In Part One of this comprehensive guide on ways to build your accounting business presence online, we covered the following topics:
- Online Challenges For Accounting And Financial Businesses
- Opportunities For The Accounting Profession In The Digital Economy
- Basic Web Pages
- Ways To Improve The Content On Your Website
In this section, we explore more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Topics covered below include:
- Improve Web Traffic With WordPress
- Ways To Generate New Leads & Enquiries
- How To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors To Your Website With Plugins And Themes
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, go here:
- Add New Functionality To Your WordPress Web Site With Plugins
- WP For Beginners – An Overview Of WordPress Themes
Improving Traffic
Web traffic is an important part of your online business growth. This section will help you improve your web traffic using WordPress.
Optimizing Your Website For Search Engines (SEO)
There are so many ways WordPress can help to optimize your accounting website for search engines:
- SEO-Friendly – configure the permalinks to create search engine-optimized URLS for your article pages (called posts).
- Tags – WordPress lets you select the keywords that you want search engines to index your articles for.
- Categories – Add categories for your posts and products.
- Post Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose an excerpt that will appear in search results.
- Images – title images with keywords for better search engine results.
- Internal Content Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that lets you easily link your content to other posts on your site
- Pinging – Configure your site to automatically notify other search directories as soon as a new post is published on your site.
Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Generate More Visitors With Plugins
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, the WP community makes available also a number of plugins that improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more traffic to your business.
For example, here are some plugins you can use to improve your SEO:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin (lists all of your pages for indexing by search engines)
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your SEO)
Other things you can do to improve your website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors to your business are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social features. Here are a few powerful WordPress plugins that can help (many of the plugins described below are also free):
- BuddyPress – BuddyPress allows you to run your own social community on your website, with member profiles, messaging, activity streams, user groups, and more.
- bbPress – Run your own online community forum on WordPress.
- E-Newsletter – Use E-Newsletter to send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress site.
- Disqus – use this plugin to power discussions and helps to increase user engagement on your site.
- Monarch – Add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online to your website or blog.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site using free or inexpensive plugins)
Ways To Generate New Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress-Based Applications
Let’s now discuss ways to improve sales and generate leads and enquiries online.
Providing An Email Newsletter
Providing a newsletter is a great way to build a list of subscribers. It provides a number of benefits and advantages, like:
- Drives targeted traffic to your site
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides updates
- Provides a highly targeted marketing channel
- Allows you to offer special services or products to a select audience
- Increases engagement with your users
- Provides you with additional ways for readers to share your content
An effective way to attract subscribers to your email newsletter is to provide high value content and offer users something for free in exchange for their personal details. This could be a time-saving guide, tips for handling finances, access to tax calculators, discount coupons, membership access to subscriber-only content, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
Contact forms make it easy and simple for prospective clients to contact you. Contact forms also allow users to raise problems, ask questions to specific departments, request a quote, send suggestions for new services or products and more.
A contact form provides several benefits including:
- Reduces spam
- Set up automated responses
- Gives you control over what is sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- Can be added to any page or post
- Looks professional
- Convenient for visitors
One of the most popular contact form plugins is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7)
This free contact form plugin is easy to install and configure and allows you to create and manage multiple contact forms, customize your forms and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
Supports international languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, spam filtering and so on.
Something else to consider is to segment your contact form so visitors can select which aspect of your business they are contacting your company about. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Maps
Maps help your visitors and clients find you.
A map is a very useful tool for several reasons:
- They improve local SEO
- Helps visitors find your office easily
- Displays location of events
(Maps help your visitors and clients find you)
Popular map plugins include:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
WordPress Plugins That Can Help Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation
Accounting And Financial Services WordPress Plugins
WordPress makes available a number of plugins you can add to your site that will immediately add a range of functional tools for visitors. Here are just some of these plugins:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators WordPress Plugin)
This is a free collection of 400+ calculators that you can provide to users on your website and embed into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. The plugin also supports internationalization
Note: Most of the calculators aren’t focused on accounting, but there are a few you can use for:
- Interest rate
- Payments
- CD
- Credit
- And more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin For WordPress)
This free plugin gives you a widget that displays up to 20 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 WP Plugin)
This plugin lets you place a custom stock ticker on any page, post, or sidebar with shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker offers loads of customizable features. You can choose to use built-in skins or customize it yourself to match your website. You can also create custom stocks for individual categories.
