Beth Chernes

I help financial and accounting firms generate leads and revenue through free organic traffic.

I help business owners capture leads with engaging content that attracts new audiences and looks great to search engines, too.

05/21/2026

Harsh truth:

Marketing titles mean zilch.

A lot of marketing pros and agencies show off their fancy titles:

- Digital Marketing Specialist
- Director of Marketing
- Marketing Manager
- Director of SEO & Content
- SEO Strategist (throwing myself under the bus on this one)
- VP of Creative Strategy

The list goes on.

But the reality is—anyone can make up a title.

I've been in circles where I'll meet someone with one of these established titles.

Only to find out they are not the experts they proclaim to be.

(This actually just happened. I met someone with an impressive marketing title—and they couldn't answer my basic questions. I found out later in the convo—no marketing/relevant expertise—but, their aunt owned the agency.)

Instead of looking at titles, look at:

- Results
- Processes
- Testimonials
- Experience
- Authenticity

Ignore what a marketer goes by and focus on what they deliver.

Anything you'd like to add?

05/20/2026

A lot of people—even CEOs, partners, and C-Suite Execs—still think of SEO as just “website stuff.”

But if you want to be found today, you need to think bigger than your website alone. Search, maps, video, directories, social platforms, and other channels all play a role.

That does not mean you need to do everything at once. It does mean your visibility strategy should reflect how people actually look for businesses now.

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, and how I'm shifting my SEO work with clients.

Quick take in the clip below.

05/18/2026

Can low-volume keywords bring in good leads to your accounting firm?

High-traffic keywords have their moments.

But lots of eyes can mean lots of competition.

(Plus, user intent can often be unpredictable.)

- Niche low-volume keywords (under 200 searches a month):
- Have stronger ROI.
- Target specific, highly-interested audiences.
- Offer less competition and more conversion opportunities.

Don’t overlook the power of a highly specific low-volume keyword.

It might bring in a highly qualified lead.

That turns into your most valuable client.

04/23/2026

You don’t know your online leads if you’re not tracking them.

Do you know how many leads found your firm’s website through Google? Bing?

You can make a complete guess—but most likely, you’d be wayyyy off—unless you’re your tracking leads.

Time and time again, I’ll speak to a tax or accounting firm, and they boast about “tremendous leads” on their website.

But, after I dig into the backend of the website, it turns out nothing is set up to gather data.

Accounting requires precise numbers—and so does digital marketing.

Without tracking, you don’t actually know:

- Where your best leads come from
- Which pages drive the most conversions
- What’s working—and what’s wasting your time

Guessing isn’t a strategy.

If your firm isn’t tracking website leads, you’re flying blind.

Google Analytics and call tracking tools can tell you exactly where your leads originate—so you can double down on what works.

→Not sure where to start? I help accounting firms turn data into strategy. Let’s talk.

04/22/2026

How it started when I left my 9–5:

- No predictable paycheck.
- Constantly chasing down the next project.
- Learning how to run a business while doing the work.
- Trying to figure out what services I actually wanted to offer.
- Creeping self-doubt.

How it looks 6 years later:

- Long-term clients and recurring work.
- A healthy pipeline of leads.
- Flexibility to be present for my family.
- Clarity around my services and strengths.
- Confidence.

No regrets. I don't miss the commute into Tampa every day.

I prefer my optional scenic drive to the HUB at the Dunedin Chamber Of Commerce.

(Confession: I do miss water cooler chit chat, which is why I'm pretty much always up for a virtual coffee chat with my business friends. Funny how the thing I miss most has nothing to do with the actual job.)

04/21/2026

Hot take for CPA firms.

Your SEO is only as good as your content strategy.

Your firm’s website could be optimized for search.

But what if your content is boring?

Or your audience doesn’t like it?

(Or no one can even find it?)

A spreadsheet of keywords isn’t going to mean much.

If no one wants to read your content.

Ask yourself:
- Who's tuning into your message?
- What hurdles do they face every day?
- What content makes them stick around?

How can you ramp up your firm’s content?

Dive deep.
Understand.
Deliver.

Building trust doesn't happen overnight.

It's consistently connecting with your audience.

Am I wrong?

04/17/2026

Keyword research isn’t the most exciting part of growing your firm online.

And let’s be real—optimizing 10, 50, or even 100 pages can feel...
..terrifying..exhausting..confusing?..soul-crushing (a bit too far?)

It's ok to admit it.

SEO ain't easy.

But here’s the thing: once your SEO is set up, your site can work for you, bringing in FREE leads.

The mantra I tell my clients?

