Webinar Replay: How One Advisor Supercharged SEO Efforts to Rank #2 in Just 3 Months With Marc Westlake CFP®

In this webinar, Chief Evangelist of Twenty Over Ten & FMG Suite Samantha Russell and Managing Director at Global Wealth Chartered Financial Planners, Marc Westlake CFP TEP EFP discuss how Marc ramped up his SEO strategies in order to catapult his website to number two in the Google rankings in just three months and how you can boost your strategy, as well. 

Agenda:

1. Marc’s Story
2. Top Google Ranking Factors
3. Google Reviews and My Business
4. Google Search Console and Analytics

Marc Westlake’s Background:

Marc has been with Twenty Over Ten for 13 months. Making just a few small changes make a huge impact on the type of traffic that they receive. 

Key Points:

• Been in business since 2008
• Currently has 50 clients, very specialized AUM model
• Recently acquired another business to help with an overflow that services millennial clientele with “Refer a Parent Program”
• Lead advisory firm to Facebook in Ireland
• Working with 3 marketing vendors: Twenty Over Ten, ShopSpring and local blog ghostwriter

He has seen a shift away from the AUM model and is looking at doing a subscription-based model at about $50 a month. 

Global Wealth has taken the view that they will provide pro-bono advice for the children of the clients, but if you are taking younger clients, they reserve it and offer advice to their parents about estate planning, etc. 

Digital Publishing 

You can offer some free content and some paid-for content. There is an idea of attracting the younger generation through a digital funnel. Younger people are generally more comfortable with the entire buyer funnel being digital. 

Problem-Solution Framework

What problem does the client have and what solution can you give them? Global Wealth tries to be consciously different in very key points and it really does work because you stand out from the crowd. 

Top 5 Ranking Factors

2021 Google Algorithm Ranking Factors

There are over 200 Google ranking factors, but what are some of the main ones to focus on?

Google takes Special Care in the Worlds of Health and Finance
They want the content to be of very high quality, so they are going to look for very high-quality content. The more links you can get from the high-domain authority in the area of expertise, the better. 

Niche Expertise
The more high-quality content you can provide, the more Google will view you as a thought-leader in that niche. 

Consistency is good and posting regularly on social media and including engaging content will help with rankings. 

Global Wealth has their fees offered in a transparent way as they feel this is very important. They are trying to make it very clear that they don’t work with everybody but they are very clear about the type of people that they work with. Your website should allow people to “self-qualify” to see if they can afford you, if they are a good fit for you, etc. 

Meeting Schedulers:
The key difference they have found is putting scheduling tools straight onto the website. They are giving people the option to easily book an appointment. You do find, if people don’t have a lot of time, they are willing to pay a little more to get the appointment when they want. 

You can set up your process through Calendly or whatever tool they are using, you can send follow-up questions, so make it easy to book. 

A lot of helping sites have come up which are designed to help people in the communities to solve common problems. AskAboutMoney has a very strict no-advertising policy and people get together to pull answers and the community will work together to help people answer questions. 

Ranking Factor #1: High-Quality Content

Some key factors to remember when it comes to producing high-quality content is:

• Google’s AI prioritizes thought leadership content produced at least two times a week and sites that act as niche experts.
• Use “People Always Ask” to get more topics and titles
• Makes sure you are generating links and backlinks

You want to appear in the Google Local 3 Pack. This is a SERP (Search Engine Results Page) feature that appears on the first page of results for any local search query. It features a map of business locations along with listings for three businesses that are relevant to a particular search.

Results Are Based on the Searcher’s History and Their Location:

• #1 organic results drive 33% of all clicks
• Top 3 organic results capture 61% of all clicks
• Less than 6% of people advance to page 2
• Paid listings get 10% or press

We would rather you spend more of your money on organic to see what types of clicks that you get. 

Ranking Factor #2: Title Tags

This is the second most important on-page ranking factor and the main text that describes your online content in a SERP. Using strong keywords is crucial when writing your title tags, as they describe the type of work that you do and the type of clients you are looking to work with. 

• Each page of your website should have a unique title tag
• They should be about 50-60 characters long
• Your title tag should be written as: Primary Keyword | Secondary Keyword | Company Name

You can easily customize your title tags in Twenty Over Ten by following the steps below: 

Step 1: Access your “page settings” from your sidebar.

Step 2: Your default page URL slug will be blank.

Step 3: You can completely customize your page ‘browser page title’. For example, rather than simply having ‘Company Name’, you can list ‘Company Name | Serving Chicago, Evanston, and Oakpark’ to further articulate your geographic location to potential clients. After you have added the title of your choice, click the save button.

Step 4: You are able to see your custom browser title in the tab above your webpage.

Ranking Factor #3: Meta Descriptions

The more links you can get from the high-domain authority in the area of expertise, the better. Meta-descriptions are so important as they entice people to click on your website to find out more. Some best practices for meta-descriptions are:

• Write them as Ad copy
• Include strong calls to action
• Add keywords to the first line
• They should be 120-150 characters
• They should be different for every page

Google Search Console is a great and FREE tool that you can use when figuring out how to get more engagement and the type of keywords that shoul be used or content that works best on your website. 

When looking at Google Search Consoles, Google uses their past search history to see what they should be showing you. When using this tool, go and see what type of queries that you are showing up for and then tweak the words that you are using in the titles to see how you can show up more often. Ask what is performing, what is not performing, what do people really care about? 

8 Step Process to Generating More Traffic From Old Blog Posts: Historical Blog Optimization for Financial Advisors https://blog.twentyoverten.com/8-step-process-to-generating-more-traffic-from-old-blog-posts-historical-blog-optimization-for-financial-advisors/

Google Trends is another tool that you can use. For example, when it comes to pensions, people are going to be searching for money not pensions. 

Ranking Factor #4: Google My Business

First things first, you need to claim your Google My Business listing, so that you can include the information that you, otherwise Google will choose for you.

• Claim your listing
• Complete listing fully: categories, description, photos, service areas
• Get reviews
• Ensure NAP consistency
  

Ranking Factor #5: Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free tool that helps users uncover tons of great information about your site and those who are visiting your site. You can use Google Search Console to find out things such as:

• Which keyword searches caused your site to appear in search results
• Did some queries result in more traffic to your site than others,
• What sites are linking to your website?
• How the mobile version of your site is performing

Ensure Google can access your site content as well as submit new content for crawling and more.

• To set up your Google Search Console, follow the below steps:
  Submit your sitemap
• Identify penalties and issues
• Use the GSC data to make SEO decisions on keywords and content

Find a narrative and think about what is happening in the news and figure out how this will have an impact on your clients. You can take your narrative and take them on a “journey” and figure out why something is going to have a dramatic impact on their finances. Just keep pouring it out and people will be more interested in reading it. 

There have been lots of changes with the recently updated SEC Ad Rule, so download our SEC Ad Rule ebook to learn more about how you can leverage the new rule in your marketing efforts!