When we talk about brand building strategy, having a website is a must. For financial advisers, having a website means generating new leads whom you can approach to increase your client base. A great website isn’t all that great if it does not have any visitors. So how do you ensure that clients find you online?
When your clients type your name into Google (or any search engine) what do you think they find? Every website on the internet has a goal of reaching number one on the long list of results. Very few websites actually reach that goal, though, because there is only one top spot per keyword phrase.
An independent survey shows that many people make buying decisions based on what they find online before meeting any adviser. So make sure that your website is impressive.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a process of augmenting your website to rank higher on search engines like Google or Bing. Search engines rank websites that they believe are authoritative and relevant. They measure relevance by analysing content on any given website based (mostly) on the number and quality of other webpages that link back to a website. You can think of it like votes. Each link back to your website counts as one vote; the website with the most votes gets ranked the highest by search engines, and finally, as a result gets to be first on the results page.
To build a SEO friendly website, you need to focus on the following key areas:
- Title tags
- Meta descriptions
- Written content
- Maintain social media profiles
Title tags
This is one of the most important places to use keywords and descriptors for the page. Title tags are the web page titles that appear in blue in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
Every title tag on your website should be unique and specifically describe the page it is assigned to. This helps both users and search engines easily identify what to expect on a page. An interesting or informative title may help convince users to choose that page over others displayed in search results. The page title should also precede the official company/website name to prioritize the content of that specific page.
Meta descriptions
Meta descriptions appear in black below title tags in the SERPs, giving a brief description of the page. Meta descriptions are important for users to identify the content of a page. Every web page should have a unique meta description that specifically explains a single page, not the website as a whole.
Written content
The content of your web pages is a critical part of SEO. Marketing Sherpa, a research firm in US, released a case study of how a comprehensive content marketing strategy increased blog traffic by 2000% and revenue by 40% for a technology company. In short, content gets results. Content is what users visit your site to access. Good content will keep them coming back for more information and sometimes even lead to business inquiries.
Search engines place high value on good content, too, and they have developed sophisticated ways of determining its worth. Well-written text with technical language, few if any grammar/punctuation issues, and suitable length to cover the topic adequately will receive significantly more credibility and authority.
Keep in mind that all content should be substantial and provide useful or interesting information. Adding a lot of new pages with light content may do more to hurt your site than help it.
Maintain social media profiles
To increase your web traffic, set up and maintain social media profiles. Your activity, number of followers, and social media interaction can let search engines know that people are interested in your brand, which may help your site’s pages rank higher. This online presence will help you to grab the attention of the prospects.
Thus, by following these guidelines, you will be able to build up an online community that will continue to attract more users and potential customers. While it may take a lot of initial effort to put these steps into action, eventually you will see that your marketing efforts are going farther and have a greater impact than you were able to achieve before.
Reproduced verbatim based from the ebook ‘SEO for Financial Advisors’. Click here to download the eBook.
