Financial Services SEO: 10 Things to Know (+ What It Costs)

SEO for financial services is the method of improving a financial business website to rank higher on the search engine results page (SERP). While the process includes standard SEO principles, these specific strategies are unique to the industry.

The financial services industry is among the most competitive for search engine optimization (SEO).

To make matters more challenging, financial service companies face legal obstacles like federal and state regulations and restrictions set by Google.

With the right SEO strategy, however, finance companies can reach more prospective customers and turn high rankings into a high ROI.

How to do SEO for financial services: 10 tips

By combining key aspects of technical SEO, committing to quality content, and keeping up with regular SEO audits, you can increase organic traffic, boost conversions, and earn authority status.

1. Understand YMYL and E-E-A-T
2. Use content clusters
3. Add visual content
4. Repurpose old content
5. Build and maintain a keyword map
6. Conduct competitor and market research
7. Improve trustworthiness with technical SEO
8. Maximize your chances to rank higher on SERPs
9. Update Google Business Profiles and local webpages
10. Prioritize UX for your website and apps

 1. Understand YMYL and E-E-A-T

Google takes all content in its algorithm seriously, but this is especially true for YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) content.

YMYL is defined as content that can dramatically influence and impact the reader’s life — think medical advice or, you guessed it, financial advice.

According to Google, these pages could affect the “happiness, health, financial stability or safety” of users. Suffice it to say that the majority of FinServ companies’ web pages fall into the “YMYL” category.

When deciding how to rank a YMYL page, Google relies on its E-E-A-T standards. (Image: Rawpixel)

This can include content pertaining to:

• Investments
• Taxes
• Retirement planning
• Loans
• Banking
• Insurance

Pages that allow online purchases and money transfers also fall into this category.

So, when deciding how to rank a YMYL page, Google relies on its E-E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) standards.

More specifically, E-E-A-T stands for:

• Experience: Firsthand experience in the subject matter.
• Expertise: Knowledge and skills on the subject.
• Authoritativeness: Relevant credentials (qualifications, experience, etc.) to be considered a primary resource on YMYL information.
• Trustworthiness: The sum of your experience, expertise, and authoritativeness — along with a secure and safe website with relevant certifications.

A quick way to prove your authoritativeness and trustworthiness is to add reviews, success stories, and testimonials to relevant web pages

 2. Use content clusters

Whatever niche of the finance industry you’re in, the information and advice you share can sometimes be technical or complex.

To make it easier for searchers to digest your content while increasing the appeal to search engines, consider implementing content clusters as a part of your content marketing strategy.

Content clusters consist of a pillar page and several supporting pages:

• Pillar pages serve as the main subject overview with general information about the topic.
• Supporting pages provide more in-depth information on the sub-topics covered in the pillar page (with links to the pillar page).

Content clusters allow you to employ a robust internal link-building strategy, and use a variety of relevant keywords and search terms while demonstrating your expertise.

 3. Add visual content

When it comes to financial advice or data, visual content like infographics and video help simplify complex information.

Consider implementing different types of visual content, including:

• Graphs and charts
• Explainer or how-to videos
• Review videos
• Webinar recordings
• Tutorials
• Q&A videos

Want more? Check out our webinar recording, Financial Services Marketing: 14 Proven Ways to Drive Revenue with PPC.

Particularly for financial topics, it’s crucial for the content on your site to be accurate, helpful, and up-to-date if you want your company to be seen as an authority. (Image: Rawpixel)

 4. Repurpose old content

If your website has been around for a while, you likely have existing content. To improve your SEO efforts, it may be time to give these posts another look.

Here are some ways you can repurpose and refresh your current content:

Updates: The financial sector is highly volatile. A big chunk of your content can become outdated quickly. However, it doesn’t mean you need to tackle new content creation while letting the previous content languish.

Simply update your old posts and articles to reflect changes. This will also help you build up page authority.

New audiences: You can repurpose old content to suit new segments of your target audience as well. For example, leave the core data intact but tweak or add to it to suit another audience segment. (This could look like adding in a reference that Gen Z would get.)

Formats: Got a well-performing blog post or webinar? Create a supplementary piece of content that you can internally link to the existing content to generate even more website traffic.

Particularly for financial topics, it’s crucial for the content on your site to be accurate, helpful, and up-to-date if you want your company to be seen as an authority.

Overwhelmed already? Then letting an SEO company (or an experienced SEO agency like HawkSEM) take the wheel may be just what you need. Check out these success secrets to making an SEO agency partnership work for you.

 5. Build and maintain a keyword map

A keyword map assigns specific keywords to individual pages on your site. This fuels an effective and organized content strategy.

When conducting keyword research, pay attention to long-tail keywords to catch customers closer to the middle of the sales funnel. Unsurprisingly, target audiences for financial institutions often browse numerous websites before making a purchase decision.

