In Part One of this guide on ways to grow your accounting web presence, we provided in-depth information on the following areas:
- Online Challenges For The Accounting & Financial Services Profession
- Opportunities For Accountants In The Digital Economy
- Essential Web Pages
- Ways To Improve Your Web Content
In this section, we explore more ways to grow your accounting business online. Topics covered include:
- Ways To Improve Web Traffic
- How To Generate More Leads & Enquiries
- Improve SEO, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation With Plugins
To learn more about WordPress plugins and themes, go here:
Your Accounting Website – How To Improve Search Engine Optimization, Increase User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation Using WordPress Plugins
Your web traffic is an integral part of your online business growth. In this section, you will learn how to improve search engine optimization, improve user engagement and increase web traffic generation with WordPress plugins and themes.
Optimizing Your Site For SEO
There are lots of ways that WordPress helps improve SEO:
- SEO-Friendly – configure the permalinks to use the title of the post.
- Post Tags – Specify the keywords that you want your articles to be indexed by in the search engines.
- Post Categories – Create SEO-friendly categories for keeping your content organized and easy to find.
- Excerpts – Set descriptions for your posts that will show in search results.
- Images – add search-optimized titles to your images for improved search engine results.
- Internal Content Linking – WordPress has a built-in feature that allows you to easily link internal content
- Pinging – Configure your site to automatically notify (ping) other search directories immediately upon publishing new content on your website.
Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Improve User Engagement And Increase Traffic Generation With Plugins
In addition to the built-in features of WordPress, the WordPress community makes available dozens of plugins that will improve SEO, increase user engagement and drive more visitors to your website.
Here are some plugins you can use to improve your SEO:
- All in One SEO – WordPress SEO plugin
- Google XML Sitemaps – WordPress XML sitemap plugin (lists all of your pages for indexing by search engines)
- Page-List – WordPress site map plugin (for visitors)
(A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously called WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your website’s search engine optimization)
Other things you can do to improve your accounting site’s SEO, increase user engagement and drive more traffic to your business are to add a forum, newsletters, comments, and social sharing features. Here are some more useful plugins that can help:
- BuddyPress – Run a social community on your WordPress site, with member profiles, messaging, activity streams, user groups, and more.
- bbPress – This free plugin lets you set up a forum on your website.
- E-Newsletter – Use this WordPress plugin to send professional email newsletters, track results and manage subscribers from your WP dashboard.
- Disqus – This plugin lets you power discussions and helps to increase 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 to your pages and posts.
(WordPress users can easily add social sharing to their site using WordPress plugins)
Ways To Generate Leads & Enquiries Using WordPress-Based Tools
Let’s discuss now ways to improve your sales and generate more leads and enquiries online.
Adding An Email Newsletter
Providing a newsletter is a great way to build a list of subscribers. Adding a newsletter provides several benefits including:
- Drives targeted traffic to your site
- Keeps your business at the forefront of your reader’s minds
- Keeps readers updated
- Provides a highly targeted marketing channel
- Allows you to offer special services or products to a select audience
- Increases user interaction
- Provides additional opportunities for readers to share your content
A proven way to entice visitors to subscribe to your newsletter is to provide high value information and offer users a free gift in exchange for their details. This can be an exclusive guide, checklists 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 readers to get in touch with you. A contact form also lets visitors report issues, ask questions to specific departments, request quotes, send suggestions and more.
Contact forms provide several benefits, like:
- Reducing spam
- Set up automated responses
- Gives you control over what is sent to you
- Allows you to keep your email address private
- Contact forms can be added to any post or page
- Looks professional
- Convenience for visitors
One of the most popular WordPress contact form plugins is Contact Form 7.
Contact Form 7
(Contact Form 7 Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin lets you create multiple contact forms into any page or post, customize your form and the email contents, add fields, and more.
International languages, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, and spam filtering is also supported.
Something else to consider is adding sections to your contact form so users can choose the topic they are contacting you about. This ensures that visitors’ requests reach the right person.
