Unbiased.co.uk re-launches as ‘the professional advice website'

Unbiased.co.uk has re-launched as ‘the professional advice website', bringing together its hugely popular ‘Find an independent financial adviser' (IFA) and ‘Find a mortgage adviser' online searches plus a soon-to-launch ‘Find a solicitor' search, all on one portal.

Unbiased.co.uk, which last year handled over half a million requests for details of local IFAs, will build on its 20 years of search experience to match UK consumers with the IFAs, mortgage advisers and solicitors best suited to their specific needs. As part of this re-launch, the Impartial.co.uk ‘Find a mortgage adviser' search has now become a fully integrated channel of the new Unbiased.co.uk professional advice portal.

David Elms, chief executive of Unbiased.co.uk, the professional advice website, comments: "We view this as a natural progression for Unbiased.co.uk, given our success running online searches and the growing consumer demand for professional advice across a range of areas of their lives. In our experience, the web is now the most important source of new business to professional advisers after personal referral. Our IFA and mortgage adviser searches already help consumers match their needs closely with the local adviser details we supply, and we will soon offer the same free, confidential service for people seeking legal advice. Once the new ‘Find a Solicitor' search is live, we will begin developing a ‘Find an Accountant' service."

Over the last seven years, Unbiased.co.uk has placed over 60 white label versions of its ‘Find an IFA' search on partner websites and media portals, promoting the benefits of independent financial advice to the consumer. Unbiased.co.uk will expand this activity across all of its professional advice searches going forward. Unbiased.co.uk currently registers over 40,000 professional advice related terms across all search engines including Google, Yahoo!, MSN and many more, further helping to increase Unbiased.co.uk's online prominence.

During the last year alone, Unbiased.co.uk has helped create over 7,500 pieces of positive coverage on the importance of professional advice across all consumer media, further promoting the consumer-facing search.

As well as fulfilling increasing numbers of consumer searches for local professional advice, Unbiased.co.uk will continue to provide member businesses with a range of marketing support to enable them to present themselves in the most relevant and consumer-focused way possible. This support includes enhanced marketing options on the Unbiased.co.uk website and consumer search trend data.

The new professional advice website will continue to operate under the same principles Unbiased.co.uk has been applying to its consumer searches since launch. All searches are free and enable consumers to locate relevant advisers by postcode, area of specialism, incremental qualification (above benchmark) and preferred payment method, with additional sector-specific search terms where helpful to the consumer. The enquirer's details remain fully confidential and no details are captured or passed on to Unbiased.co.uk or its members. The consumer decides which professional adviser, whether independent financial adviser, whole of market mortgage adviser or solicitor, they want to get in contact with and when. This means the listed advisers benefit from receiving high quality leads, as enquirers are actively seeking advice and are contacting only those that meet their personal requirements.

Elms continues: "We have consistently found that when consumers are able to specify what type of advice they need, conveniently and without pressure, they end up valuing the advice received and taking action more readily as a result. Therefore our consumer-led approach is of demonstrable benefit to professional adviser members as well as consumers, since a better matched client means a longer, more fruitful relationship."

For advisers and their firms, basic membership and search inclusion costs nothing, with the opportunity to subscribe to a range of enhanced online marketing options. Unbiased.co.uk already lists details of nearly 9,000 registered IFA and over 6,500 mortgage adviser firms, and is in the process of contacting solicitors across the UK to invite them to register on its soon-to-launch service.

David Elms adds: "In the current economic climate, people need professional advice even more, so being visible to consumers has never been more important for professional advisers. Consumers want reassurance that the advisers they are contacting are right for their individual needs and qualified in their relevant areas of specialism, and our searches deliver exactly that. Our search numbers clearly show that consumers trust us to help them get in touch with the best professional adviser for their needs, in a confidential way and completely free of charge.

"Our portal offers professional advisers an extremely effective marketing tool to attract new, well-matched clients through their doors. Unbiased.co.uk will continue to do what it does best, which is to meet the needs of consumers and advisers, by bringing them together with the maximum accuracy and for the minimum effort."