Why Advisors Should Include Pricing Information on their Website

During the transition onto the web, it has been normal operating procedure for financial planning firms (and other professional service industry businesses) to exclude pricing form their website. This presents a real marketing opportunity for those firms willing to be more transparent about their pricing online. Following are some of the reasons you should consider adding your pricing if you haven’t yet.

It’s What Consumers Expect


“How much does it cost?” Isn’t that one of the first questions we ask as consumers?

Even online this is one of the most important pieces of information in the buying cycle.

Have you ever visited a website, started looking for the price of the product/service you’re researching, then realized after searching the site that the price is not listed? It’s happened to all of us. How’d it make you feel?

If you’re like most searchers, it left you feeling frustrated .

What did you do about? Did you pick up the phone and call the company to get more information? Probably not. Most consumers leave the site (very quickly) to click on another listing, continuing until they find one that provides the information they’re looking for. How many visitors are you losing because they can’t find your prices?

It’s Good for SEO


There are a substantial number of searches made around keywords involving the of “cost” or “pricing” of financial services every month ( from Google 7/3/18)

Click to see the complete chart

In addition, these terms are not as competitive as many of the other financial services keywords, meaning that they are relatively easier to rank for.

Related: Why Technology Has to Be a Big Piece of Your Pitch to Future Generations

It Helps Potential Clients Qualify Themselves


Having your prices listed publicly lessens the chance that you’ll have a meeting with someone that experiences “sticker shock” once you do reveal the cost of your services. If a perspective client does reach out after seeing your prices, you can at least feel comfortable in the fact that they feel that they can afford your services, and focus more of the conversation on determining if you are a good fit to work together.

Identify How You Get Paid


Even if you choose not to include your prices on your website, at the very least consider discussing how you get paid. There is significant search volume around broader terms tied to how you’ve set up your business to be paid..

Click to see complete chart

Publishing your minimum prices on your website helps develop trust through transparency, allows clients to self-qualify, makes it easier for other advisors or professionals to refer to you (see Kitces’ article below), and can boost your traffic through some quick SEO wins. The downside of course is that it removes much of the pricing discussion from the “initial consultation, limits the advisors opportunity to sell their services before introducing prices, and may eliminate the possibility of the advisor making adjustments on a case-by-case basis.

However, I’d argue, with today’s access to information and with so many advisors available with a click of a mouse, many visitors are already self-selecting themselves out of “that discussion.”

* Searches: average number of searches across the U.S. per month for the past 12 months
* Competition: represents how difficult it will be to rank for this term. Rated from 0 -1, with 0 meaning there is no competition, and 1 meaning it will be difficult to rank. Most financial terms are in the 0.9 – 1.0 range.
* PPC: also known as Per-Per-Click, this is the price that Google estimates you would have to pay for each click if you were to rank for this term through paid advertising rather than organic SEO.