Content
SEO For Banks: Optimizing Your Online Presence
September 21, 2023
15 mins
Marketing strategy is what financial sector companies should focus on. Search engines play a pivotal role in banking and financial services marketing strategy. Search engine optimization (SEO) is among the best ways to attract new customers and leads, as well as to draw traffic to a bank's service pages.
Search engine optimization for banks will help your website rank higher in search engine results. By optimizing your page to create a focused funnel of traffic from search engines, you will see an uptick in website traffic, better leads for your business, and revenue growth.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for banks just as for any other business in the financial sector.
The success of a banking institution requires the use of a new customer base and maintenance of current customers by making their financial services easily found. The key objectives of SEO in the banking sector include:
Having a content and optimization strategy that tackles these particular tasks will help you draw in new customers .
According to stats, 82% of users conduct online research before making a decision, especially about whom to trust their money to. If you fail to create a strong presence on search engines, you risk losing all the traffic to your competitors.
Let’s step into the prospective customer's shoes who’s searching for your bank. When they put in a keyword in the search bar, they find your top competitor dominating search engine results amongst the banks in a particular area. Think about the target demographics you are trying to reach and the search engine terms they would typically use.
Have you already put efforts in SEO, but your rankings still barely reach the first result page? Promodo experts suggest conducting a SEO audit to avoid taking shots in the dark.
Learn more about why you might want to start your journey with an audit and collaborate with experienced SEO specialists even on the website development stage.
As we’ve already mentioned above, it’s impossible to overestimate its importance for SERP rankings.
In the finance sector, Google has taken additional measures to indicate the credibility of financial companies to its users. Search engines have established a distinct classification for sensitive web content that can profoundly affect the physical and financial welfare of readers. Google refers to this type of content as YMYL, which stands for "Your Money or Your Life." Pages falling within this category undergo a comprehensive assessment to guarantee they do not contain potentially hazardous content.
To evaluate such content, Google utilizes the E-E-A-T framework, which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
Experience: Focuses on the user experience, ensuring that the website or content is designed with the user in mind and meets their expectations, needs, and preferences.
Expertise: Evaluates the relevance of the content creator or author in their particular area of expertise.
Authoritativeness: Assesses the authority and reputation of the content source or website.
Trustworthiness: Measures the trustworthiness of the information and the website itself, especially when sensitive topics are concerned.
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
Websites that demonstrate a high level of E-E-A-T usually rank higher in search engines. Google takes this framework seriously when it comes to the websites from the YMYL industries, and Google’s assessors go through your website to make sure it meets the requirements.
Here is what you can do to meet these requirements:
□ make sure your site has a secure connection protocol;
□ ensure your blog posts name the author, add author photo and bio to increase credibility;
□ take care of user experience on your website;
□ have accurate information in your “About”, “Terms and Conditions” and “Contact” pages;
□ have real people’s email in the contact form instead of a generic one.
These steps will help you get better feedback from Google’s Quality Raters.
Banks utilize a series of steps to put themselves at the top of search engine traffic, namely:
Let’s take a closer look at each of them.
Keyword research is the primary step for successful banking SEO. Start with audience research and develop a definitive keyword strategy for how customers may search for your bank. Using keyword tools like Ahrefs or Semrush can be an excellent way to see keywords ranking your competitor's content. Read our article to choose a perfect tool that will best match your marketing goals.
Once you have a list of keywords, you can see which ones have a high volume and which items entail low competition.
Stuffing keywords into your content may get you blocklisted. Still, if you're naturally including these keywords as part of your content creation , you'll likely see SEO benefits while your content strategy evolves.
You need your page to be correctly indexed and found on search engines to keep building up business across the banking sector niche. Even if you're writing good content, it might be difficult for Google to find it unless it contains an indexing code. If you've already created a website, it can be beneficial to audit your website using the Google Site Audit Tool or hiring a professional. Getting a sense of an overall compatibility of your technical SEO and diving into issues that prevent you pages from being indexed is a sound starting point.
Something as simple as a dead link or missing an image file may prevent a page from loading correctly or being indexed in a search engine to help prospective customers find your page. With regular SEO audits, we'll ensure that your site is functional and that your on-site content ranks in search engines.
If you're looking to save precious time from delving into technicalities, Promodo offers exceptional SEO services tailored for banks.
