The Minimal Content Needs for DIY Websites for Accountants
What is the bare-bones minimum you require to make an accounting website? I've had a lot of Do-It-Yourself types ask me this question over the years, and it makes me cringe each time. I don't suggest doing a DIY job on a professional website, but if you do it right it's better than not having a website at all. You can at least make it easy for people who are searching for you so have these pages:
- Contact Page: This page will display your basic contact information; name, address, telephone number, email address, a map, and office hours. If possible add a contact form to this page.
- Service Pages: I'd recommend a separate page for each service, but if you want to summarize it onto a single page you can do that too. Describe your core services, and also talk about other services you offer that can add value for your clients. If possible throw a contact form at the bottom of the page.
- About Us: Perhaps with a short history of the firm and details of the principal staff, this page should have a freindly and welcoming tone.
- Firm Page: The firm profile is more formal and professional than the "About Us" page. The purpose of this page is to show off your professional accomplishments and experience so don't hesitate to claim your bragging rights.
This type of content doesn't require any real programming skill and doesn't need to be updated very often. You won't have any trouble writing this copy yourself or adding it to your site. This is what we call a "brochure site". You don't need an accounting website designer to have a site like this. All you need is a domain, a site host, and a CMS (a content manager that can help you add content to your site without making you learn to code). A service like GoDaddy can provide everything you need.
The Brochure Site
A brochure site won't land you new clients, help you retain your existing clients, or decrease your operating costs. It will keep you from looking looking like an out-of-date technophobe, and it will make it easy for people who are looking for you to find you.
If you are looking for a website that can actually help you increase your community exposure and bring new clients into your business you'll need to add some real content to the site. Content like tax due dates and information, financial and business planning articles and blogs give your site depth, extra value for clients and a reason for visitors to return to the site. Unfortunately features like this also require frequent updates and, to varying degrees, real design skills.
Case in point: The online newsletter. This is maybe the most basic feature you can add to your site designed to bring in return traffic, You can probably handle this yourself, but it's unlikely you'll be able to do it cost effectively. After all, your time is valuable. The time you spend writing and compiling articles, posting them, and managing your mailings is time you're not spending making money. I think you'll find that if you added it all together the time you've lost will have cost you more than a complete content package would have cost you from a third party vendor.
What's in a Content Package?
Once you're ready to step up to a more advanced site it's time to look into a content package. Most content packages include hosting and email, but you can also use them to augment your DIY website. A content package will include tons of content. These features have evolved over the years to maximize the marketing potential of your website.
Your content package will include a financial news page that will update automatically, and a broad selection of tax and financial articles designed not only to draw visitors to the site but to cross-sell your off-season services. It's important to have your content change from time to time. In geek-speak we call this "dynamic" content. When designers talk about "dynamic" content they're usually talking about content that changes automatically. These pages appeal to visitors and search engines alike and use advanced programming to create the page as it's called up so the site owner dosn't have to manually update them. Websites that try to DIY their news page almost always fall behind. It's vital to keep your news page current. A "news" page that hasn't been updated for six months or more makes you look lazy and unreliable.
Financial calculators, downloadable forms, and useful links are pretty much standard elements of a modern accounting website. These interactive elements offer visitors lots of great reasons to keep coming back to your site and really boost the marketing value of your site.
Another standard feature that will really help with client satisfaction and retention is a "client portal" or "secure file transfer" system. These systems allow a client to send large files securly over the web and will have a profound impact on your efficiency and expenses when the tax crunch hits.
I don't need to tell you that somewhere along the line you're going to need to find a real CPA website design service. If you try to develop this many features yourself it's going to cost thousands of dollars and swallow up scores of work hours. Luckily there are a few design firms that specialize in supplying content for accounting websites. These companies can provide the content you need as well as provide hosting and support services.