Are you missing out on being exposed to some prospective clients who could be interested in hiring your wealth management firm?

It’s a common issue.

Many financial professionals don’t take the time to take simple steps that could improve their visibility in local search, helping them gain more online exposure to local investors who may be interested in their services. Doing so could drive additional traffic to their websites, resulting in more appointments, clients, and assets under management.

Many financial advisors who depend on local website traffic miss doing simple SEO things like completing their Google Business Profiles (GBP) and updating them regularly, checking for consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) details across directories, websites, and landing pages, and not being proactive about requesting and earning client ratings and reviews.

Not focusing on these foundational elements costs financial professionals valuable search visibility and potential new business.

Simple Tactics for Wealth Managers to Improve Local SEO

Not doing SEO basics will cost you, as it will send investors to your local competitors. The following core SEO elements are what many wealth managers ignore:

Incomplete or outdated Google Business Profile (GBP)

Many financial advisors know they need to claim their GBP but fail to complete it. Or if they do, they don’t update it, for instance, by posting seasonal hours, events, or regular business updates.

Here are some key things you need to do to optimize your GBP:

• Fill out every field and regularly check that the information is accurate.
• Select multiple business categories (up to 10 relevant secondary categories) if it will help Google better understand and present your business. Common ones include financial advisor, financial consultant, and financial planner.
• Add photos (location, employee, and events) and post regularly so Google views your business as dynamic. Things you post don’t need to be profound, just reflective of your everyday business experience.
• Encourage Google reviews to help build online trust.

Inconsistent names, addresses, and phone number information

If your business name, address, and phone number differ across your website, landing pages, social media, and third-party directories, it confuses search engines. It reduces trust, making them less likely to recommend your wealth management business. If inconsistent information could deliver a poor user experience, like sending people to the wrong location or dialing incorrect phone numbers, search engines will not feature you.

Always ensure your business name, address, and phone number are presented exactly the same way wherever they appear online.

Lack of ratings and reviews

Online ratings and reviews are major ranking factors because positive ones signal to search engines and help build consumer trust. This is an area where many wealth managers fall flat. They fail to request reviews due to legal and compliance concerns. Even worse, they allow negative ones to sit out there unanswered because of similar concerns about how to address them.

Wealth managers must work with their legal and compliance experts to find ways to request reviews and address negative comments. Many firms do this currently, and yours should be able to, as well.

Once you overcome this barrier, wealth managers must develop systems to solicit reviews from happy clients consistently. This can be done through messages included in email newsletters, by providing team members with approved language to use, or in follow-up thank-you emails. Always encourage people to be specific in their feedback, referring to specific services, solutions, interactions, or results. It will make the review more informative to search engines and meaningful to other investors.

Also, check your reviews regularly, at least once a day. Respond to negative ones and explain what steps you are willing to take to make things right (with full legal and compliance approval.) While your operation may not always be perfect, doing so will demonstrate that you care enough to fix your mistakes.

Too simple a website

Many smaller wealth managers have basic websites. The issue: They can be invisible to search engines because they don’t provide enough depth of information for them to understand what makes it unique. There may also not be enough up-to-date content to present the wealth manager as a vital resource for search engines or consumers.

Update your website by creating dedicated, unique pages for your core investor types, solutions, and services. Feature the people on your team and their education, licenses, and experience in the financial industry. Document other factors that make your business stand out to help search engines understand your operation.

It is also critical to regularly publish helpful, investor-focused content on your blog to demonstrate authority, expertise, and experience in your financial services area, building trust with search engines and investors alike. It shows you really know what you are doing and have a unique or specialized take on finance.

Not getting media mentions

Do you know any finance bloggers or reporters in your area? You should leverage them to get mentions on their blogs and news sites. Having someone respected in your community endorse your wealth management business is worth more, from an SEO and prospective investor perspective, than saying the same things on your website.

Playing too simple an SEO game

Too many wealth management concerns treat local SEO as a simple game of checkers. In reality, it is a complex game of three-dimensional chess.

It isn’t just about winning for your keywords and phrases. It’s also about topping your local financial industry competitors for theirs.

Research what terms and phrases local firms in your category rank for. If they apply to your business, you should rank for them, too. Find ways to add content to your site that will help you drive traffic they are earning transferred to your site.

Not being “local” enough

Are you trying to rank for generic concepts related to your area of financial expertise, for instance, retirement, college savings, or investing for high-net-worth families? That could be fine for a major national or global company, but may not be enough for a local one.

Are there aspects of your offerings that are different or unique for your local market? For instance, addressing retirement dreams in the Washington, D.C. area, saving for college in Boston, or purchasing a second home on the Virginia shore? Putting a regional spin on your SEO efforts will help you beat local firms that do not.

Not keeping current

Local SEO for wealth managers is constantly evolving. What worked well a year — or even a month —  ago may not be right for now. As AI changes things faster than ever, it is critical to stay up to date. Subscribe to our newsletter and watch the Sondhelm Partners blog to stay abreast of new local SEO tactics you must be knowledgeable about.

Limiting your approach to marketing

Sure, getting found online is critical. But it is also important to build your brand awareness. Once you get your local search situation under control, expand your marketing to include organic and paid social media, as well as email. Not only do these “push” tactics make people aware of your wealth management business and what it does, but they also encourage them to interact with your website and online content, which can send positive signals to search engines that will boost your local SEO.

Local SEO Basics Wealth Managers Miss: The Final Word

Local traffic to your website is the lifeblood of your business. It’s the first step toward driving prospective investors to your door.

We understand people in your business are busy. However, leveraging the SEO tactics covered in this guide is definitely worth the time. They will help you better compete with other wealth managers in your area and drive additional assets under management.

Want to take your local search engine optimization efforts to the next level? Schedule time with Dan Sondhelm to discuss opportunities.