How Financial Advisors Get Atop Search Results

Most people use Internet search engines when seeking information. Finding a financial advisor is no exception.

When searching, users may type in a wide array of terms, including financial advisor, financial planner or broker. Knowing what terms are popular can help financial advisors target their marketing — particularly online — to maximize their reach to target audiences throughout the nation. (For more, see: Who Are Google's Main Competitors?)

Google Trends provides a quick and easy interface for examining popular search trends over time. For instance, the term "financial advisor" is widely popular in Minnesota and Pennsylvania, while the term "financial planner" resonates best in Washington, D.C., or Massachusetts. Financial advisors targeting those states may want to therefore optimize their websites to better target those keywords.

Here are some popular terms and how they can be used by financial advisors to more effectively reach clients. (For more, see: How Financial Advisors Can Tweet Like Pros.)

Most Popular Terms

There are many different words that would-be clients may use when searching for a financial advisor. When looking at these terms, it's important to distinguish between the relative usage of each term between states, as well as the overall popularity of the term.

When it comes to overall popularity, the term "broker" generates magnitudes more search traffic than "financial planner" or "financial advisor." The term "financial advisor" comes in second place with roughly two to three times the traffic as the term "financial planner." ("Financial adviser" — see that miniscule spelling difference based on the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 — has a fraction of "financial advisor's" traffic.) That said, there are some states where the term "financial planner" may be more popular than "financial advisor" in terms of overall search volume, making it a natural choice.

Overall popularity may seem like all that matters, but high traffic terms like "broker" have a lot of competition for organic search traffic and may be expensive when it comes to paid ads. Looking at relative popularity can help identify instances when targeting a less-trafficked keyword may make more sense. For instance, targeting "financial advisor" may make the most sense for those seeking clients in Minnesota. (For more, see: 7 Cybersecurity Tips for Advisors.)

Finally, Google Trends provides details on what related terms are breaking out — ones that may be worth targeting. The most popular phrases breaking out in July 2015 were "best financial advisor," "financial advisor careers," and "financial aid advisor." These terms may not all be relevant to finding new clients, but it's worth checking back every few months to see if any unique terms are taking off and could potentially offer an advantage in marketing.

Using the Data

There are many different ways to use these keywords in practice to improve conversion rates and more effectively reach clients. When it comes to organic search results, financial advisors may want to target some of these keyword phrases when designing their website and writing content in order to maximize their likelihood of appearing in those search results. And when paying for ads, these keywords provide an idea of likely high-traffic opportunities. (For more, see: Top Digital Age Tips for Financial Advisors.)

The related terms may be particularly useful, since some of them may be so-called long-tail keywords. Since these keywords appear less frequently than generic terms, there may be less competition in terms of both SEO and paid search engine marketing. Financial advisors taking advantage of these dynamics may be able to acquire more traffic at a lower price than the competition, which could provide a big boost to any practice.

Finally, financial advisors can track the results of these efforts using tools like Google Analytics, which shows what search terms visitors used before they visited the website. Matching these terms with the targeted terms in both SEO and paid marketing can provide a good idea of how successful these targeting efforts were, while visitor data (like time spent on page) can provide an idea of the value being delivered.

The Bottom Line

Google Trends is a great way to discover what search terms people are using to find a financial advisor in any given geographic area. These terms or phrases can be very useful when it comes to search engine marketing and search engine optimization to improve traffic to your website. Financial advisors can track the success of these efforts using Google Analytics by comparing incoming traffic with targeted efforts. (For more, see: What Google's Shift to Mobile Means for Advisors.)

Source: How Financial Advisors Get Atop Search Results