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.
When looking for a new accountant, did you know that 72% of potential clients start with an online search? For tax services, that figure increases ever so slightly to 76%, and for loans, it skyrockets to an undeniably huge 90% of financial services clients.
The point? Your online presence and visibility matters, especially if you are in the financial services sector.
By making use of a financial services content marketing strategy (the technique of publishing content to engage and inform your audience) you can cultivate a more visible presence in search engines, tapping into that huge market of financial clients. From blogs to videos, content creates an ecosystem of value designed to push your business into the spotlight.
To learn about content marketing and how it fits into the wider world of SEO for financial services, we’ve put together this handy article.
What Is Content Marketing?
Simply put, content marketing is the creation and publication of content for your business. It involves planning and strategy, content creation, and relevant, consistent distribution, with the aim of engaging and converting your target audience organically.
Financial content can be created in a whole range of forms, including:
Rather than a standalone plan, content marketing is one piece of a much wider, more complex SEO strategy. It sits within search engine optimisation (SEO) in the digital marketing space and is used by 90% of professional marketers to connect businesses with their target audience.
Why We Conduct Content Marketing
Content marketing is an important part of the marketing strategy for any financial business.
Just a few of these reasons include:
Building Trust and Credibility: Content marketing shows you know your apples from your pears (or your HMRC from your Companies House). High-quality, regular content will establish you as a thought leader in the finance industry, showing potential clients that you’re knowledgeable, confident, and trustworthy.
Educating the Audience: Content is crucial for educating your audience. This can include informing them of why certain financial services exist and are so important, the implications of not seeking professional financial support and guidance, and how they can make staying on top of their finances easier.
Engaging Potential Clients: There are a lot of financial services businesses out there, so why choose yours? Content will inform and engage new potential clients, taking them from the top of the sales funnel and nurturing them right through to a conversion.
SEO Benefits: When creating a financial SEO strategy, content marketing is key. By using optimisation techniques, your site can be boosted higher up the ranks for relevant results, helping you get noticed by the audience looking for your services.
Benefits of Content Marketing for Financial Services Companies
As a finance professional, photography and video editing might seem a world away from your industry. What has a YouTube video got to do with helping your clients get their accounts sorted? As it turns out, quite a lot.
Increased Online Visibility
Content marketing is a critical part of ensuring your website ranks higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Considering that everyone who’s anyone in finance has a website these days, this is incredibly important.
By consistently publishing valuable content, you can tap into the Google algorithm and make yourself more favourable in the eyes of search engines. The more valuable they perceive your content, the higher you’ll appear for relevant search results.
This drastically enhances your online visibility. We know that users don’t tend to scroll very far down the SERPs, with a huge majority of clicks going to the first few results, so ranking in those pole positions is going to bring a lot more attention to your financial business.
Higher Quality Traffic
Using content marketing in your financial SEO strategy will drive more relevant, higher-quality leads to your site.
These are users who are actively looking for the services you’re offering with the intent to convert (or a far higher likelihood of conversion).
Enhanced User Engagement
Including videos on your website can boost the average time a user spends on it by 88%.
Quality content engages your users. It entertains, informs, and makes learning more about your industry appealing to your target market. It explains what they want to know and dives deeper into interesting topics, bringing value to your users that entices them to stick around.
Improved Conversion Rates
Content marketing enables winning financial SEO strategies to enhance your visibility and engage your audience. Once you’ve got your audience interested, it also drives conversions.
From calls to action (CTAs) to empathising with pain points, there are a multitude of techniques that encourage your audience to convert.
This allows you to take your high-quality leads right from the top of the marketing funnel – at that first point of engagement – through to a conversion using only the power of valuable, informative content.
Strong Client Relationships
Content marketing is a long-term strategy that strengthens your relationships with your audience, as well as building your SEO.
The right content answers audience questions, empathises with their problems, and provides useful solutions. It helps potential clients get to know your business too. From your tone of voice to greater visibility of your friendly team, it humanises your brand for stronger connections.
This is true both for leads and existing customers. Once a user converts, your content will still work to earn their long-term loyalty.
How Content Marketing Supports A Financial SEO Strategy
We use content marketing for both on-page SEO and off-page financial services SEO. It offers a wealth of opportunities to gain some lovely SEO points, including through:
Keyword Targeting: We carry out keyword research to find the terms your target audience is searching for and work them into your content, helping search engines match your blogs, white papers, and videos to the audience they’re intended for.
