+49%
more clicks from Google search, from 275 to 409 a month
Kaushik BathiaPhotography, Northwood
June to August 2026. Source: Google Search Console.
When someone local types "accountant near me", be the practice they ring.
For small accountancy and bookkeeping practices, chartered, certified or AAT licensed, that would rather win clients from their own Google presence than buy them one enquiry at a time. We look after your Google profile, your reviews and pages written for the clients you want. Local SEO and Google Business Profile work is paid on results. There is nothing to pay upfront: you pay nothing until the results we agree with you in writing, before we start, have been met.
- Not a penny until the written, agreed result is reached
- One practice per area, so never the firm two doors down
- MTD for income tax: the £30,000 group starts on 6 April 2027
+103%more clicks from Google search: 29 in June, 59 in July
“I’ve tried a lot of other people, spent literally thousands, with really very little return.”
Bradley, BJR PsychotherapyPrivate psychotherapy and counselling, Hove
June to July 2026, two months. Source: Google Search Console.
Read the full storyNo accountancy client yet. Here's what we can show you.
All client resultsWe don't work with an accountant or bookkeeper yet, so nothing below is from your profession. These are the nearest businesses we do have: a one-person therapy practice that sells appointments to private clients, an owner-run photography business and a London renovation firm. Every figure compares the month we started measuring with the strongest whole month that followed, as Google recorded it.
+123%
more clicks from Google search, from 115 to 257 a month
“Before, I struggled to find customers.”
George, GS RenovationRSJ and renovations, London
July to September 2026. Source: Google Search Console.
Read the full storyNone of these businesses is an accountancy or bookkeeping practice, and none works under ICAEW, ACCA or AAT rules. BJR's figure covers two months only, too short to call a lasting result. Kaushik Bathia appeared on Google 220% more often between June and August 2026 (Search Console impressions plus Business Profile views). Clicks mean visits to each client's website from Google's search results. With no accountancy client on our books, every area is still open to the first practice that signs.
How do clients search for an accountant?
Mostly "near me", and then the kind of help they need. "Accountant near me" drew an average of 12,100 UK searches every month, "chartered accountant near me" 2,900 and "small business accountant" 1,900. "Bookkeeper near me" and "tax accountant near me" had 1,600 each. All search counts on this page are monthly UK figures from Google Ads Keyword Planner, covering October 2025 to September 2026.
Below those sit the searches that name who the client is. "Accountant for self employed" had 880 a month, "accountant for sole traders", "contractor accountant" and "CIS accountant" 390 each, and "accountant for landlords" 170. They're small numbers, but each one is a person describing their own situation, and a practice with a page written for that person has a better answer than a page headed Services.
Plenty of people try to work out the number themselves before they ring anyone. That's why our free self-employed tax calculator and CIS calculator exist. A practice page that walks through a worked example, then says what you'd do for them, meets the client at that same moment.
The landlord
Rental income, a mortgage and now Making Tax Digital. Landlords search for an accountant who already handles property, so the page says which landlords you take on, from one flat to a portfolio held in a company, and how you handle the quarterly updates.
The CIS subcontractor
Under CIS a contractor deducts 20% from a registered subcontractor's pay, or 30% if they aren't registered (GOV.UK). Those deductions count towards the tax bill, which is why subcontractors look for someone who does CIS returns every year.
The sole trader and the contractor
A plumber's first tax return and a contractor setting up a limited company want different things. "Contractor accountant" peaked at 1,000 searches in March 2026, against 390 a month on average. Each gets a page that speaks to them, not one page trying to serve both.
Why does the work arrive all at once?
Because the deadlines are fixed, and people search when one is close. Anyone new to Self Assessment must tell HMRC by 5 October, paper returns are due by 31 October and online returns, and the tax, by 31 January (GOV.UK).
The searches follow those dates. "Self assessment accountant" had 1,900 searches in October 2025, November 2025 and January 2026, and 390 in August 2026. "Tax return help" went from 260 in August to 1,000 in January. Even "accountant near me" was busiest in January, at 14,800, and quietest in July and August, at 8,100 (Keyword Planner, as above).
So the useful work happens in the quiet months. A self assessment page written in August has had time to be found by October. One written in the middle of January competes for attention with your own deadline week. We can't tell you when Google will move you, but the order of the work is the same every year: pages and profile first, then the reviews that keep coming in through the busy season.
