SUCCESS STORIES

How SEO Scaled QuickBooks Across APAC

QuickBooks is a household name in North America, but across APAC, many small businesses hadn't heard of it. Local players dominated the search results, and the brand wasn't showing up where it mattered.

StudioHawk built a region-wide SEO strategy to change that, rebuilding commercial landing pages, fixing the technical foundations and rolling out 450+ localised pages across nine languages and 12 countries.

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116%

Growth in non-branded traffic YoY (Philippines)

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92%

Growth across the /global/ directory

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450+

Pages translated across nine languages

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QuickBooks is a global accounting platform built for small businesses, sole traders and accountants.

Its tools help users manage invoices, track expenses, run payroll and stay on top of tax. In the US, it’s one of the best-known names in accounting software, but across APAC, awareness was low. People weren’t searching for it, and many small businesses didn’t realise it was an option.

The Need

QuickBooks had a strong product, but in APAC it wasn't being found. To grow, it needed to close the gap between its global reputation and its local visibility, with a strategy that could work across very different markets.

Where things stood:

Low visibility in emerging markets.
- Southeast Asia in particular was a visibility gap. Users weren't finding QuickBooks through search, and many didn't know it was an option.
Little reach beyond branded searches.
- QuickBooks wasn't showing up for the non-branded searches small businesses make when looking for accounting help.
SEO maturity varied by region.
- Some markets were further along than others, with some missing localised content entirely.
A strategy that could scale.
- QuickBooks needed one approach that could adapt to each market without starting from scratch every time.

The Plan

We ran two tracks at once: quick wins from high-intent commercial pages, and long-term growth through technical SEO and localisation.

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Rebuild commercial pages around local intent

Rewrite and restructure 27+ commercial landing pages across all 12 countries, and launch “Find an Accountant” directories connecting small businesses with local QuickBooks advisors.

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Publish region-specific content

Roll out 100+ blog articles targeting the searches specific to each market, building visibility earlier in the buying journey.

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Build tools people search for

Create tax and ROI calculators, plus competitor comparison pages built on live data, to capture high-intent searches beyond the blog.

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Localise on solid foundations

Set up the technical SEO infrastructure to support every market, then expand tax tables, glossaries and resource libraries across nine languages with native-language review.

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Rebuilt the technical foundations

Cleaned up URL structures, implemented hreflang tagging, improved crawl logic and standardised how content was published across markets.

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Built templates for markets with no blog

Developed modular templates and Quick Resource Centres so markets without a blog could publish consistently, using Figma for design sign-off and Airtable for content production.

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Translated 450+ pages

Used automation tools like n8n to translate content at speed, with native-speaking editors making sure everything felt natural and locally relevant.

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Launched first-ever Digital PR campaigns

Ran QuickBooks' first Digital PR campaigns in the Philippines and Malaysia, earning regional links that built authority and engagement.

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One directory, built city by city.

The Find an Accountant directory connects small businesses with QuickBooks-certified accountants near them. Starting with a national page for the Philippines, it branches into dedicated city pages, from Manila to Zamboanga City, each targeting the local searches businesses make when looking for accounting help.

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Working without internal analytics

With no access to QuickBooks' internal analytics, we built our own data models to estimate performance and guide strategy across each market.

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Targeting markets with little keyword data

In smaller and emerging markets, keyword data was unreliable or missing entirely. We took an intent-led approach instead, using behavioural patterns from other regions to shape content.

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Getting around development bottlenecks

The internal dev ticketing system was slowing everything down. Custom Airtable workflows let our SEO team brief QuickBooks' developers directly, cutting implementation time by more than half.

The Results

Non-branded growth in the Philippines: Non-branded organic traffic grew 116% year on year, and organic clicks rose 63%, so more small businesses were finding QuickBooks without searching for it by name.

Momentum across the region: Organic clicks grew 54% in Malaysia, and the /global/ directory saw 92% growth.

New pages pulling their weight: The VAT calculator pages and Find an Accountant directories brought in tens of thousands of impressions, reaching businesses at the moment they needed help.

116%

Growth in non-branded traffic YoY (Philippines)

92%

Growth across the /global/ directory

450+

Pages translated across nine languages

The Conclusion

QuickBooks came to StudioHawk with a strong product but little visibility in APAC. By rebuilding the technical foundations, localising content for every market and creating systems that removed bottlenecks, we gave QuickBooks a way to compete with local players on their own turf.

Across the region: non-branded traffic up 116% in the Philippines, organic clicks up 54% in Malaysia and 450+ pages live in nine languages. Just as importantly, QuickBooks now has the infrastructure and workflows to keep growing in APAC and beyond.

378%

Increase in number-one keyword rankings

How 'custom t shirts' went from page one, position eight, to the very top spot.

How SEO Scaled QuickBooks Across APAC

The Need

The Plan

The Execution

The Challenges Overcome

The Results

The Conclusion

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