Why your tax office is getting fewer calls, and how to get found by AI search

If you only get one weekend, spend it in November on your website and your Google Business Profile.

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) -- the old game: getting your site to rank in Google's list of links for a phrase like "tax preparer near me."
• AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) -- getting your office named in the answer an AI gives, instead of buried in a list. The AI reads your page, decides you fit, and says your name.
• GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) -- the same idea as AEO, aimed at the generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Perplexity. People use GEO and AEO to mean the same thing.

In a line: SEO got you on the list. AEO and GEO get you into the answer. Today you need both.

Why is my tax office getting fewer calls when my website has not changed?

AI now answers a lot of searches on the spot. Someone asks who prepares taxes in their town, reads the answer, and never opens a list of websites. Your site can rank the same as last year while the phone rings less, because the person got a name before they ever scrolled. If the name was not yours, that is a call you used to get.

When should I do this work if my whole year happens in three months?

November and December. The searches start in late January and run through April 15, and the things that get you found -- a clear website, a filled-out Google Business Profile, fresh reviews, being listed in Bing -- take weeks to be picked up and repeated back by an AI. If you start in February you are fixing your visibility during the exact weeks you have no time and the calls are already going somewhere else.

What do people actually search for when they need a tax preparer?

Plain, worried sentences. "Tax preparer near me." "Enrolled agent near me." "Help with 1099 income taxes." "IRS notice help near me." "Back taxes help." "Someone to file my small business return." They also ask about walk-in hours, weekend and evening appointments, and service in a language other than English. If your website and profile do not use those same plain words, an AI has nothing to match you to.

What is the difference between AI search and a normal Google search?

The old way: you type keywords, you get ten links and a map, and you choose. The new way: you ask a full question and the AI writes back a short answer, sometimes naming one or two offices. The need is the same. The difference is that the AI did the choosing, and you only win if it said your name.

How have Google and Bing built AI into search?

Google added AI Overviews, the AI summary at the top of results, and AI Mode, a chat inside Search. It is also pushing conversational local search through Google Ask Maps, which we cover in our Ask Maps guide for tax preparers. Microsoft built Copilot into Bing, and Bing's index is part of what powers ChatGPT's web answers. So being findable in Bing quietly feeds ChatGPT and Copilot, and being findable in Google feeds its AI answers.

What should my website say so an AI can tell people what I do?

Say the facts in plain text, not inside a picture or a widget. Your credentials, spelled out: PTIN holder (a Preparer Tax Identification Number, which the IRS requires of anyone paid to prepare federal returns), Annual Filing Season Program participant, or Enrolled Agent. What kinds of returns you handle, such as 1040s, self-employed and 1099 income, small business returns, and multi-state. Whether you handle IRS notices and back taxes. Your price, or at least a starting price. Your town and the nearby towns you serve. If a machine cannot read it as words, it does not count.

What should my Google Business Profile say about hours when my season ends April 15?

Put both sets of hours where people can see them. List your season hours, including evenings and weekends if you keep them, and say plainly when they start and end. Then list your off-season hours or say that off-season visits are by appointment. Add walk-in availability and any language you serve clients in. Nothing costs you more calls in February than a profile that still shows last July's hours.

Can I use ChatGPT to write my website copy or reply to a review?

You can write general copy that way. You cannot put client information into it. Never type a client's name, their numbers, their documents, or any fact from their return into a public post, a review reply, or a general-purpose AI chatbot. Internal Revenue Code Section 7216 makes it a crime to disclose or use a taxpayer's return information without the consent the rules require: a fine of up to $1,000 and up to a year in prison for each violation, plus separate civil penalties under Section 6713. Write about your services in general terms and keep every client detail out of it.

Does the IRS say anything about tax preparers using AI?

Yes. On June 24, 2026 the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility issued Alert 2026-19, "Introductory Guidelines for Responsible AI Use in Federal Tax Practice." Two parts matter most here. Your duty of competence under Circular 230 Section 10.35 now includes understanding the AI tools you use, how they work and where they fail. And your duty of due diligence under Section 10.22 means you review and verify anything an AI produced before it goes to a client or the IRS. Using a tool does not move responsibility for the return off you.

What AI tools actually help a small tax office?

The ones that cut minutes off every return or stop you chasing paperwork. A client portal that collects and sorts documents. Software that pulls numbers off a W-2 or 1099 instead of you typing them. Research help for the handful of hard questions a season. We checked nine tools for tax-prep shops and list them with the vendor's own prices. We do not list tools we have not checked.

Can I do this myself, or is it too technical?

Most of it is writing plainly and keeping your listings current, not coding. The real cost is your time, and the work has to happen in the two months before your season. If someone in the office is comfortable online, do it yourself with the steps below. If November and December are already full, that is what a local AI pro is for.

Who can help me get found by AI, and where do I find them?

A local AI consultant does this work for you. They clean up your website and listings, pick the tools that fit your size, and get your office readable by AI, so you can stay on returns. The Agentic AI Index keeps a free directory of local AI consultants you can search by zip code, right below on this page.

The client-data rule that outranks every tip on this page

Never put client details into anything public or into a general AI chatbot. Not a name. Not a number off a W-2. Not "one of my clients had a situation where." Not a photo of a document. Not in a website page, a social post, a review reply, or a chat window.