Content Planning: Research fuels our content planning sessions, helping us pinpoint the financial topics that your audience is interested in. For example, if we see that your audience is searching ‘How do I register for tax as a sole trader’, we know that content answering this question is going to resonate with your target market.
Optimising for SEO: There are a multitude of ways we optimise content to rank higher in the search results, from adding multimedia components to using keywords in alt tags. This has an impact across your website, showing Google just how relevant, credible, and trustworthy you are.
Distributing and Promoting: From Digital PR to social media marketing, content distribution drives more clicks to your site, building trust with search engines, and encouraging them to increase it’s rankings.
Kickstart Your Financial Content Marketing
In the financial industry, content marketing builds credibility around your business. Informative content that’s easy for non-financial experts to understand can help bridge the gap between you and your audience, showing them exactly how you can help them and cultivating trust.
Quality content will drive high-quality traffic to your website, engage the audience, and encourage them to stick around for longer.
At Woya Digital, we offer complete content marketing services for finance sector businesses. With a team of experienced SEO experts, we’ll work with you to build a winning strategy that drives long-term success. Book a free consultation with our team today.
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The best place to start with any project is a little detail.
SEO is a broad topic and (contrary to what some people think) not about the odd bit of keyword stuffing inclusion into written text.
In reality, SEO strategy efforts need to focus both on on-site SEO and off, and need to form part of a continuous improvement cycle that is constant.
One element of SEO is on-page optimisation, and here, our experts at Woya Digital explain what that really means and what activities form part of it.
The SEO On-Page Optimisation Checklist
On-Page SEO is the optimisation of content within a webpage to demonstrate to search engine algorithms what its about, who its for and on which related queries it should feature on search engine results pages (SERPs).
This includes not just the physical written content within a page but also ‘behind-the-scenes’ type features such as coding that can’t be physically seen by the user but is present in the foundations of the website.
While there’s no one area of Search Engine Optimisation that matters more than another (in part because we’ll never know exactly how Google weights each element of a website against its ranking practices), SEO on-page optimisation is a critical part.
The origins of SEO are set in keyword research, and this still forms a critical element for easy signalling to web crawlers what content is about. More recent updates to Google have involved the inclusion of other on-page SEO elements such as load speeds and accessibility as part of a ‘people-first content’ focus to differentiate between sites where their topics are similar.
SEO on-page optimisation factors include User Experience (UX) factors and so is responsible for not just making the domain easily searchable but also for providing an easy-to-use website experience that’s useful and reliable.
On-Page SEO: Quality Content
SEO originated as a process within which search engines would scan sites for the target keywords being inputted by users into their search queries – and this very much still exists, albeit in a somewhat more sophisticated way than 20 years ago.
Today, the approach of stuffing content with keywords (keyword stuffing) is considered outdated and will harm search engine rankings. The key to ranking well from content now lies in the quality of that being produced, be it written or in another form.
Content Relevancy
Content should include some of the expected target keywords and terms that users will be typing into their search engine queries but more importantly, must be relevant.
The page’s content published on a site should match the search intent behind the keywords rather than just featuring them multiple times.
There are four types of keyword intent, and brands need to ensure that they’re producing quality content relevant to any that may apply to them. These include:
Navigational keyword intent – where a user is searching to find something specific, for example the search ‘McDonalds menu’. This is a user looking to find an exact webpage for a specific brand. Marketers must ensure that relevant searches for their brand match up to the correct pages.
Informational keyword intent – where a user is searching to find information on a topic, for example the search ‘What’s Vitamin A?’. This is a user looking to find details around a topic. Marketers must ensure that users are presented with the info they’re looking for and not with heavy sales content or details of anything unrelated.
Commercial keyword intent – where a user is searching to differentiate between options, for example ‘Honda vs Subaru’. This is a user looking to compare two different, but similar, things. Marketers must ensure that their pages match up to provide preferential information on their own products and that details are comparable in scope to their competitors.
Transactional keyword intent – where a user is searching to complete a specific action, for example ‘Buy Star Wars magazine’. This is a user looking to buy something online – the holy grail for those brands with online shops! Marketers must ensure that their pages offer the transaction that the user is looking for quickly and easily.
Content Freshness
Content should be refreshed regularly to ensure it is current. This means that marketers should be adding optimised new content routinely in order to demonstrate the brand’s ongoing relevancy but also to demonstrate current knowledge within its industry.
Regularly adding a new, quality, optimised blog post to your website is one way in which to maintain content freshness, and further reinforce your authority as an exert in your field.
Content Length
The length of webpage content must also be considered. For some searches, users will expect the information they seek to be present ‘above the fold’ on the page and immediately viewable.
