In Part One of this step-by-step article on ways to grow your accounting business presence online, we covered the following areas:
- Challenges Accounting & Financial Professionals Face Online
- Online Opportunities For Professional Accountants
- Your Web Pages
- Improving Your Web Content
In this section, we continue exploring more ways to grow your accounting business online. Areas covered below include:
- Improving Web Traffic
- Tips For Generating More Leads & Enquiries
- WordPress Plugins That Can Help To Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
Improving Web Traffic
Your web traffic is a vital part of your business growth. This section discusses how to improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and increase web traffic generation with WordPress plugins.
Optimizing Your Site For SEO With WordPress
There are lots of ways that WordPress helps improve SEO:
- SEO-Friendly – configure the permalinks to use the title of the post.
- Tags – WordPress lets you specify the keywords that you want your articles to be indexed for in the search engines.
- Categories – Create SEO-friendly categories for your posts and products.
- Excerpts – Set descriptions for your posts that will display to search engine users.
- Images – title images with keywords for better search results.
- Internal Content Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that lets you easily create internal links
- Pinging – Set up your site to automatically notify other search directories whenever a new post is published on your website.
WordPress Plugins That Can Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, there are dozens of WordPress plugins that improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your site.
For example, you can install the plugins below to improve your website’s search engine optimization:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your website’s SEO)
Other WordPress tools you can use to improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic to your website are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing features. Here are a few more useful WordPress plugins that can help (many of the plugins described below are also free):
- BuddyPress – This plugin lets you run a social networking community on your site.
- bbPress – This free plugin helps you run a discussion forum on WordPress.
- E-Newsletter – This plugin lets you send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress dashboard, without requiring a 3rd party subscription.
- Disqus – use this WordPress plugin to power discussions and helps to increase user engagement on your website.
- Monarch – Easily 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)
Generate New Leads & Enquiries With WordPress
Let’s now discuss ways to improve sales and generate leads and enquiries online.
Add An Email Newsletter
Providing a newsletter is an excellent way to build a subscriber list. It provides many benefits and advantages including:
- Drives targeted traffic
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Keeps readers updated
- Provides a targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to offer special services or products to a select audience
- Increases user interaction
- Provides you with additional ways for your content to be shared online with other prospective clients
An effective way to attract newsletter subscribers is to provide high value information and offer users something valuable for free in exchange for their details. This can be a guide, tips for handling finances, access to tax calculators, discount coupons, membership access to subscriber-only content, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
Contact forms make it easy and simple for readers to get in touch with you. A contact form also allows readers to raise problems, contact specific departments, request quotes, and more.
A contact form provides several benefits and advantages, like:
- Reducing 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 post or page
- Looks professional
- More convenient for site visitors
A popular contact form plugin for WordPress is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 – WordPress Plugin)
This plugin is easy to install and configure and allows you to create multiple contact forms into any page on your site, customize your form and the email contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, and Akismet spam filtering is supported.
Another feature you may want to consider is adding sections to your contact form so users can choose the department they want to contact. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Provide Maps
Adding a map helps your visitors and clients find you.
Maps are useful tools for several reasons:
- They increase local SEO
- Visitors can find you more easily
- Shows location of events
(Adding a map helps your visitors and customers find you)
Popular Google Maps plugins for WordPress include:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
WordPress Plugins & Themes For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Web Traffic Generation
Accounting And Financial Services WordPress Plugins
WordPress provides a number of plugins you can add to your site that will immediately make available a range of functional tools for site visitors. Here are just some of these plugins:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin For WordPress)
This is a free collection of over 400 calculators that you can provide to users on your website. It supports internationalization
Most of the calculators aren’t focused 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)
This plugin lets you add a widget that displays a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can show as many widgets as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker – WordPress Plugin)
This free plugin lets you place a custom stock ticker on any sidebar, post or page with shortcodes.
The plugin includes several customizable features. 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 individual categories.
Appearance customization features include width, height, background color, opacity, scrolling speed, number of stocks displayed at one time, font family, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress)
This free plugin allows your users to calculate indicative repayments online. It’s great for calculating car loans, property loans, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator – 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 Plugin For WordPress)
WP-Invoice lets you send itemized invoices to clients.
