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In the fast-paced world of finance, companies often find that a client’s first impression of their services is made through their website. This puts an enormous burden on advisors and firms that cannot achieve success because they are unable to maximize SEO for their financial websites. Often, advisors and firms are unaware that they are sabotaging their website’s SEO with simple design errors.
Let’s look at the five most important design mistakes that can negatively impact your ranking in search engines, and how Los Angeles Web Design Experts has successfully corrected these issues to improve performance.
1. Page Load Speed
The Problem: Websites that consist of large images, extraneous code, and unnecessary plug-ins create slow loading pages that are bothersome to both site visitors and search engines. Google favours websites that have fast loading capabilities, but unfortunately many financial services websites suffer from slow loading times due to the use of complex calculators and embedded tools.
The Solution: Los Angeles Web Design Experts uses image compression, lazy loading and CDN’s to make sure your site will load within three seconds. They also help you clean up back end coding and reduce the number of HTTP requests to help ensure the best user experience and create high rankings with Google.
2: A Lack of Responsive Website Design
Fifty percent of searches involving financial services are conducted on mobile devices, therefore it’s imperative that financial services firms adopt responsive design principles when developing their websites.
Sadly, far too many financial services firms have not adapted their websites accordingly. Websites that have broken layouts, small type sizes and poor navigation on mobile devices will likely result in a negative user experience, which has a direct impact on your SEO performance.
Professional web designers create mobile-first websites that are designed to automatically adapt to the various display sizes of mobile devices. Mobile-friendly design includes large buttons that can be easily tapped with a finger, easy-to-read fonts in appropriate sizes and simplified navigation, all of which will keep mobile users engaged—this is one of the top factors that will determine your financial services’ SEO success.
3: Poor Site Architecture and Navigation
Many factors can affect your search engine rankings; however, confusing menu structures, buried service pages and poor internal linking are just a few examples of how site architecture and navigation affect your search engine rankings.
If your website's structure is confusing and Google cannot locate your website's critical content, then your website's rankings will be reduced.
Los Angeles Web Design Experts can design a clear and logical hierarchy of categories for all of your important service offerings. Some categories may include: "Retirement Planning", "Investment Management" and "Tax Services."
Los Angeles Web Design Experts also can design an XML sitemap and to create optimized internal linking to ensure that each and every one of your important web pages is accessible via three clicks from your homepage; both of which will improve the overall user experience of your website, as well as provide your website with improved search engine visibility.
4. Missing Or Badly Optimised Content
Mistake: Many websites in the financial service industry concentrate primarily on aesthetics, thereby ignoring having search engine (SEO) optimized content. The dangers of a lack of thick content, not enough meta descriptions, and/or lack of included keywords are the search engines will not fully understand what services you provide or to whom.
Solution: By having professional web designers work closely with search engine optimizers (SEO) to appropriately add the right keywords, you can optimize your entire web site by adding articles related to the services you offer. In addition, the designers will create pages that highlight your services, will create a blog section with valuable information, and will create pages for each area you provide services to clients (geographical service area). By doing this, your services can be optimized for the search engines as well as establish your presence in the respective client's geographical location; so they can find you easily.
5. Lack of Trust Signals And Security
Mistake: The financial service industry requires the greatest level of trust; however, a large percentage of financial service firms have websites that do not include secured socket layer (SSL) certificates, lack testimonials from previous clients, and/or do not display any form of security certification. Failure to have these elements on your website causes both customers and search engines to question your credentials and/or integrity.
Solution: Los Angeles Web Design Experts understand the importance of providing evidence of your site's security by including HTTPS encryption, by displaying professional certifications (CFP, CFA, etc.), by displaying authentic reviews from your clients, and placing a trust badge. Including these elements not only increases your conversion rates but also can increase your potential SEO rankings by showing Google that your website and credentials are legitimate and secure.
Change Your Financial Services Website Now
Every financial services business needs to maximize their marketing potential through a viable website that works as an asset rather than a liability. Don't let these five major mistakes ruin what you have built. By working with an experienced Los Angeles Web Design Company, you will be able to enhance your website and its online presence, be at the top of search results within your area and generate ongoing sales from high-ticket clients.
Are you ready to make the necessary corrections and achieve the full value of your website? If so, then hire a professional web designer that has experience in developing websites for financial services and allows them to improve your rankings and increase your revenue.
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