Tax Teller — Website Review
www.arkandco.uk
April 2026
The summary
Short version
Your website does a decent job telling visitors who you are, but it's losing customers before they even see your homepage. On mobile phones — where most people now browse — the site takes over 11 seconds to show the main content. That's a long wait. Most visitors give up and go back to Google within 3 seconds.
The good news: the foundation is solid. Your page titles are written well, Google can crawl every page, and you already have basic business information tagged for Google to read. The issues are fixable — heavy code that was never cleaned up, missing descriptions on your About page, a broken link at /about-us, and no photos with proper captions for Google.
The single biggest thing holding you back is mobile speed. Fix that and you'll immediately keep more of the visitors you're already paying (in time and effort) to bring to the site.
What's already working
- Your homepage title clearly says what you do — 'Accountants in Birmingham : Ark & Co Ltd' — exactly what someone searching Google would want to see
- Google can find and read every page on your site — nothing is blocked or hidden
- Your business is already tagged as an 'AccountingService' in the site's code, so Google understands what kind of business you are
- Your homepage doesn't jump around while loading — visitors won't accidentally tap the wrong link
- Your address, phone number, and opening hours are visible on every page — easy for a potential client to contact you
What to improve
Speed & weight
3 issues- Your homepage takes 11.4 seconds to load on a phone — that's like making a customer wait in line at a door that keeps jamming. More than half of mobile visitors leave if a page takes longer than 3 seconds
- The page is carrying 1.76 MB of code and images — including roughly 115 KB of JavaScript and 33 KB of styling that's never used. Dead weight that slows every visit
- On desktop the site loads in about 2.2 seconds — fine — but most of your potential clients are searching from their phone, and that's where the problem is
SEO fundamentals
4 issues- Your About page has no meta description (the short summary Google shows under your link in search results). Google will write its own — and it probably won't say what you want a prospective client to read
- 15 out of 16 images on your homepage have empty alt text (the hidden caption Google uses to understand pictures). Google can't tell whether they're photos of your team, your office, or stock images
- The URL /about-us returns a 404 error — if anyone has linked to that old address (business cards, directories, old emails) those visitors hit a dead end instead of your real About page
- No canonical tag is set on any page. If the same page is reachable at multiple URLs, Google may split your ranking across them instead of concentrating it on one
AI search readiness
4 issues- No llms.txt file — this is the new standard file that tells AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude what your business does and which pages they can summarise. Without it, AI tools guess
- You have basic AccountingService markup — good — but it's missing the details AI needs to recommend you: no opening hours, no founder or director names, no list of services, no geographic area served
- No FAQ markup — an AI assistant asked 'what does a tax investigation accountant in Birmingham cost?' has nothing from your site to quote
- Your Instagram is linked but not tagged as 'sameAs' — a small code difference that helps AI tools confirm the Instagram account is really yours
Trust signals
4 issues- No customer testimonials or reviews anywhere on the homepage — an accountancy client is trusting you with their money, so social proof matters more here than almost any other industry
- No Google Business Profile linked from your site — that's the free listing that shows your reviews, hours, and map pin when someone searches 'accountants near me'
- The homepage shows a message about 'outdated browser' twice in the top of the page text — a visitor on an older phone may assume your site itself is outdated
- No case studies, client names, or 'as featured in' logos — you mention 'Big 4 expertise' and 'award winning firm' but there's nothing visible to back the claims up
SEO fundamentals
Per-page check on the four tags Google relies on most.
| Page | Title | Meta desc | OG image | H1 | Canonical |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| homepage | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| about | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| about-us | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
Copy & messaging
The copy does a fair job of introducing the firm and listing its services, and the director bios on the About page are genuinely strong — they build real credibility. But the homepage buries its best message ('award-winning Chartered Tax Advisers, specialists in owner-managed businesses') under a generic 'Welcome to' heading, and there is almost nothing to help a visitor decide 'yes, these are the right people for me' other than a phone number. Adding proof (reviews, client examples) and making the next step easier than a phone call would meaningfully lift enquiries.
The first big heading visitors see is 'Welcome to Ark & Co Ltd' — which tells them nothing. The tagline 'Making sense of taxation. Accountants for both individuals and businesses' is actually strong, but it's buried above the welcome heading instead of being the headline itself
Your phone number appears in the header of every page and there's a 'Call NOW' button — a visitor always knows how to reach you. A 'Book a free consultation' button would be even stronger, because some prospects aren't ready to phone on day one
Tone
The writing is formal and corporate, which suits accountancy — but it's a bit impersonal for a firm whose real advantage is the 'Big 4 trained, owner-managed-business specialists' story. A slightly warmer, 'we sit on your side of the table' tone would connect better with the owner-managed businesses you target.
Content gaps
Things most businesses in your category have on their website, but yours is missing:
- Customer testimonials or client logos
- Pricing or 'starting from' fees for common services
- An FAQ section answering the questions prospective clients actually ask
- Case studies showing a specific client problem solved
- A clear services-area map or list (only Birmingham? UK-wide? international?)
- A lead magnet — e.g. a free tax-year checklist or Making Tax Digital guide
AI search readiness
More and more people are asking ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity instead of Googling — 'who's a good accountant in Birmingham for a small healthcare business?' When an AI answers that question, it pulls from websites that have published clear, structured information about themselves. Businesses whose sites are AI-readable get named. Businesses whose sites aren't, don't.
