SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one of the best digital marketing strategies for financial advisors who want to generate free, high-quality leads each month.
What is SEO for financial advisors?
SEO helps financial advisors get leads, appointments, and clients by appearing at the top of search engine results for various keywords without paying for ads.
In this article, we’ll go through how to get qualified financial advisor leads, appointments and clients each month for free with financial advisor SEO.
Executive Summary
The best way to get leads and clients from SEO as a financial advisor is to create content on your website that answers questions your potential clients are searching for. Then send people from your content to your sales funnel. This video explains how you can do this in more detail. At the end of the video, we also explain how we can help you do this (if needed).
The top SEO strategies for financial advisors
Here are the best ways you can be successful with SEO as a financial advisor:
1. Optimize your website for search engines
Optimizing your website for search engines is the first step to ensuring a strong SEO presence as a financial advisor.
To do this, your website must have:
- A clear navigational menu structure (home, services, about us, etc)
- No broken links (this can hurt your search rankings)
- Descriptive and unique meta descriptions on each page (this entices people to click on your website in search results)
- Internal links (this tells Google what websites are important to rank)
- And other SEO factors
Does this really work?
Chances are you found this blog from a Google search, which proves that you can get free traffic from SEO by having a search engine-friendly website and following the SEO advice in this article.
For example, I also have another page about how to get exclusive financial advisor leads.
If you go to Google and type in “exclusive financial advisor leads” you’ll see we are currently ranked number one:
How can you improve your website’s SEO?
The easiest way is to install Google Search Console.
Google Search Console is Google’s official (and free) SEO tool. It will tell you if any problems with your website need to be fixed for Google to crawl and rank it higher.
Will doing this alone help you rank first on Google? Not yet. This is just the start and it’s needed to build a strong SEO foundation.
Once you have a strong foundation, you can move to the next strategy.
2. Answer specific questions
The best way to rank at the top of search engines with your financial advisor website is to answer questions your potential clients are asking.
Some financial advisors make the big mistake of trying to rank for very competitive financial advisor keywords such as:
- Financial Advisor
- Independent financial advisor
- Wealth management
- Investment management
- Certified Financial Planner
- Financial Planner
- Best Financial advisors
- Best financial planners
The problem with targeting highly competitive keywords like this is that it will be difficult to rank first on Google if you’re new or just starting out.
Instead, it will be much easier (and more effective) to target what SEO experts call the “long tail keywords“.
Long tail keywords are longer keyword phrases, as seen below:
Long tail keywords have:
- Low competition (easier to rank for)
- High search intent (searches are more likely to be prospective clients)
- Lower search volume (not as many monthly searches as competitive terms)
Even though long tail keywords have less search volume, they are much easier to rank for.
So, if you rank for many long-tail keywords, you can build up a high monthly search volume for your financial advisor website.
According to research conducted by Moz, even though individual long tail keywords don’t get a lot of search volume, 70% of searches are long tail keywords. This means you can actually get more search volume by targeting hundreds or thousands of long tail keywords (rather than going after the super competitive search terms)
What kind of financial questions can you answer?
The best type of questions financial advisors can answer to rank higher on Google include:
- Questions potential clients ask on sales calls
- Questions clients ask at meetings
If you’re still not sure, there are other ways you can find out what questions people are searching for.
One of my favorite ways is by using Google predictive search.
Google Predictive Search Keyword Research
If you go to Google and type in a question such as “Are annuities…”
You’ll get a list of predictive search results.
These are the most common searches related to your keyword phrase directly from Google.
So, if you’re a financial planner, you can start answering all these questions individually.
We’ve done the same thing by answering questions such as:
And so on!
Try it out for yourself!
Enter any keyword phrase into the Google search bar and see what comes up.
Using this method, you can very quickly find dozens of keyword ideas for questions to answer in the financial services industry.
3. Become an authority in your niche
Answering one or two questions on your website will not be enough to rank high on search engines and start generating leads. Instead, for best results, you need to answer at least 50+ questions.
The more questions you answer, the more search engines like Google will see you as an authority (or expert) in your industry. The more Google sees you as an authority, the more likely they will be to rank your website higher on Google.
Here’s how you can become an authority with SEO:
- Identify Core Topics: Choose main finance areas relevant to your expertise and audience needs.
- Create In-depth Content: Develop detailed articles, guides, and posts covering various aspects of your core topics.
- Use Relevant Keywords: Research and incorporate relevant keywords that your target audience uses to find financial advice.
- Update Regularly: Keep your content fresh and up-to-date with the latest financial trends and information.
By doing this, you signal to search engines that your site is a reliable resource, which can boost your rankings in search results.
It’s very common to see very slow results with Google until you’ve created enough articles, and then suddenly, Google starts ranking you higher for various search terms (almost overnight!).
4. Build backlinks
For financial advisors, building backlinks is a great strategy that can significantly impact your SEO and online presence.
In some cases, your website can rank without building backlinks if you’re targeting long-tail relevant keywords using the strategy mentioned earlier.
