SEO for financial services, written inside the lines
Many advice firms publish almost nothing, because nobody wants a call from their licensee. That caution has left thin search results in a market where around 15.9 million Australian adults say their advice needs aren't being met. A firm that publishes inside the rules competes against very few others.
Updated · General information, not financial advice
Where content can live, and where it must not wander
Inside the general advice lane
- How super contributions work
- What a statement of advice includes
- Your services, fees and process
- How a type of product works, in plain words
Over the personal advice line
- "What should you do with your super"
- Quiz funnels that hand back "your result"
- Product picks and hot tips
- Tables ranking products for the reader
Every page also carries a general advice warning where it applies, your AFSL or authorised representative number, a last-reviewed date and your licensee's sign-off.
In most industries bad marketing wastes money. In this one it can break the law.
The rules decide what a page can say, which warnings it carries and who signs it off. They've also scared many firms off publishing anything at all, and that's the opening.
What holds firms back
The fear is rational
Unlicensed advice can carry criminal penalties, and licensees answer for what their advisers publish.
Approvals feel slow
When every draft becomes a compliance negotiation, publishing is the task everyone defers, and the programme fades within a quarter.
What's available to the firm that learns the lines
The lines are knowable
The boundary between general and personal advice is set in law and case law. Content can be designed to stay on the right side of it.
The results pages are thin
Run an advice-related search and compare it with plumbing or law: generic bank pages, stale articles, directories and few advice firms in the mix.
A firm that publishes accurate general advice content, with warnings in place and licensee approval on every page, is doing what the rules always allowed. Few of its peers do it.
The four sources we write to, stated plainly
These are the four documents we check every page against. It's general information about the framework, not legal or compliance advice, and your licensee's process governs.
s766B
The personal advice boundary
Corporations Act. Advice is personal when the provider considered, or a reasonable person might expect them to have considered, one or more of a person's objectives, financial situation or needs. Pages for a general audience stay general.
RG 234
Advertising financial products and advice
ASIC issued a new version on 9 June 2026, replacing the guide first published in 2012. The overall impression must not mislead, and warnings have to work as warnings, on websites and social posts as well as ads.
INFO 269
Discussing financial products online
Recommending products without a licence can be a criminal offence; factual, educational content is the lawful lane, and it's the lane SEO content lives in.
RG 244
Giving information and general advice
Sets out the general advice warning that goes with published content from licensed firms.
Anything published before the June 2026 reissue of RG 234 is now judged against the new guide, so we review existing pages against it before writing new ones.
Millions with unmet advice needs, a few thousand advisers to meet them
There are about 1,050 Australians with unmet advice needs for every registered adviser, and the ones who can't get an appointment type their questions into Google.
The questions are specific: what to do at retirement, how insurance inside super works, whether a small business needs a different structure. Too often the answer Google finds is a bank's generic library, overseas content or unlicensed commentary. Clear general advice content from a licensed firm puts your name there instead, in front of the people most likely to become clients.
Your testimonials aren't banned. They're regulated.
Reviews are allowed in financial services, as long as they're honest. Some firms skip them entirely because they've mixed up the health rules with their own.
The rule people assume applies
Registered health practitioners
Under their National Law (s133), testimonials about clinical aspects of regulated health services aren't permitted in advertising.
The rule that applies to you
Financial services
No blanket ban. Reviews and testimonials sit under the misleading and deceptive conduct framework: real, fairly representative, and never implying guaranteed returns.
- Real clients in their own words, with no cherry-picked suggestion that results are typical.
- A review can praise your care and clarity, but nothing on your pages should imply returns.
- Review requests built into your client process, so new ones arrive month after month.
Google's Business Profile help says more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking, which is why a lawful review routine is often the quickest win for an advice practice.
Built for sign-off, so sign-off stays quick
Sign-off stays quick when drafts arrive already inside the rules, so your responsible manager approves clean pages rather than rescuing risky ones.
- Boltly
Drafted in the general lane
Educational framing, no personal recommendations, no product picks.
- Boltly
Warnings templated in
The general advice warning and disclosures are part of the page.
- Your firm
Responsible manager sign-off
Your licensee's process, with a clean review trail.
- Boltly
Published and linked
Into a structure built around the topics your market searches.
- Both
Reviewed as guidance moves
When rules shift, as RG 234 did in 2026, affected pages are revisited.
A page a fortnight for two years beats a burst followed by silence. With the framing and warnings built in, the reviewer confirms rather than rewrites, and the firm keeps publishing long enough for search to pay off.
Two engines and one compliance spine
The local engine brings enquiries from your area. The authority engine gives searchers a reason to trust you. The compliance spine runs through both.
Local engine
A Google Business Profile, service-area pages and lawful reviews, run with our local SEO method, because most advice relationships still start near the client.
Authority engine
General advice content answering what your market searches, such as super questions and retirement basics, warnings included.
Compliance spine
Advice-boundary framing, RG 234 aware page reviews and a sign-off routine your licensee can live with.
Technical base
Speed, clean structure and accurate structured data, handled through our technical SEO service.
Trust details
Adviser profiles and credentials that match the register entry.
Reporting
Enquiries and their sources rather than raw traffic, so partners can weigh what the work returned against what it cost.
Three questions a client wants settled before the first meeting
"What will this cost me?"
