In Part 1 of this article on ways to improve your accounting business web presence, we provided in-depth information on the following areas:
- Challenges Accounting Businesses Face Online
- Opportunities For Accountants In The Digital Economy
- Improving Your Web Pages
- Tips For Improving The Content On Your Website
In this section, we discuss more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Topics covered below include:
- Ways Of Improving Traffic
- Ways To Generate Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress
- WordPress Plugins That Can Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Web Traffic
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
- Using WordPress Plugins To Enhance Your Web Site’s Capability
- WP For Newbies – An Introduction To WordPress Themes
Improving Web Traffic Using WordPress
Your web traffic is vital to your business growth. In this section, you will learn ways of improving your accounting business online with WordPress themes and plugins.
Optimize Your Site For Search Engines (SEO) Using WordPress
There are loads of ways WordPress can help to optimize your website for search engines:
- SEO-Friendly – Set the permalinks to create search engine-optimized URLS for your article pages (called posts).
- Post Tags – WordPress lets you choose the keywords that you want search engines to index your article pages for.
- Categories – Create search engine-friendly categories for keeping your content organized and easy to find.
- Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose an excerpt that visitors will see in the search engine results.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your images for improved search engine results.
- Content Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that allows you to easily link your content to other posts on your site
- Pinging – WordPress can be configured to automatically notify (ping) other search directories whenever a new post is published on your website.
WordPress Plugins That Can Help Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, there are dozens of plugins for WordPress that improve your accounting website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more traffic to your business.
For example, you can install the plugins below to improve your SEO:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin (for search engines)
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your SEO)
Other ways to improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more traffic to your business are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social sharing. Here are some powerful plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – Run your own social network on your WordPress site.
- bbPress – Use bbPress to set up and run an online community forum on your WordPress website.
- E-Newsletter – E-Newsletter lets you send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress dashboard, without requiring a third party subscription.
- Disqus – use this WordPress plugin to power discussions and helps to increase engagement on your website.
- Monarch – Use this plugin to add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online to your site.
(You can easily add social sharing buttons to your site with free or inexpensive plugins)
Tips For Generating Leads & Enquiries With WordPress
In this section we’ll show you ways to improve your sales and generate more leads and enquiries.
Add An Email Newsletter
Adding a newsletter is an excellent way to build a subscriber list. It] provides a number of benefits including:
- Drives targeted traffic
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides updates
- Provides a highly targeted marketing channel
- Allows you to provide special products or services to a select audience
- Provides regular opportunities for increasing user interaction
- Provides an additional way for your content to be shared with new potential clients
An effective way to attract subscribers is to provide high value information and offer users additional bonuses for free in exchange for their personal details. This could be a handy guide, checklists for handling tax, access to tax calculators, coupons, access to subscriber-only content, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
Contact forms provide an easy and simple way for prospective clients to contact you. Readers can report problems, contact specific departments, ask for quotes, and more.
A contact form provides several benefits, like:
- Reduces spam
- Set up automated responses
- Giving you control over what gets sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- Can be added to any page or post
- Looks professional
- Convenient for site visitors
One of the most popular WordPress contact form plugins is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin is easy to install and set up and allows you to create multiple contact forms, customize your forms and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, and spam filtering is also supported.
Another feature to consider is adding sections to your contact form so visitors can select the department they want to contact. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Map
Maps help your visitors and customers find you.
A map is a useful tool for several reasons:
- A map improves local SEO
- Visitors can find your office more easily and customers can plan their visits better
- Shows location of events
(Adding a map to your website helps your visitors and clients find you)
Popular Google Maps plugins include:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With Plugins
WordPress Plugins
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your accounting or financial services site to immediately add a range of functional tools for your site visitors. Here are just some of these:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators)
This plugin provides a free collection of 400+ calculators that you can provide to users on your website. Internationalization is supported.
Note: Most of the calculators aren’t focused on accounting, but there are a few you can use for:
- Interest rate
- Payments
- CD
- Credit
- And many more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes)
With this plugin you get a widget that displays a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many portfolios as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker WP Plugin)
This free plugin lets you place a custom stock ticker on any sidebar, page or post with shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker offers several customizable ticker. You can choose to use built-in skins or customize it yourself. It’s easy to customize it so it matches your website. You can also create custom stocks for specific categories.
