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Trying to come up with the right marketing strategy for your financial business?
In this article, we explore the critical SEO trends in finance for 2024, a sector where 61% of marketers consider improving SEO and growing their organic presence as their top inbound marketing priority. Understanding and implementing these SEO trends for finance is vital, despite the recently wide-spread idea that SEO is not as effective as it used to be. We delved into the latest statistics and advancements to learn that SEO is alive and thriving, but it’s definitely changing. Join us as we navigate through these transformations, and get your finance company equipped with the tools to succeed in search engines in 2024.
This one is one of the most important SEO trends for finance. For financial websites, Google pays extra attention to how trustworthy they are. This is because they fall under a special category called YMYL - "Your Money or Your Life." Websites under this category can have a serious impact on people’s lives. That’s why they are carefully checked by the search engine to make sure they don't have potentially harmful content.
Google uses something called the E-E-A-T framework to determine the standards for YMYL content. This stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
Last year, Google added the first "E" for Experience. Now, Google not only checks who wrote the content but also who runs the website. They look at the website's and content creator's reputation, even checking outside sources.
The first “E” that stands for Experience is a recent addition, but it has now become the most significant and crucial parameter in the abbreviation. Assessors now examine information not only about who created the content on the page but also about who is responsible for the website. (Information on the website + external resources). The reputation of the website and content creator has become more important (external resources are also examined).
Vladislav Trishkin
Team Lead SEO at Promodo
Doing these will help your website get a better review from Google's Quality Raters, which is important for good search engine rankings, especially in the finance sector.
Local SEO trends for finance businesses aim at improving your online visibility in local search results. It ensures that when someone nearby searches for 'bank/financial advisor/money exchange near me,' your firm shows up among the top choices. This strategy encompasses various methods, including keyword optimization and managing local business listings, to boost your visibility and attract local web traffic. The main goal is to prompt the potential local customers to contact your business, whether by email, phone, or in-person visits.
Here are some latest statistics illustrating the importance of local SEO for any business within finance that wants to attract customers to their physical locations:
Not only does local SEO attract traffic, but it is also a must for the convenience and trust of your customers. People who conduct local searches expect to get all the necessary information about your business’s local representation, such as opening hours, website, phone number, holiday availability, etc. And be sure that they will pay extra attention to the rating and reviews to see whether other people were satisfied with your services.
☐ Keyword Optimization: Use keywords that your local customers are searching for. Include city or region names in your content to target local searches.
☐ Set Up Your Google Business Profile: A well-maintained Google Business profile can dramatically increase your visibility. Make sure it's complete with up-to-date information, including address, phone number, and services offered.
☐ Encourage Reviews: Positive reviews boost your credibility. Encourage satisfied clients to leave reviews on your Google Business profile and other local directories.
☐ Local Link Building: Collaborate with local businesses and organizations for link exchanges. Local backlinks strengthen your local SEO.
☐ Mobile Optimization: Most local searches are done on mobile devices. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly, with fast loading times and easy navigation.
☐ Local Content: Create content that's relevant to your local audience. Blog about local finance news or events, showing your engagement with the community.
☐ Properly Optimized Website: Make sure your website is perfectly optimized for web crawlers to appear not only on maps, but also at the top of SERPs.
Is it hard to keep track of all the SEO nuances when working on your website? Here is a free online checker to give you a better understanding of your website’s SEO health.
More than 50% of searches are anticipated to be voice-based in 2024.
This one is among the hottest SEO trends for finance. Voice search changes the nature of keywords and queries. While traditional text searches often involve short, concise phrases or keywords, voice searches tend to be longer and more conversational. For example, someone might type “best interest rates” into a search engine, but they might ask a voice assistant, “What are the best interest rates available for savings accounts today?” This shift means financial companies need to optimize their content for natural language and question-based queries.
Use Conversational Keywords: Incorporate long-tail keywords that reflect how people naturally speak. This involves understanding the questions customers are likely to ask verbally and incorporating those phrases into the website's content.
