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S&B Private Outsourced Accounting – Website Design Case Study

SB Private, founded by David Buff and Wei Shiek, provides outsourced accounting and finance support for Australian businesses and accounting firms. Their model is built around sourcing and training capable offshore accountants, then embedding them into day-to-day workflows so clients can increase capacity, improve turnaround times and reduce overheads without compromising on standards.

We designed and built SB Private’s website to clearly explain a service model that can feel unfamiliar to many prospects. The goal was to turn “outsourced accounting” from a vague idea into a concrete, trustworthy offering with a clear process, clear outcomes and clear pathways for different types of visitors.

The brief

SB Private needed a website that could do two things at once: educate and convert. Education was essential because offshore resourcing raises natural questions around quality, onboarding, communication and data handling. Conversion was equally important because many visitors arrive with an immediate problem, such as staff shortages, rising salary costs, backlog pressure or inconsistent reporting.

S&B Private website design and marketing support by Accountant Website - Homepage for accountants

Key goals for the website

  • Explain what SB Private does in plain language, quickly.
  • Separate solutions for businesses and accounting firms so users can self-select.
  • Build trust through transparent process and clear quality signals.
  • Make it easy to enquire with strong calls to action and minimal friction.
  • Create a structure that can scale with content, services and campaign activity.

What we learned from the SB Private website content

SB Private is not positioned as a generic outsourcing provider. The website emphasises systems, training and fit, not cheap labour. The narrative focuses on long-term support, ongoing upskilling and integration into Australian workflows, which is exactly what business owners and practice leaders want to understand before they commit.

S&B Private website design and marketing support by Accountant Website - Outsourced and offshore finance and accounting services

Core themes we reflected in the website design

  • Capacity without the local hiring bottleneck.
  • Reliable delivery through process, onboarding and oversight.
  • Support that fits the way Australian firms work, including tools and standards.
  • Role-based solutions, from bookkeeping through to management accounting and CFO-level support.
  • Industry awareness, so messaging feels relevant to different business contexts.

Our website strategy

For SB Private, the most important website job is removing uncertainty. Many visitors arrive sceptical, not because they dislike outsourcing, but because they do not yet understand how it works in practice. We structured the website to answer the key questions in the order users tend to ask them:

S&B Private website design and marketing support by Accountant Website - Services

How the content flow supports user intent

  • What is SB Private and who is it for.
  • What problems does it solve and what outcomes can I expect.
  • How does onboarding work and what does the relationship look like day to day.
  • What roles can be supported and what tasks can be delegated.
  • How do I take the next step without committing to a long sales process.

That flow was applied across the main navigation, the solutions pages and the service explanations. The result is a website that is easier to skim, easier to understand and better aligned to how finance leaders evaluate risk.

Information architecture and page structure

SB Private serves more than one audience. A CFO at a mid-sized business is looking for operational confidence and risk reduction, while a partner at an accounting firm is focused on capacity, delivery and protecting margins. Instead of trying to speak to everyone on a single page, we designed a segmented structure that helps visitors identify the most relevant pathway fast.

A key consideration in that structure was SEO strategy for accountants. SB Private wanted search to be a meaningful acquisition channel, so we organised the website around clear service and audience themes that align with real search intent. That way, each page can target specific queries, build topical relevance over time and guide visitors from search into the right content flow.

S&B Private website design and marketing support by Accountant Website - Why S&B Private

Primary audience pathways

  • For businesses looking to strengthen internal finance operations.
  • For accounting firms looking to increase delivery capacity and protect margins.

Why segmentation matters for conversion

  • It reduces confusion and improves relevance for each visitor.
  • It allows clearer calls to action that match the user’s role and goals.
  • It makes the service model feel more specific and less generic.
  • It supports future growth by allowing new sub-pages to slot into the structure.

This is the same principle we apply in accounting website design, where separating services by intent helps prospects move forward without feeling overwhelmed.

Designing trust into the user experience

With outsourced accounting, trust is the product. Even when pricing and capacity look attractive, prospects need confidence that quality, communication and accountability will meet expectations. We used the website layout and content hierarchy to strengthen trust at multiple levels.

