In Part 1 of this step-by-step guide on ways to grow your accounting web presence, we covered the following areas:
- Online Challenges For The Accounting Profession
- Online Opportunities For Accountants
- Improve Your Website Pages
- Tips For Improving Your Web Content
In this section, we discuss more ways to grow your accounting business online. Areas covered include:
- Ways Of Improving Web Traffic Using WordPress
- Generate Leads & Enquiries With WordPress-Based Tools
- WordPress Plugins & Themes That Can Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Visitors To Your Business Generation
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, see these articles:
- Add New Features And Functionality To Your Web Site With Plugins
- WordPress For Beginners – An Overview Of Themes
Online Business Tips For Accountants – How To Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With WordPress Plugins
Web traffic is vital to your online business growth. This section will help you improve your web traffic using WordPress.
Optimizing Your Website For Search Engines With WordPress
There are loads of ways WordPress can help to improve your accounting website’s SEO:
- SEO-Friendly – WordPress lets you set the permalinks to use the title of the post.
- Tags – WordPress lets you select the keywords that you want search engines to index your posts for.
- Post Categories – Add categories for keeping your content organized and easy to find.
- Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose descriptions for your posts that visitors will see in the search engine results.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your content images for improved search results.
- Internal Linking – WordPress provides a built-in feature that lets you easily create internal links for faster indexing of pages
- Pinging – Configure your site to automatically notify (ping) other search directories immediately upon publishing new content on your website.
WordPress Plugins That Can Help Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Drive More Visitors
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, there are a number of plugins that improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors to your site.
For example, you can install the plugins below to improve your site’s SEO:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin
- WP Tree – WordPress site map plugin
(A plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your site’s search engine optimization)
Other things you can do to improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social sharing. Here are a few useful WordPress plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – Run your own online social community on your website.
- bbPress – This plugin lets you run a community forum on WordPress.
- E-Newsletter – Use this plugin to send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress dashboard.
- Disqus – Disqus lets you power discussions and helps to increase user engagement on your website or blog.
- Floating Social – Use this WordPress plugin to add powerful social sharing features and buttons on your posts and pages.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing features to their website with WordPress plugins)
How To Generate More Leads & Enquiries
In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve sales and generate leads and enquiries for your business.
Adding A Newsletter
Providing a newsletter is a great way to build a list of subscribers. It provides many benefits including:
- Sends targeted traffic
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides useful updates
- Provides you with a targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to provide special services or products to a select audience
- Provides regular opportunities for increasing engaging with users
- Provides additional ways for subscribers to share your content
A proven way to attract new subscribers to your email newsletter is to provide users with high value information and give them free gifts or bonus items in exchange for their details. This could be a handy guide, checklists for handling tax, access to tax calculators, discount coupons, access to subscriber-only content, contests, etc.
Provide Contact Forms
Contact forms provide an easy and simple way for readers to get in touch. Visitors can raise concerns, ask questions to specific departments, request a quote, and more.
A contact form provides a number of benefits and advantages, like:
- Reduces spam
- Set up automated responses
- Gives 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
- Convenient for visitors
One of the most popular contact form plugins is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin For WordPress)
Contact form 7 is a free plugin that is easy to install and configure and allows you to create multiple contact forms into any post or page, customize your forms and the email contents, add fields, and more.
The plugin also supports international languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, spam filtering and so on.
Something else to consider is to add sections to your contact form so prospects can select the topic they want to discuss. This helps you get the comment to the right person.
Provide A Map
Maps help your visitors and clients find you.
Maps are useful tools for several reasons:
- A map helps to improve local SEO
- Clients can better plan their visits and appointments
- Shows location of events
(A map helps your visitors and clients find you)
Here are just some of the more 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 SEO, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Traffic Using Plugins
Accounting WordPress Plugins
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your accounting website that will immediately add a range of functional tools for site visitors. Here are some of these:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators WordPress Plugin)
This is a free collection of 400+ calculators. You can embed these into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. Internationalization is supported.
Most of the calculators aren’t focused on accounting, but there are a few you can use for:
- Mortgage
- Rate of return
- Leases
- Debit
- And many more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress Plugin)
This plugin installs a widget that displays up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many portfolios as you like.
(Show Stock Quotes – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker Plugin For WordPress)
With this plugin you can place a custom stock ticker on any sidebar, post or page using shortcodes.
This plugin offers several customizable features. You can choose to use built-in skins or customize it yourself to match the look and feel of your site. You can also create custom stocks for individual categories.
Appearance customizations include width, height, background color, opacity, scrolling speed, number of stocks displayed simultaneously, font size, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator)
This free plugin lets your visitors calculate indicative repayments online. It’s great for calculating vehicle loans, real estate, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress – Loan Calculators)
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 a form that can be placed in any page or post.
