Accounting firm website essentials: what every page must do

What does an accounting firm website need to do?

An accounting firm website has three jobs: help the right clients recognise themselves, prove the firm is qualified and registered to do the work, and make the first step easy. Every page should do at least one of those jobs, and the site as a whole should be easy for Google and AI answer engines to read.

Picture the reader. A business owner is comparing three firms because their bookkeeper has retired and the next BAS is due. They want to know within a minute whether you act for businesses like theirs, what you would do, roughly what it costs and how to start. A site built around that reader also gives search engines and AI assistants the plain, specific statements they quote.

Which pages does an accounting firm website need?

A small set of focused pages works better than one long list of services. Each page below answers a question a prospective client is already asking, and each has a common gap worth checking on your current site.

What registration details should the site show?

Show the registered name and tax agent number of the entity that holds the registration, and make every statement about registration true for the person or entity it describes. This is where accounting websites differ from other professional sites: the law is specific.

Under the Tax Agent Services Act 2009, advertising that you will provide a tax agent service when you are not a registered tax agent is a civil penalty contravention (section 50-10), subject to limited exceptions. Advertising BAS services requires registration as a tax or BAS agent (section 50-10(2)), and representing that you are a registered tax or BAS agent when you are not is a separate contravention (section 50-15). The Tax Practitioners Board must keep its register available for inspection on the internet (section 60-135), so a registration number on the site lets a prospective client check it quickly.

Four checks for the site:

1. The registered name and tax agent number appear in the footer and on the fees or about page.
2. Staff profiles use “registered tax agent” only for people who are registered. Everyone else is described by role and qualifications, such as “senior tax accountant, CA”.
3. Where a bookkeeping or payroll business trades under a separate name and advertises BAS services, the entity named on the site is the one that holds the registration.
4. Professional designations such as CA, CPA or IPA membership appear only beside the people who hold them.

Marketing copy has its own rule. APES 110, the code of ethics that binds members of CA ANZ, CPA Australia and the Institute of Public Accountants, requires members to be honest and truthful when marketing. It bars exaggerated claims about services, qualifications or experience, and disparaging references or unsubstantiated comparisons to the work of others (paragraph R115.2). Lines such as “Geelong’s best tax accountants” or “the biggest refund, every time” do not belong on the site. The Code encourages members who are unsure about a piece of advertising to consult their professional body.

How should clients send you documents?

Give clients a secure upload route and keep sensitive documents out of the enquiry form and email. The contact form should collect only what the firm needs to reply: name, business name, email, phone and a short description of what they need.

• Say beside the form what not to send: tax file numbers, bank statements or identity documents.
• Link from the site to the client portal the firm already uses, and ask the vendor where it stores documents and who can access them.
• Put a short privacy notice beside the form that names the entity collecting the information.
• State when clients will hear back, and who from.

At tax time, missing documents are a common bottleneck. The Document Chaser, by Pylon Digital, follows up clients for missing tax documents or signed engagement letters until they arrive, with staff approval before anything leaves the firm.

How fast and accessible does the site need to be?

Aim for Google’s “good” Core Web Vitals thresholds and WCAG 2.2 level AA. The Core Web Vitals targets, measured at the 75th percentile of page loads on mobile and desktop separately, are a Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, an Interaction to Next Paint of 200 milliseconds or less, and a Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less (web.dev). Google is clear that good scores do not by themselves put a page at the top; relevance comes first. Slow pages still lose impatient readers.

Common causes on accounting sites include third-party booking and chat widgets, large uncompressed team photos, several tracking tags and home-page sliders. The Core Web Vitals report in Search Console shows which pages fail.

For accessibility, WCAG 2.2 added criteria that matter on firm sites:

What helps an accounting firm appear in Google and AI answers?

The same basics as any professional firm, plus two accounting-specific points: tax content dates quickly, and Google holds financial topics to a higher standard. Google’s helpful content guidance says its systems give even more weight to content with strong experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust on topics that could significantly affect people’s financial stability.

• Put a named author and their qualifications on every tax guide, with a “last reviewed” date.
• Review guides after each federal Budget and before 1 July, and remove figures that no longer apply.
• Add organisation markup and AccountingService markup, a LocalBusiness subtype on schema.org, with the same name, address and phone as your Google Business Profile.
• Complete the Business Profile. Google’s guide to generative AI features says Business Profiles can help services appear in AI responses as well as ordinary results.
• Allow AI search crawlers in robots.txt and at your CDN. Our guide to how firms get recommended by ChatGPT and Google AI sets out the exact rules.

What does a strong service page look like?

A strong service page answers who, what, how much and what next before the reader scrolls. The example below is an illustrative scenario, not a real client.

Picture a 25-person firm in Ballarat whose SMSF page reads “We offer a full range of SMSF services.” A stronger version is built like this:

1. Heading: “SMSF accounting and compliance for trustees in Ballarat and the Central Highlands”.
2. Answer paragraph: “We prepare your fund’s annual financial statements and SMSF annual return, arrange the independent audit, and tell trustees before 30 June which decisions need making.”
3. Who it is for: trustees of funds with one to four members, including funds holding property.
4. What is included: a short list, including what is not included.
5. Fees: a fixed annual fee or range, and what changes it: number of members, property or other complex assets, and whether a member is drawing a pension.
6. How to start: three steps, from a first call to authority forms.
7. Byline: reviewed by a named CA or CPA, with the review date.
8. FAQs: four or five real questions trustees ask.

Each element gives a client a reason to call and gives an answer engine a sentence it can quote accurately.

Which checks should you run before launch?

Run these checks before a new site goes live, and again once a year. Most take minutes; the registration and marketing checks need a partner’s sign-off.

1. Each service has its own page that opens with a 40–60 word answer.
2. Every service page gives fee guidance.
3. The registered name and tax agent number are in the footer, and every “registered” claim is true.
4. Marketing copy has been read against APES 110 paragraph R115.2.
5. People pages show names, roles, qualifications and real photos.
6. The contact form collects the minimum, says what not to send and has a privacy notice beside it.
7. The secure upload route is linked from the contact page.
8. Core Web Vitals are “good” in Search Console on mobile and desktop.
9. WCAG 2.2 AA checks pass, including target size and focus visibility.
10. Organisation and AccountingService markup validate in Google’s Rich Results Test.
11. robots.txt and CDN settings let AI search crawlers in.
12. The Google Business Profile is complete and matches the site exactly.

Pylon Digital builds websites, including for accounting firms, with these essentials in place, and our page for accounting firms covers what else we build for practices.

This is general information, not legal advice.