If you are an accountant looking for build up your SEO, then broadly speaking you need to do at least three things: produce great content, provide a rich user experience and build a great backlink profile.
In this article, we are going to focus on the last point – generating relevant, high-quality backlinks to your accountant website in order to build up your search engine rankings.
There are literally hundreds of ways to build backlinks, so here are some ideas to get you started:
#1 Ask friends and family
The chances are your colleagues, family members, friends, clients and business partners either have their own website, blog or social media profiles.
If any of these digital assets are relevant to accounting then consider asking them if they would link to your website. For instance, if someone has a lifestyle blog and they have recently written an article about money management, you could ask them for a link to your website within that blog post.
Just make sure you only ask for links from relevant websites. It will probably provide little value, for instance, to get a link from your mate’s plumbing website or your aunt’s food blog.
#2 Leave Comments
You are unlikely to get lots of juicy, SEO-friendly links to your accountant website by leaving lots of comments on other people’s blog/social media posts. However, it can be a powerful way to get noticed by the publisher or author, which can lead to link-building opportunities in the future.
Again, make sure you do this on blogs, websites and social media profiles/pages which are actually relevant to your industry. Also, lead with value. Make sure you are contributing to the discussions and avoid appearing like you are simply fishing for links.
#3 Chamber of Commerce
This is an easy SEO win for lots of accountants. Simply register your accounting business with your local chamber of commerce, and they should provide a useful link to your website.
#4 Company Directories
There are many relevant online directories which accountants might want to consider listing their business on. Unbiased, for instance, is a potential option to consider.
#5 Guest posts
Offering to write articles for other people’s blogs isn’t as effective a strategy as it used to be in accountant SEO. This is partly because bloggers are weary of receiving pitches for guest posts, and also partly because Google has decreased the value of links from guest posts.
However, guest posts can still be a powerful way to build an accountant website’s backlink profile. If you are going to incorporate guest posting into your backlink strategy, make sure you do not rely on it.
Also, make sure you avoid websites which are irrelevant, or which are not selective when it comes to accepting new contributors.
#6 Intern / career websites
If you are looking for any graduates or people who can intern at your accounting practice, then posting your opportunities on .ac.uk websites can be a useful way to get some more backlinks.
Posting your opportunities on job boards can be another approach to consider. However, not all of them will link out to your website and sometimes this can open the floodgates to unwanted recruitment agency calls.
#7 Local Directories
Many accountants and financial advisory firms are smaller outfits which tend to focus on a local/regional client base. For these businesses, it can be helpful to register with local business listings such as ThomsonLocal or the UK Small Business Directory to get some useful backlinks.
#8 Profile Links
If you have a blog on Medium or another membership website, this can be a somewhat useful place to provide a link back to your accountant website in order to drive traffic.
#9 Quora
If you can find popular Q&A websites like Quora where people are asking questions about accountancy, then you have the opportunity to provide answers – and links back to your website therein!
#10 Slideshare
If you have created a fantastic presentation on a subject or topic in accountancy, then consider uploading it to Slideshare to provide another useful, no-follow link back to your website.
#11 Video sites
Links from websites such as YouTube and Vimeo are no-follow (i.e. they provide no SEO “juice”), but they are a great opportunity to drive additional footfall on an accountant’s website. If you have any videos which you have uploaded on there, make sure you are linking back.
#12 Reviews / Testimonials
If you recently purchased something and had a pleasant experience, then you might offer a review or testimonial to the vendor and give them permission to publicise it in exchange for a link.
For instance, suppose your accountancy recently bought some accounting software and saw immediate, positive results from it. You could reach out to the seller with a glowing review, and they might ask to put it on their website to reinforce their sales pitch.
The seller also offers to include a link to your website underneath your review on their website. That’s another great backlink in the bag!
#13 Hunting Brand “Mentions”
Suppose someone writes a positive blog or review about your business but does not link back to your website. That’s a great opportunity to approach them, thank them for the kind words, and request that they also link back to your website.
Many authors and publishers like this are often very happy to do so, and it’s a fairly quick, easy SEO win for you. To find these mentions you might want to consider tools like Google Alerts and Buzzsumo.
#14 Mining for Broken Links
This is honestly one of the most powerful ways to build backlinks if you have the time, means and resources to do it.
Mining for broken links involves finding web pages which might provide a link to your website. You then scout out for any links on these pages which are broken (i.e. they lead to a dead page when you click on them). From there, you point out the broken link to the website owner and politely ask if they would consider linking to your content instead.
