3 Ways Financial Advisors Can Build Their Brands with Link Building

As an independent financial advisor, you’re probably constantly searching for ways to build your eminence and your brand online to attract highly qualified, prospective clients.

Building backlinks to your site can help you.

Building links to your site from other sites and media outlets can expose your services to new pools of prospective clients.

Other benefits strategic link building can bring to your financial advisory firm?

Position yourself as a subject matter expert within your niche
Grow traffic to your website by leveraging other bloggers and site owners’ readerships
Improve your search engine rankings for search phrases relevant to your firmg

Let’s get into the details of each of these benefits

1. Position you and your financial advisory firm as a subject matter expert within your niche

Target prominent placements on publications and you can become an overnight celebrity. Getting a quote in a national publication like the WSJ or Forbes, or a publication on the regional level, can build awareness for your firm.

With a mention in a trusted, highly read source, you will also build your brand’s eminence.

2. Grow traffic to your website by leveraging other bloggers and site owners’ readerships

Whenever you secure media coverage or a quote from an online publication, always try to get a link back to your site.

Sure, if the author mentions your firm’s name, this can be useful, and a prospective client may open a new tab in their browser and do a Google search for it.

You can streamline this process by simply asking for a link!

If you just started your firm or just launched your website, securing guest posts and other placements on relevant websites can jumpstart your site traffic.

Assuming you have great, engaging content on your site, your site engagement metrics will improve, which could correlate to improved search engine rankings over time.

Do you already have mentions out there but not sure from where? Try doing a Google search for your name or your firm’s name. Reach out to the site owner and request a link.

Do you want mentions of you or your firm delivered directly to your inbox. Try setting up Google Alerts for your name and your firm’s name.

Not only can you reach out people who referencing you in their content, but this is also a great way to manage your online reputation in the case of bad press.

Click here to learn more about Google Alerts

3. Improve Your Search Engine Rankings for Search Phrases Relevant to Your Firm with Link Building

Did you launch your website a year ago but still stuck on page 5 of the search results?

Building backlinks can help give new life to improving your presence in the search results.

Even as other new factors and metrics come into play, backlinks remain a hallmark of Google’s ranking algorithm.

Your primary goal should be to increase the number of high quality, relevant websites (called referring domains) linking back to your site.

Your secondary goal is securing backlinks to major pages on your site. It’s quite normal that the bulk of backlinks go to your homepage, but try to find opportunities to get backlinks to your site’s deeper pages (commonly called inner pages) so that authority is spread throughout your entire site.

As you find potential backlink opportunities, make sure their metrics check out, namely:

Domain Authority – as you build out your backlink strategy, target sites that have a higher domain authority than your site. To learn more about how to determine a site’s domain authority, click here.

Topical Relevance – Use a tool like Majestic SEO to determine the topical relevance of your backlink target.

For more details on how to use topical relevance and Majestic SEO to identify great backlink targets, review this article: https://www.gotchseo.com/trust-flow/

Now, that you understand how link building can help improve your firm’s brand and visibility, you might be wondering where to get started.

There are a wealth of guides online that provide link building ideas, but for a busy financial advisory such as yourself, these are a few ideas to get started:

1. Start with the link building basics … Leverage foundational branded properties – Branded properties such as a LinkedIn company page, Facebook business page, YouTube channel, and Twitter profile are foundational backlinks and should be the starting point for your link building efforts.

Not only do these profiles help build your firm’s online credibility in the eyes of consumers and search engines, but they provide alternative channels for your team to connect with your target audience, share your content, and grow awareness around your firm.

1. Seek press mentions – Have you or someone on your team recently created or accomplished something that is worth sharing with the press?

Perhaps you’ve recently completed a breakthrough whitepaper on a new insight on how Monte Carlo analysis can be used in retirement projects.

Or, something closer to home: you and your team recently provided complementary financial advisory sessions for underserved families in your community.

There is something that you and/or your team is working on that sets you apart, so make sure the world knows about it!

This boosts your eminence and also increases your perceived workability in the eyes of prospective clients.

If you have a great writer on your team, have him or her create a write up of the news story and submit to one of the popular press release distribution services such as:

Sign up for HARO and provide expert responses to reporters and journalists queries

HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is an online service for journalists who are looking for quick feedback from the public. HARO’s goal is to connect journalists with the people who have expertise in certain subject areas, such as investing, the financial markets, or financial planning.

Click here to learn more about HARO.

These three tips are just the tip of the iceberg. For more strategies, check out some of my favorite link building guides:

Link Building for SEO: The Definitive Guide (2017 Update)

Quicksprout’s Advanced Guide to Link Building

SEO Guide: Link Building & Ranking in Search Engines from Search Engine Land

Biggest Takeaway: A great link building strategy is a persistent, ongoing effort where your goal is to acquire as many backlinks from highly relevant and high quality sites as possible.

I hope this article has been helpful in helping you understand the importance of link building not only for your firm’s website SEO, but your overall brand building.

It’s an activity that accomplishes two goals:

Improving your firm’s overall web presence
Establishes your firm as an industry leader within your niche

Interested in developing a link building strategy for your firm? Be sure to hit the Contact Us button to your right to set up some time to meet.

We can discuss your online marketing goals and what you intend to achieve with a link building effort!