Here is a checklist to help you make an informed decision – before you hire a financial website design firm, be sure to confirm:
SEO Plays a Vital Role in Financial Advisor Websites
What is Search Engine Optimization?
You need to ensure that your financial website gets a good rank in search engines so that people spot your financial advisor webpage online and look at what you have to offer. Google, MSN, Bing, and Yahoo are currently dominating the market. You will get traffic to your financial website depending upon the number of visitors who hit the site. When the work of the web design firm (for financial professional website) ends, you will be approached by various SEO companies who will claim to put your financial advisor website at the top on the search engines. Beware of scammers who con financial firms to weasel more money out of them. They offer financial website design along with SEO services as a package at an exorbitant rate. The end result is a big fat zero. That is why you should steer clear from financial website design firms that charge a monthly rate for submitting your financial professional webpage to search engines. This is a ploy because after the financial website has been submitted to Google and has the Google Analytics code embedded in the financial planner website’s code, monthly submission is not needed.
Website Marketing for Financial Firms – A Checklist
Your Financial Website should indicate a Positive Marketing Message to Visitors
A proper and quality financial website design is important, as it will draw in customers for your firm. There are so many financial planner websites online which offer the same services as you do. How do you stand out from the rest and carve out a niche via your financial advisor webpage?
Choosing a Domain Name for the Financial Planner Website
Looking for a Domain Name for your Financial Webpage?
Naming the Financial Planner Website Domain
The domain name will be an integral part of the marketing process of your business so you need to select the correct name when your website is being built. Extensions like . org, .net, .biz, and .us, are being used more and more these days along with the well-known dotcom extension. Country specific endings are also available.
Name Extension of Financial Website
What search terms are used by visitors? Conduct thorough research in this area, as targeting the domain name to the local business area of your finance organization will help you to secure a better ranking on the search engines. A dotcom extension is the most popular and internationally recognized, so try to include that in your domain name of your financial website.
Type of Name
Your domain name needs to exhibit a positive image for your financial advisor website:
- Describe the products/services offered by your financial website through strong keywords in domain name.
- Reflect what your financial professionals’ webpage stands for.
Is the purpose of your business reflected in your domain name?
- Get new leads via prospects on your website?
- Lend some credibility for your financial firm?
- Provide a service to your clients?
Have you established the purpose of your financial website? If yes, then you can choose between a keyword-based domain name or a brand-based domain name.
Using the Company Name in your Website Domain Name
Clients should be able to search and find your website for financial professionals easily through your domain name. If the name chosen by you isn’t available anymore, come up with some creative options for another domain name for your website. For instance, dotcom might not be available, but you can try other extensions. You could also register several versions of your company name, including common misspellings of your name, or an easily remembered nickname that refers to your business identity. Use your reputation to your advantage for your financial advisor website, if your business has established itself as a brand in your community.
Using a Keyword-based Website Domain Name
While selecting a keyword-based domain name remember:
- The main goal of the financial webpage should be reflected
- For your financial advisor website, actual words with proper spelling should be used and the name of your website can’t be more than 22 characters.
- Use short and easy-to-spell words
Search engines often assign higher rankings to financial websites containing main keywords in the domain name. But then again, if you use a keyword-based domain name for your financial professional website, you might not be found if your business name is already well known in your local area. You can remedy this by registering your website for financial planners under your business name in the Google Business Directory and various local online directories. You can also put it in the page titles and content of your website to increase visibility in search engines.
The Google Adwords Keywords Tool can be used to come up with keyword phrases for the domain name of your financial advisor website. If you are new in the industry, an appropriate keyword phrase on your website can get higher rankings in search engines. For example, for the keyword – financial website Canada, your domain name can be www.canadafinancialwebsite.com. Combined with different marketing methods, this type of financial professional website name can create significant impact on people’s minds.
What You Need to Know about Hosting Your Financial Planner Website
Spending oodles of money doesn’t mean top quality financial website design
Web hosting for your financial website is when you hire a web design company to store your entire financial planner website files on a server. The financial website needs to be live 24/7. The rates of hosting vary quite a bit, so ensure you conduct proper research into the market rates – which should be no more than $9/month.
What is Good Financial Planner Website Design?
If visitors get confused when they look at your financial website, then the web design for the financial planner website has failed to achieve what it was intended for. The bottom line is that you have to drive traffic to the financial advisor website and convert them into clients. If you provide too many choices, the financial webpage designer, might not be able to project your vision and goals onto the webpage.