For accountancy firms
How accountants get recommended by ChatGPT
A director asking “who should I use as accountant for a new limited company in Manchester” often gets software. In Visibly’s 500-prompt UK study, FreeAgent, Xero and QuickBooks were each named in more answers than any accountancy firm. Government and regulator pages — gov.uk, ICAEW, ACCA — made up 28% of citations; firms’ own sites 23%. Google’s top results and ChatGPT’s sources overlapped only 16%. Ranking for “accountant near me” is not the same job as being the name in the answer. launchAEO is for the second job: can the assistants read the firm’s pages, do they name you or the software, and what to publish so the next limited-company question has a practice it can cite.
Questions customers already ask AI
These are the prompts, not keywords. An assistant that cannot match them to a page on your site will name someone else.
- Who should I use as accountant for a new limited company in Manchester?
- Recommend an ICAEW accountant for a contractor on IR35 in London.
- I need year-end accounts and VAT for a café in Brighton — who is good?
- Accountant who understands EIS and SEIS for a seed-stage company in Bristol.
- Can you compare a high-street accountant with an online one for a sole trader in Leeds?
Why someone else gets named
The category answer is currently a product, not a practice
When software brands take 40–52% of mentions, a local firm that only says “friendly tax help” never enters the sentence. The model already has Xero. It needs a reason to name a person: ICAEW or ACCA membership, a specific filing, a town, a fee.
Regulators beat marketing blogs
Government and institute pages were the largest citation bucket in that study. Reddit, which dominates other topics, was about 1% here. Writing listicles is the wrong sport. Appearing on ICAEW’s find-a-chartered-accountant listing is the right one.
Being cited is not the same as being named
Visibly recorded a small firm whose content was used as a source in 38 answers while the business was named in one. That is winnable, but only if the pages exist as HTML an engine can quote — fees, services, who you act for.
What launchAEO checks
Whether the practice pages are quotable
Limited company, VAT, payroll, IR35, EIS. launchAEO’s structure and readability checks exist so those words are in the page, not in a partner’s PDF pack.
Organisation identity an institute can match
Legal name, ICAEW or ACCA membership, town. Thin identity is how a firm gets used as a source and still not recommended.
Named versus the software brands on the same questions
Growth records who the answer recommended. If the row says Xero, that is the result. We will not relabel it as a win for the practice.
What to change
Same shape as the action plan in the product: what’s wrong, why it matters, how to fix it.
What’s wrong
The site could belong to any professional services firm.
Why it matters
The prompt names the filing: year-end, VAT, IR35, EIS. Generic “we add value” copy loses to a software homepage.
How to fix it
Write pages for the filings you actually do, with who they are for and a starting fee. The action plan keeps those as separate tasks.
What’s wrong
No ICAEW or ACCA find-a-member listing, or it uses an old name.
Why it matters
Institute directories were part of the 28% regulator citation share. The model already trusts them.
How to fix it
Keep the membership public and identical to the site. LaunchAEO’s listings check is for that match, not for a new institute.
What’s wrong
Fees are “call us”.
Why it matters
Directors ask ChatGPT to compare high-street and online. A competitor who publishes a package gets quoted.
How to fix it
Publish packages or a range. Honest ranges beat invented precision.
Where assistants look
ICAEW find a chartered accountant
The official listing ChatGPT can treat as a register when someone asks for a chartered firm.
ACCA
The other UK institute directory that sits in the regulator citation bucket.
GOV.UK
The largest citation class in the Visibly accountant study — the pages the model already believes.
Companies House
How an assistant confirms the practice is a real UK firm, especially next to a software brand.
Questions about this
How can accountants get recommended by ChatGPT?
Stop competing only for Google’s “accountant near me” pack. Get on ICAEW or ACCA, publish filing-specific pages with fees, and make them readable. launchAEO shows whether the site can be cited and, on Growth, whether the answer named you or Xero.
Why does ChatGPT recommend accounting software instead of firms?
Because directors ask how to do the books, and the model has richer public pages for FreeAgent, Xero and QuickBooks than for most practices. Visibly saw those three named more often than any firm across 500 prompts.
Will better SEO fix this?
Not on its own. ChatGPT’s sources overlapped Google’s top results by 16% in that study, and by zero on switching-provider questions. AEO is a separate measurement — who was named — which is why launchAEO does not mix it into a rankings dashboard.
What should a small firm scan first?
The free homepage check: can the assistants read it, and what is blocking them. Then publish one page for limited-company take-on. Who is named against software brands is Growth.
Where these facts come from
Independent studies, not launchAEO scores. We summarise them; we do not pretend we ran them.
Other businesses
Solicitors
Conveyancing, family, immigration. Engines name SRA firms, then almost never link the register.
Small businesses
A shop, a practice, a local firm. launchAEO gets the site ready so ChatGPT names you, not only the chains.
Dentists
NHS lists, Invisalign, a broken tooth. Confirm the practice on the CQC and the dentist on the GDC.
The full playbook sits in the 2026 guide to getting recommended by ChatGPT.
Get onto the recommendation
Free is a homepage check, not a trial. launchAEO shows whether AI can read the site, what to fix, and — on Growth — whether the answers name you. Prefer us to handle it? Managed services are quoted separately.