A note from Daniel Foster, CPA, MPA
From invisible on Google to page one: here is the full picture
I’m an accountant, not a marketer. For a long time, our online presence reflected that. That is not a complaint. It was simply the reality of running a small CPA firm. My focus was clients, tax work, accounting, planning, and the day-to-day work that keeps a firm moving.
But I knew something was missing. People in Sioux Falls, Canton, Harrisburg, Tea, and other parts of Lincoln County were searching online for the exact help we provide. If they could not find EDG CPA, then our reputation and our referrals were doing all the heavy lifting.
That changed when we brought in Elite Information Tech. They became the team behind our website, SEO, Google Business Profile work, paid search, and the less visible technical work that helps a local business get found.
The problem was simple: people could not find us
When we started, searches such as CPA in Lincoln County SD and tax help Sioux Falls did not bring EDG CPA anywhere close to the top. We were on page five or further. Most of our new business came through referrals, and I am grateful for every one of them. Still, referrals cannot reach everyone.
A person can need a CPA at 10:30 on a Tuesday night. They may be starting a business. They may have fallen behind on bookkeeping. They may need tax preparation, payroll help, or a second set of eyes on a business decision. They may never ask a friend for a recommendation. They open Google.
That was the gap I wanted to fix. Not vanity rankings. Not a prettier website for the sake of having one. I wanted a person who needed an accountant to have a fair chance of finding us.
The numbers: Google Search Console
I want to lead with data, not marketing language. Here is what our Google Search Console shows.
Last 28 Days
Last 28 Days
Last 28 Days
Average position
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Last 28 Days
Last 28 Days
Last 28 Days
Average position
Last 28 Days
Those numbers matter to me because they show movement over time. We did not start with a strong search footprint and polish it. We started with almost nothing and built one.
Google Analytics: what happens after people click
Search visibility is only useful if people actually visit the site and find something worth reading.
Google Analytics gives us that second part of the story.
In the last 30 days, EDG CPA recorded about 2,000 active users, up 133%, and about 1,900 new users, up 129.8%. Organic search produced 1,371 sessions, with 1,104 engaged sessions. That is an 80.53% engagement rate.
I like that last number. It tells me the traffic is not just a pile of clicks. People are landing on pages, reading, moving around, and looking at what we do. The average organic session lasted about 37 seconds, and organic traffic generated 8,985 total events.
Over the last 90 days, the site recorded about 2,800 active users and 2,800 new users. Again, this started from zero. That is the part I find most useful when I explain this project to another small-business owner.
Last 30 Days
Last 28 Days
Last 28 Days
Last 90 Days
Last 28 Days
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Organic Search Produced
Last 28 Days
Last 28 Days
Last 28 Days
Keyword rankings: all started outside the top 100
The keyword story is even easier to understand. Every one of the following terms started outside the top 100. Today, they appear in the top 10.
| Search term | Starting point | Current position |
|---|---|---|
| CPA in Lincoln County SD | 100+ | 1#1 |
| Lincoln County CPA | 100+ | 1#1 |
| Local SD Accounting Firm | 100+ | 1#1 |
| Local tax accountant Lincoln County | 100+ | 1#1 |
| Monthly bookkeeping services Sioux Falls | 100+ | 1#1 |
| Tax filing services Lincoln County SD | 100+ | 1#1 |
| Tax preparation Lincoln County | 100+ | 1#1 |
| Certified public accountant Canton SD | 100+ | 1#1 |
| Business financial planning South Dakota | 100+ | 2#2 |
| Professional tax services Canton SD | 100+ | 2#2 |
| CPA near Canton South Dakota | 100+ | 4#4 |
| Local accountant for small business SD | 100+ | 4#4 |
| Federal and state tax preparation SD | 100+ | 5#5 |
| Tax preparation for small business | 100+ | 6#6 |
| Certified CPA services in Sioux Falls SD | 100+ | 6#6 |
| Certified public accountant Harrisburg SD | New | 7#7 |
| Small business accounting services | 100+ | 8#8 |
| South Dakota tax planning | 100+ | 8#8 |
| Business accountant South Dakota | 100+ | 10#10 |
| Professional tax accountant in Sioux Falls | 100+ | 10#10 |
| Business tax accountant Sioux Falls | 100+ | 10#10 |
| Payroll and accounting services Sioux Falls | 100+ | 10#10 |
What it looks like in Google search
This is where the work becomes real to me. It is one thing to see a line on a report. It is another thing to search for a service and see EDG CPA sitting there.
CPA in Lincoln County SD
EDG CPA appears at #1 for the Lincoln County result, with a page that speaks directly to Canton, Tea, Harrisburg, and Worthing.
Local tax accountant Lincoln County
EDG CPA appears at #1 with tax accountant information for Sioux Falls and Lincoln County, including federal and state tax preparation.
Monthly bookkeeping services Sioux Falls
EDG CPA appears at #1 for monthly bookkeeping services, connecting the search to practical help for small businesses.
Professional tax services Canton SD
EDG CPA appears among the visible results for Canton tax services, with a page focused on Canton and Lincoln County taxpayers.
