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.

1. 2017 Financial Services
SEO Whitepaper
Has Google breathed new life into
financial services (FS) SEO?

2. 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.

3. new challenges in 2017

4. 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

5. Changes to paid search ads means the
space for organic search results to
appear above the fold is reduced
“ “

6. After analysing the organic rankings of eight financial
services markets, including:
▪ Credit cards
▪ Current accounts
▪ Insurance
▪ Investments
▪ ISA
▪ Loans
▪ Mortgages
▪ Savings

7. It was evident that aggregators and consumer sites
continued to dominate the natural search rankings…

8. However as Google continues to tweak
its algorithm in a bid to deliver the best
possible organic results, new
opportunities are emerging

9. In April, the aggregator-dominated Insurance market returned
an all-aggregator result in the top five organic positions for
nearly 7.5%
of searches

10. By December, this had dropped to aggregator-only organic
search listings for only 0.18% of searches made

11. It seems that Google managed to
achieve its aim of delivering more
varied results to users during 2016
“ “

12. 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.

13. As a result, ranking well (in organic positions
1, 2 or 3) is more important than ever.

14. what can you learn
from the big players…

15. Brands that have cleaned up their link
profile and successfully migrated to
https:// have re-appeared in the
rankings or improved visibility

16. Brands with sites with good technical
SEO and sematic URL’s rank well

17. Strategies designed to build rankings
for head, torso and longtail search
terms can lead to increased visibility

19. Content rich, informative landing pages
specific to products or services
improve rankings

20. Brands with a strong social strategy
and use paid-for techniques to boost
engagement continue to make gains

21. The Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is still a
challenging place for financial services companies
hoping to rank for generic search terms

22. steps to success

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. ▪ Audit links
▪ Invest in good on-page SEO
▪ Regularly crawl your site to check for issues
ensure your site’s technical attributes
are optimal

27. 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

28. 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

29. Invest in a strong social strategy to
broadcast content and boost with
paid for activity

30. appendix
Ranking Score
was calculated
as follows:

31. download the full whitepaper
Go to http://eqi.md/2lX9vAF
to download the 2017 Financial Services
SEO Whitepaper

32. 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.