Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
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WEBSITE BUILDERS Reviews For Your Firm 10 Tools for Building a Better Website for them to focus on what they do best. Clearly, offering site-building help to accounting fi rms is hot, and providers are off ering more features than ever … not to mention that fees range from a few dollars a month to hundreds for additional storage or even thousands for a specialized service. T e bot om line? Firms are happy to pay these fees for dynamic sites with reliable hosting. Find these reviews online: CPA Site Solutions Complete Web Suite @ www.CPAPracticeAdvisor. com/10360953 CPAsites.com @ www.CPAPracticeAdvisor. com/10352784 A Scott H. Cytron, ABC Scott is president of Cytron and Company, known for helping companies and organizations improve their bottom line through strategic public relations, communications, marketing programs and top-notch client service. An accredited consultant, Scott works with companies, organizations and individuals in professional services (medical, legal, accounting, engineering), high-tech and B2B/B2C product/ service sales. Scott is author of the CPA Practice Advisor's MarketingWorks column and blogs for CPATechViews.com. Contact him at scottcytron@ cpata.com. t one time, an accounting fi rm's website could get away with being lit le more than an online business card: static by today's standards and largely uninformative. Then, sites evolved into online brochures with a homepage/cover that off ered links inside to descriptions of services and staff . Today's innovative site might off er a tax calculator, the ability to email reminders of important tax dates, and even feature (only for the edgiest of fi rms) a partner's blog. Boy, how times times have changed! If this year's collection of website building tools is any indication, the kind of providers is as diverse as the number of them. Yet, what's always interesting to me is not necessarily the number of providers, but that they exist for one, sole purpose: To provide an alterna- tive. T is is all about the kind of person who shops at Home Depot for drywall tape or the kind of person who shops the same store for bat eries … and has no idea what drywall tape is. Aſt er many years of working with the accounting profession, I've found that most fi rms want a website (or any kind of tech- nology) presented to them in a wrapped box with a fancy bow. T e typical accountant doesn't want to spend time or resources developing and maintaining a website. It's far more benefi cial Features & More Features What features are popular? Today's firm wants a website that is far beyond the electronic brochure. Here's what today's site builders are off ering: • Client portal integration and high page counts. • Growing numbers of templates for page layout. • Simplifi ed construction, including text editors and the ability to change layouts without tech assistance or fees. • Help with content, including news and sometimes thousands of articles that aren't, admit edly, usually exclusive to a given fi rm's use. • Newslet ers. • Initial free trials. • Email. • Firm-owned domain names and free transfer of content and data if the fi rm elects to leave the provider's service. Providers are also off ering integration with SaaS applications that cover accounting, payroll and other third-party solutions, as well as support for an increasing number of browsers for both PC and Mac. Some even help optimize websites for mobile browsers for smartphones, tablets and other portable devices. More is More Providers know they can off er fi rms a lot more than secure hosting, which, in itself, is growing more sophisticated with better anti-spam protection, more frequent backup and tougher servers to hack. Several vendors this year reported that customizing fi rm sites is a major selling point, as is off ering copy- writing and design services. T ese services are oſt en off ered for an additional charge, but are sometimes included as part of the standard site-building package. Many providers are also off ering the capability to pre-schedule emails in addition to adding email marketing services. E-Commerce is becoming more alluring for fi rms, and providers have responded with support and integration for many e-commerce and payment platforms, including PayPal, Amazon, etc. And, of course, some vendors are off ering blogs or integration with blogging platforms. Cutting-Edge Stuff Many vendors now offer search engine optimization (SEO), which helps fi rms write and build their sites to rate high in searches. Providers now have tracking and reporting tools that record when a search of a fi rm's site took place, who searched using what keywords, what country the searcher was from, etc. Social marketing links to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and other applications are also fi nding their way into these tools. And of course, some vendors are realizing the strong need to provide integra- tion with client portals. Get Away From Templates The time has rarely been better for an accounting fi rm to look for a provider to help build a website. Let's face the truth: Accountants just aren't going to try and do it themselves and probably don't want to. While templates are necessary and can help fi rms get online quickly, many of the current off erings in this space need a concerted eff ort to veer away from off ering only a template- based solution. I know it's far more economical for them to off er templates rather that 100% custom pages (and some do off er custom site building services), but providers would realize a huge advantage if they concentrated on giving each fi rm a unique and individual look and feel. ● October 2011 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com 27