Firm websites, which studies have found are improving, still remain woefully behind the times. According to Joel Bruckenstein, the founder of the Technology Tools for Today conference, they’re too wordy and rely on roughly the same stock images.

Mark Pearson, the president and chief investment officer of Nepsis Capital Management, said his firm wanted the website to focus on brand identity. Once that was decided, the process was simple: visitors need to get the information and know what to do with it quickly. “If you don’t have something in two to five seconds that gives an appetizing call to action, you’ve lost them,” Pearson said, emphasizing that advisors' pages need to be simple, clean, crisp and concise.