Google has updated its algorithm to include the metric of “page experience.” This is an important change for financial advisors who use inbound marketing on the Internet to connect with new leads, prospects, and clients.
If you are not yet working with a digital marketing agency for your inbound marketing on the web or if you are unhappy with the performance of your current online marketing results, it is in your best interest to find a team that has mastered the subtleties of the new Google page experience metric.
Every financial advisor needs a website that generates leads and transitions them through the top of the sales funnel and down to the bottom for conversion into revenue-producing clients. Digital marketing professionals facilitate this challenge on your behalf, creating online content with Google’s page experience metric squarely in mind.
An Inside Look at Google’s Page Experience Metric
Google is updating its algorithm this year to factor in the page experience metric. This metric includes Google Search signals ranging from the mobile-friendliness of a website to HTTPS, safe browsing, and nuanced interstitial guidelines. Google Web Vitals metrics are also included in the page experience. In particular, a financial advisor’s website load speed, aesthetic stability, and even its interactive components are considered when determining its unique page experience results.
If you are like most financial advisors, you do not have the time necessary to fully understand and enhance each of these important SEO components. This is precisely why it is in your interest to lean on an inbound marketing expert who tailors online content to the nuanced requirements of Google’s page experience metric as well as the target audience.
How to Boost Your SEO With Google’s Page Experience
Take a moment to see how your website loads, looks, and functions on a web-connected device aside from your traditional desktop computer. Click your website’s menus, contact form, and internal links while using your smartphone, laptop, tablet, and other mobile devices. If the site does not load in under three seconds or if the menus are not functional, it will be penalized by Google’s new page experience metric.
If images do not load on the screen as they do on a conventional desktop monitor or if it is difficult to scroll through the content or pivot to a different section of the website due to a clunky interface, Google will penalize your site in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
This penalty is important because a growing number of people in search of local financial advisors are using mobile devices to access the internet. Furthermore, if the page experience disappoints them, visitors will not be inclined to heed your calls-to-action, adding salt to the wound created by a low Google page experience ranking.
The Images Used on Your Website Really do Matter
If the images, infographics, logos, and other visual components of your advisor website are not stable, you will be penalized in the context of Google’s page experience metric. There is the potential for some images to cause pages to move unexpectedly or annoy the user. Such image issues are particularly common when using mobile devices. If you experience such issues when accessing your financial advisor website with a laptop, tablet, or smartphone, ask your inbound marketing expert to improve your site’s functionality and performance.
Image compression and selecting the right images in terms of size and file type really will change the load time of your site as well as impacting user experience and page experience rankings. Even the subtlety of “alt text” matters in the context of the load time and experience. Alt text used within HTML code describes the functionality and look of images used on the page. Google’s page experience ranking is impacted by this seemingly minor detail.
Alt tags are displayed in the event the image’s file does not load. The alt tag appears to ensure the online visitor understands exactly why the image was added and why it is important in the context of the financial advisor website. In short, the alt text is a brief description of images on websites.
These descriptions are also important in the context of search engine crawlers used to index web pages and partially determine page rankings. However, writing a descriptive paragraph for the alt tag is not a good idea. In the context of enhancing SEO, the best alt text descriptions use specific language featuring at least one keyword and are quite short in length.
Use the right alt text descriptions on your site and its organic search results will improve all the more. However, there is no need to invest your time writing such descriptions and attempting to master the nuances of Google’s page experience metric and other SEO components. Entrust an experienced inbound marketing team to do this important work on behalf of your financial advisory firm and you will have more time to focus on what you do best.
The Investors’ Shoes
Use your mind’s eye to envision yourself as an investor in need of financial advisor services. The first thing you do is search Google for financial advisors in your area. You would likely type “financial advisor” and your city name, zip code, area code, or your geographic region into Google’s search engine to identify financial advisors in your area.
Most prospective clients are willing to click the search results on the first and second pages of the Google SERPs to review each service provider’s unique value proposition. Google is now rewarding websites that have elite page experiences with higher SERP rankings. In other words, Google is adding the user experience to its metrics for ranking websites. This is not to say implementing keywords, key phrases and localized information is no longer important.
Google still considers keywords and their density when ranking websites. However, the user experience is now being factored into the rankings, meaning financial advisor websites that are easy to use, load quickly, and visually stable are rewarded in those uber-important SERPs.
As time progresses, Google will shift its focus to expand the page experience metric beyond load time, visual stability, and website interactivity. Instead of trying to stay up-to-date on the nuances of Google’s page experience metric, it is better to remain focused on perfecting your value proposition in the context of financial advisor services.
Let your digital marketing specialist focus on enhancing the subtleties of your inbound marketing on your behalf so you can spend more time improving your services and serving the clients who have already hired your firm.
