are also free):
- BuddyPress – Use the BuddyPress WordPress plugin to run an online social networking community on your WordPress site, with member profiles, user groups, messaging, activity streams, and more.
- bbPress – This free plugin helps you set up a community forum on your WordPress website.
- 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 user engagement on your website or blog.
- Social Media Feather – This WordPress plugin lets you add powerful social sharing features and buttons on your posts and pages.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
Ways To Generate More Leads & Enquiries With WordPress
This section looks at how to improve sales and generate more leads and enquiries for your business.
Provide A Newsletter
Adding a newsletter is a great way to build a subscriber list. It] provides a number of benefits and advantages, like:
- Drives targeted traffic
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides updates
- Provides you with a highly targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to offer special products or services to a select audience
- Increases user interaction
- Provides additional opportunities for your content to be shared online with other prospective clients
An effective way to attract newsletter subscribers is to provide high value content and offer users a free gift in exchange for their personal details. This can be a handy guide, tips for handling tax, access to tax calculators, discount coupons, access to videos, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
A contact form makes it easy and simple for readers to get in touch. Contact forms also let users report issues, contact specific departments, ask for a quote, and more.
Contact forms provide a number of benefits including:
- Reducing spam
- Set up automated responses
- Giving you control over what is sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- Different forms can be added to any post or page
- Improves the professional look of your site
- More convenient for visitors
A very popular contact form plugin is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 – WordPress Plugin)
This free plugin is easy to install and configure and lets you create and manage multiple contact forms into any post or page, customize the form and the email contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, and Akismet spam filtering is supported.
Something to consider is to segment your contact form so prospective customers can select the topic they want to discuss. This helps you get the comment to the right person.
Maps
A map helps your visitors and customers find you.
Maps are great tools for several reasons:
- A map increases local SEO
- Helps visitors find your office easily
- Display location of events
(A map helps your visitors and customers find you)
Here are just some popular plugins that let you embed, customize and display maps on your site:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
WordPress Plugins And Themes That Can Improve Your Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors To Your Accounting Services Site
Accounting Plugins For WordPress
WordPress provides a number of plugins you can add to your site that will immediately add a range of functional tools for site visitors. Here are just some of these:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin For WordPress)
This is a free collection of 400+ calculators. You can embed them into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. The plugin supports internationalization
Note: Most of them aren’t focused on accounting, but there are a few you can use for:
- 401k
- Loans
- Tax
- Credit
- And more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin)
This free plugin gives you a widget that shows a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many widgets as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker – WordPress Plugin)
With this plugin you can place a custom stock ticker on any post, page or sidebar with shortcodes.
This plugin includes loads of customizable features. Choose from built-in themes or customize these yourself to match your website. You can also add custom stocks to specific categories.
Appearance customizations include colours, speed, text, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator – WordPress Plugin)
This free calculator allows users to calculate indicative repayments online. This is a great tool for vehicle loans, real estate loans, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator – WordPress 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 displaying payment protection, calculating 12 to 60 months loans and creating a form 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 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 free and premium add-ons, like business location, electronic signature, PDF creation, quote creation, single-page checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into the WP user management database to keep track of clients and their information, and integrates with payment processors like PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and others.
Plugin features include adding custom payments and charges, creating pre-defined line items and discounts, viewing invoice status and progression, filtering and finding invoices, seeing invoice receipts and invoice history, creating email notification templates, displaying reports (collected vs uncollected invoices, 10 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 is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with ticketing management system, CRM and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin – Client 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 – WordPress Plugin)
This 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 – Invoicing)
It integrates with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
WordPress Themes For Accountants
To get the best features and professional look for your website, we recommend choosing a theme specifically suited for accounting. Here is a list of some of the best themes themes available for accountancy firms. 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 for accountants and accountancy firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, offers several page templates, custom menus, a content composer (gives you an improved WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, performs auto resizing for images, and lots more.
Accounting Pro can be customized with premium add-ons.
More info:
Accountancy
(Accountancy)
This premium theme offers a variety of built-in styles and layouts to make your accounting website look and feel professional.
This responsive theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, it’s lightweight, search optimized, and fast loading. It provides what your business needs without bloating your theme. Free updates and 1 year of support is included with your purchase.
More information:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme)
This one includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your website any way you want. The theme also has unlimited sidebars and custom widgets, four different types of headers, a custom administration panel, four color schemes, custom slider, 3 blog types, and is mobile-friendly. Accountancy looks clean and modern and loads fast.
Go here for more details:
Kathryn
(Kathryn Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was developed for accounting businesses. It allows you to use WordPress as a true content management system and comes with multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, various color choices, is easy to use, inexpensive, search engine optimized, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). Although this theme can easily fit any profession you like, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy plugin and must be purchased separately from the Genesis Framework.
For more information, go here:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme was created to enhance professionalism within the accounting industry. It features an authoritative color scheme and elements specifically designed to give your accounting business website a professional look. It’s a turn-key installation but you can still modify it if you want. It’s responsive and includes pages for your accounting services, contact form section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials, and a blog.
To learn more about using this WordPress theme, visit the theme website:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate)
WP Advocate is a corporate theme built for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate also includes a custom post type for staff profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s clean and loads fast.
Go here to learn more about using this WordPress theme:
Divi
(Divi – WordPress Theme)
This is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection. Divi lets you create any style of professional site you want using the page builder or pre-made layouts. You can change your layout as much as you need.
Divi’s page builder transforms web elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and change the structure of their page without editing any code.
(Divi – Page Builder)
Divi has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. It has audio player, call to action, contact form, divider, image, number counter, portfolio, slider, testimonial, video slider, fullwidth header, fullwidth menu, fullwidth slider, and more.. It is mobile-friendly and completely customizable. Themes start at $69 per year and includes full access to 80+ stunning themes.
Go here for more information:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme)
The Corporation WordPress Theme was built specifically to create good-looking corporate sites.
The Corporation has a sleek and professional page-based home page design with a prominent, flashy slider, blog design, six unique color schemes, multiple page templates which include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to over 80 stunning themes.
For more information, go here:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme)
This theme was built specifically to help finance industry professionals build trust online with a clean business 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. It also includes a lease calculator. It includes multiple shortcodes and widgets, and includes the drag-and-drop visual composer.
More information:
Tax Help
(Tax Help Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was built for financial companies, tax and financial advisors, and firms that offer tax services. It’s designed to show your services professionally and help grow your business reputation. It has different blog styles, uses a drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and additional custom shortcodes.
More info:
Finance Business
(Finance Business)
Finance Business was built for businesses that provide any type of financial service such as tax help, consulting, insurance, corporate, finance, accounting, loans, and more. Finance Business 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 settings, color management features, animated elements, and lots more.
More information:
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 guide has helped you learn WordPress plugins for improving search engine optimization, better user engagement and web traffic generation.
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