What should an accountant's website have? The pages, the wording and the notices

The short answer

An accountant's website needs seven pages: a home page that says who you help and where, a page for each main service, a page on how your fees work, a page about the people, what clients say about you, an easy way to get in touch, and the legal notices. A news page is a useful eighth if someone will keep it current.

The design matters less than firms expect. Websites for accountants usually look respectable. Where they tend to fail is the wording: services described in the firm's language instead of the client's, no word on fees, no names or faces, and a phone number that takes three clicks to find.

This guide goes through each page, what to write on it, what the law and your professional body expect to see, and what to leave out. It ends with a 15-minute check you can run on your own site today.

The five questions a visitor is asking

A person on an accountancy website is trying to answer five questions, and the site is good if it answers all five quickly. Some visitors have searched for an accountant. Others have been given your name and are checking you before they call. Both want the same things.

• Do you help people like me? A landlord, a contractor and a café owner each want to see their own situation named.
• What exactly would you do for me? The work, described in words they would use themselves.
• Roughly what will it cost, and how do you charge? Fixed fee or hourly, monthly or yearly.
• Who are you, and can I trust you? Names, faces, qualifications and what other clients say.
• How do I get in touch, and what happens next? A number, a form, and a promise about when you will reply.

Each of the seven pages below exists to answer one of these. If a page on your site answers none of them, it is probably there for the firm and not for the visitor.

The home page

The home page has one job: to tell the visitor in one sentence that they are in the right place. Put who you help, what you do for them and where you are at the very top, before any picture or slogan.

• Vague:"A modern, proactive firm of accountants and business advisers."
• Clear:"Accounts, tax returns and payroll for small businesses and landlords in Harrogate."

Under that sentence, the home page needs only four more things: a short list of the people you help, each linking to its service page; one or two client quotes; the names and faces of the partners; and a clear way to get in touch. Everything else can live on the inner pages.

A page for each service

Give each main service its own page, and write it for the client who needs that service. A single "Our services" page with twelve bullet points tells a landlord nothing about what you would do for a landlord. A separate page can.

Each service page should cover the same five points, in this order.

• Who it is for."For landlords with one to ten rental properties."
• The problem, in their words."You have a folder of letting agent statements and a tax return due in January."
• What you do. The steps, in plain English: what you ask for, what you prepare, what you file and when.
• What it costs, or how the fee is worked out. See the next section.
• What to do next. A phone number and a form on the page itself.

Write the way you would explain it across a desk. "We prepare your year-end accounts and file them with Companies House" is better than "statutory compliance solutions". If a client would not use the phrase, replace it.

Describe only the services you are qualified and regulated to provide. AAT's guidance on marketing and promoting your businessgives, as an example of a name that may mislead the public, using the term "accountancy" or "tax advisors" when the member is only qualified and regulated to provide bookkeeping services. The same list includes descriptions such as "chartered", "chartered accountants" or "audit" used by a member or business that is not authorised to use them.

Service pages are also what search engines show to people looking for that service. How that works is covered in our guide to SEO for accountants.

How your fees work

Say how you charge, even if you do not publish a price list. Cost is one of the first things a prospect wants to know, and it is easy to leave off the site altogether. A visitor who cannot tell whether you are within their budget has to phone to find out, and some will choose a firm that told them instead.

You do not need a full price list. Any of these is a real improvement.

• The basis."We agree a fixed monthly fee before we start. It covers your accounts, your tax return and unlimited phone calls."
• A starting point."Fees for a sole trader start from" a stated figure, with what that includes.
• A worked example. One typical client, what you do for them and what they pay each month.
• What changes the fee. Number of transactions, payroll, VAT, the state of the records.

Be precise if you quote figures. ICAEW's marketing helpsheet says that if promotional material refers to fees, the basis on which they are calculated, or to hourly or other charging rates, the greatest care shall be taken to ensure that the reference does not mislead. It adds that such comments should be clearly explained and should specify any time periods to which the fees relate, along with any exclusions. In practice: say whether a figure is per month or per year, whether it includes VAT, and what is not covered.

The people

Show who the client will be dealing with. A prospect is choosing a person to trust with their finances, and a page of real names and faces does more for that trust than any design. For each partner and each person a client is likely to speak to, give:

• A name and a recent photograph, taken in the office and not from a picture library.
• Their qualification and professional body, stated exactly.
• What they do at the firm and the kinds of client they look after.
• One line that is human: how long they have been there, or what they did before.

