In Part One of this article on ways to improve your accounting web presence, we provided practical tips and suggestions on the following areas:
- Challenges Accountants Face Online
- Online Opportunities For Accounting Services
- Your Website Pages
- Ways To Improve The Content On Your Site
In this section, we will continue looking at more ways to grow your accounting business online. Topics covered include:
- Improving Web Traffic
- Ways To Generate Leads & Enquiries
- WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Creating Better User Engagement And Driving More Web Traffic
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
- Using WordPress Plugins To Enhance Your Site’s Functionality
- WP For Business – An Overview Of Themes
Online Business Tips For Accountants – How To Improve Your Business Online Using WordPress
Web traffic is vital to your business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic using WordPress.
Optimize Your Site For Search Engines With WordPress
There are many ways WordPress can help to improve your website’s SEO:
- URLs – Set the permalinks to use the title of the posts as the web address of your pages.
- Post Tags – WordPress lets you select the keywords that you want your posts to be indexed by in the search engines.
- Post Categories – Create SEO-friendly categories for keeping your content organized and easy to find.
- Post Excerpts – Set the description for your posts that search engines will show in their search results.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your content images for improved search engine results.
- Content Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that allows you to easily create internal links for faster indexing of pages
- Post Notification – Set up your WordPress 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 With WordPress Plugins
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, the WordPress community makes available also a number of plugins that improve your website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.
For example, you can use the plugins below to improve your website’s search engine optimization:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your site’s SEO)
Other WordPress tools you can use to improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more traffic to your business are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing. Here are some more plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – This free WordPress plugin can be used to set up a social network on your website, with member profiles, user groups, messaging, activity streams, and more.
- bbPress – This free WordPress plugin lets you set up your own forum on WordPress.
- E-Newsletter – Send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP dashboard.
- Disqus – This WordPress plugin lets you 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 on your website or blog.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their website using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
Generating New Leads & Enquiries With WordPress-Based Tools
In this section, we’ll look at how to improve sales and generate leads and enquiries online.
Provide An Email Newsletter
Adding a newsletter is a great way to grow and retain your readership. It provides several benefits, like:
- Drives targeted traffic
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Keeps readers updated
- Provides a highly targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to provide special services or products to a select audience
- Provides new opportunities for increasing interaction
- Provides you with additional ways for subscribers to share your content
An effective way to attract new subscribers to your newsletter is to provide high value information and offer users a free gift in exchange for their personal details. This could be an exclusive report, tips for handling tax, access to tax calculators, discount coupons, access to videos, contests, etc.
Provide A Contact Form
Contact forms make it easy and simple for prospective customers to contact you. A contact form also lets visitors raise problems, contact specific departments, request a quote, and more.
A contact form provides several benefits and advantages, like:
- Reducing spam
- Automated response
- Gives you control over what gets sent to you
- You can keep your email address private
- They can be added to any post or page
- 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 set up and allows you to add and manage multiple contact forms to your website, customize your forms and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
The plugin also supports international languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, Akismet spam filtering and so on.
Something else to consider is to segment your contact form so prospective customers can choose which topic they want to discuss. This helps you get the comment to the right person.
Add Maps
Maps help your visitors and clients find you.
Maps are a very useful tool for several reasons:
- A map helps to increase local SEO
- Visitors can easily find you
- Displays location of events
(Adding maps helps your visitors and clients find you)
Below are 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
Improving SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins & Themes
Accounting Plugins For WordPress
WordPress provides a number of plugins you can add to your website to immediately add a range of functional tools for visitors. Here are some of the plugins you can choose from:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin provides a free collection of 400+ calculators. You can embed these into your pages, posts, or sidebars using shortcodes. It also supports internationalization
Note: Most of the calculators aren’t focused specifically on accounting, but there are a few for:
- 401k
- Rate of return
- Leases
- Credit
- And many more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress Plugin)
With this plugin you get a widget that shows a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many portfolios 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 add a custom stock ticker to any sidebar, page or post with shortcodes.
This plugin offers a number of customizable features. Choose from built-in themes or customize these yourself to match your website. You can also add custom stocks to individual categories.
Customize the appearance by changing speed, symbols, colors, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin)
This free plugin lets users calculate indicative repayments. This is a useful financial tool for car loans, property loans, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator Plugin – Loan Calculators)
This plugin also contains an application form that will send a notification message to a specified email address.
Other features of this plugin include showing 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)
WP-Invoice lets WordPress blog owners send itemized invoices to their clients.
