When a business owner searches for an accountant in their area, they rarely scroll past the first three results. If your firm isn’t there, you effectively don’t exist for that search.
Most accounting firms know this. Very few do anything meaningful about it.
When we started working with APH Accountants, their digital presence didn’t reflect the quality of their firm. Six months later they rank number 1 on Google for one of the most competitive local accountancy search terms in their market. 70% of their tracked keywords sit in the top 3. 91% are in the top 10.
Here is exactly how we got them there.
1. Audit what you’re starting with
Before doing anything else, understand where you actually stand.
A proper local SEO audit covers your current keyword rankings, your Google Business Profile, your website structure, your existing content, your backlink profile and how you compare to the firms currently outranking you.
You can’t build an effective strategy without knowing what you’re working with. Most firms skip this step and wonder why their efforts don’t gain traction.
If you want to know where your firm currently stands, book a free consultation and we’ll walk you through it.
2. Build dedicated pages for every service and location
This is the single most impactful structural change most accounting firms can make to their website.
A prospective client searching for a VAT accountant in Wirral isn’t going to find your generic services page. They’re going to find the firm that has a dedicated, well-optimised page targeting that exact search.
For every core service you offer, and every location you want to rank in, you need a dedicated page. Each one should:
- Target a specific service and location combination
- Answer the exact questions a prospective client has
- Include clear trust signals and social proof
- Make getting in touch as frictionless as possible
This is what we built for APH. The result was dominant rankings across multiple services and locations within six months.
Our accountancy SEO services are built around this service-specific, location-specific approach.
3. Optimise your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile is often the first thing a prospective client sees. It appears in map results, in the local pack and increasingly in AI search responses.
Most accounting firms set it up once and forget about it. That’s a mistake.
An optimised Google Business Profile means:
- Accurate and complete business information across every field
- Regular posts sharing useful content and firm updates
- Professional photos of the team and office environment
- Consistent responses to every review, positive and negative
- Correct service categories and service area settings
For APH, Google Business Profile clicks hit their highest ever month in April 2026, up approximately 70% on the previous month. Calls from the profile were up 46% month on month. That growth came from consistent optimisation, not from setting it up and walking away.
4. Generate reviews consistently
Reviews are one of the most powerful local SEO signals available to an accounting firm and one of the most consistently underused.
Google uses review volume, recency and quality as ranking signals for local search. Prospective clients use them to decide whether to get in touch. Both matter enormously.
The best system is simple. Ask every satisfied client for a review immediately after a positive interaction, and give them a direct link that removes all friction. Done consistently, this compounds into a significant competitive advantage over firms that never ask.
A steady stream of genuine, detailed reviews builds rankings and trust simultaneously. There is no shortcut that does both as effectively.
5. Build location-specific content
Beyond dedicated service pages, location-specific content builds the local relevance signals that Google uses to determine which firms to show for searches in a given area.
This means writing content that genuinely addresses the needs of businesses in your target locations. Local business guides, content referencing local business communities and articles addressing the specific financial challenges facing businesses in your area.
This isn’t about stuffing location names into generic content. It’s about creating genuinely useful material that signals deep local relevance to both search engines and prospective clients.
Our accountancy content marketing service handles research, writing and optimisation throughout.
6. Fix your technical SEO foundation
Local SEO doesn’t work well on a technically broken website. Before investing heavily in content and links, make sure the foundations are solid.
Key technical factors for accounting firm websites include:
- Fast loading speed, particularly on mobile
- Clean, crawlable site structure that search engines can navigate easily
- Correct use of title tags, meta descriptions and header structure
- Consistent name, address and phone number across every page and directory
- Schema markup that helps search engines understand your business and services
None of this is glamorous. All of it matters.
7. Build local authority through backlinks
Backlinks from relevant, authoritative websites tell Google that your firm is credible and worth ranking. For local SEO specifically, links from local business directories, chambers of commerce, industry bodies and local press carry significant weight.
This doesn’t mean pursuing hundreds of low-quality links. A smaller number of genuinely relevant, high-quality links from trusted local and industry sources will outperform a large volume of poor ones every time.
For APH, building local authority was a consistent background activity that strengthened every other element of the strategy over time.
8. Track everything and refine continuously
Local SEO is not a one-time activity. Rankings shift, competitors react and Google updates its algorithm continuously. The firms that maintain and grow their visibility are the ones that track their performance consistently and refine their approach based on what the data tells them.
For APH we track keyword rankings across every target location and service, Google Business Profile engagement, website traffic by page and source and lead volume and quality over time.
The goal isn’t just to reach number 1. It’s to stay there and keep building.
Over six months, APH generated 10,200 total clicks and 1,240,000 total impressions across their tracked keywords. Those numbers continue to grow because the strategy is built for the long term, not a short-term spike.
If you want to build the same kind of local search dominance for your firm, book a free consultation and we’ll show you exactly where the opportunities are.
Ready to dominate local search?
Our digital marketing services for accountants cover everything from SEO and website design through to content marketing, social media and email marketing.
Book a Free Consultation
We’ll review your current digital presence and show you exactly where the opportunities are.
Contact us by filling in our contact form here and someone will get back to you within a couple of hours.
Alternatively, email team@phantomdigital.co.uk or call 0151 271 5707.
Related Resources:
- APH Accountants Case Study
- Digital Marketing for Accountants
- Accounting Firm Marketing Strategy: How We Took A Firm To Number 1
- How to Get Accounting Leads: 8 Strategies We Use
Written by Martin Williams — Martin has worked in SEO for 8+ years, building and selling multiple websites that attracted millions of visitors. Now the SEO Lead at Phantom Digital, he shares proven strategies for growing traffic and creating long-term online value. You can check out his author page here.
