SEO for Melbourne Financial Planners

The Melbourne Financial Planning Landscape in 2026

Melbourne's financial planning market has undergone a seismic shift since the Royal Commission. The number of licensed financial advisers in Australia dropped from 28,000 to under 16,000, with Melbourne losing roughly 30% of its practitioners. The advisers who survived — those with proper qualifications, clean compliance records, and genuine client focus — now operate in a market with far less competition but far more regulation. For SEO, this means fewer competitors to outrank but stricter rules about what you can say online.

The demand side tells a different story. Australia's $3.5 trillion superannuation pool continues to grow, and the approaching retirement of baby boomers is creating unprecedented demand for advice on drawdown strategies, aged care planning, and estate structuring. Meanwhile, a new generation of high-earning millennials — particularly in Melbourne's tech and professional services sectors — is actively searching for financial advisers who speak their language. They don't want jargon-heavy websites with stock photos of handshakes. They want clear, direct information about fees, process, and outcomes.

Search behaviour in financial planning is distinctive. Unlike emergency services where people search in a panic, financial planning searches are deliberate and research-heavy. The average prospect visits 4–6 adviser websites before making contact, and the research phase typically lasts 2–8 weeks. This means your content needs to do heavy lifting across multiple visits. A thin five-page website loses to a competitor with detailed service pages, educational content, transparent fee information, and visible credentials. Your website needs to build enough trust across multiple touchpoints to earn that first phone call or online enquiry.

The geographic opportunity is also worth noting. Melbourne's wealth isn't distributed evenly. Suburbs like Toorak, Brighton, Hawthorn, and Kew have significantly higher concentrations of high-net-worth individuals — but they also have more advisers competing. Meanwhile, growth corridors like Geelong, the Mornington Peninsula, and Melbourne's west are underserved by qualified advisers. Suburb-specific landing pages targeting these areas can capture high-value clients with minimal competition.

Real SEO Examples: Who's Doing It Right (And Wrong)

Let's look at real Melbourne financial advisors and wealth managers and analyse what makes their SEO work — or fail.

Your First 30 Days: Step-by-Step Implementation

Don't try to do everything at once. Here's the priority order that gets results fastest:

Keyword Research: What Your Customers Search

Understanding search intent is crucial. Here are the most valuable keywords for Melbourne financial advisors and wealth managers:

High-Volume Keywords

Keyword	Monthly Volume	Notes
financial planner melbourne	1,300	Primary target keyword
financial advisor melbourne	1,000	Alternative search term
wealth management melbourne	480	High-net-worth focus
retirement planning melbourne	390	Pre-retiree audience
SMSF advisor melbourne	320	Self-managed super
investment advisor melbourne	260	Portfolio management

Lower Competition Opportunities

Content Strategy: Building Authority in a Regulated Industry

Financial planning content sits in Google's "Your Money or Your Life" (YMYL) category, which means it faces the strictest quality standards of any content type. Google applies heightened scrutiny to pages that could impact a reader's financial wellbeing. This sounds like a barrier, but it's actually an advantage — it means low-quality competitors get filtered out, and advisers who invest in genuinely authoritative content get rewarded disproportionately.

Schema Markup: Ready-to-Use Code

Schema markup helps Google understand your business. Copy and customise this code:

LocalBusiness Schema (Required)

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "FinancialService",
  "name": "Your Business Name",
  "description": "Your description with services and location.",
  "url": "https://yourdomain.com.au",
  "telephone": "+61-3-XXXX-XXXX",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "addressLocality": "Melbourne",
    "addressRegion": "VIC",
    "postalCode": "3000",
    "addressCountry": "AU"
  },
  "hasOfferCatalog": {
    "@type": "OfferCatalog",
    "name": "Services",
    "itemListElement": [
      {"@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": {"@type": "Service", "name": "Financial Planning"}},
      {"@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": {"@type": "Service", "name": "Retirement Planning"}},
      {"@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": {"@type": "Service", "name": "Investment Advice"}},
      {"@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": {"@type": "Service", "name": "SMSF Advice"}},
      {"@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": {"@type": "Service", "name": "Insurance Advice"}},
      {"@type": "Offer", "itemOffered": {"@type": "Service", "name": "Estate Planning"}}
    ]
  },
  "aggregateRating": {"@type": "AggregateRating", "ratingValue": "4.8", "reviewCount": "127"}
}
</script>