Customize the appearance by changing colours, speed, symbols, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress)
This free calculator lets your site visitors calculate indicative repayments. It’s great for vehicle loans, real estate loans, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator WordPress Plugin – Loan Calculator)
Finance Calculator also contains an application form that will send a notification message to the email address you specify.
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)
WP-Invoice lets you send itemized invoices to clients.
WP-Invoice lets you integrate billing into WordPress. You can send clients itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand plugin functionality with free and premium add-ons, like business location, electronic signature, PDF creation, quoting, 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 PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, 2Checkout, PayPal Payments Pro, and others.
The plugin gives you the ability to add custom payments and charges, create pre-defined line items and discounts, quickly view invoice status and progression, easily filter and find invoices, show invoice receipts and invoice history, create notification e-mail templates, display 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 solution includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with support ticket system, CRM and many added features.
(All In One Business Management Application WP Plugin – Client Invoicing)
All In One Business Management Application supports different languages, is fully customizable and provides powerful tools like document management, notice board, and more.
For more details, go here}:
iBilling – Accounting And Billing Software
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software WordPress Plugin)
iBilling is a scalable business software that lets you manage and communicate with clients, track 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)
iBilling integrates with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Financial Themes For WordPress
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 accounting themes available. With the themes listed below you can own a professional accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro – WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme is an inexpensive turn-key theme built for accountants and accounting firms. It’s a responsive theme with a drag-and-drop page-builder, has several page templates, custom menus, a content composer (which improves on the standard WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, auto-resizing for images, and lots more.
You can expand this theme by installing premium add-ons.
Go here for more info:
Accountancy
(Accountancy)
This one offers a variety of built-in styles and layouts to help make your accounting website look and feel professional.
This responsive (mobile-friendly) theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, it’s lightweight, search optimized, and loads fast. It provides the features your business needs without bloating your theme. Your purchase includes free updates and one year of support.
Visit the theme website to learn more this WordPress theme:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme For WordPress)
This premium WordPress theme includes a drag-and-drop builder so you can 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, custom slider, 3 blog types, and is mobile-friendly. Accountancy is a clean-looking, modern and fast-to-load theme.
More info:
Kathryn
(Kathryn Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme for WordPress was developed for accounting services. Kathryn comes with a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, a variety of colors, is easy to use, inexpensive, SEO friendly, and is responsive. Although this theme could easily suit any profession, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy WordPress responsive slider plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
More information:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – Theme For WordPress)
This premium WordPress theme was built with the idea of professionalism within the accounting industry. It features authoritative colors and layout elements designed specifically 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 section, and a blog.
More information:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate)
WP Advocate is a corporate theme built for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate includes a custom post type adding employee profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is clean-looking and loads fast.
Visit the theme site 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 of WordPress themes. You can create a unique, professional website using its page builder or beautiful pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout to your heart’s content.
The builder transforms web elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and easily redesign the structure of their pages without touching any code.
(Divi Theme For WordPress – 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. Themes start at $69 per year and includes access to 80+ stunning themes.
Go here for more information:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress from Elegant Themes was specifically built to create great-looking corporate sites.
It has a sleek and professional page-based home page design with a nice slider, blog design, 6 different color schemes, multiple page templates that include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Themes start at $69 per year and includes full access to 80+ stunning themes.
For more details, go here:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme For WordPress)
This theme was developed to help finance industry professionals build trust online through clean web design. It’s ideal for businesses that provide services like investing or tax help. Adviser 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:
Tax Help
(Tax Help – WordPress Theme)
This theme was specifically built for financial companies, tax and finance advisors, and those providing tax assistance. The theme is designed to show your services professionally to help build your business reputation. It comes with a range of blog styles, uses a drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and additional custom shortcodes.
To learn more about this WordPress theme, go here:
Finance Business
(Finance Business WordPress Theme)
This one was developed specifically for firms that provide financial services such as tax help, consulting, corporate, finance, insurance, accounting, loans, and more. The theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around 100 shortcodes that includes charts and financial content, the custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page settings, color management features, animated elements, and lots more.
More info:
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 & themes for improving search engine optimization, better user engagement and driving more visitors to your accounting site.
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