Barron’s annual rankings of America’s top independent financial advisors are based on a ranking system that reflects the volume of assets overseen by the advisors and their teams, revenues generated for the firms and the quality of the advisors’ practices. I thought it might be interesting to see how proficient those same advisor firms are with their digital marketing.
In addition to being the tip of the spear for the red hot world on online lead generation for financial advisors, a high performing digital marketing program can provide current clients with a preferred online experience. Lethargic, low performing sites create frustration and disappointment for current and potential customers, many of whom will first find out about an advisor by visiting their website. They also do a poor job of representing a firm from whom clients will expect premium service and technology.
For this study, the website home page for each firm in the Barron’s Top 100 was audited and given an overall digital marketing grade. This grade is based on 58 individual best practices that search engines look for in their ranking algorithms.
Individual scored categories include page load time, link structure, tag usage, keyword usage, page copy, code structure, social media and mobile usability, backlinks and site domain strength. If a website meets the recommended goals for each category, they receive a “good” rating, otherwise they receive a “bad” rating. The total grade is a weighted summary based on overall performance.
To see the full audit for each financial advisor website, click on the “Download Audit” link next to their grade. The audits not only provide a complete analysis of each page, they provide detailed steps each firm can take to quickly improve their performance and ultimately, their search engine rankings.