Four Tools to Improve Your Site's Search Visibility
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As the internet has grown and matured, various tools and protocols have emerged to help independent financial advisors reach their business goals by improving their website’s search visibility. With these tools, you have the power to reach the right audience and attract ideal prospects to your online “front door.”
By analyzing the data about a website, such as the sources that brought visitors and how they use the site once there, you can make adjustments based on that data rather than making guesses about crucial website marketing decisions. The information allows marketers to implement strategies that make it easier for search engines to share your content with searchers.
I’ll explore four tools and strategies you can leverage to improve how your site ranks in search engines to reach your clients and prospects more effectively.
1. Create a site map
A site map is a hierarchical listing of all the pages on your website. Its main purpose is to give search engines a full listing of all your site’s pages to index them and include them in search results.
The way to create an XML sitemap varies depending on your website platform, but it’s easier to come by than you might think. If you have a WordPress site, you can use a simple plugin such as Yoast SEO to generate a sitemap with the click of a button. If you have Squarespace or Wix, both platforms automatically create a sitemap for you.
A sitemap improves your search engine optimization (SEO) by giving search engines (SEs) information about your web pages. Google and other SEs prefer fresh, up-to-date content. When using a sitemap, you tell these SEs that your site has been updated recently and that they should crawl it to access the latest information. A sitemap can also tell SEs which pages and files on your site are most important, which they use to determine what pages to display first in search engine results.
Once you’ve created a sitemap, submitting it to search engines is simple. Some platforms, such as Wix and Squarespace, submit your sitemap for you automatically. But check that it's been submitted and indexed by Google. If you have a WordPress website, you’ll need to submit your sitemap using Google Search Console.
2. Add Google Analytics 4 (G4) to your website
Google Analytics 4 (G4) is a free tool that not only collects data about your website traffic and visitors but helps you analyze it in ways that can supercharge your marketing. G4 puts a wealth of complex information at your fingertips. But don’t let that intimidate you – financial advisors don’t have to be marketing experts to benefit from what this tool offers.
Here are a few ways you can get the most out of Google Analytics:
- Gain valuable insights about your site's visitors and their demographics.
- See where your site visitors are coming from, then note which marketing channels are most effective at driving traffic to your website.
- Identify which pages your site’s visitors interact with most and how long they stay on each page.
- Identify the browser, screen, and device compatibility issues.
GA4 tells you how users interact with your website. By adjusting based on the information it gathers, you’ll improve the overall user experience and increase the likelihood that visitors will stick around, sign up for your free resources and join your email list, or contact your office to request a consultation.
Google has a step-by-step tutorial for setting up GA4 on your website, and some website platforms may simplify this process. Adding GA4 to your website is a great start to improving how you approach your firm’s marketing. You’ll come to appreciate how the data gathered informs your decisions and investment in your marketing efforts.
3. Set up Google Search Console
Google Search Console is another free tool that helps you analyze information about your website – specifically, search engine performance. It identifies errors on your website that impact performance in search results. These errors may include broken links, missing pages, and other technical problems that often cause Google to downgrade your website's search rankings.
Here are some key ways to use Search Console to identify issues:
- Identify broken links on your website, such as links to pages that were removed or links with a typo in the URL.
- Identify pages on your website that shouldn't be visible, such as a page for a service you no longer offer or types of clients you no longer wish to serve.
- Learn about the click-through rate for the pages on your website.
- Learn which keywords drive traffic to your website.
By tapping into this free tool, you identify opportunities to improve your website's content, meta tags, load speed, link profile, and more. Here’s how to set it up and learn more.
4. Local optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a critical aspect of online marketing, especially for businesses that rely on local customers. If your firm serves a local community, as most independent financial advisors do, prioritize local SEO. Optimizing your website for local searches increases your visibility to potential ideal clients in your area and boosts your rankings in search engine results.
One of the most important elements of local SEO is adding keywords for your city, town, or even specific neighborhoods in title tags, H1 and H2 tags, and body copy. This will help search engines understand what geographic area you serve so that when users in your area are searching for a financial advisor, your business will show up high on the results page.
For example, if your firm is in Tampa, Florida, you may choose to include key phrases such as "Tampa wealth manager," "Financial advisor in Tampa," and "Parkland Estates fiduciary advisor" in your website's title tags, body copy, and headings. Specific local terms will help search engines understand the relevance of your website to searches for financial advisors in your city or one of its wealthiest neighborhoods.
In addition to adding keywords to on-page elements, include them in your website's body copy in a natural and conversational way – not stilted, stuffed, or spammy.
Local search engine optimization is something you can’t afford to skip to attract ideal clients in the areas your financial advisory firm serves.
In case you missed our previous tips from this series, Financial Advisory Marketing Solutions, you can view them here:
4 Steps to Grow Your Client Base
Maintaining & Growing Your Email Subscribers
Managing Your Digital Listings
Crystal Lee Butler, MBA is the owner of Crystal Marketing Solutions, a full-service marketing agency dedicated to working specifically with independent financial advisors. Since 2011, she’s helped financial advisors cut through the noise to attract ideal clients and grow their businesses using proven strategies that we use with our clients every day. As your “Chief Marketing Officer,” our goal is to help you grow your business and put time back on your calendar so that you can focus on what you do best: serving your clients.
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