Get Weekly Marketing Tips
Join 30,000+ marketers and get the best marketing tips every week in your inbox
We analysed 14 of the UK and world’s leading accountancy and consulting firms in Semrush, and paired it with a survey of 158 business leaders. The finding is stark: every firm has lost organic search visibility over the past year, and AI search is rapidly reshaping how professional services businesses get found.
|
100%
of the 14 firms studied have lost organic search visibility this year
|
−27%
average fall in ranked organic keywords across the cohort
|
65%
of their keywords are informational — exactly what AI answers absorb
|
$80M
combined annual value of these firms’ organic traffic, now at risk
|
Every Firm Is Losing Search Visibility
Change in the number of organic keywords each firm ranks for. Not one of the 14 grew. Consulting firms (teal) are hit hardest; accountancy firms (purple) are further into outright traffic decline.
| Accenture |
|
−40.8% |
| McKinsey |
|
−35.9% |
| MHA |
|
−35.3% |
| PA Consulting |
|
−34.7% |
| BCG |
|
−33.4% |
| EY |
|
−30.6% |
| Oliver Wyman |
|
−28.8% |
| Bain |
|
−27.2% |
| Deloitte |
|
−26.5% |
| PwC UK |
|
−19.6% |
| Grant Thornton |
|
−18.5% |
| KPMG |
|
−15.1% |
| RSM |
|
−14.6% |
| BDO |
|
−13.0% |
Bars show the relative size of each firm’s drop in ranked keywords. Source: Semrush, June 2026.
The Long Tail Is the Target
Across the cohort, an average of 65% of keywords are informational — the research-stage questions AI Overviews now answer without a click — the rise of zero-click search. That’s the visibility going first. Most consulting firms are holding headline traffic for now (McKinsey, BCG, Bain and Accenture are all within a couple of percent of flat), but their ranked keywords have fallen 27–41%: the decline is showing up in visibility before it shows up in visits.
■ Informational 65% ■ Navigational 15% ■ Commercial 13% ■ Transactional 7% — cohort average by keywords
Traffic Holds, Visibility Erodes
Consulting firms are holding headline traffic while their ranked keywords collapse — the decline shows up in visibility before visits. Accountancy firms are further into outright traffic decline.
| Accountancy · traffic |
|
−10% |
| Accountancy · keywords |
|
−22% |
| Consulting · traffic |
|
+7% |
| Consulting · keywords |
|
−33% |
Segment averages, Semrush June 2026. Traffic averages exclude EY (data anomaly).
Branded Search Is Shifting
At several of the most AI-visible firms — Deloitte (+71%), Accenture (+45%) and Oliver Wyman (+130%) — branded organic traffic is climbing even as non-branded falls. That’s consistent with buyers discovering a firm through brand mentions inside AI tools, then returning via a branded search. It isn’t universal, but it’s the leading edge of how discovery is changing.
| Oliver Wyman |
|
+129.5% |
| Deloitte |
|
+71.0% |
| Accenture |
|
+45.0% |
| PwC UK |
|
+14.6% |
| BCG |
|
+6.1% |
| PA Consulting |
|
−1.2% |
| RSM |
|
−5.3% |
| McKinsey |
|
−5.8% |
| EY |
|
−7.6% |
| KPMG |
|
−13.6% |
| Bain |
|
−18.5% |
| Grant Thornton |
|
−20.7% |
| MHA |
|
−37.0% |
| BDO |
|
−51.2% |
Change in branded organic traffic by firm. Green = rising, red = falling.
