How Digital Spotlight Can Make Accounting SEO Work for Your Firm

Working in the accounting industry is no small feat. The needs of clients are as varied as they are complex, and the mental load of keeping everything running smoothly can be intense.

That’s why it’s especially frustrating when your hard-earned expertise isn’t reflected in your website’s visibility online.

Has your digital growth hit a wall?

Are you unsure where to focus your efforts next?

Does it feel like the sheer number of accounting firms out there is drowning out your online presence?

And is the local competition making it harder than ever to stay ahead and maintain profitability?

At Digital Spotlight, we’re here to change that. With the right search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies, we can help your accounting firm stand out and claim a larger share of the market.

Our online marketing agency can offer the following benefits for your accounting firm:

1. Stronger Visibility: Even if other certified public accountants (CPAs) seem to dominate search engine results, we have the tools and expertise to lift your online presence so it truly reflects your experience and authority in the field.
2. Smarter Investment: With our data-driven, mathematical approach, we know which search terms are worth your time and which ones you can safely leave to competitors to waste their budget on.
3. A Scientific Edge: Our SEO strategies are built on hard data, careful analysis, and years of testing. The result? More enquiries, more qualified leads, and more foot traffic for your accounting practice.
4. Tailored Solutions: We’re not here to sell you cookie-cutter fixes. We take the time to understand your current challenges, audit your website, and develop solutions that make sense for your goals.
5. Technical Expertise: From in-depth technical SEO audits to resolving issues like thin or duplicate content, crawl errors, slow site speeds, or redirect problems, we’ll make sure your site is running smoothly and ranking where it should.
6. Proven Results: Most of our clients have tried three to seven agencies before finding us, and they’ve stayed because we deliver.

Our focus is on tangible results, not quick fixes.

15+ Years of Experience: With more than 15 years helping businesses grow online, we know how to craft a leads-focused SEO strategy that attracts new potential clients while keeping your current and lapsed ones engaged.

Ready to see what’s possible?

If you’d like to discover how we can help create a steady stream of organic leads for your accounting firm, get in touch for an obligation-free consultation.

We work only with clients we know we can genuinely help. No pushy pitches, no false promises.

Call us at 1300 891 181 or email [email protected] to book your free, no-pitch consultation today.

What Is SEO for Accountants?

SEO, or search engine optimisation, is an assortment of processes that can boost your website’s visibility when potential clients use search engines to look for accounting and bookkeeping services.

When done correctly by specialists like us, SEO can help you secure high rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs) for your most relevant keywords.

What’s in it for you, then? The most important thing to remember is that better placements in search engines can attract more frequent and higher-quality traffic to your accounting firm’s site.

Working with us can benefit you in the long term, as we understand that SEO is not a static discipline. In fact, Google introduces changes so rapidly that 99% of businesses can’t keep up.

Most of these shifts involve technical adjustments, which is why SEO specialists like us work hard to ensure that your accounting firm remains competitive in the online realm.

Why Is SEO So Important for Accountants?

Search engine optimization is an irreplaceable online marketing tool. What makes this approach especially valuable is that Google is still at the forefront of the search engine market.

The tech giant represents almost 90% of searches across all devices worldwide.

Global search advertising spending also stood at around US$316 billion as of April 2025.

So, SEO’s primary purpose of increasing your visibility has become even more important.

SEO ensures that clients can find you more easily when they search for services involving certified public accountants.

This visibility directly influences your ranking. The higher you rank, the better the chances that potential clients in your locale will see and visit your site.

The Role of SEO in Accounting

When boosting your online presence, SEO can help your website appear as a top answer to potential clients’ queries.

This “organic halo” can help give the valuable impression of your accounting firm being an industry leader, making it more likely for online users to choose you over your contemporaries.

SEO can also help your accounting business reach people at every stage of the service purchase process, whether they’re still browsing or deciding to spend on your offerings.

How Accounting SEO Works to Boost Revenues

Some market tests involving accounting firms have found that SEO cuts down the cost of acquiring new clients by as much as 46% compared to executing a pay-per-click strategy alone.

Moreover, compared to other marketing approaches, SEO becomes cheaper over time. Unlike paid ads, you don’t need to shell out funds for every visitor; SEO maximises your initial investment as your traffic grows.

Most importantly, SEO can attract visitors who will most likely become clients themselves. This approach ensures compounding growth by attracting a steady stream of traffic over time.

Why Should Accountants Use SEO?

Improving your accounting firm’s search engine placement is critical, as roughly 68% of online experiences begin as search engine queries.

The value of SEO has only grown over time. This digital marketing approach has been estimated to bring in 10 times more traffic compared to organic social media.