Create FAQ Pages: These pages can directly answer common questions. For example, a bank might have an FAQ section answering, “How do I open a savings account?” or “What’s the current mortgage rate?”
Improve Website Speed and Mobile Optimization: Voice search is predominantly used on mobile devices. Therefore, ensuring that the website is mobile-friendly and loads quickly is crucial to appear higher in vocal search.
Use Structured Data: This helps voice assistants understand the content of your website better, making it more likely to be used in voice search results.
Invest in Link Building: A healthy backlink profile boosts a website’s ranking in voice search.
In 2024, mobile search is still on the mission to outpace desktop search. SEO experts have been long prepared for the mobile-dominated world. 80% of the websites that appear at the top of search engine results ensure their sites are effectively optimized for mobile users.
Mobile SEO involves optimizing a website for search engines with a specific focus on improving user experience on mobile devices. This SEO trend for finance is increasingly important for financial businesses due to the growing trend of consumers accessing financial information and services via smartphones and tablets.
With the rise of mobile internet usage, more customers are using their mobile devices for financial transactions and information. Mobile SEO ensures that these users have a seamless experience, which is crucial for maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Mobile searches often have local intent. For financial businesses like banks or advisory services, appearing in local search results can drive more foot traffic to physical locations.
Google predominantly uses the mobile version of content for indexing and ranking. If a financial company's website isn't optimized for mobile, it risks lower search rankings.
Video SEO is the process of optimizing video content to increase its visibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs) and within video platforms like YouTube. Optimized video content is among increasingly important SEO trends for finance. It allows to engage an audience that prefers visual and auditory content over text.
Why are videos important for SEO? Here are some numbers that speak louder than any words:
Having a video on your landing page can increase your likelihood of appearing on Google’s first page by 53%.
In global searches, videos show up in 62% of Google's results.
Additionally, posts with videos attract more backlinks and see a 157% boost in traffic.
Similar to traditional SEO, identify relevant keywords and include them in your video's title, description, and tags. For example, a video on retirement planning might include terms like “retirement savings tips” or “401k advice.”
Create informative and engaging videos that provide value to the viewer. This could include tutorials, financial advice, market analysis, etc.
Thumbnails act as the first impression of your video. Design compelling thumbnails that give a clear idea of what your video is about.
Include transcripts and subtitles not only for accessibility but also because they provide more text for search engines to index.
Create and submit a video sitemap to search engines. This makes it easier for search engines to find and index your videos.
Share your videos on social media and other platforms. Encourage embedding and sharing to generate backlinks.
AI and automation are revolutionizing the SEO landscape, offering new ways to optimize web content for better search engine rankings. AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data, providing insights into search patterns and user behavior. This allows for the creation of more targeted and relevant content.
Automation in SEO streamlines repetitive tasks like keyword research, site audits, and backlink analysis. AI also plays a crucial role in understanding and adapting to search engine algorithms. It can predict changes in search trends, allowing businesses to stay ahead of the curve.
After incorporating AI into their SEO strategies, 40% of marketers reported experiencing a revenue boost ranging from 6-10%.
The full capacity of AI is yet to be discovered, however you can already start to explore what it can do to help you dominate SEO in your field.
At Promodo, we have defined a universal algorithm — a mix of AI and manmade effects. While implementing AI at work, we edit all the AI-generated content. In most cases, GPT fails to pass through fact-checking, while Google is way too sensitive to such content.
Vladyslav Trishkin
SEO Team Lead at Promodo
Looking for more insights to adjust your digital marketing strategy for 2024? Here are some industry benchmarks for you to consider.
For successful SEO in the finance niche, it's essential to follow Google's guidelines and stay updated with trends, like regularly updating content based on keyword searches and enhancing the user experience on the website. Typically Google makes changes in the algorithm 500-600 times per year. Keeping track of all the changes and adjusting to fit all the requirements is a difficult task that consumes a lot of time and resources.
Thanks to the team of experienced SEO professionals, Promodo can help you achieve results faster. In fact, the average traffic growth of Promodo’s clients in the first year is 40%.
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