SEO for Banks: 11 Simple & Effective Tips to Improve Your Rankings Effortlessly

Financial services are an important part of wealth building and money management, but many people get overwhelmed when finding a bank. And so many resort to combing through the search engine results, choosing the highest-ranking page because they perceive it as the best. This is why SEO for banks is crucial to help you land new customers.

SEO helps banks show up on both global and local search, which then enables you to reach your ideal customers and provide them with valuable resources that position you as the expert in your field.

But if you aren't sure how you can start to rank higher, we'll dive into a few methods and techniques that will help you show up at the top!

SEO For Banks: Appear Twice on Google Search Via Local SEO

When it comes to the search engine results pages, you want to rank higher whenever possible. But what if you could show up more than once on the results? Local SEO for banks allows you to do just that -- and better yet, it doesn't cost you a dime.

First, you can rank on the regular results for the keywords that you incorporate into your content. This sets your pages apart from others in the financial services sector and results from smart keyword research. Most banks will focus on this type of ranking, but they might be missing out if they don't consider the map pack.

You can also rank higher on the map pack for those interested in local services. The only requirement here is that you have a Google My Business profile which is absolutely free.

Google My Business Profile Tips

Many banks ignore the importance of their Google My Business profile and miss out on valuable real estate regarding search results. Your profile should be a part of your digital marketing because it greatly enhances your online visibility.

After you claim your business, do your best to fill it out completely. Don't leave any category blank; emphasize each of the services you offer. So you'll want to fill out every detail for your financial institution, from your hours of operation to frequently asked questions.

Of course, one thing that helps you rank higher are reviews. Run a campaign in your bank or credit union to encourage people to leave positive reviews on your Google My Business profile. This makes you more attractive to potential customers and boosts you in the SERPs.

Improving Rankings with Technical SEO for Banks

While many of the components of your SEO strategy will relate to your visible technique, there are also a few behind-the-scenes items you shouldn't ignore. Technical SEO for banks is important, starting with some of these quick and easy tips.

Accessibility With Mobile Devices

People using search engines are no longer sitting down to their desktop computers. More people than ever before are accessing the internet from mobile devices. In fact, more than 58 percent of people utilize a mobile device to access the internet.

This means that if you want your financial institution to convert potential customers, you must ensure the design is lightweight and mobile-friendly.

You can test your website's design using Google's Mobile-Friendly Test for free.

Page Load Speed

Think about your last experience visiting a website you found on the search engines. Were you likely to stick around if you clicked on a result and it took forever to load?

Most people will bounce if a page takes too long to load, which will negatively impact your SEO strategy.

Plus, regardless of the actual user input, Google search considers your page load speed when it comes to helping you rank higher.

Google PageSpeed Insights will score your website for speed and give you actionable insights into how to improve your score.

Conducting a Site Audit

Conducting a site audit is another important component of your digital marketing efforts. Search engine optimization considers many factors, including checking for duplicate content, issues with crawling, and any penalties your website has.

It can also check for proper tags and even meta descriptions.

Conducting a full site audit is key if you want your bank to appear in search engine results.

Utilize Keyword Research Tools to Refine Your Marketing Strategy

Search engine optimization relies heavily on your ability to incorporate keywords into your results. Every financial services company should think about the search intent of their end users and what exactly they may be typing into the search engines to get the results they need.

Keyword research is essential for financial institutions that want to dominate the search engine rankings.

There are tons of keyword research tools out there today to help you figure out what people are really looking for on Google. You can use the classic free keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, but many of the paid options are superior.

Here are a few tools that you might consider using to boost your rankings in the search results:

• SEMRush
• Ahrefs
• KWFinder
• Keysearch

Create Content Targeting Financial Services & Industry Topics

Give the people what they want: answers to their questions about financial institutions, services, and more.

Good content creation hinges on knowing what questions your potential customers have regarding bank websites.

Don't fall into the trap of only posting about your business.

A great marketing SEO strategy always keeps the end user's goals in mind. That means you need to provide real value to your clients and help them to see that you are the expert in the topics that they are looking for.

