2017 Financial Services SEO WhitepaperHas Google breathed new life into financial services (FS) SEO?

We take another look at the research we complied in

early 2016 to examine what impact the latest Google

changes have had on the financial services sector.

new challenges in 2017

In an increasingly competitive marketplace, financial

services brands must not only compete with the

dominant aggregators on the Search Engine Results

Page (SERP), but with larger-sized paid search ads

Changes to paid search ads means the

space for organic search results to

appear above the fold is reduced

“ “

After analysing the organic rankings of eight financial

services markets, including:

▪ Credit cards

▪ Current accounts

▪ Insurance

▪ Investments

▪ ISA

▪ Loans

▪ Mortgages

▪ Savings

It was evident that aggregators and consumer sites

continued to dominate the natural search rankings…

However as Google continues to tweak

its algorithm in a bid to deliver the best

possible organic results, new

opportunities are emerging

In April, the aggregator-dominated Insurance market returned

an all-aggregator result in the top five organic positions for

nearly 7.5%

of searches

By December, this had dropped to aggregator-only organic

search listings for only 0.18% of searches made

It seems that Google managed to

achieve its aim of delivering more

varied results to users during 2016

“ “

Only the savings market saw a significant increase in

aggregators in the Top 5 natural results in December 2016. In all

other FS verticals the results delivered are more varied or roughly

as they were.

Table 1 — shows the average number of aggregators appearing in the top 5 natural search results positions for each FS market, and the change between April and December 2016.

As a result, ranking well (in organic positions

1, 2 or 3) is more important than ever.

what can you learn from the big players…

Brands that have cleaned up their link

profile and successfully migrated to

https:// have re-appeared in the

rankings or improved visibility

Brands with sites with good technical

SEO and sematic URL’s rank well

Strategies designed to build rankings

for head, torso and longtail search

terms can lead to increased visibility

Content rich, informative landing pages

specific to products or services

improve rankings

Brands with a strong social strategy

and use paid-for techniques to boost

engagement continue to make gains

The Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is still a

challenging place for financial services companies

hoping to rank for generic search terms

steps to success

It’s important to understand your customers,

their behaviours and their need states so you

can ensure you provide information that

answers their queries

customer profiles and need states can inform content strategies

Build content rich, informative landing pages for

product or service key search terms and don’t be afraid

to incorporate a mixture

of content types

quality content

PPC can be used as a short term tactic to prove there is a

demand for a new product or service. Use paid search to

size the potential site traffic volumes, quotes and

conversions from search terms

testing content need with ppc

▪ Audit links

▪ Invest in good on-page SEO

▪ Regularly crawl your site to check for issues

ensure your site’s technical attributes are optimal

implement site migrations thoroughly

Focus on making sure there is a

complete and robust redirection plan

in place and check your site for

duplicate URLs

Use a measurement framework that is right for your brand.

▪ Track campaigns

▪ Align Google Analytics data with search console data to

build a case for SEO changes.

measurement

Invest in a strong social strategy to

broadcast content and boost with

paid for activity

appendixRanking Score

was calculated

as follows:

download the full whitepaper

Go to http://eqi.md/2lX9vAF

to download the 2017 Financial Services

SEO Whitepaper

contact us

Call us on 01793 715440

or email new.business@equimedia.co.uk

if you would like to discuss how we can grow your business.