Be accurate about titles. AAT's guidance says no one at a firm should be described by a title, description or designatory letters that they are not entitled to use.

Be accurate about size as well. ICAEW's marketing helpsheet says websites can easily give a misleading impression of size and scope, especially websites for sole practitioners, unless the structure of the practice is made clear. If you are a sole practitioner, say so. Many clients want exactly that: one person who knows their affairs.

What clients say

Two or three specific testimonials are worth more than a long page of general praise, and every one needs the client's permission. ICAEW's marketing helpsheet says it is in order to use clients' testimonials if the client has consented to their comments being used in this way. It reminds firms that the relationship between a firm and a client is confidential, so without consent it would be inappropriate to use one.

• Ask in writing and keep the reply. Tell the client where the quote will appear and how they will be named.
• Choose quotes that describe the work."They sorted out three years of late returns in a month and explained every letter" tells a prospect more than "great service".
• Name the kind of client."Owner of a dental practice, York" lets a similar prospect recognise themselves.
• Put them where the decision is made.A landlord's quote belongs on the landlords page, not only on a testimonials page nobody visits.
• Do not edit a quote into a bigger claim. The helpsheet also says the content of a testimonial should be in accordance with the applicable guidance.

Contact and booking

Make getting in touch possible from every page, in the way the visitor prefers. Some people will only phone. Some will never phone. Offer both, and say what happens next.

• A phone number at the top of every page that starts a call when tapped on a mobile.
• A short form.Name, email or phone, and "what do you need help with?". Each extra box is a reason to give up.
• An email address for people who dislike forms.
• A booking link if you offer a first call, so a prospect can pick a time without waiting for a reply.
• Your address and opening hours, if clients visit.
• A promise about replies."We reply within one working day", and then do.

Add one more box to the form: "How did you hear about us?". After a few months the answers show which of your marketing is working.

The notices a firm's website must carry

A firm's website has to show who is behind it and what it does with people's data. These notices usually sit in the footer and on their own pages. They take an hour to get right and are often missing or out of date.

• Company details. GOV.UK's guidance on signs, stationery and promotional materialsays that on business letters, order forms and websites a limited company must show its registered number, its registered office address, where the company is registered (England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland) and the fact that it is a limited company. AAT's guidance lists the same details for a company or LLP, and adds the address of its place of business if that is different.
• Your own name, if you trade under another.AAT's guidance says a sole practitioner who chooses a business name that is not their own name must include their own name and the business address on all letterheads and stationery. Putting the same details in the website footer keeps the two consistent.
• A privacy notice. The ICO's advice for small organisations on privacy notices and cookiessays that a business holding personal data, such as names and email addresses, needs a privacy notice. It should say why you are processing people's data, how long you will keep it and who you will share it with. The ICO's own example puts a link to it where visitors can see it on the contact form page, before they type their details in.
• Cookies.The same ICO page says visitors need to be told that cookies are being used and what they do, and that if the cookies are not strictly necessary to the running of the website you also need the user's agreement. Ask whoever built the site which cookies it sets.
• Your professional body's requirements.Each body has its own rules on how a member firm describes itself and uses the body's name and logo. ICAEW's helpsheet points firms to its separate guidance on practice names and letterheads. Check your own body's current rules, which this article does not summarise.

Signs that you are real and nearby

A local firm's website should make it obvious that the firm exists, is close and is still trading. Prospects look for small signals, and so do the people who were given your name by a friend.

• The same name, address and phone number everywhere. The footer, the contact page and your Google Business Profile should match exactly.
• The towns you serve, named in the text."We act for businesses in Harrogate, Knaresborough and Ripon" is clearer than "across the region".
• A map and directions on the contact page, with where to park.
• Photographs of your own office and team. A picture of your front door tells a visitor more than any image of a skyline.
• Your professional body and software partners, shown as you are entitled to show them.
• Local involvement. The business group you belong to, the club you sponsor, the charity whose accounts you examine.
• A link to your reviews. Let visitors read what clients have said on Google in their own words.

Setting up the Google Business Profile itself is covered step by step in our SEO guide.

