SEO strategy example

SEO strategy example for a regional accounting firm

An SEO strategy for a professional services firm sets out which local and expertise-led searches the firm wants to be found for, and the pages, profiles and reputation it needs to earn them. It is owned by the marketing manager and agreed with the managing partner and the partners who lead each sector.

This is the Professional services version of the sEO strategy template.

Horizon: 1 year4 priorities · 10 outcomes

Use this template

What this sEO strategy template includes

ContextThe situation, the challenges to solve, and what is deliberately left out.
Current performanceWhere organic search stands today.
Keyword themesThe groups of searches to target and the page that should rank for each.
Technical prioritiesThe site issues that hold rankings back, in order of impact.
Content planThe pages to create, update or consolidate.
Links and authorityHow the site will earn links and mentions.
Priorities and measuresThree to five priorities, each with an owner, outcomes with a baseline and target, and the initiatives behind them.

Worked example

A complete sEO strategy for a fictional organization: accounting and tax advisory firm with three offices serving owner-managed businesses.

Worked exampleSEO strategy

Organization	Accounting and tax advisory firm with three offices serving owner-managed businesses (50 staff)
Ambition	Be the firm a contractor, practice owner or restaurant group in our three metro areas finds first, and win 30 new business clients a year from search.
Horizon	1 year

Context

Where we are and what we are choosing

The firm earns $8.4 million a year, most of it recurring fees from 1,100 business clients who pay an average of $6,900. Referrals from clients, banks and attorneys bring most new work. Of 95 business clients won last year, 14 came through the website. The site draws 6,200 organic visits a month, but 58% go to 140 general tax articles read mostly by individuals outside our region. It produces 46 enquiries a month and only 9 are from businesses we could serve. All 14 services share one page, there are no sector pages, and we appear in the map results for 3 of 30 local searches we track.

Challenges

There is no page for what we sell where we sell it. A contractor searching for an accountant in one of our cities finds firms with a construction page, an office page and 80 reviews. We have 15 reviews across three offices.
Four in five website enquiries are a poor fit, mostly individuals wanting a one-off tax return. Partners and managers lose about 20 hours a month to those calls and take a median 26 business hours to answer the good ones.
Partners hold the expertise that would set the site apart, and together they can give about 15 hours a month to it.

We will focus on

Local search in the three metro areas where we have an office: map results, office pages and reviews.
Three sectors where we already have depth and referenceable clients: construction contractors, dental and medical practices, and multi-location restaurants.
Enquiry quality over enquiry count. The measure is qualified business enquiries and the fees they turn into.

We will not

Tax news and deadline articles for individuals, although they bring most of today's traffic. The 140 existing articles will be cut to about 20.
Ranking in neighboring metros or nationally. Remote clients are possible, but every hour goes to the three areas where a partner can meet the owner.
Paid directory listings and lead marketplaces. Last year they sent 60 leads and 2 clients, and each lead still cost a partner a call.

Current performance

Monthly organic visits	6,200 a month. 3,600 land on general tax articles, mostly from outside our region. Only 1,150 come from the three metro areas to a service or office page.
Ranking keywords	1,900 keywords rank in the top 100 and 85 in the top 10, nearly all for tax articles. We are in the map results for 3 of 30 local searches and the organic top 10 for 4 of 60 sector and service searches.
Referring domains	140, mostly general business directories. The local firms that outrank us have between 300 and 500, including chambers, trade associations and local press.
Main weakness	No page matches what a business owner searches for. One page lists all 14 services, sectors are not mentioned, and the three office pages differ only by address.

Keyword themes

Theme	Search intent	Monthly searches	Target page
Accountant or CPA firm in each of our three cities	Local commercial	4,400	Three office pages and their Google business profiles
Sector accountant: construction, dental and medical, restaurant	Commercial	1,300	Three sector pages
Business services: outsourced controller, audit, tax planning, sale preparation	Commercial	2,100	Eight service pages
Sector questions, such as job costing or valuing a practice buy-in	Informational, asked by owners	5,500	Partner-written guides under each sector page
Firm and partner names	Navigational	900	Home page and partner profiles

Technical priorities

Split the single services page into eight service pages and three sector pages, each with its own title, a named partner, example engagements and an enquiry form.
Rebuild the three office pages with the team at that office, sectors served locally, directions and local business structured data.
Correct name, address and phone details on 40 directory listings that still show the address one office left in 2024, and merge the duplicate business profile for that office.
Replace the home page background video, which makes the mobile page take 5.1 seconds to show its main content. Target is under 2.5 seconds.
Replace the email link with an enquiry form that asks for business revenue, sector and service needed, and record every submission in the CRM with its landing page.
Give each of the nine partners and managers a profile page with credentials, sectors and the guides they wrote, marked up as a person and linked from those guides.

