A Step-by-Step SEO Framework You Can Implement This Quarter

This checklist is written for CPA firms, accounting practices, and bookkeeping businesses that want to appear in Google search results when local clients are actively looking for their services. It applies whether you're a solo practitioner, a regional firm with multiple partners, or a multi-location practice.

You don't need a technical background to use this checklist. Each item is written in plain language with a clear action attached. Where tasks require a developer or SEO specialist, that's noted explicitly so you can delegate rather than guess.

This is not a checklist for accounting software companies or fintech startups — it's built around the specific search behavior of individuals and businesses looking to hire an accountant, CPA, or bookkeeper in a specific city or region.

What this checklist assumes:

• You have an existing website (even a basic one)
• You've claimed or want to claim your Google Business Profile
• You serve clients in a defined geographic area, even if you also offer remote services
• You want sustainable search visibility, not paid traffic

If you're starting from zero — no website, no GBP, no Google presence — begin at Section 1 and work forward. If you have an existing site, the priority matrix at the end of this page will help you identify where your biggest gaps are.

Technical SEO is the foundation. Until Google can crawl and index your site reliably, everything else — content, reviews, links — has limited effect. Most accounting firm websites have at least two or three fixable technical issues holding them back.

Core technical checklist items:

1. HTTPS confirmed: Your site must load on a secure connection. Check that the padlock appears in your browser and that HTTP redirects cleanly to HTTPS.
2. Mobile usability: Run your site through Google's Mobile-Friendly Test. Most accounting clients search on mobile, especially when they need a CPA quickly around tax season.
3. Page speed: Use Google PageSpeed Insights. Aim for a score above 70 on mobile. Compress images, remove unused plugins, and enable browser caching.
4. Crawlability: Check your robots.txt file to confirm no important pages are accidentally blocked. Submit an XML sitemap in Google Search Console.
5. Google Search Console setup: If you haven't claimed your property in Google Search Console, do this before anything else. It's free and shows you exactly which queries you're already ranking for.
6. Broken links: Use a free tool like Screaming Frog (up to 500 URLs free) to identify 404 errors. Redirect broken pages to their closest live equivalent.
7. Canonical tags: If your site has duplicate content — for example, a page accessible at both /services and /services/ — set canonical tags to consolidate signals.

In our experience working with accounting firms, the most common technical issue is a slow, image-heavy homepage that wasn't optimized when the site was first built. A 30-minute image compression pass often produces measurable speed improvements within days of being re-indexed.

For accounting firms targeting local clients, your Google Business Profile (GBP) often drives more inbound calls and contact form submissions than your website. The Map Pack — the three business listings that appear above organic results for local searches — is where most local accounting searches end.

GBP checklist items:

1. Claim and verify your listing: Go to business.google.com. If your firm already appears on Google Maps but isn't claimed, request ownership now.
2. Choose the right primary category: 'Accountant' is the standard primary category for CPA firms. Add secondary categories for specific services — 'Tax Preparation Service', 'Bookkeeper', or 'Financial Planner' if applicable.
3. Complete every field: Business name (exactly as it appears on your signage), address, phone, website, hours, and service area. Incomplete profiles rank lower than complete ones.
4. Add services: Use Google's Services section to list individual offerings — individual tax returns, business tax preparation, QuickBooks consulting, payroll, audit preparation. Each service can include a description and price range.
5. Upload photos: Add your office exterior, interior, and team photos. Listings with photos receive more clicks than text-only listings. Update quarterly.
6. Enable messaging: Turn on the Google Messages feature so prospects can contact you directly from the listing.
7. Post regularly: Use GBP Posts to publish seasonal reminders (estimated tax deadlines, year-end planning), service announcements, and offers. Posts appear in your listing and signal an active business.
8. Respond to every review: Both positive and negative. Responses demonstrate professionalism and are visible to every future prospect reading your reviews.

Review velocity matters more than most firms realize. A practice with 15 reviews from this year will generally outperform one with 80 reviews from three years ago in competitive Map Pack rankings. Build a simple system for requesting reviews — a follow-up email after tax season works well for most CPA practices.

Your service pages are the highest-value pages on your site. They're what rank when someone searches 'CPA for small business [city]' or 'tax preparation for freelancers near me'. Most accounting firm websites either combine all services onto one page or have service pages with fewer than 200 words — both approaches limit rankings.

