The Free Website Self-Audit Checklist Every Accountant, Solicitor or Financial Adviser Should Run

If you run an accountancy practice, a solicitors’ firm or a financial advice business, your website is probably one of the few parts of your marketing you haven’t looked at properly in a while. It sits there quietly, doing a job you assume it’s doing well — until a prospective client mentions they “couldn’t find your opening hours” or “gave up filling in the contact form on their phone”.

Before you spend a penny on a redesign, or hire anyone to tell you what’s wrong, run through this free self-audit. It takes about twenty minutes and covers the things that actually affect whether a visitor becomes an enquiry.

1. Can someone actually read it on a phone?

Open your site on your own mobile, not a laptop. Most professional services enquiries now start on a phone, often outside office hours. Check that text isn’t too small to read without zooming, that menus open properly, and that nothing overlaps or runs off the edge of the screen.

2. Does it load quickly, or does it make people wait?

A slow site loses visitors before they’ve seen a word of your content. Large, unoptimised images and bloated page-builder plugins are the usual culprits. If your homepage feels sluggish on your own phone’s mobile data, assume it’s worse for everyone else.

3. Is your contact route obvious within two seconds?

• Is your phone number visible without scrolling, on every page, not just “Contact Us”?
• Does your enquiry form actually work — have you tested it recently, including on mobile?
• Is it clear what happens after someone submits a form (a call back, an email, a same-day response)?

4. Does it pass basic accessibility checks?

Website accessibility isn’t just good practice — for many professional services firms it’s increasingly a genuine compliance consideration, and it’s always a trust signal. A handful of quick checks:

• Can you navigate the whole site using only the Tab key and keyboard, without a mouse?
• Do images have meaningful alt text, or none at all?
• Is there enough colour contrast between your text and background to read comfortably in bright light?
• Do form fields have visible labels, not just placeholder text that disappears when you click in?

These map to WCAG 2.2 AA, the recognised accessibility standard. You don’t need to become an expert in it to fix the basics above.

5. Do you look like a real, regulated firm?

Trust signals matter more for professional services than almost any other sector, because clients are handing over sensitive financial or legal matters. Check that your site clearly shows:

• Your regulatory or professional body membership (ICAEW, SRA, FCA status, or equivalent) where applicable
• A genuine business address, not just a contact form
• Named people, not just a logo and a stock photo of a handshake

6. Is your privacy and cookie information actually correct?

A privacy policy copied from a template years ago, listing cookies or third-party tools you no longer use, is a quiet red flag to anyone who checks — and some do, especially in professional services. It’s a five-minute job to review and update.

7. Can local clients actually find you?

If you serve clients across Bexley, Dartford, Bromley, Greenwich or Lewisham, search for your own services from a phone in your area and see where you appear. Check that your Google Business Profile is claimed, accurate, and linked to a website that actually mentions the areas you cover — not just your firm’s name.

8. Do you know if any of this is working?

Without basic analytics in place, every change above is a guess. You don’t need anything complicated — just enough to see how many people visit, which pages they leave from, and whether enquiries are actually arriving.

9. Who actually controls your site?

Do you know who owns your domain name and hosting, and could you move to a different developer tomorrow if you needed to? A surprising number of firms discover, only when they want a change, that their previous developer holds the keys. That’s worth checking now, not during an emergency.

What this is really telling you

None of the above requires a full rebuild to fix. Most firms find two or three genuine problems, not twelve. The value of running through this list is knowing which two or three actually matter for you, rather than assuming the whole site needs replacing — or assuming it’s fine when it isn’t.

Livicode Tech Solutions works with accountants, solicitors and financial advisers across Bexley, Dartford, Bromley, Greenwich and Lewisham. If this checklist has turned up more than you expected, or you’d simply like a second opinion before committing to anything, tell us what you found — no obligation, and no assumption that the answer has to be expensive.

Livicode Tech Solutions — Your Local Digital Solutions Partner
www.livicode.com · info@livicode.com · WhatsApp: +44 7708 803980