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SEO-led website design & local SEO strategy for a Chartered accountancy firm

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Melanie Curtis Accountants needed a stronger website and local SEO foundations to support future growth. Targeted SEO delivered an SEO-led WordPress website, technical SEO and local search strategy, helping the site build visibility in local accountancy searches.

local accountant website design and seo
AI Overview appearances
57
Tracked keywords in the top 10
260
Tracked keywords in position 1
77
761k+ Google Search impressions
203

Project overview

Melanie Curtis Accountants came to Targeted SEO with a brand that had potential, but needed stronger foundations.

The existing site had some organic visibility and an established domain, but performance was declining. The website needed to work harder as a marketing asset, not just as an online brochure. It also needed a clearer structure, stronger local SEO signals and a better platform for future content growth.

For accountancy firms, this matters. Most potential clients are not just looking for any accountant. They are often searching locally, comparing firms by trust, expertise, service fit and location. A website needs to demonstrate credibility quickly, explain services clearly and support local visibility across the areas the firm wants to attract clients from.

Our work with Melanie Curtis Accountants focused on building those foundations through SEO-led website design, technical SEO, content optimisation, local search strategy and ongoing reporting.

About Melanie Curtis Accountants

Melanie Curtis Accountants is an accountancy firm supporting individuals, business owners and companies with a range of accountancy and tax services.

The firm already had a recognisable brand and existing search presence, but the website needed to better reflect the quality of the business. It also needed to support local searches across Berkshire and surrounding areas, including Wokingham, Bracknell, Slough and Reading.

This meant the website needed to balance professional credibility with practical conversion points, making it easy for users to understand the firm’s services and take the next step.

The Challenge

The original domain was in a position where SEO could help, but the foundations needed strengthening first.

At the proposal stage, the site had a domain rating of 19 and 428 keywords indexed in organic search. This gave us something to work with, but organic traffic appeared to be declining and keywords had dropped.

The website needed more than simple updates to page titles and meta descriptions. To support long-term growth, it needed a more complete rebuild and SEO strategy.

The main challenges included:

  • An existing website that needed redesigning and redeveloping
  • Declining organic traffic
  • A need for stronger local SEO visibility
  • A need for improved technical SEO and on-page optimisation
  • Clearer service and location page structure
  • Better user journeys and calls to action
  • Improved tracking and reporting
  • A need to support future content growth.

For an accountancy firm, local visibility is particularly important. Searches such as “accountants in Wokingham”, “accountants Bracknell”, “accountants in Berkshire” or “accountant Reading” can carry strong commercial intent. The strategy therefore needed to help the website appear for relevant local and service-led searches.

Our Combined Website & SEO Approach

We recommended a fully outsourced website & SEO management approach.

This meant Targeted SEO would not only build the new website, but also support the ongoing SEO strategy, website management, content optimisation, hosting, reporting and consultancy.

The strategy covered:

  • SEO-led WordPress website design
  • Website development on a dedicated hosting environment
  • Technical SEO setup
  • Google Analytics and Google Search Console integration
  • Keyword research and topical search analysis
  • Content writing and optimisation
  • On-page optimisation
  • Local SEO
  • Google Business Profile considerations
  • Ongoing reporting and performance reviews
  • Website care, maintenance and support.

The goal was to create a professional accountancy website that could support local search visibility and future SEO growth.

SEO-Led WordPress Website Design & Development

The first priority was the new website. We designed and developed a bespoke WordPress CMS website that better reflected Melanie Curtis Accountants’ brand and professional positioning. The website needed to feel credible, clear and easy to use, while also being built with SEO in mind from the start.

This included planning the page structure, improving the user journey, creating clearer calls to action and ensuring the site could support future service and location pages. This created a stronger foundation than simply continuing to patch the previous website.

Local SEO for Accountants

Local SEO was one of the most important parts of the campaign. Melanie Curtis Accountants needed visibility across relevant local searches, including Wokingham, Bracknell, Slough, Reading and Berkshire-related terms.

The strategy focused on improving local landing pages and supporting the website’s relevance for location-based accountancy searches.