Yes — your site is reachable, but you've given AI engines almost nothing to anchor to.
AI crawler access
| Crawler | Status | What it means |
|---|---|---|
CCBot | not mentioned | Common Crawl — feeds many AI datasets |
GPTBot | not mentioned | ChatGPT training crawler |
ClaudeBot | not mentioned | Anthropic Claude crawler |
Bytespider | not mentioned | ByteDance / TikTok crawler |
OAI-SearchBot | not mentioned | ChatGPT Search — needed to be cited in ChatGPT search results |
PerplexityBot | not mentioned | Perplexity main crawler |
Google-Extended | not mentioned | Gemini training crawler |
Applebot-Extended | not mentioned | Apple Intelligence training crawler |
llms.txt
An llms.txt file is a short plain-text file at the top of your website that tells AI assistants what your business does and which pages they should read when answering questions — and you don't have one yet.
Structured data scorecard
| Schema type | Status | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
AccountingService | Present (basic) | Your site tells AI tools that you are an accounting firm — a good start |
LocalBusiness details | Incomplete | Opening hours, services offered, and area served are not in machine-readable form — AI assistants have to guess |
Person (directors) | Missing | Your directors' names, roles and qualifications are written on the About page but not tagged — AI can't reliably attribute the 'Big 4 trained' credential to them |
FAQPage | Missing | AI tools can't quote ready answers from your site when someone asks common tax questions |
Review / AggregateRating | Missing | No tagged reviews means AI won't surface you as 'highly rated' when users ask for recommendations |
Service list | Missing | Your eight services are listed as text only — adding structured Service markup lets AI match you to very specific queries |
AI-ready quick wins
- ✓ 30 min — Add a full LocalBusiness markup block with opening hours, phone, services and area served — so AI tools have everything they need
- ✓ 15 min — Publish a simple llms.txt file so AI assistants know you exist and which pages to read
- ✓ 45 min — Turn your most common client questions into a proper FAQ section with FAQPage markup
- ✓ 20 min — Add 'sameAs' tags linking your Instagram, Google Business Profile and LinkedIn so AI can verify your identity across the web
Accountancy is exactly the sort of high-trust, high-intent service where people are starting to ask AI 'who should I use?' — the firms that show up in those answers over the next year will pull clients from firms that don't.
Performance — page by page
Homepage — Deep Dive
Speed & performance
| Metric | Mobile | Desktop |
|---|---|---|
| Largest Contentful Paint | 11.4 s | 2.2 s |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0 | 0.003 |
| Total Blocking Time | 330 ms | 70 ms |
| Speed Index | 8.6 s | 1.9 s |
Search visibility checks
| Check | What we found | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Title tag | "Accountants in Birmingham : Ark & Co Ltd" (40 chars) | PASS |
| Meta description | Ark Aurora are a firm of accountants based in Birmingham. Our aim is to provide the highest standards of professional service and advice to all. | PASS |
| Open Graph image | missing | FIX |
| H1 heading | 1 found | PASS |
| Structured data | AccountingService | PASS |
| Images missing alt | 1 of 16 | FIX |
About — Deep Dive
Speed & performance
| Metric | Mobile | Desktop |
|---|---|---|
| Largest Contentful Paint | 3.2 s | — |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.012 | — |
| Total Blocking Time | 60 ms | — |
| Speed Index | 4.1 s | — |
Search visibility checks
| Check | What we found | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Title tag | "Birmingham Accountants : Read About Ark & Co Ltd" (48 chars) | PASS |
| Meta description | missing | FIX |
| Open Graph image | missing | FIX |
| H1 heading | 1 found | PASS |
| Structured data | AccountingService | PASS |
| Images missing alt | 1 of 17 | FIX |
About Us — Deep Dive
Speed & performance
| Metric | Mobile | Desktop |
|---|---|---|
| Largest Contentful Paint | 4.0 s | 1.3 s |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Total Blocking Time | 190 ms | 80 ms |
| Speed Index | 4.6 s | 1.5 s |
Search visibility checks
| Check | What we found | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Title tag | "Error 404 Birmingham : Ark & Co Ltd" (35 chars) | PASS |
| Meta description | missing | FIX |
| Open Graph image | missing | FIX |
| H1 heading | 1 found | PASS |
| Structured data | AccountingService | PASS |
| Images missing alt | 1 of 12 | FIX |
Our recommendation
We always rebuild on a modern, fast, SEO- and AI-ready foundation — every issue above gets fixed either way. The question is just how much of the current look and wording to carry over.
What to rethink
Two ways forward
Faithful Refresh
We keep your brand, keep the page structure, and keep most of the wording your directors have approved — but rebuild it on a modern, fast foundation. Every page loads in under 2 seconds on mobile, every page has proper SEO and AI tags, the 404 is fixed, and testimonials plus Google reviews pull in automatically.
Full Reimagine
Same technical rebuild, but we also rewrite the homepage and services copy to lead with your real differentiator (Chartered Tax Advisers, owner-managed specialists, Cloud/MTD early adopters), commission a small photo shoot of the team and office, design a more confident modern layout, and add a proper case studies and FAQ section. The site that results looks like the firm you actually are, not a template.
Either way, every issue we found gets fixed. The question is just how far you want to go.