How much does an accountant website cost?

A CPA website subscription is easy. You pay monthly and someone else handles hosting. The trade-off is that your site shares a template with other firms on the same plan, and if the plan includes pre-written articles, other firms may publish the same ones. Google has little reason to rank one copy over another, so the subscription mostly works as a brochure for people who already have your name.

A site you own costs more on day one. It also has pages written about your firm, your services and your clients’ industries, which is what tends to rank for searches like “CPA for restaurants” or “small business bookkeeping” in your area. And when you stop paying, you keep all of it.

Looking professional is the minimum. Bringing in clients takes a page for each service and each industry you want work from, written the way an owner searches (“bookkeeping for contractors,” “tax preparation” plus your town), and a site that agrees with your Google Business Profile on name, address, phone number and services, so the map listing and the website back each other up.

Then the path to contact has to be short. A phone number at the top, a short intake form that says when you’ll reply, and a portal link for existing clients so they stop landing in the new-client form. Bios with real photos close more often than firms expect, because the client is picking a person.

Less than you’d think. A list of your services, the industries you want more of, and the towns your clients come from. Bios and headshots for everyone who meets clients. The login for your portal provider so I can link it correctly, and for your domain and current site if you have one. A few hours across the project to review what I send, ideally outside of March and April. Most firms have me write the pages, because a page that ranks and gets inquiries reads differently from a brochure. You approve every word before it goes live.

• Is the content written for my firm, or shared across your clients? Shared articles help the vendor more than they help you.
• Whose name is the domain registered in? It should be yours, even on a subscription.
• Where do client documents go? The answer should be your portal, never the website’s own form inbox.
• What happens if I cancel? Find out whether you keep the design, the pages and the text, or only the domain.
• Who updates the site during tax season? Deadline notices and office hours change fast in March and April.
• What happens to my old pages? Each one should redirect to its new address, or the rankings you have can drop at launch.