Google Search Console data showed visibility building across a wide range of local searches. This was important because local accountancy searches often indicate a user who is actively comparing firms and may be closer to making an enquiry.

SEO Content & Service Page Foundations

Alongside local SEO, the website also needed stronger service and content foundations. The work included a long-term SEO strategy with human-written content, content ideation, page optimisation and content publishing. The goal was to build a site that could grow over time, rather than relying only on the homepage or a small number of generic pages.

During the SEO campaign, newer service pages began gaining impressions, even where clicks had not yet followed. This suggested the pages were starting to move into stronger positions, where further optimisation and time could turn visibility into traffic.

The November 2025 reporting also highlighted that information-led keywords were beginning to show potential. This created an opportunity for future content to support service pages, improve indexing and align with wider marketing activity such as newsletters.

Tracking, Reporting & Conversion Optimisation

The campaign also included monthly SEO reporting and analysis. Tracking was important because the website needed to support more than visibility. It needed to help users take action, whether through contact forms, discovery calls or Calendly interactions. In the final reporting period, organic users were more engaged. The reporting also showed increased activity on website forms and improved Calendly interaction.

SEO performance is not only about traffic volume. For an accountancy firm, more engaged users and stronger enquiry behaviour can be more valuable than attracting a larger number of less relevant visitors.

The results

AI SEO, Local SEO and Website Performance Results

This project was primarily about launching a stronger website and building the SEO foundations Melanie Curtis Accountants needed for long-term growth.

The original website had some existing authority, but organic traffic was declining and the site needed a clearer structure, stronger technical setup, improved local landing pages and better optimisation across service-led content.

Following the new website launch and SEO work, the site began to build a much broader search footprint across accountancy, bookkeeping, local and business support-related searches.

One of the strongest outcomes was visibility across AI-influenced search results. Our SEO software showed the website appearing in AI Overview results for 57 tracked keyword opportunities, including queries related to payroll, startup accounting, limited company accountancy services, family business accounting, bookkeeping for contractors and questions to ask when hiring an accountant.

This is important because AI SEO is becoming a bigger part of how professional service firms are discovered. For accountants, it is no longer only about traditional blue-link rankings. The website also needs to provide clear, structured and trustworthy information that Google and AI-powered search systems can understand, summarise and reference.

The AI Overview visibility was particularly encouraging because it was not limited to one narrow topic. The site appeared across a wider mix of commercial, local and advice-led queries, including:

Local SEO also became one of the strongest areas of performance. The website achieved strong visibility for high-intent local accountancy searches, including Wokingham, Bracknell, Berkshire, Slough and Reading-related terms. These are commercially valuable because users searching in this way are often actively comparing accountancy firms in their area.

Google Search Console also showed the website building a broader search footprint, with 761,447 impressions and 3,307 organic clicks across the latest available export (June 2026). The site recorded 203 queries averaging page one positions and 419 queries averaging top 20 positions.

The final monthly reporting also showed that local pages and branded content were trending positively, with Bracknell and Slough seeing strong visibility growth. Although some of these pages were still maturing and not yet generating high click volumes, the increase in impressions suggested that the website was moving into stronger search positions where clicks were more likely to follow.

From a conversion perspective, the campaign also showed positive signs. Organic Search users were more engaged in the final reporting period, form submissions increased and Calendly activity improved. This suggested the new website was attracting a more relevant audience, even while the wider SEO campaign was still developing.

Targeted SEO created us an amazing website! We are so thrilled with it! It’s wonderful working with Targeted SEO, fantastic, friendly, approachable and knowledgeable team. Would highly recommend if you are looking for a new website or SEO services!

