The mission of the FON is to raise the visibility of fee-only advisors, individually and collectively. A FON profile is a personal marketing asset, the format of which creates the most comprehensive connected and influential page about you on the Internet. The objective is to help you grow your online footprint, raise search engine rankings, and increase your visibility to prospects and clients in a way that is not available with any other tool or service. FON is among the most visible find-a-planner sites, with more than half a million unique profile views in the past year. It is also a tremendous resource for helping consumers understand the importance of selecting a fee-only, fiduciary advisor.

The basic profile (free for qualified advisors) is designed to help you start to build information about yourself beyond just your website. It includes your biography, contact information, a link to your website, and inclusion in our city directory. It also helps with SEO and online reputation.

At the premium level, we handle the profile setup as part of the service. It includes your photo, logo, credentials, and extended information about you and your firm. The premium level also involves a more sophisticated key-word linking strategy which further enhances visibility and website ranking. Premium members get listed in zip code searches and gain an enhanced listing in city directory pages. 

If you are part of one of our network “partners” (NAPFA, XY Planning Network, Garrett Planning Network, ACP), your affiliation is included, along with an explanation of what that means for the prospective client, and a link to your profile on the organization’s website. There will also be links to the accrediting body sites based on your credentials.

Further, if an advisor’s name or firm is included on a third-party website, such as a media outlet, social media site, news site, or community activity, we include that in the linking strategy and display the logo for the outlet.

It’s great to have a strong website. Your FON premium profile page will serve as a hub for all of the available online information, including your website. You’ll benefit from the power of our network that currently has more than 22,000 links. It’s the way that we link to outside profiles (NAPFA, XYPN, Garrett, ACP, FPA, CFP, AIF, CPA, etc.) that creates an extensive network of high quality and relevant pages, building the advisor’s credibility through the bona fides of those organizations.

Our linking method is favored by search engines helping these outside profiles rank higher for the advisor’s key search terms. We also bring in any other webpages that reflect well on the advisor, for instance, we link directly to articles they’ve written or been quoted like on Kiplinger or Forbes, even niche blogs and local publications.  We include their social media pages, Q & A forums, news releases, and community involvement – anything that helps demonstrate and validate their credibility, expertise and engagement. This creates a beautiful, comprehensive, and compelling single page overview.  And the linking benefit is quite powerful.

Five years ago, if someone did a search for a financial advisor the results were dominated by broker-dealer sites and social sites like LinkedIn and Angie’s List. Today, the majority of first page results are fee-only affiliated network pages and also fee-only advisors that are within our network. Anyone doing an advisor search today will get an education about advisor compensation and the fiduciary standard, which helps the entire fee-only segment of the industry.

The type of visibility resulting from a premium profile isn’t really available anywhere else. We also consult with each premium member, thoroughly reviewing their profile to ensure that we’ve captured everything that can possibly enhance their presence. We are often able to offer suggestions for changes to their websites than can help their positioning and enhance their SEO.

FON, by design, is not lead generation. Those types of sites attempt to gather as much information as possible from the prospect in order to monetize the visit. Our approach is to ensure that all information about the advisor is readily accessible. We put website, phone number, location, credentials and service details front and center on the profile page. We also optimize the page to rank on its own in the search engine for valuable key words.

Consumers are often frustrated by the requirements of the lead generation sites – giving up a lot of information about themselves and their finances, getting matched with only a few advisors with varying credentials, and continuing to receive annoying phone calls and email marketing afterwards.

With FON, prospective clients can connect with you on their terms, without having to answer a lot of probing questions.

We know the best prospects typically come from the advisor’s website, through referrals and word of mouth, so we set up the profile to support that at every level. The profile page supports the advisor by showcasing credibility and expertise and hopefully leading to a direct contact from the prospect.

You’ll see an overall elevation of your online footprint. Your website will start to rank higher for search terms important to you as a result of the linking strategy. There will be more visibility of your online assets, affiliation profiles, credential profiles and any other articles and media mentions you have. The overall benefit is a larger online footprint and more pathways for prospects to find you and for you to demonstrate your credibility and expertise. You can think of it as DIY public relations.