In Part 1 of this comprehensive article on ways to build your accounting business presence online, we provided in-depth information on the following topics:
- Online Challenges For Accounting Businesses
- Online Opportunities For Professional Accountants
- Essential Pages
- Tips On How To Improve The Content On Your Site
In this section, we will continue looking at more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Topics covered below include:
- Tips For Improving Traffic With WordPress
- Generate New Leads & Enquiries
- WordPress Plugins And Themes That Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Visitors To Your Website
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, see these articles:
- Using WP Plugins To Extend Your Site’s Functionality
- WP For Beginners – An Introduction To WordPress Themes
Your Accounting Website – Improve Your Business Online With WordPress Themes And Plugins
Web traffic is a vital part of your business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic.
Optimize Your Site For Search Engines
There are loads of ways that WordPress helps improve SEO:
- Search Engine-Friendly URLs – WordPress lets you set the permalinks to use the title of the post.
- Post Tags – WordPress lets you select the keywords that you want your article pages (posts) to be indexed for in the search engines.
- Post Categories – Create search engine-friendly categories for archiving and organizing your content.
- Post Excerpts – Set an excerpt that will display in search results.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your content images for better search results.
- Content Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that allows you to easily create internal links
- Pinging – WordPress can be configured to automatically notify other search directories as soon as a new post is published on your site.
Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Improve User Engagement And Drive More Traffic Using WordPress Plugins
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, the WP community makes available dozens of plugins that will improve your accounting website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors to your site.
For example, you can use the plugins below to improve your website’s search engine optimization:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress XML sitemap plugin (for search engines)
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your website’s search engine optimization)
Other things you can do to improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more traffic to your site are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social sharing. Here are some more plugins that can help (many of the plugins described below can be downloaded at no cost):
- BuddyPress – Use this WordPress plugin to set up and manage your own online social community on WordPress.
- bbPress – bbPress allows you to run your own discussion forum on WordPress.
- E-Newsletter – Use E-Newsletter to send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP dashboard, without requiring 3rd-party subscriptions.
- Disqus – Disqus lets you power discussions and helps to increase engagement on your website or blog.
- Monarch – Easily add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online on your website.
(You can add social features to your site easily using free or inexpensive plugins)
Ways To Generate New Leads & Enquiries With WordPress-Based Applications
In this section we show you how to improve your sales and generate leads and enquiries for your accounting business.
Providing An Email Newsletter
Adding an email newsletter is an excellent way to grow and retain your readership. Adding a newsletter provides many benefits and advantages including:
- Drives targeted traffic to your site
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides useful information and advice
- 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 user engagement
- Provides you with other ways for your content to be shared around with others
One of the things you can do to get visitors to subscribe is to provide users with valuable information and offer them free gifts in exchange for their details. This could be a time-saving guide, checklists for handling finances, access to tax calculators, coupons, access to courses, contests, etc.
Add A Contact Form
Contact forms provide an easy and simple way for prospective clients to get in touch. Visitors can raise problems, ask questions to specific departments, ask for a quote, give suggestions and more.
A contact form provides a number of benefits, like:
- Reduces spam
- Automated response
- Giving you control over what is sent to you
- You can keep your email address private
- They can be added to any post or page
- Improves the professional look of your website
- Convenience for visitors
A very popular WordPress contact form plugin is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7)
Contact Form 7 allows you to add and manage multiple contact forms into any post or page, customize your form and the email contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, and spam filtering is also supported.
Something else to consider is to segment your contact form so prospects can select the aspect of your business they are contacting you about. This helps you get the comment to the right person.
Map
Adding a map to your site helps your visitors and customers find you.
Maps are a great tool for several reasons:
- A map helps to increase local SEO
- Visitors can find you easily
- Displays location of events
(Adding maps to your site helps your visitors and clients find you)
Some of the most popular Google Maps plugins for WordPress include:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
How To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation With Plugins & Themes
Accounting And Financial Services Plugins For WordPress
WordPress makes available a number of plugins you can add to your website to immediately add a range of functional tools for site visitors. Here are just some of the plugins you can choose from:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators)
This plugin provides a free collection of 400+ calculators. You can embed them into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. The plugin also supports internationalization
Note: Most of them aren’t focused on accounting, but there are a few you can use for:
- Interest rate
- Rate of return
- CD
- Debit
- And lots 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 show as many widgets as you like.
