7 Steps to Writing an SEO Friendly Blog Post

By now you know that having a strong blog on your advisor website is HUGE for driving more visitors to your site. It’s no longer just a good idea, but rather something that must be done if you want your business to grow. When you utilize optimized blog posts, this can be so important when it comes to boosting the SEO value of your website.

SEO is something that will always be seen as something that is constantly changing and hard to nail down at times, but one thing remains and that is that Google and other search engines need content and are constantly searching for websites that they can crawl. If you consistently add awesome content to your website and blog, then this will be a huge indicator to bots that your site is current and is updated often. This makes perfect sense because people don’t want to read outdated information, they are looking for something exciting and new. Below are seven steps on how to do this properly so that you can continue to generate traffic for a killer advisor website.

Writing a More SEO-Friendly Blog Post with These 7 Steps

Step #1: Content Is Key

Google prioritizes sites that provide value to searchers, so low-quality content is not an option if you want to rank organically in 2021. Just about everyone has their own blog and with over 4 million blog posts being published every day, so it’s important that you are creating blog content that stands out from the completion, drives traffic to your website and caters to your specific niche audience. I get it, however, you are a busy financial advisor and have enough on your plate as it is, which is where Lead Pilot and Content Assist can help.

LEAD PILOT

Lead Pilot is the industry’s first-ever AI-powered all-in-one solution for content creation and distribution. By using this tool, advisors are able to launch robust content campaigns from a streamlined, easy-to-use dashboard. Team members can collaborate and share content pieces, upload original content, and customize content from the media library. It not only includes blogs but also video and infographic content. Once it is added, the content can be easily scheduled to be sent out via email or social media with branded landing pages.

CONTENT ASSIST

We offer useful tools, such as Content Assist to all Twenty Over Ten users so that if you are struggling to come up with content ideas for your blog, you can use our pre-made content and edit it to make it your own. With Content Assist, you can choose from different categories, such as retirement, home-buying, young adults, business and much more. Once you have chosen which blog that you want to use, advisors can easily customize and edit the content to add your unique voice, keywords to fit your niche or you can use it as-is.

Step #2: Determine Your Keywords and Use Them Wisely

You might not know exactly what keywords are, and I'm here to change that. Simply put, they are words scattered throughout your website that discuss and show what you are all about. They can really go anywhere throughout your website, but when they are placed in your blog section, they can really drive traffic to that part, essentially skyrocketing your SEO.

Keywords may just appear like ordinary words, but when used correctly, they can define exactly what your firm is about in just a few words or phrases. Words such as “fiduciary,” “finances,” or anything related to money is the kinds of things that you will see on many advisor websites.

Why are they so important? Well, they “tell” the top search engines, such as, Google, what is on your website and what makes your site unique. For example, when somebody is searching for something in particular and they type in a word or phrase, search engines will pull information from the websites that are the most relevant and useful. They will then populate the search engine results page (SERP). This is why it’s so pertinent that you constantly update your blog with fresh content so that you don’t fall behind when it comes to pulling new information!

The below image for the Twenty Over Ten blog tells us that we’re currently ranking in position #1 for the keyword query “google search console vs google analytics.”

Step #3: Create Links

Links are a great way to optimize your SEO. There are two main ones that you need to have on your site and those are internal and external links.

INTERNAL LINKS

To kick things off, what is an internal link? Simply enough, an internal link is one that leads to another page on the same website. They are links that go from one page on a domain to a different page on the same domain. They are generally used in the main navigation on the website.

Why are they so important? Here are the three main reasons why:

• They help visitors to get around your website quickly and easily.
• They help establish an information hierarchy for the given website.
• They help spread ranking power around websites.

You probably have many different pages and important information that you want visitors to see, and there’s no quicker way to get around than by using internal links. They’re so important for link building because you can control everything about them, from the location on the page to what anchor text will be used. Make sure to steer your content in the direction of other posts or pages so you can link to them.

You want to ensure that your website flows well when bots check out your site starting with your homepage and then moving throughout the rest of your site. Google can check the relationship is between the pages, posts, and content on your advisor site.

EXTERNAL LINKS

On the other hand, we have another important part of linking and those are external links, which are hyperlinks that target any domain other than the domain where the link already exists. Simply put, if another website links to you, then this is considered an external link to your site. Similarly, if you link out to another website, then this is also considered an external link.

When creating these, you want to use ones that are going to be beneficial to your website obviously. You want to ensure that they are trustworthy and informative sources for your visitors. Before including anything, check out the site where you are linking to make sure it’s something that you would want to be associated with your site. Linking to a relevant, popular and informative source will skyrocket your SEO rankings much more than if you linked to someone who does not display quality information or is not well-known.

