The Evaluation Framework That Helps Accounting Firms Hire the Right SEO Agency

Accounting firms operate in a search environment that's different from most professional services. The keyword landscape shifts dramatically by season. Buyer intent varies widely depending on which service a prospect needs. And advertising content — including website copy — must stay within AICPA Code of Professional Conduct guidelines and applicable state board rules.

A general SEO agency may know how to build authority for a home services company or an e-commerce brand. That experience doesn't automatically transfer to a firm where a single new audit client might be worth $40,000 annually and where a poorly worded testimonial can create a licensing compliance issue.

In our experience working with accounting firms, the agencies that produce consistent results share three traits:

• They understand tax season search patterns. Search volume for terms like 'CPA near me' and 'tax accountant [city]' spikes sharply in January through April. An agency without a plan for that window — both in terms of content readiness and link velocity — will waste your peak traffic months.
• They can distinguish between service-line audiences. Someone searching 'business tax planning' is typically a business owner earlier in the buying cycle than someone searching 'IRS audit representation.' Content and conversion strategies need to reflect that difference.
• They know enough about AICPA standards to write carefully. Compliance with AICPA ET §1.600 (advertising and solicitation standards) and relevant state board rules affects what claims your website can make. An agency that's never worked with an accounting firm may not know to flag this risk.

None of this means you need an agency that works exclusively with CPAs. It means you need one that has done the work to understand your professional environment before billing you for it.

Most agency evaluation processes focus on the wrong things — flashy case study PDFs, domain authority scores, and sales deck production values. Here's a more useful framework built around what actually predicts results for accounting firms.

Financial Services SEO Experience

Ask whether they've worked with CPA firms, financial advisors, or other licensed financial professionals. These verticals share regulatory constraints and audience behavior. General B2B or local SEO experience is a starting point, not a qualification.

Compliance Awareness

Ask directly: "How do you handle AICPA advertising standards when writing content for accounting firm clients?" A strong answer includes mention of avoiding false or misleading claims, handling testimonials carefully, and confirming state board rules before publishing. A weak answer is a blank stare or a vague reference to "keeping content professional."

Tax Season Strategy

Ask how they approach Q4 preparation and Q1 execution for accounting firm clients. There should be a clear answer about content publishing timelines, link building cadence, and how they manage or communicate around your internal capacity constraints during filing season.

Keyword and Intent Mapping

Ask to see how they would approach keyword strategy for a firm offering tax, audit, advisory, and bookkeeping services. Each service line has different searcher intent, different competition levels, and different content formats that convert. An agency with real accounting SEO experience will have a differentiated answer for each — not a single keyword list.

Reporting and Attribution

Ask what they track and how often they report. You should receive, at minimum, monthly updates covering organic traffic by service page, ranking movement on target terms, and new leads or calls attributed to organic search. If they can't describe attribution methodology clearly, your ROI visibility will be limited from day one.

Some agency behaviors are worth pushing back on. Others should end the evaluation entirely. The list below is based on patterns that consistently appear before a poor agency relationship.

• designed to first-page rankings. No reputable SEO agency guarantees specific ranking positions. Google's algorithm is not under anyone's control. An agency making this promise is either uninformed or dishonest — neither is acceptable when your firm's reputation is attached to the work.
• No examples of accounting or financial services work. If they've never produced results in a regulated professional services vertical, they're learning on your retainer budget. That may be acceptable for a general small business, but not for a firm where compliance missteps have licensing consequences.
• Vague deliverable lists. "We'll do content and links" is not a scope of work. Before signing, you should have a document that specifies what gets built, written, or optimized each month — including page counts, link targets, and reporting format.
• Pressure to sign quickly. Urgency tactics in agency sales — limited-time pricing, claims of competing proposals — are a signal about how the relationship will be managed. A firm worth hiring doesn't need to pressure you into a decision.
• Ownership ambiguity. Confirm in writing that all content, links, analytics configurations, and Google Business Profile access belong to your firm, not the agency. This matters most when a relationship ends.
• No discussion of your client LTV or service mix. An agency focused on results — not activity — will want to understand what a new tax client or advisory client is worth to your firm. If they're only asking about keywords, they're optimizing for traffic metrics, not revenue.

