A lot of accounting firms built strong businesses with help from Rootworks. If you're one of them, there's a good chance you're still running the website that came with it.
The company behind it has changed since then. Rootworks became part of Rightworks, which now focuses on cloud, security, and IT. It keeps these legacy sites online, but websites and marketing are no longer a core part of what it sells.
What matters now is your website, and you have a straightforward decision: leave it as it is, or redesign it?
What "leave it as is" really means
When Rootworks built websites, your site was part of an active service. That's no longer where Rightworks puts its attention. Rightworks is a strong technology company, so your site probably loads fast, stays secure, and runs without a hitch. On the technical side, it's fine.
The real question is what it's doing for you. A website should work as a marketing asset: making the case for what makes your firm different, showing the kinds of businesses you're built to serve, helping the right people find you and giving them a reason to reach out. A lot of Rootworks sites don't really do that anymore. They sit there like a sign on the building, proof that the firm exists and not much more.
And the bar keeps rising. The way buyers research and choose a firm keeps changing, and AI-powered search is starting to decide which firms even get surfaced and recommended. A site that's just sitting there isn't making your case to the people comparing firms, and increasingly it isn't getting found by them at all.
So "leave it as is" is a legitimate option. It just helps to be honest about what the site is doing: holding a spot more than winning new work.
First, credit where it's due
Rootworks did real good for a lot of firms.
Most accounting firm owners were trained as practitioners first, good at tax, bookkeeping, payroll, and client service. The harder part is running the firm like a business, and that's where Rootworks helped. It pushed owners to think more intentionally about recurring monthly services, business clients instead of one-off tax returns, advisory relationships, standardized packages, and the move from technician to business leader.
That shows up in the firms themselves. Firms that came through Rootworks tend to understand systems. They often run on a CAS recurring-revenue model. They usually want better business clients, not just more returns. In other words, they think about their firm (and their clients' accounting) like a business.
Where a Rootworks website starts to show its age
A Rootworks website made sense when it was built. It gave the firm a professional presence, explained the services, offered a client center, and looked sharper than a lot of traditional accounting sites.
Your firm kept moving, though, and the website stayed where it was. That's where the gaps show up. A few patterns are common.
It looks like everyone else's. When your site uses the same structure, layout, and service framing as dozens of other firms built on the same platform, it's hard for a prospect to see what makes you different. If someone could swap your logo for another firm's and the site would still mostly work, it isn't doing much strategic work. It tells visitors you're a real firm without telling them why you're the right one. It can cost you in search, too: when your pages read like everyone else's on the platform, Google has little reason to rank yours above the rest, and AI search has nothing distinctive to pull from when someone asks for a recommendation.
It describes the firm you used to be. A Rootworks site assumes you're a Rootworks firm. But the firm you were six years ago probably isn't the exact firm you are today. Maybe your client mix has shifted, or the kind of client you're really trying to win has, or the way you describe what your firm is has changed entirely. Firms don't stay the same forever, and the website shouldn't either. When the site still tells the old story, the wrong message pulls in the wrong conversations, which is a sales problem long before it's a design one.
The service pages haven't kept up. This is where it gets concrete. Maybe you've raised your fees, restructured your packages, stopped taking one-off tax work, or added advisory or CFO-style services. If your service pages still list the old lineup, you're quoting a menu you no longer serve, and the prospects who fill out your form are reacting to the wrong one.
It wasn't built for how people buy now. Today's buyers research before they ever reach out. They want to understand your process, see whether they're a fit, get a sense of how you think, and find answers to the obvious questions. Increasingly they're using AI-powered search to compare firms and decide who's credible. A site built as an online brochure isn't set up for any of that.
Is this actually your situation?
Not every Rootworks site is a problem. To tell whether yours is still pulling its weight as a marketing asset, look at it honestly:
- Is it still accurate? Do the services, packages, bios, team, and pricing language reflect the firm today?
- Is it attracting the right prospects? Are the leads the clients you actually want, or mostly low-value, poor-fit, one-time tax inquiries?
- Does it help you sell your higher-value work? If you want more advisory or monthly accounting clients, does the site make those services clear and compelling?
- Does it tell the wrong people they're not a fit? A good site disqualifies as well as attracts (minimum fees, niche, service boundaries).
- Does it answer the questions buyers actually ask? Cost, process, fit, and what it's like to work with you.
- Could a search engine or an AI tool explain why your firm should be recommended? If the site is thin or generic, probably not.
If the answer to most of these is "not really," then leaving the site as it is has a real cost, and a redesign is worth putting on the table.
So if it's a redesign, who should do it?
This is where the kind of firm you are matters, and it's the reason we love working with Rootworks-style firms.