Also, it’s a great chance to form relationships with other companies, because when you link to an outside source, they will know that you are linking to them, which will make them more likely to then link back to your website and can improve your chance of being picked up by search engines on another site.

Step #4: Use Supporting Imagery and Other Assets

A picture is worth 1,000 words, and this is definitely true. In this incredibly fast-paced world of technology, visitors usually only spend about 15 seconds on your website before they move on to something else. This is not a lot of time to make a great first impression, which is why you need to include photos or videos that really capture the brand of your business.

IMAGERY

Using eye-catching photos are a great way to draw in your visitors. Images are one of the most engaging and important components of marketing. Be sure that you are including “real” photos of your company along with pictures of the employees that work there in order to “humanize” your brand. This is much more productive than stock photos that don’t really capture your firm.

Principia Wealth Advisory, LLC has included two different charts to show why asset location matters for taxes. It breaks up the text to make for an easily digestible read while also providing information that better backs up your content.

VIDEO 

Video is becoming more popular as a marketing tactic, so it’s a great idea to include this on your website. From “how-to” videos to “tips and tricks” or even spotlighting employees, it’s a great way to draw in an audience with something new and different. Since people are oftentimes visual, it’s a great way to get a point across. Many people would much rather watch a quick 2-minute clip rather than read through paragraphs of writing.

In the below image, Twenty Over Ten client, Plectrum Advisers, incorporates an entire section for videos in the resource section, which really helps him to stand out and offers just another way to integrate technology into your website to drive more traffic.

ADDING ALT TEXT

When using images in your account, make sure that you are including alt-text, as search engines are not able to “read” images when crawling websites. If you add alt text to describe to search engines what the image is showing, then they can better crawl your website, therefore, boosting your SEO rankings. You can easily do this with a Twenty Over Ten website by following the steps below.

STEP 1: Select the image that you’ll be adding alternative text to.

STEP 2: Access your “alternative text” button from your sidebar.

STEP 3: After you have added the content of your choice, click the update button.

STEP 4: After you have clicked the update button, click the save changes button

Step #5: Write a Strong Headline

Your Clickthrough rate (CTR) plays an important role in your SEO rankings, so having a strong blog title is another important factor in getting your blogs to rank higher. You do not have a lot of time to draw in visitors, as we mentioned above, that you only have about 15 seconds to captivate your audience, so creating a strong headline that will make them want to find out more is crucial in boosting your rankings. When it comes to writing a strong headline, there are some tips to keep in mind, such as:

• Use language that makes your users want to take action
• Use strong keywords
• Include numbers in your titles
• Use adjectives that pique the interest of the readers
• Tailor the title to your specific niche
• Ask questions in your title
• Keep it short and sweet

Twenty Over Ten client, Innovative Retirement, LLC has asked a question and included numbers in their title. It gets the reader thinking, tells them what the blog will be about and the numbers show them that it will be more like a list that is easily-digestible and broken into different sections.

Step #6: Add Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions are so important, as they tell the readers what the website or blog will be about. They need to be compelling and make visitors want to continue reading and find out more. So, what exactly is a meta description? Simply put, it is a short snippet that provides a summary of a web page that then forms an HTML tag that search engines will show in search results as a preview.

As you can see below, Twenty Over Ten client, Forward Thinking Wealth Management has included meta descriptions in not only their main page but also the subpages, as well, showing readers what each section entails.

The below video provides more information on how to successfully optimize your meta descriptions to boost your rankings.

Step #7: Don’t Forget Your Call-to-Action

What exactly is a call-to-action? Well, it’s text or a graphic placed strategically on a website to attract visitors to take one step closer to engaging with your company. It should be succinct and create a feeling of urgency so that your visitors are more likely to do something NOW.

They are a great strategy for inbound marketing, but the wording should be used correctly. Many options include a “Schedule a Meeting” button, “Subscribe to our Newsletter,” or “Download our Whitepaper.” Using specific actions like the above is much better than simply saying, “Sign up Here.”

Since many people visiting advisor sites are still “shopping around,” and may not quite be ready to engage, this is a great way to stay in touch with them. If you give them the option to sign up for your blog or a newsletter, then this adds a personal touch, and they will find this helpful and informative when it comes time to make a decision.

A strong CTA should be:

• Straightforward
• Discuss the benefits and WHY users should take action
• Visually appealing
• Easy to locateTwenty Over Ten client, LibertyFi, LLC, has placed their CTA’s in easy to locate places throughout their pages.

Wrapping It Up

Practice makes perfect, and you might not get the formula right the first time and you know what? That is totally okay. It takes trial and error and being a busy financial advisor is enough in itself, so when you throw SEO optimization and blogging into the mix it can be a lot. These tips and tricks are a great way to get started, and it’s going to work differently for everybody, so just be patient and get to work. It is worth it in the end when your advisor website becomes a lead generation machine.