Keyword Stuffing Appears As Spam Ultimately Hurt the Rankings of Both Pages
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SEO for RIAs INTRODUCTION What if we told you that you could get On-Page hundreds, maybe even thousands of more Perform Keyword Research qualified leads coming to your website each Add Keywords to Your Title Tags month, completely for free? If you are like Add Keywords to Your Meta thousands of other financial advisory firms Descriptions out there, you’d want in, right? We thought Add Keywords to Your H1 so. That’s why we’ve developed this SEO and H2 Tags for RIAs cheat sheet as your golden ticket. Add Descriptive Alt Tags Include Anchor Text We know you’re short on time. So print out or copy this cheat sheet to make sure Off-Page you’re completing the most necessary Setup Google My Business SEO tasks. Want to take a deeper-dive? Setup Google Search Console Simply click on any of the points to the Claim Brand Name Across All right to drop down and learn more! Social Media Channels Setup Inbound Linking Strategy 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Part I: On-Page SEO Elements 11 Keywords 14 Accessible URLs Introduction 16 Title Tags 18 Meta Descriptions 05 Intro to SERP 20 Header Tags 07 Developing an SEO Strategy 22 Content 08 Pillars of an SEO Strategy 24 Internal Links 09 On-Page vs. Off-Page SEO 26 Site Speed and Mobile Friendly Part II: Off-Page SEO Elements 28 Inbound Links 29 Social Media Shares 30 Guest Blogging 31 Google My Business 33 Conclusion 3 INTRODUCTION SEO, which stands for search engine optimization, is the practice of affecting your site’s visibility in organic (unpaid) search engine results. As an RIA, why is this important? Because driving traffic to your website provides multiple benefits including lead generation, increased conversion rates, growth in business and establishing your reputation as an authoritative and knowledgeable expert in the financial field. Below we’ll provide you with an in-depth look at creating an SEO strategy to increase your rankings in Google and ultimately drive traffic to your site. Since Google is the most used search engine today, our recommendations below will be based on the efforts needed to rank in Google. 4 INTRODUCTION TO SERP Whenever you search for a specific word or query in Google, the page of results is known as the SERP What Is It? (search engine results page). The first page of the A search engine results page (SERP) is SERP will include 10 organic listings and up to four ads the list of results that a search engine returns in response to a specific word or (which companies acquire through PPC, or pay per phrase query. Each listing includes the click). Of those 10 listings, the top three results will linked web page title, the linked page URL (Uniform Resource Locator), a brief obtain around 61 percent of the clicks, while the ads description of the page content and, in will receive around 10 percent - which proves the some cases, links to points of interest within the website. importance of organic ranking. The results shown in the SERP will vary depending on the searcher’s location and search history. For example, if you click often on your firm’s website, future relevant queries will likely show that site in the SERP. It’s important to test your organic results on third-party sites that won’t be affected by your location or search history. 5 LOCAL 3-PACK Local 3-Pack Here are a few ways to increase Since you operate a business, your firm your firm’s chances of landing in Google’s local 3-pack: may benefit from Google’s local 3-pack. If Google has determined a search query 01 Keep your address consistent: Choose a standard format for your address (such as Street vs. St.) and use to best be answered with the information that consistently throughout your site, other sites and on of a physical business, a local 3-pack will your Google My Business profile. Discrepancies in your address format throughout the web can confuse Google appear at the top of the search. This shows and negatively affect your rankings. a map with pinpoints of each location 02 Obtain Google reviews: Because Google reviews are followed by the NAP (name, address, collected through Google, which acts an objective third phone number) data of three local busi- party, they can be a great asset to financial advisors without creating issues with compliance. To retain a nesses that Google has deemed most neutral status, we recommend not commenting or relevant. replying to reviews about your business that have been left on Google. 03 Include images: Google will often reward business listings that include images, with six to 10 images being the ideal range. These could include an image of your logo, staff, building or events. 6 DEVELOPING AN SEO STRATEGY As you and your team gear up to implement any of the following SEO practices, there are a few important concepts to keep in mind. Understand Your Target Audience Define Your Philosophy and Vision Identify Areas in Need of Improvement Understanding who you want to reach your It’s likely your financial firm has a philosophy Simply put - what do you hope to gain from website is crucial for creating the foundation when it comes to advising, managing or this? Think about what areas of your business for your content and developing an effective investing. Create a philosophy and clearly need to be improved upon and how you can SEO strategy. Think about how familiar your define a vision for your SEO strategy as well. do that by utilizing these SEO best practices. audience will be with technical terms or Use this to outline your intentions and dictate complex financial issues - are you okay using your actions online. Here are a few questions to ask yourself: investment jargon or should you keep your phrases short and simple? Are you attracting + Do I want to bolster my firm’s reputation an audience that’s open to being persuaded as an authoritative entity in the industry? into using your services, or are they there to simply learn more about a topic? + Am I primarily interested in driving leads and growing my customer base? + Is my main priority to provide my current clients with easy access to important information? 7 PILLARS OF ANY SEO STRATEGY When Google is ranking your site in the SERP, it cares about three things: trust, relevance and authority. These are considered the main pillars of SEO. Without developing and establishing all three pillars on your site, you won’t succeed in driving traffic organically. Google only wants to send its users to sites that will be legitimate and helpful for their us- ers. This gives Google users a positive experience, ensuring they will continue coming to Google for their searching needs. In order to achieve this, Google wants you to: Focus on the User Experience Never Deceive Users Deliver on the Information You Promised 8 ON-PAGE VS. OFF-PAGE SEO Think of on-page SEO as a house and off-page SEO as the directions to get there. Essentially, on-page SEO refers to what is found within your actual website and its coding. This includes the site’s structure, content, SSL certificate and any elements found on the page. Off-page SEO is what’s used to build your page’s authority for Google. This would include inbound links, social media shares, guest blogging and your Google My Business profile. Each type of SEO makes up around 50% of your Google ranking factors, which proves optimizing your site both on and off the page is crucial for landing higher in the SERP. 9 On-Page SEO Elements 10 KEYWORDS Keywords are the words or phrases users type into Google when doing a search. Naturally, what keywords Search for Relevant Keywords are typed will dictate what appears on the SERP. Only You can search for relevant keywords on results that Google believes to best match those key- third-party sites such as: + Ahrefs words and the search intent will be rewarded with the + Moz Keyword Explorer first few spots on the page. Therefore, the keywords you + Answer the Public + SEMrush use within your site will provide the baseline for the rest of your SEO strategy. In addition, you can set up your Google Search Console to discover what keywords are already driving traffic to your site. Since keywords are used to attract visitors to your site, you’ll want to incorporate terms people use when they search for businesses like yours. Create a list of primary keywords (broad, over-arching words or phrases with a high-volume of searches) and secondary keywords (more targeted or specific phrases with less volume). While casting a wide net sounds like it would yield more visitors, keeping your keyword strategy too generic can increase your competition and often lower your chances of ranking high on Google. Instead, focus on your firm’s niche and what words or phrases would be most relevant for you. 11 FINDING KEYWORDS IN GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE Consulting your Google Search Console is an effective way to see what keywords your site is already ranking for. This will tell you the specific keywords or phrases that are driving traffic to your site. To find these keywords, enter the “performance” tab. This will show your click-through rates (CTR) - how many times a visitor clicked on your page after landing in the SERP. You can set your desired date range on this page to check your CTR from any period of time.