Starting a website for your accounting business can be a herculean task and could even seem quite daunting to those with no previous experience.
This can even be troubling for those who have walked the path, seeing that there is an array of factor to take into consideration.
However, we have compiled this easy-to-understand guide that every start-up accounting business needs to look into when creating a website.
Here you will learn the importance of a website as well as the key fundamentals that go into a bulletproof site.
What Is an Accounting Website?
This type of business website focuses on promoting an accountant or an accountancy business. It makes valuable information about the accountant or business available as well as their services. An archetypal accounting website often has a more refined methodology to its colour scheme
How Can a Professional Website Design Benefit Your Accounting Business?
Your website functions as the hub of all your future marketing endeavours.
A website can be beneficial when adding search engine optimization to increase organic search results. It can also make use of Pay Per Click to advertise the business’s services during tax season.
Before we delve into how to create that unique website for your accounting business, let us clarify a few things you need to factor on a business level
Establish Goals
Goals are vital for any business. A few, accounting businesses strive towards an online presence that unswervingly represents their business and services, while showcasing professionalism.
Then there are businesses that emphasize on the user experience and accumulating extra conversions. It is very important to determine your goals before starting a website.
Defining the Audience
It is important to have a full understanding of the business’ target audience due to the fact that it will play a role on the site’s overall design, layout and content strategy.
For instance, a site and its content should be dissimilar if it was geared towards entrepreneurs, in contrast to chief financial officers.
The former will play favour to a more simplistic design with educationally orientated focused content, where the latter will steer toward a more corporate design that has more complex content.
The most important thing here, is to fully comprehend who the website is intended to attract and to design one that goes hand-in-hand with the requirements of the audience.
Now that this is covered, let’s take a look at what you need to build that website and how to make it fully functional.
Choose a Website Builder
There are a ton of companies online where you can create a compelling site. Every one of them have their own pros and cons, however the main focus should be how much control it provides.
Take into consideration how much individual control the business expects over the site in comparison to its to reliance on outside management of the site.
Work on the Design
Design development will vary based on the website builder selected and whether the business making use of a contracted designer in this aspect. Regardless of the design the business chooses, user experience and the site’s ability to be functional must be fundamentally important during this process.
There is very little sense in designing a site that is eye catching but lacks in accomplishing the identified goals.
Create a Promotional Plan
When you become eager to launch your business website it can be easy to forget about promoting it.
A simplistic method in doing this is to update the signature line for all business employees emphasizing the new website’s launch.
More upgraded means of promoting the launch are also effective, but are often over reliant on the business ’s marketing budget.
Integrating Analytics
From the get-go it is of paramount importance to integrate the website’s analytics into the site. A good strategy, is to make use of a free Google analytics tracking code which keeps a record of user behaviour to the website.
This kind of service will provide information in respects to the amount of people visiting the site, the type of content they are viewing as well as the best referring sources
SEO
Search engine optimization is the practice of optimizing a website in order maximize its visibility to potential clients within search engines.
It is not necessarily important to understand how these mechanisms operate, however ensure that the site has been developed by means of using the best SEO practices. Most design agencies can be a valuable guide for optimal results.
Scope the competition
Spend as much time as possible browsing your competition’s website to get an idea of what they are doing and if it would make business sense to go along these lines.
This can assist in formulating ideas that can be applied in different points during the setting-up process. Being able to learn from other’s success will guarantee better results at a brisk pace.
Important Pages of Your Website
Lastly, let’s go into which pages and features should appear on your website.
Homepage
The homepage normally comprises of five sections, in addition to providing brief information regarding the company, as well as some data about their success rates, and testimonials.
The first section would make use of a large image with the company’s logo or name. More often than not, the follow-up sections make use of some informational graphs presented in an animated way to demonstrate growth. These could be just about anything the company considers important – from their number of clients, satisfied clients that they have assisted, and testimonials.
About
The about page is fundamental for your accounting business’ website as it provides relevant information regarding the company, their staff and relevant certifications.
Services
The services page is best for when it comes to getting business from an accounting website. In this section it should list all the services that the business, or individual has to offer. Ensure to add as much detail as possible here.
Case Studies
Case studies, in addition to other reassuring and trust developing facets should be incorporating to increase the business ’s credibility. Place a keen emphasis on how the business has altered somebody’s life in a positive way by making use of the brand’s exceptional service.
Blog
A blog comes highly recommended with each website, however we know that not many businesses can maintain this. A blog provides useful information and generates interest in the website. It also helps in ranking better on search engine indexes and results.
Contacts
It doesn’t matter where you place your contact details, there has to be a separate contacts page for convenient access.
Mobile Responsiveness
A potential client who is searching for an accountancy business could do so through using a mobile device. In that case, your website has to be optimized for mobile devices. This includes Images sizes, spacing, text sizing etc. have to be thought of. The good experience for the end-user should be a priority.
Conclusion
An impactful accounting website will stand out from others. By using effective website design and informative content, your business can get ahead of the competition. With such a crowded market ensuring that your website stands out and promotes your values is crucial.
