In Part One of this guide on ways to improve your accounting business web presence, we provided practical tips and suggestions on the following areas:
- Challenges Accounting Professionals Face Online
- Opportunities For The Accounting Profession In The Online Economy
- Essential Website Pages
- Improving The Content On Your Website
In this section, we explore more ways to grow your accounting business online. Topics covered include:
- Ways Of Improving Web Traffic
- Ways To Generate Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress-Based Applications
- Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With Plugins
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, go here:
- WordPress Plugins – The Easy Way To Enhance Your Site’s Capabilities
- WordPress For Beginners – An Introduction To WP Themes
How To Improve Traffic
Web traffic is vital to your business growth. In this section, we explore how to improve your accounting website with WordPress.
Optimizing Your Site For Search Engines
There are loads of ways WordPress can help to improve your accounting website’s SEO:
- Search Engine-Friendly URLs – configure the permalinks to create search engine-optimized web addresses for your posts.
- Tags – Choose the keywords that you want search engines to index your articles for.
- Post Categories – Add search engine-friendly categories for your posts and products.
- Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose an excerpt that will appear in search results.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your images for better search results.
- Internal Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that allows you to easily create internal links
- Pinging – WordPress can be set up to automatically notify other search directories whenever a new post is published on your site.
How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With Plugins
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, the WordPress community makes available various plugins that will improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic to your business.
Here are some plugins you can use to improve your website’s search engine optimization:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress XML sitemap plugin
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your website’s SEO)
Other ways to improve your accounting website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic to your site are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social sharing. Here are a few plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – Set up an online social networking community on your site.
- bbPress – Run a forum on your site.
- E-Newsletter – This plugin lets you send professional email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress site.
- Disqus – use this plugin to power discussions and helps to increase user engagement on your website or blog.
- Monarch – Use this WordPress plugin to add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online on your posts and pages.
(You can easily add social features to your site using free or inexpensive plugins)
Tips For Generating Leads & Enquiries
Let’s now discuss how to improve sales and generate more leads and enquiries online.
Adding An Email Newsletter
Providing an email newsletter is an excellent way to grow and retain your readership. Adding an email newsletter provides a number of benefits, like:
- Sends targeted traffic
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides updates
- Provides you with a targeted marketing channel
- Allows you to provide special products or services to a select audience
- Increases engagement with your users
- Provides additional ways for your content to be shared around with others
A proven way to entice visitors to become subscribers is to provide users with high value content and give them free gifts in exchange for their details. This could be a useful report, tips for handling finances, access to tax calculators, discount coupons, access to courses, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
A contact form makes it easy and simple for readers to get in touch with you. Visitors can report problems, contact specific departments, request a quote, send suggestions for improvements and more.
Contact forms provide several benefits, like:
- Reduces spam
- Set up automated responses
- Gives 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
- More convenient for site visitors
One of the most popular contact form plugins is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin For WordPress)
This free contact form plugin lets you insert multiple contact forms into any page on your site, customize your form and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, and spam filtering is also supported.
Something else to consider is to add sections to your contact form so prospective customers can select the department they want to contact. This helps you get the comment to the right person.
Provide Maps
Adding maps helps your visitors and clients find you.
Inserting maps, such as Google Maps, into your WordPress site also provides a number of benefits, such as:
- Maps increase local SEO
- Customers can better plan their visits and appointments
- Displays location of events
(A map helps your visitors and clients find you)
Some of the more popular Google Maps plugins include:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Generate More Visitors To Your Accounting Site Using Plugins
Accounting – WordPress Plugins
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your accounting or financial services website to immediately add a range of practical tools for users. Here are just some of the plugins you can choose from:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin provides a free collection of over 400 calculators that you can display on your website and embed into your pages, posts, or sidebars using shortcodes. Internationalization is supported.
Note: Most of them aren’t focused on accounting, but there are quite a few you can use for:
- 401k
- Rate of return
- CD
- Debit
- And more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes)
This plugin lets you add a widget that displays up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can show as many widgets as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker Plugin)
With this plugin you can add custom stock tickers to any sidebar, page or post using shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker provides several customizable features. You can choose from built-in themes or customize it yourself to match your site. You can also add custom stocks to individual categories.
