Does your Accountancy Website need a Refresh?

If you’ve got a website for your accountancy business, you’re off to a great start. But it’s not enough to let it just sit there without being updated. Accounting website marketing requires hard work, dedication and persistence. You also need to keep up with latest SEO updates and Google algorithm changes which could impact the performance of your site. So with all this in mind, it could well be time for a website refresh. Here’s what to consider.

The Page Experience Update

Google’s Page Experience Update finished rolling out in August 2021 and has been of great significance to website owners. The update was designed to create the ultimate browsing experience for users, with each website given a page experience score based on the analysis of several ‘signals.’ These signals include:

Core Web Vitals – which measure and evaluate the speed, responsiveness, and visual stability of websites.

Mobile Usability – a page must have no mobile usability errors.

Security Issues – any security issues can prevent a website from getting a ‘Good’ page experience score

HTTPS Usage – a page must be served over HTTPS to be eligible for ‘Good’ page experience status.

Ad Experience – a site must not use advertising techniques that are distracting, interrupting, or otherwise not conducive to a good user experience.

So as you can see, there are many page experience ranking signals which need to be factored into your strategy for website design for accountants. And failing to do so could mean your website doesn’t deliver what Google expects from a modern-day website.

Let’s zoom in on Core Web Vitals, for a moment. This page experience signal is of huge importance and could influence an imminent accountancy website refresh. The three metrics associated with Core Web Vitals are:

  1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – This looks closely at page loading speeds. So if you’ve a large image on your site or a background video that takes a long time to load, you could be in trouble. The best thing to do in this instance is to take a look at your web design and simplify it where necessary. Similarly, if you have a large amount of render-blocking JS or CSS (your development team will know what this is about), or your site is setup with client-side rendering, some changes will be needed.
  2. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – A website that appears to shift up and down as content is loaded provides a terrible website experience and this has now been flagged by Google. If your accountancy site does this, then look into CLS in more detail to prevent being penalised by the search engine giant.
  3. First Input Delay (FID) – The is all about responsiveness. If a call-to-action button appears on the screen, for instance, the expectation is that we can click on it. If this isn’t possible, it can impact the user experience.

A website refresh should look at all of these factors and focus on making the user experience as smooth as possible.

If you need help with web design, contact Whitefish Marketing today, an experienced digital marketing agency for accountants.

Avatar for Chris Surridge
About Chris Surridge

Chris is our marketing director. He comes from a split background in automotive and accountancy marketing, having worked with such brands in the past as Lookers PLC, Mercedes Benz and Vauxhall, as well as working with governing bodies such as ACCA and CIMA in the accounting world.