Appearance customization features include size, text, colors, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator)
This free plugin lets your site visitors calculate indicative repayments online. It’s great for calculating car loans, property loans, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator Plugin – Loan Calculator)
Finance Calculator also contains an application form that sends a message to a specified email address.
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 Plugin For WordPress)
WP-Invoice is ideal for WordPress users with clients to bill.
WP-Invoice lets you integrate billing into WordPress. You can send out itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand functionality with both free and premium add-ons that let you manage business, accept electronic signatures, create PDF versions of your invoices, create quotes, create 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, 2Checkout, PayPal Payments Pro, and several others.
You can add custom payments and charges, add pre-defined line items and discounts, quickly view invoice status and progression, filter and find invoices, show invoice receipts and invoice history, create e-mail notification templates, view 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 WP Plugin)
This complete business management system includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with support ticketing management system, CRM and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application WordPress Plugin – Invoice)
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)
This is a scalable business software that lets you manage and communicate with customers, 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 – WordPress Plugin – Client Invoicing)
iBilling Accounting and Billing Software lets you get paid faster online by integrating with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
WordPress Themes
To benefit the most from using WordPress to grow your business online, we recommend choosing a theme specifically suited for accounting. Here is a list of some of the best accountancy themes available. These themes allow you to have a professional-looking accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro WordPress Theme)
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, 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 expand this theme with premium add-ons.
More info:
Accountancy
(Accountancy)
This premium theme for WordPress comes in a variety of built-in styles and layouts that helps make your accounting website look and feel professional.
It includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, and more. It’s lightweight, search optimized, fast loading, and fully responsive. It provides what you need without bloating your theme with features you don’t need. Your purchase price includes free updates and 1 year of support.
Go here to learn more this WordPress theme:
Accounting
(Accounting – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your website any way you want. The theme also has unlimited sidebars and custom widgets, four different header types, a custom admin panel, different color schemes, custom slider, three different blog types, and is responsive. It looks clean and modern and loads fast.
Go here to learn more about using this WordPress theme:
Kathryn
(Kathryn – WordPress Theme)
Kathryn is built for accountants. It allows you to use WordPress as a true content management system and provides multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, flexible rotator, a variety of color options, is easy to use, inexpensive, search optimized, and is responsive (mobile-friendly). Although it can easily fit 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.
More information:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WP Theme)
This premium theme was created with the idea of professionalism within the accounting industry. It features authoritative colors and layout elements specifically designed to help make your accounting site look professional without 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 services, contact form section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials section, and a blog.
Go here for more details:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate – WordPress Theme)
WP Advocate is a corporate theme specifically designed for professional service providers such as accountants and attorneys. Use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate includes a custom post type for employee profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is clean and fast-loading.
Go here for more info:
Divi
(Divi WordPress Theme)
This is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection. You can create any kind of professional website you want using its page builder or beautiful pre-made layouts. You can change 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 – Page Builder)
It has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. This includes modules such as audio player, blurb, circle counter, divider, gallery, login, post title, sidebar, tabs, text, fullwidth image, fullwidth menu, fullwidth slider, and more.. Divi is responsive and completely customizable. Prices start at $69 per year and includes access to all sleek business themes.
More info:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme For WordPress)
This one from Elegant Themes was specifically designed to create good-looking corporate sites.
It has a page-based home page design with a eye-catching slider. It also has a blog design. It has 6 color schemes. It also comes with multiple page templates which include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Prices start at $69 per year and includes access to 80+ sleek business themes.
Go here for more details:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme For WordPress)
This theme was developed specifically to help finance professionals build trust through clean design. It’s ideal for those that provide services such as investing advice or tax advice. Adviser includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, a lease calculator, widgets and multiple shortcodes, and a drag-and-drop visual composer..
Go here for more details:
Tax Help
(Tax Help – WordPress Theme)
Tax Help Theme was designed for financial organizations, tax and finance advisors, and firms that provide tax assistance. Tax Help is designed to show your services in a professional way to 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.
Visit the theme site to learn more about this theme:
Finance Business
(Finance Business – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was designed specifically for firms that provide financial services 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, 2 premium sliders, page options, color management, animated elements, and a lot more.
Go here to learn more this WordPress theme:
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 how to improve your accounting or financial services website with WordPress themes and plugins useful.
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