Content plan

Action	Pages	Why
Create	3 sector pages	Owners search for an accountant who knows their trade, and we have nothing that says we do
Create	8 service pages	One page for 14 services cannot rank for any of them; six services we do not want more of get no page
Update	3 office pages	Local results reward pages that are about a place, not an address swap
Create	24 sector guides, two a month	Answer the questions owners ask partners, in the partner's name
Consolidate	140 general tax articles into about 20	They attract individuals outside our region and feed unqualified enquiries
Update	9 partner and manager profiles	Buyers check who they will work with before they enquire

Links and authority

Approach	Ask for the links and reviews our existing relationships already justify: associations we belong to, events we sponsor and speak at, referral partners, and clients at the end of a good engagement. Partners offer commentary to local business press on sector topics.
Target sites	The state contractors association and its local chapters, dental and medical society chapters, the restaurant association, three chambers of commerce, local business journals, and the resource pages of banks and law firms that refer to us.
Monthly goal	4 new referring domains a month, at least 2 of them local or sector sites, and 6 new client reviews a month across the three office profiles.

Priorities and measures

Priority 1Owner: Marketing Manager

Appear when a local owner looks for an accountant

Local searches carry the clearest buying intent we can reach, and we show in the map results for 3 of 30. Office pages, accurate listings and reviews decide those results.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
Tracked local searches where an office appears in the map results	3 searches	18 searches	Q3 2027
Client reviews across the three office profiles	15 reviews	85 reviews	Q4 2027
Monthly organic visits from our three metro areas to service, sector and office pages	1,150 visits	2,200 visits	Q4 2027

Initiatives

Rebuild the three office pages and fix the 40 directory listings
Add a review request to the close-out step of every engagement
Post monthly updates and answer questions on each office's business profile

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Priority 2Owner: Sector Lead Partner

Show sector depth in the partners' own words

Our advantage is what partners know about contractors, practices and restaurants. That knowledge is in their heads and their client files, not on the site, and partner hours are limited.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
Tracked sector and service searches ranking in the top 10	4 searches	30 searches	Q4 2027
Referring domains from local and sector sites	22 domains	50 domains	Q4 2027

Initiatives

Publish three sector pages and eight service pages by the end of January, before the busiest months of tax season
Interview one partner for an hour each month and turn it into two guides the partner reviews
Request links from the 11 associations and events we already pay to belong to or sponsor
Cut the 140 general tax articles to 20 and redirect the rest

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Priority 3Owner: Client Services Director

Pass partners only enquiries worth a call

Most enquiries are a poor fit and the good ones wait more than three working days. Screening before a partner is involved protects partner time and gets good prospects a fast answer.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
Website enquiries that are qualified	20%	55%	Q3 2027
Qualified enquiries per month	9 enquiries	24 enquiries	Q4 2027
Median time to respond to a qualified enquiry	26 business hours	4 business hours	Q2 2027

Initiatives

Launch the enquiry form with revenue, sector and service fields
State who we work with and typical starting fees on service pages
Have the client services coordinator screen every enquiry and book qualified ones into a partner's calendar
Send individuals seeking a one-off return a polite referral to two local preparers

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Priority 4Owner: Managing Partner

Turn search into recurring fees

The website brought 14 of 95 new business clients last year. Search earns a place in the plan only if it adds clients of the size and kind the partners want.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
New business clients a year who first came through the website	14 clients	30 clients	Q4 2027
First-year fees from website-sourced clients	$71K	$210K	Q4 2027

Initiatives

Record the source and landing page of every new client in the CRM at engagement
Review won and lost website enquiries with the partners each month
Report fees by source at the quarterly partner meeting

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Blank sEO strategy template

The same structure with a prompt in every field. Copy it, or download it as a Word or Excel file.

Your planSEO strategy

Organization	[Describe your organization in a few words, with its size]
Ambition	[One sentence on where you want to be at the end of the plan]
Horizon	[How long the plan runs, for example 12 months]

Context

Where we are and what we are choosing

[Where things stand today: the facts that make this strategy necessary]

Challenges

[A problem the strategy has to solve]
[A problem the strategy has to solve]

We will focus on

[Something you are choosing to concentrate on]
[Something you are choosing to concentrate on]

We will not

[Something you are deliberately leaving out]
[Something you are deliberately leaving out]

Current performance

Monthly organic visits	[Your monthly organic visits]
Ranking keywords	[Your ranking keywords]
Referring domains	[Your referring domains]
Main weakness	[Your main weakness]

