In Part 1 of this step-by-step article on ways to improve your accounting web presence, we provided in-depth information on the following areas:
- Online Challenges For Accounting & Financial Businesses
- Opportunities For Accounting Businesses In The Online Economy
- Improve Your Web Pages
- How To Improve Your Web Content
In this section, we continue exploring more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Areas covered below include:
- Ways Of Improving Traffic Using WordPress
- Generate Leads & Enquiries With WordPress-Based Applications
- Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Generate More Traffic With WordPress Plugins
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, see these articles:
Grow Your Accounting Website – WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Traffic Generation
Web traffic is an integral part of your business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic using WordPress.
Optimize Your Website For SEO With WordPress
There are many ways WordPress can help to optimize your accounting or financial services website for search engines:
- Search Engine-Friendly URLs – Set the permalinks to create search engine-optimized web addresses for your article pages.
- Tags – WordPress lets you select the keywords that you want search engines to index your posts for.
- Post Categories – Create categories for keeping your content organized and easy to find.
- Excerpts – Set descriptions for your posts that will appear in search results.
- 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 better indexing of your web content
- Post Notification – Set up your site to automatically notify other sites and directories immediately upon publishing new content on your site.
Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Increase User Engagement And Drive More Visitors To Your Website Using WordPress Plugins
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, there are also a number of plugins for WordPress that will improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more 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 XML sitemap plugin
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin
(A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your SEO)
Other WordPress plugins you can use to improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors to your website are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social sharing features. Here are a few more useful WordPress plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – This free plugin allows you to run your own social networking community on WordPress.
- bbPress – Set up your own online forum on your website.
- E-Newsletter – E-Newsletter lets you send professional email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress site.
- Disqus – Power discussions and increases user engagement on your site.
- Monarch – Add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online on your site.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website using free or inexpensive plugins)
Generating More Leads & Enquiries With WordPress-Based Tools
This section will show you how to improve your sales and generate leads and enquiries for your business.
Providing An Email Newsletter
Providing a newsletter is a great way to build a subscriber list. It provides a number of benefits and advantages including:
- Drives targeted traffic to your website
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Keeps readers updated
- Provides you with a targeted marketing channel
- Allows you to offer special products or services to a select audience
- Provides new opportunities for increasing engaging with users
- Provides you with another way for your content to be shared around with others
An effective strategy for enticing visitors to subscribe to your email newsletter is to provide them with high value information and give them a free gift in exchange for their details. This could be a handy guide, tips for handling tax, access to tax calculators, coupons, membership access to courses, contests, etc.
Adding Contact Forms
Contact forms provide an easy and simple way for readers to get in touch with you. A contact form also lets users report issues, ask questions to specific departments, request quotes, send suggestions for improvements and more.
A contact form provides several benefits, like:
- Reducing spam
- Set up automated responses
- Giving you control over what gets sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- They can be added to any page or post
- Looks professional
- Convenient for visitors
One of the most popular contact form plugins for WordPress is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin For WordPress)
Contact form 7 is a free plugin that is easy to install and configure and allows you to insert multiple contact forms into any page or post, customize your forms and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, and spam filtering is supported.
Something else to consider is to segment your contact form so prospective customers can choose which aspect of your business they are contacting you about. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Add A Map
Maps help your visitors and clients find you.
Integrating maps (e.g. Google Maps), with your site also provides visitors with many benefits, such as:
- A map helps to increase local SEO
- Visitors can easily find you
- Display location of events
(Maps help your visitors and customers find you)
Here are just some popular plugins that let you embed, customize and display maps on your WordPress site:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increasing User Engagement And Traffic Generation
Accounting WordPress Plugins
WordPress makes available a number of plugins you can add to your accounting or financial services site that will immediately make available a range of practical tools for site visitors. Here are just some of the plugins you can choose from:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators WP Plugin)
This is a free collection of over 400 calculators. You can embed these into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. Internationalization is supported.
Note: Most of them aren’t focused on accounting, but there are quite a few for:
- 401k
- Payments
- Tax
- Credit
- And many more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin)
This plugin lets you add a widget that shows a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can show as many portfolios as you like.
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker Plugin)
This plugin lets you add custom stock tickers to any post, page or sidebar using shortcodes.
The plugin includes several 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 specific categories.