Service page checklist items:

1. One page per core service: Create individual pages for tax preparation, bookkeeping, payroll, business advisory, audit support, and any specialty services (e.g., real estate tax, nonprofit accounting). Don't consolidate them.
2. Include the city or region in the page title and H1: 'Small Business Tax Preparation in Austin, TX' outperforms 'Tax Preparation Services' for local intent searches.
3. Write at least 400 words per service page: Cover what the service includes, who it's for, what the process looks like, and how to get started. Thin pages rarely rank for competitive keywords.
4. Use a clear meta title and meta description: Keep the meta title under 60 characters. The meta description should describe the service and include a call to action — it doesn't directly affect ranking but does affect click-through rate.
5. Add schema markup: Use LocalBusiness and Service schema to help Google understand your firm's location and offerings. Many CMS platforms (WordPress with Yoast or RankMath) can generate this without custom code.
6. Include a visible phone number and contact form: Above the fold on every service page. Ranking without converting is a wasted opportunity.
7. Internal links between service pages: Link from your bookkeeping page to your payroll page, your tax preparation page to your business advisory page. Internal linking distributes authority across your site.

If you only have bandwidth for one content improvement this quarter, rewriting your top two or three service pages with this structure will produce a more meaningful ranking change than publishing new blog posts.

Content and citations work on a longer timeline than technical fixes — typically three to six months before you see measurable movement — but they compound. A well-written FAQ page answering 'what does a CPA cost in [city]' can generate inbound traffic for years.

Content Priorities

Target questions, not keywords: Think about what your clients actually ask before they hire you. 'Do I need a CPA or a bookkeeper?' 'How much does tax preparation cost for a small business?' 'What's the difference between a CPA and an enrolled agent?' These questions make strong content targets because they match real search intent at the moment someone is evaluating their options.

Seasonal content: Accounting has a natural content calendar. Tax deadline reminders, year-end planning guides, and quarterly estimated tax explainers are all high-traffic topics that arrive on a predictable schedule. Publish two to four weeks before the relevant date so Google has time to index and rank the page.

Location pages (for multi-location firms): If your firm serves multiple cities or office locations, each location needs its own optimized page with unique content — not a duplicate of your main page with the city name swapped.

Local Citation Checklist

Citations are mentions of your firm's name, address, and phone number (NAP) across directories and websites. Consistency matters more than volume.

• Bing Places for Business (free, often overlooked)
• Yelp Business listing
• Apple Maps Connect
• LinkedIn Company Page
• CPA-specific directories: AICPA's member directory, your state CPA society's find-a-CPA tool
• Chamber of Commerce listing for your city

Audit your existing citations for NAP consistency. If your address or phone number appears differently across listings, that inconsistency can suppress your local rankings. A tool like BrightLocal or Whitespark can surface these discrepancies.

Not every item on this checklist has equal impact. This matrix organizes tasks by effort and expected return so you can sequence your work without wasting time on low-use activities while high-use gaps remain open.

Highest Priority (Do This First)

• Claim and fully complete your Google Business Profile
• Fix technical issues identified in Google Search Console
• Ensure your site is mobile-friendly and loads in under three seconds
• Create or rewrite your top two service pages with proper title tags, 400+ words, and a local keyword

Medium Priority (Next 60 Days)

• Build a consistent review request process (email after engagement close)
• Add schema markup to service and location pages
• Audit and correct NAP consistency across major directories
• Add internal links between related service pages
• Publish one to two content pieces targeting client questions

Lower Priority (Ongoing)

• Expand content library with seasonal articles
• Build external links through local business associations and CPA society membership
• Add location pages if serving multiple markets
• Monitor and respond to new reviews within 48 hours
• Review performance in Google Search Console monthly

Industry benchmarks suggest that accounting firms with a complete GBP, at least five current-year reviews, and optimized service pages will typically see Map Pack movement within 60 to 120 days in moderate-competition markets. More competitive markets — major metros, dense CPA populations — take longer. Results vary by market, firm size, and starting authority level.

If you'd prefer to have this implementation handled by specialists rather than managing it internally, our team works specifically with accounting practices on exactly this framework. See how professional SEO implementation for CPA firms works at AuthoritySpecialist.