Others will want to ‘deep dive’ into information and read on. Content should, therefore, be optimised to the appropriate length based on the keyword or term, topic and competition.
There are a number of optimisations that can be made on-page but also ‘behind-the-scenes’ – in the coding and mark-up of the page itself.
Meta Tags
Meta tagging titles and meta descriptions allows for brands to set exactly what will be displayed in searches.
This gives the opportunity to specify their messaging clearly and concisely in order to best draw attention from those carrying out searches.
URL Structure
Structuring a URL to coherently demonstrate a webpage’s place on a site as well as what information can be found on it allows for search engines to do the same and reinforce their relevance.
Header Tags
Header tags used correctly through written content provides search engines with a hierarchy of the information provided, letting them know how to read it and what to prioritise.
Internal Linking
Linking within a website’s content to other pages on the same site helps users navigate to find more relevant information without leaving to browse elsewhere, increasing the amount of time users spend on a site and lowering their chances of them visiting a competitor.
Internal linking also helps search engines navigate a site more easily.
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the clickable text in a link, be the navigation internal or external to the site.
It is best practice SEO-wise to have the clickable text relevant to the link rather than generic. For example, where a link is directing to a webpage on greenhouses, the anchor text should read something like ‘great greenhouses for new growers’ rather than ‘click here’.
Page Speed
Page speed is a critical component of UX on any site – and user expectations are at an all-time high with an all-time low level of patience.
Webmasters must ensure that pages load within seconds (and preferably quicker) so that users do not get distracted and click off to find the same information elsewhere. Page speed is now a key Google ranking factor and therefore it’s imperative that any large images, videos or other formatting features are optimised for speedy loading.
Mobile Responsiveness
The majority of web traffic is now accessed on a mobile or portable device and so it is no longer acceptable for websites to be created with only traditional computer web browsers in mind.
All websites must be mobile responsive, able to adapt appropriately to the size of the browser upon which it is being accessed without compromising on format or quality. This is an absolutely crucial factor for search engine ranking and Google confirms this.
Canonical Tags
Canonical tags are used to let search engines know which version of a page to display in search results in cases of duplicate content.
This allows for link equity to be consolidated and improves the chances of accurate indexing of a website.
XML Sitemap
An XML (Extensible Markup Language) sitemap allows for search engine web crawlers to find and index all webpages on a site.
Without a sitemap in place, brands may find that their websites are indexed in a way that doesn’t benefit SEO-wise, and so this gives an element of control over how they are presented.
Robots.txt
A robots.txt file is coding within a website that instructs web crawlers on which pages to index and which not to.
If a website has several pages they’d prefer weren’t included amongst search engine results, this file should always be present.
Schema Markup
Further to the above two points, instructing web crawlers on how to display pages amongst search results, schema markup (sometimes known as ‘structured data’) allows search engines to categorise content and pull from it themes to feature on enhanced listings.
There are currently 32 different types of schema and exactly which is appropriate for a brand will vary. An SEO specialist should be approached for guidance on schema markup and to ensure that it’s being used to its maximum potential.
On-Page SEO: User Experience
UX was previously thought of as a separate discipline to SEO, but Google (and other search engines) now consider it a critical factor – ranking those sites that deliver a good experience above those who don’t automatically.
Navigation and Breadcrumbs
Websites can only be useful if users are able to find their way around them, so it’s important that navigation is prioritised to make it as easy to use as possible.
Breadcrumbs are a popular tool used on larger websites that act as navigation aids, presenting visually the current location on a site at a glance.
Prioritising navigation also allows webmasters to ensure that no pages are left without any internal links to them, as this is detrimental to their SEO value.
Page Layout
When working on website navigation, marketers should consider how the layout of a page impacts on the site’s overall UX.
While all information a user is looking for should be available ‘above the fold’ of a page, there may be value in leaving some information elsewhere to encourage longer browse time and further engagement.
If a page isn’t well constructed and formatted, users will simply click off to another site, in turn decreasing its SEO value as search engines believe the site not to be of use because of its high abandonment rate.
Call To Action Placement
Not all users will arrive onto a website and immediately want to make a purchase, fill out a contact form or complete another desired conversion action.
This means that on pages where a conversion isn’t going to happen immediately, a call to action (CTA) can be helpful to encourage and guide them on through to the next step. The placement of these CTAs is key – they must be simple enough to see and use, but not so frequent that they’re ignored.
Calls to action, when utilised properly, can drive further internal traffic and increase user browse time.
Image Optimisation
Images on a page need to be sized as such so that they load quickly and don’t delay the page load speed, but they also need to be optimised for accessibility purposes.
