Are you sending your clients to another DJ?
I don’t understand why any DJ would “PAY” to put a “reciprocal” link on their own web site to a DJ locator site with so many of their direct competitors are waiting with baited breath to steal their business.
I get offers all the time from DJ locator web sites wanting me to advertise on their site along with hundreds of other DJs in my area. Some even offer “Free” spots and then you can upgrade your listing to draw even more attention to your advertisement.
The “free ads” are typically just the business name and phone number and nothing more and are always placed on the site long after all the paying ads. By the time a potential clients looks through the other twenty to one hundred ads, they as a rule don’t waste their time with a “Name and Number” only ad. Why would they when they have already received so much information from the paying ads.
These web sites promise all kinds of things like thousands of hits and users and viewers. They say it will drive business directly to you and increase your business. Unfortunately most DJs (including myself at one time) will believe their sales pitch and jump on the band wagon to upgrade their listing and can spend anywhere into hundreds of dollars a month to try and get noticed but in return get little to no REAL business from it.
Something I have been seeing more and more lately is that these web sites want me to list with them and as part of their instructions wants me to put a “reciprocal” link from my web site back to their DJ locator site.
At first you may think “Hey what’s wrong with that” but lets take a closer look.
If a potential client is on the DJ locator site and click on the link to go directly to your web site they will hopefully look around and see something that they like and contact you. If they don’t see what they want they just then click on the return or backwards arrow to return to the original DJ locator web site.
But if a potential client googles a “key word” or “phase” that brings them directly to your site then they are there to see what you offer. So let’s say they kind of like what you have to offer but want to look more. They find your reciprocal link and click on it and it sends them to a web site with twenty, fifty or even a hundred DJs in your area who are all fighting for the same business, this then gives your potential client the ability to forget about you and hire another DJ with a cheaper price, cooler speakers or what ever it is that catches their fancy.
If a potential client is on your site and looking at your information I can’t understand why any DJ would want to give them the ability to just click and be gone. Americans for the most part (including myself) can be very lazy and want to do the least amount of work they can to find what ever it is they want.
Google is a great example of this. There is nothing in the world you can’t research on google with just a couple words and a click. Google has one of the highest “Page Rankings” in the world because everyone uses it.
So why do these web sites demand that you put a “reciprocal” link back to their site?
Because it helps them with their rankings on the World Wide Web. When they get hundreds, thousands or possibly millions of businesses to link to them it helps their standings on the web rankings, but yet there is only ONE link to yours.
It DOES NOT help your rankings in the least to be connected to them with a “reciprocal” link.
It may help you to be found by potential clients if they take the time to surf through all the DJs on that site, but the greater majority of viewers to the page will automatically stop after the first few (because all the sites look and sound the same) they will then select one of those first few and may never even get to your listings.
The “Reciprocal” link is only a benefit to the DJ locator web site and can actually lead your potential clients to another DJ.
The “Reciprocal” link is only good for a DJ like us if you link to other vendors in the wedding/entertainment industry. This way if a client is looking for a photographer for their wedding and sees your link then clicks through (or vise versa) it helps both of you.
Make sure that whomever you “link” to also has a “link” back to you or this can also hurt you web page ranking. You will also want to stay away from “linking” to vendors who has a page rank lower than your own or below a 2 this also can hurt your page ranking.
If there is a vendor with a lower page ranking that you like, trust their work and want to refer business to them, then just put a listing for their web site (without a link) on a vendors page. It can still help them with their business but not hurt your page ranking. If their page ranking goes up then ask then to “link” together and it will help both of you.
If you don’t believe me about “reciprocal” links, try putting a “link” on your web page to your biggest competitor in your immediate area and see what happens. Putting a “reciprocal” link to a DJ locator page is the exact same thing.
Jeff Richards: Party Time Productions