Written by: Elizabeth Ritger
As a financial advisor in the digital age, one of the biggest challenges is driving traffic to your website. However, many advisors don’t understand how to do this or what are the most effective techniques to use. There are a lot of behind-the-scenes metrics to track and programs to use. Finding the right method for your firm can make a huge difference in the searches you are collecting online.When it comes to creating content for your website, you want to make sure you’re sharing what your potential customers want to see. After all, their searches are what helps you get noticed and ultimately drives them to your advisor website.For the most part, this will vary for each individual advisor business. Everyone specializes in something different in the financial space and caters to varying niches, so you’ll want to emphasize different things on your site. This may be your location, audience, experience or services. Whatever it is, you need to know how to use these keywords properly and, more importantly, how to track them in order to make sure your strategy is working.So, what should you include and how should you do it? We put together the best tools to use for tracking metrics and a few examples of keywords to guide you when starting out.
What Tools Do I Use to Track Keywords?
The top tool that we recommend using is Google Search Console. As part of Google Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console is a free tool that can answer tons of extremely useful questions for you. When looking at Google searches, your site will rank differently for various keywords. As you look at your Google Search Console metrics, try to find which keywords your site ranks highest for. This can be helpful in determining what to emphasize on your site and what potential clients are noticing about your business. If you were testing some words, this tool will help you see if it is working and if you need to continue trying others.
The above screenshot for the Twenty Over Ten blog tells us that, in this week, we were ranking in position #1 for the keyword query “best financial advisor websites.”Additionally, Google Search Console can tell you which sites are linking to yours. This is important so you can find out which other sites are sharing your blogs or services. Through this, you may be able to identify potential partners. If one company is sharing a lot of your posts, they may be interested in collaborating or writing a guest article on your blog. You may want to return the favor so you can build a helpful professional relationship. You can also see where to focus your efforts on social media. When you see who frequently interacts with your site and blogs, you can figure out which accounts you should focus on when tagging and commenting.
One last important question Google Search Console can help answer is how mobile friendly your site is. The metrics for how the mobile version of your site performs are important. In a time where most people have their phones on them constantly, you want to have a site that is easily accessible and popular on mobile. This is particularly important if you’re targeting a younger demographic like millennials.To make sure Google Search Console can access your content and provide these metrics, you should add and verify your site. To do this, use your Gmail or Google account to log into Search Console, click “Add a Property” and insert your URL. For more detailed instructions on this, check out our step-by-step tutorial. It’s also critical to add your sitemap to Search Console to make it easier on Google and get them the information they need about how your site is organized.Related: Do’s and Don’ts of a Great Contact Page
What Are People Searching For?
As mentioned earlier, what makes you stand out in searches may depend on your individual services, niche, etc. If you have a very specific niche audience and location or unique services, you may have some differences you want to (and should!) emphasize. However, we find that across the board many financial advisorshave similar setups. This means that prospects may have similar questions and you can use these common questions to inform your content.For this guide, we put together the top 15 “most googled” financial questions to piggy back on ThinkAdvisor’s recent study findings, along with the top keywords and locations for each. To help boost your SEO, try using some of these phrases or questions as blog posts, copy on your site or in your header tags! If you have a different niche, check out how we practiced pulling out which keywords to use. Mastering how to incorporate these keywords on your site will make a huge difference in the number of searches you acquire and how many people spend time on your site.
1. WHAT IS A DEBIT CARD? WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A DEBIT CARD AND A CREDIT CARD?
Number of searches: 3,600 Keywords: debit card, credit card, difference
2. HOW MUCH MONEY DO YOU NEED TO OPEN A SAVINGS ACCOUNT? SHOULD I HAVE A SAVINGS ACCOUNT?
Number of searches: 14,800 Keywords: savings, savings account
3. HOW DO YOU USE A LINE OF CREDIT? CAN I GET A LINE OF CREDIT?
Number of searches: 18,100 Keywords: credit, line of credit
4. WHAT IS A BUDGET? WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF BUDGETING?
Number of searches: 27,100 Keywords: budget, budgeting, benefits
5. WHAT IS A FORECLOSURE? WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN A HOME IS IN FORECLOSURE?
Number of searches: 60,500 Keywords: foreclosure, home
6. WHAT IS DEBT CONSOLIDATION? SHOULD I CONSOLIDATE MY DEBT?
Number of searches: 90,500 Keywords: debt, consolidate, debt consolidation
7. WHAT IS A CASH ADVANCE? HOW DO I GET A CASH ADVANCE?
Number of searches: 110,000 Keywords: cash, cash advance
8. WHAT ARE INTEREST RATES? HOW DO INTEREST RATES WORK?
Number of searches: 110,000 Keywords: interest, interest rates
9. WHAT IS COMPOUND INTEREST? HOW CAN I EARN COMPOUND INTEREST?
Number of searches: 165,000 Keywords: interest, compound interest
10. WHAT IS A CREDIT UNION? CAN I JOIN A CREDIT UNION?
Number of searches: 301,000 Keywords: credit, credit union
11. WHAT IS A 401(K)? IS A 401(K) THE SAME AS AN IRA?
Number of searches: 301,000 Keywords: 401(k), IRA
12. HOW DO PAYDAY LOANS WORK? DO I QUALIFY FOR A PAYDAY LOAN?
Number of searches: 368,000 Keywords: loan, payday loan
13. WHAT IS A CAR LOAN? HOW DO AUTO LOANS WORK?
Number of searches: 568,100 Keywords: loan, auto loan, car loan
14. WHAT IS A MORTGAGE? IS A MORTGAGE THE SAME AS A HOME LOAN?
Number of searches: 2,300,500 Keywords: mortgage, home loan
15. HOW DO STUDENT LOANS WORK? WHAT IS FAFSA?
Number of searches: 2,441,000 Keywords: student, loans, FAFSA
Related: Older Clients Contribute to Greater Assets at Risk for Advisors