The inclusion of alt tags on images allows for search engines to index the images themselves and for those with screen-readers and other non-visual facilitation tools to access content.
Multimedia Elements
Content isn’t just text, and the use of varying multimedia allows for different audiences to find a brand’s content useful.
Not everyone wants to read a blog or article. Infographics, videos and audio files can all be present on a website and can all be optimised to prioritise loading speeds (for direct SEO impact) and to encourage onward sharing (for indirect SEO impact).
On-Page SEO: Local SEO
Businesses that have a physical setting serving a geographically-set audience can benefit hugely from optimising their website to alter their search engine results to appear tailored to the user based on where they’re located.
NAP Citations
NAP is an abbreviation of Name, Address and Phone Number. In SEO terms, NAP citations are the coding of this information to present it along with a business’ website where it features in search engine results.
This information allows users to make contact with a company without needing to scroll any further, avoiding them clicking through to or making contact with a competitor.
For local searches, Google will rank websites with NAP citations in place above those who haven’t.
Local Keywords
Local relevant keywords are those that contain location-specific words or phrases to indicate that a search engine user is making a geographically-limited query (ie. ‘gardeners Norwich’ or ‘Doncaster cakemakers’).
The use of target keywords on a website helps drive people in the target location to the site – and in turn, as more local web users visit a site, the higher it will rank locally.
Geo-Targeting Content
Tailoring content to include information relevant to users in a certain geographical demographic allows for local SEO ranking and can be hugely impactful for those looking to target particular audiences.
Businesses don’t need to limit geo-targeting to one city or even country, and can replicate the success of it across varying territories (as appropriate), and in different languages.
On-Page SEO: Social Signals
When content on a website is useful, it will be shared by those who found it to be of benefit.
So many users now active on social media, and these channels allow for content to be shared. The easiest way for marketers to facilitate this content sharing is to include social sharing buttons on their webpages for one-click access to a pre-bundled post on the main social media channels.
While Google doesn’t insist on brands having a social media presence to rank them high, the backlinks to a site demonstrates its authenticity and usefulness and so the SEO impact is indirect.
On-Page SEO: Analytics and Monitoring
SEO is an ongoing activity and something that must be constantly worked at for websites to rank as the algorithms behind search engine rankings shift and change.
Of course, where marketers know what works for their website in SEO they can continue this, and where approaches aren’t working, they can make changes to better the performance.
SEO performance on Google can be monitored through Google Analytics software. This interacts with a website through the implementation of a small piece of code within it, and monitors the performance of the domain in search engine results and the behaviour of users on site.
Google Analytics is complemented by Google Search Console integrations for additional insights and metrics but these further insights can be a little more difficult to navigate and so often require an SEO specialist to report on and work through.
On-Page SEO: Forward Focus
On-page SEO is something that marketers and webmasters have full influence over and so can impact both directly and indirectly on their rankings – an area of digital marketing that often feels like it can’t be controlled.
Signalling to a search engine what a site is about and who its for helps the algorithm best judge how and where to rank it amongst the competition. When done right, on-page SEO can be hugely beneficial to ranking position, but when done wrong, websites will stagnate and suffer.
Woya Digital are SEO specialists and work with websites spanning all a wide range of industries to rank high and gain competitive advantage. No matter how simple or complex a website is in structure, there’s lots that can be done. Get in touch with the team today and let us take a bespoke approach to your on-page SEO to help you rank high, rank locally and rank all the time!
One of the most important components of SEO is keyword research.
Keywords guide the direction of yourSEO efforts, determine the types of search queries you should look to rank for and differentiate your site from your competitors.
But, before you dive into the deep end of keyword optimisation, it’s important to take a moment to pause and consider strategy.
This is where keyword research comes in. To ensure your marketing efforts see the payoff you’re expecting and your business is found by the right audience, you first need to identify the right keywords for your SEO.
From what exactly keyword research is to why it’s so essential for your financial services SEO strategy, uncover everything you need to know in our handy guide.
What is Keyword Research?
Keyword research involves finding those all-important words and phrases that are going to earn you some pretty significant SEO points, and support to get your website ranking in search engine results pages.
Keyword research helps you make conscious decisions to improve the relevancy of your site, ensuring you’re targeting terms that are specific to your business and optimal audience.
If you don’t conduct research, any optimisation done using keywords is going to be guesswork.