Keyword Research = Leads.
Optimizing Pages = Leads.

When done right, SEO can turn your website into a steady pipeline for new clients.

→ Not sure where to start? I help accounting firms and B2B companies in regulated industries drive leads and sales from online traffic.

I'm taking on new projects soon. Send me a DM.

04/16/2026

Y'know what makes me loudly groan? Whenever I see some marketing bro proclaim "SEO is dead" because something shifted or new tech is changing how search behaves.

Google experts continuously tackle the big elephant in the room: Is AI making SEO irrelevant? Their take?

SEO is 100% alive and well. No zombies.

But, for those of us who are up close and REALLY personal with Google, it’s not quite that simple.

What SEO practices still matter?

- Creating crawlable, indexable, and relevant content
- Holistic SEO strategy (thinking of the user AND the search engines)

But AI’s impact on ranking signals, authority, and relevance can’t be ignored.

Three key shifts to watch this year:

1. Traditional search results are changing

AI Overviews and AI Mode are changing how people discover websites; ahem, your website included. Your content may be surfaced through summaries, supporting links, follow-up queries, and comparison-style results, not just a traditional organic listing.

2. Natural language queries are taking over.

Search behavior is changing. Prospects ask conversational, complex questions, not just keywords like “best HR consultant near me.”

3. AI-driven algorithms are unpredictable.

Frequent updates make rankings harder to trust at face value. Add in AI bot traffic, LLM-driven discovery, and changing user behavior, and we have to look beyond traffic alone to understand what’s really working.

The bigger question isn’t just about SEO. It’s about the web ecosystem.

How do publishers and content creators thrive when the rules are constantly shifting?

SEO isn’t dead, but it’s evolving...

For B2B professional services and accounting firms, staying visible means adapting to AI-driven search and focusing on authority, trust, and relevance.

What’s your organization's strategy to stay ahead of these changes?

04/15/2026

What SEO tools do you use, Beth?"

I feel like in the SEO consulting space, there’s a lot of conversation about what SEO tools everyone uses.

(And how much they all cost.)

Here are a few of my favorites and how much they cost:

SEMRush Pro- $139/month
Raven Tools - $79/month
Screaming Frog - $279/year
Branalyzer Business - $29/month
Siteguru - $49/month
TruRanker - $30/month
Google Search Console - $0
Looker Studio - $0
Google Analytics - $0
Google - $0
ChatGPT - $20/month
Claude - $20/month
Perplexity - $20/month
SEVisible - $99/month
Visby - $79/month

Are they all necessary for good ranking and AEO/SEO strategy?

Maybe, maybe not. Every SEO pro has their go-to tools.

But if you’re a B2B business or accounting firm questioning why good digital marketing costs what it does, here’s the deal:

The tools are part of the equation, but…

These tools aren’t magic. They give data and insights, but the real value is knowing how to use them to grow your business.

Good SEO is about:

✔ Creating content that attracts the right clients.
✔ Spotting opportunities in your data that others miss.
✔ Building strategies that drive leads—not just rankings.
✔ Staying on top of algorithm changes and new trends.

If an SEO “expert” is only charging you $300 bucks a month and guaranteeing "Page 1 rankings" and "2x the leads"—run. At that price, they're either cutting corners or not doing much of anything except sending you a monthly generic PDF report.

(And some of those minimal efforts could harm your website long-term.)

Is it worth the risk?

True SEO is a strategic investment, not a quick fix.

When you hire an SEO consultant, you’re not just paying for tools. You’re paying for expertise, experience, and the ability to turn insights into measurable results.

What about you?

If you’re in the SEO or digital marketing world, what tools do you swear by? Are there any you’ve found overrated or even unnecessary?

→P.S. Want to know more about how I use these tools with my clients or my take on their pros and cons? Let me know!

04/10/2026

My SEO keyword research routine:

Step 1 - Open Google Keyword Planner and add relevant terms
Step 2 - Save results to Google Sheets
Step 3 - Open Google Sheets
Step 4 - Filter Keywords by search volume
Step 5 - Hide any keywords with no volume or extremely low volume
Step 6 - Review the remaining results
Step 7 - Copy and paste the results and volume into a Keyword Planning spreadsheet
Step 8 - Discuss results with my client

Depending on how many pages we're trying to optimize, this could take hours or days.

But, the thing about keyword research—it's never "done."

I'm always going back to Google Keyword Planner to find new keywords.

What does your SEO keyword research plan look like?

Address

690 Main Street PMB 10002
Safety Harbor, FL
34695

Website

http://bethchernes.com/

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