Also, around 60% of marketers have said that SEO, blog content, and other inbound methods serve as their highest-quality sources of leads.

Digital Spotlight can ensure that you benefit from significant returns on investment (ROI). We’ve boosted our clients’ most important leads and sales by around 83%, and in some exceptional cases, as much as four times their expected increase in transactions.

We also have a proven track record of helping our clients reduce their acquisition costs by 23% and their marketing costs by 33%.

Bring In More New Clients

Our SEO services can help your website gain higher Google rankings. And when content from your firm is among the top answers to a pressing question in your niche, users tend to associate your brand with trustworthiness.

Build Your Authority

Our SEO services include leveraging high-authority domains like Forbes and The Huffington Post to build your brand authority and presence.

This approach will help us maximise your positive exposure through these channels by providing actionable public relations recommendations.

Through this system, we can readily manage and protect the information associated with your business and staff, offsetting the effects of negative reviews.

Grow Your Accounting Firm

You can be confident in what we can deliver. Our SEO services have led to more than $130 million in extra annual revenue for the clients who have chosen to work with us.

Through the years, we’ve worked with more than 1,800 international businesses across 355 niches and helped them secure first-page rankings in Google. Of these success stories, 79% have more than 200 nonbranded keywords on the search engine’s first page.

How Google Views the Web

One of the pillars of effective SEO is ensuring that your website features information that’s relevant and valuable to your market. Doing so will go a long way in attracting clients.

This is crucial, particularly in Google’s case, as the search platform rewards better rankings for original content that embodies its E-E-A-T (expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) principles.

Higher-quality content ensures that your site is more relevant and reliable in Google’s eyes. This kind of content also highlights your expertise to potential clients.

E-E-A-T can be summed up in the following critical components of your website:

1. Authority: If your content can position your firm as an authority on the subject of accounting, Google will likely rank your site better compared to non-experts.
2. Quality: If your site offers visitors a pleasant and responsive experience, humans and search engines alike will be more willing to look into what you have to say.
3. Relevance: If you’re clear about the services you offer, the tools you use, and the target market you serve, you’ll have a greater chance of appearing on SERPs when users search for your most desired keywords.

What Is the Most Important SEO Strategy for Accountants?

Local SEO is reported to be among the most impactful marketing strategies for accounting firms.

And if you’re considering this approach, you can count on Digital Spotlight.

We specialise in boosting search engine visibility in our clients’ most crucial locales through our mathematically grounded SEO process.

Our step-by-step approach to local SEO, which has brought success to our previous clients, is highly adaptable and can be adjusted according to your every need.

We’ll develop an SEO campaign specifically tailored to your needs by listening first and then conducting a free technical audit, an analysis that otherwise could cost you thousands of dollars.

Additionally, we’ll perform thorough, methodical research to ensure that your accounting firm’s local SEO approach uses the most effective keyword strategy. We’ll also regularly review your campaign to determine the most impactful key terms.

Most importantly, our local optimisation, keyword research, and ranking adjustments are continuous, and we won’t stop even when we’ve already secured high rankings for select keywords.

SEO Tips for Accounting Firms

Here are some of the elements we factor in when developing an effective SEO strategy that will showcase your accounting firm at its best:

Create Your SEO Strategy

As part of our SEO services, we’ll identify opportunities and issues on your website that might be affecting your organic search visibility in your locale.

These insights will help us understand the needs, behaviours, and preferences of your target market regarding their search engine usage.

Using various sources (including Google Ads or product listing ads, Google Search Console, and competitor rankings), we’ll also include relevant, valuable search terms on your page.

Additionally, we’ll identify the key terms that require attention and repair, considering negative feedback, predictive traffic, and the impact of these keywords on your business.

Perform Keyword Research

Keywords are the foundation of a working SEO strategy, as they enhance the search engine rankings of content that includes them. Their significance is shaped by factors such as search volume, user intent, and competition.

We have a deep understanding of how keywords work and know how to avoid common pitfalls, such as keyword stuffing.

This practice involves using too many keywords unnaturally, like including irrelevant terms or repeatedly using similar phrases without adding value.

While keyword volume does influence a website’s rankings, keyword stuffing is viewed as spam and can result in Google penalties for your accounting firm.

One way we resolve this issue is by avoiding any restrictions on the number of keywords that can be optimised over time. Further optimisation won’t incur any extra cost on your monthly plan.

Our thorough keyword research ensures that your campaign focuses on the best search terms to help you reach your goals. We’ll work to boost your website’s rankings and maintain that position for valuable keywords.