WP-Invoice integrates billing into WordPress. You can send itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand plugin functionality with both free and premium add-ons that let you manage locations, accept electronic signatures from clients, create PDF invoice versions, provide quotes, create single-page checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into your WP user management database to keep track of clients and their information, and integrates with payment processors like PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and several others.
You can add custom payments and charges, insert pre-defined line items and discounts, view invoice status and progression, filter and find invoices, see invoice receipts and invoice history, create notification e-mail templates, access reports (collected vs uncollected invoices, 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 For WordPress)
This complete business management system includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with knowledgebase and ticketing management system, client relationship management and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin – Invoicing)
All In One Business Management Application supports multiple languages, is fully customizable and provides additional tools such as document management, notice board, and more.
For more details, go here}:
iBilling – Accounting And Billing Software
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin For WordPress)
This is a scalable business software that lets you manage customer data and invoices, 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 Plugin For WordPress – Invoicing)
It lets you get paid faster online by integrating with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
WordPress Themes
To get the most benefit out of growing your business online with WordPress, we recommend choosing a theme specifically suited for accounting businesses. Below is a list of some of the best WordPress themes available for accounting. With the themes below you can have a professional accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro WordPress Theme)
This is a turn-key theme created for accountants and accountancy firms. It’s a responsive theme with a drag-and-drop page-builder, has several page templates, custom menu features, a content composer (gives you an improved WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, performs auto resizing for images, and a whole lot more.
You can easily customize Accounting Pro with premium add-ons.
Go here for more info:
Accountancy
(Accountancy)
This premium WordPress theme comes in a variety of built-in styles and layouts to make your accounting site 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 you need without bloating your theme with features you don’t need. Free updates and one year of support is included in the cost of purchase.
For more information, go here:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme)
Accounting includes a drag-and-drop builder so you can design your website any way you want. It also has unlimited sidebars with custom widgets, four different types of headers, a custom administration panel, four color schemes, a custom slider, three different blog types, and is responsive. Accountancy looks clean and modern and is fast to load.
For more details, go here:
Kathryn
(Kathryn)
Kathryn is designed for accounting businesses. Kathryn provides multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, a variety of colors, is easy to use, inexpensive, search engine optimized, and is responsive. Although this theme could easily suit any profession you want it to, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy slider plugin and must be purchased separately from the Genesis Framework.
More info:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was developed with the idea of professionalism within the accounting industry. It features authoritative colors 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 (mobile-friendly) and includes pages for your accounting services, contact details section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials, and a blog.
To learn more about this WordPress theme, go here:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate)
WP Advocate is a corporate theme built specifically for professional service providers such as accountants and attorneys. Use the bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate also includes a custom post type adding staff profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is clean-looking and fast-loading.
For more information, go here:
Divi
(Divi – WordPress Theme)
This theme is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection of WordPress themes. Divi lets you create any style of professional site you want using its page builder or beautiful and unique pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout as much as you need.
The builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and easily edit the structure of their pages without editing a single line of code.
(Divi Theme – Flexible Page Builder)
It has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. It has bar counter, blog, contact form, countdown timer, gallery, number counter, post title, sidebar, tabs, text, fullwidth header, fullwidth portfolio, fullwidth slider, and more.. Divi is fully responsive and completely customizable. Themes start at $69 per year and includes full access to 80+ sleek business themes.
Go here for more info:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme)
This one was specifically designed to create good-looking corporate websites.
This theme has a sleek page-based home page design with a prominent slider, blog design, 6 unique 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 access to over 80 beautifully-designed themes.
For more information, go here:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme For WordPress)
This premium WordPress theme was designed to help finance professionals build trust with a clean business design. It’s ideal for businesses that provide services such as investment advice or tax advice. Adviser includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, lease calculator, widgets and multiple shortcodes, and a drag-and-drop visual composer..
Go here for more details:
Tax Help
(Tax Help – WordPress Theme)
This one was specifically built for financial organizations, tax and finance advisors, and those that provide tax services. It’s designed to showcase your services in a professional way to help establish your professional reputation. It has different blog styles, uses a drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and many custom shortcodes.
More info:
Finance Business
(Finance Business WP Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was specifically developed for organizations that provide financial services such as consulting, tax help, insurance, finance, corporate, loans, accounting, and more. The theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin. It also has around 100 shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content. It also includes the custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page options, color management, animated elements, and a lot more.
For more information, 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, you have found this article on WordPress plugins that can help improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and increase web traffic generation helpful.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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