New research conducted by equimedia, the UK digital media agency, has found that financial services brands are losing out to aggregator and consumer advice sites in the struggle for the top positions in Google search results.
The findings are part of equimedia’s latest whitepaper ‘Is SEO Dead for Financial Services?,’ looking at the fierce competition financial service brands face for a top five organic search result. Competition is intense because those higher up the results page get the most click throughs from customers. The report offers recommendations for what organisations can do to improve their search engine optimisation (SEO), to better reach customers and drive business.
Jonathan Moore, Head of SEO at equimedia said: “Financial brands have been left fighting in a saturated market, and these findings will no doubt be a definite worry for those who have not joined up SEO and paid search or brand building strategies. SEO for financial services brands isn’t dead, but marketers must be prepared to develop data driven, customer centric natural search strategies to exploit the opportunities that do exist in order to satisfy their business objectives for cost efficient direct sales.”
The research looked at over 3,000 financial services search key words – such as ‘current account’, ‘loan’, ‘mortgage’ and insurance’ – finding that comparison sites and consumer advice service websites dominated the top positions in natural search results. This causes branded websites to appear lower down the results page and negatively impacts their visibility.
The whitepaper also looks at which brands are getting it right, and offers practical advice on what financial service companies can do to improve site ranking and SEO. Recommendations include running technical and content website audits to identify opportunities that would serve particular business aims, and compare content performance against competitor activity to better understand what makes a brand stand out. There are also tips on how to recognise what is working and where changes need to be made.
The full report is available for download at ‘Is SEO dead for the financial service sector?’
