Why SEO Is High-Stakes for Financial Advisors in 2025
Search is undergoing a major shift, and for financial advisors, that means visibility is no longer a given. Nearly 60 percent of Google searches now end without a click, and AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google SGE are reshaping how prospects discover information.
The chart below illustrates this shift: more searches are being answered without driving visitors to websites.
Search is changing. Visibility needs to change with it.
Standing out means showing up in searches, answers, and across platforms – that’s where SEO and AI Search Optimization (AEO and GEO) come in.
SEO, AEO, and GEO are each about creating a digital presence that clearly communicates your expertise, answers real client questions, and builds trust. Whether someone types in “best retirement planner in Austin” or asks an AI assistant “who helps tech professionals retire early,” your goal is to show up – to “surface” rather than rank – with authority and clarity.
Today, that means optimizing for visibility in AI-powered tools like Google’s featured snippets, ChatGPT, and Perplexity. This shift toward AI Search Optimization is changing how content needs to be structured. Advisors who adapt early can position themselves not just in search results but directly in the answers.
Let’s break down what’s changed, what still works, and how advisors can win in this evolving search landscape.
What Still Matters: Traditional SEO as the Foundation
AI may be transforming how search works, but the fundamentals of SEO are still essential. In fact, many of the same signals that help you rank in Google are also what AI tools rely on when deciding what content to surface.
If you don’t have a solid SEO foundation, AI won’t see you – no matter how good your content is.
Here are the core elements of SEO that still matter in 2025:
1. Clear, Intent-Driven Service Pages
Each of your core services should have its own page, written in the language your clients would use in search.
Example: Instead of a generic “Our Services” page, create separate pages like “Retirement Planning in Albany” or “Tax Planning for Tech Professionals.
2. Structured, Skimmable Content
Search engines and AI tools prefer content that is easy to scan and understand. Use headers, bullet points, and summaries to help both users and algorithms extract meaning quickly.
3. Local SEO Fundamentals
For most advisors, local visibility is the most important kind. Make sure your Google Business Profile is complete and consistent with your website. Your Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) should match across the web.
4. Authority Signals
Backlinks are still one of the strongest ranking factors in Google. When trusted sites link to yours, it signals to search engines that your content is credible.
For financial advisors, the most valuable links often come from:
- Industry directories (NAPFA, XYPN, Fee-Only Network)
- Guest articles or features on reputable finance blogs or media
- Mentions in local business press or chambers of commerce
These backlinks strengthen your ability to rank in Google and Bing, which also increases the chances your content is included in the data AI models learn from.
5. Technical SEO
Site speed, mobile responsiveness, security (HTTPS), and clean URL structures are all table stakes. If your site is slow, broken, or cluttered, it won’t rank – and it won’t get picked up in AI either.
Key Insight: Traditional SEO is not separate from AI SEO. It is the foundation that determines whether your expertise can be found, trusted, and reused by both Google and AI-powered platforms.
What Advisors Need to Change for AI SEO
Traditional SEO remains essential, but AI search tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google SGE surface content differently than Google’s blue links. They don’t just rank pages – they generate answers.
To appear in those answers, your content needs to be easier for machines to understand and paraphrase.
Here are the key changes financial advisors should make to align with AI-driven search:
1. Shift from Keywords to Topic Clusters
Instead of chasing individual keywords like “best Roth IRA advisor,” focus on building out clusters of content around high-intent topics.
Example:
- Pillar page: Roth IRAs
- Supporting content: Roth conversions, contribution limits, backdoor Roths, early withdrawal rules
Why it matters: AI tools favor depth and breadth. Clusters show expertise and make your content easier to connect and reuse.
2. Add FAQs to Your Content
FAQs match the way real people ask questions — and the way AI tools structure answers.
Instead of hiding a key answer inside a paragraph, surface it directly:
Q: How are RSUs taxed?
A: RSUs are taxed as ordinary income when they vest. You may also owe capital gains tax if you sell the shares at a profit.
3. Use Schema Markup
Schema is backend code you add to your website to help search engines and AI “understand” who you are, what you do, and how to categorize your content. Visitors won’t see it, but it tells algorithms exactly what each page represents.
For financial advisors, the most useful schema types include:
- FAQPage — highlights client questions and answers
- Person — connects your name, credentials, and bio
- Service — defines your service offerings
- LocalBusiness — ties your firm to a location
- BlogPosting — clarifies authorship and content type
Plugins like Yoast or RankMath can automatically add basic schema (BlogPosting, Author, WebPage). For advanced needs — such as listing multiple advisors or clarifying service offerings — you may need a developer or custom setup.
Key Insights: Schema isn’t visible to your clients, but it makes your site easier for Google and AI tools to read, organize, and reuse in search results.
4. Include Key Takeaways at the Top of Articles
Both AI models and busy humans appreciate quick summaries.
Add a “Key Takeaways” box that clearly outlines the main points. It improves scanability for users and increases the chances your insights are pulled into AI-generated answers.
5. Write for Answers, Not Just Rankings
Lead with direct answers. Structure your content like a conversation. Then expand with examples, caveats, and deeper explanations.
This makes it easier for ChatGPT and similar tools to quote or paraphrase your insights accurately.
Lead with direct answers. Structure your content like a conversation. Then expand with examples, caveats, and deeper explanations.
This makes it easier for ChatGPT and similar tools to quote or paraphrase your insights accurately.
Key Insight: Content is still the engine of visibility. But the structure, format, and intent behind that content must evolve.
6. Mentions Matter
AI tools don’t value backlinks the way Google does. Instead, they look for patterns of association.
