Every industry has some kind of online presence. Retailers focus on e-commerce. Journalists share breaking news. Healthcare businesses provide educational information.
Companies in the financial sector can use the online landscape to improve visibility and serve customers. They can also establish brand authority by educating consumers and helping combat misinformation in a highly important area of the internet.
At least, financial enterprises can do this if their online content is easy to find. That’s where search engine optimization comes into the picture. What does SEO for financial services look like? It’s not quite the same as your traditional optimization process.
Let’s examine four key factors that can help financial service companies create SEO-rich content marketing strategies. Consider these the collective key to the mint that can help your financial company shine out in a crowded online marketplace.
One of the most important factors when engaging in financial SEO is to understand that you’re working with YMYL content. YMYL stands for “your money, your life” and it is a category that applies to online content that influences key decision-making processes for individuals.
Finance is one of the most obvious categories of YMYL, which means you’re going to be held to a higher standard with your content. That means you can’t afford to write weak or incorrect content. You're held to higher standards and need to take extra care with all of the info you put out there.
With that in mind, make sure your YMYL content always has value. Also, invest in strong editorial processes backed by expertise that meets Google’s E-E-A-T standards. From my experience, when companies can establish a strong fact-checking system that ensures all the content is accurate, they thrive.
Also, make sure to reinforce your helpful content with a clear demonstration of your expertise. The best way to do this is to attach articles to accredited authors, such as a certified investor or financial advisor.
With one financial client in the past who was in the retirement space, I suggested having content reviewed by a CPA and ensuring that is noted on each blog that they review. That helped to build trust with the reader that this content was accurate. This was also done by adding a bio for the author to each blog, and linking out to author pages on the website as well. The more you can inform readers about who is writing the content and why they are qualified to talk on financial subjects, the better you’ll be following E-E-A-T standards.
You always want to know about your competitors, including when you’re crafting an SEO strategy. In my time at Relevance, I've found that competitor research is especially valuable when working with clients in the financial sector because there are only so many areas to target in this saturated market.
Financial content can also vary depending on the financial service you’re operating in. A bank’s blog, for instance, might have personal finance tips whereas a cryptocurrency exchange could have a fintech or breaking news focus. You want to understand what kind of content resonates with your particular financially-focused audience.
Identify the top two or three competing brands with a strong online presence and then do some research. If you can get an idea of where competitors are already performing well, it will help you find the best opportunities for digital marketing.
For that same client in the retirement industry, while in the strategy phase for the account I reviewed a smaller start-up sized client, a comparable mid-size company, and 2 larger enterprises that were honestly not even direct competition at that point because of their size. Those two large companies represented what my client hoped to be in the future.
By reviewing a variety of different types of competitors I was able to get a better idea of what goals we should have for the future, and ideas of what was and wasn’t working for both comparable competitors and those “big dogs” of the financial industry. This gave me a better understanding of what was achievable both now and in the future.
Helpful content is key to search engine ranking in the current Google algorithm and showing up in search results. This is particularly important when dealing with YMYL content in the financial industry. Remember, when most people find your content, they aren’t just curious. They’re looking for information, answers, advice, and help.
As a financial company, you have the authority to provide those answers, and you want that expertise to be on display throughout your content. To do this, keep your focus on topical authority areas. (Google’s leaked document in early 2024 showed sitewide topical authority is important for SEO.) Go beyond basic promotional content marketing, and provide multiple perspectives and relevant first-hand experiences whenever possible.
Going back to the client in retirement, I implemented a strategy focused on creating helpful, informational blogs. They didn’t have much of a foundation on their site and were blogging sporadically and inconsistently. By implementing a thoughtful content strategy focused on building topical authority around the idea of alternative investments for a self-funded 401k, I was able to help them start ranking on page one for that keyword after around 5 months. The key was ensuring the blogging was consistent, authoritative, and honed in on the topical authority area of alternative investments.
As your helpful, topic-focused, authoritative content library begins to build, you want to take further steps to reinforce your financial SEO strategy. Linking is a major part of this process. Interlink your content to other pieces across your financial website.
In addition, seek out opportunities to have third-party sites link back to your content. (This is external linking or backlinking.) Backlinks provide validation and signal to Google that you are the authority you say you are. And backlinks aren’t just a quantitative game. You want to have diverse, relevant backlinks from high-quality, authoritative sources.
This strategy was key for the retirement client as well. Not only were we regularly creating helpful, informative content, but we were securing regular backlinks to the informational pillar page we wrote as well. Ensuring your backlinking strategy is working in tandem with your onsite content strategy helps to ensure an effective SEO strategy, which is exactly what I saw with that client as their rankings in the SERP rose.
In addition to backlinks, you also want to improve SEO visibility through technical SEO. A few tips for this include:
SEO success takes time. If you don’t see results after a few months, though, you want to conduct a content review and make adjustments.
Search engine optimization can be a powerful part of a financial company’s growth marketing strategy. However, you want to make sure you go about things the right way. In this YMYL field, bad content can not just waste your time and resources. It can hurt your brand.
If you aren’t sure how to build a strong financial SEO strategy, or certain areas like backlinks and bylines are holding you up, reach out for a free strategy session. Together, we can create a content plan that can crush your SEO goals and send your finance company to the next level.