Melanie Curtis

Key SEO outcomes included:

  • A new SEO-led WordPress website for Melanie Curtis Accountants
  • Stronger technical SEO foundations
  • Improved local SEO visibility across Wokingham, Bracknell, Berkshire, Slough and Reading
  • 57 AI Overview appearances across tracked keywords
  • 260 tracked keywords ranking in the top 10
  • 408 tracked keywords ranking in the top 20
  • 77 tracked keywords ranking in position 1
  • 761,447 Google Search impressions
  • 3,307 organic clicks
  • Review-related SERP features appearing across 870 tracked keyword entries
  • Stronger visibility for local and service-led accountancy searches
  • Improved engagement from Organic Search users
  • Increased form and Calendly activity
  • A stronger foundation for future accountant SEO and AI SEO growth.

This made the website a much stronger long-term asset. The campaign did not run long enough to fully mature, but it successfully created the foundations needed for traditional SEO, local SEO and AI search visibility.

What Made This Project Successful?

The success of this project came from focusing on the right foundations first. Rather than simply adding more content to an existing website, the project began with a new SEO-led website designed to support future growth. That gave Melanie Curtis Accountants a stronger platform for search visibility, local SEO and lead generation.

For accountancy firms, this is especially important. A website needs to build trust quickly, explain services clearly and show relevance to local searches. It also needs the technical foundations to support ongoing SEO, content and conversion improvements.

The campaign created those foundations. Local pages began gaining visibility, important local keywords achieved strong average positions, and user engagement from organic search improved.

Need SEO or web design for your accounting firm?

Accountancy websites need to do more than look professional.

They need to build trust, explain services clearly, support local visibility and convert the right visitors into enquiries. For many firms, that means combining SEO-led website design with an ongoing content and local SEO strategy.

At Targeted SEO in Southampton, we help accountants and accountancy firms build websites designed for long-term organic growth. Our work combines SEO strategy, WordPress web design, technical SEO, content planning, on-page optimisation, local SEO, reporting and ongoing website support.

Read more about our SEO for accountants service, or explore our web design for accountants service.

Related services

AI SEO Agency Services

AI SEO is the next stage of search and vital to maximise your company’s online visibility. We’re firmly in the AI era, and search trends have changed. At Targeted SEO, we’ve observed, analysed, and acted over the past few years, making AI-driven search a core part of our 360 SEO approach.

SEO-friendly Website Design and Development

Our WordPress CMS websites have SEO best practices built in from the start to grow your company's online presence, drive traffic, and help generate leads. But our sites do so much more besides that - they are designed to enhance your brand, complement your goals, and grow with your business.

Local SEO

If you are competing on a local level, then local SEO is crucial in helping customers find your business - before they find your competitors. We can help you dominate local business searches using tried and tested local SEO techniques.

B2B SEO Agency

Is your B2B business struggling to gain the online visibility it needs? At Targeted SEO we specialise in business to business SEO services, by partnering with us we can transform your company’s online presence, helping you attract qualified leads, increase targeted organic traffic, and achieve measurable long-term growth.

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  • Targeted SEO recently moved my website from Wix to Wordpress. Very smooth transition with no issues at all. They also completed a full rebrand of my business and captured my vision completely! Very professional looking site with great feedback from our clients already. Friendly team, very quick to respond to requests, I look forward to working with you guys on the SEO going forwards!

    James Wheeler @ Jameco Group
  • Have been using Targeted SEO for a number of years and have always found them to be excellent at communication and the results are fantastic.

    Amanda Marsden @ Bliss Financial
  • Ben and the team are fantastic. They are highly knowledgeable, skilled and go above and beyond to meet their client's needs. A personal approach with a can do attitude. I would strongly recommend their services and have introduced them to a number of personal and business contacts.

    Matthew Gair @ Approved Accounting
  • We have worked with Targeted SEO for a number of years now and highly recommend them. They have contributed towards the growth of our business (over 600 clients and counting) through their effective SEO and web design service. They also successfully managed the rebranding of our company website so no rankings and traffic were lost, developed a local SEO campaign and continue to provide a valuable marketing service to our business.

    Jeri Williams @ Smooth Accounting
  • We have been working with Ben and his team now for sometime and the results they have delivered has surpassed our expectation and really wowed us with their know how and service. We conducted a review with them and the results were yet again really great so we don't see their fees as a cost we see it as an investment in our business and is great value for money.

    Steven Blofield @ Redwood Financial