The client isn’t looking for an accountant. They’re looking for what to do now
Advice on “how to get accounting clients” usually stops at setting up a directory profile and starting to post on LinkedIn. The trouble is in the framing: you are looking for clients, but the client is not looking for an accountant. The client is dealing with a situation. A notice arrived from the finanční úřad (Czech tax office). They are about to take on their first employee. Their previous accountant stopped answering emails halfway through the year.
The word “accountant” gets typed into a search engine only at the end of that journey. Before that, they ask five to ten other questions — and every single one of them could have been answered by you. Usually it gets answered somewhere else. And wherever they find the answer, that is generally where they ask about the price too.
This article is not a ninety-day plan. It is a list of the specific pages and answers that belong on an accounting firm’s website, and the order in which it makes sense to add them.
What people search for before they ever type the word “accountant”
The phrasing you hear in the first phone call is almost word for word what people type into a search engine. These are not technical terms. They are worries.
| The client’s situation | How they ask | What your site should have |
|---|---|---|
| Starting out as a sole trader | “paušální daň, or daňová evidence” (flat-rate tax vs. simplified tax records) | An article with a decision procedure based on the type of income and expenses |
| Approaching the turnover threshold | “when do I become VAT registered” | A page “VAT registration and what it changes for you” |
| About to hire a first employee | “what do I have to do when I take on an employee” | A Payroll and HR service page |
| Unhappy with their current accountant | “how to change accountants mid-year” | A page “Taking over accounting from another accountant” |
| Invoicing abroad | “invoice to Slovakia and VAT” | An article on the reverse charge regime and OSS |
| A notice arrived from the authorities | “I didn’t file my kontrolní hlášení (VAT control statement), what now” | An article and a visible, clickable phone number |
| Buying a car or equipment | “what can I claim as an expense” | An article with examples from the industry your clients are in |
Every row of that table is one page or one article. Not a campaign, not a strategy — one text that somebody wrote because they had been asked that question for the tenth time.
Three moments when someone genuinely goes looking for an accountant
Demand for an accountant does not arise evenly. It comes in three types of situation, and in each of them the person is asking about something different.
The beginning. They have registered as a sole trader or set up an s.r.o. and have no idea what is required of them. They ask about the paušální daň, about whether they can manage it themselves in Fakturoid or iDoklad, and above all how much it will cost. Cheap to win, often low-margin — and sometimes they stay for ten years.
Outgrowing it. Until now they did it themselves and it stopped working. Typical triggers: VAT registration and the kontrolní hlášení that comes with it, a first employee, moving from sole trader to s.r.o., an e-shop where stock records and EU sales outgrew the spreadsheet. Here the decision turns on whether you look like someone who handles exactly this situation routinely. A page saying “We do bookkeeping” will not help them.
A breakdown. The previous accountant has gone quiet, a penalty has arrived, the balances don’t reconcile, or two years need reconstructing. This client decides fast, worries less about price, and searches for phrases like “accounting reconstruction” or “taking over accounting from another accountant”. It is also the most demanding kind of job — and hardly anyone has a dedicated page for it. That is the least contested and most decision-ready demand on the market.
If the site has one page for all three, it half-answers each of them.
A single “Our services” page half-answers everyone
The fastest change most accounting firms can make is breaking one generic page into several specific ones:
- Accounting for OSVČ sole traders — separately for those not registered for VAT and those who are
- Accounting for s.r.o. companies
- Payroll and HR
- Taking over accounting from another accountant and finishing a half-completed year
- One-off preparation of a tax return
- One or two industries you genuinely know — e-shops, construction with the reverse charge, IT and freelancers invoicing abroad, transport, trades
Industry matters more here than it looks. A construction company asks about different things than an e-shop, and it can tell from the first sentence whether you have done this before. It is also the only way to stand out in an overcrowded category with something that is actually true.
Every such page should contain the things people raise in their enquiry emails:
- Exactly what is in the price and what is extra work — the annual accounts, the tax return, dealing with the authorities, representation during an inspection.
- What software you work in. POHODA, Money S3, ABRA Flexi, HELIOS, Premier. A client who already keeps records or invoices in something looks for this deliberately, because it determines how much work the switch will cost them.
