Search Engine Optimisation - Tuesday, July 8, 2008 10:44 - 3 Comments

SEO for Finance Companies

One of the more profitable online industries is definately the finance sector. We have witnessed some finance companies grow massively due to effective SEO campaigns and targetted Google Adwords accounts. Everyone knows that there is a bit of a crisis at the moment for finance providers, with interest rates high and the cost of living rising. This makes it harder for people to borrow money and getting leads is more important than ever.

The internet plays a huge role in this for many more online savvy finance businesses. This is one industry where consumers conduct a lot of online research due to its quick availability and the range of information available. With the potential profit from each lead at a high rate, the return on investment can be very high. The main thing that makes it difficult for most finance companies, especially small to medium businesses is the competition they face online.

So beginning new SEO for finance companies has to be approached with a lot of research and a proven strategy. Google Adwords can be very expensive, I have seen one company running a budget of $40000 per month just on Google Adwords. They have a lot of staff and this is where the majority of their very successful business comes from. But that isjust unrealistic for most finacne brokers or even lenders.

Search engine optimisation can provide more leads for a low monthly cost, especially when it is done well. There are many 'dream' terms people would like to rank at the top of Google for organically, like 'home loans' or 'mortgages'. This however will also cost a lot of money and take a long time to achieve.

Most brokers and lenders have specialised or preferred types of loans. For example 'low doc' or 'bad credit' type loans. Or they will have a demographic by region or say 'first home buyers' that they can target. Selecting more defined loan types to target will make your SEO's job much more achievable and speed up your return on investment.

Where it might take a year or more of dedicated work to get one page one for 'home loans', it may be managed in a few months, depending on your website, for a term like 'non conforming home loans'. Ranking for these sorts of terms generally attracts consumers who are further through their buying process and who are more likely to enquire.

Search Engine Optimisation for finance websites should usually include the option of some onpage changes. This can include both to text and your call to action. A good seo company should be interested in you getting more leads, not just a ranking, so your website structure should encourage visitors to enquire, not just visit.

One feature on finance websites that is very important is the contact form. You need this to be long enough to qualify your leads but not too long to make many people go away cause it just looks to difficult. Our experience shows that making some fields like the phone number compulsory, greatly improves the quality of lead you recieve.

The increased targeted traffic you receive from longer tail keyphrases will help you achieve higher rankings for the more generic phrases associated with the loan tyes you cater for. People should not take the defeatist attitude that it is too late to get their website up on Google. As one slogan on our website says 'the best time to plant a tree was yesterday, the second best time is today.' The longer finance companies delay SEO, the further behind they will fall. With the Adwords shortcut being a far more expensive option, this will hinder the growth of their company in years to come.

There are so many leads that can be generated from SEO for finance. If competitors saw the figures from some websites we have seen they would not hesitate to get an experienced company on the job. More leads means more business and in times where leads are harder to find, all options to attract them should be considered vital.