Add A Map
A map helps your visitors and customers find you.
Inserting maps, such as Google Maps, into your WordPress site also provides visitors with a number of benefits, such as:
- A map helps to increase local SEO
- Helps visitors find your office easily
- Shows location of events
(Adding a map to your site helps your visitors and customers find you)
Here are just some 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 And Themes That Can Help To Improve SEO, Improve User Engagement And Increase Web Traffic Generation
Accounting And Financial Services Plugins For WordPress
WordPress lets you add a number of plugins to your website to immediately add a range of functional tools for site visitors. Here are some of these plugins:
Calculator Pro Calculators
(Calculator Pro Calculators Plugin For WordPress)
This is a free collection of over 400 calculators that you can provide to users on your website. It supports internationalization
Most of the calculators aren’t focused specifically on accounting, but there are quite a few for:
- 401k
- Payments
- Tax
- Equity
- And many more
For more details, go here}:
Show Stock Quotes
(Show Stock Quotes – WordPress Plugin)
This plugin gives you a widget that displays up to 20 different stock quotes per portfolio. You can display as many widgets as you want.
(Show Stock Quotes Plugin – Stock Portfolio)
For more details, go here}:
Custom Stock Ticker
(Custom Stock Ticker Plugin For WordPress)
This plugin lets you place a custom stock ticker on any sidebar, page or post using shortcodes.
This plugin includes a number of customizable features. You can choose to use built-in skins or customize these yourself. It’s easy to customize it so it matches your website. You can also create custom stocks for individual categories.
Appearance customization features include width, height, scrolling speed, opacity, number of stocks displayed simultaneously, text color, font size, font family, etc.
For more details, go here}:
Finance Calculator
(Finance Calculator)
This free calculator allows your visitors to calculate indicative repayments. It’s great for calculating car loans, property loans, or any other large loan.
(Finance Calculator – WordPress Plugin – Loan Calculators)
The Finance Calculator plugin also contains an application form that sends 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-Invoice lets WordPress blog owners send itemized invoices to their clients.
WP-Invoice lets you integrate billing into WordPress. You can send clients itemized invoices, set up recurring billing and expand plugin functionality with both free and premium add-ons that let you manage business, accept electronic signatures, create PDF versions of your invoices, provide quotes, create single-page checkout forms, and more.
The plugin ties into the WP user management database to keep track of clients and their information, and integrates with PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, and others.
WP-Invoice features include adding custom payments and charges, adding pre-defined line items and discounts, quickly viewing invoice status and progression, filtering and finding invoices, seeing invoice receipts and invoice history, creating e-mail notification templates, displaying reports (collected vs uncollected invoices, ten 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 complete business management solution includes accounting management, invoicing, order management, help desk with knowledgebase and ticketing management system, client relationship management and many more features.
(All In One Business Management Application Plugin For WordPress – Invoice)
All In One Business Management Application supports different languages, is fully customizable and provides powerful tools like document management, notice board, 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 customers, tracks your company’s net worth and cash flow, and lots more.
(iBilling – Accounting and Billing Software Plugin For WordPress – Client Invoice)
It integrates with several online payment gateways.
For more details, go here}:
Accounting And Financial Services Themes For WordPress
To get the best features and professional look for your website, we recommend choosing a theme specifically for accounting businesses. Here is a list of some of the best accountancy themes available. These themes allow you to have a professional-looking accounting website within minutes.
Accounting Pro
(Accounting Pro – WordPress Theme)
This premium WordPress theme is a turn-key theme created for accountants and accountancy firms. It’s responsive, has a drag-and-drop page-builder, has 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 expanded through premium add-ons.
More info:
Accountancy
(Accountancy – WordPress Theme)
Accountancy Theme comes in a variety of styles and layouts to give your accounting website a professional look and feel.
It includes a custom slider, a featured testimonial, and more. It’s lightweight, SEO friendly, fast loading, and is responsive. Accountancy provides what your business needs without bloating your theme. Your purchase price includes free updates and one year of support.
