An effective website is something that, when executed properly, can have a significant impact on your marketing initiatives, and the overall success of your practice. 

Sure, a lot of advisors have a website, but do all advisors believe in the benefits of having a website?

Judging by the number of old and outdated websites that our clients have come to us with, we have no other choice but to come to one conclusion: the importance of keeping a current website has been lost on advisors, somewhere between the excuses of I don't know how, my brother-in-law takes care of it, and I’m too busy.

Keeping a website relevant with up-to-date content is one of the keys to a successful web presence, unfortunately, far too many advisors overlook the importance of maintaining their website.  

We have identified three instances that will show you why having an outdated website can be harmful to your business.

Why Having An Outdated Financial Advisor Website Can Hurt Your Business 

1. Lose Your Credibility in 15 Seconds or Less

Now more than ever, people are spending extended periods of time per day online. According to the Digital 2022 Global Overview Report, the average Internet user aged 16 to 64 spends almost 7 hours per day online across all of their devices. 

This is also relevant to the financial industry, as 80% of consumers do their own research online before choosing a financial advisor.

If one of your existing clients recommends your name as a good financial advisor, and the referral finds your old, outdated website, they may think twice about doing business with you.

For example, if your website is showcasing events from a year or two ago, uses language that is no longer relevant, or worse, is no longer acceptable, then that referral is likely to leave your site and continue to search on their own. 

Potential clients are interested in what you're doing right now, not in the past. If your website is full of outdated information, you run the chance of being interpreted as someone who is losing their touch, and can no longer keep up with the ever-changing ways of doing business, and that’s a first impression that’s hard to shake. 

If your website doesn't have recent and relevant information, it is not going to convert new clients or win over your referrals.

For example, we've seen websites that have a copyright date of 2010, making us believe that the website hasn't been touched for the better part of a decade.  

Imagine what your potential client will think when they arrive on your website. In case you're wondering, here are the likely scenarios:

1. The client will think that you are no longer in business
2. The client will have a poor opinion of how you run your business
3. The client will be worried about your knowledge of current policies and if you’ve kept up with ‘the times’
4. The client will be wondering why your picture looks like it's from the '80s
5. The client will move on to the next advisor

Our Recommendation: Take a look at your website. Is there text that needs to be updated? Images or graphics that are no longer relevant? Contact information that is out of date or social media links that need to be added? Have a friend or family member review your website and ask for their input. Make those updates as soon as you possibly can.

2. Turn Away Prospects By Not Adopting The Latest In Website Technology

By not adopting the latest technologies that are available, you may be falling behind. Websites made today allow for a wealth of content to be located in one place, and look good while doing it.  If you aren't taking advantage of the latest tools that can easily be implemented on your website, you may want to consider some of these options:

1. SEO features like Title Tags and Meta Tags
2. Client login for them to view their portfolio
3. Article or a resource database for your clients
4. Google Analytics to track visits
5. Video or blog integration
6. Intuitive user dashboard
7. Social media integration

Incorporating these tools not only attract website visitors and engage your target audience, but they also provide value to yourself and potential clients. 

By installing google analytics, you will have a better understanding of who your website attracts, if it’s attracting your target audience, and even display if you’re getting any website traffic at all which in turn, will direct your SEO strategy. 

By adding blogs, videos, and integrating with social media, you are providing value to potential clients, setting yourself up as a thought leader in the industry and a trusted advisor. 

Including the tools listed above, you will also want to prioritize having a mobile responsive website. Why? Well, almost 57% of website traffic originates from a mobile device. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, you’re not only turning away a potential of over 50% of your website visitors, but you're also hurting your SEO. Since the majority of users now access Google Search with a mobile device, Google now takes this into consideration when indexing, meaning that it could be more difficult for you to rank higher in search results if you are not mobile responsive.

Our Recommendation: Let’s go back to your website. Do you provide resources or offer a resource database on your website? Is this something that you could create over the next few months? Maybe you want to start with a blog, and repurpose that content into a video series on social media? Save the list of tools we suggested above and mark off what can be implemented right away, and then select one or two to focus your time and energy on in the months to come.

3. Your Website Is Generic & Visitors Are Not Converting

At some point in time, you decided that having a website for your business was a necessity, dedicating the required resources to get it online. While it’s important to have a digital home base for your company, if it is out of date, it will not convert high-quality leads who land on your page.

For years, most advisors websites used generic messaging, visuals, and CTAs (calls-to-action) in an effort to not turn anyone away. This strategy is no longer relevant and doesn’t help you stand out against your competition, especially if it's the same content that’s been published for years. 

From your audience’s perspective, you have approximately 7 seconds to communicate to them that you’re the best advisor for their needs. This will be difficult to do with ‘one-size-fits-all’ content that doesn’t connect to the pain points of your target audience. 

For example, listing your services is important, but not nearly as important as presenting your value proposition clearly and connecting to the needs and dreams of your ideal client.

If you’re still sharing generic messaging on your website or speaking to a target audience that you no longer cater to, here are some of the updates that will need to take place:

1. Copy personalized to their unique needs and desires
2. Imagery your target audience would associate with
3. Adding testimonials and reviews from clients
4. Using landing pages and hyper-relevant CTAs (call-to-actions)
5. Including registration for company newsletters and email campaigns

Listed above are elements of website personalization, social proof, and website conversion tools that, when combined, successfully collect the contact information of visitors that can then be used to nurture them into clients. 

Our Recommendation: When updating your website copy, images, CTAs, and more, take on the lens of your ideal client. Ask yourself:

• What would they want to read? 
• What imagery would they want to see? 
• What would be that piece of content that would motivate them to give me their email address? 
• What CTA would be almost impossible for them to not click? 

Key Takeaways

These three reasons have demonstrated why having an outdated website can be harmful to your business. Keeping a website relevant with up-to-date content is one of the keys to a successful web presence with the cost becoming far too great to overlook. An outdated website has a high potential to reduce the number of new clients you secure and stunt the growth of your practice. 

To avoid losing credibility, turning away prospects, and not converting potential clients, you will need to take a hard look at your website and create a plan to update the elements we discussed that are currently missing. Applying our recommendations will be a great start to providing a relevant and applicable user experience on your website, setting your business up for growth and success.