Benchmark Growth specializes in marketing for accounting firms. Most of our clients are small to mid-sized firms that serve business clients through some mix of bookkeeping, payroll, tax, advisory, and recurring monthly accounting. Many are trying to move past referral-only growth. Many are after better-fit clients rather than just more leads. And many already know their website is outdated, but also know a redesign by itself won't fix the whole marketing system.
The business-to-business side of accounting marketing is our specialty, and these firms aren't tax pros who do a little bookkeeping on the side. They sell a combination of services to business clients, and they run the firm like a business.
That's a specific marketing challenge: you're selling recurring, higher-value relationships to business buyers, rather than annual returns to individuals.
So we start with strategy before execution. Strategy is the foundation, and for us that's always:
- Positioning
- Messaging
- Budget
- Marketing plan
Once that's set, execution is where it gets built and put to work:
- Website and service-page structure
- Pricing and package communication
- Search visibility
- AI search optimization
- Local SEO
- Content direction
- Lead generation
- CRM and sales enablement
- Ongoing marketing management
For a firm like that, a good redesign tells a clear business-to-business story (your positioning, the combination of services you offer, your recurring and advisory model, who you're the right fit for and who you're not) so the website attracts the business clients you actually want. A fresh coat of paint doesn't do that on its own. The aim is a website and marketing system that fits the business you've built and supports its next stage of growth.
For a lot of firms that came through Rootworks, that means moving from a templated, older version of the firm's story to a more specific, strategic version of where the firm is headed. They've usually already done the hard work of becoming a real business. The foundation is there. The website just needs to catch up to it.
What a redesign costs
There are a lot of ways to get a website now, and they don't cost the same because they aren't doing the same job. Keeping your current site costs almost nothing. From there, the options climb.
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Do it yourself. On paper the cheapest option. Plenty of firms use an AI site builder, or at least lean on a large language model for the copywriting, and the tools are good enough now that it doesn't take the time it used to. What it still takes is you. You're the one writing, judging, and choosing — the copy, the design, the structure, all of it. Cost: just hosting and AI tool, $0 to $300 a year
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Another templated platform. Companies like CPA Site Solutions, CountingWorks PRO, and Build Your Firm. This is the closest thing to what you already have. You're paying for a system and a library of templates built for accounting firms, with your details dropped in. Fast to stand up, and it looks professional, but it also tends to look like every other firm on the same platform. Cost: $50 to $400 a month
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Hire a freelancer. A real person designing and building the site for you, instead of a template doing it. Quality and price swing widely depending on who you bring on. You get something that's genuinely yours, though the positioning and messaging are usually still your job to figure out and hand off. Cost: $3,000–$10,000
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A custom site from an agency. The build is only part of it. Most of what you're paying for is the work that happens before anyone designs a page: positioning, messaging, and a site built to set you apart. For most accounting firms a custom project lands in a familiar range, with larger or more complex builds going higher, and firms on platforms like HubSpot spending well beyond it. Cost: ~$15,000 to $22,500 (us, Benchmark) up to $50,000 with another agency.
What are you actually paying for?
The important question is not what's cheapest, but what you want the website to do.
If you get plenty of leads and all you need is a site that confirms the firm exists plus lists what you do, then keeping your Rootworks site, moving to another templated platform, or building one yourself with AI all land in about the same place. There's no reason to overpay for that.
If you want a website that helps bring in more business, then you need a true "marketing" website.
The most important thing your website can do for you from a marketing standpoint is differentiate your firm, because your website's real job is to set you apart from the firms your prospects are weighing you against.
It's the copywriting, the messaging, and the positioning that helps prospects understand what actually makes you different and why they should pick you. Design in many ways is the easy part.
When your site looks like everyone else's and lists the same services as every firm in your area, prospects can't tell who's actually better. Everyone claims accurate books, clean financials, and great service, and none of that is something a prospect can verify from the outside. So when every firm reads the same, buyers fall back on the one thing they can compare: price.
A generic, undifferentiated website quietly enters you into a price competition.
That's the real reason a custom site costs more. You're paying for custom messaging and positioning that actually separate you, and for the experience of walking a prospect through why you're the right fit. If competing on price is the plan, a commodity website is fine and cheap. If it isn't, that difference is the whole point of spending more.
Next steps
For most firms, none of this means Rootworks was a mistake. It was a useful stage that brought structure, tools, and a more intentional way of running the business. Strong firms tend to outgrow the systems that got them started. That's just what growth looks like.
If your website is still serving you, there's no rule that says you have to touch it. But if it's describing a firm you no longer are (and quietly working against the business you've built), that's worth a conversation. It's a good place to start.
Curious where your site stands?
If you've been wondering whether it's time to do something about your website, that's exactly the kind of thing we like to talk about. Reach out whenever you're ready.