I’ve been asked by a lot of Do-it-Yourselfers over the years what they should put in their cpa websites. At the bare minimum you need to provide prospects with enough information that they can find you so your site absolutely, positively needs the following pages:

• Contact Us: With your details and perhaps an email contact form.
• Our Services: Details about your core and added value services, plus contact names for specialist areas. 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.
• Firm Profile: Explain why a prospective client should work with you.

This is a brochure site. You don’t need me, or any other accounting website designer, to have a site like this. Just go to www.godaddy.com and set up a site with them.

A brochure site won’t land you new clients, help you retain your existing clients, or decrease your operating costs. All it will do is keep you from looking like a dinosaur when you are doing your traditional marketing and make it easy for your current clients to find your office and phone number when they need it.

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. Tax rates and facts, Budget summaries and business content give your site depth, extra value for clients and a reason for visitors to return to the site.

You’re going to need to find a real accounting website designer at this point.

News stories and free reports- whether they’re about the firm itself, client successes or general tax and business news these articles will keep your site looking dynamic and exciting. Search engines and clients alike love to see sites that get updated regularly. But be warned: if you have news, you need to keep it up-to date. A “news” page that hasn’t been updated for six months or more makes you look lazy and unreliable.

Interactive features such as calculators, links, downloadable forms and PDFs will take your site to the next level and provide a genuinely impressive online resource that can be used to great effect as marketing tools by providing real, tangible reasons to visit your site not just once, but repeatedly.

Finally you’ll need a client portal that allows your patrons to send and receive large files securely over the web.

The cost of buying these features separately will be prohibitive for most small businesses, but there are a number of companies that specialize in building websites for accountants. They will be able to provide you with affordable content packages.