SEO for Financial Services: Advice for 2024 Success

Benefits of improving Finance SEO

• Improved Branding/ Awareness

When customers consistently see your brand when they search for relevant information, they will become more familiar and confident with it. One way to do this is to have quality content on your website and social media accounts, optimized specifically for SEO for financial services. This content can, for example, address problems faced by your audience and offer solutions. People will feel more comfortable with your business this way because you pay attention to their demands.

More people will be aware of your financial services company as it will start showing up in more search results. They will associate your brand as one of the biggest names in finance in no time. If your site’s content ultimately meets their needs, you’ll also build brand credibility by establishing yourself as an authority.

• Improved traffic to the website

A well-executed SEO plan will improve the number of organic visitors to your website, which is the most obvious result. More and more people will see your content and click on your website to rank higher for relevant keywords.

• Better conversions with user experience

Optimising your website for search engines can improve user experience. After all, attracting and retaining users to your financial services website depends on its ease of use.

For example, your website should:

1. Easy to use
2. Have relevant and clear information
3. Performs admirably on all devices

What are the SEO challenges of the financial services industry?

The financial services sector has some particular disadvantages when it comes to SEO.

A more competitive environment

There is no indication that the expansion of the fintech or financial services industry will slow As more smaller firms and software-as-a-service providers enter the market, the finance sector also becomes more fragmented.

To stand out naturally in this crowded field, content must consistently exceed expectations and fully meet the needs of a well-defined target audience.

SEO must be used to generate more leads

One of the best ways to get new B2B leads for your company is through SEO. It is increasingly used by financial institutions. So, to rank high and attract potential customers, every business needs to put in more effort.

Emphasis on SEO to generate leads

Additionally, SEO has been shown to be a reliable source of superior B2B leads. As a result, an increasing number of well-known financial services firms are using SEO to generate leads.

This implies that every business in the sector has to put in extra effort to rank well and win the hearts of potential clients.

Complex Subject 

The financial services and fintech industries are expanding. This highly competitive industry is being created by the entry of more small businesses and software service providers.

To get noticed in this crowded market, you need to consistently provide excellent content. During this process you should tailor your content to your target audience.

You need to use different SEO strategies:

• Check search engine results to create a content plan.
• Use the primary keyword in the URL.
• Optimise meta descriptions and titles.
• Put keywords in the headline and body copy. Give a photo alt text.
• Make the page easy to read.
• Attach additional pages to your website with links
• Link new pages to relevant pages on the current site

This emphasises how important it is to have a team member who is knowledgeable in financial services. This highlights the importance of having a well-versed team member in financial services. Or, on the other hand, partnering with an agency that excels in crafting SEO-centric content.

High level of subject complexity

Choosing an insurance plan or deciding how to spend your resources are two examples of difficult and stressful decisions. For this reason, to properly meet client needs, the content of financial services must rise well above the level of surface fillers.

Your SEO effectiveness as a financial services provider will depend on your ability to delve into the complexities required for in-depth knowledge of the industry. Furthermore, you will be able to simplify complex concepts so that your potential clients can understand them.

Raised content quality requirements

In other words, financial services information is important because it has the potential to affect people’s financial, emotional, physical or safety. For this reason, when we write about finances, we often refer to it as “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) content.

Choosing the wrong health insurance because of subpar information can be more problematic than choosing the wrong coffee maker. Financial services firms should therefore exercise extreme caution when creating their content.

For this reason, Google examines YMYL pages more closely. Google’s search results will only show the best content at the top.

What happens when internal resources are limited?

Financial institutions, such as banks and investment businesses, often have resource constraints. This may indicate that adequate funds, appropriate technology or labour are not available.

These businesses find that it can soon become expensive to promote themselves and increase their web presence. This is especially valid if they try to connect with customers in different ways.

These businesses should ideally have a staff that is fully equipped with the necessary knowledge and tools to do the job at hand.

