In Part One of this article on ways to grow your accounting web presence, we covered the following topics:
- Online Challenges For The Accounting & Financial Services Profession
- Opportunities For Accounting Businesses In The Web Economy
- Essential Web Pages
- How To Improve The Content On Your Site
In this section, we explore more ways to grow your accounting business online. Topics covered include:
- How To Improve Traffic
- Generating New Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress
- Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation Using Plugins
For more information about WordPress plugins and themes, see the articles below:
- WordPress Plugins – Extending Your Site’s Features And Functionality
- WordPress Themes – An Introduction
Improve Web Traffic With WordPress
Your web traffic is a vital part of your business growth. In this section we explore ways to help you improve your web traffic using WordPress.
Optimizing Your Website For Search Engines (SEO) With WordPress
There are loads of ways WordPress can help to improve your website’s SEO:
- URLs – configure the permalinks to create search engine-optimized web addresses for your article pages (called posts).
- Tags – WordPress lets you select the keywords that you want your articles to be indexed by in the search engines.
- Post Categories – Create categories for your posts and products.
- Post Excerpts – WordPress lets you compose an excerpt that will display to search engine users.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your content images for improved search engine results.
- Content Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that lets you easily create internal links for faster indexing of your web pages
- Pinging – WordPress can be configured to automatically notify other search directories whenever a new post is published on your website.
WordPress Plugins For Improving SEO, Better User Engagement And Traffic Generation
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, there are many WordPress plugins that will improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your site.
For example, here are some plugins you can use to improve your SEO:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress sitemap plugin
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(Use a plugin like Yoast SEO to improve your site’s search engine optimization)
Other WordPress tools you can add to improve your accounting website’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your site are to add a forum, newsletters, commenting, and social sharing features. Here are a few more WordPress plugins that can help (many of the plugins listed below can be downloaded at no cost):
- BuddyPress – This plugin lets you run a social network on your website.
- bbPress – This plugin can be used to set up a community forum on your WordPress site.
- E-Newsletter – Send professional email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WordPress dashboard, without requiring a 3rd party subscription.
- Disqus – use this WordPress plugin to power discussions and helps to increase user engagement on your website.
- Social Media Feather – Use this WordPress plugin to add social buttons and features that allow visitors to share your content online to your site.
(You can easily add social sharing features to your website with WordPress plugins)
Ways To Generate Leads & Enquiries
Let’s discuss now how to improve your sales and generate leads and enquiries for your business.
Add An Email Newsletter
Adding an email newsletter is a great way to build a list of subscribers. It] provides a number of benefits including:
- Sends targeted traffic
- Keeps readers from forgetting about you
- Provides updates that could save businesses time and money
- Provides you with a targeted marketing channel
- Allows you to offer special services or products to a select audience
- Provides new opportunities for engaging with your users
- Provides you with additional opportunities for your content to be shared with other potential customers
A proven strategy for attracting subscribers is to provide them with valuable content and offer them free gifts in exchange for their personal details. This could be a handy guide, tips for handling finances, access to financial calculators, coupons, access to videos, contests, etc.
Contact Forms
A contact form provides an easy and simple way for readers to get in touch. Contact forms also allow visitors to send feedback, ask questions to specific departments, ask for a quote, and more.
A contact form provides a number of benefits and advantages, like:
- Reduces spam
- Automated response
- Giving you control over what is sent to you
- You can keep your email address private
- Can be added to any page or post
- Looks professional
- Convenience for users
A very popular WordPress contact form plugin is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin)
Contact Form 7 allows you to insert multiple contact forms on your posts and pages, customize your forms and the email contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submissions, CAPTCHA, and Akismet spam filtering is also supported.
Something else to consider is to add sections to your contact form so prospects can choose which department they want to contact. This helps you get the comment to the right person.
Map
Maps help your visitors and customers find you.
Maps are very useful tools for several reasons:
- A map increases local SEO
- Helps visitors find you easily
- Displays location of events
(Adding maps to your site helps your visitors and customers find you)
Below are some of the more plugins that let you embed, customize and display maps on your WordPress site:
- Google Maps
- Advanced Google Maps Plugin for WordPress
- WP Google Maps
- Comprehensive Google Map Plugin
WordPress Plugins That Can Improve Your SEO, Improve User Engagement And Drive More Visitors
Accounting Plugins For WordPress
WordPress provides a number of plugins you can add to your accounting or financial services site that will immediately add a range of functional tools for visitors. Here are some of these:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin)
This is a free collection of 400+ calculators. You can embed them into your posts, pages, or sidebars using shortcodes. 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
- Rate of return
- Tax
- Credit
- And many more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress Plugin)
This plugin lets you add a widget that displays a number of different stock quotes per portfolio. You can show as many portfolios as you like.
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin For WordPress – 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, post or page with shortcodes.
The plugin includes a number of customizable ticker. You can choose from built-in themes or customize these yourself to match the look and feel of your site. You can also create custom stocks for specific categories.
