In Part One of this article on ways to build your accounting business online, we covered the following topics:
- Online Challenges For Accountants
- Opportunities For Accounting Professionals
- Your Website Pages
- Improve Your Content
In this section, we explore more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Areas covered below include:
- Ways To Improve Web Traffic Using WordPress
- Generating More Leads & Enquiries With WordPress
- How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Web Traffic With Plugins And Themes
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
- WordPress Plugins – Extending Your Site’s Functionality
- WordPress For Newbies – An Introduction To Themes
Tips For Accountants – WordPress Plugins That Can Help To Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Visitors To Your Website
Your web traffic is vital to your online business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic using WordPress.
Optimizing Your Website For Search Engines
There are many ways WordPress can help to improve SEO:
- Search Engine-Friendly URLs – WordPress lets you set the permalinks to create search engine-optimized URLS for your article pages.
- Tags – WordPress lets you select the keywords that you want search engines to index your articles for.
- Post Categories – Add search engine-friendly categories for keeping your content organized and easy to find.
- Excerpts – Set an excerpt that will display in search results.
- Images – title your images with keywords for improved search engine results.
- Content Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that lets you easily link your content to other posts on your site
- Post Notification – WordPress can be configured to automatically notify other sites and directories the moment a new post is published on your website.
WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Traffic Generation
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, the WordPress developer community makes available various plugins that improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more visitors to your business.
For example, here are some plugins you can use to improve your SEO:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) to improve your site’s SEO)
Other things you can do to improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more traffic to your site are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social features. Here are a few more plugins that can help (many of the plugins described below can be downloaded at no cost):
- BuddyPress – Use this free plugin to set up and manage your own social network on your website, with member profiles, user groups, activity streams, messaging, and more.
- bbPress – bbPress allows you to run a forum on your site.
- E-Newsletter – Send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress dashboard, without 3rd-party subscriptions.
- Disqus – Power discussions and helps to increase user engagement on your website or blog.
- Social Media Feather – Use this plugin to add powerful social sharing features to your posts and pages.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their site with free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
Generating More Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress-Based Applications
Let’s discuss now ways to improve your sales and generate leads and enquiries.
Add An Email Newsletter
Adding a newsletter is an excellent way to build a list of subscribers. It provides several benefits and advantages, like:
- Sends targeted traffic
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides practical tips and advice
- Provides you with a highly targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to offer special services or products to a select audience
- Increases interaction
- Provides you with additional opportunities for your content to be shared around with new prospective customers
An effective strategy for attracting subscribers is to provide them with content of high value and give them something valuable for free in exchange for their personal details. This can be a guide, tips for handling tax, access to tax calculators, discount coupons, membership access to videos, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
A contact form provides an easy and simple way for prospective customers to get in touch. Contact forms also let users raise problems, contact specific departments, request quotes, and more.
A contact form provides several benefits, like:
- Reduces spam
- Automated response
- Gives you control over what gets sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- Can be added to any post or page
- Improves the professional look of your site
- More convenient for users
One of the most popular contact form plugins for WordPress is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7)
Contact Form 7 is easy to install and configure and allows you to create and manage multiple contact forms, customize your form and the email contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, and Akismet spam filtering is also supported.
Something to consider is to add sections to your contact form so visitors can select which aspect of your business they are contacting your company about. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Adding Maps
Adding a map to your website helps your visitors and clients find you.
Inserting maps, such as Google Maps, into your site also provides many benefits, such as:
- Maps increase local SEO
- Visitors can find your office more easily
- Displays location of events
(Adding a map helps your visitors and customers find you)
Popular map plugins for WordPress include:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
WordPress Plugins For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Increasing User Engagement And Driving More Visitors To Your Accounting Site
Accounting And Financial Services – WordPress Plugins
WordPress makes available a number of plugins you can add to your website that will immediately add a range of functional tools for site visitors. Here are just some of these plugins:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators – WordPress Plugin)
This is a free collection of 400+ calculators that you can display on your website. Internationalization is supported.