Let’s take a quick look at an example to learn more:
Business One wants to optimise using keywords but they skip research phases. Instead, they think optimising for financial services will bring some decent results to their online doorstep. What they don’t know is that this keyword has a super high volume of competition that makes it incredibly difficult to rank for and a low search volume among their target audience.
Business Two adds keyword research to their SEO strategy. They see that financial services isn’t a smart choice, but that accountants in Sussex has a drastically lower volume of competition and a decent search volume among their niche, ticking the boxes forlocal SEO.
Both finance industry businesses move ahead with their optimisation. Business One struggles to rank in any of the top spots and, with aroundhalf of all leads clicking on the first 3 spots in Google, they don’t see any significant changes to their traffic.
Business Two moves up the ranks for accountants in Sussex quickly to claim a top spot and, thanks to the targeted demographic, sees an uptick in leads looking for exactly what they’re offering.
Types of Keywords
A quick note here that, during research forfinancial services SEO, you will uncover different types of keywords. These include:
Head terms: Keywords that can be vague or general but carry a super high search volume, like ‘accountants’, for example.
Long-tail keywords: A more specific key phrase that usually contains 3-5 words and has a lower search volume but is great for targeting more niche demographics, like ‘financial help for small businesses’.
Semantic keywords: Keywords or phrases that are related to your target keyword. The keyword ‘accounting’ for example, might have semantic keywords like ‘accountancy help’ and ‘tax accountant’.
Why Do We Conduct Keyword Research for Financial Services Companies?
At Woya Digital, keyword research is a key part of our financial sector SEO strategies. Why is it so important in our strategy?
Market Demands
Keyword research helps our finance SEO experts understand your audience. We look at what exact terms they’re typing into Google and the services they’re looking for.
This helps us optimise for their queries and create a customer-centric SEO strategy.
Target Audience Insights
Keyword research also reveals the pain points of real customers based on their searches.
Let’s say that there are a few high-volume terms that relate to tax, as an example. This gives us an indication that your audience is in need of tax guidance and help, and this should be a key focus of our financial services SEO strategy, by also advising our content strategy.
Competitive Analysis
Competitor keyword analysis looks into the keywords or phrases that competing companies are ranking for, investing in, and gaining traffic through.
By identifying the terms they’re going after, we can then create content that attempts to rank better than them, and boost your business higher, giving you a competitive edge.
Content Strategy Development
Content strategy makes up a big chunk of SEO services and feeds into lots of other rank-boosting techniques, including keyword optimisation.
As soon as we’ve identified target keywords and terms, we’ll focus on creating content that incorporates them.
Not only is this excellent for ensuring your website gains the understanding of search engines, but it also helps you create relevant content that engages your audience.
Benefits of Keyword Research for Financial Services Providers
Keyword research provides solid foundations for strong financial services companies SEO strategies and guides the direction of campaigns.
When using well-researched keywords in your content, you will see a whole range of business-boosting perks, including:
Increased visibility: Targeting the right keywords in your content will help your website rank higher in the SERPs. You’re telling Google that your business is relevant to audience queries, increasing your online visibility and organically driving traffic.
Higher-quality leads: Well-researched keywords target specific demographics. These are the audiences who are actively looking for a business just like yours, earning them the title of high-quality leads.
Enhanced user engagement: Once you know what your audience is searching for, you’re better able to help with their queries. Creating relevant, high-value content shows you understand your target market, and this will increase user engagement and highlight your business as a source of relevant expert information and knowledge.
Improved conversion rates: When you’re proving to your audience that you have the solutions they need, they’ll be far likelier to trust you with their finances. Aligning user intent, keywords, and your content can culminate in higher conversion rates.
Increased ROI: By pinpointing the right keywords for your business, you can focus your marketing resources on areas you know will see more impactful results.
Identifying the right keywords feeds the next steps in your SEO strategy, and enhances results, making it a key priority. When working on financial services sector SEO strategies, our team begins with in-depth research to guide our decision-making.
Identifying the Highest Value Keywords
We always want to target the highest-value keywords for your business. These include keywords with high search volumes, lower competition, and that we think will drive higher-quality leads to your site.
We’ll also take into account the current ranking websites to work out how likely you are to outrank their pages (government websites, for example, are notoriously tricky to beat).
Tailoring Content to Audience Queries
Our high-value keywords directly influence the financial services SEO content we create. Using insights into what your audience is searching for, we can create content that:
Answers their questions
Meets their needs and interests
Directs them towards relevant services
If we know, for example, that a lot of people are looking for terms related to small business tax expenses, we know that there’s an audience for this type of content.
We will then focus on content that answers key questions about expenses, boosting audience engagement and satisfaction, and earning your business some key brand awareness points.