SEO strategies aren't complete until you have content creation.

Tips for Creating Valuable Content for Potential Customers

Once you have your keyword optimization in place, you should have a really clear grasp of what people want to know. Your target audience is searching online for some of the same things again and again. Answer their questions, and you'll be in a prime position to dominate online searches.

It can be tempting for financial marketers to post internal information about their bank and its structure. While there is a time and place for these types of articles, they aren't what will ultimately drive your website traffic.

Instead, you should focus on helping your customers find answers to their questions that align with your services. Consider what questions might have a high search volume and create content that will resonate with people searching for these questions.

One way to find these beside typical keyword research tools is by considering frequently asked questions and skimming popular banking questions on forums like Reddit and Quora.

You'll likely find that some of these long-tail, deeper pages rank higher and bring in more traffic than your standard service pages.

Prove that you can be helpful at every stage of the process, and don't focus too much on selling your services at this juncture. If someone finds your content accurate and helpful, you will find that they are more likely to sign up for your services.

Infographics

Another way that you can find new customers and reconnect with existing customers is through the use of infographics. The more resources you can offer your audience, the better for your business growth. Once you have keyword ideas, you can make content that is easy to digest and inspires others to share it.

In turn, this expands your reach even further than a standard press release might be able to.

Infographics can give you great exposure online, and they really resonate with people who are more visual now than ever before. Your local bank can answer questions in a creative and fresh way that makes it easy to see the solutions to common questions at a quick glance.

Capitalize on Content Gaps

Another way that SEO generates more results for banks is by capitalizing on content gaps. New customers likely have some of the same questions about your bank's services over and over again. One of the most important things you can do is see what types of content aren't being addressed in the banking sector.

For example, many top names in the industry aren't forthcoming or transparent about the fees that their customers will face. Creating a page surrounding fees (what they are, where they come from, and why they exist) could help you to rank on Google indexes.

Plus, it gives you a deep understanding of what it will take to rank on the first page of Google without resorting to paid ads.

This is also a great time to position yourself as the solution to the problem. Explain why your bank is the best option, and watch your pages start to convert prospective customers into bona fide leads for your bank.

Strategize Backlinks with Helpful Tools & Content

If you want to rank for organic traffic, link building is a key component you won't want to ignore. Google values websites that have tons of backlinks from reputable sources. Credit unions and banks should take advantage of the opportunity to put their content in front of more people.

Backlinks give you more exposure to more customers from other websites. SEO for banks isn't complete without thinking about boosting organic visibility and getting your name in front of more people.

Banks on the first page are more likely to have reputable backlinks. Having social media accounts for your bank websites sharing your useful content can be one way to generate backlinks, but you might also do manual outreach to site owners about linking to a valuable resource on your own site.

Often, this means that they are linked to other reputable websites (though internal links will play a role, too, as we'll see below).

Internal Links vs. External Links

Internal links are a great way to keep people on your page for longer. With blog articles, you can link to other blogs on your site that answer similar questions or move people along a step further in your sales funnel. You can use tools like Link Whisper for this type of link creation.

On the other hand, external links from websites outside of your own is equally important.

This boosts your domain authority and connects new people to you, even if you don't show up in the first spot on the search results.

Make sure you prioritize reaching out to a site owner or two a day, asking them to link to something their readers may find valuable. It takes a lot of time to build this strategy right, but it can yield huge payoffs when your SEO services help you rank on the first page for your financial services.

Final Thoughts on SEO for Banks

Search engine optimization is crucial for every business, but financial services may find it even more challenging to implement. While it can be time-consuming to do everything right out of the gate, you may want to select some areas where you can double down on your efforts first.

Take care of some simpler items like technical SEO and claiming your Google My Business profile before moving on to link building or content creation.

This sets you up for long-term success and allows you to get the structure of your SEO strategies down before you branch out.

SEO for banks is essential to help you connect with more customers. These steps will help you put your bank in front of more people to better serve your new and existing customers.

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