What Is SEO for Financial Services? And How Does It Work?

“What is SEO for financial services?”

SEO for financial services is the process of creating helpful and authoritative content and acquiring backlinks to generate traffic to your financial services website.

For financial advisors and wealth management firms, local SEO is also an important piece of the puzzle. Local SEO includes optimizing your Google Business Profile (GBP) so that it surfaces more frequently in Google’s map pack.

When done correctly, SEO for financial services generates qualified which, when combined with Conversion Rate Optimization, turns into leads. At its core, SEO should help your business generate revenue.

Article by Colette Nichol, Story Strategist, SEO Expert, and Solo Filmmaker

If you’re a financial advisor, founder, or marketing director of a wealth management firm, you may have heard about the power of SEO to drive website traffic.

But if you’re like most normal people, SEO sounds like a mysterious dark art that may or may not be legit. 

First, let me assure you that SEO for financial services is legit.

It’s a repeatable, step-by-step process that works.  In this short post, I’ll cover what SEO is, how it works, and how to get started. I’ll also discuss who should do SEO themselves vs. who should hire it out.

I’ll also share my method of getting top results for financial advisors: the Traffic for Experts Method.  

What Is SEO for Financial Services?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.

SEO is a process that allows website owners and businesses to drive quality traffic to their websites and Google Business Profiles. SEO for financial services is simply search engine optimization which allows financial services businesses to get found on Google and Google Maps.

The goal of SEO for any service business is to connect the right people with the right service provider and begin the sales process. If you own a wealth management firm, then you likely want high-quality leads to schedule an introductory call with one of your advisors. 

The goal of your SEO project would be to boost your site’s authority sufficiently so that you can attract the right people to your site and convert them into introductory calls. 

SEO involves many pieces. 

However, one of the most important elements of SEO is creating helpful people-first content that genuinely answers a question or solves a problem.

Here’s a brief list of what you can expect from a typical SEO campaign:

• Website assessment to ensure there are no errors preventing visitors from having a good experience on your site
• Keyword research to pinpoint the words that your ideal clients are typing into Google in order to find information and service providers
• Content plan creation based on your business goals and vision
• Implementation of the content plan, ie. creating high-quality blogs and service pages that meet the needs of the Google algorithm and the needs of your visitors (i.e. ideal prospects)
• Website upgrades or transfers to ensure you have a clean base upon which to grow your new steam of traffic and can more easily convert visitors to leads
• Off-page SEO ie. building links from other websites to your website, which helps to boost the authority of your site and pages and drive more quality traffic to your site
• DIY or Premium video for your most important pages in order to increase engagement and conversions, filter out the wrong people, and boost your rankings so you get more of the right people to your site

What Is AI SEO for Financial Services?

AI SEO for financial services is the process of optimizing content so that it gets cited by LLMs such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Grok, and others.

AI SEO doesn’t mean using AI to do your SEO or writing for you. Instead it refers to an on-page and off-page process that helps Large Language Models (LLMS) parse your content, see it as authoritative, and surface it to LLM users.

ChatGPT and other LLMs have become an excellent source of leads in the past 12 months.

In my experience with client projets, ChatGPT and other LLM leads are quite high quality and convert at a much higher rate than any other type of lead. They are often pre-sold making them easier to close.

AI SEO is a new piece of the SEO puzzle, and while the traffic volume coming from LLMs to websites is small the quality is very very high. (AI SEO should not be ignored.)

When Should You Hire an SEO Agency?

If you’re a wealth management firm or other financial services firm in a large city, then you should be doing SEO. 

No question about it. If you’re currently on page 2 of Google, you could be on page 1. You could be driving high-quality traffic to your website.

There are two aspects to SEO for service businesses: optimizing your Google Business Profile and getting your pages onto the first page of Google so you can get found when people are searching for your exact services.

In addition, if you want to increase your website conversions and turn more visitors into leads, then using premium video to build trust is a smart move.

I’ve seen our clients get outstanding results when they combine a smart content strategy with premium, trust-building educational and service-oriented videos.

You should hire an SEO agency rather than do it yourself if you have a marketing budget of $100,000 or more. You don’t have to spend your entire budget on SEO. But if you’re located in a major market or you have a high-value national niche, then investing in SEO will be worth it.

One of our wealth management clients doubled their book in 3 years just from SEO and SEO-driven video. (They didn’t do any other marketing.)

Typically if you’re located in a major city, then you should hire an SEO team to optimize your website and create premium content that drives traffic and leads.

When Should You Do SEO Yourself?

You should do SEO on your own if you’re in a very small marketplace. 

If you’re located in a small town where there are not that many people searching for a financial advisor or other financial services professional each month, then doing SEO on your own may be wise. 

This is the essential process for a small advisory firm doing SEO on their own:

• Enhance and optimize your Google Business Profile (GBP)
• Implement a process to get consistent Google reviews
• Create keyword-driven service pages for ALL services
• Optimize the homepage for your main search terms
• Write keyword-driven blogs
• Make videos for all your service pages

How to Do SEO On Your Own

First, start by optimizing your Google Business Profile. 

Then write service pages for every single service that you offer. 

For example, if you do financial planning, estate planning, investment management, and retirement planning, create a service page for each of those topics.

Name the page following this basic structure:

Name of the Service + Your Town

For example, if you offer financial planning and you’re located in Nelson, BC, then you’d name the page as follows:

Financial Planning Nelson

Next, make sure you describe your service offering in detail on the page. 