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker WordPress Plugin)
This plugin lets you add a custom stock ticker to any sidebar, page or post with shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker includes a number of customizable features. Choose from built-in themes or customize these yourself to match the look and feel of your site. You can also add custom stocks to specific categories.
Appearance customization features include width, height, background color, scrolling speed, opacity, number of stocks displayed at one time, text color, font family, font size, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin)
This free plugin lets your users calculate indicative repayments. This is a useful financial tool for car loans, property, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator Plugin – Loan Calculator)
The plugin 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 forms that can be placed in any page or post.
For more details, go here}:
WP-Invoice
(WP-Invoice WordPress Plugin)
WP-Invoice lets WordPress blog owners send itemized invoices to their clients.
This plugin lets you integrate billing into WordPress. You can send itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand plugin functionality with free and premium add-ons, like business location, electronic signature, PDF creation, quoting, single-page checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into WP’s user management database to keep track of clients and their information, and integrates with PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and many others.
Plugin features include adding custom payments and charges, inserting 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, accessing reports (collected vs uncollected invoices, 10 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)
This is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with ticketing management system, CRM and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application WP Plugin – Invoice)
The plugin 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)
This is a scalable business software that lets you manage customer data and invoicing, 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 WP Plugin – Client Invoice)
iBilling Accounting and Billing Software allows you to get paid faster online by integrating 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 for accounting. Here is a list of some of the best accountancy themes available. With the themes listed below you can have a professional accounting website within minutes and save hundreds to thousands of dollars on the cost of web design.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme for WordPress is a turn-key theme for accountants and accounting firms. It’s a responsive theme with a drag-and-drop page-builder, offers several page templates, custom menus, a content composer (gives you an improved WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, auto-resizing for images, and lots more.
Accounting Pro can be customized through premium add-ons.
More info:
Accountancy
(Accountancy WP Theme)
Accountancy Theme has a variety of built-in styles and layouts to 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. Accountancy Theme provides the features you need without bloating your theme. Free updates and one year of support is included in your purchase.
Go here for more information:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme For WordPress)
This one includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your website any way you want. The theme also provides unlimited sidebars and custom widgets, four different header types, a custom administration panel, different color schemes, custom slider, 3 blog types, and is responsive. It looks clean and modern and is fast to load.
More info:
Kathryn
(Kathryn WP Theme)
Kathryn is built specifically for accounting businesses. Kathryn provides a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, many color options, is easy to use, search engine optimized, and is fully 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 plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
Go here for more info:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WordPress Theme)
Accounting WordPress Theme was developed to exude professionalism within the accounting industry. It features authoritative colors and layout elements specifically designed to help make your accounting business 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 (mobile-friendly) and includes pages for your accounting services, contact section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials, and a blog.
More information:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate Theme For WordPress)
This is a free corporate theme built specifically for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate also includes a custom post type for staff profiles and can also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is clean and fast-loading.
More info:
Divi
(Divi Theme)
This premium WordPress theme is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection of WordPress themes. You can create any style of professional website you want using the 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 anyone to understand and easily redesign the structure of their pages without editing code.
(Divi – WordPress Theme – Flexible Page Builder)
Divi has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. These include bar counter, blog, code, countdown timer, image, map, portfolio, slider, testimonial, toggle, fullwidth image, fullwidth map, fullwidth slider, and more.. Divi is fully responsive and fully customizable. Prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to 80+ stunning themes.
To learn more about this theme, go here:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was created specifically to create great-looking corporate sites.
This theme has a sleek page-based home page design with a prominent, flashy slider. It also has a blog design and features that toggle on and off. It has six different 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 all stunning themes.
Go here for more information:
Adviser
(Adviser WP Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was designed specifically to help businesses in the financial industry to build trust online through clean design. It’s perfect for businesses that provide services like investing or tax advice. It 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)
This theme was specifically developed for financial companies, tax and financial advisors, and businesses offering tax services. This theme is designed to show your services in a professional way to help build your business reputation. It comes with different blog styles, uses the drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and many custom shortcodes.
To learn more about this WordPress theme, visit this site:
Finance Business
(Finance Business Theme For WordPress)
Finance Business was designed for organizations that provide financial services such as tax help, consulting, finance, insurance, corporate, accounting, loans, and more. The theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin. It also has around 100 shortcodes that includes charts and financial content. It also includes the custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page settings, color management, animations, and a whole lot more.
For more details about using 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, you have found this comprehensive guide on WordPress plugins for improving SEO, increasing user engagement and driving more visitors useful.
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