33% of internet traffic belongs to websites who hold the top spot on Google. Moreover, 92% of internet traffic occurs on websites which are on page 1 of Google.
If you want your finance marketing to generate inbound leads via your website, then your search engine rankings are crucial.
The truth, however, is that SEO is difficult (search engine optimisation). That’s probably why you’re reading this post! How do I make this work for my finance marketing?
The encouraging thing is, SEO really can work for finance marketing. In this post, we’re going to cover 4 essential elements for your content marketing strategy, which must be followed if it is to improve your rankings.
#1 Target The Right Keywords
Google handles over 3.5 billion searches every day, and 40,000 every second. That’s a huge amount of noise you’re going to have to cut through. How do you do it?
To outrank your competitors, your finance marketing needs to target specific keywords. To find out what these keywords could be, Google Trends can help you find out which keywords are popular in your target market.
This tool will show you which search terms are rising in popularity over time, and which are falling. Interest in “final salary pensions”, for instance, has risen somewhat in the past two years. Google Trends will show you these sorts of insights.
If you’re struggling to find more ideas for your finance marketing, then SEMrush can provide suggestions based on user searches. Bear in mind, people don’t always use short phrases when searching Google. They often use “long tail keywords” – which comprise up to 70% of all search traffic.
It can be easier to rank for these kinds of keywords, because there is usually lower competition.
Once you have your list of keywords, finish off your research by turning to tools like Google’s Keyword Planner and Open Site Explorer. This will show you the monthly search traffic for each keyword, and provide helpful keyword suggestions to add to your list.
Bear in mind, keywords will change over time. Your finance marketing should include a periodic review of your keyword list.
#2 Include Keywords Correctly Into Your Post
You have your list of keywords. It’s now time to target them in your content.
Take a keyword, and make this the focus of your blog post. Come up with an engaging topic where you can naturally include the term into the content.
Make sure you keep your buyer personas in mind as you begin to write your article. What would they find interesting? What are their challenges and motivations? Which topics will emotionally engage with them?
Your content must also include your keyword in the right areas of your post, including:
- Your title
- Headers and sub-headers.
- In your meta description
- In your URL
- In the alt text of any images.
- In the body of your content.
Just be careful that your finance marketing doesn’t descent into “keyword” stuffing here. You want your keyword to emerge naturally throughout your post. It should read well to humans as well as to search engines.
#3 Link Appropriately
It can feel strange and counter intuitive, linking to other people’s articles within your content.
However, doing this actually yields big returns for your finance marketing. First of all, it gives your readers extra material for them to consume. This provides a better user experience for people who engage with your brand.
Second, linking to others can sometimes lead these bloggers to return the favour. Backlinks like these (assuming they come from high-quality websites) are great for your SEO. Google also likes it when you link out to others, because it makes your content look more authoritative.
Make sure you also link to other articles and pages on your own website as well. It can help Google crawl your site and create a more accurate sitemap.
#4 Go For Longer Content
Again, this one can feel counterintuitive. Surely people’s attention spans have shortened over the years? Why would they want to read longer content?
In fact, search engines tend to favour longer blog posts. One study, for instance, found that pages in 10th place on Google tend to have 400 fewer words than pages in 1st place. Ideally, your finance marketing should aim for 300 words as a minimum. Ideally, it should be much longer. It gives you more opportunities to include your keyword.
The only potential danger is longer posts will put off your readers. So make sure you break up the content appropriately. Make it more digestible for people by including strategic use of imagery.
Keep sentences and paragraphs short, and make use of bullet points and subheadings as well.
Phil Teale is the Sales & Marketing Manager at MarketingAdviser, an agency specialising in marketing for financial services – and especially for financial advisers. Along with our sister company, CreativeAdviser, we also provide bespoke website design, branding, graphic design and video production services to financial clients.
Contact us on 01923 232840 or email me: phil@creativeadviser.co.uk
