In Part One of this 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
- Essential Website Pages
- Tips For Improving Your Content
In this section, we continue looking at more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Topics covered include:
- Ways Of Improving Traffic With WordPress
- Generating More Leads & Enquiries
- WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increasing User Engagement And Driving More Traffic
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, go here:
- Add New Features And Functionality To Your Blog With Plugins
- A Basic Guide To Understanding WP Themes
Your Accounting Website – Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Visitors To Your Site With WordPress Plugins & Themes
Your web traffic is an integral part of your business growth. This section will help you improve your web traffic using WordPress.
Optimize Your Site For Search Engines Using WordPress
There are many ways WordPress can help to improve SEO:
- Search Engine-Friendly URLs – Set the permalinks to use the title of the post.
- Tags – Choose the keywords that you want your articles to be indexed for in the search engines.
- Post Categories – Add SEO-friendly categories for your posts and products.
- Post Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose descriptions for your posts that search engines will show in their search result pages.
- Images – title images used in your content with keywords for improved search engine results.
- Internal Content Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that allows you to easily create internal links for faster indexing of your web pages
- Pinging – WordPress can be configured to automatically notify other search directories whenever a new post is published on your site.
WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Increasing User Engagement And Traffic Generation
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, the WordPress community makes available many plugins that improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic to your site.
For example, you can use the plugins below to improve your SEO:
- Yoast 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 website’s search engine optimization)
Other things you can do to improve your accounting or financial services site’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your website are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing. Here are a few useful WordPress plugins that can help (many of the plugins listed below can be downloaded at no cost):
- BuddyPress – Set up your own online social network on WordPress, with member profiles, user groups, messaging, activity streams, and more.
- bbPress – This free plugin can be used to set up your own discussion forum on your WordPress website.
- E-Newsletter – Use E-Newsletter to send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP dashboard, without a third party subscription.
- Disqus – Disqus lets you power discussions and helps to increase engagement on your site.
- Monarch – This plugin lets you add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online to your posts and pages.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
How To Generate New Leads & Enquiries
This section explains how to improve sales and generate new leads and enquiries online.
Adding An Email Newsletter
Adding an email newsletter is an excellent way to build a subscriber list. It] provides several benefits and advantages including:
- Drives targeted traffic
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Provides updates that could save businesses time and money
- Provides you with a targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to provide special services or products to a select audience
- Provides new opportunities for improving user engagement
- Provides other ways for subscribers to share your content
An effective way to get your visitors to subscribe to your email newsletter is to provide high value information and offer users free gifts in exchange for their details. This could be a guide, tips for handling tax, access to tax calculators, coupons, membership access to courses, contests, etc.
Provide A Contact Form
Contact forms provide an easy and simple way for readers to contact you. Contact forms also allow readers to provide feedback, ask questions to specific departments, request a quote, and more.
Contact forms provide several benefits and advantages, like:
- Reduces spam
- Automated response
- Gives you control over what gets sent to you
- You can keep your email address private
- Can be added to any post or page
- Improves the professional look of your website
- Is convenient for site visitors
One of the most popular contact form plugins for WordPress is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 WordPress Plugin)
Contact Form 7 lets you insert multiple contact forms, customize your form and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, and spam filtering is supported.
Another option you may want to consider is to add sections to your contact form so visitors can choose the department they want to contact. This ensures that visitors get the comment to the right person.
Adding A Map
A map helps your visitors and customers find you.
Inserting maps, such as Google Maps, into your website also provides users with a number of benefits, such as:
- They improve local SEO
- Helps visitors find your office easily
- Show location of events
(Adding a map to your site helps your visitors and customers find you)
Some of the most popular map plugins for WordPress include:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With Plugins And Themes
Financial WordPress Plugins
WordPress makes available a number of plugins you can add to your accounting website to immediately add a range of practical tools for site visitors. Here are just some of these plugins:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators)
This is a free collection of over 400 calculators that you can display on your website. Internationalization is supported.
Most of them 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)
With this plugin you get a widget that shows up to 20 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 place custom stock tickers on any post, page or sidebar with shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker provides several customizable features. Choose from built-in themes or customize these yourself. It’s easy to customize it so it matches your site. You can also add custom stocks to individual categories.
Appearance customization features include width, height, background color, opacity, scroll speed, number of stocks displayed at one time, typeface, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress)
This free plugin lets your site visitors calculate indicative repayments. It’s great for automotive loans, property loans, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress – Loan Calculator)
Finance Calculator also contains an application form that will send a notification message to the email address you specify.
