Financial Services SEO: How to Rank Higher and Attract More Clients

With the information from the audit in hand, decide how you want to handle each page. Will you keep it? Update it? Combine it with another page? Or delete it? Combining or deleting may be necessary in the case of cannibalization. 

(Note: Keyword cannibalization happens when two of your pages are both trying to rank for the same keyword. This competition can end up hurting the SEO of both pages, making it less likely you’ll rank for the term you were aiming for in the first place.)

2. Conduct Keyword Research

Keyword research gives you information on how Google sees your content and gives suggestions for how to rank for even more specific keywords or search terms. Using a keyword tool, you can learn:

• Roughly how many people search for a specific keyword each month 
• Where this search traffic is coming from (usually broken down by country or state)
• How hard it is to rank for a keyword
• What keywords that page is ranking for

There are several excellent keyword research tools on the market, the most popular being Semrush and Ahrefs. If you are looking for a free option to get started with, take a look at Google Keyword Planner, which offers basic keyword data that you may find useful when planning your content. 

Once you’ve chosen a tool, use it to figure out what keywords you are ranking for, where on the SERP you are ranking (ideally, you want to be at least in the top 10, i.e., the first page of Google), and which keywords your competitors are ranking for that you are currently missing out on.

If you aren’t sure where to start, focus on relevant high-volume, low-difficulty keywords. These will typically be longer keywords that people search less frequently (called “long tail.”) But if you rank for a lot of them, you could get just as much website traffic as if you rank for the most popular and competitive sought-after terms. Plus, many long-tail keywords are more specific, meaning the traffic you’ll get should be more targeted to the market you’re looking to attract.

For instance, if you run a local bank in Des Moines, it might be tempting to try to rank for “free checking account.” However, this would be very difficult to do, and it would bring in traffic from all over the country or even the world. Instead, you could look at something like “free checking accounts for college students in Iowa,” which would be easier to rank for and more likely to bring in customers you actually want to target.

3. Craft High-Quality Content to Boost EEAT

Remember how Google pays close attention to content within the YMYL verticals? The Helpful Content Update introduced a few years ago, penalizes sites that fail to follow EEAT (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) standards or meet user intent. Simply put, if your site promises to deliver valuable information and falls short, it risks being downgraded in Google search.

Google recommends you avoid this by considering:

• Who created the content: Is it obvious who made it and that they are qualified to speak about the topics?
• How the content was created: Is it written by humans and not AI, using up-to-date, factual information that can be trusted?
• Why the content was created: Do you hope to serve readers, putting their needs first — and not your aim of ranking higher in Google search results?

Google further discourages thin content. This is content that can be found anywhere, offers little value to readers, and exists just to capture search traffic. 

Tips for high-quality content include:

• Use expert writers with reputable backgrounds in their field.
• Include in-depth quotes from experts or financial services industry leaders.
• Use verifiable data that are relevant to your topic; aim for data no older than two years, and include citations.
• Don’t add fluff to increase word count or to incorporate suggested keywords; make every word purposeful to the overall page.
• Include internal links to other high-quality content on your website.

4. Optimize Your Business Listings to Capture Nearby Customers

If you don’t have a local business listing, create one or claim an existing one. You can do this on Google and sites like Apple Maps and Yelp. (If you have even more time or someone to help, consider adding your company to some of these additional business directories, where your competitors may also be listed.) 

If you have multiple branches or locations, it can take some time to get them all added, approved, and updated, so plan accordingly and enlist the help of a listings management platform if needed.

To further boost local search results, follow best practices like optimizing your GBP profile image and checking your listing for accuracy. If the directory is part of a service that offers map tools, like Google or Apple, ensure the physical location matches what’s in your listing so people can easily drive to your location from within their connected map application. 

5. Get More Customer Reviews

Reviews are a major factor in consumer trust, and Google considers it a good business practice when business owners respond to customer reviews. In fact, Google has been known to place businesses higher in search based on their relevance to the search (not just distance), and reviews can provide the data used to decide what’s relevant.

Also, one of the best ways to get people to click on search results (and boost your presence online) is for them to see recent, honest reviews. 

It can be daunting to ask for a review at first, especially if you’re aiming for positive reviews to build your reputation. However, if you time the request well, customers may be open to you asking via email, SMS/text, or even a social media post. Generating a Google review link that you share widely can also make it easier for reviewers to leave a quick note about their experience.

You’ll also want to develop a review policy that dictates how you respond to reviews (good and bad). Whether you use a template or AI tools to boost professionalism, responding to customers can show you care about service for everyone. 

6. Leverage Technical SEO to Improve Your Site

Technical SEO includes the behind-the-scenes factors that help Google scan your site. It includes site speed and mobile optimization but also things like duplicate content, lack of title tags, broken links, and page elements that don’t show up properly for the user.

These more technical issues can have a big impact on SEO, as they can keep users from enjoying their web experience and cause Google to push the site down in keyword rankings. However, technical issues may not always be as obvious as content-related issues like cannibalization. These issues, which may have to do with your site design, your hosting site, or even how your images are rendered, are best resolved by a professional experienced in technical SEO.

They can perform a technical site audit where any coding, server, or page issues can be brought to light and fixed before they affect your SEO efforts.

7. Build Authoritative Backlinks in the Financial Sector

Backlinks, or links from another website to yours, can influence your page’s ranking in a big way. It’s why so many sites seek out backlinks as part of their financial SEO strategy. When a reputable site links to yours, Google may also see your site as reputable. This association can help small or new sites rank higher in a shorter amount of time.

The best way to get authoritative backlinks (also called “link building”) is to create content that’s so good people can’t help but tell their target audience about it. Maybe you’ve created a unique financial calculator, conducted an insightful study, or interviewed an influencer in the space. These types of content can all be interesting enough for another site to want to share as a service to their customers through a link from one of their pages. 

You can always ask for sites to link to your content but don’t pay for links. A good backlink strategy includes reaching out to sites with an interest in your content topics and recommending that they share your latest article, financial industry study, or infographic. Make sure these backlinks come from relevant, high-quality sites, preferably within your industry. While you can’t control who links to you, Google does offer a disavow tool to keep the spammy links from affecting your search ranking. 

8. Prioritize Mobile Optimization and Page Speed

According to Statcounter’s January 2025 GlobalStats, 64% of users access their favorite sites via mobile device versus just 36% via desktop. Google prioritizes sites that show up clearly and function well for their users. So, if your site isn’t optimized for mobile, you could be missing out on the majority of web traffic in an increasingly handheld world.  

Google retired its mobile testing tool but recommends the Lighthouse extension for free insights. 

Boost site speed by minifying or compressing images and design elements and keeping redirects to a minimum. If you have a lot of dense pages, consider caching them so they load immediately for each user on subsequent visits. 

Page speed also matters in organic search because it affects the user experience. If a site loads slowly, a user could hit the back button and let Google know you’re not delivering on your promise to help them. Sites with loading issues can be ranked lower than fast-loading sites, so it’s worth fixing any speed issues by talking to your web developer about improvements they can make. 

Google offers its Pagespeed Insights tool to help identify issues with site speed.