How to rank first on Google for the keyword ‘accountants London’.
When targeting a keyword in SEO, it’s essential to analyse the SEO strategy of the top ranking website. This way we can determined exactly what is needed to take their number one position.
With 1,900 searches each month and significant commercial value, this term is a goldmine for accountants looking to attract new clients online.
Table of Contents
The first result is a directory called Unbiased, but as this isn’t an accountancy firm, the real leader in the accountancy space is Perrys Charted Accountants.
Their strong position at number two highlights a well-executed strategy that’s worth exploring.
So, let’s breakdown how they did it.
The brand
Name: Perrys Chartered Accountants
About: Perrys Chartered Accountants is an accountancy practice with seven branches in London and Kent. They offer a range of services, including tax planning, advice on tax planning and inheritance tax, preparing accounts for HMRC and Companies House
Corporate finance, advice on business valuations, refinancing, and capital raising and more.
Domain: perrysaccountants.co.uk
First seen: June 12, 2003.
Current SEO performance
Perrys have good SEO performance, with a decent presence in the accountancy space.
Key Metrics
- Organic Keywords Ranking: 5,080
- Perrys rank for over 5,000 keywords, with the majority being beyond page 3.
- Estimated Traffic: 4,000 monthly visits
- SEMRush estimated 4,000 monthly visits, which could be higher with more page 1 positions.
- Traffic Value: $6,300
- The estimated monthly cost of acquiring this traffic through paid ads is a decent number, but could be much higher with stronger visibility.
Brand vs Non-Brand Traffic
- Brand Traffic: 9.8% (13 keywords)
- Perrys has good brand recognition, with their main brand term ‘perrys charted accountants’ gaining 290 searches per month.
- Non-Brand Traffic: 90.2% (5,067 keywords)
- The majority of their traffic comes from non-branded keywords, highlighting excellent potential for organic search.
Notable High-Performing Keywords
- “Chartered Accounts”: Ranked 8th (4,400 monthly searches)
- “Tax Accountant”: Ranked 9th (1,900 monthly searches)
- “Accountant for Small Business”: Ranked 7th (720 monthly searches)
These positions demonstrate authority within the accountancy space, although there is definitely room for improvement.
Underperforming Keywords
- “Accounting Firms”: Ranked 98th (3,600 monthly searches)
- “Bookkeeper”: Ranked 92nd (3,600 monthly searches)
- “Tax Advisor”: Ranked 79th (2,900 monthly searches)
These are national based searches, but an increase in rankings for these keywords would be a high indication of authority that would increase many more keyword positions.
Landing page assessment
Perrys have a professional looking website, however, it appears a bit dated and relies heavily on SEO copy and text.
Above the Fold
The hero section immediately sets the tone, with a clear, keyword targeted headline, ‘London Accountants and Tax Advisors’, along with an image of a London street. It’s clean and relevant, but missing a call-to-action. A button, like ‘Book a Consultation,’ would help grab attention right away.
Scrolling down, we see an accreditation and a ‘Free Initial Consultation’ offer. This is a good section, but the phone number and CTA would be better placed above the fold.
Middle Section
Next, we have a team section. Photos of team members along with their names and titles is a great way to humanise the firm. However, the layout feels a bit cramped—and there is too much accompanying text.
Beneath this is a section with more text breaking down different audiences. This also feels text-heavy and could be better segmented with icons or images.
We then have a contact form. It’s simple and functional, but, the CTA could be stronger—something like ‘Get Started’ could make it more inviting.
A testimonial slider is a nice touch for adding credibility, but again, it feels a bit underwhelming.
As we move further down, we have the core services. The visual tiles are clear and easy to navigate, but the descriptions are fairly generic. Highlighting benefits or solutions could make this section more engaging.
London-Specific Content
They have a section around the middle of the page dedicated to London specific service. Each section has images of landmarks like The Shard reinforcing the London connection. But the text is quite dense and SEO heavy. It’s not really clear about its purpose, apart from it being there for SEO. Breaking this section into smaller chunks or adding design elements would improve readability.
It’s great to see location-specific content, with images of landmarks like The Shard reinforcing the London connection. But the text here is quite dense and not clear about its purpose. Breaking text into smaller chunks or adding design elements would improve readability.
Services and Benefits
Further down, we see sections for additional services like tax planning, auditing, and corporate finance. This showcases expertise across a range of client needs. However, it remains text-heavy, and icons or visual elements could make it easier to digest.
A ‘Why Work With Us’ section highlights benefits like ‘experts in multiple sectors’, and ‘we work with clients of all sizes’, but again it could be stronger and more visually appealing.
