2020 Reviews of Website Builders for Accounting Firms

With more business being conducted over the internet than ever before, shouldn’t you be sure that your website is presenting your electronic visitors with a good first impression? This is more important than ever before because potential clients will use that site to determine whether they want to hire your services or not. They won’t be visiting your office, sitting in your comfortable office chairs or sipping coffee in your spacious meeting room. Instead, they will be browsing your website to see what services you offer, your expertise in the areas that matter to them, and ultimately whether they want to pursue a professional relationship.

Is your website up to the task?

If you’re not sure, here are a few things you can do to make sure that your web visitors remain engaged with your content and remain on your page longer than the standard 10 seconds.

Quick load time. It’s important that your website loads quickly. No one will care about your great website design if it takes longer than a few seconds to load.
Make sure that your website is not static. While there are some details that will never change, be sure to keep your website fresh. Change photos, update your calendar, and make sure that there’s always new content on your site, whether it’s a blog post or a monthly newsletter.
Give your web visitors something for free. Everyone loves free stuff, and visitors to your website are no exception. Offer a free white paper to download, provide some financial calculators to access, or send them an electronic version of your monthly newsletter. Ask visitors to sign up, and give them something as a reward for doing so.
Be sure that your website is mobile friendly. While it’s great that your site looks good on a desktop system, chances are high that your web visitors will be using their mobile phone to access your website. Make sure it’s designed to look as good on their phone as it does on their computer.

Luckily, you don’t have to pay thousands of dollars for a professionally created website. In fact, you may be surprised by just how easy it is to create a website using one of the products reviewed in this issue of CPA Practice Advisor. These do-it-yourself applications include:

If the do-it-yourself option leaves you cold, there are also several custom website options available, all from reliable vendors who specialize in creating custom websites for accounting firms and CPA firms. These products include:

Although we did not review them this year, there are also options from vendors that make broad suites of technology for accounting firms, such as AccountantsWorld and Thomson Reuters, and include website building functions as a part of a practice management or portal management. These links lead to our most recent reviews of those systems.

While you have no control over recent events, you do have control over your website. There’s no good reason why your website can’t be engaging, informative, and a true representation of your firm. Keep your clients engaged and informed, and get your potential clients interested in your firm by creating a website that visitors will happily visit on a regular basis.