- How documents are handed over. A ring binder once a month, a shared folder, photos from a phone, a connection to their invoicing tool. In practice a more common reason for turning you down than price.
- Who will actually do the work. A name, qualifications, how many people are on the team and what happens if that person is off sick at tax return time.
- Deadlines and the rhythm of communication. By when you need the paperwork, by when the client gets the result, how fast you reply to a question.
- A price, at least as a range.
How to put such a page together so that enquiries actually come out of it is covered step by step in How to write a service page that brings in enquiries — the approach is the same across industries. If you don’t have the time or don’t enjoy writing, we will do it for you: you dictate the substance, we deliver the text and the structure.
Prices on the website: silence is the most expensive option
The most common objection is that a price cannot be given up front, because it depends on the number of documents. That is true, and it is still no reason to say nothing.
It is enough to state your billing model and your own range: a monthly retainer by scope, a rate per posted item with a minimum monthly fee, payroll charged per employee per month, a one-off tax return for someone who keeps their own records, and an hourly rate for work outside the agreed scope — inspections, tracing missing items, reconstruction. Add three or four factors that move the price: number of documents, VAT registration, stock, foreign invoices, headcount, the state of the records at handover.
Fill in your own numbers, not ones taken from someone else’s price list. The effect is mainly a filter: you stop getting enquiries from people looking to pay a thousand crowns a month for an s.r.o. with twenty employees. That is not a loss, that is the main benefit.
Why should anyone entrust their numbers to you in particular
Accounting is a service where badly done work only shows up once the penalty arrives. That is why a different kind of proof works on the website than for ordinary trades — and some of the things you already have are probably not on the site at all.
Qualifications. In the Czech Republic, bookkeeping and daňová evidence (simplified tax records) fall under a živnost volná (an unregulated trade): nobody asks you to document any expertise, so anyone can take it up. Precisely for that reason it is worth naming what sets you apart from “anyone” — certifications, membership of a professional body, years of practice in a particular type of accounting.
Tax advisor, or accountant. The difference is unknown to the client, but practical. Tax advice is a regulated activity, the advisor is registered with the Komora daňových poradců ČR (the Czech chamber of tax advisors) and must carry professional liability insurance. On top of that: an income tax return filed by a tax advisor under a power of attorney has a deadline of six months after the end of the tax period instead of three — for a calendar year, that means early July instead of April. If you offer this option, it belongs on the website, not only in the phone call.
Professional liability insurance. If you carry it voluntarily as an accountant, say so. Clients ask about it and hardly anyone has it on their site.
References. In accounting it is normal for clients not to want to write reviews — it is a sensitive area. The answer is a description of how the collaboration runs and anonymised cases with a specific scope: taking over a half-finished year after the previous accountant left, an e-shop with several thousand documents a month, tracing two years back. Why a plain client logo convinces nobody and what replaces it is covered in References on your website: why nobody believes them and how to fix it.
An FAQ built from emails, not from a keyword tool
Open the last twenty first emails from prospects and write out the questions that repeat. That is your FAQ.
Almost always in there: Can you take over the accounting mid-year? What exactly will you need from us? How do we hand over documents? What will it cost for a company like ours? What if we get inspected?
Answer in full sentences and specifically, not in one line. A short, precise answer to a clearly posed question is also what works well in AI search today — covered in more detail in FAQs on your website: how to answer customers and AI search.
Where to start when you have an hour a week for the website
- Split the “Our services” page into sole traders, s.r.o. companies and payroll. Add the software and the document handover method to each.
- Add your pricing model, your range, and the factors that move it.
- Write a “Taking over accounting from another accountant” page — the least contested demand with the most decided customer.
- Write out an FAQ from real emails, five to eight questions.
- Pick the one client industry you have most of, and write a separate page for it.
- Check that the phone number is visible without scrolling and that the form has three fields, not twelve.
None of these steps guarantees a search position — nobody can promise that. What they do is raise the odds that a visitor who reaches your site from anywhere finds relevant answers and finds it easier to decide to get in touch. And whether it is working shows in the number and quality of enquiries, not in traffic; exactly what to track is shown in How to tell whether content is paying off.