More information:
Accounting
(Accounting)
This theme includes a drag-and-drop builder so you can design your site any way you want. It also provides unlimited sidebars with custom widgets, four different header types, a custom administration panel, different color schemes, custom slider, three different blog types, and is mobile-friendly. It looks clean and modern and is fast to load.
For more information, go here:
Kathryn
(Kathryn WP Theme)
Kathryn is a premium WordPress child theme for the Genesis Framework developed for accounting services. Kathryn allows you to use WordPress as a true CMS and provides a slider, multiple layouts, multiple sidebars, widgetized home page, flexible rotator, call to action boxes, author boxes for single or multiple bloggers, a variety of color choices, is easy to use, search engine friendly, and is responsive. Although it can easily fit any profession, it builds a great looking accounting theme. It includes a license for the Soliloquy plugin and is a separate purchase from the Genesis Framework.
For more details about using this theme, visit this site:
Accounting WordPress Theme
(Accounting WordPress Theme)
This premium theme for WordPress was developed to enhance professionalism within the accounting industry. It features authoritative colors and elements designed specifically to help make your accounting site look professional while not 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 accounting services, contact section with consultation requests (downloadable as CSV), testimonials section, and a blog.
For more details about this theme, visit the theme site:
WP Advocate
(WP Advocate)
This is a free corporate theme built specifically for professional service providers such as accountants and attorneys. Use the bundled images or upload your own. It also includes a custom post type adding employee profiles. It will also integrate with BeSpoke profile templates. WP Advocate is clean-looking and loads fast.
To learn more about about using this WordPress theme, go here:
Divi
(Divi – WordPress Theme)
This premium theme is one of the most flexible themes in Elegant Themes‘ entire collection. You can create a professional website using the page builder or pre-made layouts. You can modify your layout as much as you need.
Divi’s page builder transforms elements into visual building blocks, allowing you to understand and edit the structure of their pages without editing code.
(Divi Theme For WordPress – Page Builder)
Divi has 40 content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere you want. Modules include bar counter, call to action, contact form, email optin, filterable portfolio, number counter, post title, slider, testimonial, video slider, fullwidth code, fullwidth map, fullwidth slider, and more.. It is fully responsive and completely customizable. Elegant Theme prices start at $69 per year and includes access to over 80 sleek business themes.
More information:
The Corporation
(The Corporation Theme For WordPress)
This premium WordPress theme from Elegant Themes was specifically developed to make corporate websites look great.
The Corporation has a page-based home page design with a eye-catching slider, blog design, 6 unique different color schemes, multiple page templates that include contact pages, blog feeds, sitemaps, search page, gallery page, and more. Prices start at $69 per year and includes full access to all professional themes.
More info:
Adviser
(Adviser)
This one was built specifically to help businesses in the financial industry to build trust online with a clean business design. It’s perfect for those that provide services such as investing advice or tax help. It includes a recruitment page with hiring announcements and where to send applications, a lease calculator, multiple shortcodes and widgets, and a drag-and-drop visual composer..
Go here for more details:
Tax Help
(Tax Help Theme For WordPress)
Tax Help was specifically built for financial companies, tax and financial advisors, and businesses offering tax assistance. Tax Help is designed to show your services professionally and help grow your business reputation. It comes with a range of blog styles, uses a drag-and-drop visual composer, includes a shortcode builder, the Revolution Slider, and many custom shortcodes.
More information:
Finance Business
(Finance Business Theme)
Finance Business was designed specifically for organizations that provide any type of financial service including tax help, consulting, insurance, finance, corporate, accounting, loans, and more. Finance Business includes a custom CMSMasters Visual Content Composer plugin. It also has around 100 shortcodes that includes charts and financial content. It also includes the custom drag-and-drop composer, 2 premium sliders, page options, color management, animations, and lots more.
To learn more about this WordPress theme, 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, you have found this comprehensive guide on ways to improve your accounting or financial services website with WordPress plugins and themes useful.
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