We are living in the digital age.
Technology has changed how we communicate, work and live. From smartphones and social media to artificial intelligence and automation, digital has changed almost everything.
And finance is no exception.
Mobile banking, digital payments, peer-to-peer lending, and cryptocurrency are now more accessible than ever! In fact, you can do all the things I mentioned from your living room.
What You Will Learn in This Article 📚
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What’s Fintech?💳
Fintech companies | Khatabook.
Finance and technology combined to create fintech. As the name suggests, fintech uses technology to automate and make financial services more accessible.
The finance sector is one of the last to adopt technology, but its rapid growth is proof that when technology is used correctly, it can boost a sector.
Applying SEO strategies specifically tailored for a fintech business can significantly improve its online visibility and drive sustainable growth.
The rise of fintech companies started around mid 2000s. This was the time when technology was just going mainstream. I think it was the changing customer preferences that gave rise to such companies along with other reasons like the growth of digital media and banking sector and the increase in number of supporters for the merger of finance and technology.
From 2019 where the fintech market was valued at $220 billion to 2023 it almost doubled to $550 billion. This is a massive growth and should not and cannot be ignored.
SEO and Fintech💸
SEO benefits fintech companies. In fact, since fintech is a growing space, many are still figuring out the best search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing strategies to strategically tailor a fintech company’s website and content to rank higher within search engine results pages (SERPs).
A fintech company uses technology to provide financial solutions and services, and the unique aspects of SEO in the fintech industry can significantly impact its growth and customer acquisition.
If you want to increase your online presence and reach, SEO is a must!
Here are the things SEO can be used with fintech:
• Online Visibility: By optimizing the website and content for relevant keywords related to products and services, companies increase their chances of ranking high in the SERPs. A higher position in the SERPs means more chances of potential customers seeing the company.
• Content Marketing: Content marketing is important for both fintech and SEO. High-quality informative content like blog posts, articles, whitepapers, and case studies increase reach and keep companies relevant at the same time. Companies attract organic traffic to their website with relevant keywords and content optimization.
• Search Intent: Aligning content with user search intent and uncovering specific keywords that match this intent can bring in conversions. Prioritizing keywords based on search intent is crucial for attracting the right audience.
Importance of SEO for fintech industries
• Search Queries: Understanding the user’s search behavior and tailoring SEO strategies to target and address the queries is essential. Recognizing patterns in search queries helps in creating content that addresses the most important queries for the audience.
• Local SEO: Particularly valuable for fintech companies with a physical presence, such as brick-and-mortar branches or offices. Google My Business listings and obtaining positive reviews improve their visibility in the locality. If a company is looking to establish itself in a particular area, local SEO is very important and cannot be overlooked.
• Technical SEO: Technical SEO involves improving crawlability, indexability, and overall performance in search engines. Fintech companies ensure that their website is mobile-friendly, has fast page load times, utilizes secure HTTPS encryption, and follows the best site structure and navigation practices to enhance their SEO efforts.
• SEO Performance: Regularly monitoring and analyzing SEO performance, adapting strategies based on data trends, and utilizing A/B testing is crucial. Backlinking and outreach strategies also play a significant role in improving SEO performance.
• Link Building: Another essential aspect of SEO that benefit fintech companies. Website authority can be increased by earning backlinks from reputable websites, which in turn lets search engines know that the information provided in this article is trustworthy.
You’ll note similarities between the strategies mentioned above and those of other companies. And you’ll be correct. Just because the sector has changed doesn’t mean the strategies for SEO should also change. In fact, there is more to fintech SEO than meets the eye.
On top of the strategies I discussed, there are some additional, nuanced techniques companies from the fintech industry need to employ in order to increase reach, stay relevant, and overall perform better than the competition.
While nailing your fintech SEO strategy, don’t forget about the power of local business schema markup to give your local presence a boost!
Let’s Talk Fintech SEO Strategy📈
If you go on the internet now and search for fintech strategies, you’ll find numerous articles stating that there are five, ten, or more strategies for implementing SEO in the fintech industry. You might benefit from some of them, or they might completely go over your head. In reality, you only need three strategies.
Three strategies are more than enough to get organic search results. A well-crafted fintech SEO strategy involves implementing various techniques to improve search engine rankings and drive sustainable growth for fintech businesses. This includes in-depth keyword and market analysis, technical SEO improvements, niche-specific keywords, and user experience optimization. I believe if you deploy fewer strategies, you are more focused on executing those strategies perfectly and not half-heartedly. Not to mention, when you don’t get results, there are fewer options to go through, which means you can perform thorough checks on all the strategies. This won’t be the case if you use numerous techniques, as it’ll make it harder to pinpoint the root of the problem.
