At its core, search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies are all about making sure your website looks its best in the eyes of Google. From boosting your load speeds to keyword research, these strategies come together to make up your overall SEO strategy, to create a pretty impressive website with a clear focus on customer experience.
But, not every financial services sector SEO tactic takes place on your website. There are some techniques that work hard behind the scenes to push your business up the search rankings, one of which is link building. To make sure you don’t skip this subtle but mighty tactic within your SEO strategy, we’ve put together a no-nonsense guide with everything you need to know.
What Is Link Building?
In the world of SEO, link building is sort of like collecting green flags for your website. Every time an authoritative site adds a link that points to you, a little (metaphorical) green flag pops up next to your name, letting search engines know that you’re a more credible source.
The more credible the website that links to you, the bigger your green flag will be. Secure a link from a government page, online newspaper, or industry leader and you’re winning at financial services SEO. This can increase your domain authority (DA), which in turn boosts your overall SEO. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it. If lots of other quality websites trust your content enough to link their audiences to it, it must be good, right? Google thinks so, anyway.
There are different types of links to be aware of during link building, including:
- Backlinks: These are the links that point to your website from a third-party site. For example, if a local, online newspaper publishes a story about your business opening and includes a link to your website, this would be a backlink.
- Outbound links: These are links that point from your website to a third-party site, and they’re often used to source statistics or claims. By adding credible outbound links, you highlight the reliability of your content.
- Internal links: These are used to link to other pages within your own website. For example, when writing a blog you might link to your financial services pages, giving your readers a quicker way to learn more about the services you’re discussing. Internal links also come with SEO bonuses, helping Google find, index, and organise your site pages.
In the financial services industry, link-building is particularly important. You need to prove that you’re following legal guidance and different financial authorities, like AAT and ACCA. Adding authoritative links to financial resources makes it easier to prove your compliance and boost your SEO simultaneously.
Why Do We Conduct Link Building?
Link building is a crucial part of the work we do when carrying out financial services SEO. To give you a little insight into what you can expect from these strategies, let’s take a look at some key reasons it’s an SEO priority.
Boost Your SERP Ranking
The number and credibility of your backlinks drastically increase your DA, making it clear to search engines like Google that your site is worth ranking. In fact, the top result in Google has an average of 3.8x more backlinks than others in the top 10 positions, showing just how crucial this is for finance SEO.
It can also highlight your relevance for industries and topics, helping search engines match you to target audience search queries.
Drive Referral Traffic
Securing a backlink from a high-traffic website can put your financial business in front of a large audience. If you manage to earn a link from a relevant website – like a financial paper or blog – you’ll be tapping into a pool of your specific target audience, driving high-quality leads to your financial business.
Build Credibility and Trust
Backlinks and outbound links can drastically increase your credibility, both in the eyes of Google and your target audience. In terms of SEO for financial services companies, backlinks tell search engines you’re a trustworthy source. The more trustworthy you are, the higher you’ll rank
Your outbound links also signal credibility to your audience, showing you’ve done your research, backed up your claims, and are fully-fledged industry experts. You’re proving that you know what you’re talking about which, in the financial industry, is a strategy that can’t be underestimated.
Benefits of Link Building in SEO for Finance Businesses
What can your financial business expect to see from link building? Just some of the benefits include:
- Increased online visibility: Shine the spotlight on your website and boost your finance SEO success, using links to push your website up the SERPs. By securing a higher spot for relevant search results, you’ll earn valuable online visibility and gain a competitive edge.
- Higher-quality organic traffic: Show off your business to a targeted audience with backlinks from relevant sites, tapping into a pool of high-quality leads who are already interested in what you have to offer.
- Strengthened brand authority: Earn gold stars from reputable websites and show the financial industry that you’re a key player, using backlinks to boost the authority of your brand. This works both for search engines and your target audience, helping you cover all of your bases for a winning SEO strategy.
- Networking opportunities: Build partnerships and create a network of industry players, collaborating on projects to become an industry leader. From guest posts to sponsorships and everything in between, your connections can become valuable assets for your business growth.
Effective Link-Building Strategies for Finance SEO
The trickiest aspect of link building is, of course, securing those all-important links. This is a strategy that relies on third parties and, without a bit of industry know-how, it can be difficult to secure the links you’re looking for.
This is why a lot of financial businesses hand the task over to the experts, like our link-building services team at Woya Digital. To boost your SEO, drive high-quality traffic, and increase your credibility, we focus on:
- Guest blogging on reputable financial blogs – We contact relevant businesses and publishing platforms, building up a network of external websites to publish our financial blogs. Each blog will include links straight back to your website.
- Creating high-quality financial services content – By publishing new, informative, and credible quality content to your website, we can naturally build backlinks to your site.
- Listing your website in industry directories – Directories with a high domain authority are a useful source for building your backlinks. They also help you reach your target market and increase your online visibility, making them highly beneficial for your business growth strategies.
- Building relationships with other industry leaders – By networking with other businesses, we’ll put your website on the map. This can lead to partner projects, such as a collaboration whitepaper or guest posts.
- Sending out press releases – We’re experts in all things PR. We’ll send out press releases for newsworthy events (link a new service or a business milestone) to relevant publications, generating media coverage that naturally creates backlinks.
- Creating comprehensive guides and whitepapers – Larger publications give us a chance to dive deep into financial topics and create informative research papers, incorporating statistics and facts that other financial businesses will love to link to. This naturally builds your backlink portfolio and shows off your industry insights.
We can carry out each and every one of these strategies, using a multi-pronged approach to secure you a whole network of high-quality backlinks and organically drive traffic to your website. It’s time-consuming and complex, but it’s a finance SEO strategy that gets results.
Kickstart Your Link-Building Strategy
Ready to add green flags, yes votes, and a big old thumbs up to your website? Give search engines a clear sign that your business is credible and reputable with link building, driving a whole lot of positive attention your way. It’s a core aspect of a financial services SEO strategy, instantly boosts your DA, and places your website directly in front of the audience you’re trying to reach.
At Woya Digital, we carry out comprehensive link-building strategies for financial businesses. From guest posting and digital PR to listing your site on all the relevant directories, we take care of your links so that you can get on with running your business.
Ready to give your brand an online boost? Get in touch with our financial services SEO team today and let’s talk links.