In Part 1 of this step-by-step article on ways to improve your accounting business presence online, we provided in-depth information on the following topics:
- Challenges Accounting Services Face Online
- Opportunities For The Accounting Profession In The Web Economy
- Improving Your Web Pages
- Ways To Improve Your Content
In this section, we continue exploring more ways to grow your accounting business online. Topics covered include:
- Tips For Improving Web Traffic
- Generate More Leads & Enquiries
- WordPress Plugins & Themes For Improving Search Engine Optimization, Creating Better User Engagement And Driving More Visitors
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
- Using WP Plugins To Enhance Your Blog’s Features And Functionality
- WP For Business – An Overview Of WP Themes
Grow Your Accounting Website – Improve Your Business Online Using WordPress
Web traffic is vital to your online business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic using WordPress.
Optimize Your Site For SEO With WordPress
There are lots of ways WordPress can help to optimize your website for search engines:
- URLs – WordPress lets you set the permalinks to use the title of the post.
- Post Tags – Specify the keywords that you want search engines to index your articles for.
- Post Categories – Create categories for archiving and organizing your content.
- Post 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 images for better search results.
- Content Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that lets you easily link internal content
- Pinging – WordPress can be set up to automatically notify (ping) other search directories the moment a new post is published on your site.
WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Increasing User Engagement And Generating More Web Traffic
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, the WordPress developer community makes available quite a number of plugins that will improve your accounting or financial services website’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more web traffic to your site.
For example, you can install the plugins below to improve your SEO:
- Yoast SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin (for search engines)
- Page-List – 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 ways to improve SEO, increase engagement and drive more traffic to your site are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social features. Here are some more plugins that can help (many of the plugins described below can be downloaded at no cost):
- BuddyPress – Use the BuddyPress WordPress plugin to set up and run your own online social community on your site, with member profiles, user groups, activity streams, messaging, and more.
- bbPress – This free plugin can be used to set up a forum on your WordPress site.
- E-Newsletter – Use E-Newsletter to send email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP dashboard.
- Disqus – This plugin lets you power discussions and increases user engagement on your website or blog.
- Monarch – Use this WordPress plugin to add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online on your website or blog.
(You can easily add social sharing buttons to your website using WordPress plugins)
How To Generate New Leads & Enquiries
Let’s discuss now ways to improve your sales and generate leads and enquiries online.
Providing An Email Newsletter
Adding an email newsletter is an excellent way to build a subscriber list. Adding a newsletter provides many benefits and advantages, like:
- Sends targeted traffic
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides updates that could save businesses time and money
- Provides you with a highly targeted marketing channel
- It’s a way to provide special services or products to a select audience
- Increases engagement with your users
- Provides you with additional ways for your content to be shared around with other potential customers
A proven strategy for attracting newsletter subscribers is to provide them with high value content and offer them a free gift in exchange for their personal details. This can be a guide, tips for handling tax, access to tax calculators, coupons, membership access to courses, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
A contact form makes it easy and simple for readers to get in touch. Users can raise problems, contact specific departments, ask for a quote, send suggestions and more.
Contact forms provide many benefits including:
- Reduces spam
- Automated response
- Gives you control over what gets sent to you
- You can keep your email address private
- They can be added to any page or post
- Improves the professional look of your website
- Convenience for users
One of the most popular WordPress contact form plugins is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 WP Plugin)
Contact form 7 is a free plugin that allows you to insert multiple contact forms, customize your forms and the mail contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, and spam filtering is also supported.
Something to consider is to add sections to your contact form so prospective customers can choose the aspect of your business they are contacting your company about. This ensures that contact form requests reach the right person.
Adding Maps
Adding maps to your website helps your visitors and customers find you.
A map is a very useful tool for several reasons:
- Maps improve local SEO
- Allows clients to better plan their visits or appointments
- Displays location of events
(Adding a map helps your visitors and clients find you)
Below are just some of the more plugins that let you embed, customize and display Google maps on your website:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
WordPress Plugins That Can Improve Your SEO, Increase User Engagement And Generate More Visitors To Your Accounting Services Website
Financial WordPress Plugins
WordPress provides a number of plugins you can add to your accounting or financial services website that will immediately make available a range of practical tools for site visitors. Here are just some of these:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin For WordPress)
This is a free collection of over 400 calculators. You can embed them into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. It also supports internationalization
Note: Most of them aren’t focused on accounting, but there are quite a few for:
- Mortgage
- Payments
- Leases
- Equity
- And lots more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes WP Plugin)
This plugin gives you a widget that displays up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can show as many portfolios as you like.
(Show Stock Quotes – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker)
With this plugin you can add a custom stock ticker to any post, page or sidebar using shortcodes.
