Top 5 SEO Tips & Best Practices
If you’re a beginner in understanding and getting started with SEO for your financial advisor website, it can feel daunting! It’s true that it is not a simple process and there are many factors that go into it. It also doesn’t help that the search engine algorithms change on a regular basis!
Taking the time to understand the core concepts and apply them regularly can take you a long way. The main thing to keep in mind is that it should be an ongoing effort and not neglected for a long period of time. SEO remains an important component of your overall marketing strategy!
In this article we go over the latest tips and best practices to get started. The best approach to SEO, like anything else, is to have a strategy. Begin by understanding these basic principles and make a plan on how you will implement them. Want a professional SEO boost for your website? Read about our SEO Package here.
Rule #1 - Build Trust With Your Target Audience
At the core, SEO is all about the credibility between your website and the various search engines. Search Engines operate on trust with their users and in turn, always want to provide them with the best and most relevant content. This is why it's important to ensure that you are keeping your website and the information on it up-to-date.
Rule #2 - Provide Value
When the algorithms notice high-quality content is being posted on a consistent basis, they know you are actively contributing to spreading valuable information on the web. Launch a blog on your website and make a plan to post frequently and regularly (at least 2x per month!). The contents of the blog should be relevant to your industry and the services you provide.
Clients of Advisor Websites have access to our Content Library; produced by industry experts, we have 100’s of pre-written articles, videos, and images at your disposal to assist in your content strategy. With the ability to personalize each piece, we make it easy to keep your blog fresh and stay engaged with your clients and prospects.
Rule #3 - Always Consider the User
Another key factor is the user experience (UX); search engine bot’s are sophisticated and if they have a hard time navigating through the website they’re going to assume that human users will too. Make sure you have a complete navigation bar and proper linkage throughout your website. Something both the search engines and your visitors will appreciate!
If you’re a customer of Advisor Websites you have full control over your navigation menu and have the ability to make updates as needed, including adding a drop down menu to ensure pages are well organized for the user. For help on how to update your navigation bar, read this knowledge base article.
Rule #4 - Use Meta Tags & Descriptions
Meta Tags are part of on-page optimization and refer to both Meta Descriptions and Titles for each page on your website. Meta Tags live in the source code and aren’t visible to your visitors; their purpose is solely aimed at the search engines. They send signals to search engine algorithms about the content and core message your pages are attempting to communicate.
If your financial advisor website is with us, you can easily update the Meta Tags on your website without knowing any code. Read how here.
Rule #5 - Build Backlinks
Backlinks are inbound links to a website from other websites around the web. Building these links is an important piece of any SEO strategy because it signals to the search engines the credibility of a site. If other credible websites are quoting and linking to yours, it increases the validity of your content to the search engines. Therefore improving the chances that your site is shown when keywords for your content are searched.
Keep following these best practices to maximize your SEO success and ultimately grow your client base. Remember, small efforts add up over time so don't neglect it! If you're a current Advisor Websites client and you'd like some additional SEO help, ask us about our SEO package today!
