Three options. Only one actually works for your business.
The whole year's pipeline gets decided in eight weeks
Tax prep is the most seasonal business in professional services. Roughly seventy percent of your individual-return revenue lands between July and October, the phones ring off the hook for ten weeks, then go quiet for nine months while you chase BAS work and the few SMSF and trust returns that pay year-round. The H&R Block and ITP shopfronts have a head start: they spend six figures on TV in June, they sit on every suburban high street, and they show up first when someone Googles 'tax return near me'. The independent registered tax agent who actually knows the client's situation, who handles the sole trader return with the dodgy 1099 and the rental property schedule with the borderline Division 7A issue, sits on page two. So you spend July working sixty-hour weeks for whoever happens to walk in, and you miss the prospect who would have been worth ten times more if they'd found you in June.
Good tax-agent marketing is three things, in this order: a service-page library that splits by return type (individual, sole trader, SMSF, trust, rental property schedule, late returns) so each ranks for its own search instead of competing with itself, a Google Ads campaign that ramps spend in late June and tapers through October to capture the seasonal spike, and a year-round content engine that brings in the SMSF, trust and complex-return work that pays four times what a $99 walk-in does. The service-page split is the SEO moat: someone searching 'SMSF tax return Sydney' is not the same buyer as someone searching 'tax return near me', and treating them like the same lead loses both.
Six agents, working in your accounts.
Account Lead, Web, SEO, Advertising, Social Media, and Content. One platform, one bill, you approve the work.
Builds your annual plan around the return types that actually pay (SMSF, trust, sole trader with complex schedules) rather than chasing the $99 walk-in market the chains already own. Briefs the other agents so the service pages, the tax-season ads, the social cadence and the year-round content all reinforce the 'registered tax agent for the tricky stuff' positioning instead of competing with H&R Block on price.
Imports your existing site so you stop paying for hosting plus a CMS subscription, and makes spinning up a new return-type service page a five-minute job. Ships a clean service page for individual, sole trader, SMSF, trust, rental property schedule and late returns, each with its own H1, fee from-band, TPB registration in the footer and a 'book a 30-minute appointment' CTA, to your live site in two taps.
Goes through your live site for the things that actually move tax-agent rankings: return-type-specific H1s on every service page, tax-agent schema (not generic accountant), TPB registration number in structured data, and a Google Business Profile that beats the chain shopfronts on completeness and review velocity. Auto-applies the low-risk fixes, flags anything that touches the price-from bands.
Launches Google Ads on the queries that actually convert ('sole trader tax return [suburb]', 'SMSF tax agent [city]', 'late tax return help', 'rental property tax return') with budget that ramps from late June, peaks through August, and tapers through October. Excludes the broad 'free tax calculator' searches that bring tyre-kickers. Switches Meta on for SMSF and trust nurture only, where considered-purchase audiences live.
Turns every lodgement into a post in your real accounts: anonymised refund amounts, the trickier deductions you caught, a 30-second story walking through the Division 7A issue you sorted for a trust client. Builds the trust signal that beats the chains on the second-look prospect who wants someone who knows their situation. You upload one screenshot or photo per win, the agent drafts the caption in your voice, you approve.
Drafts the long-form pieces that rank for the queries people search before they engage a tax agent: 'do I need a tax agent for my SMSF', 'sole trader tax return checklist Australia', 'how much can I claim for a home office in 2026', 'late tax return ATO penalties'. Two drafts a month, in your voice, that bring the prospect to your site weeks before they need to lodge.
Your first 30 days.
- Five return-type pages (individual, sole trader, SMSF, trust, rental) indexed and ranking on long-tail return-type queries
- Annual plan weighted to the higher-fee SMSF and trust return work delivered by Sam
- TPB registration number, ATO portal walkthrough and myID setup explainer surfaced on every service page
- July-October ad ramp running with auto-step-up budgets, calibrated against last year's search-volume curve
- H&R Block and ITP competitive comparison page drafted and approved as a paid-search landing destination
- BAS lodgement cross-sell sequence wired into the post-return thank-you flow
- Tax-agent and AccountingService schema deployed sitewide
- Refund-week social cadence running, no client identifying detail, all TPB-compliant
Tax-prep customers do not browse. They Google in late June, click the top three results, ring the one that picks up, and book the slot that fits before their TFN gets demanded. The work is making sure that when the searches start, the top result, the one that picks up, and the one with the TPB registration in the footer is always you, for every return type that actually pays the bills.
Agencies are too dear to actually run the return-type service-page library and the seasonal ad ramp for $3.5k a month. Tools are cheap but you tune the bids at the kitchen table at 9pm and the SMSF service page never gets written. In-House is the third option: for $299 a month the agents ship the pages, launch the tax-season ads in late June, post the refund-day photos, and keep your Google Business profile beating the chain shopfronts. You stay in the driver's seat, two taps to approve, minutes a day. Stop watching H&R Block win the suburb you've worked in for fifteen years.