CPA marketing that books year-round clients.
I have signed engagement letters from the operator side and called CPAs at 9pm on April 14. I know the difference between a year-round client and a tax-season scramble. Most independent CPA firms scramble for new clients in March then go quiet for nine months. We rebuild the service-specific page, the GBP signal, and the intake funnel so the small business owner Googling "CPA Burlingame quarterly bookkeeping" lands on a page that earns the recurring engagement, not just the one-time return.
Starting at $3,000 for the Year-Round Client Sprint. 30 to 45 days.
Sprint built for Bay Area CPA and accounting firms doing $300K to $5M in annual revenue.
Built by Eric Lee. 16 years F&B operations, $54M+ in annual P&L managed across BCD Tofu House, Gen Korean Barbecue, Sake2Me Sushi, and Obaba Fresh. Stateside team. Bay Area onsite for kickoff.
Five problems we see on every CPA and accounting firm we audit.
No service-specific pages
Your site has a single Services page. Tax prep, bookkeeping, payroll, audit defense, business formation, all stacked together. None of those terms rank because the page sells five services at once.
GBP category is just "Accountant"
Specific categories (Tax preparation service, Bookkeeping service, Business management consultant) drive the high-intent commercial queries. The generic category does not.
No pricing or engagement ranges
Small business owners want to know whether your $300/mo bookkeeping retainer or $3,000 quarterly engagement fits their budget before they fill out the contact form. CPA firms that publish engagement ranges convert better than those that hide them.
Review velocity is one per quarter
Top Bay Area CPA firms get 4 to 8 reviews per month. Most independents get 1 to 2 per quarter. New clients looking for a CPA see the gap, scroll to the firm with recent reviews, call them instead.
Intake form does not qualify
Form asks for name, email, message. Then you call back and find out the prospect wanted a $200 personal return when you serve $300/mo retainer clients. A 3-question qualifying form (revenue range, entity type, primary need) saves your time and theirs.
Who this is built for.
- Bay Area CPA or accounting firms doing $300K to $5M in annual revenue
- Owner-CPA or small partner firms (1 to 5 partners) without a marketing director
- Firms specializing in SMB recurring engagements (not just tax-season return prep)
- Firms competing against H&R Block and TurboTax on personal returns
- Firms in Peninsula, South Bay, or East Bay corridors
Diagnose. Build. Compound.
Diagnose
3-Point Visibility Audit identifies what is leaking in local presence, website conversion, and missed opportunity. 1 page. 48 hours. No sales call.
Build
The $3,000 Sprint ships the conversion-focused page, the GBP cleanup, the intake automation, and the local SEO. Kickoff to launch in 30 to 45 days.
Compound
Matched Maintenance keeps the work compounding. Monthly GBP Posts, review responses, citation checks, one site update. Month-to-month. No contract.
Year-Round Client Sprint, $3,000.
Pick ONE service path (small business tax + bookkeeping retainer, individual high-income tax, S-corp / LLC formation, or specialty like real estate investor or restaurant operator accounting) and we build the conversion-focused page plus the GBP and local SEO that surfaces it. Cross-mentions for other services are allowed in supporting copy. The page sells one outcome.
What's included.
- One conversion-focused service page (your chosen path)
- Qualifying intake form (3 to 5 questions, fits revenue range, entity type, primary need)
- Mobile optimization (tap-to-call, click-to-text, sticky header)
- GBP service list cleanup: correct categories, services, hours, photos
- Local SEO targeting "[city] [service]" terms (CPA Burlingame, tax planner Mountain View)
- Engagement range block (transparent ranges build trust, not specific quotes)
- Trust content block (years in practice, CPA license, EA credentials, specialty certifications, AICPA or CalCPA membership)
- Review display anchored from GBP
- Call and form tracking
What's not included.
- Tax software changes (we connect to QuickBooks, Drake, Lacerte, or your existing stack)
- Workflow automation (Karbon, Canopy, etc.)
- Paid ads (Google for CPA is a separate retainer)
- E-filing or e-signature setup
Fixed price. Fixed timeline (30 to 45 days). No retainer required. Add Maintenance after, or don't.
After the Sprint: monthly maintenance.
Recommended for CPA and accounting firms: Standard Maintenance, $397/mo.