By employing long-tail keywords, you can attract those who have already done some research on the subject. These people may be more likely to convert than those who search using more general high search-volume keywords.

Don’t worry too much about keyword density. In the FinServ industry, being accurate and providing valuable, relevant content helps far more with FinServ SEO ranking.

Especially concerning YMYL content, both Google and readers value content that provides the correct context to answer queries far above the number of specific terms used.

In fact, research on over 1,000 banking terms showed that the top-ranked pages only included the keyword a single time on average.

 6. Conduct competitor and market research

In addition to keyword research, you should also research your competitors and your audience.

Remember, your direct competition is only one factor.

When it comes to search results, you’re likely competing against many tangential sources like finance blogs, media companies, YouTube channels, and anyone else who isn’t in your direct industry but publishes related content.

Conduct detailed surveys to determine audience pain points, the specific language they use to describe their issues and feelings, and the kind of solutions they’re looking for.

Building the most accurate ideal customer persona possible will greatly enhance your FinServ SEO efforts.

 7. Improve trustworthiness with technical SEO

As mentioned above, trust is a key issue both for consumers and search engines, when it comes to SEO for the financial services sector. Because of that, keeping your brand’s trustworthiness top of mind should be an ongoing part of your efforts.

To build trust with your audience:

• Add clear contact info (phone number, email address, and social media links) on relevant pages
• Eliminate 404 errors
• Use informative domain and URL names
• Have strong site architecture, meta descriptions, and Schema markup
• Create an easy-to-navigate website for the best user experience

 8. Maximize your chances to rank higher on SERPs

Google’s ranking method and schema markup (think title tags and headings) help Google and other search engines better understand and index your content — and boost your online presence.

Be aware of the methods that provide the best odds of appearing as the featured snippet. Adding high-quality and original videos, images, and local SEO attributes are other ranking factors that greatly improve your chances of appearing (more on this below).

Pro tip: While word count doesn’t directly affect rank, usefulness and comprehensiveness do. They are often interdependent as comprehensive sources are more likely to contain a higher volume of useful information. Make sure to create high-quality content with a large breadth of information that most completely answers the question.

 9. Update Google Business Profiles and local webpages

The majority of financial companies have a brick-and-mortar location, which makes local SEO a crucial component of a digital marketing strategy.

This means your financial services website should have pages dedicated to each branch location, targeting their local keywords.

Equally important, make sure you create and update a Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) for each of these locations as well.

This way, your profile will appear when people nearby conduct a Google search for your business.

When focusing on local search, some SEO best practices include:

• Creating a webpage for each location and local keywords
• Building a Google Business Profile
• Adding reviews to your Google profile and website
• Keeping contact information and business hours updated
• Building backlinks with other local businesses

 10. Prioritize UX for your website and apps

Your potential customers probably prefer to do most of their banking or money management online.

In fact, three out of four people prefer to bank digitally.

That means a fast-loading website that’s easy to navigate is more likely to generate leads and boost your rankings.

In the financial services industry, you don’t need a ton of pages. But you do need a seamless user experience.

Financial services SEO: A case study

HawkSEM client, Moneta Group, is a wealth management firm that helps people and businesses plan for their financial future with confidence.

Moneta’s team wanted to improve local organic visibility and SEO in four key markets. They also needed help expanding their nationwide keyword reach and attracting more marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) to consume their content.

Our three-pronged approach consisted of strategic keyword development, consistent backlink development from relevant websites, and ongoing on-page optimization of older content.

Through this approach, HawkSEM improved the performance of older content while adding new sessions and users with new keyword additions.

And it worked wonders. Through partnering with HawkSEM, Moneta was able to:

• Increase net organic keyword portfolio by 326%
• Grow organic keywords in positions 1-3 by 164%
• Boost Google Analytics goal completions by 23.5%

How much does SEO for financial services cost?

While the cost of financial services SEO varies based on the goals of the company, you can expect to pay anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 per month.

For smaller businesses, that range may be closer to $500 to $1,000 each month.

Key factors that influence pricing include:

• A competitive industry
• Goals and budget
• Agency vs. in-house
• Expertise and experience
• Scope of the project(s)

Learn more about SEO pricing here.

Why SEO matters for the financial service industry

Between strict rules and regulations and the competitive nature of the industry, SEO is essential for any FinServ business to earn a spot in the search rankings.

Whether you’re a financial advisor, FinTech startup, investment manager, or an insurance company, you’re asking potential clients for access to an intimate part of their lives.

And finance SEO is the most effective way to establish yourself as not only trustworthy but an industry leader as well.

The takeaway

While improving organic search for financial service providers is similar to other industries, some aspects need special attention.

It’s imperative for FinServ sector players to focus on the trustworthiness and high value of the posted content as well as the structure of their websites.

A strong financial services SEO campaign can help your company survive in the highly competitive industry and become a leader in your niche.

This article has been updated and was originally published in June 2021.