If that’s not possible, they might consider working with a marketing or SEO firm. These companies employ teams of experts with extensive industry knowledge and access to state-of-the-art equipment. These devices are usually too expensive for a single organisation to purchase.

Marketing difficulties for a tightly regulated organisation

Because the financial services sector is subject to some tough laws, navigating the rapidly evolving Internet market can be challenging.

These businesses must comply with Google’s advertising restrictions for financial products and services, in addition to federal, state and municipal laws.

Once we understand the challenges facing the financial sector, we will be better equipped to execute a solid SEO and marketing plan.

Legal Challenges for SEO and Digital Marketing

Due to the numerous, strict rules, it can stall marketing procedures while a legal team examines your product.

This can result in incomplete changes to the website or a backlog of material awaiting approval.

Preventing legal concerns and stopgaps can be achieved in two ways:

• Bring a writer with a legal background and experience understanding complex laws to your team.
• As part of their employment, assign one of your writers to work closely with a committed member of your legal team who helps with content and marketing evaluation.

How success is slowed by silos

The stringent requirements mentioned above can cause silos to develop between departments.

This implies that departments in the same organisation will not talk to each other much or discuss plans or information with each other very frequently.

One way to ensure your organisation doesn’t have silos is to hold monthly internal meetings with all relevant departments present.

Disagreement can lead to brand dissonance

Inconsistency in brand perception is a potential consequence of organisational silos. Lack of a unified brand voice leads to brand inconsistency and a lost opportunity to connect with your target audience.

The most common problem with inconsistent branding is that customers don’t fully understand your mission or values. Ultimately, this can make your business seem like it lacks a distinct character.

Ensuring that all employees adhere to strict brand guidelines can help prevent brand inconsistency and guarantee that clients receive a consistent experience throughout the customer journey.

Consequences of insufficient internal resources

Limited internal resources are another significant challenge facing financial industry companies. This can take the form of personnel, technology or departmental budgets.

If you want to reach users through different channels and touchpoints, marketing campaigns and SEO optimization can become expensive very quickly.

In a perfect world, your crew is already variously skilled and well-equipped.

If not, hiring a marketing or SEO agency can give you access to a whole team of professionals with knowledge of a specific industry and sophisticated technical tools that are often very expensive.

Satisfied customers who prioritise digital

Customers who shop digitally first expect a seamless experience accessing their financial services from multiple digital sources, whether using an app, website or email.

According to a recent report, 55% of Americans prefer to use a mobile app in particular, and 85% of Americans prefer to bank online.

Many financial institutions find it difficult to meet the high expectations of their customers because they lack the necessary resources.

People demand a perfectly operating website or app, so if you don’t have the means to make both happen smoothly, it’s best to hold off on building an app and instead focus on building a great website for your financial services.

Essential SEO Strategies for Financial Services

1. Test your current SEO

It’s helpful to first know where your site’s SEO stands now. It can help you determine the amount of work required to improve your current pages, find new prospects, and more.

This can always be addressed by individually comparing each section of your website to SEO best practices. However, if you want to move faster, you may want to hire an SEO checker tool that automatically conducts such audits and points out where you should focus your efforts.

2. Conduct a content assessment

A thorough examination of your current website elements is the next step. Check your main YMYL pages and ask the following questions:

• Are they sufficiently thorough and genuinely helpful?
• Are they current (for example, do they cover newly enacted regulations)?
• Do they employ natural, unambiguous headings and are they well-structured and readable?
• Are they easy enough for your intended audience to read and understand?
• Are their meta titles and descriptions interesting and original? Users will notice them on Google before they click on your page
• Duplicate any content on your website?

The easiest way to get your site up in the rankings is to fix the content that already exists. It is a low-effort, high-value activity.

3. Test different keywords

Once you’ve improved your current pages, use keyword research to find new content opportunities. Find the topics and terms people are using to search. For example, matters related to your primary financial services organisation. Understanding the purpose of keywords is essential to guide your SEO strategy.

