In Part 1 of this comprehensive guide on ways to build your accounting business web presence, we provided in-depth tips and suggestions on the following topics:
- Challenges Accounting Services Face Online
- Online Opportunities For Professional Accountants
- Your Web Pages
- Improve Your Content
In this section, we explore more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Areas covered include:
- How To Improve Traffic
- Generating Leads & Enquiries With WordPress
- How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With Plugins & Themes
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, go here:
Improve Web Traffic Using WordPress
Web traffic is vital to your business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic.
Optimize Your Site For SEO Using WordPress
There are many ways WordPress can help to optimize your accounting or financial services website for search engines:
- SEO-Friendly – configure the permalinks to create search engine-optimized URLS for your content posts.
- Post Tags – WordPress lets you specify the keywords that you want search engines to index your article pages (posts) for.
- Categories – Create SEO-friendly categories for archiving and organizing your content.
- Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose descriptions for your posts that search engines will show in their search results.
- Images – title images with keywords for better search results.
- Internal Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that allows you to easily link your content to other posts
- Pinging – Set up your WordPress site to automatically notify other search directories as soon as a new post is published on your website.
WordPress Plugins That Can Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, there are various plugins that will improve your website’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your site.
For example, here are some plugins you can use to improve your SEO:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress XML sitemap plugin (lists all of your posts and pages for indexing by search engines)
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin
(A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your SEO)
Other WordPress plugins you can add to improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social features. Here are some plugins that can help (many of the plugins described below can be downloaded at no cost):
- BuddyPress – Use the BuddyPress WordPress plugin to set up and manage your own social network on your WordPress site.
- bbPress – Run your own online forum on your website.
- E-Newsletter – Use E-Newsletter to send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP dashboard.
- Disqus – use this plugin to power discussions and increases engagement on your website or blog.
- Monarch – This plugin lets you add powerful social sharing features and buttons to your pages and posts.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
How To Generate Leads & Enquiries
Let’s now take a look at how to improve your sales and generate leads and enquiries.
Adding An Email Newsletter
Providing an email newsletter is a great way to build a list of subscribers. Adding email newsletters] provides several benefits and advantages, like:
- Sends targeted traffic
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Provides updates that could save businesses time and money
- Provides a targeted marketing channel
- Allows you to offer special products or services to a select audience
- Provides regular opportunities for improving interaction
- Provides an additional way for readers to share your content
One of the best ways to get visitors to subscribe is to provide them with valuable content and offer them free gifts in exchange for their details. This can be a special report, checklists for handling tax, access to tax calculators, discount coupons, membership access to subscriber-only content, contests, etc.
Add Contact Forms
Contact forms provide an easy and simple way for readers to get in touch. Users can raise problems, ask questions to specific departments, request a quote, send suggestions and more.
Contact forms provide several benefits including:
- Reduces spam
- Automated response
- Gives you control over what is sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- They can be added to any page or post
- Looks professional
- More convenient for users
One of the most popular contact form plugins for WordPress is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin)
Contact form 7 is a free plugin that is easy to install and configure and allows you to create multiple contact forms on your pages and posts, customize your forms and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, and Akismet spam filtering is supported.
Something to consider is to segment your contact form so prospective clients can choose which department they want to contact. This ensures that visitors get the comment to the right person.
Adding Maps
Adding maps to your website helps your visitors and clients find you.
Inserting maps (e.g. Google Maps), into your site also provides a number of benefits, such as:
- Maps help to improve local SEO
- Helps visitors find you easily
- Shows location of events
(A map helps your visitors and customers find you)
Below are some plugins that let you embed, customize and display Google maps on your WordPress site:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
WordPress Plugins & Themes That Can Help To Improve Your SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation
Accounting – WordPress Plugins
WordPress makes available a number of plugins you can add to your accounting site that will immediately make available 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 over 400 calculators. You can embed them into your pages, posts, or sidebars using shortcodes. Internationalization is supported.
Note: Most of the calculators aren’t focused on accounting, but there are quite a few for:
- Interest rate
- Payments
- Tax
- Equity
- And many more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes WP Plugin)
This plugin installs a widget that displays a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many portfolios as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes WP Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker Plugin For WordPress)
With this plugin you can place a custom stock ticker on any page, post, or sidebar using shortcodes.
This plugin includes several customizable ticker. Choose from built-in skins 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 width, height, scrolling speed, opacity, number of stocks displayed at one time, font size, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator – WordPress Plugin)
This free plugin allows your visitors to calculate indicative repayments. This is a great financial tool for calculating repayments on vehicle loans, property loans, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator – 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 WP Plugin)
WP-Invoice is ideal for WordPress users with clients to bill.