Give the page a simple URL like www.yoursite.com/financial-planning-nelson

Now rinse and repeat for all your services.

Finally, write a few blog posts per month on topics that you know your ideal clients ask you about during your initial calls. Then write about topics that are important to people in your local area. In particular, if there are topics that are important to wealthy individuals in your state or province, make sure you cover those topics. 

Once you have a strong content foundation, create videos to support your pages. 

This is the essential process for any SEO campaign. To get the best results, you need to cover all these bases. 

If you’re in a small market where few advisors are competing for traffic, it’s possible to do this on your own. Give yourself 1-2 years to get everything up and running, and you’ll see the results.

However, if you’re located in a large or affluent marketplace, it’s best to hire a qualified company who can help you drive traffic to your website and get you consistent results. 

Doing SEO in a competitive market isn’t simple. 

There are a lot of moving pieces and the process needs to be done in a step-by-step manner with consistency.

If you’re in a major market, you could be adding $2-$5 million or more to your book each months just from SEO.

Doing it on your own without the help of a professional team is risky and time consuming when there is a large volume of potential clients looking for your services online.

Common Questions about SEO for Financial Services

What does SEO stand for?

SEO stands for search engine optimization.

It’s a series of processes that allow practitioners to reliably drive quality traffic to your website.

Does SEO really work?

Yes, SEO has been going strong for 20+ years, and it still works. 

SEO will only be “dead” if all your ideal clients stop using Google to search for service providers and businesses to help them solve their problems. 

Is AI a threat to SEO?

In some niches, Ai may be a threat to some website owner’s SEO efforts.

However, AI is not a threat to financial advisors or wealth management firms. In fact, there is still a massive opportunity for business growth using SEO as a marketing engine because it is still underexploited by advisory firms. AI is only a threat to SEO when the answers to important online searches are being populated with AI-driven answers. 

Is SEO a high-ROI marketing strategy?

Yes, SEO is often considered one of the highest ROI marketing strategies.

Arguably, email marketing and SEO could be equally profitable. However, to populate your email funnel, you need traffic. SEO is a way of getting people who are actually interested in your services onto your website and into your sales pipeline.

It’s a way of connecting the right people with the right service provider. When done well, it becomes a long-term driver of every-increasing business success.

Schedule a Free SEO Consultation to Discuss Your Business Goals

If you’re serious about getting on Page #1 of Google with your business and driving more leads, please reach out and schedule a call. I’d love to hear about your goals and see if our services align with your needs.

CLICK HERE: To Schedule Your SEO Consultation

The Traffic for Experts Method

The Traffic for Experts method is a systematic approach to getting high-quality organic traffic for expertise-driven businesses. 

As a service provider whose main focus is to use your expertise to help your clients get results, your marketing requires a thoughtful approach.  You can run fire sales or do any “fast marketing” techniques.

Trust and authority are the backbone of your business. If people don’t trust you, then they’re not going to book an introductory call.

The Traffic for Experts Method has 3 pillars:

1. Connection
2. Content
3. Conversation

CONNECTION

In order to connect with your ideal client, we dig deep to understand who exactly your business is targeting.

It’s not just people with $5M or more in investable assets. You offer something that appeals to a very specific type of person. So let’s find out who that is and then target them with precision. When this is done well, you may find perfect-fit prospects signing within just a few weeks of the first call. 

CONTENT

When we know who we’re trying to reach and connect with, we can create content focused on engaging that particular avatar.

We’ll ensure that service pages and blog posts are based around the exact type of clients you wish to see more of in your business.

CONVERSATION

Your perfect-fit prospect will schedule an introductory call with your team if they feel a connection to your business and are ready to start the conversation. 

That first call is a chance to have a conversation with the prospect and see if there’s a mutual fit. But they won’t go out on a limb and book that first call if they don’t feel connected to your business.

See, how we’ve looped back to the beginning? Connection is where everything starts and ends. 

How do we create a connection? We connect by mirroring your ideal client’s hopes, wishes, and dreams while covering their main challenges and the solutions you offer. We make sure to use the right words and imagery to reflect their goals and desired outcomes.

And we don’t shy away from discussing their challenges and the problems they want to solve.

People don’t seek out a new service provider if they’re totally happy with the current solution. 

When your website focuses on solving your ideal clients’ problems and reflects who they are and what they want, they will feel a connection to your business. 
In other words, when your content is about them and their problems, they’ll seek your services. If you just talk about how great you are, they won’t feel the connection that drives them to schedule a first conversation.

Steps in the Process

Included in the process are the following steps:

• Understand your ideal client deeply
• Set KPIs and begin tracking
• Map out the best website experience for your ideal prospect
• Transfer and upgrade your website if necessary 
• Select page types from our proven framework
• Do keyword research for your location and ideal client
• Create content for all necessary service pages and execute
• Craft blog posts that support your service pages
• Optimize your homepage based on a clear keyword plan
• Ensure your call-to-action is optimized to get the best results
• Plan and execute a premium video SEO strategy for YouTube
• Assess progress and add off-page SEO strategies as needed

Following the Traffic for Experts Method, you get the best possible results for your service-driven business. 

Schedule a Free SEO Consultation to Discuss Your Business Goals

If you’re serious about getting on Page #1 of Google with your business and driving more leads, please reach out and schedule a call. I’d love to hear about your goals and see if our services align with your needs.

CLICK HERE: To Schedule Your SEO Consultation

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