Strategy 1 – Video 🎥
The time spent watching videos has exponentially increased over the years, especially after the pandemic. For two years, people were locked inside their homes, which obviously created a void of interaction in their lives, so they turned to video streaming platforms.
To this day, many people are still stuck in that cycle of watching videos all day, especially those who were very young when the pandemic hit. Fortunately, this works out in favor of companies looking to increase reach!
The average watch time of video streaming platforms has been rising consistently, with the numbers at an all-time high last year. This makes it the best time to start engaging with their users. Due to the sheer number of users on these platforms, even if companies manage to increase their reach by 10-20%, the ROI (return on investment) will be huge!
Let’s talk stats –
1. YouTube – It is known as the app that is visited most consistently by its userbase. The average watch time on YouTube is 48.7 minutes per day. The highest of all social media applications.
YouTube Ecosystem
YouTube is a goldmine for businesses and companies looking to increase their reach. There are more nuances involved to ranking on YouTube, but the scope of gaining massive reach is too big to miss.
2. Facebook – The biggest social media platform on the internet. With a user base of 3.04 billion people (out of the 4.9 billion total social media users), Facebook has one of the highest video watch times of all time, an average of 30.8 minutes per day.
Facebook usage stats.
3. Instagram – The introduction of reels has set off a bomb amongst the userbase. The watch time for videos (or reels) has come to an average of 33 minutes a day.
4. X (Twitter) – Yeah X is more of a hype generating, hot-headed discussion platform, where only the elites come to share their views, but still, in 2023 the average minutes for video consumption was 33.28 in day, which is quite a lot considering most people use it to complain about stuff.
5. TikTok – It swept the world when it was first introduced. With a whopping average of 55.8 minutes, this is by far the most watched video platform. But the problem is, it’s mostly populated with young audience, who are not really into the fintech sector, or any sector except for watching people dance.
Statistic of the number of live video viewers in the U.S from 2019-2024 in millions
Let me give you another statistic: the average minutes per day pre-COVID was 56 mins on social media globally, but post-COVID, it rose to 145 minutes. A three-times increase in social media consumption and this increment in average minutes happened in a span of just 1 year.
These numbers indicate that social media’s video-watching platforms are a gold mine of reach. Companies shouldn’t dismiss this; instead, they should try to create video content to become established players.
Strategy 2 – The Age of AI 🤖
AI, short for Artificial Intelligence, is not a new topic. The idea of a computer system that has human-level intelligence, not just in academics but in daily life, has intrigued people for a long time. There were AI projects that weren’t commercial successes prior to 2019. Google has the Assistant, Amazon has Alexa, Apple has Siri, and Samsung tried something with Bixby, but that failed.
The culmination of all these small steps resulted in the giant leap that we know as ChatGPT.
ChatGPT was launched on November 22, 2022 and the world changed forever. For the first time an extremely powerful AI was introduced to the masses. No need to say, it shook the world and the ripples can still be felt today.
However, with this innovation came challenges. People started using ChatGPT to complete their own tasks, which also prompted the debate on whether AI is going to replace humans.
As time passed, people realized that it may be powerful, but it cannot replicate the work of a human (yet). So, people realized that AI should be used more as a crutch instead of making it do all the work. Fast forward to now, and you’ll see AI as a tool that aids in almost every aspect of our lives.
Example
The product review section in Amazon compiles the reviews and provides a small summary.
SEO is ever evolving but the introduction of AI has made it easier for those who are just starting out on SEO. Yes, these people may lack experience but the knowledge is available right at the palm of their hands.
As time goes by, the integration of AI will become more and more inclusive, and after a while, AI will be an indispensable part of our lives. So, instead of opposing it, people should start to learn to work with it.
AI will keep evolving, so people should evolve too; otherwise, the question of ‘will AI replace humans’ just might come true, at least for some people.
Strategy 3 – SEO Tools Are Your Best Friend🛠️
List of tools available for SEO
Whether you are a new player or an experienced one, it doesn’t matter; using tools is guaranteed to help any company, regardless of whether it’s in the fintech sector. These tools also help companies stay on top of SEO trends.
• Ahrefs: Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO toolset that provides valuable insights into website performance, backlink profiles, keyword rankings and competitor analysis. Businesses can improve their online presence and organic traffic with the help of such insights. With features like Site Explorer, Keyword Explorer and Site Audit, Ahrefs allows users to track and optimize their SEO efforts.
• Semrush: Think of Semrush as an all in one digital marketing platform. Semrush has multiple tools for SEO, PPC, content marketing, social media and competitive research. It also provides valuable data and analytics to help businesses identify opportunities, optimize their online presence and drive better results across multiple marketing channels. You don’t want to miss out on this.
