You can think of your website as a first impression. If this doesn’t go well, you’re less likely to land that client. It pays to refine your financial advisor website so you can stand out amongst your target audience and make that winning first impression.

In a recent study of more than 803 advisors, the financial advisors with the highest reported incomes are the ones most likely to see the value in technology. In other words, the advisors who were proactive with their tech strategy were the ones who saw the biggest payoff for their efforts.

Creating a website for your practice as a financial advisor doesn’t have to be complicated. However, your site does have to be professional and functional. Unfortunately, too many advisors let mistakes get in the way of their online success. In this guide, we’ll highlight the biggest financial advisor website mistakes and how to best avoid them.

1. Not Mobile Friendly

The biggest mistake too many advisors make is not ensuring their website is mobile-friendly. A mobile-friendly, or responsive, website is one that displays properly on all screen sizes. If you’ve ever struggled to navigate a website on your smartphone, it likely wasn’t mobile-friendly.

With a large portion of your traffic coming from smartphones and tablets, you simply can’t afford to exclude this group of users. Google also penalizes websites that aren’t mobile-friendly, so you could be hurting your search engine ranking as well.

Solution: Test your financial advisor website on all screen sizes and use this Google tool to determine if your website is already responsive. If it’s not, work with your web designer or use a mobile-friendly website design. 

2. Having too many pages

Advisors today feel like they need to do it all. With the average user only staying on your website for a minute (or less), you don’t want to overwhelm them with too much information. Having more than 5 main pages implies that you don’t have a primary focus, and this could affect your audience’s trust level.

Similarly, having too many pages means you also need more navigation. Too many navigational elements like excessive drop-down menus are overwhelming. White space really is your friend when it comes to creating a clean website that’s easy to use.

Solution: Keep your page list and navigation simple. Stick to the 4 W’s (who you are, what you do, where you operate, why you do your work).

3. Including Calculators

Too many financial advisor websites are filled with endless financial calculators. While it’s okay to have a highly specific calculator for your ideal audience, overusing these won’t get you very far.

You’re supposed to be the calculator for your clients, so don’t waste valuable cyber real estate on a simple website add-on. These don’t bring real value, so you probably don’t need them.

Solution: Avoid using add-on calculator widgets and tools that distract your users. 

4. Not having a blog

While having a blog can feel like a lot of work, it’s an essential part of any content marketing strategy. A blog is a chance to attract your ideal user, share your perspective, and offer real value.

For example, if you’re targeting Millennial clients with your financial practice, offering financial articles for this audience will help them find you online. You can even expand your blog to include new forms of media by creating a podcast or making your own videos. Both of these are great fits for an advisor blog.

Solution: Create a blog for your website. Publish original content geared towards your ideal client regularly. 

5. Unclear call to action

A call-to-action (CTA) is a way to motivate your users to take real action. It’s not enough to attract people to your website. You need them to take additional steps towards working with you. What you ask your users to do next will depend on your goals. You might:

• Ask users to contact you using a form or phone number
• Have users sign up for an email list
• Ask users to schedule their first meeting or call
• Encourage users to read more content

Solution: Make sure every page of your website has a CTA. This can be a contact form, a link to another page, or a specific button. These should be placed in an eye-catching location. 

6. No Social Integration

Your financial advisor website should be integrated with your social media. Today, social media profiles act as a digital business card. They build trust and authority. Why not include them on your website as well?

Linking your social media pages whether you’re active on Twitter or LinkedIn is an important way to keep in contact with your users. This also makes it easier for your readers to share your content on their own social accounts.

Solution: Integrate your social media profiles on your website in an easy-to-see way, such as social media icons. 

Build a stronger financial advisor website

If you’ve found yourself making any of these errors above, you now have the opportunity to improve. From blogging about the content your audience cares about to integrating your social media profiles, it’s the small things that add up to a strong first impression.

Ultimately, you want to make your financial advisor website as easy to use as possible. The simpler it is for users to find what they’re looking for, the more likely they’ll take that next step to work with you.