Anonymised and sector-framed. Figures are the client’s own, reported the same way each month, and shown here with their permission.
This accountancy practice was well regarded by the clients it already had, but that reputation never reached anyone searching for a new accountant. It sat at an average position of 41.8, effectively page four, where almost no one looks. The generic terms that might have brought in work were held tightly by larger, longer-established competitors, so simply chasing the same head keywords was never going to move the needle. The firm needed a different route into the market, one built around how people actually search now, including the questions they put to AI assistants rather than a search box.
Reputation the town already trusted, finally showing up where people now ask their questions.
We started with intent, not keywords
Rather than fight for broad, generic terms already owned by bigger firms, we mapped what people were genuinely trying to do when they looked for help. For an accountancy practice that means a spread of specific, high-intent moments: someone stuck on a self assessment, a sole trader unsure what they can claim, a small company weighing up its options. We built the content strategy around those real questions and the language people use to ask them, which gave us ground we could actually win rather than ground we would only ever rent.
We rebuilt the pages around the questions people ask AI
Search increasingly runs through assistants that want a clear, well-structured answer, not a brochure. We restructured the site so each page answered one real question directly and completely, with the sort of plain, specific wording an AI can lift and cite. Clean headings, self-contained answers, and properly marked-up content meant the firm became quotable, which is what earns a place in an AI response rather than a distant organic listing.
We fixed the technical foundations
None of the content work pays off if the pages cannot be crawled, understood and trusted. We worked through the technical layer so the site was clean, fast and unambiguous: sound structure, correct canonicals, sensible internal linking and schema that describes the practice and its services accurately. That gave both search engines and assistants a firm the reason to treat the site as a credible, primary source.
We built topical depth around the firm's real expertise
Four senior practitioners with no juniors means genuine depth, and we let that show. We grouped the content into clusters around the areas the firm actually knows best, so each answer sat inside a wider body of related, connected pages. That depth signals authority to search engines and gives an AI assistant a coherent source to draw on, which is what lifts a small practice above thin, generic competitors.
We monitored AI answers and kept iterating
Visibility in AI search is not something you set once. We tracked where the firm was being surfaced, watched how positions moved, and kept refining the pages that were closest to breaking through. That feedback loop is how a question like help with a tax return went from invisible to the answer the assistant reaches for.
The shift from average position 41.8 to 15.8 is the whole story in one number. Moving off page four and into contention is what turned impressions into clicks, and it happened precisely because we stopped competing on generic head terms and started answering specific, high-intent questions the firm was genuinely qualified to own.
That repositioning drove impressions up 77% as the site began surfacing for the questions people actually ask, and organic clicks up 87% as those better-matched impressions converted into visits. Reaching #1 for AI help with a tax return shows the same principle at the sharp end: a clearly structured, authoritative answer became the one an assistant picks, which is where a small practice can outrank far larger competitors.