Marketing for accountants: how firms get found in Google and AI answers

Good marketing for accountants does three jobs. It makes your firm easy to find when someone searches for the help you offer, easy to verify when a referral checks you out, and easy to choose over the two or three other firms they are comparing. In 2026 that means showing up in Google's results and map pack, and in AI answers from ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, with a clear specialism and proof you can back up. For most practices, a focused search presence plus a system for reviews and referrals beats a scattered mix of social posts, newsletters and ads.

I will focus on the search and AI side here, because it is where I see the biggest gap between effort and results in accountancy firms.

How do new clients find an accountant now?

Mostly the same ways as before, with a new step in the middle.

A business owner gets a referral, or decides they have outgrown their current accountant. Then they check. Increasingly, that check happens in Google or in an AI assistant: "what do you know about [firm name]?", "best accountants for contractors in Leeds", "is it worth switching accountants mid-year?".

That is why your search presence matters even if most of your work comes from referrals. A referral who searches your name and finds a thin website, a Google profile with three reviews from 2021 and an AI answer that describes you as "a general accountancy practice" may not call.

How do accountancy firms show up in AI answers?

When someone asks ChatGPT a question that needs current information, it searches the web and cites what it uses. OpenAI's help page says it sometimes partners with other search providers, including Microsoft. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode build answers from pages already in Google's index; Google's documentation says there are no additional requirements to appear beyond being indexed and eligible to show with a snippet.

Google also describes how AI Mode works: it breaks a question into subtopics and runs many searches at once. It says early AI Mode users asked questions two or three times longer than traditional searches. So "accountant" becomes "accountant for a limited company that has just registered for VAT and uses Xero". Firms with specific pages for specific situations have an advantage.

From what we see, the practices that get named in AI answers tend to share four traits:

1. A clear specialism, stated the same way on their site, Google profile and directory listings.
2. Dedicated pages for each service and client type, each opening with a direct answer.
3. Named advisers with qualifications visible on the page.
4. Sources. Links to HMRC, Companies House or gov.uk guidance where rules are explained. The GEO study presented at KDD 2024 found citing sources, adding quotations and adding statistics were the most effective ways to raise a page's visibility in AI answers.

And a practical one: OpenAI's crawler documentation says sites that block OAI-SearchBot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers". Check your robots.txt.

Which marketing channels are worth it for an accountancy practice?

Here is how I would rank them for a typical small to mid-sized UK practice. Your mix will differ.

On reviews, Google's own local ranking help page says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence, and that "more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking."

How should an accountancy firm measure marketing?

The same way you would advise a client to measure any spend: by what it returns.

Traffic is a poor guide now. Pew Research found that when a Google AI summary appeared, people clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits, against 15% without one. Your guides may be read inside the AI answer, not on your site.

Track instead:

• New enquiries each month, by service and client type
• The source of each (ask on the form and on the first call)
• Engagements won, and their annual fee value
• The ratio of enquiries to engagements by channel
• How often your firm is named for your niche questions in ChatGPT, AI Mode and Perplexity

You already know how to do this. It is a small management account for your own marketing.

From our work

A UK practice we reviewed in September 2026 specialises in accounts for doctors and GP surgeries, which is exactly the kind of niche that should win. It sat 10th for "accountants for doctors" and 8th for "gp surgery accountants near me", two searches made about 3,900 times a month between them, and got roughly 40 visits a month from its medical pages. A GP practice tends to stay with its accountant for years, so each of those missed clicks is worth far more than it looks.

What we'd do in your first 30 days

1. Pick the growth niche. Two or three client types you want more of, based on fee value and capacity.
2. Test the questions. Ten questions per niche, run in Google, ChatGPT and AI Mode. Record who gets named and which pages are cited.
3. Fix the basics. Crawler access, Google Business Profile categories and services, professional body directory listings, partner bios.
4. Build two niche pages properly. Answer first, named adviser, what is included, real questions answered, official sources linked.
5. Start tracking. "How did you hear about us?" on every enquiry route, AI referrals grouped in Google Analytics (OpenAI says ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to referral links), and a monthly count of engagements by source.

Our accountants page explains how we work with practices, and our AI search page covers the wider approach.

Checklist

• Clear specialism, worded the same everywhere
• Dedicated page per niche and service
• Named advisers and qualifications on each page
• Official sources linked where rules are explained
• Google Business Profile reviewed and reviews requested after each year-end
• Referral partners briefed on your specialism
• OAI-SearchBot allowed; Bing Webmaster Tools verified
• Engagements tracked by source each month

FAQ

What is the best marketing for a small accountancy firm?

For most, a clear specialism, a small number of strong niche pages, a well-kept Google Business Profile and active referral partners. That combination works in Google, in AI answers and in word of mouth.

Do accountants need social media?

LinkedIn from named partners helps confirm who you are and what you do. Beyond that, it depends on your niche. It is rarely the first thing I would fix.

Can ChatGPT recommend an accountancy firm?

Yes. When it searches the web it names firms and cites sources. Whether yours appears depends on crawler access, how clearly your pages answer the question and whether other sites describe you consistently.

How much should an accountancy firm spend on marketing?

That depends on what a new client is worth to you and how many you can take on. We talk through the numbers on a call rather than publish a formula.

See how clients find you

Want more revenue from Google and ChatGPT? Enter your website at our free Search Check. Our team reviews every site and you hear back within one working day.