Create Quality Backlinks

We’ll secure backlinks from local accounting industry players, newspapers, and blogs, to enhance the quality of your optimised content and boost your site’s authority and relevance.

We also offer a guest posting service that lets us write and publish content on other blogs and websites. This strategy helps generate more high-quality backlinks and referral traffic, further improving your standing.

Write Quality Blog Content

We begin by conducting content audits, reviewing your existing content from an SEO perspective. Based on the findings, we’ll create guidelines for producing content highly relevant to your target audience.

Our approach is data-driven, taking into account the competition in your area and your current online presence. We’ll provide you with technical insights to help you understand your site’s position in search results.

We understand that not all content serves the same purpose. Average content merely fills space, while high-quality content captivates potential clients and draws more traffic to your site.

Through detailed keyword analysis and research, we’ll create content that is informative, engaging, and relevant, bolstered by keywords that align with user intent.

We’ll also optimise your landing page, ensuring that your existing content offers a compelling proposition for potential clients. Adjustments will be made carefully to identify the version with the highest conversion rate.

Our focus on editorial SEO aims to ensure your content marketing efforts prove effective and sustainable in the long run. The high-quality content we produce is thoroughly researched and crafted by skilled human writers.

Write Guest Posts

Guest posting is when your firm contributes content posts to someone else’s website, usually one that is relevant to the accounting industry.

The goal is to showcase your expertise to a fresh audience, gain backlinks to your own site, and build your brand’s authority.

This is a mutually beneficial arrangement: the site owner receives high-quality content, and you gain increased online exposure.

Here are some of the benefits of guest posting:

1. Build Backlinks: Most guest posts include a link to your site, which will help search engines view your website as more credible and trustworthy.
2. Establish Authority: Getting your work published on respected sites within your niche strengthens your reputation as an expert in your field.
3. Expand Your Audience: Posting on other websites enables you to reach people who might not have otherwise discovered you.
4. Manage Relationships: Collaborations with site owners can lead to future opportunities, such as partnerships or additional guest posts.

Recognise the Importance of Inbound Links

These are links from external websites to your own, and they perform a unique function in implementing SEO for accounting firms’ websites. When one site links to another, it’s essentially vouching for the quality of the content on that site.

So, if you want to be seen as an authority in your firm’s specialties, inbound links are vital as they’re endorsements of your expertise.

However, while having numerous inbound links can help, a single link from a high-traffic, reputable website is often more valuable.

Search engines recognise that websites vary in terms of quality, relevance, and authority, so they place greater importance on links from reputable sources.

For instance, an inbound link from any of the following would hold more weight than several links from minor blogs or irrelevant websites:

1. A major news organisation
2. A well-known accounting website
3. A publication that serves your clients

Remember that Good Content Drives Good Links

The key to earning inbound links is producing high-quality content that naturally encourages sharing and linking back to it.

When it comes to content creation, it’s critical to ensure that the content is well-developed. Doing so provides several benefits:

1. It signals to search engine crawlers the keywords for which you should rank.
2. It naturally generates inbound links, also known as “votes of authority” among search engines.
3. It positions your firm as an expert to both potential clients and within the accounting industry.

Use Internal Links

Internal links are simply links that bridge one of your site’s pages to another.

These links are helpful in guiding users between key pages on your site. Aside from ensuring smoother navigation, they help visitors find the information they need without the hassle.

Beyond user experience (UX), internal linking plays a significant role in SEO. It helps distribute link equity across your site. When one page performs well in search results, it can pass on some of that strength to its linked pages.

For instance, if you have a highlight blog post and 15 other pages on your site link to it, Google can detect that the post is valuable and warrants more attention. This can improve your chances of gaining better rankings for that page.

Search engines rely on internal links to uncover new pages. Our robust internal linking approach ensures that your most important pages are easily found and indexed.

Improve Your Website’s Loading Speed

Fast load times are crucial for delivering a positive user experience. High performance is essential for any website aiming to maximise SEO potential.

We aim for a Google PageSpeed Insights score of 90 or higher for your homepage and target pages.

PageSpeed Insights provides a breakdown of your site’s performance on desktop and other mobile devices, highlighting areas for improvement.

Additionally, we’ll thoroughly assess key SEO elements, including title tags, H-tags, body text, meta descriptions, and overall content quality.

These fundamental elements will be discussed further in the next sections.

We’ll ensure that all these SEO components comply with Google’s guidelines, preventing penalties for thin or low-quality content.

Maintain a Well-Designed Website

An effective accounting website is one that’s optimised for search engine queries and accessible across multiple platforms. Digital Spotlight excels in tasks like these.

Our approach to web development will optimise your site’s internal elements, ensuring fast loading speeds, incorporating targeted keywords, and establishing backlinks to credible sources.