4. Analysis of competitors

Knowing who your primary organic competitors are is important. They may not necessarily be your direct competitors in the same sector. Check your competitors’ content once you’ve made a list of them to identify any gaps or sources of inspiration.

5. Create instructional materials for your audience.

It will most likely feature company-specific sections on your website that outline your financial services, costs, and other details. But providing consumers with in-depth instructional information without an overt sales pitch is the secret to true SEO success.

For the common man, things related to money can be very overwhelming. A large number of them will seek guidance and advice. You will simultaneously improve your SEO and help your users solve their problems.

Following are some of the benefits of emphasising instructional content:

• This improves Google’s understanding and positioning of semantically related queries on your website.
• It establishes you as an expert in the financial services industry.
• Because websites are more likely to link to helpful educational content than direct sales pages, you increase your chances of getting external links.
• You put value in front of potential clients, which makes it easier to convert them into leads later on.

6. Improve your E-A-T

Along with this, you also need to think about E-A-T for your website and content. The acronym E-A-T, which stands for “Efficiency, Authority and Trust,” is used by Google. Google raters use this to assess the quality of a website, and it is particularly relevant when considering YMYL pages.

E-A-T says your information should be reliable, your organisation should be regarded as an authority, and you should show real experience in your subject area.

It is not possible to “hack” your E-AT by standing up quickly. To get beneficial external links from reliable sites you need to create high-quality content and gradually establish your reputation. However, there are some reasonably simple steps you can take to increase your chances:

• Make sure your “Contact” and “About Us” sections are comprehensive and useful. It demonstrates accountability and transparency.
• Use author pages, author bios, and social media accounts to highlight your experts’ professional credentials (having a financial advisor with over 20 years of content writing experience is beneficial).
• To build trust, get unbiased client testimonials and post them on your website.
• Try to get reputable sites to link to your insightful instructional content.

7. Technical SEO Check

When it comes to automated site crawlers, technical SEO mostly refers to how easy it is for robots to scan and index your website. Improving your website design to make it easier for users and search engines to find your important pages is the main focus of this broad topic, which is too large to address here.

Here are several methods to achieve this:

• Make sure your main pages don’t use a “noindex” tag and are therefore indexable.
• Maintain an XML sitemap with a list of all your important pages.
• If a page is duplicated somewhere, use the canonical tag to direct users to the “master” version of the page.
• To make it easier for users to reach your main content sections, improve your navigation menu.
• Leverage internal links to direct visitors to relevant pages.

8. Mobile optimization and speed boost

In the digital age we live in today, speed is very important. Slow-loading websites are not only annoying, but they can also drive visitors away, which will lower your site’s conversion rate. It’s important to find and fix any issues that cause page load times to lag.

Along with speed, mobile optimization is essential. Having a mobile-friendly website is essential because mobile devices account for more than half of all web traffic. To put it another way, your website should be easy to use for people who use touchscreens, load quickly on mobile devices, and accommodate different screen sizes properly.

When ranking pages, Google considers both site speed and mobile friendliness. As a result, these elements are essential for both improving user experience and SEO success.

9. Improvement of the local SEO

When searching for information or thinking about making a purchase, users often look for local businesses. As a result, you need to focus on local SEO and use keywords unique to your area to rank. For example, a search for “financial advisors in London” will reveal information about an investment company with offices in London that provides financial advice.

If your business has offices in multiple cities, make sure each one has a separate Google My Business page that is claimed. It lets you customise the contact details displayed, how your company information is organised and even welcomes local consumer reviews to boost your rating.

10. Monitor and improve off-page SEO

Everything that happens outside of your website but has the potential to affect its search ranking is called off-page SEO. This is mainly related to backlinks from outside sources, but it can also include social media conversations about your business, unlinked brand references, and other things. Off-page SEO elements are out of your direct control unlike your website.

Still, it’s important to monitor and improve any off-page SEO activity. Contact the website owner and request a backlink if you see a mention of your brand without a page. After creating your instructional content, you can launch a focused outreach campaign to get relevant backlinks from reputable websites within your financial niche or business.

