Which Boca Raton CPA Firms Have the Best Websites?

How many people do you know that prefer to make a dinner reservation with OpenTable as opposed to a phone call? How many do you know that book entire vacations -- hotel, airline flights, and car rentals without talking to a single person? Don’t you think the same people are going to go to a search engine or social media when looking for a Boca Raton CPA firm?

A generation ago, in the 1990s, an accounting firm could give the impression that it was keeping up with technology if it had a fax machine, an email address, and perhaps a very primitive website. However today, that’s no longer enough.

People’s research and purchasing habits have changed drastically during the past five years. Mobile devices, search engines, and social media are now a part of everyday life. So much so, that many people now prefer to get answers for themselves, 100% on their own terms.

So which CPA firms in Boca Raton have the best websites? And which of these accounting firms are best prepared to compete in a world where technology, software, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are devouring entire industries?

In the Palm Beach County CPA Market Opportunity Report, we set out to answer these very questions -- especially “which accounting firms in Palm Beach County are the most digitally-savvy?” In this blog post, let’s look at which accounting firms in Boca Raton have their websites set up to attract the right people, from the right places, at the right time, and most of all: in the right context.

1. Daszkal Bolton LLP  - Even though its website is making some really basic, easy to fix mistakes with its home page Title tag and stale copyright year in its website footer, Daszkal Bolton LLP’s website architecture is reasonably well organized. And there’s fresh content on its home page, ample relevant content to satisfy both readers and search engines, and its social media icons all work as expected and open new tabs. That said in the Palm Beach County CPA Market Opportunity Report, there were a number of categories where Daszkal Bolton LLP’s website was underperforming relative to other accounting firms in Palm Beach County.
2. Gary M. Kaplan, C.P.A., P.A. - While its delayed pop-up box inviting you to “Don’t Forget Your Free Consultation. Click Here to Call Us…” may be jarring to some, it’s nevertheless a very direct call to action. And the pop-up leading to a Free Consultation Form page likely converts quite well to get more website visitors to raise their hands and become leads. That said, there are a number of best practices on that Free Consultation Form that are being overlooked, causing unnecessary friction and loss of website conversions. The strategy also makes the common-rookie-mistake assumption that all visitors are ready for a consultation. But Gary M. Kaplan, C.P.A., P.A.’s website is at least focused on a very important goal and leading indicator: lead generation.
3. Gerstle, Rosen & Goldenberg P.A. - When it comes to digital strategy for an accounting firm’s website, being direct with calls to action and action verbs is so important. For that, Gerstle, Rosen & Goldenberg P.A.’s website home page wins some praise: “Get to Know Us,” “Get Help,” “Get Informed,” and “Get In Touch” leave little room for ambiguity. The website also does a really good job with matching its home page Title tag with the headline on the page -- increasing the likelihood that one or more of the major search engines will reward it with some valuable organic search engine traffic. That said, nearly all of the above-the-fold real estate is about the Partners and Team, rather than addressing the issues that its clients will care most about when visiting their website for the first time as a stranger to Gerstle, Rosen & Goldenberg P.A.
4. Gold Coast Accounting, PA - While there are definitely some good calls to action (including “Schedule a Consultation” and “Subscribe to Our Newsletter”), these calls to action are pretty buried on the page and easy to miss. Besides a stale website copyright year, its Google AdWords campaign is also squandering what’s likely to be expensive traffic by sending visitors to Gold Coast Accounting, PA’s website home page.
5. Mitchell L. Taylor CPA PA - The home page for Mitchell L. Taylor CPA PA’s website may look quite familiar because it shares much of the strategy, copywriting, calls to action, and design elements with Gerstle, Rosen & Goldenberg P.A.’s website. Coincidence? Perhaps, but more likely both firms ended up sacrificing some differentiation. The website footer for Mitchell L. Taylor CPA PA’s website links to “Powered by CPA Site Solutions.” Gerstle, Rosen & Goldenberg P.A.’s website, on the other hand, does not. Is this a copycat situation? Or did both take the shortcut of hiring a firm that used a nearly identical template and strategy to save some time and money. Also, Mitchell L. Taylor CPA PA’s social media icons either go to stale or non-existing profiles.
6. Rick Schiffmiller EA. Corp. - While Rick Schiffmiller EA. Corp.’s practice may be smaller, and it has more of an Enrolled Agent focus, its website domain name strategy is by far superior for a smaller firm: accountantbocaraton.com. Its home page also features an above-the-fold 1-minute overview video (reflecting very strong market trends for preferring to watch videos, as opposed to reading text). And directly to the left of the video, you’ll find a simple Free Consultation form that’s repeated in other strategically important places on the website. Despite some issues with distracting visitors with social media icons, such of which are broken, Rick Schiffmiller EA. Corp.’s website is build to accomplish one very important thing that most Boca Raton CPA firms will crave: generating leads.
7. Rubin & Associates CPA Firm PA - Earning big points for directness, Rubin & Associates CPA Firm PA has numerous easy-to-spot places on its home page, above the fold, where you can find its phone number. That said, one of its websites is actually linking to another Rubin Associates PA website -- which is not so good. Besides splintering its potential search engine authority, the older website has a very obsolete Adobe Flash Player on its home page, an icon displaying GoDaddy Website Builder, and a link to GoDaddy.com that doesn’t open a new tab.

In addition to these five websites, which each provide unique learning opportunities for improving important lead generation-focused metrics, I also looked at several other websites that were cut from the consideration set because the accounting firms were either too large to be apples-to-apples comparisons -- or their websites were not likely to be achieving business outcomes with thought leadership, differentiation, lead generation, and sales opportunity generation:

• AWS Taxes
• CBIZ MHM, LLC
• Elizabeth A. Dunn, CPA, P.A.
• Grau & Associates
• John S. Van Der Lyn CPA Chartered
• Kaufman Rossin , P.A.
• Rehmann LLC
• Stephen G. Rosen CPA PLLC

Which accounting firms in Boca Raton do you think have the best website? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.

And to learn more about how to get more leads and sales opportunities from your website, be sure to download the free excerpt from the Palm Beach County CPA Market Opportunity Report.