seo tips

How To Do A Website SEO Audit

/ / , /

How To Do A Website SEO Audit

A Website SEO audit is a quick way to analyze the optimization of a website and see what improvements need to be made. It’s a great initial step in reviewing and revamping your online marketing strategy.

A Website SEO audit involves reviewing your most important pages and assuring the content and Meta data (page titles, description, keywords) correspond and that you’re targeting the ideal keywords for your business.

SEO Auditor ExtraordinaireIt may sound complicated, but it’s not. In my first blog post for Steamfeed.com, I explain How To Do A Website SEO Audit in just a few minutes using a helpful Firefox plugin. Follow my step-by-step instructions and you’ll know everything you need to quickly perform an SEO audit on your website and those of your competitors.

Check out the full Website SEO Audit article and learn:

  • What information you should be focusing on in your SEO audit
  • What are page titles, Meta descriptions, and keywords?
  • How to properly optimize your page titles and Meta descriptions
  • What are header tags and how to use them for better optimization
  • How to build domain authority and see what sites are linking to you
  • The easiest way check your keyword rankings 

SEO4Advisors does comprehensive SEO audits for financial advisors every week. If you would like us to review your website with you over the phone free of charge, please schedule an appointment.

 

SEO4Advisors In Wall Street Journal On SEO Tips For Financial Advisors

/ , , / , /

SEO4Advisors In Wall Street Journal On SEO Tips For Financial Advisors

SEO4Advisors founder Brien Shanahan was featured in a recent Wall Street Journal article on SEO Tips For Financial Advisors To Improve Their Online Visibility. In the article by Caitlin Nish, Shanahan provided a few clear and important SEO tips that financial advisors can implement right away to start getting found in search engines.

Some of these valuable SEO tips include:

SEO Tips For Advisors

  1. Figure out what prospects are searching for. Don’t guess at the keywords, but instead do real research using the Google AdWords Keyword Tool and other similar online tools.
  2. Be direct and avoid jargon. Don’t confuse the search engine robots with poetic language. Clearly explain what services you offer and use your keywords.
  3. Focus on quality over quantity of inbound links. Links should be unpaid and related to your industry from reputable sources.
  4. Get on social media. A social media presence can bring you prospects and also replace any potentially negative entries in search results with your new higher-ranking social media profiles.
  5. Start blogging. A blog enables you to create regular content, target more keywords, and build website domain authority.

Read the full article on the Wall Street Journal’s website: SEO Tips To Gain More Visibility Online.

Download the .PDF for SEO Tips To Gain More Visibility Online.  

See our other media mentions.

/ , , / , /

Get More Online Leads With Website SEO

Use Search Engine Optimization To Gain Online Leads

In a recent article on RIA Central, SEO4Advisors founder Brien Shanahan shared three things that advisors can do today to gain more online leads with website SEO (search engine optimization).

  1. Do effective keyword research (don’t guess)
    RIA Central Logo

    RIA Central is a community of registered investment advisors, aspiring RIAs and thought leaders whose mission is a free and open exchange of ideas and resources for the betterment of the RIA industry.

  2. Write engaging content around your keywords
  3. Update website content regularly.

The article, written by Kevin Feehily of Byrnes Consulting, also gives a good introduction to search engine optimization and explains the importance of good local SEO.

See the full article on RIA Central.

About RIA Central:
RIA Central is a community of registered investment advisors, aspiring RIAs and thought leaders. Founded in December 2008, RIA Central’s mission is to provide a free and open exchange of ideas and resources for the betterment of the RIA industry.

About Author Kevin Feehily and Byrnes Consulting:
Kevin Feehily works for Byrnes Consulting, providing consulting services to help advisors become even more successful. His expertise is in client service, operational efficiencies and management effectiveness, along with several other areas.

 

Social Security Income Planning and Website SEO: Financial Advisor Niche Marketing

/ , , / , /

Social Security Income Planning and Website SEO: Financial Advisor Niche Marketing

Website SEO is the key to marketing a Social Security income planning niche for financial advisors and other professionals

Bulls Eye - Financial Advisor Niche SEO A Social Security income planning is a great niche for advisors. Everyone nearing retirement age can benefit from it, the niche is often shunned by other advisors, and there is great opportunity for marketing this service on the Web, as demonstrated by the thousands of Internet search queries every month on social security income planning topics.

See our full webinar on Social Security Income Planning and Website SEO for Financial Advisors.

Download the Social Security Planning Webinar Slides

Why do financial advisors need a niche?

