A growing number of people are skipping Google entirely and asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google Gemini for local recommendations. "Who's the best CPA for a small business near Austin?" is a real query people are typing into AI chatbots every day.
The question is: when someone asks, does your firm come up?
We ran an experiment. We tested 500 accounting and tax service queries across ChatGPT and Perplexity, covering 15 cities across the US and UK. The results reveal a clear pattern in what makes AI recommend one firm over another.
The Experiment
We asked both ChatGPT and Perplexity variations of the same core questions:
- "Who's the best accountant for [client type] in [city]?"
- "Can you recommend a CPA firm near [area]?"
- "Where should a [business type] get their taxes done in [location]?"
We recorded which businesses were recommended, how many times, and then reverse-engineered the common traits of the firms that appeared most frequently.
What We Found: The 5 Authority Signals
The firms that consistently got recommended by AI shared five characteristics. We're calling them AI Authority Signals:
1. Mentions on Third-Party Authority Sites
This was the single biggest predictor. Firms mentioned on high-authority websites - think local business journals, finance blogs, business directories with editorial content, and industry publications - were 4x more likely to be recommended by AI.
ChatGPT and Perplexity don't crawl the web in real-time for every query. They rely on training data and (in Perplexity's case) live search results from authoritative sources. If your firm only exists on your own website and Google Business Profile, AI has very little data to work with.
2. High Volume of Genuine Google Reviews
Firms with 100+ Google reviews were recommended 3x more often than those with fewer than 20. Both AI systems heavily weight review data when making local recommendations. They also appear to factor in review recency - a firm with 150 reviews from the last 12 months outperforms one with 200 reviews mostly from 3+ years ago.
3. Comprehensive, Structured Website Content
Firms with detailed service pages - not just a list of services, but individual pages with scope, process explanations, and FAQ sections - performed significantly better. AI systems parse website content to understand what a business actually does and how well they explain it.
A page titled "S-Corp Tax Preparation in Austin" with 800 words of useful content outperforms a generic "Our Services" page every time.
4. Consistent NAP Across the Web
AI systems cross-reference business information across multiple sources. If your firm name, address, and phone number are inconsistent across directories (different phone numbers on Yelp vs. Google vs. your website), AI treats this as a trust signal failure. Consistency builds confidence in the recommendation.
5. Industry-Specific Citations and Listings
Being listed on accounting-specific directories and platforms (your state CPA society directory, AICPA listings, Clutch, advisory marketplaces) gave firms a significant edge. These industry-specific citations act as vertical authority signals that AI models weigh heavily.
What Doesn't Seem to Matter (Yet)
Interestingly, several factors that matter for traditional SEO didn't appear to strongly influence AI recommendations:
- Website design quality had no measurable impact. AI doesn't care if your site is pretty.
- Social media presence had minimal effect. Having 5,000 LinkedIn followers didn't translate to AI recommendations.
- Google Ads had zero impact. You can't buy your way into AI recommendations (yet).
The GEO Playbook for Accounting Firms
Based on our findings, here's the priority order for getting your firm recommended by AI:
- Build backlinks from authority sites. Get mentioned on business journals, local news, and finance blogs. This is non-negotiable.
- Scale your Google reviews. Implement automated review requests after every engagement milestone. Aim for 100+ reviews with a 4.7+ average.
- Create deep, structured content. Build individual pages for every service for every client type you serve. Use FAQ schema, service schema, and AccountingService schema.
- Audit your citations. Ensure your NAP is identical across every directory and listing.
- Get listed on industry platforms. Your state CPA society directory, AICPA, and reputable advisory marketplaces.
The Window Is Open
Right now, AI search is still in its early stages. Most firms haven't even thought about GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation). The ones that start building these signals now will have an enormous head start as AI search becomes the default way people find professional services.
In three years, asking ChatGPT for an accountant recommendation will be as natural as Googling one. The question is whether your firm will be in the answer.