12-Month Content Calendar

Consistent content signals to Google that your business is active. Here's what to post each month:

Monthly Content Rhythm

Competitor Analysis Framework

Understanding what competitors do well (and poorly) helps you find opportunities.

AFSL Compliance & Regulatory SEO

Financial planning is one of Australia's most regulated professions, and your compliance obligations directly intersect with your SEO strategy. Every piece of content on your website is technically a "communication" under your AFSL conditions, which means it must meet ASIC's requirements for being balanced, not misleading, and clearly distinguished between general and personal advice.

Rather than treating compliance as a constraint, use it as a competitive moat. Most financial planning websites either publish nothing (for fear of compliance issues) or publish watered-down content that's been lawyered into uselessness. The advisers ranking on page one have found the sweet spot: genuinely useful content that includes proper disclaimers without sacrificing readability.

One powerful compliance-meets-SEO strategy is building your "People" section as a trust hub. Create individual pages for each adviser with their FAR number, qualifications, CPD history, professional memberships (FPA, SMSFA, AFA), and areas of specialisation. Link these pages from every article that adviser authors. This creates a strong author entity signal that Google uses to evaluate E-E-A-T for YMYL content. The advisers who do this consistently outrank those who rely on a generic "Our Team" page with headshots and one-line bios.

Local SEO Playbook: Targeting High-Value Suburbs

Financial planning is less hyper-local than trades or pet services — clients will travel 30 minutes for the right adviser — but local SEO still drives significant enquiries, particularly through the Google Map Pack. When someone searches "financial planner near me" or "financial adviser [suburb]," the Map Pack results capture the majority of clicks.

The strategic difference for financial planners is targeting specific high-value suburbs rather than blanket coverage. A suburb landing page for "Financial Planner Toorak" targets a different audience (and fee tolerance) than "Financial Planner Werribee." Build 8–12 suburb pages prioritising areas where your ideal clients live. For wealth management, that means established affluent suburbs. For accumulation advice, target professional hubs and areas with high dual-income households.

The Cost of NOT Doing SEO

Every day you're not visible in Google, competitors win jobs that could be yours. Let's do the maths:

Technical SEO Checklist

Technical issues can tank rankings no matter how good your content is:

Google Business Profile Checklist

Your GBP is often the first thing customers see. Make it count:

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a financial planner cost?

Initial plan: $2,000-5,000. Ongoing advice: $3,000-10,000/year or 0.5-1% of assets. Fee-only advisers charge direct fees. Commission-based may seem free but costs are embedded.

Do I need a financial planner?

Consider advice for: retirement planning, inheritance, major life changes, complex tax situations, or if you're not confident managing investments yourself. The value often exceeds the cost.

What qualifications should a financial planner have?

Minimum: FASEA-compliant degree, registered with ASIC, listed on AFSL. Better: CFP (Certified Financial Planner) designation. Check the ASIC adviser register.

What's the difference between financial planner and accountant?

Accountants handle tax compliance and historical finances. Financial planners focus on future strategy: investments, insurance, retirement, estate planning. Many people need both.

How often should I see my financial planner?

Most clients meet annually for reviews. Major life events (job change, inheritance, divorce) warrant extra meetings. Good advisers are available when you need them.

How long does SEO take for financial planners?

Expect enquiry increases in 4-6 months, significant growth in 8-12 months. Financial services is competitive but most planners have poor websites.