With more than 46,000 registered accounting firms in the US alone, it’s safe to say that there’s healthy competition in the accounting industry.
And that’s a good thing. Competition drives innovation and quality service. But with so many accounting firms to choose from, the question arises:
Why would any firm choose your services over another? What makes you unique?
Perhaps it’s the unique approach you take to accounting. Or the customer service you and your team offer. That’s all good and well, but it’s only through referrals and word of mouth that those awesome standout qualities will get you more work, right?
To reach more clients with the world wide web, you must do all you can to convince search engines that your services are worth highlighting to Internet users.
One way of doing this is by optimizing your website and pages to search engines like Google. That’s where link-building comes in.
What is link-building?
Link building is a digital marketing strategy aimed at creating a network of connections between websites.
It involves obtaining external links, also known as backlinks, from other websites to point to a target website. These backlinks serve as virtual pathways that connect websites, allowing users to navigate between them.
From a search engine’s perspective, these links can provide insights into the relationships between websites, and they are used as a key factor in determining the authority, relevance, and credibility of a website.
Why link building is important for Accountants
A link-building strategy that gains a website backlinks from other high-quality websites often gives a website lasting value, as the backlinks continue to signal to the search engine that the site is relevant.
More than that, links from websites within the same niche send relevant traffic to a website, bringing customers and valuable business right to your front door.
7 Actionable Link building tactics
Here are 7 of the most profitable link-building strategies you can use – whether you’re an independent accountant or work at an accounting firm.
We’re pretty confident about these tactics as we use them on a daily basis to earn customers high-quality backlinks.
#1 Broken link building
Broken link-building involves finding broken or dead links on external websites and contacting web admins to replace those links with working ones that point to your accounting firm’s website.
This strategy helps you earn valuable backlinks and can improve your website’s search engine rankings.
Here’s how to do it
While there’s more involved than this simplified explanation, it should give you a good idea of how to go about it.
Start by identifying relevant websites. Look for websites in the finance or business niche relevant to your accounting services. These could be websites that provide tax advice, financial planning tips, or business management resources.
Next, find broken links. Use SEO tools or browser extensions like Ahrefs or Moz to scan these websites for broken links. A broken link is a link that leads to a non-existent page or returns a 404 error.
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After you’ve located the broken links, you need to create valuable content as a replacement.
Create high-quality, informative, and relevant content on your own website that can serve as a replacement for the broken link. For example, you could create a blog post on “Top 10 Tax Saving Tips for Small Businesses” or “How to Choose the Right Accounting Software for Your Startup.”
With your new content in hand, you can start reaching out to these relevant sites.
Contact the website owners or web admins of the sites with broken links and inform them about the broken links you found. Offer your replacement content as a solution and politely request that they update their broken link with your link.
You might be surprised to find that not every web admin will jump at the opportunity to replace a broken link. So follow up regularly!
If you don’t receive a response, follow up with a polite reminder. Be patient and persistent, as it may take time for webmasters to respond and make changes.
#2 Guest Posting
Guest posting is a strategy in which a person writes and publishes a blog post on someone else’s website or blog.
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The author is typically an expert or influencer in a particular field. The purpose of guest posting is to share their knowledge, insights, and expertise with a new audience while gaining exposure and building backlinks to their website.
Guest posting can be a valuable tool for accountants or any business professional to build their online presence and gain backlinks, which are links from external websites pointing to their websites.
Here’s how to do it
Again, identify relevant websites in the accounting industry or related niches, such as finance, tax, or small business. These websites should have a good reputation, high domain authority, and an engaged audience.
Next, research content Ideas. Once you have identified potential websites, research their content and audience to understand what type of content they typically publish and what topics are popular among their readers.
Brainstorm content ideas that would provide value to their audience and align with your expertise.
Pitch Your Ideas. Reach out to the website owners or editors with a personalized pitch outlining your content ideas and how they would benefit their audience. Highlight your expertise and why you are qualified to write on the proposed topics.
If your pitch is accepted, write a high-quality, well-researched, original guest post that provides valuable information to the target audience.
Make sure to follow the website’s guidelines and formatting requirements, and include a brief author bio with a link to your website.
If you’re unsure of how to do this, or if the thought of writing an article for the world to scrutinize intimidates you, ask a professional service to write your content for you.
