A website for a payroll and employment consultancy is a site that tells a business owner in a few seconds which employers the practice works for, which tasks it handles (payroll, hiring, disputes, domestic staff), how to ask for a quote and how clients reach payslips and documents, with the details the law requires. In Italy, where these advisers form a regulated profession (consulenti del lavoro), we checked 26 Google Maps listings in Milan, Rome and Turin: 6 link to a website that does not work, with 4 dead domains, one 404 page and one WordPress critical error (Visilay survey, 10 November 2026).
Six out of 26. Almost one in four.
Those listings appear to people searching for an adviser: "consulente del lavoro" gets 18,100 searches a month in Italy, plus 1,600 for the "near me" version (Google Ads Italy, 12-month average, DataForSEO).
The data is Italian, but the failures are not. On the sites that do open, three mistakes come up again and again:
- the phone number cannot be tapped on a mobile (12 home pages out of 18);
- the professional registration is missing: only 5 practices out of 18 state it on the home page;
- everyone gets the same page: employers, employees and job seekers all land on one "Services" page.
We measure enquiries for our clients, so we know what a working page is worth. For Contesini Consulenze, an energy consultancy, Google Ads lead generation built from scratch brought 299 enquiries at €7.20 each, and 68% became sales opportunities.
What we found on 26 payroll practices (6 link to a site that will not open)
On 10 November 2026 we took the claimed Google Maps listings with "consulente" or "consulenza" and "lavoro" in the name, within 6 km of the centre of Milan, Rome and Turin, sorted by number of reviews (DataForSEO Business Listings). We removed public bodies, associations and health and safety firms: 26 practices with a website remained.
Six sites do not work. Four domains no longer have DNS (usually an expired domain), one leads to a 404 page and one shows the WordPress "critical error" message. Two more block automated checks. We downloaded and checked the 18 readable home pages.
| What we looked for on the home page | Sites | Share |
|---|---|---|
| VAT number | 13 of 18 | 72% |
| Registration with the professional body stated | 5 of 18 | 28% |
| Tap-to-call phone link | 6 of 18 | 33% |
| Contact form | 6 of 18 | 33% |
| WhatsApp link | 6 of 18 | 33% |
| Client login area | 4 of 18 | 22% |
| "Work with us" or job page | 5 of 18 | 28% |
| Testimonials section | 3 of 18 | 17% |
| Prices | 0 of 18 | 0% |
| Built on WordPress | 15 of 18 | 83% |
(The check reads only the home page text served by the server, so a detail may sit on an inner page.)
What the site must show (and where clients check it)
In Italy the site of a practice must show the VAT number on the home page (article 35 of DPR 633/1972) and, for regulated professions, the professional body, registration number and title (article 7 of Legislative Decree 70/2003, which implements the EU e-commerce directive). The VAT number is missing on 5 home pages out of 18, the registration on 13.
Clients do check. The Milan professional body publishes its register of members, and it is the first source Google's AI Overview cites when you search for an adviser in Milan. The registration is what separates a practice from payroll bureaus and online platforms selling a similar service: if the site does not say it, nobody knows.
What the code of conduct allows (prices yes, client names with care)
Article 35 of the Italian code of conduct for employment consultants (2021, amended March 2024) allows informative advertising "by any means" about services, specialisms, qualifications, the practice and "fees requested". It must be truthful and correct, never misleading, and it must not breach professional secrecy.
Prices are allowed, yet none of the 18 home pages shows them. Secrecy is the real limit: an adviser knows the salaries, sick leave and dismissals of each client's staff, and 3 home pages out of 18 carry testimonials that tell everyone who the practice works for. Our view: fees, sectors and services, yes; the Google rating with a link to the listing, yes; named testimonials only with written consent and no detail about employment matters.
Accountants in Italy work under a stricter rule, which we cover in how to build a website for accountants.
The pages a practice needs (three audiences, not one)
People search with a city: in Italy "consulente del lavoro roma" gets 880 searches a month, Milan 720 and Turin 590, with an average cost per click between $2.96 and $3.94 (Google Ads Italy, DataForSEO, 10 November 2026). And the site speaks to three groups:
- employers: one page per type of client (trades, retail, professional firms, larger companies) and one per service that brings new work (payroll, subsidised hiring, disputes, benefits);
- households: domestic staff and carers on their own page, because a family hiring a carer will not read the page for companies;
- employees and job seekers: payslip access and vacancies, kept apart from the sales path (5 sites out of 18 already have a jobs page);
- the practice and contacts: people, registration, tap-to-call phone and a short form.