Appearance customizations include height, width, background color, number of stocks displayed at one time, typeface, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator WordPress Plugin)
This free plugin allows your users to calculate indicative repayments online. This is a great tool for calculating repayments on auto loans, property, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator – Loan Calculators)
This plugin also contains an application form that sends a 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 you send itemized invoices to clients.
WP-Invoice lets you integrate billing into WordPress. You can send itemized invoices. It also allows you to set up recurring billing. It can be expanded through both free and premium add-ons that let you manage locations, accept electronic signatures from clients, create PDF invoice versions, provide quotes, create checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into your WP user management database to keep track of clients and their information, and integrates with PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and many others.
WP-Invoice features include adding custom payments and charges, adding pre-defined line items and discounts, viewing invoice status and progression, easily filtering and finding invoices, showing invoice receipts and invoice history, creating notification email templates, viewing reports (collected vs uncollected invoices, ten 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 complete business management system includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with knowledgebase and ticket system, client relationship management and many more features.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin – Client Invoicing)
The plugin supports different 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)
iBilling is a scalable business software that lets you manage and communicate with clients, track your company’s cash flow and net worth, send single-click payment reminders and payment confirmations, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software – Client Invoicing)
It integrates with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
WordPress Themes - Accounting And Financial Services
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 WordPress themes available for accounting. These themes allow you to 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)
This premium theme for WordPress is an inexpensive turn-key theme for accountants and accounting 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, performs auto resizing for images, and lots more.
You can easily customize this theme with premium add-ons.
More information:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme For WordPress)
This theme comes with a variety of styles and layouts that helps make your accounting website look and feel professional.
This fully responsive (mobile-friendly) theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, it’s lightweight, search optimized, and fast loading. Accountancy provides what your business needs without bloating your theme. Free updates and one year of support is included with the price.
Go here for more details:
Accounting
(Accounting)
This one includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your website any way you want. It also has unlimited sidebars and custom widgets, four different header types, a custom admin panel, four color schemes, a custom slider, 3 blog types, and is responsive. It looks clean and modern and loads fast.
To learn more about this theme, visit the theme website:
Kathryn
(Kathryn)
This premium theme for WordPress was developed specifically for accountants. Kathryn allows you to use WordPress as a true content management system and comes with multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, widgetized home page, many color options, is easy to use, search optimized, and is 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 plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
To learn more about this theme, visit this website:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was developed to exude professionalism within the accounting industry. Every color, layout element, icon, menu item, page structure, call-to-action, etc., was specifically designed to make your accounting website look professional without looking dull. It’s a turn-key installation but you can still modify it if you want. It’s fully responsive and includes pages for your services, contact details section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials, and a blog.
Visit this site to learn more about using this theme:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate – WordPress Theme)
WP Advocate is a free corporate theme built specifically 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 adding staff profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s clean-looking and loads fast.
More info:
Divi
(Divi WP Theme)
This theme is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ entire theme collection. Divi lets you create a professional website using its 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 easily change the structure of their pages without editing code.
(Divi – 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 completely customizable. Prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to 80+ professional themes.
For more details about using this theme, go here:
The Corporation
(The Corporation)
This premium theme for WordPress was developed specifically to create good-looking corporate sites.
It has a sleek and professional 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 six color schemes. It also comes with 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 all professional themes.
Go here for more details:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme was designed to help finance professionals build trust online through clean web design. It’s perfect for those that provide services like investing advice or tax advice. It includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, lease calculator, multiple shortcodes and widgets, and the drag-and-drop visual composer..
To learn more about this theme, visit the theme website:
Tax Help
(Tax Help – WordPress Theme)
This one was specifically developed for financial companies, tax and financial advisors, and firms that provide tax services. This theme is designed to showcase your services professionally to help build your professional reputation. It has different blog styles, uses the drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and many custom shortcodes.
For more information, go here:
Finance Business
(Finance Business Theme)
This theme was specifically developed for organizations that provide any type of financial service such as consulting, tax help, corporate, insurance, finance, accounting, loans, and more. This theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin. It also has around 100 shortcodes that includes charts and financial content. It also includes a custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page settings, color management, animated elements, and lots more.
To learn more about 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
Hopefully, this comprehensive guide has helped you learn how to improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and drive more visitors using plugins.
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