Written by Christine Meginness, VP Sites Program at Hearsay, this post is the third in a series of four; all focused on why a modern, flexible website is table stakes for financial professionals today.‍

Creating relevant content that incorporates the right keywords is just one element of an effective website strategy. To build an optimal advisor website, you also need to feed and sustain your content engine with high-quality, informative content that resonates with your target audience.

Regularly publishing blog posts, videos, podcasts, and other pieces of engaging content will result in your site ranking better in search results, helping you to cement your standing as a thought leader and attract more organic traffic to your site.

Once your engine is purring along, it’s time to proactively market your content across a range of channels that will help drive website traffic. For the biggest impact, focus on channels your target prospects and customers are already active on.

Effective modern website traffic generation strategies

In today’s world, we recommend focusing on building an effective social media marketing program first. Regularly posting content on channels like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook gives you a chance to share your perspective, engage with followers, and participate in relevant industry discussions. Providing insights in a bite-sized format via social media also encourages your audience to dig deeper to learn more—by clicking through to a blog post on your website, for example.

If writing blog posts seems labor-intensive, email marketing can be a powerful tool for driving traffic to your website. Regular newsletters or promotional emails are less cumbersome to write but still keep subscribers informed, particularly if they’re organized around evergreen themes or seasonal topics (think “charitable contributions” or “tax season”).

Referral marketing may be a tactic you already use with your current client base, but there are creative ways to put more wind in your referral sails. Consider offering incentives or rewards for referrals, or ask clients to spread the word about your services by sharing your website link. Doing so will give you an opportunity to reconnect with existing clients while simultaneously driving new traffic to your website.

If you really want to amp it up, using paid advertising channels like Google Ads or Facebook Ads can be an excellent way to drive traffic from your ideal target audience to your website. By targeting specific keywords, demographics, or interests, you can reach potential clients who are actively searching for financial advice—in particular, the services and expertise you provide.

Ultimately, the most effective method to boost traffic to your website will depend on your specific goals and target audience, as well as the time and resources that are available to help you take advantage of various content marketing tactics. Using a combination of methods and tracking your results will allow you to build a comprehensive marketing strategy that consistently and efficiently helps you attract and retain clients.

Advanced traffic strategy: Build website backlinks

Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your website. These links indicate to search engines that other sites consider your content to be valuable and authoritative. As such, earning backlinks is essential if you want to improve your search engine ranking.

The best way to earn backlinks is to consistently create high-quality, informative content. When you publish content that provides value to your target audience, other websites are more likely to link to it. Original research and data-driven content tend to be highly desirable.

Here are some other more specific ways to build links back to your website:

• Write guest posts on relevant websites. Identify websites in your niche that accept guest posts, and pitch them on a topic that would be of interest to their audience.
• Participate in industry discussions on forums, social media, and other platforms. Sharing your insights in these discussions can attract the attention of other experts who may link to your website.
• Serve as a media source. Offer to provide quotes or interviews to journalists and bloggers to establish your expertise and credibility.‍
• Leverage existing relationships with clients, colleagues, and industry experts. Ask them to link to relevant content on your website or recommend you to other websites that may be interested in linking to your content.

Summing it up

There are multiple techniques you can use to make sure your website generates steady traffic. Implementing a combination of the above strategies will set you up for optimal success. The end goal, of course, is to engage your website visitors and, ultimately, capture new leads. I'll dive into how to optimize your website for lead conversion in my next post!