WP-Invoice integrates billing into WordPress. You can send clients itemized invoices. It even allows you to set up recurring billing. It can be expanded through both free and premium add-ons, like business location, electronic signature, PDF creation, quoting, checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into your WordPress user management database to keep track of clients and their information, and integrates with PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and several others.
The plugin gives you the ability to add custom payments and charges, insert pre-defined line items and discounts, view invoice status and progression, filter and find invoices, show invoice receipts and invoice history, create notification e-mail templates, display 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)
This is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with support ticket management system, client relationship management and many additional features.
(All In One Business Management Application – WordPress Plugin – Client Invoicing)
The plugin supports different 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)
iBilling is a scalable business software that lets you manage client data and invoices, tracks your company’s cash flow and net worth, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin – Invoice)
iBilling Accounting and Billing Software integrates with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting And Financial Services Themes For WordPress
To benefit the most from using WordPress to grow your business online, we recommend choosing a theme specifically for accounting. Here is a list of some of the best accounting themes available. With the themes below you can own a professional-looking accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro Theme)
This premium theme is an inexpensive turn-key theme created for accountants and accounting firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, offers several page templates, custom menus, a content composer (which improves on the standard WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, performs auto resizing for images, and lots more.
You can easily expand Accounting Pro by installing premium add-ons.
Go here for more information:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme For WordPress)
Accountancy Theme has a variety of built-in styles and layouts to make your accounting site look and feel professional.
This responsive (mobile-friendly) theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, it’s lightweight, SEO friendly, and loads fast. Accountancy provides what you need without bloating your theme with features you don’t need. Free updates and one year of support is included with the cost of purchasing.
Go here for more information:
Accounting
(Accounting)
This premium theme for WordPress includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your site any way you want. The theme also has unlimited sidebars and custom widgets, four different header types, a custom administration panel, four color schemes, custom slider, 3 blog types, and is mobile-friendly. It is a clean-looking, modern and fast loading theme.
For more information, go here:
Kathryn
(Kathryn Theme)
Kathryn is a premium WordPress child theme for the Genesis Framework built specifically for accounting businesses. Kathryn provides a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, widgetized home page, flexible rotator, call to action boxes, author boxes for single or multiple bloggers, many colors, is easy to use, inexpensive, search optimized, and is responsive. Although this theme can easily fit any profession you want it to, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy slider plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
More information:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme was designed to enhance professionalism within the accounting industry. Every color, layout element, icon, menu item, page structure, call-to-action, etc., was designed specifically to help give your accounting site a professional look. It’s a turn-key installation but you can still modify it if you want. It’s fully responsive and includes pages for your accounting services, contact details section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials section, and a blog.
Visit this site to learn more this WordPress theme:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate Theme)
WP Advocate is a corporate theme built specifically for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. It includes a custom post type for staff profiles and can also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is a clean-looking and fast-loading theme.
Go here for more info:
Divi
(Divi WordPress Theme)
This is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ collection. Divi lets you create a unique, professional website using its page builder or beautiful and unique pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout as much as you need.
The builder transforms web elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and easily redesign the structure of their pages without editing any code.
(Divi – Flexible Page Builder)
Divi comes with 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. Modules include audio player, blog, contact form, email optin, image, number counter, post title, pricing table, social media follow, video slider, fullwidth header, fullwidth map, fullwidth post title, and more.. It is responsive and completely customizable. Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to all sleek business themes.
Go here for more details about using this WordPress theme:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme For WordPress)
This one was created specifically to make corporate websites look great.
It has a sleek page-based home page design with a eye-catching slider, blog design, 6 unique 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+ sleek business themes.
Go here for more information:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme)
Adviser was developed specifically to help finance professionals build trust through clean web design. It’s ideal for businesses that provide services such as investing or tax advice. The theme includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications. It also includes a lease calculator. It includes widgets and multiple shortcodes, and includes the drag-and-drop visual composer.
More information:
Tax Help
(Tax Help WP Theme)
Tax Help WordPress Theme was designed for financial companies, tax and financial advisors, and businesses that provide tax services. It’s designed to showcase your services in a professional way and help build your professional reputation. It provides different blog styles, uses the drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and many custom shortcodes.
Go here for more details:
Finance Business
(Finance Business)
This premium WordPress theme was developed specifically for businesses that provide any type of financial service including tax help, consulting, insurance, corporate, finance, loans, accounting, and more. The theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around 100 shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content, custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page options, color management, animations, and lots more.
For more details, 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
We hope that you have found this guide on ways of improving search engine optimization, improve user engagement and increase web traffic to your site generation using plugins helpful.
Subscribe below to receive 101+ useful WordPress tips that will help you grow your business …
***
"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie
***