One thing that often gets overlooked is accessibility. That’s a serious mistake. Making your site more accessible isn’t just a “nice thing to do” — it builds trust, enhances the user experience and helps reduce compliance and legal risks.
Your investors expect a seamless digital experience, and accessibility isn’t something you can afford to let fall by the wayside.
What Is Website Accessibility?
Website accessibility typically refers to a site’s usability by people with disabilities.
Much like the traditional design of houses and buildings often doesn’t account for people with, say, mobility issues, many websites and tools are built in a way that people with auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, visual and speech disabilities struggle to use.
However, websites can, should and in some cases are even required to be designed in a way that’s accessible to those with disabilities. These often follow one or more sets of accessibility guidelines.
There’s no single federal “website accessibility law” for financial advisors. Instead, several rules and frameworks influence how regulated firms should approach digital inclusivity.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the gold standard for web accessibility. WCAG outlines how to make websites perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. These four pillars are collectively known as the POUR principles.
WCAG 2.2 Level AA: The newest iteration with expanded guidance for mobile, navigation, and cognitive accessibility.
WCAG 3.0 — a future overhaul focusing even more on user experience — is in development.
Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
Courts have increasingly interpreted the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) as applying to websites, even though the language predates digital experiences. For advisors, this means if your site is not accessible, it could open the door to legal challenges.
Section 508 (for government-related entities)
Section 508 applies mainly to federal institutions, contractors and firms serving government clients. Still, Section 508 standards closely mirror WCAG, making them a useful reference point.
State laws and global frameworks
Some states have accessibility requirements that can apply based on where your clients live, not just where your firm is located, so check your local guidelines.
Importantly, none of these are one-size-fits-all. Taken together, they clearly point to the fact that accessible digital experiences are no longer optional.
Accessibility Improves Usability for Everyone
Clearly, the most obvious reason why you should ensure your site is accessible is your dedication to your clients. You assuredly believe each of your clients is equally deserving of prudent guidance; well, they should have equitable ability to access that guidance and use any other tools you might make available to them on your site.
But upgrading your website to meet WCAG standards doesn’t just benefit users with disabilities — accessibility enhancements can make your site better for everyone. Consider these examples:
Clearer navigation: Keyboard-friendly menus and improved focus states help users with mobility challenges. But they also help mobile users and anyone browsing quickly.
Improved readability: High-contrast text, larger font sizes and logical content structure help those with low vision and dyslexia. But they also make your blog posts more skimmable.
Stronger multimedia support: Captions, transcripts and alt text support users who are deaf or blind. But they also boost your SEO and allow readers to consume content silently in public spaces.
Error-proof forms: Accessible form labels and error messages support users with cognitive disabilities. But they also reduce onboarding friction for all new prospects.
Accessibility often overlaps with good UX. It’s a win for both your audience and your marketing metrics.
An Accessible Website Signals Professionalism
Trust is paramount in financial services. A website that accounts for different abilities — whether visual, auditory, cognitive or physical — shows that your firm is ethical and client centered. Visitors interpret an accessible experience as a sign that you’re attentive to details and serious about serving clients well.
For many investors, particularly older adults, accessibility isn’t theoretical. It’s personal. A site that’s easier to navigate, read or interact with can be the difference between booking a consultation and bouncing to another advisor.
Plus, accessibility upgrades reduce the likelihood of compliance concerns around misleading, confusing or hard-to-navigate content.
What Advisors Can Do Right Now
You don’t need a total website overhaul to make meaningful improvements. A few practical steps you can take:
Run an accessibility audit using tools like WAVE or Axe to spot issues.
Add alt text to images.
Check color contrast to ensure text is readable against your brand colors.
Improve keyboard navigation by fixing broken focus indicators and menu issues.
Add captions and transcripts to videos and webinars.
Review your forms and CTAs to ensure labels, error states and instructions are clear.
Create an accessibility statement to show visitors you’re committed to continuous improvement.
These small actions improve both the user experience and your compliance posture.
Accessibility Is an Investment in Long-Term Trust
Advisors don’t win clients by being flashy. They win by being trustworthy. An accessible website is a powerful trust signal that shows your firm cares about clarity, inclusivity and professionalism.
Do you need help getting your website up to scratch? Let Mischa Communications do the heavy lifting. Now is the perfect time!
Your company’s shareholders expect (and deserve!) clear communication, and your investor relations (IR) website is the best place to disseminate it.