Customize the appearance by changing colors, size, speed, text, and symbols, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator Plugin For WordPress)
This free calculator allows users to calculate indicative repayments online. This is a great tool for calculating vehicle loans, real estate loans, or other large loans.
(Finance Calculator – Loan Calculator)
The Finance Calculator plugin also contains an application form that sends a 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 Plugin For WordPress)
WP-Invoice is ideal for WordPress business users with clients to bill.
WP-Invoice lets you integrate billing into WordPress. You can send out itemized invoices. It also allows you to set up recurring billing. WP-Invoice can be expanded through both free and premium add-ons that let you manage business, accept electronic signatures from clients, create PDF invoices, create quotes, create 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 PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and many others.
WP-Invoice lets you add custom payments and charges, create pre-defined line items and discounts, view invoice status and progression, easily filter and find invoices, see invoice receipts and invoice history, create notification e-mail templates, display 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)
This complete business management system includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with ticket management system, client relationship management and lots more.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin For WordPress – Client Invoicing)
All In One Business Management Application supports multiple 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)
This is a scalable business software that lets you manage and communicate with clients, tracks your company’s cash flow and net worth, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin – Client Invoice)
iBilling Accounting and Billing Software allows you to get paid faster by integrating with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting WordPress Themes
To get the most benefit out of growing your business online with WordPress, it’s best to choose a theme specifically for accounting. Here is a look at some of the best themes themes available for accounting businesses. With the themes below 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 – WordPress Theme)
This is a turn-key theme designed for accountants and accounting firms. It’s a responsive theme with 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, performs auto resizing for images, and lots more.
Accounting Pro can be expanded through premium add-ons.
For more details, go here:
Accountancy
(Accountancy)
Accountancy Theme has a variety of styles and layouts to give your accounting site a professional look and feel.
This fully responsive (mobile-friendly) theme includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial section, it’s lightweight, SEO friendly, and fast loading. Accountancy Theme provides the features your business needs without bloating your theme. Free updates and 1 year of support is included with your purchase.
Visit the theme site to learn more this theme:
Accounting
(Accounting Theme For WordPress)
This theme includes a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to design your site any way you want. It also provides unlimited sidebars with custom widgets, four different types of headers, a custom admin panel, four color schemes, a custom slider, three different blog types, and is fully responsive. It is a clean-looking, modern and fast-to-load theme.
Go here to learn more this WordPress theme:
Kathryn
(Kathryn Theme For WordPress)
Kathryn is a child theme for the Genesis Framework that’s designed specifically 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, many color choices, is easy to use, inexpensive, search engine friendly, and is responsive (mobile-friendly). Although this theme can easily fit any profession you like, 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.
More information:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
Accounting WordPress Theme was developed to exude professionalism within the accounting industry. Every color, layout element, icon, menu item, page structure, call-to-action, etc., is specifically designed to help make your accounting site look professional without looking dull. It’s a turn-key installation but you can still modify it if you want. It’s responsive and includes pages for your services, contact section with consultation requests (downloadable as a CSV file), testimonials, and a blog.
For more details, go here:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate WordPress Theme)
WP Advocate is a free corporate theme built for professionals such as accountants and attorneys. Use the theme’s bundled images or upload your own. WP Advocate includes a custom post type adding staff profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. It’s a clean-looking and fast-loading theme.
For more details about using this WordPress theme, go here:
Divi
(Divi – WordPress Theme)
Divi is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection of WordPress themes. Divi lets you create any type of professional website you want using the page builder or beautiful and unique pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout to your heart’s content.
Divi’s page builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing anyone to understand and change the structure of their web pages without touching any code.
(Divi – WordPress Theme – Page Builder)
Divi has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. These modules include bar counter, blog, contact form, divider, image, login, portfolio, pricing table, testimonial, toggle, fullwidth header, fullwidth menu, fullwidth post title, and more.. It is fully responsive and completely customizable. Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to over 80 themes.
To learn more about this theme, go here:
The Corporation
(The Corporation WP Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress from Elegant Themes was designed specifically to create good-looking corporate sites.
The Corporation has a sleek page-based home page design with a eye-catching slider, blog design, six unique color schemes, multiple page templates that include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to all themes.
More information:
Adviser
(Adviser)
The Adviser WordPress Theme was specifically designed to help finance industry professionals build trust online with a clean business design. It’s perfect for those that provide services like investment advice or tax help. The Adviser theme 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..
More info:
Tax Help
(Tax Help WordPress Theme)
Tax Help WordPress Theme was built for financial organizations, tax and financial advisors, and businesses that provide tax assistance. The theme is designed to showcase your services in a professional way and help build your business 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 details, go here:
Finance Business
(Finance Business)
Finance Business was specifically developed for businesses that provide any type of financial service including consulting, tax help, 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 let you add charts and financial content. It also includes a custom drag-and-drop composer, 2 premium sliders, page settings, color management, animated elements, and a whole lot more.
Go here for 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
We hope that you have found this comprehensive guide on WordPress plugins and themes that improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and generate more visitors to your accounting or financial services site useful.
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