Código Luminoso looks after the books of small businesses and sole traders in Portugal. The site had to do two things at once: carry the reassurance an accountant is expected to give, and explain technical matter to people who are not in the field.
terraroot's first client, and one we had worked with before.
People looking for an accountant are not comparing features. They are deciding who to hand something to that cannot go wrong. So the first thing a site like this has to earn is credibility — and credibility is built with clarity, not adjectives.
The second problem is language. Regime simplificado and contabilidade organizada — Portugal's two accounting regimes — along with artigo 53.º, the VAT exemption, and the IES, the annual company filing: these are terms clients hear but rarely command. A site that repeats them without explaining them puts off exactly the people it should attract.
The third is legal, and not optional. A site that collects the name, email and phone number of potential clients is processing personal data, and has to do it in line with the GDPR. On top of that come the obligations on any service provider in Portugal.
And after all of that, the site still has a concrete job to do: turning visits into proposal requests.
Five decisions, all visible in the finished site. None of them is decoration: each answers one of the problems above.
A single page with six sections — home, services, about, questions, training and contact. A path from top to bottom, with no menus to get lost in and no jumping between pages to assemble the full picture.
The menu says “Perguntas” — questions — rather than “FAQ”: same section, named the way people say it. And the services are described by what they solve, not by their technical name.
Accountancy is a service without an image: nobody photographs a return filed on time. So at the top of the page there is a card showing exactly that — the quarter's VAT, Modelo 22 (the corporate tax return), DMR (the monthly payroll declaration) and the IES — each with its status beside it and the next deadline in view.
It is the promise of the service translated into something concrete: obligations up to date. Below it runs a band of the trade's own terms, which serves two readings — the person skimming, and the search engines.
It answers the doubts that stall a decision — which accounting regime applies, whether the article 53 VAT exemption is available, whether a certified accountant is genuinely required, what the service costs and which areas are covered.
At the same time it is the part of the site that catches long-tail searches: these are questions written exactly as people put them to Google, and that is where the visits with real intent are.
Training is a separate line of business with its own audience. It got a dedicated section and a direct link to the CL Formação platform, rather than being diluted among the accountancy services.
The proposal form is short — name, email, optional phone, subject and message — and carries explicit consent: a box nobody ticks on the visitor's behalf, linked to the privacy policy. Consent is given, not assumed.
And the legal pages that are almost always missing are published and linked in the footer: privacy policy, cookie policy, the electronic complaints book, and alternative dispute resolution — the last two being obligations specific to Portugal.
What changed is not measured in clicks: it is measured in what no longer has to be explained. The questions that used to take up the first few minutes of every enquiry — which regime am I on, am I exempt from VAT, do I have to have a certified accountant — now have a written answer, on the site, at any hour.
Whoever reaches the form has already understood what they are asking for. The enquiry arrives with context instead of arriving as a starting point.
The same explanation no longer has to be repeated on the phone: there is now a specific link to send whoever asks.
People who are not a fit work that out for themselves in the questions section. People who are arrive already knowing what they want to buy.
Privacy, cookies, complaints book and dispute resolution published and linked. No longer an open risk.
The questions section is the natural place to add each new doubt that comes up — and each one added is another way in from search.
If your business needs a site that explains what it does and brings enquiries in, tell us where things stand today. We reply within one to two working days with a concrete proposal.