Internal Revenue Code Section 7216 is a criminal statute. Knowingly or recklessly disclosing or using a taxpayer's return information without the consent the rules require carries a fine of up to $1,000 and up to a year in prison for each violation, plus separate civil penalties under Section 6713. Treasury Regulation 301.7216-2 lists the narrow disclosures allowed without consent. There is no small-office exception. IRS Section 7216 Information Center.

One more piece of housekeeping. You are treated as a financial institution under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, so the FTC Safeguards Rule applies and you need a Written Information Security Plan (WISP), a document that lays out how you protect client data. Any new AI tool has to be named in it and checked as a vendor before you turn it on. The IRS publishes a free WISP template in Publication 5708. There is no small-firm exemption -- a solo preparer with one client is covered.

General information only. This is not legal or tax advice. Check anything here with your own compliance counsel.

• TaxDome -- practice management and client portal. Essentials $700 to $800 per seat per year, Pro $900 to $1,000, Business $1,100 to $1,200. The low end of each range means prepaying three years up front, which is a real problem on seasonal cash. Essentials is single-seat only. The vendor says its AI renames and tags client documents as they are uploaded.
• Canopy -- practice management with AI features. Standard $74 per user per month, Plus $109 per user per month, billed annually. The AI features are credit-gated, so you get a few free credits and then pay for more, and several are still in beta. It bills in July as well as February.
• SmartVault -- document collection wired into your tax software. Business Pro $55 per user per month (3-user minimum), Accounting Pro $65 (2-user minimum), Accounting Unlimited $85 (2-user minimum), billed annually. The SmartRequestAI add-on is separate at $12.50 per return, sold in 50-return bundles of $625. The vendor says it reads last year's return and builds this year's document request list from it.
• Drake Tax -- professional tax software. Pro Unlimited $3,145 for tax year 2026, 1040-only Unlimited $2,325, or Pay-Per-Return at $379.99 including 10 returns, then $49.99 per extra individual return and $74.99 per extra business return. Drake says its SmartExtract feature pulls data from W-2s, 1099s and K-1s straight into the return. It is in beta, free during the beta, and works in Drake Tax Online only for now. The $3,145 price is a promotion the vendor says ends November 30.
• Blue J -- AI tax research. Sole Practitioners $1,498 per year for one user, about $125 a month; anything multi-seat is quoted. You ask a tax question in plain English and the vendor says it returns a cited answer from federal and state sources. Worth it only if hard questions are eating whole afternoons of your season.

Who this is not for: a one-person office doing 60 returns a season should not be buying a $3,145 unlimited license or a $1,498 research seat. Start with pay-per-return software and nothing else. And watch the per-user monthly plans -- they bill all twelve months, including the ones where nobody logs in.

See all nine tools for tax preparers with prices → · Main tax preparers page → · Browse AI platforms by category →

1. Do this in November, not February -- Block two weekends before Thanksgiving. Everything below takes weeks to show up in an AI answer, and by late January you are booked.
2. Make your website say the plain facts -- In readable text: your credentials (PTIN holder, Annual Filing Season Program participant, or Enrolled Agent), the returns you handle, whether you take IRS notices and back taxes, your starting price, your towns, and your hours.
3. Claim and fill out your Google Business Profile -- Set the category, services, and photos. List your season hours and your off-season hours, walk-in availability, and any language you serve clients in. Update it again the week your season starts.
4. Add a real FAQ in your clients' words -- Answer what they actually ask: what to bring, what it costs, how long it takes, what to do about an IRS letter, whether you handle 1099 or small business returns.
5. Ask for reviews all season, not just at the end -- Send the request the day a return is filed, every time. Steady fresh reviews are what keep you in the map results the following January.
6. Make sure you are in Bing too -- Bing feeds Copilot and part of ChatGPT's web answers. Claim your listing there as well, not just Google.
7. Check yourself before the season -- Ask ChatGPT and Google's AI "who prepares taxes in [your town]" and "where do I get help with an IRS notice in [your town]." Whatever is missing or wrong is your to-do list.
8. Keep every client detail out of all of it -- No client names, numbers, documents, or return facts in a website page, a public post, a review reply, or a general AI chatbot. Section 7216 makes that a criminal matter, and it applies to a one-person office the same as a large firm.

Sources

• IRS, Section 7216 Information Center -- consent rules, criminal penalties, and Treasury Regulation 301.7216-2.
• IRS Office of Professional Responsibility, Alert 2026-19: Introductory Guidelines for Responsible AI Use in Federal Tax Practice, June 24, 2026.
• IRS, PTIN Requirements for Tax Return Preparers.
• IRS, Become an Authorized IRS e-file Provider.
• FTC, FTC Safeguards Rule: What Your Business Needs to Know, with IRS Publication 4557 and the free WISP template in Publication 5708.
• Treasury Department Circular No. 230 -- Sections 10.22, 10.27(a), 10.35, 10.36, 10.37, and 10.51.
• Tool prices are each vendor's own published wording, read on their pricing pages on 2026-07-20: TaxDome, Canopy, SmartVault, Drake Software, Blue J. Prices change. Confirm with the vendor before you buy.
• Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Ask Maps -- Google Search Central and Google I/O 2026 announcements.
• Microsoft Copilot in Bing and AI grounding -- Microsoft and Bing Webmaster Tools "AI Performance" (public preview, 2026).

Last reviewed: 2026-07-20. The Agentic AI Index does not endorse or certify any vendor and does not screen them for you. Nothing here is legal, tax, or compliance advice. Verify all claims, pricing, and vendor terms directly with each vendor, and check compliance questions with your own counsel.