Similar to any other industry, the financial industry requires a strong online presence to attract consumer attention. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can significantly improve a webpage’s visibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). This article explains the importance of SEO strategies for financial institutions, their importance, and their challenges. It also briefs the readers by introducing some effective strategies that once taken into use can bring changes.
Financial services, such as banking, accounting, financial consultation, mortgage, and tax consultation, require a positive online visibility. Clutch, an estimated business service provider, held a Visual Objects 2021 Search Engine Marketing survey that claims that more than three-quarters of “Internet users” look for a location on a search engine before visiting physically. And, after finding a strong physical presence, 45 per cent of consumers are likely to visit the location physically.
So, a better online presence can always come with incorporating strong SEO or Search Engine Optimization in your website. While a good optimization strategy can provide a strong SERP presence for several companies, he/she should be versed in the financial industry. Read on to discover effective SEO strategies specifically tailored for financial advisors.
What is SEO For Financial Services?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves strategies designed to attract traffic to websites in the financial services industry. Similar to the other processes carried out by SEO, it requires technical consideration, pure content, link building, and mobile optimisation.
However, the content featured on a financial website is covered under the category, Your Money Your Life (YMYL). Since a financial advisory can largely impact someone’s important decision, it is covered under Google Guidelines.
What Are The Benefits of Financial Services?
There are several advantages of incorporating search engine optimization into your financial company. They are,
Get More Traffic
In financial services, search engine optimization can upscale the rankings. With translating to a better online visibility. An SEO-based company, FirstPageSage Statistics claims that the first result gets a Click-through Rate (CTR) of 39 percent.
Increases Trustability
Web surfers trust higher-ranking web pages. The higher-ranking web pages through the rate signal trust engines about the user behaviour patterns.
Accelerates Conversion Ratio
A recent survey suggests that websites with higher rankings tend to gain more trust than the ones that don’t. The financial industry is entirely dependent on customer interaction, and so does a website.
What Are The Top 3 Challenges For Financial Services?
Along with advantages, there are a set of challenges faced by the financial industry’s websites. They are,
Sophisticated Content
A banking, financial, or advisory company collaboratively comes under the critical zone umbrella, wherein a single piece of advice can shake an individual’s entire stability. Hence, writers should be extra cautious when writing financial content.
Increasing Competition
Similar to other industries, the financial industry has increasing competition, making it tough for several banks to keep up with the consumers. In such cases, the SEO strategies, in case they are not extensive, can turn ineffective for websites.
Compliance Challenges
The industry falls under the YMYL category, which elaborates on Your Money Your Life. Hence, an SEO optimiser is expected to work with extra concerns.
Why Should You Hire An SEO For Financial Services?
In the 21st century, every industry including financial services is facing cut-throat competition. In such cases, hiring an SEO company can be crucial to garner consumers through an effective online presence;
Your Website Is On “Expert” Hands
Every SEO company, whether large-scale or small-scale, has experts. Since financial services come under the “crucial” handling, they will be overlooked by an expert.
An Accelerated Website Ranking
With reputable optimisation services that specialise in the finance niche, you can garner an accountable SERP for your website.
Feature High-Quality Content
In a website, showcasing high-quality and informative content that caters for the audience is one of the most effective measures to gain trust.
The reputable SEO services have a team of writers that specialises in content related to finance and business.
Keep A Constant Tab
While a finance individual might be unable to keep up with the website, an SEO executive will. By keeping an eye on your website, one can update their customer base.
What Are Some of The Proven Strategies For Implementing SEO in Financial Services?
Search engine optimization, for financial services, involves strategies that once implemented, can be put to use. Here are some of the useful strategies, an SEO executive can conduct,
Build Trust
The financial industry websites work under the category, YMYL, abbreviated as Your Money Your Life. Hence, to improve your website’s framework, you should apply the E-E-A-T framework, which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust.
High-Quality Backlinks
An SEO strategy for financial services is not bound by on-page SEO optimisation but by off-page SEO optimisation. Bringing high-quality backlinks can be crucial to increasing the website’s traction.
Perform An SEO Audit
One of the key steps to developing an impactful SEO strategy is conducting an SEO audit. An effective audit can cover the following issues
- indexing issues
- Internal linking and site architecture
- Duplicate content
- Backlink profile
- Broken links
- Page titles and metadata
Understanding Your Audience
While developing financial content, one should always cater to their target audience. Concise content that caters to the readers can attract the attention of online consumers.
Wrapping Up
Investment in SEO in the financial services industry can be important to gain traction for the websites, and business growth. However, it is crucial to understand that SEO is not a one-time thing for businesses and their respective websites.
Since it is an ongoing process, it might take a while to show the outcomes. According to a survey, an estimated 21 percent of US users are using the Internet to look up local businesses. In essence, the idea of hiring a local SEO specialist for online marketing of financial advisories can be beneficial.