A news page that stays current

Add a news or blog page only if someone will keep it current, because a stale one works against you. A visitor who sees that the latest article is about a Budget from two years ago wonders what else has been left unattended. An accountancy website with no news page looks finished. One with an abandoned news page looks neglected.

If you do have one, three habits keep it alive.

• Write answers, not news."What records does a landlord need to keep?" stays useful for years. A summary of last week's announcement does not.
• Set a rhythm you can keep in January. One piece a month, written by a named person, is plenty.
• Review dated pages once a year. Update the figures and thresholds, or take the page down.

The same applies to social media on the site. Link to your LinkedIn or Facebook page from the footer only if that page is active. If you embed a feed of your latest posts on the home page, remember that it shows the date of the last one. A feed that stopped in March tells every visitor so.

This is the part firms find hardest to keep up, because it never ends. Pillr is built for accountancy firmsand handles the social media half of it. It reads your website, drafts a month of posts in the firm's voice, and schedules them to LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram once a partner has approved each one. It does not build websites or write your service pages. It keeps the pages your website links to from going quiet.

What to avoid

Most weak websites for accountants make the same handful of mistakes, and all of them are cheap to fix.

• Stock photographs. Handshakes, calculators and strangers in a meeting room. Visitors can tell, and it hides the people they want to see.
• Jargon and slogans."Proactive", "holistic", "more than just numbers". Every firm says it, so it tells a prospect nothing.
• Buried contact details. If the phone number is only on the contact page, it is in the wrong place.
• One page listing every service. It serves nobody in particular.
• Claims you could not prove.ICAEW's helpsheet says advertising material should be legal, decent, honest, truthful and clear, and that firms shall not make exaggerated claims for services offered, qualifications possessed or experience gained. AAT's guidance says members shall be honest and truthful in marketing and promoting themselves. "The leading accountants in Leeds" is the kind of line to delete.
• Comparisons with other firms. The ICAEW helpsheet says firms must not disparage or discredit others in their promotional material.
• Out-of-date facts. Old tax rates, staff who have left, a copyright year from long ago.
• A site that is hard to use on a phone. Small text, a menu that will not open, a form that cannot be completed with a thumb.

Build it yourself or pay someone

Either route can produce a good accountant website, because the part that matters most is the words, and only the firm can supply those. No designer knows who your best clients are or what they ask you. Write the seven pages first, in a plain document, and decide how to build the site second.

• Build it yourself if the practice is new or small and seven clear pages are all it needs. A website builder with a ready-made layout is enough. Budget your time for the writing and the photographs, not the design.
• Pay a web designer or agency if you need things you cannot do yourself: online booking, a link to your client portal, or a move from an old site without losing its place in search results.
• Be wary of template sites sold to accountants with the text already written.The same paragraphs may appear on other firms' sites. Rewrite every page in your own words before it goes live.

Whoever builds it, settle these points before you sign.

• The firm owns the domain name and holds the login for it.
• You can edit text, fees and staff details yourself, without paying for each change.
• You know what the yearly cost is after the build, and what it covers.
• You know which cookies the site sets and how the privacy notice is kept up to date.
• A partner approves every page before it is published.

That last point is not optional. ICAEW's helpsheet says firms are entitled to outsource their marketing work to agencies and specialists, but remain responsible for any marketing or publicity carried out on their behalf. An agency's copywriter may not know your professional body's rules. You do.

Where the website sits beside search, social media, email and adverts is set out in our guide to digital marketing for accountants.

A 15-minute check of your own site

Open your accountancy website on a phone, not on the office computer, and answer these ten questions. Better still, hand the phone to someone who does not work at the firm.

• Does the first screen say who you help, what you do and where?
• Can you start a phone call with one tap from any page?
• Does each main service have its own page, written in plain English?
• Can a visitor tell how you charge?
• Are there names and real photographs of the people?
• Is every testimonial used with the client's written consent?
• Does the footer show the firm's legal details, and do they match Companies House?
• Is there a privacy notice, linked from the contact form?
• Is the newest thing on the site less than three months old?
• Do the links to your social media pages lead somewhere active?

Every "no" is a job for this month. Start with the first two, because they affect every visitor.

If the last question was a "no", paste your firm's URL on the Pillr home page to see the posts it would draft from your own website, or look at plans and pricing first.

Questions accountants ask