In Part 1 of this guide on ways to improve your accounting business online, we provided practical tips and suggestions on the following topics:
- Online Challenges For Accountants
- Opportunities For Accounting Businesses In The Online Economy
- Your Web Pages
- Improve The Content On Your Website
In this section, we explore more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Topics covered below include:
- How To Improve Web Traffic
- Tips For Generating New Leads & Enquiries
- Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Drive More Web Traffic With Plugins And Themes
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
Improving Website Traffic
Web traffic is an integral part of your online business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic using WordPress.
Optimizing Your Site For Search Engines (SEO) Using WordPress
There are many ways that WordPress helps optimize your website for search engines:
- Search Engine-Friendly URLs – Set the permalinks to use the title of the posts as the web address of your pages.
- Tags – Choose the keywords that you want your posts to be indexed by in the search engines.
- Post Categories – Add SEO-friendly categories for your posts and products.
- Post Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose an excerpt that search engines will display.
- Images – title your images with keywords for improved search engine results.
- Content Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that lets you easily link internal content
- Pinging – Set up your WordPress site to automatically notify (ping) other sites and directories whenever a new post is published on your site.
WordPress Plugins That Can Improve Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, the WP community makes available also a number of plugins that improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic to your site.
For example, you can install the plugins below to improve your website’s SEO:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress XML sitemap plugin
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin
(A plugin like Yoast SEO can improve your SEO)
Other things you can do to improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your site are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social features. Here are a few plugins that can help (many of the plugins described below are also free):
- BuddyPress – Use the BuddyPress WordPress plugin to set up your own online social network on your website, with member profiles, messaging, user groups, activity streams, and more.
- bbPress – This free WordPress plugin lets you run your own forum on your WordPress site.
- E-Newsletter – This plugin lets you send professional email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP site.
- Disqus – use this WordPress plugin to power discussions and helps to increase user engagement on your site.
- Monarch – This WordPress plugin lets you add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online to your site.
(WordPress users can easily add social features to their site using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
Ways To Generate More Leads & Enquiries
In this section we’ll show you how to improve sales and generate leads and enquiries.
Adding A Newsletter
Adding an email newsletter is a great way to retain and grow your readership. It provides many benefits and advantages, like:
- Drives targeted traffic to your site
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides useful updates
- Provides you with a highly targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to offer special products or services to a select audience
- Provides new opportunities for improving user interaction
- Provides additional opportunities for readers to share your content
An effective strategy for attracting subscribers is to provide them with information of high value and offer them free gifts in exchange for their details. This could be a guide, checklists for handling finances, access to financial calculators, discount coupons, access to subscriber-only content, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
A contact form makes it easy and simple for readers to get in touch with you. Visitors can report issues, ask questions to specific departments, request a quote, give suggestions for improvements and more.
A contact form provides many benefits, like:
- Reduces spam
- Automated response
- 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
- Convenient for users
One of the most popular contact form plugins for WordPress is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin For WordPress)
Contact Form 7 is easy to install and configure and lets you create multiple contact forms, customize your form and the email contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, and Akismet spam filtering is supported.
Something else to consider is to add sections to your contact form so prospective customers can select which aspect of your business they are contacting your company about. This will help you to get the comment to the right person.
Adding A Map
Adding a map helps your visitors and clients find you.
Adding maps (e.g. Google Maps) to your WordPress site also provides many benefits, such as:
- Maps help to increase local SEO
- Allows customers to better plan their meeting or appointments
- Display location of events
(Adding maps to your site helps your visitors and clients 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
Improving Search Engine Optimization, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With WordPress Plugins And Themes
Accounting And Financial Services WordPress Plugins
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your site that will immediately make available a range of functional tools for your site visitors. Here are some of the plugins you can choose from:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin For WordPress)
This is a free collection of over 400 calculators that you can display on your website and embed into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. It supports internationalization
Note: Most of them aren’t focused on accounting, but there are a few for:
- 401k
- Loans
- Tax
- Equity
- And lots more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin For WordPress)
With this plugin you get a widget that shows up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many portfolios as you like.
(Show Stock Quotes WP Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker WP Plugin)
With this plugin you can place a custom stock ticker on any sidebar, page or post with shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker comes with several customizable ticker. Choose from built-in themes or customize it yourself to match your website. You can also create custom stocks for specific categories.
Appearance customizations include height, width, background color, scroll speed, opacity, number of stocks displayed at one time, text color, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator)
This free calculator allows your visitors to calculate indicative repayments. It’s great for automotive loans, property loans, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator Plugin – Loan Calculator)
The plugin also contains an application form that sends a message to a specified email address.