Standard Maintenance after the Sprint covers ongoing GBP Posts (2 per month with tax-season prep notes, quarterly filing reminders, and SMB content), review responses (up to 10 per month), citation health checks, and one site update per month. Most Bay Area CPA firms stay here long-term.
See the full Maintenance ladder →What this looks like in practice.
Real outcome bands vary by service mix, target client, and competitive density. What we can defend: a Peninsula CPA firm moved from roughly 6 inbound new-client inquiries per month (mostly January through April) to a tracked year-round inquiry flow with documented monthly velocity in the first 90 days. We rebuilt the SMB-bookkeeping page, added the qualifying intake form, and fixed the GBP categories. Your numbers will depend on your specialty and your competitive set.
Why an operator runs your CPA and accounting firm marketing.
Eric has run financial operations at scale, $54M+ in annual P&L across BCD Tofu House, Gen Korean Barbecue, Sake2Me Sushi, and Obaba Fresh. That means we know what it is like to call a CPA at 9pm on April 14, why most generic accounting sites do not earn trust from a small business owner with a real problem, and how to write the intake form that qualifies the right recurring engagement instead of attracting the $200 personal return. Most agencies write CPA pages for firms they have never hired. We have signed the engagement letter on the operator side.
What Bay Area CPA firms say.
"We used to live and die on the January-to-April rush. SEOD built our SMB bookkeeping retainer page and the qualifying intake form, and now we get steady year-round inquiries from the kind of clients we actually want. Recurring revenue is up significantly."
Small business CPA firm, Burlingame
"Generic CPA sites do not signal specialty. SEOD built our real estate investor tax page with the specific scenarios our clients face (1031 exchanges, cost segregation, passive loss rules). Right-fit inquiries started coming in within the first month."
Real estate investor CPA, Mountain View
"Our intake form used to attract personal returns we did not want. SEOD added a qualifying question (annual revenue range) and the inquiries flipped almost overnight. We are spending less time on bad-fit calls and more on actual engagements."
Tax planner, Palo Alto
What we don’t do.
No annual contracts.
Month-to-month on Maintenance after the Sprint. 30 days notice. Cancel any time.
No offshore handoffs.
Stateside team. Bay Area onsite for Sprint kickoff. You text Eric directly.
No ranking guarantees.
We work toward results we can defend with screenshots and reports, not numbers we made up to win the call.
See what we'd change first.
The Free 3-Point Visibility Audit gives you a 1-page read on your local presence (GBP), website conversion (the page itself), and the highest-margin service that has no dedicated page. Delivered within 48 hours. No sales call.
Questions Bay Area CPA firms ask.
Which service path should I pick for the Sprint?
Pick the service with the highest LTV recurring engagement and the most local intent. For most SMB-focused firms that is small business tax plus bookkeeping retainer. For specialty firms (real estate, restaurant, professional services) it is the specialty. We will audit your client mix, your top three competitors' GBPs, and your engagement margins on the consult call.
Can you guarantee new clients?
No. We cannot promise specific volume because seasonality (heavy January through April), local competition, and your intake response time drive that. What we can defend: a clean service-specific page with a qualifying intake form typically produces a measurable lift in tracked inquiries within 60 to 90 days.
What about IRS Circular 230 compliance on the page?
We follow Circular 230 on every page. No claims we cannot back, no "guaranteed maximum refund" language, no fee-percentage-based-on-refund framing. We will send a compliance review to your firm's PIC before publishing.
Do you do Google Ads for CPA?
Not in the Sprint. CPA Google Ads is expensive and competitive (often $30 to $80 CPC in Bay Area). We focus organic and GBP first. If you want paid on top, that lives on the Get Busy tier ($1,997/mo) or as a separate retainer. Ad spend billed direct to your card.
How do I publish engagement ranges without scaring prospects off?
We use range framing ("$300 to $800/mo for SMB bookkeeping retainer depending on transaction volume") instead of point pricing. Range framing converts better than "contact for pricing" and weeds out the wrong-fit prospects automatically. Right-fit prospects appreciate the transparency.
Do you require a 12-month contract?
No. The Sprint is a one-time fixed fee. Maintenance is month-to-month with 30 days notice. Cancel anytime.
Still reading? Get the audit.
One page. 48 hours. No sales call. We will tell you which service path is leaking the most year-round clients before you spend another dollar on marketing.
Get my audit, 48-hour turnaround →