Most accountancy websites aren't bad, exactly. They're just forgettable — and forgettable quietly costs you the better clients, the ones who compare a few firms and go with whoever felt most capable. Here are the five mistakes I see most often on accountants' sites, and the straightforward fix for each.
1. Writing for other accountants
"Proactive compliance solutions and cloud-based management accounts." You know what that means. The business owner reading it does not. When a site is written in the language of the profession rather than the language of the client, it signals expertise to exactly the wrong audience — and leaves the actual buyer none the wiser about whether you can help them.
The fix: write to the client's problem, not your service list. "We'll keep your books straight and your tax bill with no surprises" beats "full-suite bookkeeping and tax advisory" every time. Say what they get, in words they'd use.
2. Hiding the credentials that build trust
Your ICAEW, ACCA or AAT membership is one of the strongest trust signals you have — and it's often buried in the footer or missing entirely. A prospect who can't judge your technical skill leans hard on these proxies for "this firm is the real thing".
The fix: put your regulation, memberships and any specialisms where they'll be seen, tastefully — not as a wall of logos, but clearly enough that a nervous prospect relaxes.
3. The stock-photo handshake
The same generic imagery — the handshake, the skyline, the four people around a laptop pretending to laugh at a spreadsheet — appears on a thousand accountancy sites. It doesn't just look cheap; it makes you look identical to every other firm, which is the one thing you can't afford when someone's choosing between you.
The fix: real photography where you can, and a considered design where you can't. Anything that looks like you beats anything that looks like everyone.
4. No obvious next step
A prospect decides they might like to talk to you — and then can't easily work out how. A single "Contact" link in the menu, a bare form, no sense of what happens next. Interest that isn't captured quietly evaporates.
The fix: a clear, low-pressure call to action on every page, and a plain description of what happens when they get in touch. Make enquiring the easiest thing on the site.
5. Treating the website as a one-off
A site built once and never touched slowly falls behind — outdated fees, a service you no longer offer, a copyright date that quietly announces "2019". Search engines and clients both notice a site that's been left to age.
The fix: treat it as something that's looked after, not shipped and forgotten. Even a light care routine — updates, backups, the occasional refresh — keeps it earning its keep.
None of these are expensive to fix
Notice that not one of these is about budget. They're about clarity, honesty and a design built around your practice rather than a template. That's exactly what a bespoke build gets you — more on that in web design for accountants, and if you're weighing up cost, what a good website actually costs gives you the real numbers.
Get these five right and your website stops being a formality and starts doing what it should: making the right clients choose you before they've even called.