In today’s digital world, many registered investment adviser (RIA) firms are being forced to reassess their marketing and business development plans. Like other industries, the digital era is completely rejuvenating the way entrepreneurs and business owners are developing their marketing initiatives. Traditional practices like outbound calls and client referrals have taken a backseat, and the conversation has turned to search engine optimization (SEO) and other forms of online marketing. For an advisor to master the art of organic search, their business’ website will appear among the top few results on Google and Microsoft Bing for targeted search phrases and keywords. However, the strategy to get there is often times challenging. This post outlines how an investment advisory firm can best optimize their SEO strategy and ultimately grow the number of high quality online leads.
The Right Lead is Infinitely More Valuable Than a Bunch of Bad Leads
To be successful at SEO and improve organic, unpaid search results, an investment adviser first needs to take a step back and determine exactly which niche the firm focuses on. It’s going to be extremely difficult for the average investment adviser to rank highly for a generic search term such as “fiduciary financial advisor.” However, if the firm has a unique focus such as catering to doctors in the city of Nashville, then it is going to give itself a better chance at SEO success.
For such a firm, it should focus on are more long-tail search phrases such as “fiduciary financial advisor for doctors in Cleveland” or “investment adviser for doctor in Cleveland.” The good news is that there are far fewer financial advisors targeting such specific and local search phrases. The bad news is that there likely aren’t many individuals searching such unique phrases. However, if someone is searching for such a unique phrase, there’s a high likelihood that they just so happen to be a doctor in Cleveland looking for a financial advisor that acts as a fiduciary. Thus, they are an ideal, high quality lead for the firm.
Thus, if the firm truly focuses on primarily serving doctors in the Cleveland area, it’s a waste of time and resources to try and rank high for generic search terms such as “top financial advisor” or “best investment adviser” that are likely to yield web traffic that isn’t the right fit because the prospect is likely not in the Cleveland area or a doctor. Thus, to have a greater chance to become successful at organic search, an advisory firm needs to
- Have an established local niche
- Understand the online search behavior of that firm’s target audience
- Develop an online content and SEO strategy to rank high for the relevant long-tail searches
Content is King…Content is King…No, really, Content is King
In the early days of online search, there were a number of strategies that businesses and SEO experts attempted to delploy in order to trick or game search engine results. Long gone are those days as the search algorithms have progressed dramatically and have become much better at returning the most relevant search results. This is a good thing for investment advisers just getting started with search engine optimization as the process of ranking high for relevant keywords is now much more logical and transparent.
When it comes to organic search or for any online marketing strategy, the ultimate goal for the RIA firm is to create unique content that is valuable and relevant to the niche audience it focuses on. The end marketing goal is to have top quality content for prospects and clients. Be skeptical if anyone is pitching a search engine optimization strategy that does not involve the advisor’s direct involvement in the creation of compelling content. Be very careful about outsourcing writing and content creation as the quality and depth of the content is often the first impression an advisory firm makes on a potential prospect.
Creating Valuable Content with SEO in Mind
- Create a blog and write regularly: Unfortunately, it can take well over 12 months for the average blog to receive much traction online. Thus, if an advisor is expecting an immediate return on investment (ROI), they are going to be disappointed. However, over time, if the content is valuable it will began to gain traction. To help accelerate this process, be sure to share the blog and relevant blog posts with current clients and prospects. As word travels, the chance that other websites will link to the blog increases. The more links a blog post or other relevant content generates, the higher chance the piece of content is likely to score highly in regards to SEO.
- Use descriptive page titles, URLs, meta tags, and headlines: If targeting doctors in Cleveland, be sure that the title of the relevant blog posts reflects that.
- Use unique images: Aside from the fact pictures and graphs make content more aesthetically pleasing, the use of images gives advisors more opportunity to optimize for search rankings. Try adding captions and be sure to use descriptive alternative text.
- Write deep, robust content: While there is no need to write a novel, don’t fall into the trap of writing short, blog posts that are only a few hundred words that offer little substance. Write meaningful content that offers unique insights and detail.
- Link to other valuable websites: Prospects love to be pointed to valuable content that perhaps offers a deeper level of analysis or context. Valuable content is content that helps point the reader in the right direction if the prospect wishes to explore further.
- Do not keyword stuff: Search engines are well equipped to exclude and devalue content that is designed to score highly for a particular search phrase but offers little value as far as content. Be mindful of incorporating relevant phrases and keywords, but make sure the primary focus is on writing valuable content.
- Mobile friendly: Make sure all website content displays properly on mobile devices. Sites that are not properly optimize for mobile viewing may be penalized in search rankings. This is a growing issue as a larger percentage of web searches continue to take place on mobile devices.
RIA firms that take a thoughtful approach and invest the necessary time to succeed can see great results from organic search efforts. However, it’s vital that an advisory firm is truly committed to pursuing a long term and consistent strategy in order to see the rewards. Unlike search engine marketing (SEM) or paid search, SEO does not cost anything besides time. Even organic search ranking considerations side, all investment advisers should be focused on creating a compelling website with relevant content as it’s often the first impression the firm will make on a potential prospect.
As RIA compliance consultants, we also just want to remind all investment advisory firms that any blog post or other piece of online content should be reviewed, archived, and treated just like any other form of advertising.