Footer
Finally, we reach the footer. It’s packed with useful information—contact details, branch locations, and professional accreditations. This is great for navigation and has all the necessary E-E-A-T requirements, however, it feels a bit cluttered and a more streamlined layout would improve user experience.
Content strategy
High-quality, content is one of the more important parts of SEO. It helps build authority and relevance, attracting users through organic search.
Perrys have a range of content on their website. They have core service pages, as well as pages for sectors, targeting different audiences. They have pages for each of their seven branches.
They also have a number of different pages dedicated to calculators, to provide a helpful resource for users. These include calculators for fuel costs, mortgages, VAT and more.
They have a news section, with around 320 posts offering information and advice around accountancy and finance. They have 63 staff member pages, with profiles of each accountant.
Volume
- Total Indexed Pages: 698
- Although this seems a lot of pages, the website has been around for over 20 years, so it is a relatively modest number..
- Total Word Count: 398,578
- 398,578 words across 698 pages is an average word count of 571 words per page. This seems like it could be an indication of thin content, and indeed, some of there pages have very little content. Too many thin pages could trigger issues with Google’s Helpful Content updates.
Relevance
Keyword usage across titles, headers, and body text is the biggest indication of relevance. When developing an SEO strategy, one of the first things we should do is assess the relevance of the websites we are competing with. This gives us a strong indication of how much relevant content we need to create.
“Accountants” appears in 212 page titles, 30.37% of the website
“London” is included in 22 page titles, 3.15% of the website.
Headers and Body Text:
The keyword “Accountants,” is found extensively across H1 and H2 headings and within the the body text. This will provide strong relevance of core term related to their service.
“London” appears less frequently in the body text at 0.68% of total.
Multimedia Content
Videos: 2 (0.29% of total pages)
By only having two videos on the website, they are missing an opportunity to build on their engagement rates. Video is proven to increase engagement, and according to Wyzowl, 91% of businesses use video in their marketing.
Images: 4530 (649% of total pages)
They have an average of less than 7 images per page. Included in this is their logo and social media icons, so they are not using imagery as much as would be ideal.
E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness)
Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) is essential in SEO, especially for industries where accuracy, credibility, and professionalism are critical.
The keyword accountants, could be considered a YMYL search by Google, so experience expertise authority and trust is important.
E-E-A-T signals within Content
Including E-E-A-T signals within content helps demonstrate to Google that your brand and website are trustworthy and credible. Signals such as professional credentials, client testimonials, affiliations, and citations to credible sources help demonstrate expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.
Academic/Professional Credentials
- With 5,764 mentions (1.45% of total word count), Perrys are clearly highlighting academic qualifications and professional titles. Most of these are probably coming from their staff pages and they could expand mentions throughout other sections of their website.
Content Quality Signals
- Phrases associated with thorough, researched content (e.g., “evidence-based,” “data-driven”) appear 715 times (0.18% of total word count). This low number means the website probably lacks content that has been highly researched and fact checked.
Professional Association Signals
- Mentions of affiliations with respected industry organisations total 1235 (0.31% of total word count). These references help build authority but could be more prominent to further strengthen credibility.
Authority and Trust Signals
- Keywords and phrases related to trustworthiness (e.g., “trusted advisors,” “approved by”) occur 1090 times (0.27% of total word count). While present, this could be expanded to better underline authority.
Experience Signals
- Experience-based indicators are lacking. They have testimonials, but lack case studies. Words within content that signals experience are only found 198 times (0.05% of the total), so there is room for improvement here.
Author & Expertise Signals
- Signals showcasing the expertise of specific authors or contributors are featured 1492 times (0.37% of total word count). Again, there is room for improvement here.
Academic & Research Links
- External links to credible, academic, or governmental resources appear 184 times (0.05% of the total). This could also be improved to increase the credibility of the website from an E-E-A-T standpoint.
Schema implementation
Schema markup is essential for E-E-A-T as it provides search engines with structured data about a website’s content, helping them better understand its expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. For example, schema types like Person (for showcasing individual expertise), Organization (to establish brand credibility), and Review (to highlight user feedback) directly support E-E-A-T signals.
Person Schema
Implemented on 320 pages (46.85% of total pages). This is a great sign and helps showcase individual expertise (e.g., accountant profiles).
Organisation Schema
Present on 471 pages (67.91% of total pages), ensures Google and other search engines can clearly identify Perrys as an entity and trustworthy organisation. This could be implemented further, aiming for visibility across the entirety of their website.
Review Schema Types and Properties
Review schema isn’t found at all, which is not ideal. If competitors start implementing this schema, Perrys could lose an edge by not having it included.
Trust and Authority Features
Clear contact information, privacy/cookie policies, accreditations, and awards are essential for reinforcing trust and authority in line with E-E-A-T standards. These elements signal to users and search engines that the business is transparent, credible, and compliant with legal and ethical guidelines.
