Financial Advisors Should Be Good At SEO. Here’s Why.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a hot topic on the web. It seems as though every business professional is looking for an SEO expert to bolster their website. There are a lot of factors that go into creating successful SEO campaigns, as they require a great deal of knowledge and effort.

As a financial advisor, you’re already ahead of the game! Why? Because creating a successful SEO strategy is not much different than creating a successful financial plan for a client—the same principles apply.

Below are some typical strategies and strengths that financial advisors have that can be directly applied to SEO campaign development.

Determine Goals

Good financial advisors have processes for determining their clients’ financial needs. When creating SEO strategies, the same principles apply. Take time to first determine what specific needs or goals you want your SEO campaign to achieve. Distinguishing your target audience is a great place to start. To do this, I recommend looking at where a majority of your business or profit is generated. Once you determine your audience, research keywords that are specific to that demographic. Like determining specific financial goals, you should also determine specific SEO goals as well.

Good SEO goals often consist of ranking higher on search engines. At Moore Communications Group, we pick specific search terms like “social financial advisor” and strive to be the first link on Google search results by using that term recurrently on our website and blog. As always, it’s important to cater your goals to your business.

Play Well With Others

Although financial advisors work with data and numbers, they often possess the skills of building relationships and valuable interactions with people. The internet requires the same type of skill and attention. Search engines regard backlinks as a major factor in their results. By creating and fostering online relationships, you can generate connections needed to improve your SEO. One way of doing this is by linking content to your Facebook site, actively commenting on professional forums, or being a guest author on other blogs.  Links and interaction are key in SEO just as they are in the financial world.

Aim to connect with other thought leaders and online publications in your industry. Create content partnerships and continually pitch content to editors. Do as much as you can to spread your content to other credible publications.

Patience and Informed

Being patient and well informed are two very important assets in a financial advisor. Let’s face it: nobody wants an advisor who panics and diverts from well thought out strategies. The same patience applies to creating SEO strategies. It takes time for a new SEO campaign to gain traction, and you should be willing to stick with a strategy for at least 6 months while you monitor and gauge its effectiveness. It takes time and an informed effort to make a SEO campaign successful.

My recommendation is to create reports and conduct analyses on your SEO efforts. Google Analytics is a great platform for doing this. Many high-end inbound marketing platforms like Hubspot also provide detailed analyses.

Stay Educated

To be successful these days you cannot remain static. Good financial advisors continue their education by not only earning degrees and certifications but by attending conferences and educating themselves to stay current. Search engines are living organisms, constantly tweaking algorithms and criteria. Much like financial advisors stay up to date with the current market and procedures so should you with your SEO. To be successful, a SEO campaign needs to adhere to the latest rules or catering to the new requirements.

Make sure you stay up to date on SEO strategies and trends to ensure your efforts are as valuable and effective as possible.

Although SEO seems like a complicated and technical endeavor, it requires the same exact skills as being a great financial advisor. By implementing your existing strengths into your online efforts, you’ll undoubtedly see results.

Do you have any questions about SEO? If so, leave a comment!