A single red flag doesn't disqualify an agency automatically. A cluster of them does.

These questions are designed to surface how an agency actually thinks about accounting firm SEO — not how well they've prepared a sales pitch.

On Industry Knowledge

• "What AICPA or state board advertising rules have come up in your work with professional services clients, and how did you handle them?"
• "How does tax season affect your content publishing and link building strategy for accounting clients?"

On Strategy and Process

• "Walk me through how you'd build keyword strategy for a firm that offers both individual tax preparation and outsourced CFO services — those are different audiences. How do you approach them?"
• "What does your first 90 days look like for a new accounting firm client? What gets built, in what order, and why?"

On Results and Reporting

• "Can you share a case study or campaign summary from an accounting or financial services firm — including what starting conditions looked like and what changed?"
• "How do you attribute new client inquiries to organic search specifically, versus other channels?"

On Contracts and Ownership

• "Who owns the content you produce — us or the agency?"
• "If we end the engagement, what access and assets transfer to us, and in what timeframe?"
• "What's your minimum commitment period, and what flexibility exists if results don't meet agreed benchmarks?"

Pay attention to how an agency responds to process questions as much as what they say. Agencies with real experience answer confidently and specifically. Agencies still building their process answer with generalities and pivots back to outcomes they can't yet demonstrate.

SEO contracts vary widely in structure. Before signing, review these specific terms — not as a formality, but because they directly affect your position if results underperform or the relationship deteriorates.

Commitment Period and Exit Terms

Many agencies require a 6-12 month initial commitment, which is reasonable given how long SEO takes to build. What matters is what happens after that period. Look for month-to-month flexibility once the initial term ends, and confirm the exit process — specifically notice periods and what happens to in-progress work.

Content and Asset Ownership

All website content, blog posts, and landing pages produced under the engagement should be owned by your firm, not licensed to you. The contract should say so explicitly. The same applies to any analytics configurations, tracking setups, or Google Business Profile changes made on your behalf.

Deliverable Specificity

A good contract includes a scope of work document that specifies monthly deliverables. This should include content volume, link building targets or minimum activity levels, reporting format and cadence, and any technical SEO work included. If the only deliverable listed is "SEO services," negotiate for more specificity before signing.

Reporting Commitments

Confirm the reporting schedule, format, and what metrics are included. Monthly reports covering organic traffic, keyword movement, and lead attribution are standard. If reporting is quarterly only, or if the agency controls all data access without sharing raw reports, that's a structural problem.

Performance Benchmarks

Some contracts include performance benchmarks — conditions under which the engagement can be modified if agreed milestones aren't reached. These aren't always realistic to specify in advance, but if an agency resists all accountability language in their contracts, that's worth noting.

None of this replaces a review by your firm's legal counsel for significant contracts. Treat these as commercial negotiation points, not legal advice.

After running two or three agencies through the evaluation framework above, the decision usually becomes clearer than expected. Accounting firm partners often describe the same experience: one agency answered the compliance and tax season questions specifically, the others defaulted to generic SEO language.

A few final decision criteria worth weighting:

• Communication style in the sales process predicts communication style during the engagement. If an agency is slow to respond, vague about scope, or evasive on pricing during the evaluation, that behavior doesn't improve after you sign.
• Look for curiosity about your firm, not just your budget. Agencies that ask about your service mix, your ideal client profile, your current referral patterns, and your capacity constraints during busy season are thinking about results. Agencies that move quickly to monthly investment conversations are thinking about revenue.
• Smaller doesn't mean worse — bigger doesn't mean better. A boutique agency with direct partner involvement and real accounting firm experience will often outperform a larger agency where your account is managed by a junior team member with a generic playbook.
• Check the timeline honestly. Most accounting firm SEO engagements produce visible organic growth in 4-6 months and meaningful new client attribution in 6-12 months, depending on starting authority, market competition, and service mix. An agency that sets those expectations clearly is being honest. One promising faster results without qualification isn't.

If you've done this evaluation and want to see how we approach accounting firm SEO specifically — including our process for tax season strategy and compliance-aware content — explore our SEO approach for CPA practices.