Keyword themes

Theme	Search intent	Monthly searches	Target page
[Theme]	[Search intent]	[Monthly searches]	[Target page]
[Theme]	[Search intent]	[Monthly searches]	[Target page]
[Theme]	[Search intent]	[Monthly searches]	[Target page]

Technical priorities

[A technical fix and the pages it affects]
[A technical fix and the pages it affects]
[A technical fix and the pages it affects]

Content plan

Action	Pages	Why
[Action]	[Pages]	[Why]
[Action]	[Pages]	[Why]
[Action]	[Pages]	[Why]

Links and authority

Approach	[Your approach]
Target sites	[Your target sites]
Monthly goal	[Your monthly goal]

Priorities and measures

Priority 1Owner: [Role accountable for this priority]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]

Initiatives

[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]

Priority 2Owner: [Role accountable for this priority]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]

Initiatives

[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]

Priority 3Owner: [Role accountable for this priority]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]

Initiatives

[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]

Priority 4Owner: [Role accountable for this priority]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]

Initiatives

[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]

How to adapt it

01
Define a qualified enquiry in one sentence the whole firm accepts, then count how many you received last quarter. That number is the baseline, not traffic.
02
List the places you can serve in person and the sectors where you can name five happy clients. Build pages only for those.
03
Budget fee-earner hours as carefully as money. Decide how many hours a month partners will give and plan content that fits inside them.
04
Give every office its own page, profile and review routine. Local results are won office by office.
05
Choose which services get a page by where you want more work, not by the list on your engagement letter.
06
Connect the enquiry form to the system where you record new clients so fees can be traced to the search that produced them.

How to run it

A plan only works if it is reviewed on a rhythm. This is the cadence the example assumes.

Check-in	Outcome owners update progress and confidence weekly.
Review	Priority owners review outcomes and unblock initiatives monthly.
Reset	Leadership revisits priorities and targets quarterly.

Tability keeps this cadence for you. Each priority becomes an objective, each outcome a key result with its baseline and target, and each initiative a tracked task. Owners get a check-in reminder and the plan shows what is on track.

Track this plan in Tability

Still comparing tools? See the 10 best strategy software tools.

Common mistakes

Publishing general explainers that rank nationally and bring enquiries from people the firm will never serve.
Counting form fills as leads without checking fit, which makes the site look productive while fee earners waste hours on calls.
Having a marketer or agency ghostwrite expert content with no input from the people who do the work.
Listing every service on one page and every office on another, so no page answers a specific local search.

Questions, answered.

What is different about SEO for a professional services firm?

SEO for a professional services firm is local and built on expertise. Search volumes are small, each client is worth thousands a year, and buyers check who the people are before they call. The work is office pages, reviews, sector and service pages and content written with the practitioners, measured by qualified enquiries.

How long does SEO take to work for an accounting or law firm?

Local results can improve within two to four months once office pages, listings and reviews are in order. Sector and service pages usually take six to nine months to rank. Because engagements take weeks to agree, fee income from search tends to show in the second half of a twelve-month plan.

Should a professional services firm publish blog articles?

Only articles that answer questions your target clients ask and that you can answer better than a general publisher. General explainers attract readers from everywhere and produce enquiries you cannot serve. Two specific guides a month, written with a partner and attached to a sector page, do more than weekly news posts.

How do you measure SEO for a professional services firm?

Measure qualified enquiries, new clients and first-year fees traced to search, then local visibility and rankings for sector and service terms. Total traffic is a weak signal because a small number of local visitors is worth more than thousands of readers elsewhere. Record the source of every new client when the engagement starts.

How many reviews does a professional services firm need?

There is no set number. Look at the firms that appear in the map results for your main local searches and aim to match their count and recency within a year. A steady flow matters more than a burst, so build the request into the end of every engagement.

SEO strategy example for a regional accounting firm

Get the Word file

What this sEO strategy template includes

Worked example

Context

Current performance

Keyword themes

Technical priorities

Content plan

Links and authority

Appear when a local owner looks for an accountant

Show sector depth in the partners' own words

Pass partners only enquiries worth a call

Turn search into recurring fees

Blank sEO strategy template

Context

Current performance

Keyword themes

Technical priorities

Content plan

Links and authority

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

Get the Word file

How to adapt it

How to run it

Common mistakes

Questions, answered.

What this sEO strategy template includes

Worked example

Appear when a local owner looks for an accountant

Show sector depth in the partners' own words

Pass partners only enquiries worth a call

Turn search into recurring fees

Blank sEO strategy template

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

How to adapt it

How to run it

Common mistakes

Questions, answered.

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