But merely having an IR website isn’t enough. It needs to be a fantastic one.
When developed correctly, an IR website won’t serve only to inform current investors and stakeholders — it will also help you tell your company’s story to new ones, too. It will also increase trust and transparency, foster a culture of accessibility and approachability, and prove your commitment to open communication.
If you need to create (or improve) an IR website for your business, start with these tips.
7 Must-Have IR Website Tips
1. Put Vital Information Front and Center
People visiting your IR website are typically there to learn. Potential and current shareholders alike may be interested in your operational results, historical data, the success of your investments, and other pertinent corporate information.
Your job is to make that information easy to find.
SEC filings, press releases, financial data, stock information and more should be on display and/or simple to access. Transparency and user experience are paramount.
2. Craft a Robust About Us Page
Every business website needs a great About Us page; IR websites are no exception. People go to an IR website to learn about a company. And while that includes financial and operational data, that also includes info about what the company is and what it does.
Include elements such as the company’s history, financial timelines, goals, strategies, key accomplishments to showcase your business and bolster your own investment case.
3. Let Everyone Meet the Team!
Something else to include on your IR page is the crew behind the company.
Stakeholders often want a clear picture of the people making the decisions that impact their investment. A “Meet the Team” page helps put faces to names, increasing your credibility and making your team members more familiar and approachable. The page should include brief bios that outline each person’s education, previous experience and role in the company.
4. Have a Strong Investment Proposition
If someone stumbled upon your IR website knowing nothing about your company, what would you tell them?
A strong investment proposition is vital for attracting stakeholders. Your investment proposition should explain your market opportunity and business model, highlight any competitive advantages and focus on what your company has to offer investors.
5. Highlight ESG Initiatives
Some investors prioritize sustainability, ethical and other considerations alongside financial returns. So naturally, they want to see environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives on a company’s IR site.
Is your company is involved in reducing carbon emissions, building a better future for the next generation, increasing corporate transparency or otherwise effecting change? Highlight these efforts.
6. Remain Compliant
If you’re a publicly traded company or are otherwise bound by SEC rules, you’ll need to ensure your site follows SEC rules and regulations. These include some of the advice above (including making sure you’re posting critical data and releases such as SEC filings and financial disclosures, among other things). They also govern more technical requirements such as file formats and cookie policies.
An important thing to remember: The SEC’s rules about websites aren’t just boxes to be checked off — many of them really do provide a better experience for investors.
7. Keep Basic Website Design Principles in Mind
Your investor relations website is still a website, of course. Thus, the basic “rules” of website design need to be followed. Keep text to a minimum where it makes sense. White space can create points of focus. Images help break up the monotony.
An intuitive design that funnels users right to where you want them to be, strong calls-to-action and a strict adherence to your style guide will make your IR website simple to navigate and pleasing to the eye.
Give Your Investors the Information They Deserve!
An investor relationship website serves to educate and inform existing and potential investors about your company. So don’t leave your IR site to chance!
Whether you just need a few more tips to help you create your own IR website or want someone to handle the entire thing, Mischa Communications is up to the task. Let’s schedule a time to talk.
Your website is the first interaction many of your potential customers will have with your business. And what they see when they type in your web address or click on a search engine result can make or break you.
For that reason, it’s crucial to put plenty of time, thought and effort into your user experience (UX).
We’ve all stumbled upon a website that looks like it was designed by a toddler with a tablet. From lagging load times to improperly placed graphics to links that don’t actually link to anything at all, there are tons of ways to turn people off of your site.
Fortunately, there are also plenty of ways to provide great UX. Here are 10 of our favorites.
10 Tweaks to Take Your Website to the Top
1. Speed Things Up
On the web, speed counts. E-commerce sites that load within one second convert three times as much as sites that take five seconds. And 82% of consumers say that slow load times impact their decision to make a purchase. (This free tool from Google lets you test your load speed and provides tips on how to improve.
2. Go Easy on the Eyes
Too much “stuff” on your site is … well, unsightly. Don’t underestimate the importance of white space. Used correctly, it draws attention to what you want your audience to focus on and makes your site more aesthetically pleasing.
3. Optimize for Mobile
We really should not have to say this in 2024, but we’ll say it anyway: If your site is not optimized for mobile, you’re missing out on a huge piece of the pie. Fifty-eight percent of all online purchases are made using a mobile device.