How to structure these pages so Google reads them is in our guide to an SEO-friendly website.
Payroll portal and client area (your clients' employee data)
The client area is where employers send attendance data and staff download payslips. 4 home pages out of 18 link to one, usually the portal of the payroll software. In January 2019 the Italian data protection authority, answering a query from the national professional body, ruled out that the adviser is always the controller: when processing employees' data for a client, the adviser is as a rule a processor under article 28 of the GDPR. UK GDPR uses the same controller and processor roles.
For the website that means: no payslips through the contact form, the portal provider appointed as a sub-processor with the client's authorisation, and a "Client login" button that actually works. An expired domain takes the email address and the portal link with it.
Does your practice website open, say who you are and lead to a call?
Of 26 payroll practices we checked in Milan, Rome and Turin, 6 link to a site that does not work and 12 of 18 home pages have no tap-to-call number. Let us check yours: domain and updates, required details, pages for employers and households, portal access.
Book a strategy callHow much a payroll practice website costs (two public price lists in Italy)
In Italy a site for an employment consultancy costs from €389 + VAT a year with a subscription service to €1,980 one-off with a specialist designer. These are the prices published on 10 November 2026:
| Offer | Published price | What the list says it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Studio Corradini, Small / Smart / Premium | €590 / €1,450 / €1,980, VAT exempt | Premium adds a button to the clients' payroll portal |
| Studio Corradini, employee and employer area | €630, VAT exempt | add-on |
| FISCOeTASSE SiteCenter, START / PRO / FULL | €389 / €599 / €899 + VAT a year | template site with news feeds; domain €49 + VAT a year extra |
Sources: Studio Corradini and the SiteCenter price list. A subscription is paid every year; a one-off site once, then hosting and updates, which is exactly what the broken sites in our sample lacked. The three-year cost by type of site is in how much a website costs, and our web development work starts from client searches and required details, then design.
What AI reads when someone looks for an adviser (4 of 6 sources are the professional body)
For "consulente del lavoro milano" on mobile, Google's AI Overview on 10 November 2026 cited 6 sources: 4 from the Milan professional body (three site pages and its Facebook page), one online university and only one practice website. Below sat a map with 4 listings, and one of those 4 practices had its site down with a WordPress critical error.
Google says there are no extra requirements to appear in AI features in Search beyond SEO basics: a page that is indexable, opens and answers. Nobody can promise a citation; what helps is a site that matches the Google listing and states the city, services and registration. We measured how ChatGPT and Google pick local businesses in our guide to local AI visibility.
FAQ on payroll practice websites
Yes. In Italy article 35 of the code of conduct for employment consultants allows informative advertising about the fees requested, by any means. Article 29 adds that written quotes are advisable.
It depends: the Italian code does not ban them outright, but advertising must not breach professional secrecy. A named testimonial reveals who you work for, so get written consent, leave out any detail about employment matters and ask your professional body if in doubt.
Yes, in Italy. Article 35 of DPR 633/1972 requires it on the home page of any website. In our sample from Milan, Rome and Turin it is missing on 5 home pages out of 18.
In short (and the check to do today)
6 listings out of 26 lead to a site that does not work.
Registration stated by 5 practices out of 18; prices by none.
Three audiences, three paths: employers, households, employees.
Today, open your Google listing on your phone and tap "Website". If it opens, look for the VAT number, your registration and a tap-to-call number without scrolling more than twice. Then check when your domain expires. If the site works but enquiries do not arrive, start with website not generating leads; to bring traffic, see Google Ads for payroll consultants and lead generation for payroll consultants; what a client is worth in professional firms is in marketing for accountants and professional firms.
One last thing that agency pages on this topic leave out: the biggest risk is not an ugly site, it is a site that quietly stops existing. The practice keeps winning work by referral and never sees the people who searched, hit an error and called the next listing. A quarterly check of domain, updates and listing link costs less than one lost client.
