In the United States, the real estate mortgage industry is made up of $12.14 trillion, spanning 84 million mortgages. Financial service providers who specialize in home loans or mortgages have ample business opportunities – but accessing that target base isn’t always easy in such a competitive market.
The majority of today’s financial services customers turn to the internet to find a broker, financial advisor, or real estate professional. Choosing the most relevant keywords and optimizing your website for them is crucial to reaching today’s buyers.
In this article, we’ll review how the financial service industry can benefit from a comprehensive SEO strategy. We’ll cover a few tips on optimizing your finance company’s website, including the importance of keyword research and how Google holds a higher standard on those in the finance industry.
We’ll also leave you with a few tips on optimizing and perfecting your financial services content so that it offers reader value and helps search engines rank you higher.
What Is SEO for Finance Companies?
SEO for finance companies is an SEO strategy that specifically caters to financial businesses. This might include realtors, lenders, insurance brokers, or mortgage brokers. Mortgage broker SEO has the potential to position your business as a leader in the market, helping to bring you increased website traffic and, as a result, more clients.
How Can SEO Help Grow a Finance Company?
The current digital era has made an online presence a requirement for any business wanting to generate online traffic. Search engine optimization (SEO) allows finance companies to generate more organic traffic and conversions.
Financial services SEO offers the following benefits.
More Organic Traffic
SEO online marketing targets organic traffic, which means you don’t have to pay per lead. SEO tools work to position your website at the top of the search results, bringing you ongoing traffic.
Better Brand Awareness
A better search engine ranking and increased traffic also boost brand awareness. Providing your website traffic with high-quality content that answers their questions and gives them value helps nurture them throughout the buying cycle. Even if they’re not ready to apply for a mortgage loan, they’re more likely to turn to you when they are ready.
More Authoritative Brand Reputation
Finance SEO provides you with a tool to establish authority in the industry. Using content marketing strategies, you can show your readers and Google bots that you’re an expert and that your website can be trusted.
Increased Client Conversions
Increased organic traffic, boosted brand awareness, and a trustworthy reputation leads to more conversions. Because SEO strategies target relevant traffic, they are more likely to lead to conversions than other marketing strategies.
Search Engine Optimization Challenges for the Financial Services Industry
Finance companies can benefit from a comprehensive SEO strategy. However, being aware of the potential challenges ahead of time can help financial experts plan for and overcome them. Here are some of the biggest challenges finance companies may be subject to during their SEO efforts.
YLYM
Your Life Your Money (YLYM) is a collection of industries in which Google has higher content standards. Because certain industries, including those in the financial services sector, have the potential to impact readers’ financial stability, Google has stricter requirements when it comes to content quality.
YLYM can make it slightly more difficult to implement SEO because you’re unlikely to notice results without a strategy that considers these higher requirements. Financial services brands need to make an extra effort to demonstrate brand expertise and to publish high-value, unique, accurate content.
High Topic Complexity
Financial services providers typically have in-depth training and education to ensure they offer their clients the best service and consultation possible. The high topic complexity that comes with the financial industry can make it difficult to outsource an SEO strategy, especially one that includes content creation.
Strict Content Quality Requirements
Finance companies are held to higher standards when it comes to content quality. This means that an SEO campaign that includes content marketing needs to include careful topic ideation, reputable external and internal links, and accurate facts within the content. Finance websites should consist of transparent, honest, and factual content.
Highly Competitive
The finance industry is also extremely competitive, with many professionals recognizing the benefits of SEO, leading to even more competition. Achieving high rankings as a financial services company can be more difficult than when compared to other industries. A good SEO agency should regularly review rankings and make adjustments as necessary.
It’s also important to note that Google’s search algorithms are continually changing, making it even more time-consuming to stay up-to-date on the latest best practices. For continued SEO success, ongoing efforts are a requirement in the financial industry.
Effective SEO Strategy For Finance Companies
Financial services SEO can boost organic traffic and lead to more conversions with the right strategies. Here are a few crucial components that all finance companies should include in their overall SEO strategy.
Perform a Site Audit
An SEO audit is the first step to effective optimization for financial institutions or providers. A site audit is a deep dive into your website’s different pages and its overall design, identifying improvement areas. Conduct an audit with the following steps:
- Audit your website using an online tool (SEMRush or Moz.)
- Check for indexing issues.
- Check for manual actions within your Google Search Console.
- Analyze your website’s speed
- Measure the mobile optimization of your website.
- Review your website’s links, including internal and external.
- Review your website’s core web vitals.
- Assess website content, including looking for duplicate content.
- Compare your website against your competitors.
- Review where your website appears in local search results.
- Identify broken links.