This plugin integrates billing into WordPress. You can send 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, single-page checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into WP’s user management database to keep track of your clients and their information, and integrates with payment processors like PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, 2Checkout, USAePay, and others.
The plugin gives you the ability to add custom payments and charges, add 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, 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 WordPress Plugin)
This is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with knowledgebase and support ticketing management system, CRM and many additional features.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin – Invoice)
All In One Business Management Application supports international languages, is fully customizable and provides additional tools such as document management, to do app, and more.
For more details, go here}:
iBilling – Accounting And Billing Software
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin For WordPress)
iBilling is a scalable business software that lets you manage and communicate with customers, tracks your company’s cash flow and net worth, send single-click payment reminders and payment confirmations, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software WP Plugin – Invoicing)
iBilling integrates with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting And Financial Services Themes For WordPress
To get the most benefit out of growing your business online with WordPress, it’s best to choose a theme specifically suited for accounting. Here is a list of some of the best accountancy themes available. These themes allow you to own a professional-looking accounting website within minutes and save hundreds to thousands of dollars on the cost of website design.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro)
This premium WordPress theme is a turn-key theme for accountants and accounting firms. It’s a responsive theme with a drag-and-drop page-builder, has 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 expanded by installing premium add-ons.
More information:
Accountancy
(Accountancy Theme For WordPress)
This inexpensive theme comes in a variety of built-in styles and layouts to give your accounting site a professional look and feel.
This fully responsive theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, it’s lightweight, search engine optimized, and loads fast. Accountancy Theme provides what you need without bloating your theme. Free updates and 1 year of support is included with the price.
Go here for more information:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your site any way you want. It also provides unlimited sidebars and custom widgets, four different types of headers, a custom administration panel, different color schemes, a custom slider, three different blog types, and is responsive (mobile-friendly). It looks clean and modern and is fast to load.
To learn more about using this WordPress theme, go here:
Kathryn
(Kathryn WordPress Theme)
This one is a premium child theme for the Genesis Framework built specifically for accounting businesses. Kathryn comes with a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, a variety of colors, is easy to use, inexpensive, search 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 responsive slider plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
For more details about using this WordPress theme, go here:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was built to enhance professionalism within the accounting industry. Every color, layout element, icon, menu item, page structure, call-to-action, etc., was 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 mobile-friendly and includes pages for your accounting services, contact section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials, and a blog.
More info:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate Theme For WordPress)
WP Advocate is a corporate theme designed specifically for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. Use the bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate also includes a custom post type adding employee profiles and can also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is clean and fast-loading.
More information:
Divi
(Divi Theme For WordPress)
This is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection. You can create a unique, professional website 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 easily change the structure of their web pages without touching a single line of code.
(Divi Theme – Flexible Page Builder)
Divi comes with 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. This includes modules such as audio player, call to action, circle counter, email optin, filterable portfolio, number counter, post title, pricing table, social media follow, video, fullwidth header, fullwidth map, fullwidth slider, and more.. It is responsive and fully customizable. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to 80+ professional themes.
For more details, go here:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was specifically developed to make corporate websites look good.
This theme has a sleek page-based home page design with a prominent, flashy slider, blog design, 6 different color schemes, 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+ beautifully-designed themes.
For more details, go here:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme)
This premium theme was designed to help finance professionals build trust online through clean web design. It’s ideal for businesses that provide services like investments or tax advice. It includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications. It also includes a built-in lease calculator. It includes widgets and multiple shortcodes, and includes the drag-and-drop visual composer.
For more details, go here:
Tax Help
(Tax Help Theme For WordPress)
Tax Help WordPress Theme was built for financial companies, tax and financial advisors, and businesses offering tax assistance. Tax Help is designed to show your services professionally to help grow your professional reputation. It has a range of blog styles, uses the drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and additional custom shortcodes.
To learn more about this WordPress theme, go here:
Finance Business
(Finance Business)
This theme was specifically built for organizations that provide any type of financial service such as consulting, tax help, finance, corporate, insurance, accounting, loans, and more. Finance Business 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, two premium sliders, page options, color management features, animated elements, and lots more.
Go here for 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
We hope that you have found this guide on ways to improve your business online with WordPress useful.
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