Outsourcing this step is often a good idea as these companies will write content according to good SEO practices.
Lastly, promote your Guest Post.
Once your guest post is published, promote it through your social media channels, email newsletter, and other marketing efforts to drive traffic and increase its visibility.
This can help generate more engagement, shares, and backlinks.
#3 Haro
HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is a platform that connects journalists with sources for their articles, allowing experts in various fields, including accountants, to provide insights and information for news stories.
Screenshot is taken from Haro Website
HARO can be used as a link-building strategy to gain backlinks to your website, which can help your website feature higher in search engine results.
Here’s how to do it
You’ll need to begin by signing up for HARO.
Go to the HARO website (https://www.helpareporter.com/) and sign up as an expert source. You will receive daily emails with queries from journalists looking for sources.
After that, identify relevant queries. Review the HARO emails and identify queries that are relevant to your expertise as an accountant. Look for queries related to accounting, tax planning, financial management, or any other topics on which you can provide valuable insights.
Now that you know which queries you’d like to answer, you need to craft a compelling pitch.
When responding to a query, ensure your pitch is well-written, concise, and relevant to the journalist’s needs. Highlight your expertise as an accountant and provide specific insights or examples to support your pitch.
Remember to include your website link. In your pitch, include a link to your website or a specific landing page that provides more information on the topic. This can be in the form of a citation or a reference to additional resources on your website.
Remember that although Haro is a legitimate way to earn sought-after links from sites that would otherwise be impossible to get a backlink from, you need to filter out the weed from the wheat.
Not all links are equal, and before you to all the effort of pitching to a website that might be relevant, you need to check whether or not the site is actually ranking well in Search Results and carries any weight (Domain rating or Domain Authority comes into play)
#4 Link Inserts
Link inserts involve adding links to existing content, such as blog posts or articles, in a way that makes sense and provides value to readers.
These links are typically placed within the body of the content and point to external websites or resources relevant to the topic being discussed.
Here’s how to do it
For example, let’s say your accounting website runs a blog where you share financial tips and advice for small businesses. As part of your link-building strategy, you could use link inserts by adding links to their existing blog posts.
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Here’s an example:
Original sentence: “Maintaining accurate financial records is crucial for small businesses.”
Sentence with link insert: “Maintaining accurate financial records is crucial for small businesses, and using accounting software like QuickBooks can help streamline the process.”
In this example, the target website has added a link to QuickBooks, a relevant external resource, within the sentence. The link is contextual and provides value to readers by offering a solution to help with maintaining accurate financial records.
This can potentially improve the credibility and authority of the blog post and also provide a valuable resource for readers who may want to learn more about the topic.
It’s important to note that when using link inserts, you must follow ethical practices and avoid over-optimization or spammy tactics. Links should always be relevant, provide value to readers, and align with search engine guidelines to ensure a positive impact on SEO efforts.
Link inserts are one of the most fruitful link-building strategies in a campaign.
They can help your accounting firm build quality links on websites that have already been indexed by Google, which means that they have a much quicker effect on your search engine results.
#5 Social Media
The world has indeed become social media mad. In just about every country, people share pictures, files, and other content like never before.
According to one source (1)
“There are around 8 billion people on the globe, and 4.9 billion of them are using social media as of 2023. This is an enormous number. These numbers also mean that over two-thirds of internet users and one in three people worldwide are on social media platforms.”
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And this trend will only continue to grow. And not using the power of social media to grow your link-building campaign would be a mistake.
Here’s how to do it
As an accountant, you can build links using social media by creating and sharing high-quality content that’s relevant to your target audience on various social media platforms.
For example, you could create a blog article titled “10 Essential Tax Planning Tips for Small Business Owners.”
Believe it or not, this might be a riveting read for someone out there…
Share your content on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Use engaging captions, hashtags, and relevant keywords to optimize your content for search engines and attract your target audience.
Remember that you need to engage with your audience with these posts. So encourage shares within your article. Use hashtags to categorize your content. This will help your article reach the target audience and maintain relevancy.
As people read, engage, and share your content, you’ll create valuable opportunities for backlinking. So make your content fresh and enjoyable to read and share.
#6 Unlinked mentions
As you grow your online presence, people will start to take notice.
