Ask most financial advisers where their best clients come from and they’ll say referrals. That’s still true, but even a referred client looks you up before they pick up the phone. They read your website, check your reviews and compare you with the two other names their friend mentioned. And the people who aren’t referred start in exactly the same place, typing something like “retirement planning Stamford” or “inheritance tax advice near me” into Google.
If your website doesn’t show up for those searches, or shows up and says very little, you’re relying entirely on word of mouth, and that dries up from time to time.
I build websites and look after SEO for small businesses around Stamford, Rutland and Peterborough. Advice firms come with a few extra rules, so this is how I’d approach search for an adviser, step by step.
Why SEO is a bit different for advisers
Two things set financial advice apart.
The first is Google. It treats pages about money, health and legal matters as higher stakes than, say, a page about garden furniture, because bad information can genuinely hurt someone. So it looks harder for signs that a real, qualified, trustworthy person is behind the advice. A thin site with stock photos and no names on it struggles here.
The second is the FCA. Your website is a financial promotion, so it has to be fair, clear and not misleading, and the Consumer Duty expects you to explain your services and costs in a way people can actually understand. Good SEO and good compliance pull in the same direction most of the time: clear pages, real people, honest answers. Just run new content past whoever signs off your promotions before it goes live.
Start with what people actually search for
Nobody searches for “holistic wealth management solutions”. They search for the problem they’ve got.
Think about the moments that send people looking for an adviser:
- retiring in the next few years and not knowing how to draw a pension
- selling a business or a property
- an inheritance, or worrying about inheritance tax for their children
- a parent going into care
- a divorce
- starting to earn properly for the first time and wanting a plan
Each of those is a search, and usually a local one. Write down the ten or so situations you help with most, and how a client would describe them in their own words. That list becomes the plan for your website.
Give every service its own page
One “Services” page with six bullet points won’t rank for anything. Google needs a page it can match to each search.
So build a proper page for each thing you do: retirement planning, pension advice, inheritance tax planning, later life and care fees, protection, advice for business owners. On each one, explain who it’s for, what the process looks like, what it typically costs and what happens at the first meeting. Answer the questions people ask you on the phone every week.
If you see clients across a few towns, mention them naturally. A line like “I meet clients at our office in Stamford or at home in Rutland, Bourne and the Deepings” does more than a footer stuffed with place names.
Put real people front and centre
Advice is personal, and people want to know who they’ll be sitting opposite. This is also exactly what Google is looking for on money pages.
Every adviser should have a profile page with:
- a proper photograph (not a stock image of a handshake)
- qualifications spelled out, such as Chartered Financial Planner or DipPFS
- how long they’ve been advising, and who they mostly help
- a few lines in their own voice about why they do it
Then add the trust details: your FCA firm reference number and a link to your entry on the Financial Services Register, your registered address, and the regulatory wording your compliance team requires. Most firms already have these in the footer. Make sure they’re accurate and consistent everywhere.
Publish your fees
Many advice firms still say “fees on request”. From a searcher’s point of view, that’s a reason to click on the next result.
You don’t need a full price list. A clear explanation of how you charge, with typical ranges and what’s included, answers one of the most common questions people type into Google. It also helps with the Consumer Duty, and it filters out enquiries that were never going to suit you.
Be careful with off-the-shelf articles
A lot of advisers get monthly articles from a network, platform or content service. They’re compliant and they fill a blog, but the same article often appears word for word on hundreds of other adviser websites. Google has no reason to rank yours over the original, so they do very little for your search visibility.
You’ll get far more from one article a month that only you could write. Answer a question a client asked you last week. Explain a change in plain English and what it means for people locally. Write up an anonymised example of how you helped a business owner plan their exit. Date these pieces and review them when the rules change, because out-of-date tax figures on an adviser’s website do real damage to trust.
Set up your Google Business Profile properly
For local searches, the map listings at the top of Google often get more clicks than the websites below them. Your Google Business Profile is free, and most advisers barely touch theirs.
- Choose the right primary category, such as “Financial planner” or “Financial consultant”.
- Add your services, opening hours and the areas you cover.
- Upload real photos of your office and your team.
- Post an update now and again, such as a seminar, a new adviser joining, or a tax year end reminder.
Then ask for reviews. Happy clients are usually glad to leave one if you send a direct link at the right moment, such as after a review meeting. Don’t offer anything in return. When you reply, thank people without mentioning anything about their circumstances.
Review sites built for advisers are worth keeping up to date too. Many people check them before they get in touch.
Get mentioned in the right places
Links from other reputable websites still count for a lot. For advisers, the useful ones are often close to home:
- accountants, solicitors and estate agents you already refer work to and from
- local business groups and the chamber of commerce
- clubs and charities you support or sponsor
- local news, if you give talks or comment on budget changes
Make sure your firm’s name, address and phone number are written exactly the same way everywhere they appear.
Don’t forget the technical basics
None of this works if the site itself gets in the way. Check that:
- it loads quickly on a phone
- it’s secure (the padlock in the browser)
- every page has a clear title and description that says what it’s about and where
- your phone number and a simple contact form are easy to find on every page
- forms ask only for what you need, and your privacy notice is up to date
Think about AI search too
More people now ask ChatGPT, Google’s AI answers or Copilot questions like “Do I need a financial adviser to take my pension?” before they ever visit a website. These tools pull from pages that give clear, direct answers and from businesses whose details are consistent across the web.
The good news is you don’t need a separate strategy. The same things that help with normal SEO help here: plain-English answers, named experts, accurate business details and pages that cover a topic properly.
Measure enquiries, not rankings
It’s easy to get hung up on where you appear for one search term. What matters is whether the website brings in the right conversations.
Set up Google Search Console and analytics, track form submissions and calls from the site, and ask every new client how they found you. Give it time. SEO for an advice firm usually takes several months to show properly, but once it does, it keeps working in the background in a way paid ads don’t.
Want a hand?
If you’re an adviser or planning firm around Stamford, Rutland or Peterborough and your website isn’t bringing in enquiries, I’m happy to take a look. I’ll tell you plainly what I’d fix first, whether that’s a few pages or a full rebuild. Have a look at how I approach SEO or get in touch.
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