When your name, firm, and niche are mentioned consistently across public sites – blogs, podcasts with transcripts, Reddit threads, LinkedIn articles, directories – it reinforces your identity and expertise.
Think of it as “repetition builds recognition.” The more often AI models see “Jane Smith, fee-only financial advisor in Denver,” the more likely you are to appear in AI-generated answers about financial planning in your area.
Financial advisors who adapt their strategy to be machine-readable, question-driven, and structured for reuse will be far more likely to show up in the moments that matter — not just on Google, but inside AI-powered answers.
How and Where to Publish – The Strategy and the Why
Publishing content on your website is no longer enough. To show up in AI tools like ChatGPT, you need a strategy that goes beyond SEO and builds presence across the platforms where AI models learn and reference.
AI search tools pull from two sources:
- Live search
AI tools like Perplexity or ChatGPT (in browsing mode) fetch real-time content from Bing or Google. This happens when a user asks about something that may not exist in the model’s training data – for example, a recent tax law change, updated market data, or a specific business name.
If your website is crawlable and ranks in Bing or Google, these tools can pull your content directly into their answers.
- Training data
AI models are also trained on large-scale public content: blogs, directories, Reddit threads, Substack posts, YouTube transcripts, and more. This is what powers the default answers when browsing isn’t enabled.
However, models are only trained up to their latest update. At the time of this writing, ChatGPT’s training data goes through October 2024. Anything published after that won’t be included until the next model update.
If your content isn’t in these places, it won’t be seen – no matter how good it is.
Here’s how financial advisors should think about modern publishing:
Your Website: The Foundation
Your website is the anchor for all of your visibility efforts. It’s where you build trust, establish authority, and convert visitors into leads.
Think of it as the central hub. Blog articles, guest posts, directory profiles, and social updates all point back to your site. That’s where prospects should find clear service descriptions, proof of credibility, and an easy next step to contact you.
The role of your website isn’t just to rank – it’s to organize your expertise in a way that AI tools and human visitors alike can understand. A well-structured site makes every other publishing effort more effective.
Authority Sites: Credibility + AI Inclusion
Guest articles or features on platforms like NAPFA, XYPN, Kitces.com, or Wealthtender build trust – and those sites are more likely to be scraped by AI models during training.
Being quoted or featured here increases your long-term visibility inside AI-generated answers.
AI-Scraped Platforms: Reach + Repetition
Platforms like Medium, Reddit, Quora, and LinkedIn Articles are crawled heavily by AI tools.
Repurpose your original content here – slightly edited for each platform – to increase your footprint across the public web. This repetition helps AI models remember and reuse your insights.
Social Channels: Distribution + Engagement
Short-form content on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, and email newsletters drives human engagement – and builds secondary signals like mentions and citations that reinforce your authority online.
Even if these posts aren’t directly scraped by AI, they can drive traffic to pages that are.
Key Insight: Publishing is no longer a one-time event – it’s a process. You need to:
- Create original content on your site
- Repurpose it for high-authority and AI-visible platforms
- Distribute it socially to build recognition and engagement
This multi-channel strategy improves your SEO now while planting long-term authority signals in the public datasets that power AI search tools.
The Future of SEO for Advisors
The way people find financial advice is evolving — fast. AI is changing what shows up in search results, how those results are delivered, and who gets visibility.
For advisors, this shift brings both real challenges and real opportunities.
The challenges:
- Fewer clicks from traditional Google searches
- Rising competition from fintech, media, and AI-generated content
- Visibility gaps in AI models that overlook unstructured content
The opportunities:
- Higher intent leads from more qualified visitors
- Visibility for niche topics you might never rank for in Google
- First-mover advantage in AI-driven tools like ChatGPT, SGE, and Perplexity
What it means for advisors:
SEO is no longer just about rankings – it’s about recognition.
Yes, traditional SEO is still the foundation. But being found today requires more than keywords and backlinks. You need structured content, strategic publishing, and clear digital identity signals that AI tools can understand and trust.
The advisors who adapt now will own the digital real estate others can’t reach.
What to Do Next
If you’re a financial advisor looking to build long-term visibility in both Google and AI-driven platforms, here’s how to get started.
1. Audit your website
- Do you have clear service pages built around what clients actually search for?
- Is your site technically sound – fast, secure, and mobile-friendly?
2. Rework your content strategy
- Build topic clusters around your niche
- Add FAQs, key takeaways, and schema markup so your content is answer-ready
3. Publish beyond your website
- Repurpose content on LinkedIn (articles), Reddit, Quora, and reputable blogs
- Look for opportunities to contribute guest posts or quotes on authority sites
4. Strengthen your authority signals
- Request client reviews (where compliance allows)
- Get cited in podcasts, directories, and expert roundups
5. Monitor your visibility
- Use Google Analytics and Search Console to track SEO
- Test prompts in ChatGPT or Perplexity to see if your name or content appears
Start small – but start now.
The firms that adapt early will build digital visibility that lasts, while others fall behind in search and AI.
Need help accelerating the process?
We help financial advisors build content, visibility, and trust across platforms that matter – including Google and ChatGPT.
Brent is the CEO and founder of Advisor Rankings - a financial services SEO and AI search optimization agency that helps financial advisors to grow their firm through search engine optimization. He has an MBA in Financial Planning. specializes in SEO, and has been working with Advisors since 2010. He has presented at NAPFA, FinCon, and XYPN, and appeared on several industry podcasts, including the Financial Advisor Success Podcast with Michael Kitces.