• Moz: Moz is often considered the leader when it comes to providing SEO software and tools that helps businesses improve search engine rankings. With features like Moz Pro, Moz Local and MozBar, Moz provides valuable insights, analytics and recommendations to help users optimize their website and track their performance so they can stay ahead of the competition.
• Google Search Console: A free web service from Google, the Google Search Console helps website owners monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot their site’s presence in Google Search results.
Offering valuable insights about the working of Google crawls, indexes, and rankings of your website. This allows companies to identify and fix issues, which then improves the site visibility, and optimizes the site’s performance.
• Screaming Frog: Screaming Frog is a powerful website crawler that enables users to analyze and audit their websites for SEO issues, technical errors, and optimization opportunities. It provides detailed reports on factors such as broken links, duplicate content, page titles, meta descriptions, and more, helping users identify and address issues impacting their site’s search engine rankings and performance.
Some of the features these tools provide are free (sometimes the tool itself is also free), so you don’t have to purchase one immediately. Use the free features, get to understand how these tools work and what can you expect from it once you subscribe to them. Overcome YouTube restrictions to access valuable SEO strategies for driving traffic.
That’s it.
You have the successful SEO strategies needed to outrank your competitors.
🎯 Hot Take: Why Fintech Fails to Build TrustHere’s the thing: people don’t want to be marketed to about their financial problems, period. They definitely don’t want to give over their personal info to some faceless company. Fintech companies, in particular, struggle to get past people’s defenses and build trust through marketing. And they often lag behind traditional financial institutions in using data analysis. The Secret Sauce: Tools and Community Building Think budgeting apps, digital wallets, etc. The key is to create tools that actually help people with their financial situation. This is where good market research comes in handy—build tools that rank well in SEO and naturally attract your audience. Once you have their attention, use those tools to build an email list and create a community of engaged users. On the backend, you need to also deliver great educational content to these same people. And remember, building trust is all about understanding your audience and delivering value in ways they actually appreciate. 🚀 |
Let’s Wrap This Up
The question then remains, should the companies hire an external SEO agency or hire their own team of SEO specialists?
Let’s look at what a Reddit user has to say:
Comment
byu/YouGuessedRight from discussion
inSEO
I say hire SEO experts and make a team. They can constantly monitor search traffic, search for SEO trends for fintech, and improve the marketing services. Basically whip up an effective SEO strategy. All of this, with just hiring a team of specialists.
Of course, if there’s lack of time and resources, a company can always opt for external agencies. Before hiring an external SEO agency, make sure to run through the pros and cons.
While it is not much different than doing regular SEO for other companies, fintech is a sector not many are aware of, hence there are small nuances that needs attention. On top of regular SEO like keyword research, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, you need extra effort in order to run a successful campaign.
Thankfully, the age of digitization has also brought the number of users to an all-time high, which means the target audience is at an all-time high. Even if companies fail to claim 70 or 80% of the user base, being able to drive traffic, even 30 or 40%, is enormous.
FAQs
1. What is SEO in finance?
SEO in finance means optimizing websites and content from the finance sector to improve their rankings and visibility on the SERPs. Financial institutions use SEO tools and strategies to generate more leads and increase brand awareness among their target audience which involves keyword optimization, website performance improvement, backlink building and compliance to industry regulations. The goal is to rank well for financial queries, attract qualified leads and grow the business in a competitive digital landscape.
2. What is SEO in technology?
SEO in technology means optimizing websites, content, and digital assets related to technology products and services to improve their visibility on the SERPs. Techniques such as keyword research, website performance improvement, and backlink building are used with one goal in mind: to drive organic traffic. In the process, it also increases brand awareness and generates leads or conversions for technology companies in a competitive digital landscape.
3. Is technical SEO hard?
Yes, it is indeed challenging and requires some level of SEO knowledge. It involves understanding complex web development concepts, server-side technologies, and search engine algorithms. Without a solid grasp of these technical aspects and SEO principles, implementing technical SEO optimizations can be tough. Investing time to learn and stay updated with SEO best practices is important to make sure your website ranks well on the SERPs.
4. What is fintech in digital marketing?
In digital marketing, fintech means the specialized way of promoting financial technology online. Companies use lots of strategies like SEO, content marketing, paid advertising, social media marketing, email marketing, and analytics. By applying these strategies to their target audience in the financial technology sector, companies aim to increase brand visibility, get new customers, and engage and grow in a fast-paced and competitive industry. This strategic approach enables fintech companies to position themselves, differentiate their offerings, and achieve their business goals in the digital age.
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