The finance world is competitive. In the US alone, 30,500 financial advisors will enter the market in the next 6 years. With oversaturation comes the need to stand out online.
A strong SEO strategy can significantly impact the visibility and trustworthiness of a financial advisor business, attracting more prospective clients and establishing authority in the financial services industry. This guide will show you how to climb the finance ladder through SEO.
What you will Learn in this Article• Understanding the significance of SEO in attracting future clients through search engines like Google is crucial for financial advisors. • Implementing well-designed SEO tactics can significantly boost online traffic, lead generation, and brand awareness for financial advisors. • Use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to identify relevant search phrases for your financial consultation business, focusing on niche-specific terms to attract genuinely interested potential customers. • Not all backlinks are equal; prioritize trustworthy and authoritative sources for improved website credibility and search engine ranking. |
Why is SEO Important for Financial Advisors?
First step to maximizing your SEO is to understand its importance in this space. Customers go to search engines like Google for financial advice or services in today’s digital world.
When you optimize your website for Google you increase your chances of visibility and attracting prospects. And since 71% of search traffic stays on the first page of a Google search, you’ll miss out on prospects if you’re not on that page.
You want to rank at the top or at least on the first page of Google when it comes to using effective SEO tactics for financial advisors.
Benefits of SEO for Financial Advisors
A well designed SEO tactic can be a game changer for your business. Here are the obvious ways it helps:
Benefits of SEO for financial advisors.
Increased Website Traffic🚦
When your website ranks higher in search results, more people will visit it. Every day millions of people go to Google for financial advice.
One Twitter user shared a valuable insight on this topic, saying:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimizing your website for search engines ensures that your business appears in search results when potential customers are looking for products or services you offer. This increases your visibility and drives organic traffic to your site.
— Buzz Builders (@BdBuillers) June 17, 2024
Hence, if your firm is at the top of these searches it increases your brand visibility and chances of attracting prospects.
More Leads🚀
When more people visit your website you’ll have more chances to attract leads and convert them into clients. When prospective clients search for financial services or advice, sites with good SEO will appear at the top of search engine results pages, making it easier for them to find these services.
Brand Awareness📣
SEO helps financial advisors increase brand awareness by making their website visible and accessible to prospects searching for financial services online.
When someone searches for terms like “financial advisor near me” or “investment planning tips”, your website will appear at the top of the SERPs if you’ve optimized with good SEO.
Being in the top 3 of Google SERPs gets you noticed by potential clients.
As a result, more people become aware of the the brand and services, increasing website traffic, inquiries, and potential clients.
Credibility & Trust🤝
Appearing at the top of SERPs means authority and expertise, so prospects trust you. So websites that rank on the first page are seen as more trustworthy and credible. So when your website ranks high because of SEO it increases trust in your brand for prospects.
Now that you know why SEO is important for financial advisors, let’s get into how to get there.
SEO for a Financial Advisor’s Website
Here are some SEO tactics for financial advisors.
Create a Site that Highlights Your Core Service Areas🎯
First step to improving your financial firm’s SEO is to understand its core areas. This means identifying the services you offer and breaking them into specific sections related to the core services. By doing this you can create a focused keyword strategy that supports your business goals.
Source: Outranking.io.
To organize your website start by identifying its main services. For example a financial advisory firm might offer services like ‘investment management’, ‘retirement planning’ and ‘tax planning’. Then these services can be broken down into specific areas that relate to your core services.
Breaking down your services into specific areas is the easiest way to find keywords that align with your business strategy.
| For example, if your firm wants to focus on investment management you can create content around specific sub-areas like portfolio diversification, risk assessment, asset allocation and performance tracking. This will help your firm rank higher in search engine results for relevant search phrases and attract more targeted traffic. |
Keyword Research for Your Financial Advisory Business🔎
Since financial advisors focus on quality not quantity when it comes to lead generation, content is important for businesses like yours.
A big part of effective SEO strategies is finding the keywords that people use when searching for financial advice or services. When you know and include those keywords in your content you’ll attract more interested visitors who can become clients.
How to find effective keywords for your website.
Identifying Relevant Keywords
To start with keyword research, you need to pinpoint the most relevant words for your financial consultation business. This involves considering the services you provide and the clients you aim for.
Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console can help in identifying relevant keywords and tracking their performance.
For example if you specialise in retirement planning, keywords like ‘retirement planning’, ‘retirement planning services’ and ‘retirement planning advisors’ could be important. Focusing on niche specific keywords is key because it attracts potential clients who are genuinely interested and likely to become clients.
Keyword research tips.
So how do you find these keywords? One easy way is to think from your potential clients perspective. What words would they type when searching for financial advice? Tools like Google’s Keyword Planner or SEMrush can give you insights into keywords in your industry.
Using SEMrush to Research Keywords for Your Firm’s Core Service Areas
To get started go to the SEMrush website and log in to your account. Then navigate to the ‘Keyword Magic Tool’ option and click on it. Then type in keywords like ‘financial advisory’ or ‘financial planner’ into the search bar of the keyword research tool.
You can filter the keywords by search volume and keyword difficulty, select your preferred keywords and export them to a CSV file for later use.
Competitor Keyword Research
Another part of search phrase research is to research your competitors’ keywords. This will help you find keywords you may have missed and see which keywords are valuable in your industry. Analyzing other websites can provide insights into valuable keywords and SEO strategies.
Start by identifying your main competitors. Use tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to find the keywords they rank for. Look for common themes in their keyword selection—do they all target the same keywords? Are there areas where you can differentiate yourself?
