The bookkeeping website must haves for a new practice are few: a plain statement of who you serve, a services page, a hint of what you charge, a booking link on every page and some form of proof. Within seconds, a visitor should know whether you fit their business and how to reach you. Five pages will do.
What must a bookkeeping website have on day one?
A bookkeeping website needs five things on day one: a home page that names your clients, a services page, a pricing signal, a way to book a call and proof you can do the work. Most visitors arrive from a referral or a search, already half interested, so the site only has to confirm the fit and book the call.
Most new bookkeepers overbuild. They spend weeks on colors, stock photos and a blog before a single client has seen the site. A plain site with clear words beats a polished one with vague words, and you can build the plain version in a weekend.
A weekend page plan
The table below is an example plan. It assumes a simple website builder and copy you write yourself.
| Page | What it must say | When to build it |
|---|---|---|
| Home | Who you serve, the problem you fix, a booking button | Saturday morning |
| Services | Each service, what is included, how often | Saturday afternoon |
| Pricing | Starting fees or how a quote is worked out | Saturday evening |
| About | Your background, experience and why this niche | Sunday morning |
| Contact or book | Calendar link, email, service area, response time | Sunday afternoon |
On Sunday evening, ask two people outside your trade to read the home page for ten seconds and tell you who it is for. If they cannot say, rewrite the first line.
What the plan leaves out on purpose
The plan has no blog, no team page and no client login. It also skips a logo designed from scratch. A clean text logo in a plain typeface is enough until clients are paying you. Spend the saved hours writing the services page, because that is the page prospects reread before they book. If the weekend runs short, publish the home and contact pages first. A two-page site that is live beats a five-page site that is still a draft, and you can add the rest one evening at a time.
A services page on the bookkeeping website that names the work
A services page on a bookkeeping website should name each service and list what the client gets, in the words a business owner uses. "Full-cycle accounting solutions" means little to a plumber. "We reconcile your bank and card accounts and send you a profit and loss report by the 15th" means a lot.
What each service entry needs
Write every service as a short block with four parts:
- The name, such as monthly bookkeeping or catch-up bookkeeping.
- What is included, as a short list of tasks.
- What the client sends you, such as bank statements, receipts or payroll reports.
- When they get results, such as a report each month by a set date.
The third part is often left out, and it matters. A client who knows you need statements by the fifth is a client who sends them by the fifth. If your process converts a folder of PDF statements into categorized transactions, say that clients can send statements as they come from the bank. AutoBankConvert handles that conversion in batches across clients, so the promise is one you can keep in a busy month.
Services to leave off
Do not list services you would rather not do, or ones you cannot yet deliver. Every item on the page invites a call about it. If you do not prepare tax returns, say so and say who you work with instead.
Showing your niche on the bookkeeping website home page
Showing your niche on the bookkeeping website home page means the first sentence names the kind of business you serve. "Bookkeeping for independent restaurants in the metro area" tells a restaurant owner they are in the right place. It also tells everyone else, quickly, that they may not be, which saves both of you a call.
Words that carry the niche
Use the vocabulary of the niche in the first screen of the home page. A contractor site might mention job costing and progress billing. A site for therapists might mention insurance deposits and practice software. These terms prove familiarity faster than any claim about experience.
When you have no niche yet
If you serve a broad range of small businesses, name a common situation instead of an industry. "Bookkeeping for owners who are months behind" or "monthly books for businesses with one to ten staff" both work. A broader message can still be specific. Marketing that builds on this message, on a small budget and an hour a week, is covered in marketing for bookkeepers on a small budget.
Should a bookkeeping website show pricing?
A bookkeeping website should show some pricing, even if only starting fees or the factors behind a quote. A visitor who sees no price at all may assume it is high and leave. A starting fee filters out people who cannot afford you and reassures those who can, before either of you spends time on a call.
Three ways to show it
- Starting fees. "Monthly bookkeeping from 400 per month." This is the most common and the easiest to keep accurate.
- Price drivers. A short list of what changes a quote: number of accounts, transaction volume, payroll, months behind.
- Packages. Two or three named tiers with set fees. These suit a practice whose clients look alike.
Avoid publishing exact prices for work that varies a lot. Cleanup and catch-up projects depend on what the books look like, so the website should say how you quote them rather than what they cost. The approach in bookkeeping cleanup pricing after a diagnostic gives you wording to put on the page: a paid review first, then a quote in stages.
Booking links and contact forms on a bookkeeping website
Booking links and contact forms on a bookkeeping website turn interest into a meeting. The best setup is a calendar link that lets visitors pick a short call time, placed in the header and at the end of every page. A contact form is a backup for people who prefer to write. Both should state when you will reply.
Setting up the booking link
Choose a calendar tool that shows your free slots and adds the meeting to your calendar. Offer one call type at first, such as a 20-minute fit call. Ask three questions on the booking form: the business name, what it does and what prompted them to look for a bookkeeper. Those answers let you prepare.
The contact form
Keep the contact form short: name, email, business type and a message. Every extra field is one more reason to give up halfway. Send an automatic reply that confirms receipt and says when you will answer, then answer within one business day.
Where both go
Put the booking button in the site header so it appears on every page. Repeat it at the bottom of the services and pricing pages, which are the pages a visitor reads just before deciding.
Proof on a new bookkeeping website with no reviews yet
Proof on a new bookkeeping website can come from experience, credentials and partners before any client reviews exist. A visitor wants evidence that you have done this work before. Years spent at a firm, the number of client books you have closed, a certification or a named referral partner all count.
Forms of proof that need no clients
- Your work history. "Six years at a regional firm closing the books for 40 small businesses a month." Specific numbers from your own experience are persuasive.
- Credentials and software certifications. List them on the about page with what they mean.
- Partners. A local tax preparer who refers clients to you and agrees to be named is strong proof. The guide to referral partners for bookkeepers explains how to build those relationships.
- A sample report. A redacted or made-up monthly report shows what clients receive.
As soon as you have clients, ask the happy ones for a short written review and permission to use their first name and business type. Add those to the home page.
Bookkeeping website extras that can wait a year
Bookkeeping website extras that can wait a year include a blog, a client login area, video, chat widgets and custom design. Each one takes time to build and keep up. None of them is the reason a business owner chooses a bookkeeper. Build them once the five core pages are bringing in calls.
A blog in particular is tempting and slow. Posts take months to draw search visitors, and an abandoned blog with two old posts looks worse than none. If you want to publish, start with one useful page that answers the question prospects ask most, and link to it from your services page.
The other trap is copying a large firm's site. A large firm can list twenty services and a team page with eight people. A new practice that copies that layout looks thin. Keep the site as small as the practice and let it grow with the client list.