Essential SEO Tips for Advisors

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of making a website show up as one of the first results for relevant keywords on Google, Yahoo and other search engines. As 93% of online consumers begin their online experiences with a search engine, the higher up in the search results your website is, the easier it will be for potential clients to find you.

Being at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) can translate into major ROI. According to digital marketing firm Zero Limit Web, the first five organic (or unpaid) search engine results account for nearly 68% of all the clicks on a given search term. After all, if users find what they’re looking for right away, they have no reason to keep looking further down the page.

SEO is a powerful, low-cost tool that financial advisors can use to build their brands, attract new leads and establish themselves in their respective niches. But while SEO is, in many ways, essential to running a business in the modern era, far too many financial professionals don’t understand either the basics, or the necessity, of the practice. Here are a few tips for advisors who want to learn more:

Finding your keywords

In order for an advisor’s website to appear high up in a Google search, the advisor must first consider the words people will use to search for an advisory business.

Consider the questions your target audience will be asking – what services do you want to be associated with? For example, an advisory firm in Boston that specializes in wealth transfer will want to come up in a search for “wealth transfer advisor Boston,” while a practice in Des Moines that serves the needs of female entrepreneurs will have entirely different target keywords.

In order to discover your ideal search terms, ask everyone on your team to generate a list of 10 key terms they think apply to your business, then host a brainstorming session to modify and narrow down that list. It’s important to note that these will be specific phrases that speak to your services and location, not single words or high-brow concepts. You aren’t aiming to show up as #1 for the term “wealth manager,” or “financial advisor,” you’re aiming to show up on the first page for more niche terms.

Creating searchable content

This is the fun part! Once you’ve chosen the keywords you want to try to rank for, it’s time to start writing content that’s relevant to those terms. Obviously, you should include the relevant search terms on the main pages of your website, but in order to rank high in the SERP, you’ll need to be publishing consistent, high-quality content that speaks to the questions people have in your specific niche.

The easiest way to do this is to start a blog on your site, and carefully integrate your chosen search terms into each piece of content. Careful is the name of the game here – shoving keyword phrases into sentences where they don’t belong isn’t going to get you very far. This is called keyword stuffing, and it’s penalized by Google and other search engines, who will push your website further down into the SERP if they catch you doing it.

Instead, write up thoughtful blog posts that speak to the questions your clients ask you every day. Remember: It’s important to showcase your knowledge!

Building a maintenance schedule

Unfortunately, SEO is not a “set it and forget it” process, it’s an ongoing process that will need to be revisited and reimagined often. Advisors who implement an SEO strategy should be:

1. Posting to their site weekly
2. Checking the relevance of their supporting keywords monthly using tools like SEMRush, Yoast, or Hightower’s SEO platform
3. Modifying their primary keyphrases on a quarterly basis
4. Reviewing their site traffic and comparing the most popular pages to their target keyphrases

While it can be complicated to get started, understanding the basics of SEO can yield dividends, saving advisors time and money in the long run.

Interested in learning more about how Hightower helps its advisors boost SEO? Email us at advisorsuccess@hightoweradvisors.com, or download our SEO guidebook here.

Hightower Securities, LLC, is a member FINRA and SIPC & Hightower Advisors, LLC is a registered investment advisor with the SEC. All securities are offered through Hightower Securities, LLC and advisory services are offered through Hightower Advisors, LLC.

Sources:
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-101/seo-statistics/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2017/08/30/how-to-optimize-your-seo-results-through-content-creation/#7acd4d72aa37