Financial advisors provide invaluable services to their clients. But being an advisor means more than handling money and assets. It means establishing a deep, trusted relationship with clients.
For a financial advisor to expand their client rosters, they need to not only provide excellent service. They also need to be visible in a fast-paced and saturated industry. But how? Following SEO best practices can help financial advisors increase their viability and attract more clients.
Here’s why it’s crucial to implement an SEO strategy for financial advisors.
Why is SEO Important for Financial Advisors?
Financial advisors need to make sure their websites are seen by as many potential leads as possible. This is done through search engine optimization (SEO).
SEO is the strategic process of improving a website’s rank on search engine results pages, also known as SERPs. The visibility of your website depends on a high ranking. A high ranking is important because:
- 40% of company revenue comes from organic search.
- 93% of global searches are done on Google.
- Organic search drives 53% of website traffic.
Higher visibility translates to more website traffic and more qualified leads. This is imperative for a financial advisor’s success and growth.
How Financial Advisors Can Implement An SEO Strategy to Increase Visibility
It’s clear that local search must figure heavily into most financial advisory firms’ marketing strategies. But what exactly does it take to win with an SEO strategy for financial advisors? There are seven crucial steps to follow:
1. Identify relevant keywords
Gather the most relevant keywords for your business, i.e. “financial advisor,” “best financial planner,” etc. To enhance your local search results, you then want to add a location modifier, e.g. “financial advisor Frisco, TX.”
There are two reasons you want the location there: first, it’s much easier to outrank the wealth managers in your town than in the nation. Secondly, most of your clients are going to come from local search.
2. Conduct keyword research
Next, find out what keywords have the highest search volume (number of monthly searches) and the lowest competition (a measure of the number and popularity of sites trying to rank for a particular keyword).
Tools like SEMRush and Google’s free Keyword Planner are great resources to use when conducting keyword research.
3. Perform a Content Analysis
A content analysis is vital to your SEO efforts. This step ensures that your website messaging and digital content is relevant to your potential audience, and easily found through organic search. A comprehensive content analysis will also help improve on-page optimizations, a part of technical SEO analysis.
4. Perform a Competitor Analysis
A competitor analysis identities the strengths and weaknesses of your direct competitors’ SEO efforts when measured against your own. This has a two-fold benefit. It helps identify a market-specific SEO strategy, and helps you determine new ways to engage with your competitors’ audiences.
5. Create & Optimize Website Content
Once you’ve identified keywords and finished your content and competitor analysis, it’s time to create content using the keywords you’ve identified. This content needs to be relevant, engaging, and easily shareable. Examples of this type of content include:
- Blogging
- Videos
- Webinars
- ebooks
- White papers
Another way to boost visibility is to optimize existing content on your website. On-page optimization is the practice of making sure that the search engines can tell exactly what each page is about. The more relevant content you create, and the more often you post, the more website traffic and qualified leads you’re going to get.
6. Build Backlinks
This step in an SEO strategy refers to the practice of getting other websites to link to your site. Link building is an important but tedious part of SEO, as it involves researching sites, manually placing the links where you can, and reaching out to site admins to request backlinks. Search engines see a backlink as a “vote” for your site. The more popular the site linking to you is, the more powerful the boost will be.
7. Secure Your Firm in a Local Directory
There are thousands of location and industry-specific directories across the Web, including Google Local, My Business, Facebook, and even Yelp! Your firm should be listed on these sites. Not only should they be there, but it’s also important that the information is correct, consistent, and complete. If not, your rankings will suffer.
The Bottom Line
Financial advisors know how to build trust with their clients. But utilizing modern digital marketing practices like an SEO strategy can take that knowledge even further. SEO is the ticket to increased relevance and visibility, which contributes greatly to success for financial advisors.
There has never been a better time for financial advisors to stake their claim in a rapidly-growing industry. And we can help. Contact us today to hear more about how SEO can help you reach your business goals