--- title: "Local SEO for Accountants: How to Win More Local Business" description: Local SEO for accountants in Brisbane and Ipswich. How to win clients from Google Maps, earn reviews from wary clients and fix listings after a merger. image: https://jonathonshipton.com/hubfs/local-seo-for-accountants.webp --- [Skip to content](https://jonathonshipton.com/blog/local-seo-for-accountants#main-content) [![Jonathon Shipton logo white](https://jonathonshipton.com/hubfs/js-logo-white.svg) ![Jonathon Shipton logo white](https://jonathonshipton.com/hubfs/js-logo-white.svg)](https://jonathonshipton.com) [Work with me](https://jonathonshipton.com/contact) - [About](https://jonathonshipton.com/about) - Services - [Marketing Strategy](https://jonathonshipton.com/services/marketing-strategy) - [SEO Consulting](https://jonathonshipton.com/services/seo-consulting) - [CMS Migration](https://jonathonshipton.com/services/cms-migration) - [SEO Ipswich](https://jonathonshipton.com/seo-ipswich) - [Insights](https://jonathonshipton.com/blog) - [+61 493 364 801](tel:+61493364801) ###### 6 min read # Local SEO for Accountants: How to Win More Local Business By: [Jonathon Shipton](https://jonathonshipton.com/blog/author/jonathon-shipton) on 21 October 2026 [SEO](https://jonathonshipton.com/blog/tag/seo) [Accountants](https://jonathonshipton.com/blog/tag/accountants) ![Local SEO for Accountants](https://jonathonshipton.com/hubfs/local-seo-for-accountants.webp) Local SEO for accountants has a problem most guides skip. The map pack sends you whoever's searching nearby, and in Australia a lot of those people want a cheap individual tax return done this week.You'll see it in the last fortnight of October, when the self-lodgement deadline is close and your phone fills with "how much for a tax return?" Meanwhile the business owner who'd be worth $8,000 a year searches the same suburb and picks the firm whose profile looked like it was built for them. Local SEO for an accounting firm is about winning the right local searches. Here's how to do that, and the traps that are specific to accounting firms. ## Local SEO for accountants starts with who you want to reach Google says local results are mainly based on [relevance, distance and popularity](https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091). Relevance is the part you control, and it's how well your Business Profile matches what someone searched. Most Google Business Profiles for accountants say almost nothing. A name, an address, "Accountant" as the category and a handful of reviews. Google has to guess who you're for, so you show up for everything, including the searches you don't want. Give it more to go on: - Set the primary category to Accountant. Only add Tax preparation service as a secondary category if individual returns are work you actually want, because it pulls those searches towards you. - Fill in the services list with the work you want to grow: business tax, advisory, SMSF, bookkeeping, business setup. - Write the description for your target client. "Accountants for trades and construction businesses in Ipswich and the Western suburbs" does more work than "a full-service accounting firm". Once your Google Business Profile is set up, make sure your website backs it up. A business owner who finds you in Maps clicks through to your site next, and it has to tell them the same story. The page your profile links to should name the same clients, the same services and the same areas. If your profile says you work with trades businesses and your homepage opens with "personal tax returns from $99", the visitor gets mixed messages and goes back to Google. Link each profile to the page that best matches it. For a single-office firm that's usually the homepage. A firm with several offices should link each profile to that office's own page, with its address, phone number and the team who work there. Then make the next step easy. That page should explain how you work with business clients and how fees are set, and give the visitor one clear button to book a first meeting. If someone has to hunt for a phone number, the map pack has done its job and the website has let it down. ## Your office address decides where you can rank Distance is the factor accountants try hardest to get around. When someone searches "accountant near me", Google leans heavily on how close each firm is. A firm in a Milton office suite wants to rank in Springfield Lakes, and a firm on Brisbane Road wants all of Ipswich. You can't fake it. Google's [Business Profile guidelines](https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177) say a virtual office, meaning an address you rent but don't operate from, isn't eligible for a profile. An office in a coworking space only qualifies if it has clear signage, is staffed by your team and receives clients during business hours. So rank where you are, and use your website for the rest. A page for each area you serve, explaining who you work with there and how clients meet you (in person, online or both), can rank in regular search results beyond the map pack. Start with the two or three areas where you already have clients. ## Clients are wary of reviewing their accountant Reviews help your local ranking. Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help. Accountants still find them harder to get than almost anyone else. The reason is privacy. A review tells the world that person is your client. Plenty of happy clients don't want their neighbours, staff or ex-partner knowing who does their tax, especially if you helped them through an ATO debt or a business collapse. You can work around it: - **Ask business clients first.** A business owner is usually happy to be seen with their accountant, and a review from them speaks to the clients you want more of. - **Ask at a good moment.** Right after you've delivered something they're pleased with, like a finished tax plan, a clean set of year-end accounts or a structure that's sorted out. Don't ask in the middle of a stressful matter. - **Make it easy.** Send a direct link to your review form, and make the ask once, politely. Google's [Maps content policy](https://support.google.com/contributionpolicy/answer/7400114) sets the limits. You can't offer a fee discount or anything else in exchange for a review, and you can't ask only the clients you know are happy. You also can't set staff a review target, or ask for reviews that name a particular accountant. ## Every review reply is a confidentiality test Responding to reviews helps. Google says helpful replies can make your business stand out. For an accountant, the reply is also a public statement about a client. Confidentiality is a fundamental principle in APES 110. So a reply should never confirm what you did for someone, mention their circumstances or argue the facts of their matter. Write two replies in advance and adapt them: - **Positive:** "Thanks for taking the time to leave a review. We're glad to have been able to help." Leave it there. - **Negative:** "We take feedback seriously and would like to talk this through. Please call the office and ask for \[practice manager\]." Even if the review is unfair, keep the detail offline. ## Mergers and acquisitions leave a mess in Google Practices change hands all the time. Firms merge, partners retire and sell their book, and a bigger firm buys out the local practice and rebrands it. Each change can leave old listings behind. The common result is two profiles for one office, an old firm name still showing in Maps, or a profile for a closed office that still sends calls to a dead number. That confuses clients and splits your reviews. Google's guidelines handle this in two ways. A minor name change, where the category stays the same, can be treated as a rebrand. You update the name on the existing profile and keep its reviews. A bigger change counts as a new business, so you mark the old profile as closed and create a new one. After any merger, acquisition or move, check Maps for every old name and address. Then update your listings in directories such as your professional body's find-an-accountant service so the name, address and phone number match everywhere. ## Get the profile ready before tax season starts From July to the end of October, your profile gets the most searches and your team has the least time. That's when hours are wrong, posts stop and new reviews sit unanswered for weeks. Set it up in June so it runs itself: - Update your hours for tax season, including any extended evenings or Saturdays. Google allows seasonal hours as your regular hours, plus special hours for public holidays. - Add a booking link so people can book without ringing a team that's already flat out. - Schedule a few posts about lodgement deadlines and how you work with business clients. - Give one person the job of replying to reviews weekly, using the templates. ## A local SEO checklist for this month 1. Rewrite your profile description and services for the clients you want. 2. Check your categories, and decide whether you really want Tax preparation service on there. 3. Search Maps for every old firm name and office address, and fix duplicates. 4. Send a review request to 10 business clients you've recently done good work for. 5. Write your two reply templates. 6. Put a reminder in the diary for June to get the profile ready for tax season. If you'd rather hand over local SEO for your accounting firm, including the area pages on your website, here's how [SEO for accountants](https://jonathonshipton.com/seo-for-accountants) works with me. ![Jonathon Shipton](https://jonathonshipton.com/hs-fs/hubfs/headshot.png?width=80&height=80&name=headshot.png) About the author [Jonathon Shipton](https://jonathonshipton.com/about) Jonathon Shipton is a freelance [B2B marketing consultant](https://jonathonshipton.com/). He specialises in [marketing strategy](https://jonathonshipton.com/services/marketing-strategy), [search engine optimisation](https://jonathonshipton.com/services/seo-consulting), content and [websites](https://jonathonshipton.com/services/cms-migration). ## [Is SEO Dead With AI? Reality & Future Strategy](https://jonathonshipton.com/blog/is-seo-dead-with-ai) Every year or two, someone announces that SEO is dead. This time AI is holding the knife. AI... ## [Local SEO for Real Estate Agents: What Wins Appraisals](https://jonathonshipton.com/blog/local-seo-for-real-estate-agents) Local SEO for real estate agents comes down to one moment. A homeowner thinking about selling types... ## [Best HubSpot Themes: Why I Build on Clean Theme](https://jonathonshipton.com/blog/best-hubspot-themes) You've decided to build your website on HubSpot CMS. Good decision. Then you open the theme... ##### About About Jonathon Shipton is a freelance B2B marketing consultant. 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