My Website

 ...so instead of ABC Limited, it's Active Bowel Carehomes Limited (*). 

(*) - not a real client.

Posted by Anonymous on Sun, 14/03/2010 - 21:04

Pity they are'nt, with a name like that I would think they would be flushed with success. mabe a wholley owned subsiduary called the N.E.Ma. Corporation ?  

(Well what do you expect late at night ? )

Firstly, reciprocal links will not harm your google standing unless you have subscribed to a link farm (google are wise to this), infact, link counts are still one of the fundamental ways that Google ranks sites.  Search Engine optomisation is a science in its own right and not something which you need to stress about too much at this stage.

Secondly, the value of any marketing depends on its ability to take potential prospects along the path to becoming a customer.  How are you going to feed customers to the site?  considere a google ad's campaign for example.  Then consider does the site trigger a natural purchasing decision and include a call to action?

For example a google ad campaign that read "Taxi company accounts filed for £295", that led to a site which differentiated you as a taxi company specialist and laid out a series of purchasing options:

1   £295 for accounts production

2  £395 for our gold service.....

You get the idea...if you want sales, you have to lead the customer along a natural purchase path...and most importantly...don't forget the trigger....

Call 01345  67879709  Now!!!

Good luck

If you

These things are all a matter of opinion, but as one who markets a website solution for accountants, I believe that a professional looking internet presence is vital.

In my own accountancy practice, I can recall numerous discussions with prospective new clients where they explained how they came to be sitting in my office. The process was usually - recommendation, then quick look around website to "kick the tyres" then phone call to arrange meeting, or it was - look in Yellow Pages, then quick look around website to "kick the tyres" then phone call to arrange meeting.

The point is, that in either case, if our website gave a negative impression, then they would not have picked up the phone.

Now, expecting your website to do it all for you (i.e. without the recommendation first, or the advert in traditional media like Yellow Pages) is, I agree, a recipe for great disappointment - unless you also maintain an interesting and frequently updated blog, in which case Google might just work some magic for you.

Turning to "anonymous's" question, I think links to the client's sites are a good idea. Be confident that you are doing a good job for your client and therefore that they will not sell you out to another accountant following your link. I well remember a conversation with Chris Frederikson, of 2020 Group, many years ago when he offered to swap client lists! That's confidence and, no, I did not take up his offer.

Maybe an SEO expert could confirm this, but I understand that links from client sites pointing back to yours would be a positive factor as far as Google is concerned.

Adrian Pearson - Accountants Websites

Without talking about the 'privacy issue' nor the reasons why your practice should have a professional (trustworthy even) looking website, I'll simply cover the links form an SEO point of view (one of my areas of expertise).

Is there any downside with this?
No, on the contrary.

Also, from a technical point of view, do reciprocal links work as far as making changes to my website and therefore getting it up the rankings?
Yes a bit, but you need to know that not all links are created equal. Link from within the main copy of your site carry more "weight" than links in the footer for example. You also may want to consider including some keywords in the anchor (the underlined text) to further improve the optimisation.

I have a nagging suspicion that they may either get cancelled out or even count against the website and drop them down on Google.
Definitely not negative, but it is true that exchanged link may somewhat have less "impact" on the rankings - but they do not cancelled each other out.

quote from topaccountants: Maybe an SEO expert could confirm this, but I understand that links from client sites pointing back to yours would be a positive factor as far as Google is concerned.
Yes they do. Any links that you get to your site has a potentially positive impact (it really depends on the location of the link, your previous link history, your link profile and the "trust" given to the site / page you get the link from. The main risk occurs when you link out to a link-farm, not when a low quality site links to you (otherwise anybody could "sink" a competitor's site).

There are many ways to get links (to improve rankings and drive traffic to your site) but link exchange should really not be the first one you consider for SEO purposes. Blog commenting, guest posting, forum participating are all one way link building ideas that you may want to investigate, and I share some more on my blog ;-)

Tom Randskin - Search engine optimisation for accountants