I just read an article by Philip Calvert on the great IFA Forum at Ecadamy. If you have joined this yet I would suggest you do so. Philip and his partner Martin really know their stuff.
On one of Philips threads (see here) I was alarmed to see that apparently 56% of IFAs still don't have a website. Given that a survey by IFAP shows that "4 out of 5 people looking for an IFA look on the internet first" this is SCARY.
That is 80% of the new business market and you are handing it to the big players.
The article goes on to ask the question about what is important on a website. Martin adds some useful tips but there are ONLY THREE THAT REALLY MATTER!
Contact Us
Contact Us and...................
Contact Us
I usually talk with IFAs who DO have websites and I despair of the times I see websites without even an address and telephone number on the home page.
Come on Guys and Gals!!! Sure, tell them about IHT and A-Day, add your testimonials etc but tell them its COMPLICATED and they need to CALL you at every possible opportunity. Trust me its the guys who are ASKING on the internet that are getting the business. NEVER give the visitor the "answer" on the site - you need them to CALL you.
If you don't have a website get one NOW.
Its easy to market - just join www.searchifa.co.uk and www.unbiased.co.uk and you have INSTANT top level exposure on all the major search engines. If 80% of the business is there you need to get your share or you simpy will not grow your business.
Forget about "my website is there for my clients" - thats bull - its there to get you NEW clients. Existing Clients just do NOT surf IFA websites, its simpy not interesting enough.
One of the commonest, and probably the best, way to increase your PageRank on Google is to get other websites to link to your site. Google literally counts the number (and quality/relevance) of "links" to your website. The more you have from related the sites the higher your Google PR.
Historically people simply "swapped" links to increase PR but Google has got wise to this and reciprocal links now carry little weight.
What is now required is ONE WAY links into your website!
You can try just asking webmasters to link to you but invariably that will not work unless they are feeling particularly charitable.
The BEST way to get "one-way" links into your site is to submit articles to websites that are looking for content. In return the website will add a link to YOUR site at the bottom of the article.
You should ask for the link to be "content text" based and make it relevant to your site. For example the "signature" on the articles could be something like:-
"This article was submitted John Brown an Independent Financial Adviser in Bath" - and then link the words Independent Financial Adviser in Bath to your site rather than just putting your sites URL as the link.
There are many many websites that accept articles on a variety of subjects but you get more credit (towards) Google PR if the site is relevant - i.e. finance related as opposed to just an article farm. You also need to look for sites that already have a PR rating.
One such site actively looking for Finance Related articles can be seen here
They will NOT ask for a reciprocal link (though you can if you wish to) but in return for a one way link they will insist that the article is ONLY posted on their pages. That doesn't mean you can't re-write it and submit it elsewhere in an amended form.
Another way to get ONE WAY links is to use websites like Pyramidlinking and you can read more about them here
It is important to understand that you will NOT get a lot of "visitors" from the links - that is NOT the point. The point is to get Google PR - the higher the PR the more important Google deems your site to be and the more chance you have of the site apearing highly in Google's index. Once THAT is achieved you are likely to see increased traffic and enquiries from the Google Search Engine.
You can read more about the importance of Google PR here.
