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Honest, jargon-free guides for independent UK accountancy firms on getting found and recommended by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude. No hype, no guarantees: just what's known, what to check, and what to do.
The "front door" prospects use to find an accountant is shifting from search results to AI answers. Below are our plain-English guides, our own first-party research across 93 UK firms in three niches, a comparison of the options, and a calculator that estimates what invisibility could cost you.
// Briefing · fully sourcedUpdated 6 Jun 2026
The State of AI Search 2026: the shift, the magnitude, the opportunity
The big picture, every external number linked to its primary source: how Google made AI Mode the default in May 2026, why most searches now end without a click (Pew: 83% of AI-Overview searches; Gartner: traditional search forecast down 25%), and why the visitors AI does send convert far better, making "the name AI recommends" the highest-value position in search.
Read the briefing// Guide~9 min read
Is your accountancy firm invisible on ChatGPT? How to check (and fix) it
A ten-minute self-check you can run yourself, why AI visibility differs from SEO, and the six foundations (Google Business Profile, reviews, schema, directory listings, content and crawler access) that decide who gets named.
Read the guide// Guide~8 min read
How AI decides which accountant to recommend
What actually drives the choice when ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google names a handful of firms (directories, reviews, schema, your firm's "entity" and the citations others make about you), explained plainly, with the sources.
Read the guide// Guide~10 min DIY check
Is your accountancy website invisible to ChatGPT? A 10-minute DIY check
A hands-on self-check covering the five things AI assistants need to read and recommend you (schema, AI-crawler access, an llms.txt file, consistent name/address/phone, and the "blank to a crawler" test), with how to check each one yourself in about ten minutes.
Run the check// Guide~7 min read · copy-paste
How to add AccountingService schema to your accountancy website
A plain-English, copy-paste guide to adding AccountingService structured data (JSON-LD): what it is, why AI assistants use it to understand who you are and what you do, a ready-to-paste code block with placeholders, and how to add and validate it.
Read the guide// Guide~6 min read · copy-paste
FAQ schema: the fastest AI-visibility quick-win for accountants
Why FAQPage markup is one of the quickest wins for getting AI assistants to lift ready-made answers from your site, with a ready-to-paste JSON-LD example and the questions worth answering.
Read the guide// Comparison~7 min read
AI-visibility options for accountancy firms, compared
A fair, non-disparaging look at the three routes (DIY monitoring tools, generalist GEO agencies, and accountancy specialists), what each is good at, what each costs, and where Renownly honestly fits (and doesn't).
Read the comparison// Comparison~8 min read
DIY, a £149 audit, or a GEO agency: which is right for your firm?
An honest decision guide for the three routes to better AI visibility (do it yourself for free, buy a one-off £149 audit, or hire an agency on a retainer), comparing cost, effort and fit, and saying plainly when DIY or an agency is the better call.
Read the guide// Research93 firms · 3 niches · Jun 2026
The UK Accountancy AI-Visibility Report 2026: 93 firms across three niches
Our own first-party check of 93 UK firms (general practices, IR35/contractor specialists and e-commerce specialists): how many carry the machine-readable signals AI assistants rely on. The striking pattern: the more digitally mature the niche, the worse the "blank to a crawler" problem. Aggregate, anonymised, and reported exactly as measured.
Read the research// Research28 IR35 firms · Jun 2026
The 2026 UK Contractor-Accountant AI-Visibility Report: 28 IR35 specialists
The deeper contractor cut: we checked 28 IR35/contractor-specialist firms for the machine-readable signals AI assistants rely on. Only 4 of the 21 readable firms (19%) tell an AI they're an accounting business, and a quarter of the full sample served a simple crawler nothing readable. Aggregate, anonymised, and reported exactly as measured.
Read the research// Calculator~2 min
The cost-of-invisibility calculator
A quick, client-side estimate of what missed AI recommendations could be worth to your firm over a year. You set the inputs; it shows a range. An illustrative model, not a forecast.
Open the calculator// For your nicheIR35 & contractors
AI visibility for IR35 & contractor accountants
The contractor-niche cut of our research, the queries IR35 clients actually ask, and why being named by AI matters most for high-value, switch-prone contractor work.
Read the niche page// For your nicheE-commerce & Amazon
AI visibility for e-commerce & Amazon-seller accountants
Why a slick, JavaScript-heavy site can read as blank to an AI crawler: the e-commerce-niche data, the queries online sellers ask, and the readability fix that matters most here.
Read the niche page