Other features of this plugin include showing payment protection, calculating 12 to 60 months loans and creating forms 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.
WP-Invoice integrates billing into WordPress. You can send clients itemized invoices. It even allows you to set up recurring billing. WP-Invoice can be expanded through both free and premium add-ons, like business location, electronic signature, PDF creation, quote creation, checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into the WordPress user management database to keep track of clients and their information, and integrates with payment processors like PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, 2Checkout, USAePay, and others.
Plugin features include adding custom payments and charges, inserting pre-defined line items and discounts, quickly viewing invoice status and progression, filtering and finding invoices, seeing invoice receipts and invoice history, creating notification e-mail templates, accessing 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, help desk with knowledgebase and ticket management system, client relationship management and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin – Invoicing)
All In One Business Management Application supports international 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)
iBilling is a scalable business software that lets you manage customers and invoicing, 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 WP Plugin – Invoicing)
iBilling allows you to get paid faster by integrating with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting And Financial Services Themes For WordPress
To benefit the most from using WordPress, it’s best to choose a theme specifically suited for accounting. Here is a list of some of the best themes themes available for accountancy businesses. These themes allow you to own a professional accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro Theme For WordPress)
Accounting Pro is an inexpensive turn-key theme created for accountants and accountancy 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 lots more.
Accounting Pro can be customized with premium add-ons.
To learn more about this theme, visit this site:
Accountancy
(Accountancy – WordPress Theme)
Accountancy comes with a variety of built-in styles and layouts to help make your accounting website look and feel professional.
This responsive theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, it’s lightweight, SEO friendly, and loads fast. It provides the features your business needs without bloating your theme. Free updates and 1 year of support is included in your purchase.
Go here for more details:
Accounting
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your website any way you want. It 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.
To learn more about this WordPress theme, go here:
Kathryn
(Kathryn Theme For WordPress)
Kathryn is created specifically for accounting services. Kathryn allows you to use WordPress as a true CMS and offers a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, author boxes for single or multiple bloggers, a variety of colors, is easy to use, inexpensive, search engine optimized, and is responsive. Although it could easily suit any profession, 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 details, go here:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WordPress Theme)
This theme was created with the idea of professionalism within the accounting industry. It features an authoritative color scheme and layout elements specifically designed to make your accounting website 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, and a blog.
To learn more about this WordPress theme, go here:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate Theme For WordPress)
This is a corporate theme designed specifically for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. Use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. It includes a custom post type adding employee profiles and can also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s clean-looking and loads fast.
Visit this website to learn more about using this theme:
Divi
(Divi)
Divi is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire theme collection. You can create a unique, professional site using the page builder or pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout as much as you need.
Divi’s page builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and redesign the structure of their page 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. These modules include bar counter, call to action, contact form, email optin, image, number counter, post title, sidebar, testimonial, toggle, fullwidth code, fullwidth map, fullwidth slider, and more.. Divi is responsive and completely customizable. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to over 80 stunning themes.
For more information, go here:
The Corporation
(The Corporation)
The Corporation was specifically created to create good-looking corporate websites.
The Corporation has a page-based home page design with a eye-catching slider. It also has a blog design and features that toggle on and off. 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. Themes start at $69 per year and includes access to over 80 beautifully-designed themes.
More info:
Adviser
(Adviser – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme was developed specifically to help finance professionals build trust through clean design. It’s ideal for those that provide services such as investing advice or tax advice. The Adviser theme 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.
Go here to learn more about using this WordPress theme:
Tax Help
(Tax Help)
This premium theme was designed specifically for financial companies, tax and finance advisors, and businesses that provide tax services. This theme is designed to showcase your services professionally to help grow your professional reputation. It provides a range of blog styles, uses a drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and many custom shortcodes.
To learn more about this theme, go here:
Finance Business
(Finance Business)
This premium theme was built for firms that provide any type of financial service such as consulting, tax help, insurance, finance, corporate, loans, accounting, and more. Finance Business includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around one hundred shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content, custom drag-and-drop composer, 2 premium sliders, page settings, color management features, animations, and a whole lot more.
Go here to learn more about using 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
Hopefully, this article has helped you learn ways of improving your accounting or financial services website with WordPress plugins and themes.
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