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Top tips for a quality firm website

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21st Jan 2013
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In the age of smartphones, tablets and social media, business websites still have a role to play. But just how valuable are they to accountants? AccountingWEB members offered their advice in a recent Any Answers thread.

AccountingWEB member, Glennzy, started the ball rolling by asking for advice about his practice's website as he was “torn” about its importance to the firm.

As a newcomer to practice, he wondered how to create a website that would attract new referrals.

“If you were starting up today, what sort of money would you invest in your website? Would you go for the standard accounting site?” he asked.

Members responded with some great of advice, sumarised below.

Good first impressions do not mean referrals

Members were unanimous on one point: don't focus on generating referrals from your website. Stick to having one for professional purposes and first impressions as a kind of online brochure.

"Word of mouth is very important, but that doesn't stop the prospect wanting to check you out before they get in contact," advised Steve Holloway, who said his website was "instrumental" in restructuring his firm. 

"In my experience, they want to find out something about you personally. We are British, we hate being put on the spot over price an hour into a conversation. I also find that clients like my website as it has all of the forms, facts and figures they need without trawling around," he added.

Sarah at Weaver, who also started in practice recently, said her firm has received no referrals as a result of her website, but treats it as a brochure for clients. 

ChrisScullard agreed: "You probably won't get loads of enquiries through the site, but not having it will unquestionably put prospects off."

But how can you make a good impression with your website?

Break the mould

Glennzy followed up by asking how to create a website that shouts "choose me" over other accountants and breaks away from the "standard five-page site".

Marketing expert David Winch went against the flow by arguing that a firm's website should be primarily for lead generation. 

"If you're the same as everyone else, what reason do visitors have for choosing you ahead of others? Be different, be beneficially different, be valuably different. Don't follow the crowd. Stand out from the crowd!"

Mark Lee, who said it was "absolutely right" to want to stand out from the rest, offered some tips in a previous AccountingWEB article on accountants' website mistakes: 

  • Who is the website for? - It's vital that the website contains information for its target audience, including prospects referred to the firm, suppliers and prospective staff
  • Basic information - Your site should identify what you do, who you do it for, what makes you different, where you’re based and how visitors can get in touch with you using their or your preferred method
  • SEO - Search Engine Optimisation. To get your website to rank highly and be more visible to those searching the internet for accountancy services, you need to think about SEO. Your website will never rank highly for SEO purposes unless it incorporates key search terms on the home page and in title tags 
  • Who should I ask for? - Identify yourself to clients by providing information of the principal or anyone in the firm - who they are and what they do
  • Losing prospective staff - Use your website to attract quality staff. Include a career or vacancy page

SEO

Writing widely-searched key terms and words into your website text can bump your site up search engine listings without paying for the privilege. While not something you should spend the majority of your time on, according to David Winch, it is something that would make your website stand out above the rest - literally. You can either invest in this, or try and give it a stab yourself. 

PracticeWEB senior client advisor Chris Arnold offered some evidence from his experiences in the field: "In the last 12 months, I have begun to see some firms begin to get adventurous with their top level navigation and moving away from the standard and very safe options such as 'home / about us/services/sectors/etc," he said. 

"After consulting with a firm in Leeds, it was identified that there was a business objective to target more medical clients. Simply bringing the medical page into the top level navigation, saw the number of unique visitors to the page increase by 150%." 

Cost

Many members agreed that when setting up a firm's website, it can range from free to extortionate. Websites and software for creating websites mentioned in the thread include: 

  • PracticeWEB 
  • Wordpress
  • Accountant Websmiths
  • QBS Online

While a website may be vital, it's not a case of "any old thing will do". Some investment of both time and money are required if you want to reap any benefit from it.

ChrisScullard said it's important for firms not to come across as "tin pot" businesses.

"If a potential supplier doesn't have a website, or it looks like it was designed as a primary school project, has no landline number, the email address is @hotmail/gmail/btconnect.com etc I get the impression that this is not a serious business and I would be dubious about using them," he said. ​

Marketing advice

Advice included those working in marketing and with software such as Boox and Accountant Websmiths, who said marketing is also an important element of a website. 

Managing director of QBS Online Andrew Law said: "Leads that do come through the web site often are as a result of other marketing activity which drives people to the website. It is then crucial that the website communicates the next step of actually getting in touch to buy services."

NetAccountant, who is director of Accounting Websmiths, advised: Once you start doing marketing activities, you will find that the website is visited by people who do not know about you. They will want to be reassured that you are not a fly by night operation."

"This is why a lot of practices have "collateral" pages with help-sheets and calculators. Call to actions are really important and prominent callback buttons or contact forms should be used throughout the site."

Complement with social media 

While the website itself is of importance, you can also increase your online presence for free, connected with this.

Kent Accountant is an advocate of that method: "My practice started late 2011, I now have around 90 clients, turnover in excess of £100k. I could count on one hand the number of clients which have come from my website," he said.

"However, I would estimate that around 70% of my clients have originated directly or indirectly from LinkedIn."

"You should also ensure your LinkedIn profile is up-to-date and reflects the same messages as your website," added tomhourigan. 

For further reading on how to make the most of your firm's website, see: 

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By Belarieq
30th Jan 2013 18:25

Thanks.

I haven't worked in the UK for too long, but I'm planning on expanding here. LinkedIn is used far more often here than in The Netherlands.

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