Our web design process includes testing compatibility across various platforms and ensuring the design aligns with your business needs to contribute to your site’s online visibility.

We can target between 3 and 20 core keywords for your site, and then leverage our proprietary ranking technology to help your site rank for as many as 150 keyword variations on Google’s first page.

We’ll also make your website content helpful, relatable, and optimised for search engines.

By focusing on content relevance and quality, your site can provide a better user experience and make it easier for visitors to find what they need.

Acknowledge the Role of Website Usability

Website usability, which refers to how easily and effectively visitors can navigate and interact with a website to achieve their objectives, is vital to excellent UX.

If your site is difficult to read or navigate, most visitors will leave immediately. Search engines understand this and take usability into account when ranking sites.

For example, Google’s RankBrain uses AI to understand the intent behind searches and serve up the most relevant results.

Good usability ensures visitors can easily find the services they need, which can boost your overall performance.

Here are some usability considerations to keep in mind:

1. Don’t Make Them Think: Many visitors are distracted. They might be thinking about their next task, or simply not focused on your site. Make it easy for them to find what they need without having to scroll through countless menus or sidebars.
2. Make a Good Impression: Can users get what they need within five seconds of landing on your site? If not, they’ll leave. To keep people engaged, your content should be easy to scan; this can be done by using subheadings, bold text, and ample white space.
3. Optimise for Mobile: Google reports that mobile users are five times more likely to leave a site if it’s not mobile-optimised. Ensuring your site is mobile-friendly is crucial for improving both conversions and SEO.

With these factors in mind, some of the website components that affect usability include:

1. Easy Navigation: Site visitors should easily find and navigate your web pages. Sites with complicated navigation don’t appeal to either users or search engines.
2. Minimal 404 Errors: A 404 error occurs when a page is deleted, but links to it still exist. When this happens, a 301 redirect can send users to a relevant page.
   While Google can overlook occasional 404 errors, it’s worth having a custom 404 page to explain the issue to users.
3. Site Speed: Crawlers check the duration of loading for your web pages. Your site should have clean code and optimised image sizes, ensuring visitors don’t have to wait long for pages to load.

Once we begin work on your site, we’ll focus on improving these critical UX elements:

1. Content Relevance and Quality: We ensure your content resonates with what your audience is looking for.
2. Content Structure: We’ll fine-tune title tags (text which provides webpage titles for search engines and browsers to use), headers (markers which organise a page’s content to ensure that it’s easier for search engines and readers to understand), and meta descriptions (text displayed in SERPs which explains what a webpage is about), and remove any thin or repetitive content.
3. Image and Video Optimisation: This includes adding proper alt text, compressing media files, and refreshing your sitemaps.
4. International Setup: We ensure the right country domains and language tags are in place for a global audience.
5. SEO and Tech Health: We’ll handle redirects, canonical tags (HTML snippets that pinpoint the primary version among a site’s duplicate or near-duplicate pages), and robots meta tags (components that help search engines crawl and index pages more efficiently), ensuring everything is set up correctly.
6. Website Security: We’ll address any security issues that could impact user trust or your site’s rankings.

These steps are crucial as good UX is vital for keeping site visitors engaged and improving conversion rates.

A streamlined and user-friendly experience makes it easier for potential clients to stick around, reducing frustration and encouraging more interaction.

Optimise Your Site’s Code

Your website contains various HTML elements that require correct formatting and include relevant keywords.

We can ensure the following elements work together to deliver a clear message to Google, helping it understand what your site is about:

1. H1 Tags: As the most crucial heading tag, the H1 serves as the main headline of your page. There’s no character limit for the H1 tag, but best practice dictates to use it only once per page.
2. H2 Tags: H2 tags act as subheadings. They can be used multiple times on a page and carry less weight than H1 tags when it comes to search rankings.
3. Images: Since search engine crawlers can’t see pictures, they rely on the code surrounding them for context. Descriptive image filenames and alt tag text can help search engines better understand the content of your images.
4. Meta Descriptions: These are short text snippets that appear under your clickable title tag and uniform resource locator (URL) in search results.
   While they don’t directly impact rankings, well-written meta descriptions can stimulate higher click-through rates by enticing users with previews of what they can expect on a page.
5. Page Copy: The text on each page should convey its purpose and relevance to your business. Keywords will be used where appropriate, avoiding overuse.
6. Title Tags: These are the names of your web pages, visible as clickable links in search results and browser tabs.
7. URL Structure: URLs should include relevant keywords to help search engine crawlers identify the main topic of each page.