4. Aim to Be Cohesive
If your homepage, about us section, checkout page and FAQs all look significantly different, it can be jarring and confusing to your audience. It’s important to keep the look, feel and functionality the same across the board. Anything less can come off as unprofessional.
5. Understand User Intent
Understanding how the vast majority of your visitors use your app or website is crucial. Are they there to learn more about your business? Book a demo? Quickly and easily make a purchase? Once you know why they’re there, you’re better able to provide them with a UX that fits their needs.
6. Have a Clear Call to Action
Explaining what you want from your audience is just as important as knowing what they want from you. A clear call to action — giving them the specific step(s) you want them to take next — makes the process easier for everyone involved.
7. Use a Variety of Mediums
Some people love in-depth blog posts. Others want to watch a video, scan an infographic, or go totally hands-off and listen to a podcast instead. By creating different types of content, you’re ensuring that there’s something for everyone and no one feels left out.
8. Keep It Super Simple
The KISS method (keep it simple, stupid) rarely fails when it comes to UX. Humans tend to enjoy the path of least resistance, so don’t make anything harder than it needs to be! If a very young person and a very old person can both navigate your site without much trouble, you’re probably on the right track.
9. Consult Your Heatmaps
We’ve talked about heatmaps before, but in case anyone needs a refresher, they allow you to see which areas of your website are attracting attention and which ones are falling flat. They make complicated analytics as easy to understand as the temperature maps on The Weather Channel!
10. Consult a Professional
Knowing that you need to improve your UX is one thing. Having the time (and the know-how) to do it is another. There is absolutely no shame in bringing in the pros to handle the heavy lifting!
Are Your Users Getting the Experience They Deserve?
If your website users aren’t getting the experience they want, they’re not likely to stick around for the long haul. A few simple tweaks can take your site to the top!
If you are (or run) a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), you know how important it is to instill trust in your clients from the first point of contact. And that first touchpoint is usually your website.
A visitor to your RIA website will form an opinion about it (and your firm, by proxy) in just 50 milliseconds. If they’re not immediately impressed by what they see, they will leave — and they will take their money with them.
So, if after reading that, you suddenly feel compelled to build a better website that turns prospective leads into satisfied clients, we get it. And we think these tips will help.
6 Ways to Make Your RIA Website Shine
1. Tune Up the Basics
Before you start making grand, sweeping improvements, make sure you have all the basic bases covered, such as:
Is your staff directory up to date?
Does your website reflect any recent additions to your services?
Are you optimized for mobile?
Outdated info, slow loading times, broken links or glitchy graphics all send the wrong message to potential customers.
2. Put Your Best Face Forward
The financial industry relies heavily on relationship building. People want to know who’s handling their money. So your About Us page needs to really sell your firm.
Use recent, realistic photos of your staff, from the receptionist who will greet clients when they walk in the door to the senior planner who people might only see on occasion. Putting a face to a name helps create personal connections.
Your RIA clients want options. While some might feel more comfortable letting you do the heavy lifting, others want a more DIY approach. Which is why creating a client portal that lets people log in, check on their investments, make changes and more is a good idea.
You can also use a client portal to introduce a gamification strategy that will improve your engagement and retention rates. For instance, show a completion percentage bar as your clients read through educational blogs or watch short videos on financial literacy within the portal.
4. Position Yourself as a Leading Authority
Your website’s blog is your chance to show prospective clients that you’re a competent, knowledgeable firm. Regularly update it with posts that position yourself as a leading authority in your industry.
Be sure to have a mix of basic informational posts, thought leadership pieces, and pillar content. By including posts of various length and depth, you’re satisfying all levels of client curiosity!
5. Cater to Different Audience Segments
Your customers each come with their own individual needs, so show them that those needs matter by building different segments into your site that include the information that concerns them most.
For instance, you might have one section for individuals, one for business owners, and one for retirees. This ensures that no one has to wade through information that doesn’t pertain to them, and it shows your audience that you’re equipped to meet all different types of needs.
6. Sing Your Own Praises
Does your firm have any awards or accreditations? Have you been featured on a “best of” list or in the local media? Do you have any press releases? If so, shout it out on your website!
Anything you have that shows your RIA firm in a positive light can only help bolster your reputation and net you new clients.
Is It Time for a Website Overhaul?
Your website should never be stagnant. It needs to grow and change along with your RIA firm. There’s always something you can improve on if you’re willing to look hard enough!