5 Cost-Effective Ways to Improve SEO for Your Advisor Website

This article originally appeared on Advisorpedia on May 18th, 2022, and can be found here.

Marketing strategies are things that most companies use and depend on their business field. Meaning the most effective strategy is likely to change depending on the company. As a result, financial advisors rely on SEO because it’s the most cost-effective way to attract prospects. SEO is all about making your site more visible to improve audience traffic and boost prospects. The only issue is that SEO can be very complex and take time to master. Especially considering that Google uses over 200 different factors to determine search ranking.

We’re here to help share five cost-effective ways to improve your SEO for your advisor sites. Read ahead to see what strategies and methods you can use to reach prospects and start successfully marketing.

1. Run an Informative/Interesting Blog

Blogging is one of the best ways to rank for keywords and engage visitors to your site cost-effectively. This is because blogging is free and allows advisors to be creative with how they share information. Some may choose to go for a more light-hearted and fun blog, while others may be more serious and fact-focused. In addition, each blog post provides a new opportunity to rank in SERPs (Search Engine Results Page), boosting motivation to post.

When writing a blog, it’s important to remember the following:

• Use links to connect your blog to other pages on your site
• Don’t force keywords into your writing, also known as keyword stuffing
• If on a subtopic, link the blog to the parent pillar page. Think of these as categories and sub-categories
• Keep a consistent schedule to provide subscribers with something to look forward to
• Be creative. Blogs are meant to be an engaging way to increase traffic to your site

2. Create High-Quality Content

A variety of elements impact your website’s SEO. Blog posts, videos, and even images can affect your site’s ranking. Like the blog tip above, the content you create is used to rank your site in search, but that doesn’t mean advisors should cover every topic. Instead, it’s crucial to focus on quality over quantity. Having one or two top-ranking results is much more effective than five or six low-ranking pieces of content. Here’s why:

Moz SEO study

There is a significant decrease in organic search traffic after the top positions (organic positions, not ads). So instead of focusing on a variety of topics, select critical subjects related to your services. Then, as you continue to create content, link to your older pieces and keep them up to date.

This last point is critical, as up-to-date content is essential for maintaining good SEO rankings and audience interests.

3. Engage With Your Audience

Audience engagement is a significant player in gathering website traffic and bringing in new prospects. Whether through social media, email marketing, or webinars, It’s important to keep in mind that your audience wants to feel heard and understood. They’re the customers and clients who keep your business afloat, so giving them a voice is crucial.

To make the most of your social initiatives, though, make sure you focus on each social channel’s average audience. Here are the audiences for the top advisor platforms:

Social media is one of the best places to share company initiatives to improve SEO. By sharing images, videos, updates, or just posts to see how people are doing. The more people engage with you on social media; the more likely users are to be led to your website. If you’re ever struggling with social media content, try some of these:

• Ask a question to get your followers to engage with you and each other
• Share an eye-catching image, video, or gif that acts as a conversation starter
• Feature content that isn’t just about business; let your audience know you’re not just there to advertise
• Have fun! Social media is for entertainment, don’t take it too seriously

4. Learn to Read a Search Result Page (SERP)

As you might’ve guessed, SEO ranking is constantly changing. This is why financial advisors need to research and keep up to date on current top-ranking search results. And whether you’re looking to create new content or optimize older pieces, the best way to start is to research your topic beforehand. You can do this by conducting a reverse Google search.

This will provide a list of websites you can examine to find shared features. These will indicate what Google sees as necessary for ranking under this specific query. Headers, titles, the type of content on the page,  links, etc., are all elements you can examine to see what Google might consider necessary for your chosen query.

For example, in the following Google search for “SEO for financial advisors,” we can see a list of article rankings. Still, the number of items on the list is not necessarily a ranking factor. So, we would click on each link to see what they share as we create our content. Be sure to do this search incognito to receive a result that is not influenced by your previous Google searches.

Take advantage of the Google results page by:

• Picking a topic and seeing what titles appear
• Find inspiration from other blogs or forms of content
• Discover the context for each keyword

5. Find Your Niche

Every advisor has something that they accel in when it comes to creating content. Whether that be creating mind-blowing videos, crafting amazing graphics, or writing attention-grabbing blogs. It’s essential to find your strength and use it to your advantage.

Much like the quality over quantity argument, it’s better to make what you’re good at in lower doses than more of what you’re just average at. Of course, always try to improve all your areas, but focus on what you do best to ensure high-quality content is pushed out for your audience to enjoy and for Google to rank.

Crafting a working SEO strategy can be challenging because of how many essential elements are involved. But don’t feel overwhelmed; FMG is here to help create a plan that works for you and gets results. Whether you’re looking to create a beautiful website, attract new leads, or stand out on social media, FMG is ready to help. Just follow the link and see what we can do for you.