Customize the appearance by changing height, width, scroll speed, opacity, number of stocks displayed simultaneously, font size, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin)
This free calculator allows users to calculate indicative repayments online. This is a great financial tool for calculating repayments on vehicle loans, property, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress – Loan Calculators)
The plugin also contains an application form that sends 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)
WP-Invoice is ideal for WordPress users with clients to bill.
This plugin integrates billing into WordPress. You can send clients 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 invoices, provide quotes, create checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into your WP user management database to keep track of your clients and their information, and integrates with PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and several 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 email notification templates, accessing 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 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 WP Plugin – Client Invoicing)
All In One Business Management Application supports multiple 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 customers, track your company’s net worth and cash flow, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin For WordPress – 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}:
WordPress Accounting Themes
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 look at some of the best WordPress themes available for accounting. With the themes 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 responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, has several page templates, custom menu features, a content composer (which improves on the standard WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, auto-resizing for images, and a whole lot more.
Accounting Pro can be expanded by installing premium add-ons.
To learn more about about using this WordPress theme, go here:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme)
This one comes in a variety of styles and layouts to give your accounting website a professional look and feel.
This fully responsive (mobile-friendly) theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, it’s lightweight, search optimized, and loads fast. Accountancy Theme 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 purchase.
More information:
Accounting
(Accounting WP 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 header types, a custom admin panel, different color schemes, a custom slider, 3 blog types, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). It is a clean-looking, modern and fast loading theme.
Go here for more details:
Kathryn
(Kathryn Theme)
This one is a premium child theme for the Genesis Framework designed for accounting businesses. The theme allows you to use WordPress as a true CMS and offers a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, widgetized home page, flexible rotator, call to action boxes, author boxes for single or multiple bloggers, many color options, is easy to use, inexpensive, SEO friendly, 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 is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
To learn more about this theme, go here:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This one was created to exude professionalism within the accounting industry. It features authoritative colors and layout elements designed specifically to give your accounting business site a professional look. It’s a turn-key installation but you can still modify it if you want. It’s mobile-friendly and includes pages for your services, contact form section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials section, and a blog.
Go here for more details:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate)
WP Advocate is a free corporate theme specifically designed for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. It also includes a custom post type adding staff profiles and can also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s clean-looking and fast-loading.
To learn more about this WordPress theme, visit the theme website:
Divi
(Divi)
This is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection. You can create a unique, professional site using the page builder or beautiful and unique pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout to your heart’s content.
The builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and edit the structure of their page without touching a single line of code.
(Divi Theme For WordPress – Page Builder)
Divi comes with 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. These include bar counter, call to action, contact form, divider, gallery, map, post title, pricing table, tabs, toggle, fullwidth header, fullwidth portfolio, fullwidth post title, and more.. It is responsive and completely customizable. Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to 80+ sleek business themes.
More info:
The Corporation
(The Corporation – WordPress Theme)
The Corporation Theme from Elegant Themes was specifically created to make corporate sites look great.
This theme has a sleek page-based home page design with a prominent slider. It also has a blog design. 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. Prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to over 80 sleek business themes.
Go here for more details:
Adviser
(Adviser WordPress Theme)
The Adviser WordPress Theme was developed to help finance industry professionals build trust online through clean web design. It’s ideal for businesses that provide services like investing or tax help. The theme includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, a built-in lease calculator, multiple shortcodes and widgets, and a drag-and-drop visual composer..
Go here to learn more this theme:
Tax Help
(Tax Help)
This theme was specifically built for financial organizations, tax and financial advisors, and firms offering tax assistance. The theme is designed to showcase your services in a professional way and help establish your professional 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.
Visit this site to learn more about this WordPress theme:
Finance Business
(Finance Business WordPress Theme)
This theme was built for organizations that provide any type of financial service such as consulting, tax help, insurance, finance, corporate, loans, accounting, and more. This theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin. It also has around one hundred shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content. It also includes a custom drag-and-drop composer, 2 premium sliders, page options, color management features, animated elements, and lots more.
More info:
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 guide has helped you learn ways of improving SEO, increase user engagement and increase traffic generation using plugins & themes.
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
***