A website for accountants has one main job: a prospect finds what you do, who you do it for, where you are and how to reach you within seconds, on a phone, and an existing client finds the way to upload documents without emailing them. Around that sit the rules. Under Circular 230, anyone practicing before the IRS may not use public communication with a false, misleading or deceptive claim, and enrolled agents may not call themselves "certified". The FTC Safeguards Rule names tax preparation firms and requires encryption of customer information in transit and at rest, so tax documents belong in a secure portal, not in a contact form. The ADA lists the "office of an accountant" as a public accommodation, and the Department of Justice expects services offered online to be accessible. Reviews fall under the FTC's rule against fake and bought reviews. This is not legal advice; your state board of accountancy has its own rules, which this article doesn't cover, and the sources below are as of November 2026. If you practice in Germany, other law applies (the Steuerberatungsgesetz and the Berufsordnung); the German version of this article covers it.
Two AI employees from my business handle this kind of work. Ralf builds new websites and modernizes existing ones: he reads the existing site in full, preserves services and prices, and rebuilds structure and design, as a demo first if you like. Sebastian is my AI employee for SEO, GEO and blogging; he measures, writes and re-measures. What AI employees take over in the back office of a tax advisory firm is in AI Agents for Tax Firms: A Real Case. There is no accounting firm website case behind this article; the examples below are constructed.
What a website for accountants should include
How a website project runs in general is in Getting a Website Built: Steps, Options, what it costs in What Does a Website or Landing Page Cost?.
Advertising rules: Circular 230 and your credentials
Circular 230 (31 CFR Part 10) governs practice before the IRS. Section 10.30(a)(1) says a practitioner may not, "with respect to any Internal Revenue Service matter", use "any form of public communication or private solicitation containing a false, fraudulent, or coercive statement or claim; or a misleading or deceptive statement or claim." Two consequences for your website copy:
- Credentials. Enrolled agents "may not utilize the term 'certified' or imply an employer/employee relationship with the Internal Revenue Service". Acceptable is, for example, "enrolled to practice before the Internal Revenue Service".
- Fees. If you publish fees, § 10.30(b) allows fixed fees for routine services, hourly rates, ranges and the fee for an initial consultation, and fee information for matters with costs must say whether clients bear them. You may charge no more than the published rates "for at least 30 calendar days" after the last date the schedule was published, and for e-commerce communications you keep a copy for at least 36 months.
How that looks in practice (constructed phrases, not quotes from real firms):
The last row has a legal side too. Section 7216 of the Internal Revenue Code makes it a misdemeanor for a tax return preparer to knowingly or recklessly disclose "any information furnished to him for, or in connection with, the preparation of any such return". A testimonial or a reply to a review that mentions details of an engagement can do exactly that. How to answer reviews without them is in Respond to Google Reviews With AI.
Client data: contact forms, portals and the FTC Safeguards Rule
The FTC Safeguards Rule (16 CFR Part 314) applies to financial institutions under the FTC's jurisdiction and names "tax preparation firms" among them. It requires you to "protect by encryption all customer information held or transmitted by you both in transit over external networks and at rest", and multi-factor authentication "for any individual accessing any information system". IRS Publication 4557 puts it plainly: tax return preparers "must create and enact security plans to protect client data". Three rules for the website follow:
- Ask for little. A contact form needs a name, a way to reach the person and one sentence about the request. The free-text field gets a note not to enter Social Security numbers or attach returns.
- Documents go to the portal. Instead of a home-built upload, link the client portal of your practice software, with MFA. The website explains which documents you need for which engagement.
- Load third-party tools on request. A booking widget or chat that loads on every page sends visitor data to the vendor before anyone asks. On my contact page the Calendly calendar only loads after a click on the button, so nothing goes to Calendly when the page opens.
Accessibility: the ADA
Title III of the ADA lists the "office of an accountant or lawyer" among public accommodations (42 U.S.C. 12181(7)(F)). The Department of Justice's web guidance says businesses open to the public "still must ensure that the programs, services, and goods that they provide to the public" are accessible to people with disabilities, "including those provided online", and points to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as helpful technical standards. Contrast, labeled form fields, alt text and a booking path without a mouse are the basics; how to test them for free is in Accessibility Checker: Free Tools, Real Test.
Reviews, local search and AI search
The FTC's rule on consumer reviews (16 CFR Part 465) prohibits fake reviews and testimonials, paying for reviews "expressing a particular sentiment", reviews by your own officers or managers that don't disclose the connection, and suppressing reviews with groundless legal threats.
For local searches, your Google Business Profile carries a lot of weight. Google's guidelines describe an individual practitioner as "a public-facing professional, typically with their own customer base" and list doctors, dentists, lawyers, financial planners and insurance or real estate agents; accountants aren't named explicitly. If several practitioners work at one location, the firm gets its own profile and each practitioner's profile carries only their name. Marketing taglines don't belong in the business name, so "Smith CPA, Cheap Tax Returns Austin" breaks the rule.
On the website, name, address, phone and hours match the profile exactly, and page titles name the service and the city. For structured data, schema.org has the type AccountingService, a subtype of LocalBusiness. How to check it is in Schema Markup Checker: Which Tool Tests What, the local steps in How Do I Get Found on Google? Local SEO. Nobody can promise that an AI search will name your firm; what makes a page quotable is in Optimizing Your Website for AI Search.
What Ralf and Sebastian take over on a firm website
Ralf turns an old site into a modern one-page website, as a demo first on request: all content carried over, better structured, readable on a phone. Missing information is flagged, not quietly filled in. Suppose the old site calls an enrolled agent "IRS certified": the new version uses the wording Circular 230 accepts, and the change is listed with its reason in the handover. How such a rebuild runs is in Modernizing a Website With AI: How To, ongoing care in Website Maintenance: Tasks, Checklist, Cost.
Sebastian measures first: Lighthouse for load times, linkinator for broken links, Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools read-only once you grant access, and which pages AI search systems cite. Then he writes and re-measures. In other people's accounts he only reads; he drafts profile updates, you approve them. In my business, nothing goes live without me. For a firm, both get the rules as a file: credential wording, no client names, no client data.
Frequently asked questions
What should an accounting firm website include?
Services and who they're for, location and contact on the first screen, team members with their actual credentials, a link to a secure client portal, a privacy policy and an accessibility statement.
Can I advertise my tax practice on my website?
Yes, as long as no statement is false, misleading or deceptive (31 CFR 10.30) and enrolled agents don't describe themselves as "certified". Your state board's rules apply on top.
Does an accounting firm website have to be accessible?
The ADA counts the office of an accountant as a public accommodation, and the Department of Justice's guidance expects online services to be accessible and points to WCAG as technical guidance.
Can I put client testimonials on my firm's website?
Ask for the client's written consent first and leave out details from the engagement. Section 7216 penalizes disclosing information furnished for preparing a return, and the FTC prohibits fake or bought reviews.
Where to go from here
Open your firm's website on your phone and check three things: Can you see the phone number and the way to book without scrolling? Does any credential read "certified" where it shouldn't? Does the contact form invite documents that belong in the portal? If you want to hand off what you find, book a strategy session: in 20 minutes we look at the one workflow in your business that depends on you the most and work out your first step. Other industries are collected under AI by Industry. Where AI fits into the rest of a firm's workday is in Accounting Firm Automation: Where AI Fits. Newsletters, reviews and referrals: Marketing for Accountants With AI Employees.
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