What’s at Stake
Semrush values the cohort’s organic traffic (what those visits would cost to buy through ads) at roughly $6.7M a month — about $80M a year. A worked example: a firm with 50,000 monthly organic visits, at the cohort’s average of $2.56 per visit, has around $415,000 of organic traffic value a year exposed by a 27% visibility decline. Reversing it means treating AI Search Optimisation and SEO as one discipline, not two.
| Deloitte |
|
$1.7M |
| McKinsey |
|
$1.1M |
| EY |
|
$822.6K |
| BCG |
|
$662.4K |
| Bain |
|
$605.7K |
| Accenture |
|
$456.9K |
| PwC UK |
|
$409.2K |
| KPMG |
|
$301.3K |
| BDO |
|
$190.1K |
| Grant Thornton |
|
$141.9K |
| Oliver Wyman |
|
$109.5K |
| RSM |
|
$105.3K |
| PA Consulting |
|
$63.5K |
| MHA |
|
$5.3K |
Monthly organic traffic value (Semrush). Purple = accountancy, teal = consulting.
The Full Cohort
All 14 firms, sorted by keyword decline. Figures per firm’s primary database (UK or US), Semrush, June 2026.
| Firm | Segment | Organic traffic | Traffic value | Keyword change | Branded change | Informational |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accenture | Consulting | 186.2K | $456.9K | −40.8% | +45.0% | 57.7% |
| McKinsey | Consulting | 468.9K | $1.1M | −35.9% | −5.8% | 78.2% |
| MHA | Accountancy | 5.8K | $5.3K | −35.3% | −37.0% | 64.3% |
| PA Consulting | Consulting | 21.0K | $63.5K | −34.7% | −1.2% | 53.9% |
| BCG | Consulting | 201.2K | $662.4K | −33.4% | +6.1% | 66.7% |
| EY anomaly | Accountancy | 341.0K | $822.6K | −30.6% | −7.6% | 63.6% |
| Oliver Wyman | Consulting | 33.6K | $109.5K | −28.8% | +129.5% | 74.7% |
| Bain | Consulting | 187.8K | $605.7K | −27.2% | −18.5% | 68.4% |
| Deloitte | Accountancy | 576.6K | $1.7M | −26.5% | +71.0% | 62.7% |
| PwC UK | Accountancy | 151.7K | $409.2K | −19.6% | +14.6% | 52.0% |
| Grant Thornton | Accountancy | 54.7K | $141.9K | −18.5% | −20.7% | 62.1% |
| KPMG | Accountancy | 176.1K | $301.3K | −15.1% | −13.6% | 74.0% |
| RSM | Accountancy | 39.4K | $105.3K | −14.6% | −5.3% | 59.0% |
| BDO | Accountancy | 85.1K | $190.1K | −13.0% | −51.2% | 74.5% |
EY’s branded/traffic changes are distorted by a one-month data anomaly.
What Businesses Themselves Are Saying
Alongside the firm-level data, we surveyed 158 business owners and marketers. Near-universal expectation that AI will change how they’re found, real traffic decline already under way, but most aren’t tracking their AI search visibility.
|
158
business owners and marketers surveyed
|
96.8%
expect AI to change how their business is found online within a year
|
40.5%
have already seen organic traffic decline this year
|
31%
are actually tracking their visibility in AI platforms
|
Have You Seen Organic Traffic Decline This Year?
■ Yes, declined 40.5% ■ Not sure 31.6% ■ No decline 27.8%
The Awareness–Action Gap
| Expect AI to change how they’re found |
|
96.8% |
| Have started optimising for AI |
|
52.6% |
| Tracking their AI visibility |
|
31% |
Survey respondents were drawn largely from Exposure Ninja AI Search webinars, so they skew more AI-aware than the general market. If anything, that makes these findings conservative.
Book a consultation and we’ll show you how your visibility compares to the sector, where you’re losing search and AI presence, and the priority moves to win it back.
Methodology & Caveats
- Cohort: 14 professional services firms (8 accountancy/advisory, 6 management consulting), UK-weighted with global majors. Mazars UK excluded as a defunct domain post-rebrand.
- Source: Semrush Organic Research, June 2026, each firm in its primary database. Keyword counts, traffic, organic traffic value, branded split and intent read directly from Semrush.
- Decline metric is organic keyword visibility, down at all 14 firms. Headline traffic is mixed. Clean peak-to-trough traffic reads: PwC −42%, BDO −24%.
- Survey: 158 responses, drawn largely from Exposure Ninja AI Search webinars (an AI-aware audience).
