If you are a financial advisor looking to attract more business, there are several strategies that you can adopt to help you stand out above your competitors.

You may have tried both traditional and digital advertising, direct marketing, and even joined business networks, but what SEO strategies are you rolling out to get your business noticed online?

When it comes to driving more traffic to your website, SEO is critical. In this article, we look at the importance of financial advisor SEO and how it can benefit your business.

Introduction to SEO for Financial Advisors

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of improving the ranking of a website on search engines. The higher the ranking, the more likely people are to find the site.

There are a number of factors that contribute to a website's ranking, including the quality of the content, the structure of the site, and the number of backlinks (links from other websites). When it comes to SEO, it's broken down into two areas - offsite SEO and onsite SEO.

• Offsite SEO is all about promoting your website on other platforms, such as social media and directories.
• Onsite SEO is the process of optimizing your website itself. This includes things like making sure the site is mobile-friendly, using keywords in the right places, and improving the user experience.

When it comes to onsite SEO for financial advisors, it can be a complicated strategy to implement as it is quite complex. Google also changes its algorithms from time to time, so the goalposts are always moving. However, it doesn't have to be daunting if you know the basics.

Let's look at a few areas of onsite SEO and why each is so important when it comes to attracting new business.

1. Perform Keyword Research

One of the most important aspects of financial planning SEO is keyword research. This is the process of finding out what potential customers are searching for, and then using those keywords in your website and other digital marketing strategies.

There are a number of tools that you can use to help with keyword research, such as Google AdWords Keyword Planner and Moz Keyword Explorer.

Performing keyword research is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, it allows you to understand what potential customers are looking for. Secondly, it ensures that you target the right keywords in your SEO strategy.

Keyword research also allows you to assess the competition for certain keywords. If the competition is too high, it may be worth targeting a different keyword.

2. Update Meta Tags and Meta Descriptions

Another important aspect of SEO is optimizing your website's meta tags and meta descriptions.

• Meta tags are snippets of code that provide information about your website to search engines. For example, if you are a financial advisor in Atlanta, you would look to include 'Financial advisor Atlanta' as your meta tag.
• Meta descriptions are the brief summaries that appear under each listing on a search engine results page. They give potential customers an insight into what they can expect to find on your website.

If you don't have meta tags and meta description setup on your website, it's critical that you do.

Meta description outlined in red

3. Include Alt Text For Images

One of the most important aspects of SEO that is often overlooked is image optimization. This is the process of ensuring that your images are properly formatted and have accurate alt text.

Alt text is not only good for SEO, but it's also important for accessibility.

By properly optimizing your images, you can improve your website's SEO and make it more accessible for people with disabilities.

4. Ensure Your Website Is Mobile Responsive

Another important factor to consider when it comes to SEO is whether or not your website is mobile responsive. This means that your website should be designed in such a way that it can be properly displayed on mobile devices.

Having a mobile responsive website impacts your SEO because Google now uses what's called mobile-first indexing. This means that when Google's algorithm is determining your ranking on their search engine results pages (SERPs), they are primarily looking at your website from a mobile perspective.

If your website isn't mobile responsive, then it's likely that you will be penalized by Google. This could result in a drop in your ranking, and ultimately, less traffic to your website.

5. Website Speed Matters

A fast website is a good user experience. The faster your pages load, the more likely people are to stick around and interact with your content. A slow website frustrates users and causes them to leave.

Not only does a slow website impact your user experience, but it can also impact your SEO. Google uses site speed as a ranking factor when determining where your website should appear on its SERPs.

This means that if your website is slow, it's likely that you will be penalized by Google and your ranking will suffer as a result.

6. Use SEO Tools

There are various SEO tools that will help drive more traffic to your website, such as Google Search Console, Google Analytics and Google My Business.

Google Search Console

Provided by Google for free, Google Search Console is where you can see your website’s performance on Google's search engine. It also provides you with insights into how you can improve your website's SEO.

When it comes to Google Search Console, it's important that you submit a sitemap of your website because this will help Google to index your website more effectively, a key component of SEO.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics provides you with insights into where your website's traffic is coming from and how people are interacting with it.

This information can be extremely useful when it comes to improving your website's SEO. For example, if you see that a lot of people are leaving your website after visiting a certain page, you can use this information to improve the quality of content on that page.

Google My Business

Google My Business is a tool that allows you to manage your business's listing on Google. This includes your business's name, address, and phone number.

It also allows you to add photos, videos, and other information about your business. This is important because it helps your business stand out on Google's SERPs.

7. Start A Blog

People don't only start blogs to show off their writing skills or tell the world what they are up to. Blogs are critical to any SEO strategy.

A blog allows you to add new content to your website on a regular basis. This is important because Google will prioritize recent articles, rewarding websites that are active. By consistently updating your blog, it signals to Google that what you are sharing is relevant and timely.

A blog is also directly connected to the keyword research strategy that we mentioned above. In order to make the most out of your blog, you need to ensure that you are using the right keywords.

For example, as a financial advisor, some of the keywords that you might want to use in your blog include "financial advice tips", "how to save money the easy way", and "financial advisor near me".

Key Takeaways

SEO is critical to attracting more customers to your business. By applying the SEO basics listed above, you will be on your way to building a strong SEO foundation.

Keep in mind, all of the above shouldn't be actioned in isolation. Each component of SEO, whether keyword research, your site speed, or how you craft your meta description, needs to work in tandem in order to achieve the best results.

As you improve your website's ranking on Google's SERPs you will become more noticeable online and ultimately increasing your website traffic.