More and more financial advisors are getting it: blogging is an extremely effective way to generate leads and establish your image on the internet. In today’s increasingly digital world, it’s a must.
But how often do financial advisors need to blog? And how long should the blog articles be? Let’s look at the research.
How Often Should I Blog?
The short answer: if you want real results, the more, the better. Google loves fresh original content. So the more that appears on your site, the higher your firm will rank in search engines.
The long answer, based on research:
According to Hubspot, businesses publishing 16+ blog posts per month got about 4.5X more leads than businesses publishing 1 - 4 monthly posts.
That’s actual leads, not traffic.
As far as generating traffic, businesses publishing over 16 blog posts per month also enjoyed 3.5 times the traffic of those blogging less than five times per month. Notice the huge difference!
Interestingly enough, there is apparently some type of critical mass with blog posts. Hubspot discovered that companies that had cumulatively published over 400 blog posts got twice as much traffic as companies who published less than that.
The moral of the story, for all of us….more is better!
We get it, you’re busy. For original content, you can either do it yourself, hire a financial advisor blogging service to generate original content for you, or do some combination of the two. Just remember, it’s the original blogs that count. Non-original content, unfortunately, does not improve your SEO results.
How Long Should Each Article Be?
So now that we know that we all need to be writing a lot more….how long do articles need to be?
Just a few short years ago, the “ideal” blog post was 300 words. Something we can all skim in a flash. Well, since then, things have changed. New research shows that longer…much longer…blog articles now tend to outperform short ones. We’re talking quite long, over 1,000 words and up to several thousand.
But there’s a catch: you have to be a good writer to pull those off.
According to Yoast, a blog post should contain at least 300 words to rank well with search engines. Long blog posts will rank more easily than short posts, but they need to be well written.
Best Practices for Financial Advisor Blogging
So what do you do?
- Start writing more, coordinate with your associates, and/or find a good financial advisor blogging service to get your firm to the 16 blog posts per month goal.
- Keep all posts over 300 words at a minimum.
- Periodically write long posts on topics your firm has particular expertise in and that address areas of concern for your clients.
Need more ideas for blogging? Check out this post.
Jeanne Klimowski is the founder of Wavelength Financial Content Inc. Wavelength is a Paladin Digital Marketing Partner.
