The Accounting Firms Winning New Clients From Google All Control The Accounting Firms Winning New Clients From Google All Control three local signals

When someone needs an accountant, the search almost always starts with geography. Phrases like 'CPA near me', 'accountant in [city]', and 'tax preparer [neighborhood]' dominate accounting-related search volume. These are high-intent searches — the person is not researching accounting theory, they are ready to call or book.

Google responds to these searches with a Map Pack — the block of three local business listings that appears above the organic results, often with a map, phone numbers, and star ratings visible. In our experience working with accounting firms, the Map Pack captures a substantial share of clicks for local queries, and the three firms in it receive dramatically more contact requests than those ranked below it.

The challenge is that Google's algorithm for ranking in the Map Pack is distinct from its algorithm for ranking web pages. A firm can have an excellent website and still be invisible in the Map Pack if it has neglected its Google Business Profile, citation consistency, or review strategy.

Local SEO for accounting firms sits at the intersection of three systems:

• Google Business Profile — the primary signal source for Map Pack rankings
• Citation ecosystem — directories and data aggregators that confirm your firm's legitimacy and location
• On-page local signals — your website's content, schema markup, and internal linking structure

This guide covers each system in practical terms. If you want to understand the broader SEO strategy context before diving into local tactics, the accounting SEO resource hub is the right starting point.

Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the single most important local ranking asset you control. It feeds the information Google displays in the Map Pack — your firm name, address, phone number, hours, reviews, and photos. Incomplete or inconsistent profiles are the most common reason accounting firms underperform in local search.

Category Selection

Google allows one primary category and multiple secondary categories. For CPA firms, 'Certified Public Accountant' is typically the strongest primary category. Secondary categories might include 'Tax Preparation Service', 'Bookkeeping Service', or 'Financial Consultant' depending on your service mix. Selecting categories that do not match your core services can dilute relevance — be intentional, not exhaustive.

Services Section

Use the Services section inside GBP to list every service you offer with keyword-rich descriptions. Tax planning, business accounting, payroll services, audit preparation — each should have its own entry. Google uses this data to match your profile to specific searches beyond just your firm name.

Business Description

Your 750-character business description should mention your city, your core services, and the client types you serve. Avoid generic language. 'We serve small business owners and individuals in Austin with tax preparation, bookkeeping, and advisory services' outperforms 'We are a full-service accounting firm.'

Photos and Posts

Profiles with regular photo uploads and GBP Posts tend to show stronger engagement signals. Photos of your office exterior, team, and signage help Google and potential clients verify your physical presence. GBP Posts (event announcements, tax deadline reminders, service highlights) keep your profile active and can surface in certain search results.

For a complete walkthrough of every GBP setting relevant to accounting firms, see the dedicated GBP optimization guide.

Google's local algorithm weighs three macro factors: relevance (does your profile match the search?), distance (how close is your firm to the searcher?), and prominence (how well-known is your firm across the web?). Each factor has specific signals you can influence.

Relevance Signals

• GBP primary and secondary category accuracy
• Services listed in your GBP profile
• Keyword presence in your business description
• On-page content on your website that matches local search intent

Distance Signals

Distance is the factor you control least — Google estimates the searcher's location and favors nearby businesses. However, firms with a strong physical presence signal (verified address, matching citations, exterior photos) tend to rank across a wider radius than those with weaker location confirmation. If you serve clients in multiple cities from one office, service-area content on your website expands your visible footprint without requiring additional physical locations.

Prominence Signals

• Review quantity and recency — industry benchmarks suggest that firms with more recent reviews consistently outrank those with older, static review profiles
• Review quality — average star rating affects click-through even when it does not directly determine rank
• Citation volume and consistency — the number of authoritative directories that list your firm with matching NAP (name, address, phone)
• Website authority — inbound links from local organizations, bar associations, chambers of commerce, and local press
• GBP engagement — clicks, calls, direction requests, and photo views all feed back as engagement signals

Many firms focus on one factor in isolation — building reviews while ignoring citations, or perfecting their GBP while neglecting their website's local content. The firms that consistently rank at the top of the Map Pack address all three macro factors in parallel.

A citation is any online mention of your firm's name, address, and phone number — collectively called NAP. Citations appear in general business directories, accounting-specific directories, local chamber listings, and data aggregators that feed information to dozens of other platforms.