Remember: Technical SEO for Accountants Is Important

Technical SEO ensures that your accounting firm’s website meets the standards of modern search engines. Our services include ongoing technical audits to identify issues that might negatively affect your rankings.

We understand that hidden technical problems can undermine the effectiveness of your quality content and harm your website’s visibility.

To this end, our comprehensive technical SEO audit establishes clear benchmarks and milestones for your campaign, reducing uncertainty and accelerating the time it takes to achieve results.

Set Up Google Webmaster Tools

We can assist with setting up your firm’s Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), registering and verifying your listings, uploading photos, and optimising for first-page rankings.

This process can improve the visibility of your physical locations on Google.

Additionally, if you don’t manage your hosting or your current provider doesn’t support our SEO solutions, we can help establish an account with one of our preferred third-party hosting providers.

Improve Your Meta Descriptions

We can clean up your website so that it does not have duplicate, irrelevant, or missing meta descriptions. We focus on these elements, as they can significantly impact your ranking and visibility.

We’ll also align your content with the most crucial and popular queries using geotargeted keywords in specific parts of your website, such as the title, header, meta description, URL, and the rest of the body.

Use Alt Image Texts

Alt text, also known as an alt description or alt tag, is the text shown when a page image fails to load correctly.

Aside from being useful for people using screen readers, alt text plays a crucial role in SEO, as it helps search engines understand and index your images.

As part of our SEO services, we provide alt text image optimisation. We’ll add clarity to your images, giving your site an edge that’ll help improve your search engine rankings.

Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly

Optimising for mobile devices is a central aspect of how we approach SEO. Our process focuses on Core Web Vitals and PageSpeed Insights.

Core Web Vitals are metrics that assess your site’s performance, including loading speed, interactivity, and visual consistency.

We can make targeted changes that will help your accounting site perform better on mobile searches, improving both usability and visibility.

Get Google Reviews

Google tends to reward businesses that look credible and authoritative. When users see a substantial collection of positive reviews, they’re more likely to trust what you offer.

That trust builds your reputation not just with people, but also with Google. Encouraging customers to post their experiences on your Google Business Profile strengthens your presence in local search results.

The more consistently your accounting firm gets good feedback, the more likely it is to outpace competitors in your area.

Apply Schema Markup

Schema is structured data that helps search engines understand the context of what’s on your page, such as product reviews or service ratings.

We’ll look closely at performance data, including impressions and traffic, when managing your content strategy. Our support includes:

1. Improving how your content is linked and organised, helping build trust with both users and search engines
2. Expanding resource content, especially pages built around your brand
3. Updating or replacing older content that no longer brings in traffic

Regularly Update Your Published Content

SEO requires ongoing attention. Thus, we’ll help your accounting-related content stay competitive and remain relevant.

To ensure consistency, here are the steps that we’ll take:

1. Update key content at least once or twice a month.
2. Refresh keyword research every three to six months.
3. Review and adjust on-page SEO elements, such as titles and content, on a monthly or bi-monthly basis.

Audit Your Service Offering

The type of accounting work you focus on significantly dictates the shape of your SEO strategy. Whether you’re more involved in business accounting or handle personal finances, it helps to evaluate the services you offer.

We’ll start by reviewing your core offerings. That means getting a clear picture of your accounting, bookkeeping, and day-to-day support services.

From there, we can build a working list of your website components that either need improvement or still need to be developed.

Check for Crawled Pages

To see which of your pages are being indexed by Google, do a quick search using the format “site:yourwebsite.com”. This step gives you a snapshot of which pages are already visible in search results.

Test Your Page Speed

You can immediately take this step by using Google’s PageSpeed Insights free tool to test how fast your site loads.

The tool will provide a breakdown of what’s slowing things down and how you can address the issue.

Remove Broken Pages or Links

Take time to scan through your site and make sure you’re not linking to any pages that no longer exist. Dead links hurt both SEO and user trust.

Check Your Site Structure

Look at your site’s navigation from a visitor’s perspective. Your menu should be logical and easy to follow. It should work without any issue.

Also, check your sitemap to make sure it’s accurate and up to date, and that search engines can easily find it.

Examine Your Local Competitors

If your competitors are ranking well, chances are they’re also working on their SEO. The real question is how your strategy compares to theirs.

We’ll conduct competitor audits to understand what other firms in your space are doing. This approach will help us pinpoint what gives your contemporaries an edge and where you can close the gap.

We include these detailed analyses as part of our SEO packages. By reviewing how your competitors perform in search results, our SEO team can develop a strategy that will help you outrank their keywords and hold your ground on Google search results.

We can even reverse-engineer a chosen competitor’s sites and keyword targets. This step enables us to refine your approach with a clear intent.