Important Financial Services SEO KPIs

There are several key performance indicators (KPIs) you must keep track of to measure how successful your SEO approach is. These KPIs will provide you with information about the effectiveness of your approach and its shortcomings.

Page by Page SEO Ranking

Find important search terms found during keyword research by examining the placement of your pages. You can measure the success of your SEO efforts by keeping track of how visible they are in search engines

Impressions

Monitor the times your pages appear in search results for relevant keywords More impressions can lead to more traffic from more visibility.

Organic Traffic

Organic Traffic Track how many people find your website through search engine rankings. A high amount of organic traffic is a sign of well-executed SEO.

Engagement Metrics

To truly understand how people interact with your website, you must measure user engagement.

Taking into account aspects of user engagement such as:

• Time spent on a page
• Amount of pages viewed in a single session
• Bounce Rate: The proportion of your website visitors who leave after viewing just one page

Conversions From Organic Reach

Keep track of both big decisions (like buying your service) and small decisions (like subscribing to a newsletter). You can calculate the financial value of your SEO efforts by measuring.

How Webheadway, a financial SEO agency, can help you

With years of experience, we are a financial SEO company. Webheadway is an authority on FinTech SEO, SEO for Financial Advisors and consequently SEO Finance. Put another way, we will design and implement a strategy to increase your website’s visibility and attract more users.

Our SEO offerings include the following:

• Content Marketing
• Online advertising
• Website design and development
• Establishing and developing a brand

Your website will get more visits and rank higher in search results when you partner with us. This will pique the curiosity of prospects and increase the likelihood that they will hire your services.

Why should you use Webheadway to run your financial services SEO campaign?

Working with a specialised content marketing company like Mint Studio is one of your best options if you’re interested in using SEO and content marketing to help you get your product in front of the right people. Some of these reasons are:

1. No need to edit and reedit your content: We specialize in financial services

As we focus exclusively on the financial services sector, we have extensive knowledge about it. We write on a wide range of financial topics, such as:

• Payment processing
• Money for shipment
• Identity fraud
• Investing
• Financial markets
• Accessible banking
• And much more!

The nuances of financial services, such as absolute avoidance or including appropriate disclaimers, are something we are aware of.

Our background helps to better understand some of the more complex issues such as open banking, trading options and payment processing. In addition, we have extensive experience managing relationships with compliance departments and ensuring disclosures are compliant.

This means that as a business, you can create high-calibre content for a sophisticated audience and start creating content right away.

2. You’ll get revenue and subscribers, not just SEO audits and blog posts

We will work with you in a strategic role and focus on your primary goal of acquiring clients through content, which is revenue.

While many SEO companies focus on blog volume, traffic and rankings, we will help you with clients, MQL and SQL. Again, why rank higher for “top savings tips” if your target audience isn’t searching for it?

After reading the sections above you will be able to see how our approach works when lead generation and customer acquisition are the main goals.

We’ll handle setup, reporting and tracking, and operate a plan that prioritizes client acquisition over traffic.

3. You can schedule time in advance to work on other things

There are many moving elements involved in understanding the Google algorithm and content marketing.

• Writing techniques
• Conversations with experts
• Extinction
• Content optimization (title tags, meta descriptions, on-page SEO, etc.)
• Distribution
• Link development and backlinks
• Metric tracking and reporting

To properly manage content marketing, a small team is actually needed. You effectively have an extension of your marketing team that can handle every aspect of content marketing when you work with a content marketing agency. A freelancer or SEO firm may only be able to handle a portion of this; In that case, you need to do the rest of the work yourself or work with another freelancer or SEO agency.

Everything is handled by a full-service content marketing firm like Mint Studio, including strategy, writing, publishing, distribution, and ROI tracking. You don’t have to worry about how your content marketing is doing because you’ll receive a report every month that includes the results of your content.

The related post that you can read about more about Financial SEO:

What’s unique about doing SEO in financial services?

How to implement financial services SEO that gets results