I believe wholeheartedly that all advisors should have a unique niche market. A niche helps you stand out among the competition and gives you unique selling points for gaining new clients. It’s always good marketing to stand out and be great at something. Rather than limiting your available client base as many niche-naysayer advisors would respond, it actually better qualifies you for your target clients, which can strengthen prospect close rates, open better marketing opportunities, increase client retention, improve client service, and make you a go-to resource for media interviews on your area of expertise.

Why is Social Security income planning a good niche for financial advisors and other financial professionals?

A good niche should be marketable. There should not only be a demand for your services, but you should be able to market yourself as an expert in your niche and prospects should be able to find you.

That’s what makes Social Security income planning such a good niche for advisors. Every month there are thousands of people searching for information on how they can maximize social security benefits. The public doesn’t understand Social Security spousal or survivor benefit rules. They want to minimize taxes on Social Security income. But most of the information provided on the Web is from journalists, not the expert advisors. In compiling a list of keywords on Social Security income planning, I quickly came up with over 150 high-traffic, low-competition keywords. Here are just a few Social Security income planning keywords with their total U.S. monthly searches, level of competition, and approximate cost per click if you were to pay for Website visitors via Google AdWords.

Social Security Income Planning SEO Keyword Terms

There tens of thousands of monthly Internet searches for Social Security income planning keyword terms.

 

Unlike other SEO keyword terms that advisors often use to market themselves, Social Security income planning keywords have low competition. That means it’s much easier to rank for a term like “social security advisor” than it is for a term like “financial advisor San Francisco” even though they have the same search volume. And if you’re still having trouble ranking in the first page of search results for your keywords after optimizing your website, you could always pay for each visitor to your Website via Google AdWords. Each visitor for the term “financial advisor San Francisco would cost you $12.52 on average, while the term “social security advisor” would only cost $7.44 per click.

If you instead pursued the niche of serving doctors, it would be much more competitive to rank organically, there are significantly less monthly Web searches, and paying for Web visitors would cost you $10.76 each.

 

Keyword

Competition

U.S. Monthly Searches

Approx. CPC
social security advisor

0.62

720

$7.44
social security advice

0.70

590

$4.04
maximize social security benefits

0.46

590

$0.94
financial advisor for doctors

0.95

170

$10.76
financial advisor san francisco

0.88

720

$12.52
cfp miami

0.85

91

$12.77
financial planning new york

0.79

1300

$10.29

 

To succeed in a niche market, you must first know your market. That means not only the practical side of how to advise clients on maximizing social security income benefits for example. But also how you plan on marketing yourself as an expert in your niche.

Social Security income planning as a service niche presents great opportunity for marketing yourself on the Web. I’ll show exactly how to do this in our free recorded webinar on Social Security Income Planning and Website SEO for Financial Advisors.

My co-presenter, Frank Horath of ClientFirst Financial, will demo some really neat planning software and show you how to become an expert in Social Security income planning. I’ll show you how to market that Social Security income planning expertise on the Web with search engine optimization.

Title: Social Security Income Planning and Website SEO for Financial Advisors
Download the Social Security Planning Webinar Slides

Generating Business From Google Local SEO

/ , / , , /

Generating Business From Google Local SEO

How Financial Advisors Can Use Google Local SEO To Gain New Business

SEO4Advisors Quoted in Financial Advisor Magazine Article On Local SEO

Brien Shanahan, Founder of SEO4Advisors, was quoted in a recent Financial Advisor Magazine article called “How Financial Advisors Can Use Google Local Search To Gain New Business, which introduces Google+ and how it can help advisors increase their presence in local web searches by their target clients.

Google Plus and Local SEO

The article, written by Mike Byrnes of Byrnes Consulting, then goes on to explain the powerful new features brought through the integration of Google Places and Google+ and the need for regulatory changes to address the rapidly changing medium of social media. We also covered this topic in a recent blog post and webinar, Local SEO For Financial Advisors And How Google+ Can Help.

Here are some excerpts from the Financial Advisor Magazine article:

Shanahan on the importance of local SEO for financial advisors:

“Local search has always been important for advisors as the prospects who use local search terms are often buy-ready prospects, looking for an advisor in their area,” says Brien Shanahan, founder of SEO4Advisors, which specializes in providing search engine optimization services to advisors. “If, as an advisor, you can get your firm to the top of those local rankings, you can have a new client almost handed to you from search engines.”