On-page elements must also be indexed appropriately for SEO at your banking page. Missing a title tag or having content like unlabeled images could hurt your scores. Do not miss out on a chance to recruit new visitors for your page. Proper optimization of your title tags, content, internal links, URLs, and image files on your website will all help your pages rank higher and get featured across search engines.
Your banking content will drive traffic to your site regularly once it offers value to the users. If you're mainly publishing marketing-based content and not giving the user any applicable information to help reduce their financial stress, you are hardly likely to get organic web traffic.
Many banks have adopted a web strategy of publishing financial banking tips or posting frequently asked questions (FAQs) about their products and services. This way, they win local customers interested in banking services. Create a unique and creative library that will drive more traffic to your page, keep existing customers coming back, and attract new customers.
Developing your backlink portfolio is crucial while it establishes your authority with both readers and search engine algorithms. Prioritize quality over quantity when it comes to backlinks. Diversify your anchor texts by incorporating exact match and partial match keywords along with branded and generic terms. This approach ensures a more organic and balanced backlink profile that appeals to search engines. Regularly monitor your profile for any harmful links that may adversely affect your SEO efforts.
Here are a few strategies for successful link building:
Consider guest writing for reputable resources in the world of finance. This will give you the opportunity to insert links back to your website and gain wider visibility across your niche.
Identify websites, bloggers, or journalists who cover topics related to your industry. You can reach out to them to discuss the terms of placing your links within their content.
Participate in conferences and seminars or build a community of professionals in the finance sector. This way, you’ll expand your outreach and create space for collaboration and partnership.
Sponsoring events that align with your bank’s values and brand image will make you seen by the target audience and bring quality links. However, you need to double check whether a particular event is worth associating with.
If your banking facility operates within a small area or you have selected regions of bank operation, it's essential to adopt a regional SEO strategy. When you focus your content on a specific area, you will get higher quality leads to your page and focused financial advice relevant to your customers because it's about the area they bank in. Local SEO is an extension of the keyword strategy, and it can be an essential step to define where your bank operates. Furthermore, you’ll publish valuable banking content to resonate with locals seeking financial assistance within that particular area. Create content that uses place-specific data from the area you cover. Include information about your service area, the local events you participate in, or changes to financial regulations in your state or region. Search engines will rank local content based on the geographic location of the person searching, so local SEO is a popular way to optimize your web page further.
As you optimize your page, ensure you have a tracking and analytics strategy to determine what's working best. Google Analytics tools make an excellent start for tracking the incoming links to your page and the search terms that users commonly use to access your content. Look at the trending content samples and create similar content while publishing articles on your pages. If you monitor the performance of the most popular pages of your website, model their format and provide similar answers while planning your future posts . Tracking and analytics tools will help you spot what’s working best and what are the major gaps you should fill.
Last, but not the least, you’ll not see fast results with SEO. However, over time it will become a low-cost-and-effort source of constant traffic you can rely on.
Banks don't need to publish content on their websites every day, but having a regular content schedule of posting 2 to 3 times a week can be an excellent start for generating additional pages to index .
Start by studying your niche and defining your goals for future content. List valuable topics you could cover for your customers in range. Use keyword research tools like the Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs. As you craft valuable content, consider the keywords used by the competitor websites.
Social media is among SEO ranking factors. If you create a professional profile on multiple social networks, you will have relevant backlinks for your website content. While people engage with your page, search engines will better rank your brand name. Benefit from social media cues used by your closest competitors and spot the networks preferred by your target audience.
Content Marketing Manager at Promodo
Immersing myself fully in any topic I explore and my appreciation for simplicity are the driving forces behind my work.
SEO Team Lead at Promodo
Vladyslav has been working as SEO Specialist for over 5 years.His portfolio of projects includes: Ukr.net, Sinoptik, Concert.ua, etc.
He is a fan of Ahrefs, enjoys reading Google's Assessor's Guide, and is always ready to have a discussion about SEO.His main specialization is promoting content and media projects, and he has numerous successful case studies.
Beneficial link on Vladyslav's expertise:
1. https://www.youtube.com/live/2hGEmklt7ZM?feature=share
2. https://www.education.ua/trainings/trainers/20215/
3. https://wordfactory.ua/4-stati-ot-wordfactory-o-faktore-avtorstva-dlya-ranzhirovaniya-ymyl-sajtax/
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