SEO for Accounting Firms: How to Rank Higher & Get More Clients

Struggling to get your accounting firm to appear in Google search results? You’re not alone. Our client DeBlanc + Murphy felt similar frustrations before partnering with us.

In fact, despite having a 40-year legacy, the accounting firm had never received a single online lead. We changed that—rebranding the business, launching a new website, and pairing SEO with a modest yet successful pay-per-click strategy that helped them gain traction quickly.

Here’s what happened:

• Within the first month, they signed over 20 new clients and saw an increase in organic traffic.
• By year one, they were generating enough organic traffic to eliminate paid media altogether.
• Two years later, they were signing $200K in new business every month.
• Their growth was so substantial that they were acquired by the 24th largest accounting firm in the country.

This kind of transformation isn’t a fluke. We understand the industry because we’ve lived it. In fact, our founder’s father owned a large firm, which gives us a rare perspective on the industry. Since 2019, we’ve partnered with over two dozen accounting firms struggling with similar issues. We continue to turn it all around.

Here are some of the SEO strategies we use to do it:

On-page SEO: Keywords & Optimized Content

No matter the size or scope of a project, on-page work is the most logical place to begin the SEO journey.

Keyword Research

Using a tool like Google Keyword Planner, we look for keywords that receive ample searches without being too competitive. For example, a popular term like “tax accountant” is challenging to rank for, while something more specific like “personal remote tax preparation” is much easier.

H1 & H2 Title Structure

Correctly structured headings are crucial. Not only do they make your content easy for users to read and comprehend, but search engines also use tags like H1, H2, and H3 to understand a page’s content and organization. And that can impact ranking. Our SEO specialists and copywriting experts pay close attention to heading structure.

Title Tags & Meta Descriptions

Title tags and meta descriptions are pieces of text that Google pulls from a site and displays on search engine results pages (SERPs).

For example, title tags like “Cleveland Small Business Accountant” clearly display a page's topic. A meta description expands further with snippets of 150-160 characters that inform users what they can expect to find on the page and encourage them to click on the link.

It's a real balancing act to keep this content concise yet informative, and it can mean the difference between getting a click or not. At WISE, we focus on refining these to ensure what’s displayed in search results hits the mark.

Google’s E-E-A-T Guidelines

Google’s E-E-A-T principles of experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness are a surefire guide to quality website content.

What do these principles mean?

Simply put, Google values the same high-quality content that your prospective customers value. Content that:

• Illustrates your experience and expertise in what you do
• Shows that you have the authority to speak on the topic
• Tells readers that you are a trustworthy business

Google also wants to see that the content is original, error-free, written by a human, and regularly updated to keep pace with the audience’s evolving needs—all of which WISE provides to its clients.

Industry-Specific SEO: Relevant Accounting Content

Building an SEO strategy specifically for the accounting industry helps maximize impact on SERPs.

Client Pain Points

It doesn’t matter if you deal with multinational conglomerates or individual taxpayers in your hometown; content must directly address customer pain points.

Most prospects aren’t searching generic keywords like “accountant near me.” They are looking for answers to questions like “what are the penalties for filing my taxes late?”

At WISE, we tell every business we partner with that thinking like a customer is key, and we develop an SEO and content strategy built on that idea.

Google’s YMYL Principles

Google categorizes certain businesses, such as financial services and healthcare providers, with a colorful acronym: YMYL (Your Money or Your Life). What Google is doing is holding content that has a clear, direct impact on its readers’ lives to a higher standard. Accounting falls into that category because it involves financial well-being.

At WISE, we look for ways to bolster ranking for YMYL businesses, such as showcasing writers' bylines on blogs and building out more robust bio pages that showcase a person’s qualifications in the industry.

Local SEO: Accounting Clients in Your Region

Focusing your content on local SEO will attract highly targeted prospects and convert leads.

Location-Based Keywords

Location-based keywords are very powerful tools for driving relevant web traffic. For example, long-tail keywords like “small business accounting firm in Cleveland” will stand out with local traffic without having to compete for more general terms like “small business accounting firm.” In addition to dialing in the keywords for local search, we also create landing pages with location-specific content to make businesses more visible to prospects in their area.

Google Business Profile

Since they clearly display practical information about a business on SERPs, Google Business Profiles are crucial for local SEO and something that we optimize for every business we partner with. Local patrons love these profiles since they bring a store’s address, business hours, contact info, and online reviews straight to the top of the page. Moreover, having photos of an accounting firm displayed on SERPs helps humanize a business among an endless churn of title tags and meta descriptions.

Off-Page SEO: Establishing Authority Beyond Your Website

Off-page SEO practices exist separately from your accounting website but contribute to your authority among readers.

Backlinks

When one website links back to another, Google views it as a vote for that site's credibility. However, while backlinks are an important part of off-page SEO, quality matters more than quantity. To illustrate, getting 2,500 backlinks from a gambling site won’t help rankings. But three or four links from a legitimate source like The Journal of Accountancy will reinforce credibility with E-E-A-T standards. WISE can help ensure you get the right backlinks so you’re helped, not hindered.

Online Reviews

Since the internet tends to feel really impersonal, reading reviews from actual people is paramount for building trust. Good online reviews on a Google Business Profile or a site like Yelp offer social proof that an accounting firm can be trusted with sensitive financial work. On the other hand, negative reviews can damage a business's reputation and eat into profit. That’s why we offer a negative review removal service to ensure false, fake, or defamatory reviews don’t hurt your business.

Technical SEO: Streamlining Your Website

Technical SEO practices take place behind the scenes to make your accounting website more functional and readable.

Structured Data

Data organized in a predefined format is called structured data. Google uses structured data to help it understand the context and meaning of what’s on a website, which in turn helps it deliver better, more informative search results to users. At WISE, we deploy structured data for that benefit, and because structured data also:

• Allows Google to display richer, enhanced results in search
• Helps businesses appear in local search results and local packs
• Optimizes for mobile devices
• Improves a website’s visibility in search results

Site Speed & Mobile Friendliness

It’s also crucial to consider how an accounting website performs across different platforms, such as PCs, tablets, and smartphones. Think about this — if Google ranks a business website equally with a competitor’s based on content, core web vitals like speed can give a competitive edge that pushes that business up in the rankings.

Our proprietary website platform, NEST™, provides businesses with that competitive edge, featuring:

• Lightning-fast responsive website optimized for both desktop and mobile
• More security than WordPress and other similar platforms
• Consistent platform updates that protect performance
• Robust lead-tracking and listing management
• All-in-one reporting and analytics
• And more…

Summary

Since nearly 90% of US consumers search for businesses like accountants online, the importance of a well-balanced SEO strategy can’t be overstated. Especially in a highly sensitive industry like accounting, where you work with people’s finances, going the extra mile to prove credibility is essential for Google.

Luckily, Google website crawlers are drawn to the same types of content as discerning customers when scanning a site. By creating readable, informative, and logical content, accountants can finally crack the SEO code and get noticed by relevant prospects.

Ready to Convert Leads for Your Accounting Firm?

For top rankings, WISE Digital Partners carefully balances SEO fundamentals with accounting market knowledge. We will put a highly skilled SEO team behind your brand to drive real results.

Contact us today to get started!