Trust signals we prioritised in the website design

  • Clear explanations of process and how teams are onboarded.
  • Evidence of standards, training and oversight, not just recruitment claims.
  • Simple language that avoids hype and speaks to real operational outcomes.
  • Consistent, professional visual design that signals credibility.
  • Clear contact paths that feel consultative rather than sales-heavy.

How we reduced perceived risk

  • We used scannable sections so users can find answers without reading everything.
  • We built content blocks that address common objections directly.
  • We kept the tone grounded and outcomes-focused, especially on service pages.

In practice, this is also what makes effective websites for chartered accountants work well. The design must communicate competence, clarity and reliability before a prospect is ready to enquire.

Content strategy and messaging

SB Private’s service offering spans multiple capability levels, from transactional tasks through to higher-level support. The risk with a broad offering is that visitors assume the service is either too basic or too vague. We countered that by grounding the messaging in roles, workflows and outcomes as well as insightful blogs.

S&B Private website design and marketing support by Accountant Website - Blog for marketing and SEO

Messaging pillars used across the website

  • Capacity and speed, without sacrificing accuracy.
  • Better reporting cadence and fewer end-of-month surprises.
  • Reduced hiring and training overhead for local teams.
  • Support that integrates into existing systems and processes.
  • Long-term partnership, not short-term labour hire.

Examples of outcome-led framing

  • Instead of listing tasks first, we lead with the impact on workflow and delivery.
  • Instead of focusing on offshore as a headline, we focus on capability and training.
  • Instead of selling “hours”, we explain how roles fit into finance operations.

From a marketing perspective, this also sets SB Private up for content growth and search visibility. When service explanations are written around real questions and real outcomes, they become easier to optimise and easier to support with ongoing content.

Mobile-first structure and readability

Many decision-makers review service providers on mobile between meetings, during commutes or while multitasking. We designed SB Private’s website to stay readable, fast to scan and easy to navigate on smaller screens.

Mobile-first decisions that improved usability

  • Shorter content blocks with clear headings and visual separation.
  • Lists used to summarise complex ideas without dense paragraphs.
  • Calls to action placed in predictable spots so users do not hunt for next steps.
  • Navigation designed to support quick jumps between key sections.

Conversion strategy and lead capture

The SB Private website is designed to support a consultative conversion path. Most prospects are not ready to “buy” immediately. They want to ask a few questions, understand the process, then assess fit. We supported that behaviour with calls to action that invite conversation, not pressure.

Conversion elements built into the website

  • Primary calls to action that encourage enquiries at natural decision points.
  • Secondary prompts for visitors who need more information before contacting.
  • Clear pathways for different audiences so the enquiry feels relevant.
  • Consistent contact prompts across service and solutions pages.

Once a website is built to convert, the next step is making sure the right people find it consistently. That is where digital marketing for accountants principles become useful even for adjacent finance service providers, because the same fundamentals apply: clear pages, clear intent matching and ongoing optimisation based on search behaviour and conversion data.

Building a website foundation that supports growth

We approached the SB Private website as a platform, not a brochure. That means the structure can expand over time with new industry pages, new role pages, new insights and campaign landing pages, without needing to redesign the whole website.

Growth-ready elements included in the build

  • A scalable page structure that allows new solutions to be added cleanly.
  • Content formatting that supports future publishing, including consistent headings and lists.
  • Clear internal pathways that guide users deeper into the content.
  • Messaging that can be reused across marketing channels without rewriting everything.

Where marketing can go next

  • Industry-led landing pages that speak to sector-specific finance problems.
  • Role-led pages that target specific functions like management accounting support.
  • Insights content that answers recurring questions and supports SEO visibility.
  • Campaign landing pages for outbound and referral partnerships.

These initiatives work best when backed by strong foundations in accounting website design, because structure and user intent are what make growth activities measurable and sustainable.

Outcome

The finished SB Private website presents a complex service model in a way that feels simple, trustworthy and easy to act on. It helps visitors understand what SB Private does, how the process works and what outcomes they can expect, while guiding them toward enquiry without forcing a hard sell.

What the website now delivers

  • Clear positioning that explains SB Private’s value quickly.
  • Segmented pathways for businesses and accounting firms.
  • Trust-building con