Want more of the right people finding your website? It doesn’t start with clever design or fancy features. It starts with understanding what your customers actually type into Google when they’re looking for help.  Although this article talks about accountancy sites and “tax” the same can can apply to almost any site – so when reading the article replace “tax” with “plumber” / “electrician” / “pub” or what ever your business is and see how you can apply the guidance to your web site.

I want to be found for tax

“I want to be found for tax.” I hear this a lot when I talk to firms of  Accountants, and I get why. Tax feels like a big, valuable word. People search for it all the time. It sounds important. The problem is, it’s also completely wrong.

Let’s be honest for a moment. When someone says they want to be found for tax, what do they actually mean? Are they talking about council tax? road Tax? income tax? corporation tax? VAT? capital gains tax? self assessment tax returns? tax planning? emergency tax refunds?  Or even late filing penalties?

“Tax” on its own means almost nothing. It’s vague, broad, and used by everyone from HMRC to global accountancy firms with marketing budgets bigger than most small businesses’ annual turnover. Trying to be found for a single word like that is like opening a shop and saying you sell “stuff”. Helpful? Not really.

This is where many small business websites quietly fail. Not because they’re badly built, ugly, or broken, but because they don’t match how real people search. People don’t search in single words. They search in phrases. They search in questions. They search with intent.

Someone doesn’t wake up and type “tax”. They type things like “do I need to register for VAT”, “how much tax do sole traders pay”, or “accountant for small business near me”. Those phrases tell you exactly what they want, how urgent it is, and whether they’re ready to buy.

If your website doesn’t understand this, you end up talking past your customers. You use words that make sense to you, but not to them. And Google, quite rightly, struggles to see your site as relevant.

Understanding what customers search for isn’t about gaming the system. It’s about listening. And once you start listening properly, everything about your website becomes clearer.

People search for phrases, not words

This is one of the most important ideas to get your head around, and it’s surprisingly easy to miss. As business owners, we tend to think in topics. Customers think in problems.

You might offer “bookkeeping”. That’s neat and tidy. But your customers are thinking things like “I’m behind on my books”, “I hate spreadsheets”, or “my accountant says my numbers are a mess”. They don’t open Google and type “bookkeeping” unless they already know exactly what they need.

This is why single words are such a trap. They’re too broad, too competitive, and too disconnected from real intent. A phrase like “bookkeeper for small business in Leeds” is far more useful than “bookkeeping”. It tells you who the person is, where they are, and what they want right now.

Search phrases also change depending on mood and urgency. Someone casually researching might search “how does VAT work”. Someone stressed and overwhelmed might search “help with VAT return”. Someone ready to hire might search “VAT accountant near me”.

If your website only talks in broad terms, you miss all of that. You miss the emotion. You miss the urgency. And you miss the chance to connect.

This doesn’t mean stuffing your pages full of awkward phrases. It means understanding the language your customers use and reflecting it naturally in your content. When your wording matches their thinking, your site feels helpful instead of salesy.

Google is very good at spotting this. It looks at context, not just keywords. If your page genuinely answers the question behind the search, it stands a much better chance of being shown.

So instead of asking “what words do I want to rank for?”, a better question is “what problems are my customers trying to solve?”. The phrases will follow naturally from that.

Why guessing doesn’t work (and never really did)

Another common mistake is guessing. Sitting in a room, maybe with a coffee, and saying “people probably search for this”. Sometimes you’ll be close. Often, you won’t.

We’re too close to our own businesses. We use industry terms without realising it. We shorten things. We assume knowledge that customers don’t yet have. That gap between how you speak and how customers search is where traffic gets lost.

For example, you might talk about “corporation tax efficiency”. Your customer might be searching for “how to pay less tax as a limited company”. Same idea. Very different language.

Guessing also tends to focus on what you want to sell, not what people want to know. Customers often start much earlier in the journey. They search for reassurance, explanations, and plain-English answers before they’re ready to buy anything.

If your website only targets bottom-of-the-funnel phrases like “hire accountant”, you miss everyone who’s still figuring things out. And guess what? Those people will remember the site that helped them when they were confused.

Understanding real search behaviour helps you plan content properly. You can create pages that answer common questions, explain tricky topics simply, and guide people gently towards your services.

This also saves you time and money. Instead of endlessly tweaking pages and hoping for the best, you’re working from evidence. You know roughly what people are looking for, how they phrase it, and what level of detail they expect.

Good websites aren’t built on hunches. They’re built on empathy. Search data is just empathy written down.

How search understanding shapes your whole website

Once you really understand what your customers search for, it changes everything. Not just blog posts, but page structure, navigation, and even your homepage messaging.

Your services pages become clearer because they’re written around real needs, not internal labels such as business compliance services or business advisory services. Your headings make sense to outsiders. Your FAQs actually answer questions people ask.

It also helps you avoid cramming too much onto one page. If customers search for different phrases with different intent, they probably deserve different pages. A page about “self assessment deadlines” shouldn’t be trying to sell corporation tax advice.

This makes your site easier to use. People land on the right page, find what they need faster, and feel understood. That reduces frustration and increases trust.

From a search point of view, this clarity is gold. Each page has a clear purpose. Google can see what it’s about. Users stick around longer because the content matches their expectations.

Understanding search behaviour also keeps your content grounded. Instead of writing for algorithms or competitors, you’re writing for humans. The fact that this also works well for search engines is not an accident.

Most importantly, it helps you attract the right visitors. Not just more traffic, but better traffic. People who are actually looking for what you offer, in the way you offer it.

That’s when websites stop feeling like expensive brochures and start acting like quiet, reliable members of your team.

Understanding search is understanding people

At its heart, search isn’t about technology. It’s about people trying to solve problems, make decisions, and reduce stress.

When you understand what your customers search for, you understand what keeps them up at night, what confuses them, and what they care about. That insight is incredibly powerful.

It helps you speak plainly. It helps you prioritise. And it helps you stop chasing meaningless goals like being “found for tax”.

No small business needs to rank for everything. They need to be visible in the moments that matter to their customers. That starts with phrases, not words.

Get that right, and your website stops shouting into the void and starts having real conversations.

About the author

John K Mitchell has been optimising websites for search engines since 1997, which is before Google even existed. With a background in programming, John quickly realised he could study search results and start to work out – or at least make educated guesses – about why certain sites appeared where they did.

Since then, he has worked on thousands of websites, often achieving strong, long-lasting results. His approach has always focused on understanding users first, and search engines second, believing that when you get the human side right, the rankings tend to follow.

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