Keyword research helps guide our on-page optimisation, filling your site with relevant terms that we know will help you rank.
We’ll specifically target those high-quality keywords for the on-page elements that gain the most attention from search engines, including meta tags, image tags, and headers.
Enhancing Off-Page SEO
When building domain authority, we’ll use keyword research to boost your off-page SEO too.
Your high-value keywords inform our link-building and outreach strategies, boosting your credibility in the eyes of search engines and helping you reach more of your relevant audience.
Start Building A Financial Services Industry SEO Strategy
If you’re a business owner in financial services, SEO keyword research could be the starting point of skyrocketing your business growth.
From identifying your target audience needs to outshining your competitors, understanding the terms your potential clients are searching for can drastically improve your market understanding.
Optimise your SEO efforts to drive conversions, enhance user engagement, and establish yourself as an industry leader with high-value keywords.
At Woya Digital, we take keyword research seriously as a part of any digital marketing strategy. With a team of experts and years of industry experience on our side, we can help you develop keyword-driven financial SEO strategies to drive leads to your website.
Book an SEO Chat
The best place to start with any project is a little detail.
There are over 80,000 financial businesses in the UK and – looking at the averages – around 80% of them have a website. That puts the number of companies in financial services vying for online visibility at a whopping 64,000 – which provides a good indication of the level of competitiveness to rank.
With so many businesses out there, it can feel impossible to secure the attention of your target audience. That’s where search engine optimisation (SEO) comes into play.
SEO helps to push your website up the search engine results pages (SERPs). By implementing factors that we know search engines like Google love, your website is much more likely to reach those coveted top spots for relevant search terms, driving more traffic to your site and boosting brand awareness.
Find out more about SEO for financial services companies, and why it’s such a crucial part of your digital marketing strategy.
Importance of SEO for Financial Service Providers
In financial services, SEO plays a critical role in driving on site conversions. But what exactly can you expect to see from your SEO strategy?
Increased Online Visibility
When using a search engine like Google, the vast majority of users don’t look beyond the first page of search results. The top three organic search results claim almost 70% of all Google clicks, with the last users spread out over the next few websites and a couple of brave browsers dipping their toe into page two.
The point here is that if you’re not ranking in those top spots, the majority of your target audience simply won’t see you. Even with a dazzling website and competitively-priced services, you won’t get the visibility you need to drive sales.
The overarching goal of SEO efforts is to stop this from happening. Our SEO campaigns aim to skyrocket your site up the ranks so that all (relevant) eyes are on you, enhancing your online visibility for more powerful marketing.
Building Trust and Credibility
Users trust search engines – it’s one of the reasons they stick so heavily to those top results.
They trust that search engines are going to find them reputable, relevant web pages that meet their needs. So, when your website turns up at the top, they also trust that you’re the business they’re looking for.
This drastically improves your credibility in the eyes of your audience. When you’re in the top spots, you have a bigger sway over your leads purely because of your pole position, driving eager consumers who are ready to trust you.
You’re also likely to see engagement increase, which will further bolster loyalty as your credibility increases, creating a trickle-down effect of advantages.
Targeted Traffic
Your financial services SEO strategy is focussed on driving high-quality leads to your website. It places you directly in the eye-line of the users who are already on the hunt for what you’re offering, giving you access to an audience who are almost ready to convert.
Rather than throwing an advert out there and hoping to secure a few interested leads, it’s a targeted method of digital marketing that brings relevant traffic straight to your digital doorstep.
When it comes to your long-term marketing success, this is important. High-quality leads are more likely to convert.
Cost-Effective Marketing
With an experienced financial services sector SEO agency by your side and solid strategies in place, SEO becomes a strong contender for one of the most cost-effective marketing methods.
One of the reasons for this is that it is a long-term strategy rather than a quick scheme to push short-term sales. SEO builds solid foundations that will generate results into the future, attracting leads over a much longer period.
A snowball effect can often be seen with SEO, in which it becomes more effective over time, boosting your return on investment (ROI) as it does.
The alternative method to SEO is pay-per-click (PPC), which works a little differently. Paid ads aid in generating a quick uptick in website traffic and driving some snappy sales, but as soon as you stop paying for PPC, it stops working. SEO, on the other hand, provides ongoing ROI that pushes your investment further.
Pair the two together – SEO and PPC – and you can secure short-term boosts and consistent long-term growth.
To gain more insight into the world of finance industry SEO services, here are some of the core components of a winning SEO strategy.
