Why Local SEO Can Be the Golden Ticket for Financial Advisors

Most financial advisors are focused on serving a specific local market. However, because your customers often want face-to-face interactions with an advisor they can trust, financial advisors should build solid local brands by providing excellent customer service and cultivating a positive reputation in the communities where they operate.

But word of mouth and a strong track record of service aren’t your only tools for growing your local client base. Like other forms of digital marketing, local search engine optimization (SEO) can increase your virtual visibility among a relevant, local audience.

Here’s an overview of local SEO and how it can build your advisory firm’s client list.

What Is Local SEO?

Search engine optimization is a strategic process to increase your search visibility around a specific discipline, industry, or subject of interest. Local SEO, by contrast, modifies traditional SEO practices by focusing SEO efforts on driving results within a particular geographic area.

When you engage in local SEO, you’re trying to establish a business presence in a local market while also focusing your efforts on building visibility, engagement and website referrals among users in your targeted locations. Through this targeted approach, you’re able to consolidate your SEO efforts within the local markets you serve, maximizing the potential ROI from your SEO.

The Value of Local SEO for Local Financial Advisors

Financial topics are relevant to many types of consumers across the country and around the world. As a result, these topics are also very competitive, making it hard to build visibility for your brand through traditional SEO and other digital marketing.

Even if you succeed in driving traffic to your content on your website, a lack of geographic filters can mean that most of your traffic is from unqualified and irrelevant prospects. This is money down the drain — but this sunk cost can be avoided by taking a local SEO approach.

Focus your content creation and other digital marketing on a specific geographic area to increase visibility for your firm among local consumers, thereby giving you more opportunities to generate promising leads for your business. The more shots you have at converting local clients, the easier it will be to grow your advisory firm through local SEO.

Tips To Optimize Your Online Presence for Local SEO

Ready to improve your local SEO rank and connect with more clients in your local market? Here are some practical steps your business can take.

1. Create and update your Google My Business listing.

Your firm’s Google My Business info should always be kept up to date to maximize visibility among online users searching for your business. But in addition to helping prospects call your business or visit your local office, this information can also strengthen your local SEO rank.

2. Target local keywords through your SEO strategy.

Instead of targeting “best financial advisor” in your keyword strategy, localize it by targeting “best financial advisor in Atlanta” or wherever you’re doing business. This local, long-tail keyword (a longer, more specific keyword phrase that visitors are more likely to use) will be significantly less competitive than the short keyword, and you’ll have an easier time ranking high and driving traffic through organic search. Keywords can also be optimized in blog titles, sub-headings, within the text of blogs and pages, in image alt-text fields and meta descriptions. Essentially, if it lives on your website, it can be optimized for general SEO and local SEO.

3. Use local news and events as inspiration for blog posts and other content.

Local news and events can be a compelling hook for your local audience, but they can also earn you more local referral traffic due to the relevance and interest of the subject. This can strengthen your local SEO rank while increasing visibility among local prospects.

4. Encourage customer reviews from your clients.

Local reviews can be a powerful component of your local SEO score. The more reviews you can earn through Google, Yelp, and other online directories, the more it will help your SEO score.

5. Seek out cross-promotion by guest-blogging for local partners.

When it comes to building local visibility, guest blogging with other financial services providers is a great place to start. Plus, the backlinking opportunity that comes with guest blogging can be an excellent boost for your local SEO.

When it comes to building a local presence, financial advisors need to focus their efforts and resources on channels that connect them to their local audience. Local SEO is an essential element of any local marketing strategy. Discover more lead generation tips to grow your client base by downloading “The Financial Advisor's Guide to Lead Generation” today.