Asked in the US about accounting and bookkeeping firms, the engines read CPAverify and the state board registers and the IRS directory of federal tax return preparers first. The engines verify the CPA licence through the state board and CPAverify, the PTIN and EA credentials through the IRS directory, and the firm's registration in each state where it practises. Publish the fee structure: monthly bookkeeping tiers by transaction volume, the return price by entity type, the hourly rate for advisory, and what the onboarding costs.
What US buyers ask the engines about accounting and bookkeeping firms
The metro is in the sentence, and so is the brand, the licence or the size when the trade has one. Six of the questions the report puts to the four engines for an accounting firm in the United States:
| Kind | The question, as asked |
|---|---|
| Head term | best CPA firm in Denver for an S corp with 20 employees |
| Product | which accounting firms do R&D tax credit studies for software companies |
| Niche | CPA in Miami who handles multi-state sales tax for a Shopify seller |
| Comparison | a local CPA firm versus Bench or Pilot for monthly bookkeeping |
| Comparison | outsourced CFO versus a full time controller at $5 million revenue |
| Niche | CPA firm with construction industry experience for WIP schedules and bonding |
The US sources the engines read for accounting and bookkeeping firms
Asked without a country the engines assume the United States, so these are the pages they read by default. For accounting and bookkeeping firms:
| Source | What it decides |
|---|---|
| CPAverify and the state board registers | NASBA's CPAverify and each state board's lookup; a CPA claim is checked, and an unlicensed 'accountant' is answered differently |
| The IRS directory of federal tax return preparers | the PTIN, EA and CPA credential list, which the engines read for tax questions specifically |
| Rankings and review platforms | Accounting Today's Top 100 and regional lists, Clutch and the map pack for the small-firm questions |
| AICPA and state society membership | read as a credential, along with the practice-area sections for construction, healthcare and non-profit work |
| Your own service and niche pages | the entity types, the industries, the software, the fee structure and the state coverage, when they are stated plainly |
What the engines verify before they name you
The engines verify the CPA licence through the state board and CPAverify, the PTIN and EA credentials through the IRS directory, and the firm's registration in each state where it practises. Attest work adds the peer review. Non-CPA bookkeeping is answered as a different category entirely, which is worth knowing: an unlicensed firm competing for 'CPA' questions never wins them, and should be asking for the bookkeeping questions instead.
The same question, three Americas
The engines answer per metro, from pages that name it. How the questions differ across the country for this trade:
- The finance and startup metros: New York, San Francisco, Austin, Boston: R&D credits, equity compensation, multi-state and SaaS revenue questions.
- Florida and Texas: no state income tax, so the questions turn to entity structure, sales tax and residency; a high share of small-business and real estate questions.
- The rest of the country: the questions name the entity and the industry rather than the city, and a firm with an industry niche page wins them regardless of metro.
Spanish
Small-business tax questions arrive in Spanish at a significant rate in Florida, Texas, California and New York, and the field of Spanish-language CPA content is nearly empty. A Spanish page on entity setup and sales tax is quoted where it exists.
What to publish in dollars
Publish the fee structure: monthly bookkeeping tiers by transaction volume, the return price by entity type, the hourly rate for advisory, and what the onboarding costs. American buyers compare accounting firms to Bench and Pilot, which publish their prices, so a firm that does not publish is compared on nothing and named by nobody.
The names a US buyer already knows
Deloitte, RSM, BDO, CBIZ, Bench and Pilot at the small end: the names a buyer arrives with, and the ones the report's comparison questions are written against ('X alternatives', 'local versus X'). Whether the engines put them ahead of you, or in your place, is what the report measures, question by question, with the market set to the United States.
What a month of work looks like in the US
The Grow plan's goal for an accounting firm here: get named in the five entity-and-industry questions where a national bookkeeping service or a top-100 firm is named and you are not. The work starts with CPAverify and the state board registers, then the pages of yours the engines quote, per metro and, where the trade needs it, in Spanish, with a rescan on the same questions at month's end. The plans are priced on the home page.
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Questions
What do the engines check before naming an accounting firm in the US?
The engines verify the CPA licence through the state board and CPAverify, the PTIN and EA credentials through the IRS directory, and the firm's registration in each state where it practises.
Are these questions asked in Spanish?
Small-business tax questions arrive in Spanish at a significant rate in Florida, Texas, California and New York, and the field of Spanish-language CPA content is nearly empty. A Spanish page on entity setup and sales tax is quoted where it exists.
What price should be on the page?
Publish the fee structure: monthly bookkeeping tiers by transaction volume, the return price by entity type, the hourly rate for advisory, and what the onboarding costs. American buyers compare accounting firms to Bench and Pilot, which publish their prices, so a firm that does not publish is compared on nothing and named by nobody.
See who the engines name in the US
Your website, region and work email. The score appears in about three minutes, and the report is a link you keep.