Your competitors are ranking while you're making these 10 SEO mistakes

Accounting firm websites operate under constraints most industries don't face. Content must be technically accurate. Testimonials require careful handling under AICPA Code of Professional Conduct guidelines and applicable state board rules. Claims about outcomes — tax savings, audit results, return guarantees — carry regulatory risk that generic marketing advice doesn't account for.

That's one reason why copy-pasting a generic SEO checklist onto a CPA firm website tends to underperform. The mistakes that hurt accounting firms most are a mix of the universal (thin content, slow pages, weak internal linking) and the profession-specific (generic geography targeting, testimonial compliance gaps, over-reliance on referrals as a reason to deprioritize organic search).

A second factor: accounting keywords are commercially valuable and moderately competitive. Phrases like 'small business tax accountant [city]' or 'QuickBooks bookkeeper near me' are searched by people who are ready to hire. Mistakes that cost you those rankings cost you real revenue, not just traffic.

This guide covers the 10 mistakes we see most consistently across accounting firm websites. For each one, you'll find a plain-language explanation of what goes wrong, why it matters, and a specific fix. Severity ratings are included so you can prioritize your time.

Note: References to AICPA rules and state board advertising regulations are educational. Verify current requirements with your licensing authority and legal counsel, as rules vary by state and are updated periodically.

Mistake 1: One generic 'Services' page instead of individual service pages

Severity: High. A single page listing tax preparation, bookkeeping, payroll, and advisory services cannot realistically rank for any of them. Google needs a page dedicated to each service — with enough content, structure, and keyword focus — to understand what you offer and for whom.

Fix: Create a separate page for each core service. Each page should be at least 400 words, include the service name and your city or region naturally in the copy, answer the top 3 questions clients ask before hiring for that service, and link to related services and your contact page.

Mistake 2: Targeting keywords that are too broad to win

Severity: High. 'Accountant' and 'CPA' are dominated by directories, national brands, and aggregators. Most local firms cannot compete for them — and shouldn't try.

Fix: Target specific combinations: service + location, service + client type, or service + problem. 'Tax preparation for freelancers in Denver' is winnable. 'Accountant' is not.

Mistake 3: Blog content that targets no specific keyword

Severity: Medium. Publishing 'Tax Tips for the New Year' every January produces content that nobody searches for and earns no rankings. In our experience working with accounting firms, blogs written without keyword research have near-zero organic traffic within six months of publishing.

Fix: Before writing any blog post, confirm there's a search volume for a specific phrase you can realistically rank for. Use free tools like Google Search Console or Google's autocomplete to find question-based queries your clients actually type.

Mistake 4: Copying content from a franchise or network template

Severity: High. If your website shares body copy with 40 other offices in the same network, Google treats all versions as duplicates and typically ranks none of them well. This is common with franchise accounting groups and branded bookkeeping networks.

Fix: Rewrite every page in your own words, referencing your city, your team, your specific client types, and your particular service emphasis. The template can be the structure — the copy must be original.

Mistake 5: Incomplete or unclaimed Google Business Profile

Severity: Critical for local rankings. Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the primary signal Google uses for Map Pack rankings. An unclaimed profile, a profile with missing hours, or one with no photos and zero reviews will consistently lose to competitors who maintain theirs actively.

Fix: Claim and verify your GBP if you haven't. Complete every field: business category (use 'Accounting firm' or 'Certified Public Accountant' as your primary), services, hours, website link, and a keyword-informed business description. Add photos of your office and team. For detailed steps, the GBP optimization guide for accounting firms covers each element.

Mistake 6: Identical copy across multiple location pages

Severity: High. Firms with two or three office locations frequently duplicate their homepage or service pages across each location URL, changing only the city name. Google identifies this as thin content and may suppress all versions.

Fix: Each location page needs genuinely unique content: the team at that office, neighborhoods or counties served, local landmarks for context, and any service specializations specific to that location. If you can't write something meaningfully different, consider whether a separate page is warranted at all.

Mistake 7: No local citation consistency

Severity: Medium. Your firm's name, address, and phone number (NAP) appearing differently across Yelp, Bing Places, Apple Maps, and industry directories sends conflicting signals to Google. Even small inconsistencies — 'Suite 200' vs. 'Ste 200' — can suppress local rankings over time.

Fix: Run a citation audit using a tool like BrightLocal or Whitespark. Standardize your NAP across every listing, prioritizing high-authority directories first: Google, Yelp, Bing, Apple Maps, and accounting-specific directories.

Mistake 8: No review strategy

Severity: High. Reviews on your Google Business Profile affect both your Map Pack ranking and your click-through rate from search results. Many accounting firms rely entirely on word-of-mouth referrals and never ask for online reviews, leaving a significant trust signal gap.

Fix: Build a simple, repeatable process for requesting reviews from satisfied clients at natural engagement points — after tax season, after onboarding, after an advisory engagement closes. Keep review requests factual and avoid incentivizing reviews, which violates both Google's policies and AICPA advertising guidelines. See the reputation management guide for compliant review-generation approaches.

Mistake 9: Testimonials that violate professional advertising rules

Severity: Medium — with compliance risk. Using client testimonials that include specific outcome claims ('She saved me $14,000 in taxes') may conflict with AICPA Code of Professional Conduct Section ET §1.600 and applicable state board advertising rules. Several state boards explicitly restrict or regulate performance-based testimonials for CPAs.

Fix: Review any testimonials or case study copy with your compliance contact or legal counsel. General satisfaction statements ('responsive, thorough, easy to work with') carry lower risk than specific financial outcome claims. When in doubt, add appropriate qualifications. Rules vary by state — verify with your specific licensing board.

Mistake 10: No internal linking between related pages

Severity: Medium. Authority earned by one page — a well-linked blog post or a ranking service page — stays siloed when there are no internal links pointing to related pages. In our experience working with accounting firms, internal linking is almost always underdeveloped compared to other SEO elements.

Fix: Map your site structure so each service page links to at least two related service pages and one relevant blog post. Each blog post should link back to the service page most relevant to its topic. This distributes authority across the site and helps Google understand how your content is related.

Not all of these mistakes carry equal weight. If you're deciding where to spend time first, use this priority sequence:

1. Critical (fix immediately): Unclaimed or severely incomplete Google Business Profile. This is the fastest path to local visibility improvement and costs nothing but time.
2. High priority (fix within 30 days): Thin or missing service pages, broad keyword targeting, and duplicate content across location pages. These affect your ability to rank for anything meaningful.
3. Medium priority (fix within 60–90 days): Blog content alignment to specific keywords, NAP citation consistency, internal linking audit, and review generation process.
4. Compliance review (ongoing): Testimonial copy and any content making outcome-specific claims. This isn't purely an SEO issue — it's a professional standards issue. Build a review step into your content publishing process.

A practical starting point: open Google Search Console and filter for pages with impressions but low click-through rates. These are pages Google is showing in search results but users aren't clicking — often because the title tag and meta description aren't compelling, or because your listing lacks reviews compared to competitors.

If you don't yet have Google Search Console set up, that's itself a diagnostic gap. You cannot diagnose what you can't measure.

For a more structured self-assessment, the accounting firm SEO audit guide walks through each element with specific things to look for. If you want a professional review of your current setup, the accountant SEO service page explains how we approach initial assessments.