Do a Competitor Analysis
Because the financial landscape is so competitive, a competitor analysis is also an important step. Learning about your competitors helps you better understand your target market while identifying areas of improvement. Here are a few tips for completing a competitive analysis:
- Identify your local competitors.
- Review keyword rankings for all competitors.
- Analyze competitor’s content and compare it to your own.
- Consider keyword and link gaps.
- Analyze available traffic and what finance blogs receive the majority of it.
Find Effective Keywords
Identifying the keywords your target audience is searching for helps you optimize your website for those same words or phrases, leading to higher search rankings. Find the most effective keywords in your industry with the following steps:
- Make a list of relevant finance topics.
- Review search volume for specific finance-related keywords.
- Consider any keyword gaps between your website and its competitors.
- Use tools like Google Trends and Answer the Public to identify trending industry topics.
- Analyze traffic potential.
- Consider the search intent for each keyword.
- Create a buyer persona for each stage of the buying cycle.
- Use Google Analytics to learn about keyword value.
- Review local-based finance keywords.
Establish EEAT With Your Content
An important component of ‘YLYM’ is EEAT. EEAT stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Creating an SEO strategy that focuses on each of these four components helps establish your industry expertise and tells Google it can trust your website and services. In return, you’re more likely to rank higher on the search engine results pages.
Establish EEAT with your website content with the following steps:
- Create high-quality content that’s valuable to your readers.
- Be transparent with the author’s information.
- Use only credible, trustworthy resources.
- Obtain links from other trustworthy websites.
- Ensure consistency across all online databases.
Start a Blog and Publish Financial Education Content by Experts
Educational content posted via a blog is a great financial services SEO tool. Financial services companies can leverage expert-created content to gain the trust of potential customers, plus Google. SEO content is also ideal for integrating specific finance-related keywords into your strategy.
Build Content Clusters
Content clusters help optimize your website structure through easy navigational practices. Creating content clusters guides website traffic and Google search bots on the best way to browse your website for the most value. Create content clusters with the following steps:
- Create a core topic.
- Complete keyword research and make a list of both short and long-tail keywords.
- Design a content strategy map that shows parent and subpages.
- Create the pillar page.
- Write or outsource content.
- Integrate appropriate internal and external links that lead website traffic to related web pages.
Use Rich Content
Rich content includes a good mix of content types, including infographics, how-to guides, and videos. These alternative content types help you present a clear message while encouraging more traffic engagement. Unique, rich content can also help generate links from other websites, helping to establish yours as reputable.
Build a Strong Link Profile
A strong link profile tells search engines that you are trustworthy. By securing backlinks from other reputable websites, you can transfer some of that trustworthiness to your own. Effective link-building requires outreach. Additionally, it’s important that you secure backlinks related to your industry.
Make Sure Your Website is Mobile Friendly
With more users today searching via mobile phone, a mobile-friendly website is a requirement for higher search engine rankings. Make sure your website is easy for mobile users to navigate. This includes a responsive web design, large buttons, no pop-ups, and fast load times.
Perform Best On-Page SEO Practices
On-page SEO refers to the optimization of your website’s pages. A few on-page SEO best practices for financial companies include the following:
- Optimize all website images.
- Use headers, title tags, and meta descriptions on each page.
- Use internal/external links to ensure a good flow of content.
- Avoid keyword stuffing.
- Include a keyword in your URL.
- Focus on high-quality, relevant content that’s valuable to the reader.
Focus on Technical SEO
Technical SEO covers the technical components of your website. A few technical components to focus on in your financial SEO strategy include the following:
- Use HTTPS instead of HTTP.
- Regularly search for and replace duplicate content.
- Fix broken links.
- Avoid too many redirected links.
- Prioritize fast load times.
- Make sure Google can crawl your website.
Enhance Local SEO
Local SEO is especially important for finance companies since they typically target users in a certain geographic location. Local SEO campaigns should include the following:
- Optimize your Google Business Profile.
- Maintain an active social media account.
- Submit your business information to local directories.
- Ensure business name, address, and phone number are consistent across all online platforms.
- Prioritize local backlinks.
- Create locally relevant content.
- Optimize your website with local-based keywords.
- Request reviews from satisfied clients.
- Offer value to local clients through state-specific lending rules or city guides.
Keyword research, local optimization, and on- and off-site SEO are all effective techniques that financial service providers can leverage for their success. The financial landscape is more competitive than ever, but a customized SEO strategy can help you put your website in front of your target customers.
Is SEO Included in a Digital Marketing Strategy Service?
SEO is sometimes included in a digital marketing service. While digital marketing includes SEO, it also consists of paid ads, social media, and email campaigns. Before outsourcing your digital marketing to a company, make sure they have the SEO expertise to boost your search rankings.
