Summer is slower for a lot of professional service firms. Your clients are on vacation. Deals stall. Proposals sit in inboxes while people are at Port Aransas.
You could stress about it. Or you could use this time to do the SEO work that’s been on your list since January.
Local SEO improvements take time to show results…usually 3-6 months. Work you do in July shows up in your rankings by October, right when business picks back up. That’s not a coincidence. That’s strategy.
Start With a Local Keyword Audit
What are people actually searching for when they need your services?
Use Google’s autocomplete to find out. Start typing your service + “San Antonio” and see what Google suggests:
- “Business attorney San Antonio”
- “Bookkeeper for small business San Antonio”
- “HR consultant near me”
Write down every variation you find. These are real searches from real people. Now check your website…do you have pages targeting these phrases?
If you’re a CPA firm and you don’t have a page specifically about “small business tax preparation in San Antonio,” you’re missing searches every day.
Build Out Your Service Pages
Most professional service websites have one “Services” page with a paragraph and some bullet points. That’s not enough for Google to understand what you do or where you do it.
Create individual pages for each core service:
- Business Tax Preparation
- Bookkeeping Services
- Payroll Management
- Tax Planning and Strategy
On each page, include:
- A clear H1 with the service and location
- 300-500 words describing the service
- Who it’s for (industry, business size, etc.)
- Your process
- A call to action
This is the structural SEO work that compounds over time. For a primer on how your website supports these SEO efforts, our spring website audit for professional services covers the fundamentals.
Clean Up Your Citations
Citations are mentions of your business name, address, and phone number across the internet. Google uses them to verify your business is legitimate.
Common places to check:
- Google Business Profile
- Yelp
- LinkedIn Company Page
- BBB
- Industry-specific directories (Avvo for lawyers, Clutch for consultants, etc.)
- Local directories (SA Chamber of Commerce, SABCC)
Every listing should have the exact same information. “Suite 200” on one site and “Ste 200” on another creates inconsistency. Fix them all.
Write One Blog Post Per Month (Minimum)
You don’t need to become a content machine. But one well-written blog post per month…answering a common client question…builds your authority over time.
“When Should a San Antonio Small Business Switch From a Sole Proprietorship to an LLC?” is a blog post that will rank, attract leads, and demonstrate expertise for years. For inspiration on content planning, our Q4 piece on content marketing for professional services firms shows how to tie content to seasonal events. And once traffic starts coming, make sure your client retention systems are in place to convert visitors into long-term relationships.
Summer downtime is an investment opportunity. The firms that do the SEO work now will reap the rewards when Q4 hits. Get started with our organic marketing products.