When it comes to financial services, most people are under the belief that financial firm business is solely referral based and doesn’t require much advertisement.

Yes, referrals are a vital part of any financial advisor’s business. They often serve as the best way to reach potential clients. However, with the world rapidly shifting towards an online landscape – referrals shouldn’t be the only strategy that financial advisors work on.

SEO for Finance

It’s no secret that nowadays, almost everyone looks online when searching for a product or service. Especially millennials prefer to do their own research before investing in a service provider.

The same goes for financial advisors. 

In fact, there are already more than 700,000 U.S.-based online searches for wealth management and financial advisor-related keywords per month.

But as they say that the ‘best place to hide a dead body is the second page of Google’ – a whopping 75% of searchers don’t go beyond the search results‘ first page.

This means that financial service providers should not only concentrate on establishing an online presence but focus on improving their visibility by using the best practices to rank higher in search engine results.

How can they do that?

Let’s find out in our list of tips to help financial advisors rank. 

1 Perform Keyword Research

‘Keywords’ are by far the most critical component that helps potential clients find your firm’s website.

When creating content for your pages, use specific terms related to your firm, such as financial advisor in (city name), to help searchers narrow down their query.

Look at the competitor’s website to find out the keywords and phrases they are using and ranking for. Check the ‘People also ask’ section to take cues from the questions potential clients consider when choosing a financial advisor.

Suppose you want to go a step further. In that case, you can use software like Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, and Keywords Everywhere to pull out the top search terms for financial advisors and wealth management.

2 Create Relevant and High-Quality Content

We all know that ‘content is king’ and rules the World Wide Web. To prove to a search engine that your content is relevant, integrate your chosen keywords as naturally as possible.

Avoid stuffing the page with keywords. Instead, focus on providing well-written content that includes strategically placed keywords.

Whenever possible, write your own content. Add interesting and informative information about your service and financial advisors in whole to engage the readers.

Be sure to publish fresh content regularly. It will give both – your readers and Google something new to read and rank.

3 Optimize for Local SEO

Local SEO is another factor you may want to consider when you are adjusting your website for online visibility.

As the name suggests, local SEO is a process that helps local companies rank in the search results of Google and other search engines so that the business is seen by potential customers searching for a company nearby (e.g. “finance advisor near me,” “Wealth management Houston.”)

One of the best ways to improve local SEO is to create a listing on Google My Business. To include your listing, create a Google My Business account and verify your firm’s ownership:

• Choose the appropriate business categories.
• Write a 200 – 300 word keyword-rich description for your business.
• Provide accurate and updated information about your business, including name, address, phone number, and business hours.
• Add a link to your website and social media pages.
• Add relevant images of your firm and happy customer
• Ask satisfied customers to leave reviews

After you are added to the GMB listing, your profile will also appear in Google Search local results, the Google Search Knowledge Panel, and Google Maps.

4 Check Your Website Speed

Google has often indicated that the site speed or load time is one of the signals used by its algorithm to rank pages. So if you have a site that takes a long time to load, it can have a negative impact on your rankings.

A fast loading site, especially one that is optimized for mobile, is also crucial for a good user experience. Pages that take time to load have a higher bounce rate because the average user doesn’t have the patience to wait for the site to load. In fact, users leave a site if it takes more than three seconds to load.  

Use tools like Google Page Speed and GTmetrix to find out how fast your website loads. It will also provide you with tips to make it faster.

Another thing you can do to make your website faster is to compress images on the site. Use tools like ResizeImage.net to adjust the size of an image to save valuable space and load time. 

5 Be Responsive

Depending on your marketing scope, you may not have the staff available to respond to each and every comment you receive on your webpage and social media channels. But failure to acknowledge these messages can send the wrong signal to your reader and to Google’s page algorithms.

Remember that nothing turns off the visitor more than using web pages as a broadcast platform.

When planning your SEO strategy, set aside a dedicated time each day or week to review and respond to readers and their questions. Interact with the potential customers and follow up on any queries they may have.

6 Create Quality Backlinks

When you have other sites linking to yours, both humans and search engines view it as an indication that you have authority. There are many ways to get backlinks to your site, including getting listed on business profile sites, broken link building and using the HARO service.

You can also write guest posts and blogs on high-authority finance websites to give your website a boost towards the top of the search rankings. It will also help send high-quality potential clients your way

7 Check your Reputation

Online sentiments about your firm will reflect on your reputation as a trustworthy and authoritative source. And with people trusting reviews more than personal recommendations from friends and family, marketers need to be vigilant about their brand’s online reputation.

Monitor your brand consistently on the web, social media, and agencies such as the Better Business Bureau. While it is impossible to stop people from speaking their minds online, you can control the negative reviews into positive brand experiences. 

These were just some tips to get you started on optimizing your finance website for SEO. Good luck, and we look forward to seeing you at the top of the search results.