Google uses citation consistency as a trust signal. If your firm is listed as 'Smith & Associates CPA' on your website, 'Smith and Associates' on Yelp, and 'Smith Associates Certified Public Accountants' on a chamber directory, Google sees three different entities — which reduces confidence in your location data and suppresses your local rankings.

Priority Citation Sources for Accounting Firms

Not all directories carry equal weight. Focus your initial citation-building effort on high-authority sources:

• General directories: Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, Bing Places, Yelp, Facebook Business
• Data aggregators: Neustar Localeze, Data Axle, Foursquare — these feed information to hundreds of downstream directories
• Accounting-specific directories: AICPA member directory, state CPA society listings, CPADirectory.com, AccountantsWorld
• Local directories: Chamber of commerce, local business associations, city-specific directories
• Industry-adjacent: BBB, Angi (for bookkeeping), LinkedIn company page

Audit Before You Build

Before adding new citations, audit your existing ones. Search your firm name and phone number across major directories and document every inconsistency. Correcting bad data is higher priority than adding new listings — a network of consistent citations built on a foundation of bad existing data produces limited ranking improvement.

Citation management is ongoing, not a one-time task. Any time your firm moves offices, changes phone numbers, or rebrands, every citation must be updated. Stale NAP data is one of the most common reasons firms lose Map Pack positions after previously earning them.

Your Google Business Profile and your website work as a system. GBP drives Map Pack visibility; your website drives the conversion when someone clicks through and it provides additional local authority signals that reinforce your GBP rankings. Neglecting one while optimizing the other produces diminishing returns.

Location Pages

Every city or metro area you want to rank in should have a dedicated page on your website. A location page for a CPA firm should include:

• The city name in the page title, H1, and URL slug
• A description of services offered in that location
• The physical address and phone number matching your GBP exactly
• An embedded Google Map
• Local schema markup (LocalBusiness or AccountingService type)
• Locally relevant content — references to state tax rules, local business environment, or the specific communities you serve

A location page that simply replaces a city name in a template and otherwise duplicates content across locations will not rank. Google can identify thin location pages and tends to suppress them in favor of pages with genuine local substance.

Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

Your homepage and core service pages should include your primary city in the title tag. 'Tax Preparation and CPA Services | Austin, TX | Smith & Associates' targets local queries more effectively than a generic firm name alone.

Schema Markup

Implementing LocalBusiness schema (specifically the AccountingService subtype where applicable) gives Google structured data about your firm's address, hours, services, and geo-coordinates. This does not guarantee ranking improvements, but it reduces ambiguity about your firm's location and service scope — which matters in competitive markets.

Internal Linking

Link from your service pages to your location pages and vice versa. If you have a page on tax preparation services, link it to your Austin location page using anchor text like 'tax preparation in Austin'. This internal link structure reinforces the topical and geographic relevance of each page.

Ranking in the Map Pack is not a single action — it is the output of consistent work across your GBP, citation network, review profile, and website. Most accounting firms that are not currently in the Map Pack are missing on two or three of these factors simultaneously.

A practical sequencing for firms starting from scratch or recovering from neglect:

1. Claim and verify your GBP — if you have not verified ownership, nothing else matters until this is done
2. Audit and correct existing citations — fix NAP inconsistencies before building new citations
3. Complete your GBP profile — categories, services, description, hours, photos
4. Build foundational citations — data aggregators first, then accounting-specific directories, then local directories
5. Launch a review generation process — identify the right moment in the client engagement to request a review and make the process frictionless
6. Optimize your website's local signals — location pages, title tags, schema, internal linking
7. Monitor and iterate — track Map Pack position monthly, audit citations quarterly, maintain review velocity

Firms in competitive markets (major metros, high-density suburban areas) should expect the process to take four to six months before Map Pack movement becomes consistent. Smaller markets can see results faster. Both timelines assume the work is executed correctly from the start — shortcuts like buying reviews or stuffing keywords into your business name violate Google's guidelines and risk profile suspension.

For a deeper look at the review strategy component, including how to generate reviews in a way that complies with AICPA advertising guidelines, see the reputation management guide. If you want help executing this across your firm's specific market, explore our local SEO services for accounting firms.