Google’s AI cites us now
Search is changing. People are not always clicking ten blue links anymore. They may ask an AI-powered search system a question and read a summary first.
That is where small business consulting near Tea SD can become useful. We help owners separate revenue, profit, cash flow, taxes, debt, and working capital so each question gets the right answer.
For Business financial planning South Dakota, our site has been cited three separate times in one Google AI Overview answer. The answer discussed entity structure, cash flow modelling, and tax strategy. That is a different kind of visibility, and it is one reason I wanted a team that understood where search was going, not only where it had been.
I do not think every small business needs to chase every new search feature. But the underlying lesson is useful: clear information, useful pages, strong local signals, and real expertise still matter.
Google Business Profile: local visibility matters
When someone searches Sioux Falls CPA, the map results can be the first thing they see. Our Google Business Profile now shows EDG CPA at the top for that search, with a 5.0 rating from 33 reviews.
Our profile lists our office at 601 W 86th St #105 in Sioux Falls. That local presence matters. We are not trying to pretend we serve some abstract national market. We work with real people and businesses in Sioux Falls, Lincoln County, Canton, Harrisburg, Tea, and surrounding communities.
The profile is also connected to the wider search work. It is not a separate island. The website, local pages, reviews, business information, and search visibility all need to make sense together.
What the team actually did to get us here
I brought in Elite Information Tech to take over the digital side of the business. They rebuilt the website, worked on our search rankings, managed our Google Business Profile, and handled the backlink work that most people never see.
What sold me early was not a sales pitch. They asked about my clients before they talked about tactics. That mattered to me because it is the same way I work as a CPA. You do not give advice before you understand the situation.
They also worked on our Bing and Yahoo presence. We now show up strongly for terms around healthcare accounting, medical practice accounting, and dental practice accounting in Sioux Falls across those platforms as well.
I get a real person when I have a question, usually the same day. The updates make sense. I do not need a 40-page report full of marketing words to understand what happened. And I have not felt pushed into buying something simply because there was another service on the menu.
The biggest benefit for me is time
There is another result that does not show neatly in Google Search Console: I do not have to think about this every day.
Running EDG CPA means thinking about clients, returns, accounting work, payroll, planning, deadlines, and the many small decisions that come with owning a firm. I do not want to spend my evenings learning technical SEO, checking backlinks, fixing website issues, or wondering why a page lost a position.
Elite Information Tech handles that side. The website, SEO, local search work, and paid digital activity can run in the background while I stay focused on the work clients actually hire me to do.
Why I am writing this on our own site
I do not hand out recommendations lightly. My name is on this firm. If I tell another business owner that I trust a company, I want to be able to stand behind that statement.
I also keep hearing the same problem from small-business owners: their website exists, but it is not doing much for them. They paid someone to build it. Maybe they paid someone else for SEO. Then months go by and they still cannot find themselves when they search.
I know that frustration because I was there. We had a website. We had a business. We had happy clients. What we did not have was enough visibility when someone searched for a CPA in our own area.
The figures on this page come from our Google Search Console and Google Analytics data as of September 2026. The work was done by Elite Information Tech. I am sharing it because I think another owner can learn something from the process without having to take my word for it.
Who I recommend
If you are a small-business owner in Sioux Falls or elsewhere and your website is not pulling its weight, Elite Information Tech is the team I would tell you to speak with.
They helped us with local SEO, Google Business Profile management, Google Ads, Bing and Yahoo SEO, backlink building, web design and development, and GEO / AI search. More importantly, they learned our business before deciding what our business needed.
That distinction matters. Good marketing should not make you feel like you are buying a package. It should feel like someone is looking at your actual business and asking what is stopping the right people from finding you.
What I trust them with
Local search visibility and location-focused SEO
Google Business Profile management
Website design, development, and ongoing improvements
Google Ads and paid search
Bing and Yahoo search visibility
Backlink building and authority work
Content and pages built around real customer questions
GEO and visibility in AI-powered search
You can email me at dan@edgcpa.com or call the office at (605) 251-9452.
The part I care about most
For me, this was never about being able to say ‘we rank #1.’ Rankings are useful. They are not the whole point.
The point is that someone in Sioux Falls who needs a CPA can now find us. A business owner in Canton can search for tax help and see our name. Someone in Harrisburg can look for an accountant and come across EDG CPA. A person researching bookkeeping can land on a page that answers the question they actually asked.
Elite Information Tech helped us build that bridge. I am comfortable putting my name behind them because I have seen the work, the numbers, and the change in our own business.
That is what a website should do. It should help the right person take the next step.
A note to other small-business owners
If your website is not bringing in the people you hoped it would, I would not start by throwing more money at ads. Start by understanding what is actually happening. Are people finding you? Are they clicking? Are they staying? Are the pages answering their questions? Does your Google Business Profile match your business? Do the people who need you know you exist?
Those were the questions we had to answer. Once we did, the work became much clearer.
That is why I am happy to recommend the people who helped us get here.
Daniel Foster
Founder & CPA, EDG CPA | Sioux Falls, South Dakota
This page reflects our own experience with Elite Information Tech. We are not paid to say any of this. The figures referenced here are from Google Search Console and Google Analytics as of September 2026.