But don’t copy your competitors directly. Use this information to inform your approach and find ways to differentiate yourself.
For example if your competitors are targeting ‘retirement planning services’ you could differentiate yourself by targeting ‘retirement planning for single mothers’ or ‘retirement planning for small business owners’.
Using Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are like detailed search phrases people type in when searching online. While they may not be as popular as shorter terms they can be super helpful for reaching a specific group of people.
A Reddit user summed it up perfectly in their comment:
Comment
byu/Expensive_Tie3017 from discussion
inSEO
For example instead of just targeting ‘financial advice’ you could target ‘financial advice for young families’ or ‘investment advice for retirees’.
When you use these longer keywords you need to think about what the person typing them is looking for. What are they needing help trying to work out? What answers are they seeking? Understanding their needs helps you create content that hits the mark and provides real value.
Search demand curve.
Doing your keyword research is crucial for any financial advisor’s online strategy. By finding the right words, knowing what your competitors are up to and tapping into those longer, more specific phrases you’ll attract more of the right audience to your site and grow your business.
Recap• Identify Core Service Areas: Break down your financial firm’s main services into specific sections to create a focused keyword strategy aligned with your business goals. • Conduct Search Phrase Research: Pinpoint relevant keywords for your financial business, focusing on niche-specific terms to attract genuinely interested potential customers. • Analyze Competitors’ Keywords: Analyze your competitors’ strategies to gain insights into valuable keywords but avoid direct copying. Use this information to shape your approach and set yourself apart in the industry. |
If you’re looking for tailored SEO strategies for other industries, such as moving companies, check out our comprehensive guide on SEO for moving companies.
Optimizing Your Financial Advisor Website for SEO🌐
As a financial advisor, you know how important it is to be found online. With many people searching for financial guidance online, making sure your website appears at the top of the SERPs is crucial. But how do you do that?
Implementing an effective SEO strategy is essential. After researching your keywords, the next step is to fine-tune your website’s content and layout to increase its visibility and effectiveness in SEO.
Creating High-Quality Content
A key part of SEO is having top-notch content that catches the interest of potential clients. This means creating content that’s helpful and relevant to your audience’s concerns. By writing detailed articles, blog posts and other content you can make your website the go to place for potential clients and boost your search rankings.
High performing types of content.
But not all content is created equal. To stand out from your competition you need to create unique content that’s full of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). This might mean sharing case studies, detailed reports or even videos that showcase your skills and offer value to your clients.
As one Twitter user put it:
What is SEO Writing?
SEO writing is basically those articles which comes on the first page of google surfer. This writing involves researching keywords, writing high-quality content that matches user intent, and optimizing your headers for easy page crawling.— Rana Nabeel Hassan (@RanaNabeel2358) May 2, 2024
To build long term authority in Google, I strongly recommend adopting a topic cluster approach.
In a knowledge-based industry like finance and wealth management, organizing content around broad topics or themes also known as pillar keywords, with each topic supported by a cluster of related content, can help businesses establish long-term authority and relevance in Google’s search results, ultimately improving their online visibility and credibility.
Example of topic cluster approach.
Implementing On-Page SEO
Good content is useless if your website is hard to navigate and disrupts user experience. High-quality content coupled with on-page SEO techniques can effectively improve your site’s search engine rankings.
- Page Title and Meta Description: You can’t ignore this. When people search for financial advice online the first things they see are these titles and meta tags. So I recommend making your title and meta tags super compelling and helpful.
Title and meta description.
- Use of Relevant Keywords: To optimize your website’s content for search engine results start by using the right keywords in your page titles, headings and main text. This helps search engines understand what your content is about and helps people find it more easily.
- Header Tags: Structure your content well using appropriate H1, H2, and H3 tags to make it easier for crawlers and users to understand and navigate the content.
On-site SEO.
- XML Sitemap: Make sure your website has a good up to date sitemap so search engines can navigate and organize your content effectively. For financial advisors who have multiple services, resources and blog posts a sitemap can ensure all relevant pages are discovered and indexed by search engines.
- Alt text: Another on-site SEO trick is to tweak images with alt text. This lets search engines understand what your images are about and increase their accessibility and visibility.
Many users search for images to find relevant content especially when looking for visual representations of financial concepts. Optimized alt text increases the chances of your images showing up in image search results and driving more traffic to your website.
Mobile Friendliness and Page Load Times
In this mobile first era make sure your website works well on mobile and loads fast. Google loves mobile friendly sites so optimizing for mobile can increase your overall online visibility.
A Google survey reveals what users want from mobile sites.
To make your site mobile friendly you can use responsive design. This means your site will adjust automatically to any screen size. Don’t forget to optimize your images and videos for mobile. This can speed up page load and improve user experience.
Page load time is key too. Optimize your site’s code, compress images and use a content delivery network (CDN) to serve content from nearby servers.
Focus on Building a Strong Backlink Profile🖇️
Not all backlinks are created equal and links from trusted sources that are authoritative and relevant increase your website’s credibility and as a result its search engine ranking.
Backlink strategies.
Backlink Strategies
- Guest Blogging: Look for well known platforms that accept guest posts and propose topics according to their guidelines. This lets you showcase your expertise and get valuable inbound links.
- Creating Shareable Content: By creating content that’s informative and offers practical advice or presents original research on financial advisory services you increase the chances of other relevant websites linking back to yours as a resource.
- Building Relationships: Connect with professionals in the industry to explore mutual benefits through reciprocal linking, enrich each other’s audience with added value.