Making Tax Digital is sending people looking for an accountant.
It's the biggest new reason to search for one in years. Sole traders and landlords whose qualifying income was over £50,000 in 2024 to 2025 should have started using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax from 6 April 2026. Over £30,000 in 2025 to 2026 means starting from 6 April 2027, and over £20,000 in 2026 to 2027 means starting from 6 April 2028 (GOV.UK).
Those clients now send HMRC an update every three months through compatible software, with deadlines of 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May (GOV.UK). "Making tax digital" averaged 33,100 UK searches a month over the last year and reached 74,000 in April 2026. "MTD for income tax" averaged 8,100, peaking at 12,100 in January and March 2026.
Most of those searches are people trying to understand the rules, and HMRC's own pages answer them. The business is in the next question: who will do it for me? A page that says which software you work in, which clients you're taking on for MTD and what the quarterly service involves is the page that turns that worry into an enquiry. The £30,000 group starts in April 2027, and they are searching now.
Who takes the "accountant near me" search today?
Lead sellers, software directories and national online firms, with three local practices in the map at the top. We ran "accountant near me" from Leeds on a phone on 21 October 2026. Google first offered results on Bark and Yell, then three Leeds practices in the map with 14, 55 and 173 Google reviews. Below that, Unbiased ranked first, QuickBooks' accountant directory second, then online firms advertising monthly packages, Bark, Yell and an accountants' directory.
The map is the place a small practice can win. A local firm can't outspend a lead seller, and Local Services Ads, where Google charges per lead, aren't open to accountants: no accountancy or bookkeeping category is on Google's UK list. The places worth knowing about are below.
Unbiased
Matches people with accountants and sells the enquiries. Unbiased says the price of a lead may vary with its potential value, that you see the price before you accept it, and that once bought it is yours alone. If the leads pay, keep them. Your own profile brings enquiries without a price on each one.
Xero's advisor directory
Lists firms by town. To appear, a firm needs staff trained in Xero and eight or more clients on Xero (Xero). If you qualify, the listing is worth having, with the same name, address and number as your Google profile.
QuickBooks' directory
Lists QuickBooks-certified ProAdvisor accountants by region (QuickBooks), and it ranked second for "accountant near me" in our Leeds check. Certified firms should keep their entry complete and consistent with everything else.
Bark and Yell
Both appeared twice on the same Leeds search: once in Google's "find results on" row and again in the ordinary results. A Yell listing is a citation (a mention of your name, address and number) whether or not anyone finds you there, so we keep it accurate. Which UK listings matter
Anyone can call themselves an accountant. Show clients you're more.
The bare title isn't protected. ICAEW says plainly that anyone can set up an accountancy practice, regardless of experience, and that only some services, such as audit, insolvency, investment business and probate, need authorisation (ICAEW). A client choosing between three names in the map can't tell the difference unless your profile and site show it.
So the work puts the proof where they look first:
- Your body and your number. ICAEW protects the title chartered accountant, the letters ACA and FCA and its logo, and acts against people using them without entitlement (ICAEW). ACCA members offering accountancy services to the public must hold a practising certificate (ACCA). AAT has more than 6,000 licensed accountants and bookkeepers in its directory (AAT). Chartered Tax Adviser is a protected title too (GOV.UK). Whichever applies, it goes on the site, linked to your entry in that body's directory.
- A Google category you're entitled to. The Leeds profiles we checked used Chartered accountant, Accountant, Accounting firm, Tax Advisor and Bookkeeping service. Chartered accountant goes on only if the title is yours to use.
- Who supervises you for money laundering. Every accountancy service provider must be supervised, by a professional body or otherwise by HMRC (GOV.UK). Saying which, on your site, is a small line that a careful client notices.
- Claims you can stand behind. ICAEW's guidance on marketing rules out exaggerated claims and unsubstantiated comparisons. Saying you give "a better service than X firm" is unacceptable even if it's true, and a claim to be the leading practice in an area must state its basis. Every claim on your pages has to meet that standard, and you are the one who can confirm it does.
What we do for a practice each month
The same five jobs every month, aimed at the clients you want more of. The profile side is set out in full on our Google Business Profile management page.