Keyword Research
Optimising your website with relevant keywords is one of the most important elements of SEO. These are the key words and terms that your audience is searching for – like accountant near me or financial services.
By identifying key search terms, and optimising your website with them, you are telling Google that your website is relevant to these words. Google can therefore identify and rank your website according to searches including these terms, boosting your visibility for the right audience.
Content Optimisation
Regularly updating your website with fresh, keyword-optimised content is a smart way to gain SEO points.
As part of Woya Digital’s finance sector SEO services, we optimise content to ensure it ticks all the boxes for search engines and audiences. Balancing keyword-rich, informative content with the perks of regular upgrades provides a big push for your on-page SEO.
Link Building
When a reputable website links to you, you gain a bit of their credibility in the eyes of search engines. The big stars of SEO are giving you a shout-out and Google’s always listening.
This strategy is known as link building, and it involves boosting the number of inbound valuable external links pointing towards your website to increase your domain authority. Your domain authority is an indicator of your website’s reputation and reliability within a niche, and the higher it is, the better.
Technical SEO
SEO can get pretty technical at times, with a lot of heavy coding work and website development needed to ensure you rank. Some of the technical SEO factors that require focus include:
All of this comes together to build a strong, high-quality site with a well-put-together back end, which search engines love. This drives the performance of your website too, creating a better user experience that boosts your credibility and cultivates a clear, consistent brand identity.
Local SEO
Many financial services sector businesses have a local focus. Even those aiming for national – or even global – reach, can and should optimise for local search, too, in order to win over potential nearby clients.
Local SEO ensures you’re visible to more localised leads through a number of techniques, including the creation of local pages, the use of local keywords and location-based search term optimisation and setting your business up on key local search platforms, like Google My Business.
The Benefits of SEO for Financial Services Companies
We’ve highlighted the importance of SEO for businesses in the financial industry, but before we wrap up, here’s a quick run-through of some of the additional benefits you can expect with an effective SEO campaign:
Enhanced customer experience: Techniques including improving page speeds and creating responsive websites cultivate a smoother online user experience for your leads, boosting your brand image.
A competitive edge over industry competitors: By climbing up the rankings, you’re literally placing your business above (and in front of) your competitors for a larger share of the market.
Increased brand awareness: Increased, prominent visibility in the relevant SERPs will result in increased brand awareness and familiarity.
Build authority: Generating relevant and engaging SEO content presents your financial business as a knowledgeable leader in the larger financial niche, shining the spotlight on your credibility and expertise.
Improved conversion rates: By targeting higher-quality leads and focusing on strategic marketing (such as including internal links and calls to action) your conversion rages will naturally increase.
Access to performance metrics: A crucial aspect of SEO involves analysing data that can drive many other business decisions, creating a more streamlined marketing approach.
Investing in SEO for your Financial Services Company
SEO ensures that your business is positioned directly in front of your key audience. It brings visibility to your website, drives conversions in a natural, non-invasive way, and increases your credibility in the eyes of high-quality leads. If you want to secure those top spots for your business, SEO is an important aspect of any effective marketing strategy.
As a financial services industry business, investing in SEO is crucial for driving organic traffic.
Our financial services SEO team at Woya Digital are here to support you in driving your business up those search engine rankings. We know the importance of online visibility for your business and, with years of industry experience and technical SEO expertise, we can create a tailored SEO strategy designed to direct leads to your site, over your competitors.
Ready to boost your online visibility and drive sales? Get in touch with our financial services SEO team to learn more and book a free consultation with our experts.
Book an SEO Chat
The best place to start with any project is a little detail.
The March 2024 Google Core Update was rolled out with the aim of improving search quality by targeting content abuse and promoting original, valuable content, leading to significant changes in site rankings and Google search results.
Google wrote: “The March 2024 core update is a more complex update than our usual core updates, involving changes to multiple core systems. It also marks an evolution in how we identify the helpfulness of content.”
Woya Digital provide insights and strategies for adapting to this Google update and improving website rankings.
Introduction to the Google Core Update March 2024
The Google March Core Update represents a pivotal moment in the evolution of search quality and spam prevention.
By introducing new spam policies that specifically combat different types of content abuse, Google is taking a proactive stance in enhancing the relevance and usefulness of search results.
For instance, the update is designed to diminish the impact of scaled content abuse, where large volumes of low-quality content are created to manipulate search ranking. This move by Google underscores the company’s commitment to prioritising high-quality, informative content that genuinely serves users’ needs.
The emphasis on displaying more helpful and relevant results through the integration of innovative signals highlights Google’s dedication to refining the search experience for users. By focusing on reducing unhelpful and unoriginal content, the core update strives to direct traffic towards reputable sites that offer valuable information.