Fee bands for your common engagements, plus whether you offer limited or single-issue advice for someone who doesn't need a full plan. Many people never ask about cost out loud; they just don't book.
"How are you paid?"
Say plainly whether the firm is paid by fee, commission or both. A mortgage broker's page should explain how lender commission works and how the lenders on the panel are chosen. Clients who worry about conflicts relax when the answer is already on the page.
"Is this adviser legitimate?"
Moneysmart's Financial Advisers Register shows where an adviser has worked, their qualifications and training, professional memberships and the products they can advise on, searchable by name, number or ABN. Link each adviser's profile to their entry.
Brokers have one more reason to rank. Bought leads are often sold to several brokers at once, which turns each enquiry into a race to ring first, and you can't always see how the person's consent to be contacted was collected. A page for each loan type and area you serve brings enquiries that came to you alone. Register details read on moneysmart.gov.au, 5 October 2026.
AI Overviews draw on the same pages that rank
Google's guide says its AI features are rooted in its core ranking systems and need no special markup or file, so the compliance-safe pages that rank are the same work.
The same caution applies. A summary that paraphrases your page doesn't remove your responsibility for what the page said, so the general advice framing and warnings matter there too. Our AI SEO page explains what we do and don't promise.
What we won't put on this page
- A case study about an anonymous wealth firm tripling its leads
- A promise of rankings, citations or returns
- A market price table nobody can source
- Testimonials that hint at returns
Judge us on whether this page explained your industry's rules accurately. Our named results are on the case studies page, and none of them is a finance firm.
From cautious silence to a steady publishing rhythm
Scoped in writing up front, stoppable at the end of any month.
Map demand and constraints
What your market searches, what competitors publish and what your licensee's policies allow.
Fix the local base
Profile, reviews and service pages first, usually the quickest lawful win.
Agree the content lanes
Topics, framing and templates agreed with your responsible manager once.
Publish on a rhythm
Signed-off, useful pages, linked into a structure that builds authority.
Report and re-check
Enquiries by source monthly, and the rule map re-checked as guidance moves.
Our fees, disclosed up front
No setup fee, no lock-in, and the same three plans as everywhere else on this site.
A single adviser or office: profile, reviews and local pages, with an advice-boundary check on everything public.
Local engine plus a signed-off content programme and the lanes-and-templates setup with your responsible manager.
Multi-adviser or multi-office firms in harder markets, with deeper content and authority work.
Full detail is on the pricing page. If the honest first step is smaller than a retainer, we'll say so.
Questions advice firms ask before publishing
Why do financial services need specialist SEO?
Because in this industry the marketing rules are law, and the fear of breaking them shapes the whole market. SEO for financial services only works when content is built inside the lines: general advice rather than personal advice, the right warnings, and advertising that survives ASIC's overall-impression test. A generalist tends to publish something risky or nothing useful.
Isn't publishing content risky for a licensed firm?
Only when it's careless. Under the Corporations Act, advice turns personal once it considers, or might reasonably seem to consider, someone's own objectives, financial situation or needs. Pages that explain how things work for a general audience stay in the general advice lane and carry the warning. This is general information, not legal or compliance advice.
What are the actual rules on advertising financial services?
The core guidance is ASIC Regulatory Guide 234, reissued on 9 June 2026. Its overall-impression test covers ads, webpages and social posts, and warnings must work as warnings. INFO 269 and RG 244 cover online discussion and general advice.
Can financial advisers use testimonials and Google reviews?
Yes. Unlike registered health practitioners, who face a specific testimonial prohibition under their National Law, financial services has no blanket ban. Reviews must be real, fairly representative and must not imply guaranteed returns.
How does SEO work for financial planners and advisers?
On two engines. The local engine is your Business Profile, reviews and service-area pages. The authority engine is clear pages answering what people search before seeking advice, written in the general advice lane with warnings. SEO for financial planners follows the same shape.
Should a financial adviser or broker publish fees online?
We think so, as ranges at least, with what each engagement includes. Have your licensee approve the wording like any other page, and keep it dated.
How much does SEO cost for a financial services firm?
Starter is $500 a month for a focused local campaign, Growth $900 for steady site and content work, and Performance $1,500 for competitive markets or multi-adviser firms, with no setup fee and no lock-in. Details are on the pricing page.
What should we look for in an SEO agency for financial advisers?
Evidence they know the rules, not a heading that says compliant. Ask whether they can explain RG 234's overall-impression test, that it was reissued in June 2026, where the personal advice boundary sits, and that testimonials are regulated rather than banned. Ask us the same four questions.
Does the post-Royal-Commission environment change the strategy?
It changes the buyer. People look advisers up, check the Financial Advisers Register, read reviews and compare before acting, even on a warm referral. So your search presence protects the referral pipeline as well as winning new demand.
How do we get started?
Ask for a free consult through the contact page. We review where you rank, what competitors publish and what your licensee allows, then send a costed plan in writing.
Publish what your competitors are afraid to
Tell us about your firm, your licensee and your market. We'll map the searches you can lawfully win, with a plan your responsible manager can read without flinching.
General information, not financial advice. Regulatory references on this page (including s766B of the Corporations Act, ASIC RG 234, RG 244 and INFO 269) describe the framework as at 5 October 2026 and are not legal or compliance advice. Your Australian Financial Services licensee's policies and approval processes govern what your firm publishes.