Slash Your CPA Website Design Expenses

Custom websites are enormously expensive. If you're setting up a custom CPA and Accounting website design you know how easily the cost can fly out of control. Fortunately there are a few straight forward trade secrets that can significantly cut, or even eliminate, your setup costs.

Before you decide to use one ask yourself, "Do I actually need a custom website". There are startlingly few advantages to getting a "from the bottom up" custom CPA and Accounting website.

Personally I advise using a template instead of investing in a custom designer.

Graphic design really isn't all that important to the success or failure of a website. Unfortunately a lot of site owners drive up their costs and at the same time get completely bogged down by the graphic design process.

Setting up a website is a pretty big job. Just customizing and creating site content will be a lot of work. Don't make the process harder and more expensive by obsessing on the appearance of the site. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to get the job done in two or three drafts. It may not be perfect, but it'll be good. Custom accounting website design starts at about $2000 and in many cases this is a vanity expense. There are a lot of companies that provide excellent accounting and tax website templates. These products are more than adequate for most small to medium sized firms. They also tend to come packed with content, so you'll be able to get a good site up much faster for a lot less work.

If you decide that having the unique look and feel is worth some extra money you may still be able to avoid the bulk of the expenses accrued by setting up a custom site. Look for a company that provides accounting or CPA website templates and try to find one that's close to the custom site you had in mind, then contact the provider and ask them to modify it. This can give you what looks like a custom site, but won't cost more than $300 or $400.

Here's a few things to consider before making a final decision. One problem I have all the time is when a client with a modest understanding of design comes into the process with a rigid preconception of what he or she wants. These are without doubt some of the ugliest websites I've ever done. Accountants are often type A personalities and, as a rule, are in the habit of (and are well paid for) managing tiny details. Unfortunately a keen attention to detail does not automatically imbue us with a sense of balance, a flare for RGB color matching, or an ability to build an intuitive navigation structure. Don't let yourself get caught in a cycle of doing draft after draft of your website. You won't get a better website for your trouble, just a more expensive one. You may even force your designer into a corner where he decides to just do what's easy (exactly what you want) rather than what's right. It's just not a good idea to indulge in artistic expression when someone else is holding the brush. Try to come in to the design process with an open mind about what your site is going to look like.

Keep in mind that the look of the site really isn't all that important. Consider Google, CraigsList, and Reddit. All are A-list websites, and all have site styles that range from minimalist to just plain ugly. Aesthetics just isn't that important to designing a commercially successful website.

Your ability to provide accurate and timely tax and financial advice and preparation is far more important than your eye for color and balance, so stick to what you do best and trust your designer to do the same.

The number one reason for design cost overruns is overestimating the importance of graphic design. It's a lot cheaper to make design changes to a website during the planning phase than it is once the coding starts. Make your design choices up front using mock-ups, and once you finalize it stick to your guns. Once the coding process begins even seemingly minor changes become very expensive.

I can't tell you how many hours I've spent on colors. Color is an important element of a website, but some folks just don't get it. Every monitor on the planet displays color a little differently.

If you really want a custom site your best strategy is to hire a skilled and experienced designer who shares your basic vision and try to trust his or her process. Stay focused on the design elements that really matter.

Don't treat your website like a product roll-out, treat it as what it is: a marketing instrument. I've had a lot of clients refuse to publish until the website's "perfect". It can be very frustrating to see a website sit idle for months or even years because an obsessive owner is trying to perfect it. Every day that goes buy is another day of lost revenues and lost domain authority. As far as I'm concerned the revenues they lost because the site's not up might just as well be added to their development costs. It's just not worth the time and money they spent, and lost, getting the site "just so". The most ironic part is that while they may have a really nice site, it's a site designed to appeal to the website owner. This is not a good advertising paradigm. A lot of advertisers and marketers are afraid to honestly confront this issue with their clients, and knowingly let them wander down this particular garden path. Your website should be designed to appeal to your prospects, not to you. The perfect shade of blue really won't help much attracting a wide range of prospects. It's your content that will really showcase your accounting or CPA practice. If your content is useful, the presentation is friendly, and the site is easy to navigate your visitors will be back again and again until they finally decide to step into your sales funnel.

Closely related to a futile drive for perfection is a need to "finish" the site. This is also a trap. Website design is a lot like building a house. Once the site is up it needs to be maintained and improved. Your accounting or CPA website won't ever be "finished". I've had clients put off publishing sites for months waiting to finish the site. This is a trouble doubled. It's unhealthy to let yourself think of your website as finished. As soon as you do it will quickly slide in obsolescence.

You've seen sites like this. The news reports and tax updates are out of date. The links on the site are all broken or mapped to the wrong site. Are you impressed by sites like this? Well... neither are your clients and prospects.

Once the decision to invest in a website is made treat it like a proper business expense. Get the website up and working for you as quickly as possible. Once it's up it can start to make money for you, your domain name will begin to accumulate domain authority, and you can tweak it to your hearts content. In fact the more tweaking you do the better. The search engines respect sites that continue to grow and change once they open.

Your website is an investment in your firm. Handle it just like you'd treat a renovated lobby, a brochure, or any alike marketing outlay. It doesn't really make any difference if you decide to use a custom CPA and Accounting website or start with a template driven site. What matters is that you get the lead out, get the site up quick, and let your contacts observe as you constantly mold it to suit their needs.

Brian O'Connell is the owner and founder of CPA Site Solutions, one of the country's leading edge website design firms oriented entirely to accounting website design. His firm currently provides websites for more than 4000 CPA, accounting, and tax preparation firms.