In Part 1 of this article on ways to build your accounting web presence, we provided practical tips and suggestions on the following areas:
- Challenges Professional Accountants Face Online
- Opportunities For Accounting Businesses In The Online Economy
- Essential Web Pages
- Ways To Improve Your Web Content
In this section, we discuss more ways to grow your accounting services business online. Topics covered below include:
- Ways Of Improving Web Traffic
- Tips For Generating More Leads & Enquiries
- WordPress Plugins That Can Help Improve SEO, Create Better User Engagement And Drive More Visitors
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, see these articles:
- Using WordPress Plugins To Enhance Your Site’s Features
- WordPress For Business – An Introduction To WP Themes
Your Accounting Website – Improve Your Business Online With WordPress Themes And Plugins
Your web traffic is an integral part of your online business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic.
Optimizing Your Website For SEO Using WordPress
There are lots of ways WordPress can help to optimize your accounting or financial services website for search engines:
- Search Engine-Friendly URLs – configure the permalinks to create search engine-optimized URLS for your article pages (called posts).
- Post Tags – Choose the keywords that you want your article pages to be indexed by in the search engines.
- Categories – Add SEO-friendly categories for archiving and organizing your content.
- Post Excerpts – Set the description for your posts that search engines will display in their search result pages.
- Images – title your images with keywords for improved search engine results.
- Content Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that allows you to easily link your content to other posts and pages
- Pinging – Configure your site to automatically notify (ping) other sites and directories immediately upon publishing a new post on your site.
How To Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins
As well as the built-in features of WordPress, there are also a number of WordPress plugins that will improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your business.
For example, here are some plugins you can use to improve your site’s SEO:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your site’s SEO)
Other WordPress tools you can use to improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO, increase engagement and drive more web traffic to your site are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social sharing. Here are some more WordPress plugins that can help (many of the plugins described below can be downloaded at no cost):
- BuddyPress – Use the BuddyPress plugin to set up and manage a social network on your site.
- bbPress – Set up your own forum on WordPress.
- E-Newsletter – Send professional email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress dashboard.
- Disqus – use this WordPress plugin to power discussions and helps to increase engagement on your website or blog.
- Floating Social – Easily add social sharing features on your website.
(You can add social features to your website easily with WordPress plugins)
Tips For Generating Leads & Enquiries
In this section, we’ll look at ways to improve sales and generate leads and enquiries.
Providing An Email Newsletter
Adding an email newsletter is a great way to build a subscriber list. Adding newsletters] provides several benefits, like:
- Drives targeted traffic
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides useful updates
- Provides a highly targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to provide special services or products to a select audience
- Provides regular opportunities for improving interaction
- Provides additional opportunities for your content to be shared online with others
A proven way to entice your visitors to subscribe is to provide them with high value information and offer them a free gift in exchange for their details. This could be a handy guide, checklists for handling finances, access to tax calculators, discount coupons, access to videos, contests, etc.
Provide A Contact Form
A contact form makes it easy and simple for readers to get in touch with you. Contact forms also let readers provide feedback, ask questions to specific departments, ask for quotes, give suggestions and more.
Contact forms provide several benefits including:
- Reduces spam
- Automated response
- Giving you control over what gets sent to you
- You can keep your email address private
- Contact forms can be added to any page or post
- Improves the professional look of your site
- More convenient for site visitors
One of the most popular contact form plugins is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin)
This free contact form plugin lets you add multiple contact forms into any post or page, customize your form and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, and spam filtering is supported.
Another option 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 Maps
A map helps your visitors and clients find you.
Inserting maps (e.g. Google Maps), into your site also provides users with many benefits, such as:
- A map helps to improve local SEO
- Visitors can easily find you
- Shows location of events
(Adding maps to your site 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
WordPress Plugins And Themes That Can Help Improve Your Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation
Financial WordPress Plugins
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your website that will immediately make available a range of functional tools for site visitors. Here are some of the plugins you can choose from:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators WP Plugin)
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 quite a few you can use for:
- Interest rate
- Payments
- Leases
- Debit
- And lots more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress Plugin)
With this plugin you get a widget that shows a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many widgets as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker Plugin For WordPress)
This free plugin lets you add a custom stock ticker to any page, post, or sidebar with shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker comes with several customizable features. Choose from built-in skins or customize it yourself to match your website. You can also create custom stocks for individual categories.