For example, websites engaging in site reputation abuse by publishing third-party content on well-regarded platforms to manipulate rankings will face penalties under the new policies. This strategic shift not only benefits users seeking reliable information but also encourages site owners to uphold content quality standards to maintain search visibility and credibility.
Key Changes in the Google Core Update
This Google algorithm update brings about significant changes aimed at improving the quality of search results and combating spam. One of the crucial changes is the crackdown on scaled content abuse, which is where websites churn out a massive amount of low-quality content to manipulate their rankings.
Websites that generate numerous pages with little to no content value just to increase their online visibility will face penalties under this update. By targeting this abuse, Google is striving to ensure that search results are populated with authentic and valuable content, enhancing the user experience and Google’s credibility.
In addition to tackling scaled content abuse, Google’s update also takes a firm stance against site reputation abuse.
This involves identifying and penalising websites that engage in manipulative tactics (Black Hat SEO) to deceive users and search engines, compromising the integrity of the search results.
Sites attempting to boost their rankings through dubious means such as publishing misleading information or participating in link schemes will now face consequences. By addressing site reputation abuse, Google is reinforcing the importance of maintaining a trustworthy online environment and promoting ethical practices among site owners.
The proactive classification of expired domains repurposed for boosting Google rankings as spam further underlines Google’s commitment to combating deceptive tactics and ensuring a fair playing field for all websites.
Impact on Website Rankings and Search Results
The March Core Update has brought about significant changes in the SEO landscape, causing a ripple effect across various sites and their rankings.
Websites that have relied on low-quality and irrelevant content are now facing the consequences of being deindexed by Google. This move reinforces Google’s unwavering commitment to delivering high-quality and relevant information to users, thereby enhancing the overall search experience.
This update also highlights Google’s shift towards prioritising quality over quantity. This means that websites are now being evaluated based on the originality, depth, and value they offer to their audience.
Websites that churn out shallow, duplicate content solely to manipulate search rankings are being penalised. This shift not only compels site owners to reassess their content strategies but also encourages them to focus on creating valuable and engaging content that resonates with their target audience.
Ultimately, the emphasis is on elevating the standard of online content to ensure that users are presented with accurate, relevant, and insightful information in their search results.
Strategies to Adapt to the Google Core Updates
Adapting to the Google Core Update of March 2024 entails more than just following the latest SEO trends; it requires a fundamental shift in the approach to content creation and user experience (UX).
Site owners must now focus on demonstrating expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) in their content to meet Google’s updated criteria.
For example, a medical-focused website aiming to rank well post-update should ensure that their medical articles are written or reviewed by professionals in the field, providing accurate and reliable information for users.
In addition, user experience is paramount in the wake of the Core Update. Websites that offer seamless navigation, fast loading times, and mobile responsiveness are more likely to rank higher in search results.
By proactively adjusting strategies to meet these new expectations, website owners can not only maintain their rankings but also improve their online presence in the long term.
Expert Opinions and Analysis on the Google Core Update
Industry experts like Jeff Coyle and Barry Schwartz have provided valuable insights into the implications of the March 2024 Core Update on website rankings and the broader digital ecosystem.
Jeff Coyle has highlighted the importance of creating original, in-depth, and valuable content to align with Google’s emphasis on quality over quantity post-update. Barry Schwartz has emphasised the significance of user experience and expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) in content to maintain or improve search rankings in the wake of the update.
Expert recommendations not only acknowledge the seismic shift caused by the update but also highlight the need for website owners to proactively adapt their strategies to meet the evolving search landscape.
By looking into the patterns of websites affected by the update, businesses can identify underlying weaknesses in their content and SEO practices. This analysis allows for the execution of tailored strategies aimed at enhancing website performance and search rankings.
Adapting Strategies for Google Core Update Success
The Google Update of March 2024 flags a big shift for website owners and digital marketers, highlighting the critical role of quality content, user experience, and compliance with Google’s guidelines in achieving success in search rankings.
As the SEO landscape continues to evolve, stakeholders must stay abreast of the latest Google algorithm updates and adapt their strategies accordingly. Focusing on producing content that is original, in-depth, and valuable for users can significantly enhance a website’s visibility and credibility.
Website owners need to place a strong emphasis on expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) to align with Google’s search quality guidelines. By demonstrating expertise in their respective fields, establishing authority through backlinks and citations, and fostering trust with transparent and accurate information, websites can bolster their reputation and improve their chances of ranking well in search results.