For more details, go here}:
WP-Invoice
(WP-Invoice Plugin)
WP-Invoice lets you send itemized invoices to clients.
This plugin lets you integrate 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, quoting, single-page checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into the WordPress user management database to keep track of clients and their information, and integrates with payment processors like PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, 2Checkout, USAePay, and others.
You can add custom payments and charges, insert pre-defined line items and discounts, quickly view invoice status and progression, easily filter and find invoices, see invoice receipts and invoice history, create notification e-mail templates, view reports (collected vs uncollected invoices, 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 Plugin)
This is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with ticketing system, client relationship management and many added features.
(All In One Business Management Application WordPress Plugin – Client Invoice)
All In One Business Management Application supports different languages, is fully customizable and provides powerful tools such as document management, notice board, and more.
For more details, go here}:
iBilling – Accounting And Billing Software
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin For WordPress)
This is a scalable business software that lets you manage customer data and invoicing, track your company’s cash flow and net worth, send single-click payment reminders and payment confirmations, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin – Invoicing)
iBilling allows you to get paid faster online by integrating with several payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting And Financial Services – WordPress Themes
To benefit the most from using WordPress, it’s best to choose a theme specifically suited for accounting. Here is a list of some of the best accountancy themes available. With the themes listed below you can own a professional accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro WP Theme)
Accounting Pro is a turn-key theme designed for accountants and accounting firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, has several page templates, custom menus, 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 customized through premium add-ons.
For more information, go here:
Accountancy
(Accountancy)
This premium theme comes with a variety of styles and layouts to give your accounting website a professional look and feel.
It includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, and more. It’s lightweight, search engine optimized, fast loading, and is responsive. Accountancy Theme provides the flexibility you need without bloating your theme with features you don’t need. Free updates and 1 year of support is included with your purchase.
For more details about this theme, go here:
Accounting
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
Accounting Theme includes a drag-and-drop builder so you can design your website any way you want. It also has unlimited sidebars with custom widgets, four different types of headers, a custom admin panel, different color schemes, a custom slider, 3 blog types, and is mobile-friendly. Accountancy looks clean and modern and loads fast.
For more information, go here:
Kathryn
(Kathryn – WordPress Theme)
This one is developed for accounting services. It has multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, widgetized home page, flexible rotator, call to action boxes, author boxes for single or multiple bloggers, various colors, is easy to use, inexpensive, SEO friendly, and is responsive. Although this theme could easily suit any profession, 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.
Go here for more details about this theme:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme – WordPress Theme)
Accounting WordPress Theme was created with the idea of professionalism within the accounting industry. It features authoritative colors and elements designed specifically to help make your accounting business 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 section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials section, and a blog.
Visit the theme website to learn more this theme:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate Theme For WordPress)
WP Advocate is a corporate theme developed specifically for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the bundled images or upload your own. It also includes a custom post type adding staff profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s a clean and fast-loading theme.
Go here to learn more about this theme:
Divi
(Divi Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection of WordPress themes. You can create a professional site using its page builder or beautiful and unique pre-made layouts. You can change your layout as much as you need.
The builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and easily change the structure of their web pages without touching any code.
(Divi Theme For WordPress – Flexible Page Builder)
It comes with 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. These include accordion, blurb, contact form, divider, image, map, person, shop, testimonial, video slider, fullwidth code, fullwidth menu, fullwidth slider, and more.. It is responsive and fully customizable. Themes start at $69 per year and includes access to 80+ themes.
To learn more about this WordPress theme, go here:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme For WordPress)
The Corporation WordPress Theme from Elegant Themes was specifically designed to create great-looking corporate sites.
It has a sleek page-based home page design with a nice slider, blog design, six unique unique color schemes, multiple page templates which include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to 80+ themes.
More information:
Adviser
(Adviser)
This premium theme was designed to help finance industry professionals build trust online through clean web design. It’s perfect for businesses that provide services like investments or tax help. 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.
More info:
Tax Help
(Tax Help)
This theme was specifically designed for financial organizations, tax and finance advisors, and those providing tax services. The theme is designed to showcase your services in a professional way to help grow your professional reputation. It has a range of blog styles, uses a drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and additional custom shortcodes.
More information:
Finance Business
(Finance Business WordPress Theme)
This theme was specifically designed for firms that provide financial services including tax help, consulting, insurance, corporate, finance, accounting, loans, and more. It 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 the custom drag-and-drop composer, 2 premium sliders, page settings, color management, animations, and a lot more.
For more information, 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, this comprehensive guide has helped you learn ways of improving SEO, improve user engagement and drive more visitors to your accounting website using plugins & themes.
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