Identify Local Search Terms

We’ll take a detailed, research-driven approach to deploying the most impactful keywords for your local SEO efforts. These keywords will be specific to your service areas to help guide your ongoing strategy.

As your campaign progresses, we’ll regularly review keyword performance and adjust it based on what is working best.

Create Local SEO Landing Pages

Localised landing pages are built to show up in search results when people in your area look for your accounting services. These pages need to be helpful, relevant, and based on carefully selected local keywords.

When creating these pages, we will:

1. Optimise your H1s, H2s, and H3s with target-specific keywords
2. Write clear, keyword-rich body content
3. Review and fix internal links
4. Ensure the pages work well on mobile

Build NAP Links

NAP represents your “name, address, and phone number”. These details should be consistent across all online platforms where your business appears, including directories, local listings, social media, and your website.

A consistent NAP helps people find you and also gives search engines more reason to trust your business.

Sites like Yelp, Facebook, and Bing Places often appear in local search results, so keeping your details correct across all platforms can boost your visibility and traffic.

Create a Link Building Strategy

Our link-building approach focuses on quality over quantity. We’ll aim to get your site featured in places that matter for your industry and audience.

We’ll look for the best websites, the right types of links, and the most strategic pages. Once we spot a good opportunity, we’ll work to build genuine relationships, from the first contact up to the final link placement.

Guest posting is also part of the strategy. We’ll only write for sites that are worth being seen on, which means more credible links that can help improve your site’s authority.

Execute an Effective Content Marketing Strategy

At Digital Spotlight, your content marketing strategy will begin with a close look at who your ideal clients are and what they’re looking for.

We’ll then work on building momentum for your content so that it outperforms your competitors’ efforts. We can help you create content that is both applicable and easy to understand, addressing accounting-related concerns directly.

This approach will help lift your standing in the eyes of both your audience and the wider industry.

By integrating keywords naturally, building backlinks to trustworthy sources, and optimising your website’s structure for speed and navigation, we can increase the frequency of your content appearing in search results.

Ensure Reporting and Tracking

Throughout your campaign, we’ll send you monthly reports on your SEO performance to show you where things stand. These reports include campaign recaps, data on visibility, and the inbound links your site has picked up.

You get access to all of this via our Looker Studio Report. This live dashboard gives you a comprehensive view of your progress.

Build Topical Relevance

If your goal is to stay visible in accounting-related searches, then your content needs to show you know your stuff.

We’ll support the growth of your topical authority by developing relevant, targeted content that reflects your expertise and meets what your audience is searching for.

When done correctly, topical authority builds trust with both search engines and your audience. As your authority strengthens, you’ll start ranking higher for keywords that matter most to your business.

Ensure Your Accounting Firm’s Website Is Secure (HTTPS–SSL)

Visitors to your site should feel confident that their information is protected.

One way to do this is by installing a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate. This component encrypts connections, making the site safer for users.

To determine if your site is equipped with a valid SSL certificate, check if its domain address begins with “https://” and displays a small lock icon. Google looks for this during indexing, and it factors into how your site ranks in search results.

We’ll ensure a trusted source signs your SSL certificate so you meet current security expectations.

Measuring and Monitoring SEO Success

Because SEO is an ongoing process, keeping track of results is essential for long-term success.

We utilise tools like Google Analytics, Semrush, and Ahrefs to track the performance of your campaign. That way, you can stay informed and understand the numbers behind your site’s progress.

Here’s how we approach tracking and measuring performance:

Use Proper SEO Audit Tools

We rely on a combination of established tools and our proprietary data models to achieve stronger results. Below are the tools we regularly use:

1. Ahrefs
   This platform helps us measure your domain rating and how well your site ranks. It includes a rank tracker that follows up to 10,000 keywords across 216 locations.
   For each keyword, Ahrefs provides:
   1. Search volume
   2. Keyword difficulty
   3. Ranking position
   4. Ranking URL
   5. Estimated organic traffic
2. Semrush
   We use Semrush to verify whether your site has been flagged by Google’s Penguin algorithm, which checks for manipulative, non-organic link-building practices.
   Low-quality links can harm your rankings, so we closely monitor them.
   With Semrush, we can also:
   1. Access keyword data across national and local searches
   2. Perform detailed technical SEO audits
   3. Track daily changes in your search engine rankings
   4. Examine your backlink profile for strengths and weaknesses
3. Surfer SEO
   Surfer SEO helps us refine your content so it aligns with what search engines favour.
   This tool analyses the top-performing pages for your target keyword and provides suggestions about keyword use, length, and structure.
   These insights help your content meet current search expectations and attract more visitors.

