Who you serve, how you get paid
Before they call, people want to know who you work with and how you're paid.
What the home page says
Section by section, in the order a visitor reads it.
Who you work with
Near-retirees, business owners, doctors, people who've just inherited. Name them, and name any account minimum, so someone with a smaller balance doesn't have to call to find out you can't take them.
How you're paid
Fee-only, fee-based or commission, in plain words, and it has to match your filings. It's the question many people came to ask, and leaving it out reads as an answer. Have compliance check the wording.
What working together looks like
The first call, the plan, then how often you meet. People who've never had an advisor can't picture it, and a clear sequence makes the first step feel smaller.
Credentials and firm details
CFP, CFA or whatever you hold, your firm's registration and who holds client money. Paste in the exact disclosure your compliance team gives you, and read it again after every AI change.
Intro call
One button for a free call, which Shingle's booking page handles with your hours and an email reminder. If you add a form, it asks for contact details only, never account numbers or statements.
Reviews, only if cleared
Whether you can show reviews depends on your regulator and your firm, so ask first. If you build from your Google listing, your rating starts on at 4.0 from 10 reviews, so turn it off until compliance says yes.
How they search
- financial advisor near me
- fee only financial advisor
- fiduciary financial advisor near me
- retirement planning near me
- financial planner near me
- financial advisor for small business owners
- how much does a financial advisor charge
- cfp near me
What earns their trust
- How you're paid, in the same words as your filings
- Your credentials, and what each one means
- A link to your public record, such as FINRA BrokerCheck or the SEC's adviser search
- Who holds client money
- Any account minimum
- What the first call covers, and whether it's free
- The advisor they'd actually meet, with a photo
How it gets found
What moves a financial advisor up in a town's results.
Choose a category, and ask first
Google has Financial planner, Financial consultant and Investment service. It counts financial planners as individual practitioners, so you may qualify for a profile in your own name. Ask your firm before you set one up.
Know what a profile brings
A Business Profile collects reviews, and Google offers no switch to turn them off. Ask your compliance team how they want that handled before you claim one.
Write for who you serve
A page on retirement planning for teachers, or for owners selling a business, uses words those people search. Use terms like fee-only and fiduciary only when they're true of you and compliance agrees.
Explain without promising
Plain articles on Roth conversions or what a plan costs can answer real searches. Keep them general, leave out performance, and get them approved. Shingle can draft a post for 5 credits, and it doesn't research markets or rules.
How to sell one
Advisors get most clients through referrals, and those people check the website before they call. Many sites came from a broker-dealer or a vendor's approved library, so they read like everyone else's. Advisors who've just gone independent need a site quickly, which makes them a good place to start.
Start with compliance, since it's their first worry. Explain the review link, the comments on each page, and that nothing goes live until they publish. Then show a home page that names who they serve and how they're paid, which library copy usually leaves out.
- “Compliance will never approve AI copy.”
- Compliance reads what's on the page, and you choose what that is. The AI's first version is only a starting point. They can comment on any part of it from a link, you change it, and every version is kept with what changed and when.
- “My broker-dealer controls my site.”
- Then ask what you may change, and whether an outside site is allowed at all. If it isn't, there's nothing to buy here, and I'd rather say so now.
- “We're not allowed to use reviews.”
- Then there won't be any. Review quotes appear only if you choose them, and the rating can be switched off when you build from your listing. The site can stand on who you serve and how you're paid.
- “All our clients come from referrals.”
- Then your site's main reader is the person who just heard your name. They want to know whether you take someone like them, and how you charge. Answer those, and that first call starts further along.
Common questions
Can't find your answer? Read Shingle Help or email [email protected].
Who you work with, any account minimum and how you're paid. After that come what working together looks like, your credentials and firm details, the disclosures your compliance team requires, and one way to start, such as an intro call. A first build in Shingle makes up to six pages, which leaves room for each of those.
No. Marketing rules differ by registration and by state, so check with your compliance officer, broker-dealer or state regulator before anything goes live. Shingle's review holds each line to the facts you gave it, and it doesn't check against any regulator's rules. You're responsible for what you publish.
It depends on your regulator and your firm, so ask compliance first. On Shingle, review quotes appear only if you choose them. If you build from your Google listing, the rating setting starts on at 4.0 from 10 reviews, so turn it off under what to include until you have a yes.
It's built not to invent a return, a client count or assets under management. If you give it those figures it can use them, and it can't judge whether they're allowed. Leave them out of your brief unless compliance has approved the exact wording.
No, and they shouldn't try. The form takes no files, and client documents don't belong in a contact form, because answers arrive by email and in your team's inbox, where AI reads each request to draft a reply. Ask for contact details and a topic, and use your custodian's or firm's secure portal for the rest.
Make a review link from the site's menu and send it to your compliance reviewer. They see every page without signing up and can comment on any part of it. You make the changes and publish when they're done. Every version stays in your history, with what changed and when.
Read next
- Client review linksA private link where clients comment on the page.
- Fact-checked websitesBuilt not to invent, and reviewed line by line.
- Team roles and activityWho can do what, and a record of who did it.
- Website redesign checklistWhat to do before, during and after a redesign.
- Search result previewSee your title and description before Google does.
Websites for other trades
Build your first site
Start from a Google listing or a few notes. Demos usually take 5–15 minutes.
7 days for $1, then $49 a month. Cancel any time.