Financial advice has the longest and most sceptical buying process in local professional services. A prospect finds you, reads about you, looks you up on the FCA Register, checks VouchedFor or Unbiased, asks a colleague, and only then makes contact — often weeks later, and often by typing your firm’s name directly into Google.
That shape has a consequence most advice firms miss. The job of search is not to produce an enquiry on the first visit. It is to make sure that every one of those three or four checks returns something reassuring.
Segment by life event, not by product
“Financial adviser near me” attracts everybody, including the people with four thousand pounds and a question about ISAs. The queries worth having describe a moment: “financial adviser for inheritance”, “retirement planning advice”, “what to do with a final salary pension”, “financial adviser for business owners”.
| Who it brings | Worth building? | |
|---|---|---|
| “financial adviser near me” | Everyone, mostly unqualified | Rank for it, but do not build the strategy on it |
| “retirement planning advice” | Pre-retirees with accumulated pensions | Yes — the core page |
| “inheritance tax planning” | High-value, often introduced by a solicitor | Yes |
| “financial adviser for business owners” | Ongoing, high-value relationships | Yes — and under-served |
| “how much does a financial adviser cost” | People about to enquire somewhere | Yes — almost nobody answers it |
What Consumer Duty changed about your website
Consumer Duty raised the standard for whether a retail client can actually understand what they are being told, and that applies to your marketing as much as your suitability reports. In practice it means plain explanations of what you charge, what you do and what the risks are.
This is a gift for search. The compliant version — clear, specific, free of jargon and unqualified claims — is also the version that ranks and the version an AI assistant can quote. Firms that write “bespoke holistic wealth solutions” are failing both tests at once.
Publish your charging structure
“How much does a financial adviser cost” is one of the most consistent searches in the sector and one of the least answered. Explaining your model — percentage of assets, fixed fee, hourly, and what the initial meeting costs — captures a high-intent search and filters out people who were never going to proceed.
It also protects you. A prospect who understood the charges before the first meeting is a prospect who does not feel ambushed at the second, which is precisely the outcome Consumer Duty is aimed at.
Independent registers do heavy lifting
The FCA Register, VouchedFor and Unbiased are checked by prospects and drawn on by AI assistants, because they are authoritative and independently maintained. Keep all three current, make sure the firm name and address match your website exactly, and collect VouchedFor reviews deliberately rather than hoping.
Display your FCA firm reference number in the footer. It costs nothing, it is required in substance anyway, and it is a verifiable identifier that helps both search engines and language models confirm you are who you say you are.