Clear Contact Information
The site features prominently displayed addresses for two offices, adding transparency and enhancing trustworthiness.
Privacy & Cookie Policies
Privacy and cookie policies are easily accessible, ensuring compliance with legal and user trust standards, a critical factor for E-E-A-T.
Awards & Accreditations
Accreditations are included such as the ICAWE and ACCA. These help support the perception of authority and professionalism.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is essential for a website’s performance, ensuring it is optimised for search engines to crawl, index, and rank its content effectively.
A technically sound website provides a fast, seamless user experience, which is essential for reducing bounce rates and improving engagement. Key factors like site speed, mobile-friendliness, secure connections (HTTPS), and structured data ensure that a website meets search engine requirements while delivering a positive experience for users.
Core Web Vitals and Loading Times
Core vitals such as CLS has a direct impact on rankings since the Google ‘page experience‘ updates. Slow pages can also lead to higher bounce rates, which can negatively impact rankings, particularly for competitive keywords.
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 2s
- LCP measures the time taken to load the largest visible content element. At 2 seconds, this score is well below the recommended threshold of 2.5 seconds, ensuring a fast and user-friendly experience.
Interaction to Next Paint (INP): 99ms
- INP tracks responsiveness to user interactions, with anything under 200ms considered excellent. Perrys score of 99ms indicates highly responsive pages.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0.02
- CLS measures visual stability during page loading. A score of 0.02 is acceptable ensures users experience minimal shifts, which is critical for accessibility and user satisfaction.
First Contentful Paint (FCP): 1.9s
- FCP indicates the time taken for the first piece of content to appear. 1.9 seconds is just outside of the optimal range and there is room for improvement.
Time to First Byte (TTFB): 0.9s
- TTFB measures the time it takes for the server to respond to the initial request. While slightly above the ideal threshold of 800ms, this is still within an acceptable range for performance.
On-site issues
Technical issues have been identified that could impact Perrys performance and user experience.
Things like broken links can have a direct impact on ranking positions and should always be discovered and fixed swiftly.
70 broken images and 21 broken internal links
Broken links disrupt the user experience and can negatively impact search engine crawlability. Fixing these links will improve navigation and SEO performance.
21 broken external links
Broken external links lead to a poor user experience and diminish credibility. Replacing or removing these links will enhance site quality and maintain user trust.
Off-page SEO and link building
Backlinks are one of the most important elements of SEO. After all, it was Google’s ‘PageRank’ algorithm that made it such a success in the first place.
Backlinks are a big part of SEO, especially for highly competitive keywords. High-quality backlinks from reputable and relevant sources demonstrate that content is valuable, which helps improve rankings and visibility for competitive keywords.
Backlink Metrics
Authority Score: 327
A respectable score that reflects a domain authority inline with other players in the accountancy sector.
Total Backlinks: 4,151
This number of backlinks isn’t the highest or the lowest of websites ranking on page one for the keyword accountants in London, so it would be an adequate number to rank highly in this space.
Referring Domains: 632
A diverse range of domains contributes to the site’s overall authority. Expanding this further with links from niche-specific legal or government websites could strengthen relevance.
Primarily Branded Anchor Text
Using mainly branded anchor text ensures a natural backlink profile, which aligns with best practices and avoids the risk of over-optimisation.
Final assessment
On the whole, Perrys are doing a good job of SEO, especially their on-page relevancy.
They have a decent range of content that includes all the pages required for E-E-A-T.
However, overall the website feels like it’s been created and managed by an SEO agency. There is a lot that can be done to help present Perrys as a major brand within their industry.
Audience research would be an excellent start and from here they can work on making their pages more engaging and impactful.
Areas for improvement
There’s a lot Perrys could do to improve their landing page and user experience. We’ve seen how close ranking positions are between their competitors, so it would be wise to make these changes sooner rather than later or they could possibly see their website falling behind.
Firstly, their website is disproportionately text heavy. They only have an average of 7 images per page, and this includes their logo and other graphical elements. They also only have 2 videos on their entire website, and there are many statistics that prove video increases user engagement and Google ranking positions.
Their website has a solid foundation and If they put some effort in to improve their pages visually and make them more audience targeted, they will not only improve rankings but also their conversions.
Advice to competitors
On paper, this doesn’t look like a difficult keyword to rank for. YMYL is important of course and all best practises apply. However, a website that has all this in place will probably be able to reach page one just by having the highest relevancy.
It will take around 300 pages of content relevant to accountants, and at least 30 related to London, but at 1900 searches each month, I would imagine it would pay a return on investment quite quickly.
What did you think of this SEO strategy breakdown. Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments and let’s chat!