Illustrative case study

A fictional business. The figures are a modelled scenario, not a client result.

Abfahrt Departures Départ

Zürich 9 months Local SEO

Mattlihorn Treuhand

Fiduciary & bookkeeping for start-ups · Zurich

How a Zurich fiduciary became the start-up founder's first search result in three languages

Pünktlich on time à l’heure

Arrived · month 9

+124%

new mandates

  • +124%New mandates
  • 4 → 22Map-pack top-3 terms
  • +97%Website calls
  • 17 → 88Google reviews

Gleis 01 · Störung · Disruption

Three languages on the platform. One on the board.

Founders searched in German, English and French, but Mattlihorn's profile and pages existed only in German.

Zurich’s start-up founders arrive from Lausanne, Lyon, London and Bangalore. They search the way they think: “accountant for startups Zurich”, “fiduciaire Zurich”, “Buchhaltung Startup Zürich”. Mattlihorn could serve all three in their own language, but Google only knew the German version, so for two thirds of those searches the firm simply did not exist.

The audit treated the business like a timetable: every place a founder might look for a fiduciary, and whether Mattlihorn was actually stopping there.

DE

Deutsch

Served

EN

English

Cancelled

FR

Français

Cancelled

Disruption notices from the audit

  1. GBP-01Google Business ProfilePrimary category set to “Bookkeeping service” only; no “Accountant” or “Tax consultant” secondaries. Description, services and Q&A in German only. No posts in 12 months, three photos.Major
  2. LOC-02Location pagesOne German page for all of Zurich. No /en/ or /fr/ versions, no hreflang, no content for the start-up clusters in Kreis 5, Oerlikon and around the ETH spin-off scene.Major
  3. REV-03Reviews17 reviews, the newest 14 months old, none answered. Nothing in the onboarding or year-end close asked a happy founder for a review.Major
  4. CIT-04CitationsName, address and phone disagree across 23 listings: “Mattlihorn AG” vs “Mattlihorn Treuhand GmbH”, and an old Seefeld address still live on 9 directories.Minor
  5. TEC-05TechnicalNo AccountingService schema, phone number set as an image on mobile (not tappable), and a 4.1 s mobile LCP from an uncompressed hero photo.Minor

Gleis 02 · Linien · The strategy

Four lines, one network, every language.

Built on our Local plan. Each tactic runs like a line on a network map: separate routes that only work because they meet at the same stations, the profile, the pages and the reviews, in German, English and French.

S1

Google Business Profile

  1. Re-categorised as Accountant with Bookkeeping and Tax consultant as secondaries
  2. Services and description written natively in DE, EN and FR
  3. Weekly posts on deadlines founders miss: VAT registration, AHV, the GmbH capital deposit
  4. Q&A seeded with the ten questions new founders actually ask on the first call
S2

Multilingual location pages

  1. /de/, /en/ and /fr/ trees with hreflang and x-default, translated by people, not machines
  2. District pages for Kreis 1, Kreis 5 and Oerlikon, each with directions and real local context
  3. Service pages per founder milestone: incorporation, first payroll, first audit
  4. AccountingService schema with areaServed and knowsLanguage on every page
S3

Review generation

  1. A review request built into two happy moments: Handelsregister entry and the first closed year
  2. Links in the founder's own language, so reviews arrive in DE, EN and FR
  3. Every review answered within 48 hours, in the language it was written in
S4

Local citations

  1. One canonical name, address and phone, fixed on all 23 existing listings
  2. Old Seefeld address suppressed on 9 directories
  3. 14 new listings in start-up, chamber and expat directories with matching details

Gleis 03 · Fahrplan · Timeline

9 months, stop by stop.

The order mattered: fix the foundations first, then open each language, then let reviews and citations build momentum. Every stop shows the map-pack count it reached.

  1. 01MonthAudit & NAP clean-upFull local audit, 23 citations corrected, Business Profile re-categorised.4 top-3 termsCIT-04 closed
  2. 02MonthEnglish tree goes live/en/ pages with hreflang; English profile description and services published.5 top-3 terms
  3. 03MonthFrench tree goes live/fr/ pages and Q&A in French; review flow added to onboarding.7 top-3 termsFirst FR reviews
  4. 04MonthDistrict pagesKreis 1, Kreis 5 and Oerlikon pages launched; schema on every template.9 top-3 terms
  5. 05MonthSpeed & tap-to-callLCP down to 1.6 s; phone made a real link; calls tracked per language.12 top-3 termsTEC-05 closed
  6. 06MonthFounder milestone pagesIncorporation, first payroll and first audit guides in three languages.15 top-3 terms
  7. 07Month14 new citationsStart-up, chamber and expat directories added with matching details.18 top-3 terms
  8. 08MonthReview velocityYear-end close review asks; every review answered within 48 hours.20 top-3 terms77 reviews
  9. 09MonthArrival22 terms in the map-pack top three across DE, EN and FR.22 top-3 termsOn time

Gleis 04 · Ankunft · Results

Every destination reached on schedule.

New mandates

+124%

Map-pack top-3 terms

4 → 22

Website calls

+97%

Google reviews

17 → 88

Modelled scenario for a fictional business — not a client result. Rankings and traffic are never guaranteed; see our Terms.

New mandates+124%Signed mandates per month, indexed to the pre-engagement average (= 100).
224M0M2M4M6M8
Map-pack top-3 terms4 → 22Search terms where Mattlihorn shows in the local three-pack, across DE, EN and FR.
22M0M2M4M6M8
Website calls+97%Tap-to-call clicks from the profile and site, indexed (= 100).
197M0M2M4M6M8
Google reviews17 → 88Total Google reviews on the Business Profile.
88M0M2M4M6M8

Keyword departures: before and after

Google position, month 0 → month 9. “—” means not in the top 20.

Keyword rankings before and after, by language
WasNowDestinationGleisHinweis
92Treuhand ZürichDE▲ 7
141Buchhaltung Startup ZürichDE▲ 13
113Lohnbuchhaltung KMU ZürichDE▲ 8
—2accountant for startups ZurichENNew route
—3GmbH formation ZurichENNew route
213payroll service ZurichEN▲ 18
—1fiduciaire ZurichFRNew route
—2comptable start-up ZurichFRNew route

Gleis 05 · Suchergebnis · SERP

Same founder, three languages, one first result.

Month 9: Mattlihorn appears in the English map pack with 88 reviews and a profile written in that language.

accountant for startups zurich
  1. 1Alpine Expat Accounting4.5 ★ (75) · Accountant · Enge
  2. 2Mattlihorn Treuhand4.9 ★ (88) · Accountant · Kreis 5 · English spoken
  3. 3Limmatplatz Treuhand4.6 ★ (61) · Treuhänder · Kreis 5

Nächster Halt · Next stop

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