Traffic Analysis

To understand how visitors use your site, we use Google Analytics 4 (GA4). This next-generation analytics platform, designed for future-proofed operation, can track visitor numbers, site activity, and marketing effectiveness.

These insights help us identify what’s working and where improvements can be made across your website.

Ranking Metrics

To stay on top of your website’s performance, we rely on tools such as Semrush, Ahrefs, and Google Search Console. Here’s how each tool plays a role:

1. Semrush: Offers a “Visibility %” metric that reflects how well your keywords are performing. Higher visibility means better rankings.
2. Ahrefs Rank Tracker: Follows up to 10,000 keyword positions in local organic results.
3. Google Search Console: A free tool that gives data on your site’s search traffic and performance.

Conversion Tracking

With GA4, data from events is collected automatically. These events are specific user actions or system activities on your website.

GA4’s dashboard is designed to be user-friendly, making it easier to access and monitor key metrics, such as conversions, ad clicks, and file downloads.

Still, when it comes to tracking more complex conversions, things can get a bit challenging if you’re not familiar with the technical side of things. That’s where we step in.

Backlink Analysis

We build high-quality backlinks from trustworthy sources, including local businesses, established blogs, and major news platforms. These links help build your site’s credibility and improve your firm’s local relevance.

Our SEO approach is focused on helping you rank for the right keywords today while also cultivating your domain authority.

That growing authority gives you more room to rank for additional keywords over time, positioning you for better long-term growth.

We use tools like Ahrefs to monitor the performance of your backlinks and ensure your SEO strategy is on track.

Checklist for Building a Successful SEO Campaign for CPAs

If you’re ready to dive into your SEO campaign, make sure each of these components is on your to-do list:

1. Use local SEO techniques.
2. Build a site that’s properly designed and functions well.
3. Write helpful blog content that people want to read.
4. Utilise keyword research tools.
5. Secure backlinks from reliable websites.
6. Use internal links.
7. Optimise your content.
8. Make your site mobile-friendly.
9. Perform regular SEO audits.
10. Update older content.
11. Track how everything is performing.

Which SEO Strategy for Accountants Will You Try First?

SEO plays a significant part in digital marketing for accounting firms, especially if you’re just starting. It helps position your firm where potential clients are looking.

Hopefully, the strategies we’ve outlined here provide a good starting point.

Was there a tip that stood out for you? Which one do you want to try first for your firm?

If you’re ready to take action or have a question, we’d love to hear from you.

Why Accountants Opt for an SEO Agency’s Services

SEO is easy to overlook when working in a busy accounting firm. Besides, not every digital agency offers effective accountant SEO services.

With plenty to think about and attend to, heads of accounting firms may neglect this digital marketing approach, resulting in SEO often ending up low on the list.

Hiring an SEO agency that understands your specific needs can take off the burden of thinking about digital marketing on top of everything you’re already doing.

SEO requires consistent effort and ongoing attention over time. When your schedule is already packed, it can be challenging to keep up. A good agency will handle the ongoing process so you don’t have to.

More importantly, if the technical side of your website is shaky, the rest of your SEO efforts won’t have much of a leg to stand on.

Agencies like Digital Spotlight understand how to maintain transparency and adhere to proper SEO practices.

We can help with optimisations like making your site easier for search engines to crawl, improving speed, ensuring it’s mobile-ready, and tightening up the overall structure.

SEO for Accounting Firms Requires a Specialised Approach

These days, more accounting firms are popping up, and many are competing for the same pool of clients. To stand out, you need more than just good service; you need to be visible online.

With the right SEO campaign, your firm can climb higher in the search results pages and stay ahead of the pack. That’s something we’ve done for businesses throughout Australia over the past 15 years.

Your competitors aren’t slowing down. Now’s the time to get your SEO strategy working for you.

Put Your Accounting Firm on Top With Semrush Local

Whether you’re a solo accountant or running a larger firm, local visibility matters.

Semrush Local is one tool that can help with that. This platform simplifies the local search process, enhances your online presence, and makes it easier to manage your reputation.

The use of Semrush is fully integrated into our process. We use this tool, along with other industry-standard platforms, to conduct competitive analyses, enabling us to generate localised, relevant traffic to your accounting website.

Digital Spotlight Is Your Go-To Stop for Accounting SEO Services

At Digital Spotlight, we specialise in creating SEO campaigns tailored to your specific goals and challenges.

We don’t promise magic fixes. What we offer is real work that leads to real results. Our clients have seen growth from the strategies we’ve developed, and we’re eager to help you benefit in the same way.

With over 15 years in the game and more than 2,103 successful campaigns under our belt, we’ve got a track record worth talking about.