- A page for each client and each service. Self assessment, landlords, CIS, sole traders, contractors, limited company accounts, VAT and MTD, written the way the client would put it, with a matching service listed on the profile. Clients reach for a VAT calculator or an invoice generator long before they hire anyone, so the questions behind those tools shape what each page answers. What a page that ranks needs
- Reviews, asked for every year. A simple request to every client once their return or accounts are done. Replies should thank them and say nothing about their affairs. Why a steady flow beats a burst
- One name, address and number everywhere. Your professional body's directory, Xero or QuickBooks if you're listed, Yell and Facebook, with old addresses and numbers from before a move put right. How the check works
- Answers that AI search can quote. Plain answers to the questions clients ask about deadlines, MTD and fees, on pages that name your town. Being named in AI answers
- Your numbers in a portal. Calls and views from your Google profile and clicks from Search Console, every month, so you can see whether January was busier than last year's. How Google counts calls
Nothing upfront. Paid on results.
Local SEO and Google Business Profile work is paid on results. There is nothing to pay upfront: you pay nothing until the results we agree with you in writing, before we start, have been met.
- Agreed in writing first
- What counts as a result, and how it is measured, is set before any work starts.
- One business per trade, per area
- If we take you on, we turn down your competitors.
- No lock-in
- After the result, a rolling monthly fee you can stop whenever you like. Leave before it and you owe nothing.
- Straight answers
- If your market is not winnable, the free analysis says so.
Websites, ads and social media are quoted separately after the free analysis. How pay on results works
From first call to first result
Free analysis
Tell us your trade and area. We record a short video of where you rank, who is above you and what would have to change. It is yours to keep.
An honest answer
If your market is not winnable, we say so. If it is, we agree in writing what a result is and how it is measured, before anything starts.
The work
Your Google Business Profile, the pages that need to rank, citations and reviews. One business per trade per area, so never your rival as well.
You see every number
Clicks, calls and where you show up, in your own portal, straight from Google. You pay once the agreed results are met.
What people ask us
Have you done SEO for an accountancy firm before?
No. We have no accountancy or bookkeeping client yet, and we'd rather say so than dress up figures from another trade. The results above are labelled for what they are. What you can check today is everything on this page about how your clients search and what the professional bodies require, each with its source.
How much does SEO for accountants cost?
We don't publish a price. A sole practitioner in a market town and a ten-person firm in a city aren't the same job, so the fee is set after the free analysis, before you sign anything. Local SEO and Google Business Profile work is paid on results: nothing upfront, and nothing until the results set down in writing with you have been met. Then the fee becomes monthly with no minimum term, and it can be stopped whenever you choose. Quitting before the result costs nothing. A website or ad campaign gets its own quote. How pay on results works
Will we be ready for next January?
We can't promise a date, and you should be wary of anyone who does. Google moves at its own pace, and how fast depends on the practices around you and how far ahead they are. What we can say is that work started in a quiet month has longer to take effect before the deadline rush than work started in it. Until the agreed result is reached, the wait costs you nothing.
We're AAT licensed bookkeepers, not chartered. Is this for us?
Yes. "Bookkeeper near me" alone averaged 1,600 searches a month over the last year. Your pages say what your licence covers, your profile uses the category that fits the work, and your entry in AAT's directory matches everything else. Being clear about what you do and don't take on is itself a reason for the right client to choose you.
Who counts as a rival under one practice per area?
A practice going after the same clients in the same area. Once you sign, we won't work for a firm competing with you for them for as long as you stay. If a nearby practice going after the same clients is already with us, we'd have to decline, and we'd tell you.
We get enquiries from Unbiased. Should we stop?
Not while they pay their way. Keep both running and compare: ask each new client how they found you, and watch your profile calls and clicks in the portal. The free analysis also shows who takes the local searches near you, including which directories rank above the practices.
Who writes the tax content, and who checks it?
We draft the pages from the questions your clients ask. The technical points carry your name and your professional body's rules, so nothing about tax should go live until you've checked it. You know your clients' situations and your own service far better than we do.
Do you build websites for accountants?
Yes, but a website sits outside pay on results and is priced after the free analysis. A sound existing site, even one we didn't build, can stay and be improved. If it's costing you enquiries, the analysis video will show you where. Rebuilding without losing what you rank for
Before the next 31 January, see who gets the call instead of you.
Tell us your town and the clients you want more of: landlords, sole traders, contractors, small companies or MTD work. Two working days after you ask, a recorded video arrives showing which practices, directories and lead sites take those searches now, and what it would take to get above them. It's yours to keep whether we work together or not, and if your town is out of reach, you'll hear that from us too.