The online space is getting more competitive every day when it comes to financial services websites. There is competition from other financial services firms, as well as the growing number of lead generation websites that are coming from outside of the industry.

Financial advisers should already know the importance of original website content, but this week Google have made further changes to their search algorithm that means original content on its own will no longer be good enough, and they now want your content to be kept fresh as well.

Google states that more than one-in-three search queries will be affected, which is certainly a significant number. They had this to say in their release:

“Given the incredibly fast pace at which information moves in today’s world, the most recent information can be from the last week, day or even minute, and depending on the search terms, the algorithm needs to be able to figure out if a result from a week ago about a TV show is recent, or if a result from a week ago about breaking news is too old.”

So how can smart financial advisers benefit from these changes?

Let’s take a look at the average financial services firm website. Generally they will look very pretty, and they’ll have the standard pages that cover the firm’s services, staff profiles, contact details and maybe a few technical articles.

Some firm’s websites will have a blog or news section, but the majority I’ve seen are rarely updated, with some showing the ‘latest news’ from three years ago!

When combined with some link-building from the firm’s SEO provider, currently these sites tend to rank fairly well for search phrases such as ‘Sydney Financial Planner’ etc.

But with the latest Google changes, there is a window of opportunity for smart financial advisers to leap ahead of their competitors by adding fresh and original content to their websites on a regular basis.

So how can you do this? Well the first step is to get a blog or news section onto your website that you can easily update yourself. The next step is to start typing!

As financial professionals we do a huge amount of reading and listening every week. There are CPD articles to be read, conferences to attend, product updates from the insurers and fund managers and plenty of news in the press. There are many of sources of new information in our industry, so why not spend half an hour putting together a quick summary for your website? You don’t have to be a Walkley Award winner; you just need to throw together 500 words of content that are relevant to the industry and the clients that you want to attract.

If you can do this once a month you’ll give your website a healthy boost in the rankings. If you can increase it to once a week you should see some major results, and if you can start pumping out multiple items every week, the sky (or the number one ranking in Google) is the limit!

An additional benefit of regular content is that you can send out more frequent Facebook and Twitter updates, which gives more chances to interact with your current and potential clients.

The internet is increasingly the first place that people go to when searching for information on life insurance and investment, so if your website can out-rank your competitors you will have the greatest chance of attracting new clients at the expense of your rivals. Start updating your website today with fresh and original content, and you will be rewarded.

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Commenting on the investments, NakedFunds CEO, Tim Bryden said, “iiNet have positioned themselves well in the maturing telecommunications landscape and, as a driving force behind industry consolidation, their recent and potential acquisitions should add significant value.  Vocus Communications, as an independent wholesale provider of network bandwidth and related services, is leveraged to the increasing demand for data and has demonstrated impressive growth both in terms of customers and earnings.”

The decision to invest was made after NakedFunds conducted detailed analysis and external research on the telecommunications sector and polled its members for insights.

In an Australian funds management first, NakedFunds directly engages with its investors and potential investors who become ‘members’ and are invited to share their opinion on a weekly basis about a specific investment focus each month. Members are asked a number of broader opinion and prediction questions. The investment focus for January 2011 was telecommunications.

Mr Bryden said telecommunications continues to be a dynamic industry and the proliferation of new devices and the massive increase in data downloads both point to ongoing change. “The National Broadband Network and the strategic actions of Telstra will also play a key role in shaping the industry going forward,” he said.

NakedFunds members provided several useful insights:

Consumer Preferences

• ‘Speed/reliability/coverage’ was seen overwhelmingly as the most important aspect of telecommunications from a consumer perspective.

“This finding did not surprise us,” Mr Bryden said. “It highlights that network quality is a key differentiator, although taking this a step further, an apparent contradiction in the results was that while most members believe Telstra provides the best speed/reliability/coverage on their mobile network, they don’t think its mobile market share will increase over the next two years.”

• Bundling of telecommunications services was seen as likely to become the norm.  Over 45% of members indicated they had already bundled and most other members thought it was likely they would bundle over the next two years.

“It’s therefore critical that providers have compelling offers in this space” Mr Bryden said. “The trend toward bundling is one of the key factors driving industry consolidation and this response by members just highlights that the trend is very likely to continue.”

• When asked about the least important aspect of telecommunications from a consumer perspective the majority of members (55%) selected ‘Brand/Experience/Size’, but in a surprise finding, close to 25% of members ranked ‘Content/Products/Services’ as least important.

“The fact that a quarter of our members selected ‘content/products/services’ really surprised us,” Mr Bryden said. “It suggests that product differentiation as perceived by consumers is difficult and that any successful new innovation is rapidly adopted by all the major players.”

The National Broadband Network (NBN)

• Most members (about 70%) think that the Government spending $27.5 billion on the National Broadband Network (NBN) will be worth it.

Demand for Data Predictions

• Members have a clear expectation that the demand for data will continue to increase with about 27% predicting further increases of 30-60% over the next two years, and 29% predicting an increase of 160% or more.

Mr Bryden said that figures published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reveal that 50% more data was downloaded by Australian internet users in the three months ending June 2010 than a year earlier. These figures are supported by statements from Telstra, which outline that the amount of information carried on their mobile network is doubling every 12 months and, on their fixed network, doubling every 20 months.

The Results

Overall, most members thought iiNet would make the best investment although TPG Telecom and Vocus Communications also received good support.

The questions and related analysis can be viewed on the NakedFunds Website at the January 2011 – Telecommunications Questions page link http://nakedfunds.com.au/Questions.aspx?FocusID=9

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