What Actually Happens Month-by-Month When an Accounting Firm Invests in SEO

SEO timelines for accounting firms don't follow a generic B2B curve. Three factors make the accounting vertical distinct.

First, the keyword landscape is highly localized. A firm ranking for 'CPA firm Chicago' is competing against decades-old practices with thousands of backlinks and established Google Business Profiles. A firm targeting 'estate tax planning CPA Denver' is in a narrower lane with less competition. Your starting timeline depends heavily on which lane you're in.

Second, client acquisition is episodic, not continuous. Most individuals and small businesses switch accountants once every several years — often triggered by a life event, a bad experience, or a referral. SEO's job is to make sure you're visible when that trigger happens. This means the value of a top ranking compounds over time in ways that are harder to see in month three but obvious by month eighteen.

Third, tax season creates a hard deadline. The majority of individual and small business searches for accounting services spike between January and April. A campaign that begins in November has roughly twelve to fourteen weeks to establish enough authority to capture that traffic. A campaign that begins in February has almost no chance of ranking meaningfully for that cycle — the timeline simply doesn't compress on demand.

Understanding these three factors changes how you evaluate an SEO investment. You're not just asking 'when will I see results?' You're asking 'which tax season am I building toward?' That reframe tends to produce better decisions and better partnerships.

The following framework reflects what we typically observe across accounting firm engagements. Individual results vary based on market competition, domain history, and the scope of work being executed.

Months 1–2: Foundation

This phase is almost entirely invisible from a rankings perspective — and that's normal. Work happening during this period includes technical site audits and fixes (crawlability, page speed, structured data), Google Business Profile optimization, local citation cleanup, and baseline content creation. Google needs time to re-crawl and re-index changes. Do not evaluate an SEO campaign at week six.

Months 3–4: Early Signal

Around month three, most firms begin to see movement on lower-competition terms — city-specific service pages, niche practice area queries, and long-tail informational content. Primary keywords (e.g., 'CPA firm [city]') typically remain static. This is the stretch where patience is most tested and most important.

Months 5–6: Traction

By month five or six, firms with consistent content output and clean technical foundations begin to see measurable ranking improvements on mid-competition keywords. Organic traffic starts to tick up. Inbound inquiries from search — not just referrals — begin to appear. This is also when Google Business Profile visibility tends to increase noticeably.

Months 7–9: Compounding

Content published in months one through four begins to age and accumulate engagement signals. Internal linking across service pages starts to pass authority. Firms that invested in quality backlinks during the foundation phase see those links activate here.

Months 10–12: Return on Investment

By the end of year one, a well-executed campaign should produce a clear picture: which keywords are ranking, which pages are converting, and what the cost-per-lead looks like compared to referrals or paid advertising. Many firms find that year-one SEO economics are modest — and year-two economics are compelling.

Tax season is the most consequential variable in accounting firm SEO planning. Here's how to think about the calendar strategically.

October–November: Optimal Campaign Start

Starting an SEO campaign in October gives you roughly four to five months of foundation-building before peak tax season search volume arrives. Technical work, GBP optimization, and initial content can be indexed and aging by January. This is the single best window to begin.

December: Content Acceleration

December is an underutilized month for accounting firm content. Search volume is low, but publishing content now means it has six to eight weeks to index before January traffic spikes. Year-end planning content, tax deadline guides, and service-specific pages published in December often outperform content published in January.

January–April: Harvest, Not Plant

During tax season, your firm's bandwidth is constrained and so is your ability to execute new SEO work. Campaigns already in motion will benefit from seasonal traffic spikes. Campaigns started in February will not. Use this period to monitor, not to launch.

May–September: Infrastructure Season

Post-tax season is the best time for heavier SEO investments: link building campaigns, site architecture improvements, new practice area pages, and long-form content targeting advisory services (bookkeeping, CFO services, business consulting). Rankings built during summer compound by the following January.

The practical implication: if a CPA firm partner asks us whether they should start SEO in March, the honest answer is yes — but the first tax season is already out of reach. The campaign they're starting now is building toward the following January. That expectation, set clearly at the beginning, prevents most of the disappointment we see from firms who started late and expected fast results.

One of the most common questions we hear from accounting firm partners around month four is: 'We're not ranking yet — is this working?' The answer usually requires looking at leading indicators, not just ranking positions.

Leading indicators (months 1–4):

• Google Search Console impressions increasing — you're appearing in searches even if not clicking through yet
• GBP profile views and 'Request directions' actions trending up
• Core pages indexed and crawlable without errors
• Target keywords moving from 'not ranking' to positions 20–50 (early movement)
• Local citation consistency across major directories

Mid-stage indicators (months 4–7):

• Organic traffic increasing month-over-month, even modestly
• Two to three target keywords entering the top 10
• Map Pack appearances for local search terms
• Inbound contact form submissions or calls attributable to organic search

Maturity indicators (months 8–12):

• Multiple high-intent keywords in positions 1–5
• Consistent organic lead flow each month
• Content pages earning backlinks without active outreach
• Cost-per-lead from organic clearly below paid alternatives for your market

If you're at month six and none of the mid-stage indicators are present, that's a meaningful signal — either the scope of work is insufficient, the technical foundation has unresolved issues, or the keyword targets are too competitive for the current authority level. A good SEO partner should be able to diagnose which.

Not all twelve-month timelines are equal. Several factors consistently extend the timeline or limit what's achievable in year one.

Starting with a weak domain. A website that's five years old with minimal backlink history and thin content is starting from a lower baseline than a firm with ten years of consistent online presence. The foundation phase takes longer, and early wins are smaller.

Targeting only high-competition terms. 'CPA firm New York City' is one of the most competitive local keyword targets in the country. Campaigns that start there — rather than building authority through adjacent terms first — extend the timeline considerably. A smarter approach targets a mix of achievable terms alongside aspirational ones.

Content bottlenecks. SEO requires content. Firms that can't approve content quickly, that have compliance review processes adding weeks to publication, or that produce thin pages rather than substantive service and location content will see slower results. This is worth resolving internally before starting.

Inconsistent execution. SEO compounds when work is consistent month over month. Campaigns that pause during tax season, reduce scope mid-year, or change strategy every quarter rarely achieve the compounding effect that makes the economics compelling.

New domain or recent migration. Firms that recently rebranded, changed domains, or underwent a major site redesign may be dealing with lost authority and lost rankings. Recovery from a migration adds time to the baseline timeline.

None of these factors make SEO unworkable — they just adjust the honest expectation for when results arrive. A realistic assessment at the start of a campaign should account for all of them.