Trust is the foundation of any relationship, but it’s monumentally important for the accounting industry. To be beneficial, accounting websites must have trust factors in place.
When it comes to navigating accounting websites, trust goes beyond a shiny badge or seal of approval. Your website visitors’ entire journey through your website should be full of trust signals from start to finish.
Here are the 6 vital trust factors for accounting websites:
- Clean and Modern Design
Is your website well designed? A website doesn’t need to be a work of art, but it does need to look like your business cares about its appearance.
Think about it this way – Would you attend a meeting with a potential client in your weekend grubbies with dirt under your nails from working in the yard? No, you’d show up looking pulled together, confident, and professional. Your website needs to do the same. - Mobile Website
How well is your website optimized for mobile? Most modern accounting websites are fairly responsive “out of the box.” Meaning, that the theme that’s used for a website says it’s responsive. However, there are always small elements that need to be addressed to make sure the site truly looks good on all devices.
Remember, being responsive doesn’t mean a website looks the same on desktop and mobile. It means that it looks appropriate for the device it’s being viewed on. This could mean slightly different content and design elements for some sections. - Visible Contact Number
A visible phone number is a vital trust element on an accounting or bookkeeping website. As a business in the accounting industry, it’s important that potential clients see that it’s easy to contact you. If you prefer not to receive phone calls, make your alternative contact details visible and easy to use as well.
Pro Tip: Sometimes, accounting firms prefer to guide people to schedule a discovery call instead of calling. If that’s the case, still include your phone number on the website, just make it slightly less visible. For example, put it in the footer of your website instead of at the very top of the page. - Address Listed on Your Website
If you have a public location for your accounting business, include your physical address on the website. If your firm works virtually, which is more common post-pandemic, include your city and state. It’s an important trust factor that ensures people you’re local, and not a continent away. - Reviews & Testimonials
Reviews are an invaluable trust element on a website. To increase your website’s trust factor, make sure you have reviews or testimonials on almost every page of your website.
If you haven’t made online reviews a priority for your firm and you just have a few, use the same reviews throughout your website. Alternatively, if you have reviews for each service you provide, use them on the appropriate pages. Start with what you have and make improvements along the way. - Updated Website Content
Outdated content can be a real trust killer. When you use specific dates on your website, remember to circle back to change them. A good example is if you added messaging about not taking in-person meetings due to covid, or if you were promoting a webinar in November 2021 and the promotion is still on your website. (True story, I actually saw that on a website recently!) This makes website visitors wonder if you’ve gone out of business, so it’s a red flag.
Your blog should also be up to date. If you started blogging in 2019 and haven’t had the time to get back to it, that’s ok! Just remove visible dates from the blog, or better yet, start blogging again. You can delegate it, outsource it, or talk to us about a content strategy that includes blog posts that are written for humans and optimized for Google.
Is your accounting website making any of these trust-killing mistakes? If so, it might be time for a new website. In the meantime, implement what you can from this list on your current website. It’s worth it to have a website that lets potential clients know they can trust you and your firm.