Search Engine Optimization is a constantly evolving field and 2015 is seeing lots of changes . Google, Yahoo and Bing regularly improve their algorithm to provide the best search results. However, lots of Financial Advisors I meet have that unique simple question in mind “How can we be first on Google?”, to which I reply by “What do you prefer? Be first on Google or get new clients"? SEO has evolved a lot, le’ts catch up!
“I focused a lot on these few singular keyword"
Keywords are quite important because they help your content to be ranked on Google based on a certain query. However, people’s usage of the search engines have changed a lot for the last 10 years and with the increasing number of websites, refining a research has become a priority. Therefore, users are increasingly using long keywords or even sentences to find better results. Also known as “long tail," these give you great information on what matters for your potential leads as well as opportunities to serve these needs. When picking your keywords, don’t focus too much on single keywords (ex: “Financial Advisor Quebec”) but rather on long-tail (ex: “Financial Advisor specialized retirement plan Quebec”).
“I create lots of texts so Google will rank me well!”
It is indeed quite important to create a fair amount of content and to keep it updated, so to make sure Google understands what your business is about and if it is still alive. However, web content serve the same purpose than printed content: inform about your offerings, introduce and strengthen your brand, display professionalism and more. At the end of the day, what counts is what your visitors and leads think about you, not Google. Therefore, don’t overdo it with keywords and create content you know your leads are interested in! (ex: “how can I optimize my taxes?”, “how can I save more on banking fees?” or “how much of my assets should I invest in gold?”).
“I’ve heard backlinks are important, so I bought 5,000 of them!”
Backlinks are like reference letters. If you got a reference letter from a major player in your industry, that’s great and will probably have a great impact for you. If the one you got is crappy. well, it’s not soo good.
Now, let’s change perspective. If you have 10 backlinks from leading websites in your industry, it will bring you qualified potential leads, strengthen your brand image, improve your ranking and domain authority (since it’s a bit too long to explain now, I recommend this simple video from MOZ ). If you “buy” 1000 backlinks, these will probably be on either low ranked domain or blacklisted websites (which will have a terrible impact for your own ranking and domain), with no relation whatsoever with your industry (keep in mind search engines can actually understand the context in which your content is connected to) and will not bring you any potential lead.
Now, what do you prefer? Get 10,000 links for 5 USD and risking being blacklisted or get 20 backlinks from highly respected (Asset Managers, Wealth Managers, Tax Lawyers, Financial Advisors) and getting new potential clients?
Search Engine Optimization is of a major importance not only for your own business ranking, but for your credibility as a professional as well as your brand. To finish, check out below’s great infographic from Neil Patel of Quicksprout and remember…don’t fall for the cheap tricks and invest more time and energy for a long term, stable and strong, growth! For a great info graphic, click here .