Custom Stock ticker provides a number of customizable features. You can choose from built-in skins or customize these yourself to match your site. You can also add custom stocks to individual categories.
Customize the appearance by changing height, width, background color, scroll speed, opacity, number of stocks displayed simultaneously, font size, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator WordPress Plugin)
This free calculator allows your visitors to calculate indicative repayments online. This is a great financial tool for calculating repayments on car loans, property, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator WP Plugin – Loan Calculator)
Finance Calculator 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 – WordPress Plugin)
WP-Invoice lets you send itemized invoices to clients.
WP-Invoice integrates billing into WordPress. You can send clients itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand plugin 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 your WP user management database to keep track of clients and their information, and integrates with PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, 2Checkout, PayPal Payments Pro, and others.
The plugin gives you the ability to 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 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 WP Plugin)
This complete business management solution includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with ticketing management system, CRM and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin For WordPress – Invoice)
The plugin supports international languages, is fully customizable and provides additional tools like document management, to do app, and more.
For more details, go here}:
iBilling – Accounting And Billing Software
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin)
This is a scalable business software that lets you manage and communicate with customers, tracks your company’s cash flow and net worth, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software – WordPress Plugin – Client Invoicing)
iBilling integrates with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting WordPress Themes
To benefit the most from using WordPress to grow your business online, we recommend choosing a theme specifically for accounting. Here is a list of some of the best accounting themes available. With these themes you can have a professional-looking 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 an inexpensive turn-key theme built for accountants and accounting firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, offers several page templates, a custom menu feature, a content composer (which improves on the standard WordPress editor), a sidebar manager, auto-resized images, and a whole lot more.
Accounting Pro can be expanded with premium add-ons.
Go here for more information:
Accountancy
(Accountancy – WordPress Theme)
This one has a variety of styles and layouts to help give your accounting website a professional look and feel.
This responsive theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, it’s lightweight, search engine friendly, and loads fast. It provides the features you need without bloating your theme. Free updates and 1 year of support is included with the cost of purchase.
Go here for more info:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme For WordPress)
This one 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, 3 blog types, and is mobile-friendly. Accountancy looks clean and modern and is fast to load.
For more details, go here:
Kathryn
(Kathryn Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme was built for accounting businesses. It offers multiple layouts, slider, multiple sidebars, many color choices, is easy to use, inexpensive, search engine optimized, and is fully responsive (mobile-friendly). Although this theme can easily fit any profession, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy slider plugin and must be purchased separately from the Genesis Framework.
More info:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This premium theme was designed to enhance professionalism within the accounting industry. It features authoritative colors and elements designed specifically to give your accounting business site a professional look. 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 details section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials, and a blog.
Visit this website to learn more about using this WordPress theme:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate WordPress Theme)
WP Advocate is a free corporate theme developed for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. You can use the bundled images or upload your own. It also includes a custom post type for staff profiles and can also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is clean and loads fast.
For more details, go here:
Divi
(Divi Theme)
This is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection. You can create a unique, professional website using its page builder or pre-made layouts. You can change your layout to your heart’s content.
Divi’s page builder transforms web elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and easily change the structure of their page without touching code.
(Divi – WordPress Theme – Page Builder)
Divi has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. Modules include multiple layouts, a slider, you can place pricing tables, testimonials, call-to-action, and lots more. It is mobile-friendly and completely customizable. Prices start at $69 per year and includes access to over 80 sleek business themes.
For more details, go here:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme For WordPress)
This premium theme from Elegant Themes was created specifically to make corporate sites look good.
The Corporation has a sleek and professional page-based home page design with a prominent, flashy slider, blog design, six different 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 full access to all sleek business themes.
For more details, go here:
Adviser
(Adviser WP Theme)
This premium WordPress theme was designed specifically to help finance industry professionals build trust online through clean web design. It’s ideal for those that provide services such as investments or tax help. Adviser includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, lease calculator, multiple shortcodes and widgets, and a drag-and-drop visual composer..
Visit this website to learn more this theme:
Tax Help
(Tax Help Theme)
Tax Help Theme was specifically designed for financial companies, tax and finance advisors, and businesses providing tax assistance. The theme is designed to showcase your services professionally to help grow your professional reputation. It comes with a range of blog styles, uses the drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and many custom shortcodes.
Go here for more details:
Finance Business
(Finance Business Theme)
This one was developed specifically for firms that provide any type of financial service including tax help, consulting, corporate, insurance, finance, loans, accounting, and more. The theme includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin, around 100 shortcodes that let you add charts and financial content, the custom drag-and-drop composer, two premium sliders, page settings, color management features, animations, and a lot more.
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
Hopefully, you have found this comprehensive guide on WordPress plugins and themes that improve search engine optimization, increase user engagement and generate more visitors helpful.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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