Customize the appearance by changing height, width, scroll speed, opacity, background color, number of stocks displayed simultaneously, text color, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin)
This free plugin allows users to calculate indicative repayments. This is a useful financial tool for auto loans, property loans, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator Plugin – Loan Calculator)
Finance Calculator also contains an application form that will send a notification message to the email address you specify.
Other features of this plugin include showing payment protection, calculating 12 to 60 months loans and creating a form 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.
This plugin integrates billing into WordPress. You can send out itemized invoices. It also allows you to set up recurring billing. It can be expanded through both free and premium add-ons that let you manage locations, accept electronic signatures from clients, create PDF invoice versions, create quotes, create 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 PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, 2Checkout, PayPal Payments Pro, and others.
The plugin lets you add custom payments and charges, add pre-defined line items and discounts, quickly view invoice status and progression, easily filter and find invoices, show invoice receipts and invoice history, create e-mail notification templates, access 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 Plugin For WordPress)
This is a complete business management system that includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with knowledgebase and ticketing system, CRM and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application – WordPress Plugin – Client Invoice)
All In One Business Management Application supports international 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 client data and invoicing, track your company’s net worth and cash flow, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin – Client Invoicing)
iBilling Accounting and Billing Software integrates with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting Themes For WordPress
To benefit the most from using WordPress, we recommend choosing a theme specifically for accounting. Here is a list of some of the best WordPress themes available for accounting. With the themes listed below you can have a professional accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro WP Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress is an inexpensive turn-key theme for accountants and accountancy firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, offers several page templates, custom menu features, 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 expanded through premium add-ons.
More info:
Accountancy
(Accountancy)
This premium theme for WordPress comes with a variety of styles and layouts that helps give your accounting site 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 fully responsive. Accountancy provides what you need without bloating your theme. Free updates and one year of support is included in your purchase.
For more details about using this WordPress theme, go here:
Accounting
(Accounting)
Accounting 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, 3 blog types, and is mobile-friendly. It is a clean-looking, modern and fast loading theme.
Go here to learn more about using this WordPress theme:
Kathryn
(Kathryn)
This premium WordPress theme was built for accounting businesses. It has multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, flexible rotator, a variety of color options, is easy to use, inexpensive, search optimized, and is responsive. Although it could easily suit any profession, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy responsive slider plugin and must be purchased separately from the Genesis Framework.
More information:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was created to enhance professionalism within the accounting industry. It features authoritative colors and elements designed specifically to give your accounting business site a professional look without 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 details section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials, and a blog.
Go here for more info:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate Theme)
WP Advocate is a free corporate theme built specifically for professional service providers such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate also includes a custom post type for staff profiles and can also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is a clean and fast-loading theme.
For more information, go here:
Divi
(Divi)
This premium WordPress theme is the most flexible theme in Elegant Themes‘ entire theme collection. Divi lets you 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 web elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and easily redesign the structure of their pages without touching any code.
(Divi – WordPress Theme – Flexible Page Builder)
It has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. This includes accordion, blog, code, divider, filterable portfolio, map, post title, pricing table, social media follow, video slider, fullwidth code, fullwidth portfolio, fullwidth slider, and more.. Divi is fully responsive and fully customizable. Themes start at $69 per year and includes full access to over 80 professional themes.
More information:
The Corporation
(The Corporation WP Theme)
The Corporation was built specifically to make corporate sites look great.
It has a sleek and professional page-based home page design with a prominent slider, blog design, six unique unique color schemes, multiple page templates which include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to all professional themes.
Go here to learn more about using this WordPress theme:
Adviser
(Adviser Theme For WordPress)
Adviser was designed to help finance professionals build trust through clean web design. It’s ideal for those that provide services such as investing or tax advice. The theme includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications. It also includes a lease calculator. It includes multiple shortcodes and widgets, and includes the drag-and-drop visual composer.
Visit this website to learn more this theme:
Tax Help
(Tax Help WP Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was designed specifically for financial companies, 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 business reputation. It comes with different blog styles, uses the drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and additional custom shortcodes.
To learn more about using this WordPress theme, go here:
Finance Business
(Finance Business Theme For WordPress)
This theme was designed specifically for firms that provide any type of financial service such as tax help, consulting, corporate, insurance, finance, accounting, loans, and more. This theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around 100 shortcodes that includes charts and financial content, a custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page options, color management, animated elements, and a whole lot more.
Go here to learn more this 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 article has helped you learn ways of improving your accounting website with WordPress themes and plugins.
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