Shanahan on how financial advisors can improve Google local SEO rankings:

“Google’s local search rankings have always been partially determined by the number of reviews a business has and if they are favorable,” Shanahan says. “Say you are an advisor based in Massachusetts and your client writes a review on your Google Places page. If a friend of your client who is connected to him on Google+ does a search for ‘financial advisor Massachusetts’ they will see that their friend wrote a review for your firm and your firm’s entry will rank ahead of others for that search. That’s huge.”

Google Enhancements

Byrnes details the new enhancements that Google+ brings to Google Places including “an improved look and feel, with integrated reviews from both Google and Zagat users. The changes make it easier for individuals to discover, learn and share information about businesses.”

Regulatory Changes Needed

The regulatory stance on Google+ and other social websites is still uncertain, But Patrick J. Burns Jr., managing attorney at The Law Offices of Patrick J. Burns, Jr. P.C., asks the question, “Why can’t advisors have truthful and non-misleading testimonials?’ As long as testimonials do not inaccurately take quotes out of context, etc., I think an update to the Advisers Act may be in order. The SEC should concentrate on fraudulent statements, not truthful and accurate [and in context] testimonials.”

Read the full article on FA-Mag.com.

Common Financial Advisor SEO Mistakes

/ , / , , /

Common Financial Advisor SEO Mistakes

Avoid These Common Financial Advisor SEO Mistakes

Since I started working with financial advisors in 2007, I’ve seen a lot of advisor websites. And many of them suffer from the same basic search engine optimization (SEO) mistakes that prevent them from getting found on the Web by prospects. These mistakes include missing Meta data, repeated page titles, framed content that’s invisible to search engines, unproductive “splash” pages, dead links, and no keyword targeting strategy or analytics tracking.

See Our Recorded Financial Advisor SEO Mistakes Webinar And Start Gaining Prospects From The Web

In a webinar hosted by BrightTalk, “Most Common SEO Mistakes By Financial Advisors,” I simplified the SEO mystery for advisors and offered clear solutions to the most common financial financial advisor SEO mistakes. Check out the recording below to learn where your website is failing in SEO and to learn about free tools that can help you analyze your SEO and spy on your competition.

Financial Advisor SEO Mistakes Webinar

In this 45-minute webinar, you’ll learn:

  • What types of websites are nearly invisible to search engines
  • Are “splash” pages a good idea?
  • How to see if your site has page titles and meta descriptions
  • Why your competitors rank higher than you in Google
  • How to see what sites link to your competitors
  • What SEO tools can help you spy on competitors and optimize your site
  • The importance of keyword research and how to do it
  • The anatomy of a well-optimized web page
  • What to watch out for when outsourcing your SEO

Download the presentation slides.

You can watch the Financial Advisor SEO Mistakes Webinar right here or on Brighttalk’s website. And please be sure to rate it so we learn if you like it.

Brien Shanahan is founder of SEO4Advisors, a boutique search engine optimization company dedicated to helping financial advisors and other professionals gain new business from the Web. He can be reached at [email protected] or +1 (516) 554-0126.

SEO4Advisors Featured in FA Magazine Blog About SEO Tips For Advisors

/ , , / , /

SEO4Advisors Featured in FA Magazine Blog About SEO Tips For Advisors

Most financial advisors know very little about search engine optimization, and their websites reflect it. Luckily Mike Byrnes of Byrnes Consulting is working to change that. In a recent article for his Social Business Blog on Financial Advisor magazine’s website, Byrnes interviewed SEO4Advisors founder Brien Shanahan to provide 8 SEO tips to help financial advisors get found on the Web.Featured in Financial Advisor Magazine

Shanahan presented alongside Marie Swift, founder of Impact Communications, at NAPFA’s 2011 Practice Management and Investments conference in October 2011. In his presentation, Shanahan outlined how advisors can use SEO to gain automatic referrals from search engines and then use video marketing to engage the new prospects and clients.

Mike Byrnes

Mike Byrnes, founder of Byrnes Consulting

Some of Shanahan’s SEO tips from the NAPFA presentation are highlighted in Byrnes’ article, including:

  • How advisors should structure web page titles.
  • How to write effective Meta descriptions that appeal to both search engines and Web searchers.
  • How to use text formatting like bold and bullets to strengthen on-page SEO.
  • How to create SEO-friendly URLs.
  • How to effectively target the keywords prospects are searching for.
  • Why Local SEO is so important and how to optimize for your region.
  • The importance of inbound links and how to get them.
  • How web analytics can help strengthen your SEO and online marketing plans.

See the full article, titled “Increase the Chances of Prospects Finding You” on Mike Byrnes’ Social Business Blog at FA-mag.com.