Our client retention rate sits at 95.67%, and that’s because we keep the focus where it belongs: on what truly works.

Everything we’ll do will be centred around your campaign goals. If you don’t have an ad account yet, we’ll set one up for you. You’ll still be the one managing it, with complete transparency from the very beginning.

Ready to move the needle? Contact us for a no-obligation consultation. We’ll walk you through what’s possible and show you how we can help you bring in more leads without the guesswork.

Call us at 1300 891 181 or send us an email at [email protected] to explore what’s next for your accounting firm.

FAQs

1. Is there a contract?

   We won’t lock you into any contracts. You’re free to move on at any time if things aren’t working out. That said, most of our clients stick with us for the long haul because our results speak for themselves.

2. Do you follow Google Webmaster guidelines?

   We do. We rely heavily on data to guide our local SEO work and spot areas for improvement. Google Search Console, formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools, is one of the primary tools we utilise.

   The platform enables us to monitor coding errors, mobile usability, and your site’s link profile, ensuring everything runs smoothly and helping your accounting firm attract the right local traffic.

3. Do you provide details of what SEO work you will be doing?

   Absolutely. We believe in being upfront about everything we do. Unlike other firms that only check in when things are going well, we’ll keep you in the loop every step of the way.

   We’ll track the numbers closely to see which accounting SEO efforts are delivering and which need adjusting.

   We also don’t have any hidden fees; you’ll know exactly how your ad spend is being used.

4. Are discounts available?

   Some agencies offer discounts in exchange for long-term commitments or specific services.

   At Digital Spotlight, our pricing is clear and consistent. You’ll always know what you’re paying each month, which makes budgeting simpler. There’s no need to second-guess what’s included; it’s all laid out plainly.

5. Do you work with other local competitors?

   While we don’t provide noncompete assurances (unless the client is at a specific level of our Enterprise service tier), we’ll ensure that your accounting firm benefits from a consistent flow of qualified leads at the best possible cost.

6. When was Digital Spotlight founded?

   Since 2002, our agency has focused on generating increased revenue and lead flows for our clients, leveraging our expertise in SEO and Google Ads.

7. What are the KPIs that an accountant must measure?

   When it comes to key performance indicators (KPIs), the crucial item to track is the volume of conversions you’re getting after starting SEO for accountants. Beyond that, here are other significant metrics:

   1. Ranking keywords: See which keywords are climbing up the search results and how those rankings shift over time.
   2. Incoming traffic: Look at whether your site’s traffic is trending up or down. What’s been happening with your organic reach over the past weeks or months?
   3. Phone calls or form submissions: Track the leads generated through calls or website contact forms to see how your efforts are paying off.

8. What type of content should an SEO accounting website have?

   Content encompasses everything on your site, including blog posts, service pages, articles, videos, photos, and other multimedia elements.

   For accounting firms, the most effective content is built on extensive keyword research and tuned to what your potential clients are searching for.

   This is where we come in.

   We’ll help you shape content that’s useful, relevant, and focused on the outcomes you want to achieve. It’ll be written by humans, tailored to your needs, and focused on what is most important to your firm and your clients.

9. What is Google Advertising?

   Google Ads is Google’s platform for running online advertisements. It offers tools to show ads to potential customers at the moment they’re searching for particular products or services.

   Google Ads can be used to promote businesses, increase sales, attract leads, build brand awareness, or drive more website traffic.

   Since everything is managed online, users can set up or adjust their campaign at any time that suits them. Also, there’s no required minimum spend.

   As the world’s leading paid ad platform, it’s designed to help businesses reach the right audience and convert clicks into customers.

   With the correct strategy, Google Ads can put your firm’s website at the top of the search results. It’s a powerful way to bring in qualified leads.

   Since most people turn to Google when searching online, this platform plays a crucial role in PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns. When managed properly, it can drive significant growth without blowing your ad budget.

10. What are the most searched keywords to have on your accounting website?

    Between mid-April and mid-July 2025, Australians’ most popular accounting-related search queries were the following keywords:

    1. “what is accounting”
    2. “accounting software”
    3. “financial accounting”
    4. “accounting jobs”
    5. “accounting services”
    6. “accounting meaning”
    7. “with accounting”
    8. “accountant”
    9. “xero accounting”
    10. “accounting firms”

The keywords that show up at the top of organic search results are often the ones most commonly used by your audience when they search for what you offer.

Tools like Semrush help determine the top keywords by examining monthly search volume, the difficulty of ranking, the intent behind the search, and the likelihood that each search term will result in a conversion.

Including these in your site (where they make sense) can help improve your visibility in search results.