Here’s an example of one of our financial advisor clients who was able to start generating traffic from writing articles only (no backlinks):
However, if you want to rank for more competitive terms, then building backlinks is essential.
What are backlinks?
Backlinks are links from other websites that link to your website. They are essentially endorsements from other websites, indicating to search engines like Google that your content is both valuable and credible.
High-quality backlinks can elevate your website’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs), making it easier for potential clients to find you.
Here are ways financial advisors can build backlinks:
- Craft Valuable Financial Content: Create comprehensive guides, articles, and analyses that address common financial concerns or topics. Exceptional content gets noticed and shared.
- Guest Blog on Financial Platforms: Write insightful articles for well-regarded financial blogs or news sites. This not only gives you a backlink but also positions you in front of a broader, interested audience.
- Leverage Social Media: Share your insights on platforms frequented by your target clientele, like LinkedIn. Engaging content can encourage shares and backlinks.
- Network with Financial Bloggers: Establish relationships with bloggers in the finance sector. They can be a source of valuable backlinks when they reference your content.
- Engage in Financial Forums and Groups: Participate in discussions on platforms like Reddit’s financial advice forums, providing helpful advice and linking back to your content when relevant.
- Monitor and Maintain Your Backlinks: Use tools to track your backlinks, ensuring they are from reputable sources and remain active, bolstering your site’s authority.
By focusing on these strategies, financial advisors can build a network of quality backlinks that not only improve their SEO but also affirm their authority and trustworthiness in the financial advisory field.
5. Link to your marketing and sales funnel
Once you have content ranking on Google and get traffic, the next step is to monetize that content by sending people to your sales funnel.
The biggest mistake I see financial advisors make when it comes to doing SEO is not optimizing their content to generate leads.
Seriously – I see this all the time!
A financial planner will spend a lot of time creating amazing content for their website or blog, but none of that content actually converts visitors into leads, appointments, or clients.
Why?
Because they try to send people to a contact page instead of a sales funnel. A contact page typically only gets a 1% conversion rate. Whereas a sales funnel typically gets a 20% conversion rate.
So, in your content, you must send people to a sales appointment funnel. You can do this by using a call-to-action (CTA) telling people to click a link to go to your funnel (here’s an example).
This type of funnel is specifically designed to convert website visitors into appointments and clients by providing them with a helpful educational video.
How do you create an automated appointment funnel?
Check out ‘Step 2’ in my free training by clicking here.
In this training, I explain how to create an automated appointment funnel (with a real-life example) and then show you how to attract people to the funnel using Google, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and/or TikTok.
6. Set up a Google Business Profile
If you are a financial advisor and want to get local SEO leads, one of the easiest ways to do this is with a Google Business Profile.
A local Google Business profile will allow your website to appear at the top of Google when people search for a financial advisor locally.
For example, I’m based in Orlando, Florida, and if I search for “Financial Advisor Orlando” all the top search results will be from a Google Business Profile, as seen here:
To rank on the first page of local search results, it’s important you:
- Have an address in the location you want to rank for
- Ask clients to leave a review on your profile (the more positive reviews, the better)
- Fill out the profile with your services, pictures, etc
Tip: This SEO strategy is optional and only requred if you want local leads. Many of my advisior clients prefer to get leads nationally and this strategy isn’t required for that.
7. Use the power of “leverage”
The fastest way to get SEO results as a financial advisor is to use the power of leverage. In other words, instead of doing everything yourself, hire people who provide SEO services or purchase AI SEO tools to save you time.
Here are some ways you can use “leverage” to get faster SEO results as an advisor:
- Use AI writing tools to create content
- Hire an SEO agency or freelancer to help with backlinks
- Get a freelancer or marketing company to create SEO friendly content
- Hire a lead generation specialist who specializes in SEO to guide you
If you need help with your financial advisor’s SEO strategy, then we might be able to help. We specialize in helping financial advisors generate exclusive high-quality leads, appointments, and clients. SEO is one of the strategies we use to do this.
To learn how we can help you, watch my free Masterclass training here.
The Masterclass training will explain how my unique lead generation strategy works in more detail. Be sure to pay close attention to ‘Step 4’, which explains how SEO for financial advisors (and other service-based industries) can increase your client base.
At the end of the video, I explain how you can work with me if you want me to help you do everything.
Should financial advisors invest in SEO?
Yes, there are lots of benefits for financial advisors to invest in SEO.
Ranking at the top of Google allows a financial advisor to get:
- Free leads from Google
- Leads that are likely to convert quicker
- Leads that are actively searching for a solution
- Predictable results each month
SEO is essential to every financial advisor business that wants to grow their business over the long term with good quality leads and clients every month.
FAQs regarding financial advisor SEO
Ashley Davis (or ‘Ash’ for short) is the CEO & Founder of Skyline Social. For over 15 years, Ash has been helping business owners with lead generation. Ash specializes in helping businesses get high-quality leads, appointments and clients each month with automated digital marketing strategies. Learn more about the author here.
