SEO For Financial Advisors: What Are Backlinks and How Do You Build More?

Backlinks are incredibly important for organic search rankings in Google. And, the more quality backlinks your website has, the more authoritative websites that link to you, the stronger SEO rankings you will get and the more traffic you will get to your site. But what exactly is a backlink and how do you build more?

What Are Backlinks?

To start things off, what exactly is a backlink? Simply put, backlinks are links from one website to a page on another website. To be more specific, they are links from an outside website to your website. Backlinks are the opposite of external links, which are links from your site to another site. For example, If I reference Hubspot in a blog post, and link to their website, I’ve created an external link. A backlink would be the opposite and would need to be a link from Hubspot to this blog. In this way, backlinks are like online referrals. And, just like a referral, receiving one from a well known and reliable source is more beneficial than a source without much authority. Both link types are important to your SEO and having a strategy for creating more is important. So, what can you do to get more quality backlinks?

1. Use the Guest Posting Strategy

Creating your own content is the route that is most advisable, however, building rapport with a third-party and inviting guest bloggers to post content on your website is a great way to build a relationship with others and enhance your website’s overall content. In addition, teaming up and working with others is a great way to not only drive traffic to your site but also to “network” with others, as they may ask you to create content for their site, as well. If this happens, then when you create something for their site and they include a link to your blog and website, that will serve as a backlink for your site.

In the example above, Zoe Meggert founder of Perfectly Planned Content, shares a guest blog, Deciphering Website & Blog Analytics: The Basics. By partnering with another content creator, we are able to expand our content and share things that are more relevant and can not only benefit both us and our partners but provide more for readers.

As you can see in the below image, Samantha Russell served as a guest writer for Perfectly Planned Content with the blog, 5 Step Guide to Generating Leads With Your Content, so that is the perfect example of a symbiotic relationship between two guest writers that have formed a relationship and helped to create backlinks for their sites!

2. Share Infographics

Twenty Over Ten’s recently introduced its new all-in-one marketing tool for financial advisors, Lead Pilot, that allows advisors to offer full-service marketing automation tools with complete personalization. The content library has over 400+ unique articles, infographics, videos and quizzes in the Lead Pilot content library, which users can also upload with their own content. What’s even better is that the content is completely customizable so you can easily target your niche.

In the above image, Scott F. Hoskins of Hoskins Wealth Management utilizes one of the infographics offered in Lead Pilot that discusses the basics of a 529 plan. With images and easy to scan and read information, infographics are a great way to get information across to readers. Additionally, once you have an infographic on your landing page, it’s time to distribute it. Lead Pilot has many other options in the content library chock full of infographics with relevant content ready to use on your site and distribute.

This is a site of places where you can share your infographics but you can also search for other media outlets who have published similar infographics. They may like the infographics that you have created, as well, so sending them over to share is a great idea to get your work out there for others to potentially use, therefore, linking back to your website.

3. Do a Weekly Roundup Blog

Doing a weekly roundup is a great way to “spread the love” and share information from many different sites. The idea that by linking to others great content they’re likely to reshare your blog post with their circles gaining more links, which in turn gains more traffic to your site.

At Twenty Over Ten, we do one on Monday called Five Little Things for Your Monday and then one on the Lead Pilot blog, called Feature Friday.

For both the “Five Little Things” blog and “Feature Friday” articles, we choose five of our favorite articles of the week that discusses social media, marketing tips, what’s happening in the financial world, etc. and we link the article the source and then include an image with a small blurb as to what it is about.  The third-party sources can tell when you have linked to their site, which makes them more likely to link some of your content in the future.

Another way we build relationships is by sharing both of these articles on our Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook pages while tagging the parties and thanking them for their content. It’s just another way to build a relationship, and it makes them more likely to retweet or share your posts, which then shares your content with their followers, as well.

4. Secure Some Interviews

If you can secure some interviews, then this is a great way to gain attention in the media and show that you are a thought-leader in the industry. If you regularly contribute to an outlet, then be sure to ask if they can link to your firm’s website in your bio.

In the above screenshot, you can see that Wealth Management ran the Twenty Over Ten press release about the partnership between Riskalyze and Twenty Over Ten. They link back to the website and include quotes from the team, so it’s a great way to link back and get your name out there.

5. Claim Your Listing on Business Directories

Your Google My Business listing is a no-brainer, but there are lots of other business listing websites out there that you can use for free or for a fee that will link back to your website. A few that we typically recommend to advisors are:

YELLOWPAGES:

This is a site you’re probably already familiar with somewhat. There is a paid advertising version but there is also a free listing version too, which I’d start with. This listing site typically has a lot of clout just because it has been around for so long. So, once registered with this, you will start to see more and higher rankings and links back from Yellow Pages.

YELP & MANTRA:

These are two other more traditional listing sites that are free and pretty popular/common for all businesses, not just financial advisors.
Brightscope: Specific to the financial industry, this a traditional listing site. Their support team is super responsive and they claim their data/information comes straight from the Department of Labor and other government agencies to speed up access to data.

Zoe:

Again, this is specific to the financial industry and is somewhat of a newer platform, but it is a no-cost listing site based on merit. However, if you ever secure a client off a lead from the listing then they will take a percentage.

WEALTHMINDER:

Lastly, specific to the financial services industry, and you may have heard of this site because it’s a platform for more than just online listings.

NestEggZone:

This is another free listing site geared specifically to financial advisors.

Pro Tip: Remember to check with your compliance team first before setting up a listing on any third party website.

Does Your Site Have Strong Links?

We hope that this has helped you to understand more about the importance of backlinks on your advisor website and how to build them. There are many different ways to do this that will really benefit your site, so if you reach out to the correct people and sources, it’s sure to build