Note: Most of the calculators aren’t focused specifically on accounting, but there are quite a few for:
- Mortgage
- Payments
- Leases
- Credit
- And many more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress Plugin)
This plugin gives you a widget that shows up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many portfolios as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes WP Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker Plugin For WordPress)
With this plugin you can add a custom stock ticker to any post, page or sidebar with shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker offers a number of customizable ticker. Choose from built-in themes or customize it yourself. It’s easy to customize it so it matches your site. You can also create custom stocks for individual categories.
Appearance customization features include width, height, scroll speed, opacity, background color, number of stocks displayed at one time, font size, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator WordPress Plugin)
This free plugin allows users to calculate indicative repayments. It’s great for calculating auto loans, property loans, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator – Loan Calculators)
The plugin also contains an application form that will send a message to a specified email address.
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.
WP-Invoice integrates billing into WordPress. You can send clients 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, quote creation, 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, Interkassa, 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 notification e-mail 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)
This complete business management solution includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, helpdesk with knowledgebase and ticket management system, CRM and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin – Invoicing)
All In One Business Management Application supports international languages, is fully customizable and provides powerful 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 clients, track your company’s net worth and cash flow, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin – Invoicing)
iBilling Accounting and Billing Software integrates with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Financial WordPress Themes
To benefit the most from using WordPress, it’s best to choose a theme specifically for accounting businesses. Here is a look at some of the best themes themes available for accounting businesses. With the themes listed below you can own a professional accounting website within minutes and save hundreds to thousands of dollars on the cost of web design.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro)
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, 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 customized with premium add-ons.
Go here for more info:
Accountancy
(Accountancy WP Theme)
This one comes with a variety of built-in styles and layouts that helps give your accounting website a professional look and feel.
It includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, and more. It’s lightweight, SEO friendly, loads fast, and is responsive. It provides the features your business needs without bloating your theme. Your purchase includes free updates and one year of support.
For more information, go here:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme For WordPress)
This theme 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, custom slider, 3 blog types, and is mobile-friendly. It is a clean-looking, modern and fast-to-load theme.
For more details, go here:
Kathryn
(Kathryn Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was created specifically for accountants. The theme provides a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, various colors, is easy to use, inexpensive, search optimized, and is responsive (mobile-friendly). Although it can easily fit any profession you like, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy plugin and must be purchased separately from the Genesis Framework.
Go here for more information:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This theme was designed with the idea of professionalism within the accounting industry. Every color, layout element, icon, menu item, page structure, call-to-action, etc., is specifically designed to help give your accounting website 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, and a blog.
Go here to learn more this WordPress theme:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate Theme)
This is a free corporate theme built specifically for professionals 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 a clean-looking and fast-loading theme.
More information:
Divi
(Divi – WordPress Theme)
This is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection. Divi lets you create any kind of professional site you want using the page builder or beautiful and unique pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout as much as you need.
The builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and change the structure of their pages without editing code.
(Divi – WordPress Theme – Flexible Page Builder)
It has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. These include multiple layouts, a slider, you can place pricing tables, testimonials, call-to-action, and lots more. Divi is fully responsive and fully customizable. Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to over 80 themes.
For more details, go here:
The Corporation
(The Corporation WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme from Elegant Themes was specifically developed to make corporate websites look good.
It has a sleek page-based home page design with a prominent slider, blog design, 6 unique color schemes, multiple page templates which include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Themes start at $69 per year and includes full access to all sleek business themes.
To learn more about this WordPress theme, visit the theme website:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme)
This premium theme was designed to help professionals in the financial industry to build trust with a clean business design. It’s perfect for those that provide services like investments or tax advice. Adviser includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, lease calculator, widgets and multiple shortcodes, and a drag-and-drop visual composer..
Go here for more details:
Tax Help
(Tax Help – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was designed specifically for financial organizations, tax and finance advisors, and firms that provide tax assistance. This theme is designed to showcase your services professionally to help build your professional reputation. It comes with different blog styles, uses a drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and additional custom shortcodes.
For more information, go here:
Finance Business
(Finance Business Theme)
This one was specifically designed for businesses that provide financial services such as tax help, consulting, finance, insurance, corporate, accounting, loans, and more. Finance Business includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin. It also has around one hundred shortcodes that includes charts and financial content. It also includes the custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page settings, color management, animations, and a whole lot more.
More information:
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 article has helped you learn how to improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and drive more visitors with plugins.
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