How to get found when clients search for 'accountant near me'

Practical advice on local Google visibility for your accounting practice: Google Business Profile, location pages, and NAP consistency.

When a self-employed person panics in March because their income tax return is due, they don't reach for a phone book. They type 'accountant near me' or 'bookkeeper Amsterdam' into Google and click one of the first results. Whoever appears at the top gets the call. Whoever is on page two simply doesn't exist for that business owner.

The good news is that you have a large amount of control over those local search results yourself. You don't need to run expensive ads, and you don't need to be a marketer. You mainly need to get a few things right and consistent — and then stick with it patiently. In this article, I'll walk through the elements that make the biggest difference for an accounting practice.

Why local search matters especially in your field

Accounting is built on trust. A business owner gives you access to their revenue, margins, debts, and personal finances. Many people therefore want someone they could meet in person if needed — or at least someone from their own region who knows the local business community. As a result, almost every search query has a location embedded in it, even if the user doesn't type one explicitly. Google knows where the searcher is and shows nearby practices. You're not competing with the whole country, but with a handful of offices within a radius of ten to fifteen miles. That makes the competition far more manageable than you might think.

Getting your Google Business Profile in order

The local map pack with three businesses that appears at the top of results comes from Google Business Profile — the free profile formerly known as Google My Business. For an accounting practice, this matters more than your own website. Make sure you claim the profile and fill it in completely. Add your opening hours, including around peak periods like tax return season, and include a landline number where someone actually answers. Add a few genuine photos: your office space, yourself, an impression of the environment. A profile with only a logo inspires less trust than a real face.

In your business description, be specific about what you do: bookkeeping, annual accounts, VAT returns, income tax returns, and payroll administration for freelancers and SMBs. Post a short update from time to time — for example, a reminder about an upcoming deadline or a tip about the small business VAT scheme. Google rewards profiles that stay active.

Choosing the right categories and services

Google lets you assign categories to your profile, and these help determine which searches you appear for. Choose 'Accountant' or 'Bookkeeper' as your primary category and add relevant secondary categories such as 'Tax Adviser' or 'Payroll Services'. Not all business owners search using the same term. One types 'bookkeeper', another 'accountant', another 'tax return help'. By listing your services separately, you cover those variations without it feeling forced.

NAP consistency: identical details everywhere

NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number. Google trusts a practice more when those three pieces of information are identical everywhere on the internet. It sounds simple, but this is where things often go wrong. Your website might say 'Johnson Accounts', your Google profile 'Johnson Accounting & Advisory', and an old listing in a business directory still has your previous mobile number. To Google, those could be three different businesses — and that weakens your position.

• Write your business name the same way everywhere, including legal form and capitalisation.
• Use the same address and the same formatting everywhere — for example, always spell out 'Street' in full or always abbreviate it.
• Use the same phone number everywhere, preferably a landline.
• Clean up old listings in business registers, industry directories, and aggregator sites where you've ended up over the years.

Location pages for your service area

Most accounting practices don't serve a single town — they serve a region. You might be based in one town but have clients in several surrounding areas. Even so, you won't automatically show up for 'accountant [nearby town]' if that town's name appears nowhere on your site. The solution is a dedicated page for each key location in your working area. Not a thin copy where you just swap out the place name — Google sees right through that. Make each page genuinely different.

Write about what's relevant in each location: the clients you already serve there, how far you are from your office, whether you visit on-site, and which local businesses you know. A page about one town might focus on the many sole traders and agricultural businesses there, while your page about another covers hospitality or retail. That way you give Google a real reason to show you for each location.

Reviews from clients you actually know

Reviews carry significant weight in local search results, and for an accountant they count double because trust is everything. A practice with eighteen genuine, recent reviews will beat one with two. Actively ask satisfied clients for a review — ideally right after you've completed something for them, such as after filing their annual accounts or submitting a return that resulted in a refund. At that moment, the appreciation is fresh. Also respond to every review, briefly and personally, because it shows there's a real person behind the practice. Asking manually takes time, and that's precisely where it tends to drop off when things get busy.

Staying visible without managing everything yourself

Each of these elements is straightforward on its own, but together they require ongoing attention. You're an accountant, not a website manager, and during peak season you have better things to do than update your Google profile and write location pages. That's where Beter Geregeld ICT comes in. You get a professional website with location pages for your service area, a Google Business Profile that's properly set up, consistent NAP details, and a system that automatically requests reviews after completed engagements. That way your local visibility stays strong — even when you're deep in quarterly figures and tax returns.

Want to see what that would look like for your practice? Request a free example with no obligation. Enter your business name and instantly see a preview of your own site, so you can judge for yourself whether it's a good fit.