CPA2Biz, the marketing and services portal of the American Institute of CPAs, has unveiled its next-generation Web site, a revamp that includes enhanced content organization and navigation tools, as well as a less clutter and easier search capabilities. The new design is the culmination of a two-year redesign effort, according to CPA2Biz president and chief executive Erik Asgeirsson.
"Usually customers have a particular problem they are looking to solve," Asgeirsson told WebCPA. "I think the new site will help them solve it easier."
Through surveys and more than 100 hours of usability testing, CPA2Biz learned that customers of the site found its home page cluttered, images and text size too small, and that finding products in a search could be more intuitive, according to Melissa Rothchild, vice president of marketing services for the portal.
The new left navigation bar allows a user to browse the site by type of product or topic or view additional resources. The site also includes a prominent list to the right of the home page's main photograph that highlights the site's top-selling products.
"We want to do a better job in sharing our diverse set of products with our customer base," Asgeirsson said. Users can also compare products and CPE courses on the Web site, change the font size of the site's text, e-mail an article to a colleague and search the company's conference listings by topic, location or date. They also can purchase products from the site without being a registered user through a new "Guest Check Out" option.
"There is going to have to be some getting to know this new site, we've tried to make it as simple as possible," Asgeirsson said.
He said CPA2Biz has made more than 200 free articles available on the site and hosts more than 100,000 unique visitors every month, with roughly 6 percent of those visitors making purchases.
