When a potential client searches for a financial planner in their area, the first thing they often see is not a website. It is a Google Business Profile. That profile tells them who you are, where you are, what you do and whether other clients trust you. If your profile is incomplete, outdated or missing entirely, you are losing ground to competitors before anyone clicks through to your site.
This article covers what Google Business Profile does for financial planners, how to set it up properly and how each section of the profile contributes to enquiries and trust.
What Google Business Profile Does for a Financial Planner
Google Business Profile is a free listing that appears in Google Search and Google Maps. When someone searches for a financial planner near them, Google pulls relevant profiles and displays them in what is commonly called the local pack. These results sit above most organic website results and include your business name, rating, address, phone number and a link to your website.
For financial planners, this placement matters. Most of your clients are geographically close to your office. They are searching with local intent. A well-maintained profile puts you in front of those searches at exactly the right moment.
For financial planning firms relying on Maps, reviews and local searches, SEO strategy for financial advisors should connect the Google Business Profile with the pages clients visit before they take the next step.
Choosing the Right Business Category
Your primary category is one of the most important decisions you make on your profile. It tells Google what type of business you are, which directly influences which searches you appear for.
For most financial planners in Australia, the correct primary category is Financial Planner. If your practice also covers areas like investment advice, superannuation or mortgage broking, you can add secondary categories to reflect those services.
Do not choose a vague category like Financial Services as your primary. It is too broad and does not match what clients are searching for. Be specific.
Review your category selection every six to twelve months. Google updates its category options, and a more accurate choice may become available.
Services: Tell Google What You Offer
The services section is where many financial planners leave significant ground uncovered. Google lets you list individual services with names and descriptions. This is not for client benefit. It feeds into how Google understands your business and which searches it considers you relevant for.
Common services to list for a financial planning practice include:
- Retirement planning
- Superannuation advice
- Investment planning
- Estate planning
- Insurance advice
- Tax-effective strategies
- Aged care financial advice
- Self-managed super fund advice
Write clear, plain descriptions for each service. Avoid jargon. Describe what the service does and who it is suited for. Two to three sentences per service is enough.
Office Details: Accuracy Matters More Than You Think
Your business name, address and phone number need to be accurate and consistent. If your profile says one address and your website footer says another, that inconsistency creates doubt for Google and for clients.
Check the following on your profile:
- Business name matches your legal or trading name exactly
- Address is current and formatted correctly
- Phone number is the main number clients should use
- Website URL links to the correct page
- Opening hours reflect when clients can reach you
If you operate from multiple offices, create a separate profile for each location. Do not try to cram two addresses into one profile.
Set your appointment URL if Google offers that option for your profile. This lets potential clients book a discovery call directly from the search result, without needing to find your contact page first.
Reviews: Your Most Powerful Trust Signal
Reviews are the section of your profile that clients look at most carefully. A financial planner with a handful of detailed, positive reviews will consistently outperform one with no reviews, even if their website is stronger.
Here is what matters with reviews:
- Volume: More reviews signal that your practice is active and established.
- Recency: Recent reviews carry more weight than old ones. A review from four years ago does not tell a client much about your practice today.
- Detail: Reviews that mention specific services, outcomes or qualities are more persuasive than generic five-star ratings with no text.
- Responses: Responding to every review, positive or negative, shows that you engage with clients and take feedback seriously.
Asking for reviews is not complicated. After a successful client meeting or milestone, send a short follow-up message with a direct link to your review page. Make it easy. Most clients are willing to help if they are happy with the service.
Do not offer incentives for reviews. That violates Google’s guidelines and can result in your profile being penalised.
Photos: Make Your Practice Look Real
If local search is part of the issue, how financial advisors can get more enquiries from Google Maps gives useful context on profiles, reviews and location signals.
If trust is part of the decision path, SEO checklist for financial advisor websites shows how reviews, case studies, photos and proof can help people choose who to contact.
Profiles with photos consistently receive more engagement than those without. For a financial planning firm, photos serve a specific purpose. They make your practice feel real and approachable before a client has ever spoken to you.
Photos to consider adding:
- Your office exterior so clients can find you easily
- Your reception or waiting area
- Meeting rooms where client consultations take place
- Headshots or team photos if your brand centres on personal relationships
- Your logo for brand consistency
Avoid stock photography. Clients notice it and it undermines the trust you are trying to build. Use real photos from your actual office.
Update photos at least once a year. If you move offices or rebrand, refresh your photos at the same time.
Service Areas: Define Where You Work
The service area feature lets you specify which suburbs, cities or regions you cover. This is particularly useful if you see clients across a wider area than your immediate suburb.
For example, a financial planner based in Melbourne’s inner east might also serve clients in the CBD, Hawthorn, Camberwell and Box Hill. Listing those suburbs helps Google match your profile to searches coming from those areas, even if your physical office is not located there.
Do not add suburbs or regions where you genuinely have no client base. Over-claiming service areas can dilute your local relevance and looks misleading to potential clients who read your profile carefully.
Keep your service area list realistic and aligned with where you want to attract enquiries.
Enquiry Paths: Make It Easy to Take the Next Step
Your Google Business Profile should make it simple for a potential client to contact you. Check that each of these paths works correctly:
- Phone number: Clicking it on mobile should dial directly.
- Website link: It should go to your homepage or a relevant service page, not a broken URL.
- Booking link: If you use an online booking tool, add the link to your profile so clients can schedule without calling.
- Google messaging: If you enable this feature, respond within a few hours. A slow response is worse than no messaging option at all.
Think about what a client does after they find your profile at 9pm on a Tuesday. If calling is not an option at that hour, your booking link or contact page becomes the critical path. Make sure it works.
Google Posts: Keep Your Profile Active
Google Posts let you publish short updates directly to your profile. These appear in search results and can cover service announcements, educational topics, upcoming events or general business updates.
For financial planners, useful post types include:
- Reminders around key financial dates such as end of financial year
- Brief explanations of services like what a statement of advice involves
- Updates about your practice such as new team members or office changes
Posts do not need to be lengthy. A clear headline, two or three sentences and a call to action is enough. Publishing one or two posts per month signals to Google that your profile is active and maintained.
How Your Profile Supports Your Website SEO
Your Google Business Profile and your website work together, not in isolation. A well-optimised profile reinforces your website’s local relevance. Your website provides the depth of information that the profile cannot.
Consistency is the key link. When your profile name, address, phone number and services match what is on your website, Google has more confidence in the accuracy of your business information. That confidence can translate into better placement in local search results.
Your profile also drives direct traffic to your website. Each click on your website link from a profile is a potential client landing on your pages. If those pages are clear, fast and lead to an obvious next step, your profile is functioning as a genuine lead source.
Common Profile Mistakes to Fix Now
A few issues come up repeatedly with financial planner profiles in Australia:
- Profile not claimed or verified
- Category set too broadly
- Services section left empty
- No reviews or no responses to existing reviews
- Phone number or address out of date
- No photos or only a logo uploaded
- Service areas not set
- Website URL linking to a broken or redirected page
Work through each of these in one sitting. Most can be fixed in under an hour. The ongoing work is lighter: reviews, occasional posts and keeping your details current as your practice changes.
Ready to Make Your Profile Work Harder
A Google Business Profile that is set up properly and maintained consistently is one of the lowest-cost, highest-return assets a financial planner can have. It puts your practice in front of local searches, builds trust before the first conversation and directs enquiries toward your website and booking process.
If you want to make sure your profile and your broader search presence are working together, talk to the team at Sejuce Digital. We work with financial planning firms across Australia and understand what it takes to generate qualified enquiries from search.