Other features of this plugin include displaying 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 WP Plugin)
WP-Invoice lets WordPress blog owners send itemized invoices to their clients.
WP-Invoice integrates billing into WordPress. You can send out itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand functionality with free and premium add-ons, like business location, electronic signature, PDF creation, quote creation, checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into the WP user management database to keep track of your clients and their information, and integrates with PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and others.
You can add custom payments and charges, create pre-defined line items and discounts, view invoice status and progression, filter and find invoices, see invoice receipts and invoice history, create e-mail notification 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 For WordPress)
This is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with support ticket system, CRM and many additional features.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin – Client Invoicing)
All In One Business Management Application supports international languages, is fully customizable and provides additional 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)
iBilling is a scalable business software that lets you manage client 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 Invoicing)
iBilling lets you get paid faster by integrating with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting – WordPress Themes
To benefit the most from using WordPress, it’s best to choose a theme specifically suited for accounting businesses. Below is a list of some of the best WordPress themes available for accounting. These themes allow you to own a professional accounting website within minutes and save hundreds to thousands of dollars on the cost of web design.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress is a turn-key theme for accountants and accountancy firms. It’s a responsive theme with a drag-and-drop page-builder, offers several page templates, a custom menu feature, a content composer (gives you an improved WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, auto-resizing for images, and a whole lot more.
Accounting Pro can be customized through premium add-ons.
Go here for more information:
Accountancy
(Accountancy WordPress Theme)
This theme comes with 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 section, and more. It’s lightweight, search engine optimized, loads fast, and fully responsive. Accountancy provides what you need without bloating your theme with features you don’t need. The cost of purchase includes free updates and 1 year of support.
More information:
Accounting
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This one includes a drag-and-drop builder so you can 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, a custom slider, three different blog types, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). Accountancy looks clean and modern and loads fast.
More info:
Kathryn
(Kathryn)
This premium theme was built for accounting services. The theme provides a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, widgetized home page, flexible rotator, call to action boxes, author boxes for single or multiple bloggers, a variety of color choices, is easy to use, inexpensive, search engine optimized, and is mobile-friendly. Although this theme could easily suit 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.
Visit the theme website to learn more about this theme:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This premium theme was built to exude professionalism within the accounting industry. It features an authoritative color scheme and elements specifically designed to make your accounting website look professional without looking dull. It’s a turn-key installation but you can still modify it if you want. It’s fully responsive and includes pages for your services, contact form section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials section, and a blog.
For more details, go here:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate Theme)
WP Advocate is a corporate theme built specifically for professional service providers such as accountants and attorneys. Use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate also includes a custom post type adding staff profiles and can also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s clean and loads fast.
For more details, go here:
Divi
(Divi – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection. Divi lets you 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 anyone to understand and edit the structure of their pages without editing code.
(Divi – Page Builder)
Divi comes with 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. Modules include audio player, blog, code, countdown timer, filterable portfolio, number counter, portfolio, pricing table, social media follow, video, fullwidth header, fullwidth map, fullwidth slider, and more.. It is mobile-friendly and completely customizable. Themes start at $69 per year and includes access to all sleek business themes.
Go here for more details:
The Corporation
(The Corporation – WordPress Theme)
This theme was created specifically to make corporate sites look good.
This theme has a sleek page-based home page design with a prominent, flashy slider, blog design, six different color schemes, multiple page templates that include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Prices start at $69 per year and includes access to over 80 sleek business themes.
For more information, go here:
Adviser
(Adviser WP Theme)
The Adviser Theme was designed to help professionals in the financial industry to build trust through clean design. It’s perfect for businesses that provide services such as investment advice or tax advice. It 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.
For more details, go here:
Tax Help
(Tax Help Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was developed specifically for financial companies, tax and financial advisors, and firms providing tax services. Tax Help is designed to showcase your services professionally and help build 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.
For more details, go here:
Finance Business
(Finance Business WordPress Theme)
This premium theme was built specifically for firms that provide any type of financial service including consulting, tax help, corporate, insurance, finance, loans, accounting, and more. Finance Business includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around 100 shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content, a custom drag-and-drop composer, 2 premium sliders, page settings, color management features, animated elements, and a whole lot more.
Go here for more information about using 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
Hopefully, this guide has helped you learn ways of improving your accounting business online with WordPress themes and plugins.
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
***