They might mention you or your business personally on their websites or blog content. This is great. It means you’ve become a household name or are headed in that direction.
You could reach out to the websites that have mentioned your or your service on their website and ask them to include a link to you directly.
Here’s how to do it
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Here are some methods an accountant could use to find brand mentions on other websites:
Google Search
Perform a Google search for your brand name or relevant keywords related to your brand. Review the search results to identify websites that have mentioned your brand. You can also use advanced search operators, such as “brand name” in quotation marks, to search for exact matches.
Additionally, you can try searching for variations of your brand name, misspellings, or common abbreviations to capture potential brand mentions that may not exactly match your brand name.
Google Alerts
Set up Google Alerts for your brand name or relevant keywords related to your brand. Google Alerts will send you email notifications whenever your brand is mentioned on a website, allowing you to identify and review the mentions quickly.
Social Media Monitoring
Use social media monitoring tools, such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social, or Brand24, to track mentions of your brand on social media platforms. These tools can help you identify websites that have mentioned your brand on social media, blogs, forums, and other websites.
Backlink Analysis
Use backlink analysis tools, such as Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush, to identify websites that are linking to your website. By reviewing your website’s backlink profile, you may discover websites that have mentioned your brand and linked to your website as a reference.
Industry-specific Websites
Monitor industry-specific websites, blogs, forums, or news websites that are relevant to your brand or industry. These websites may mention your brand in articles, reviews, or discussions related to your industry.
#7 Resource page link-building
The resource page link-building method involves identifying and reaching out to websites with resource pages or link directories related to a specific topic or industry and requesting them to include a link to your website as a valuable resource.
Here’s how to do it
Resource page link building for accountants involves researching relevant websites with resource pages or link directories related to finance, accounting, tax, or small business topics.
You should evaluate the quality of these websites, identify link opportunities where your content could be a valuable addition, creates high-quality content, and reach out to website owners or web admins with personalized outreach to request a link.
Resource page link building is a method used in SEO to acquire high-quality backlinks from reputable websites that have resource pages or link directories related to a specific topic or industry.
It can be effective because it provides relevant and authoritative links, potentially drives traffic, offers long-term value, helps build relationships, and contributes to a diversified link profile.
However, success depends on factors such as the quality of content, outreach approach, and adherence to ethical SEO practices.
SEO Good Practices
When it comes to effective SEO (Search Engine Optimization), following best practices is crucial to improve your website’s visibility and rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs).
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There are several key areas to focus on, including internal link building, mobile optimization, and local SEO. Let’s have a closer look at each one of these.
Internal link building
Internal link building involves strategically linking your website’s pages together, optimizing navigation, and improving user experience.
Building internal links is also essential for SEO because it helps search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of your website, improves website navigation for users, and distributes authority and relevance among pages.
Optimize for mobile
Optimizing for mobile ensures that your website is mobile-friendly and responsive as mobile usage continues to increase.
Optimizing your website for mobile is important for SEO because of the increasing prevalence of mobile usage and the emphasis that search engines place on mobile-friendly websites.
It improves user experience, engagement, local search visibility, and site speed, which are important factors in search engine rankings.
Local SEO
Local SEO focuses on optimizing your website for local search results, targeting specific geographic areas to drive targeted traffic.
A local SEO strategy is essential to a successful SEO campaign because it helps businesses establish a solid online presence in their local market, target relevant local search queries, and drive targeted traffic to their website.
Conclusion
Finally, effective link-building for accountants is crucial for improving online visibility and ranking in search engine results pages.
Implementing strategies such as resource page link building, HARO, link inserts, social media link building, guest posting, unlinked mentions, and broken link building can help accountants build a strong backlink profile that enhances their website’s authority and drives targeted traffic.
If the process of link-building seems daunting or challenging, fear not! There are solutions available to help you build quality links effectively.
One such option is batlinks.io, a trusted company that specializes in building high-quality links. With our expertise and experience in the field of link building, you can save time and effort while ensuring that your website gets the quality links it needs to boost its online visibility.
Don’t let the complexities of building links hold you back from achieving your SEO goals. Consider partnering with batlinks.io to streamline your link-building strategy and enhance your website’s search engine rankings.
Article Sources:
1 – demandsage.com