Project overview
Customer brief
- To increase online visibility for range of financial advisory services
- To generate more traffic and enquiries for key services
- To rank on page one for searches related to key services
- To expand their reach to West Sussex and Dorset
Targeted SEO response
Where we started
When we started work, Redwood Financial’s online presence did not reflect their status as a respected IFA. The website only had seven pages which didn’t even begin to describe the breadth of their services. The only service page on the website focussed on the term ‘online wills’, which is very competitive to rank for.
So, we had a great opportunity to create more highly optimised service pages to increase traffic. Another part of the brief was to help Redwood to increase their market share across Hampshire, West Sussex and Dorset.
What we delivered
SEO strategy for an award winning independent financial advisor
The first few weeks were spent strategising and producing the outline of a 12-month SEO campaign. This involved detailed research and analysis into key search terms Redwood could compete for and development of a content strategy to answer longtail questions to help the website grow in topical authority.
New website redeveloped for users and search engines
A successful SEO campaign relies on a solid foundation, and we created a website that could be updated easily over time. We began by redeveloping the existing key and top level pages in the WordPress CMS. Technical SEO was also very important, making sure all pages were internally linked and site structure was correctly implemented. For launch, we also built a blog/news section optimised to achieve featured snippets in Google.
We have been working with Ben and his team now for sometime, and the results they have delivered has surpassed our expectation, and really wowed us with their know how and service. Today we conducted a review with them and the results were yet again really great, so we don’t see their fees as a cost we see it as an investment in our business and is great value for money.
Steve Blofield. Qualified Financial Planner.
Content strategy
To help shape the content of the site, we researched questions people have relating to wills, trusts and pensions – a simple look at ‘people also ask’ in Google will tell you there are many! Along with working on a content for the main service pages (increasing from seven to over 130 fully optimised pages) we also provided the Redwood team copy platforms generated by SEO content software. With the help of our in-house copywriter, these were developed into optimised pieces of content.
Local SEO
The client also wanted to promote their remote services, enabled by Zoom, to a wider market in Hampshire. We set out to rank for ‘financial advisor in Hampshire’ and all the major cities within the county. We developed highly optimised local SEO landing pages which helped to increase leads from further afield.
Guest posting on sites with relevant traffic
To compete with other IFA’s, link building was an important part of our SEO strategy. We produced guest posts on credible websites with lots of traffic (not necessarily those with a high domain rating, as this can be inflated by webmasters). Guest posting involves creating a piece of quality content including links back to your website, which is pitched to other sites. This helps grow domain authority and therefore increases Google’s trust in the site.
Growing traffic and lead generation
Organic SEO is a slow burn and it can take 12+ months of work and investment before results start to be generated, especially in competitive niches such as financial advice. However, due to the months of work undertaken, everything started to click and the campaign started to exceed our expectations.
Conversion rate optimisation (CRO)
Having a great website which generates traffic is important, but encouraging visitors to take action is also essential. The website was designed with clear calls to action, contact forms and clickable buttons and links, all to encourage visitors to submit an enquiry and their contact details. Redwood Financial also offered a range of useful webinars using WebinarJam, which encouraged people to enter their details and submit an enquiry.
The result
This was a highly successful SEO campaign which after 2 years of work has produced a website which will continue to deliver leads and enquiries from the organic search results long into the future. The website is now an asset to the business, rather than just a brochure website to refer people to.
We have used SEO companies in the past and been disappointed in their results, just sending through a generic update report once a month with no strategic thinking and proactive plan to improve our website traffic. Targeted SEO are working on our website and organic SEO campaign and so far we’ve been impressed with the level of service we have received. Our new website is now starting to generate new leads and enquiries and do the job it was designed for. Every meeting is full of targeted and proactive ways to improve our content, drive more traffic and actually get results. We look forward to our continued relationship and building on what’s been achieved so far. We highly recommend Targeted SEO for professional businesses who need to succeed online.
Jasmine Lambert. Chartered Financial Planner
We continue to work with this business, offering: website hosting, content management and strategy. They are now very comfortable and successful with the number of leads they generate. Learn more about our SEO for financial advisors here.
