6 Proven Ways to Increase Your Financial Institution's Website Traffic
It’s virtually impossible to thrive in today’s digital marketplace without maintaining a strong presence online. The internet is the first tool many turn to when looking for a financial institution — and if your website isn’t producing much traffic, it could mean you’re losing potential customers to the competition.
According to Statistica, approximately 33% of people search for local businesses using the internet daily. While the internet has made it possible to connect individuals and institutions across the globe, this technology has also created a highly competitive environment where the highest-ranked website usually receives the most attention. The reality is that if customers can’t find your website quickly and easily, they’ll likely move on to another, more prominent option.
Setting your financial institution apart from the rest can be challenging with so many banks, credit unions, and lenders vying for attention. Luckily, there are several ways you can effectively increase your online visibility.
Take a few moments to review these six proven approaches to attracting more people to your financial institution’s website. This will ensure you're using the best practices to drive traffic and draw in more customers.
1. Create High Quality, Relevant Content
Populating your website with engaging written content is one of the best ways to drive more traffic to your website. Search engines use complex algorithms to determine the most accurate match for the search criteria provided. By posting blog articles that contain valuable information on financial services, you can ensure search engines rank your website higher on the first page of results.
Having a page on your website dedicated to community involvement is a great way to showcase your impact and highlight the great things you do in your community. For some tips on creating an awesome community involvement webpage, check out this article.
2. Keep Content Up-to-Date
You’ll also want to make sure you’re updating your blog content regularly with fresh insights and new developments with your financial institution. Share these articles across your social media platforms to broaden your reach, and be sure to include a backlink in your posts that leads customers to your main home page. If you’re doing email marketing, augment your campaign with snippets from your latest blog post or convert your written content into a brief explainer video to engage customers on platforms like YouTube.
Video content can be very effective at generating website traffic. Not all customers have the time to read a lengthy article on a subject and instead would prefer a brief video that sums up a few key concepts. If you have a blog article that discusses a particularly complex financial topic, consider creating a fun animated video that makes the material easier to understand. You may also want to consider creating a short segment about the history of your financial institution, its overarching goals, and why your products or services are superior to others.
In addition to blog content or videos, consider creating an FAQ page that addresses many of the most commonly searched questions in your area. The more articles, blogs, videos, and informational content you provide on your website, the more customers you’ll attract long term.
Your financial institution’s website traffic will increase substantially as you begin to build credibility through organic searches and higher search engine rankings.
For more ideas on how to offer a variety of content on your website, check out this Buffer article.
4. Utilize Effective Search Engine Optimization
If your website isn’t showing up on the first page of search engine results, customers may partner with a different financial institution in your area. With search engine optimization (SEO), you can use the words people most often type into engines in your site and across posts to rank higher. This will help you connect with the right potential customers and drive traffic to your financial institution's site.
Study the keywords that customers are typing into search engines like Google to determine where the traffic is going. For instance, if customers are searching for “home mortgage near (City),” the list of results will show websites that contain content related directly to that search. These should help identify the main topics you choose to cover in articles and across your site. Google Keyword Planner is a great tool for finding keywords used by your target audience.
You should also employ SEO strategies when creating your landing pages. If you have a collapsable menu called Financial Services, make sure each page has several paragraphs of descriptive information for search engines to find. If one of your service pages is for Payday Loans, include keywords like “credit score” or “online loans” to capture an increased number of potential searches.
Customers may not see your website at all if the content you create doesn’t contain relevant content related to home mortgages alongside a geo-targeted key phrase. In this example, you could create a blog post entitled “Our Home Mortgage Solutions in (City)”. Throughout the article, insert additional keywords associated with home mortgages and you’ll further boost your website’s credibility among search engines.
Check out this article for some tips on how to create geo-targeted keywords for your area.
6. Explore PPC Advertising
Another excellent way to increase your financial institution's website traffic is to take advantage of pay-per-click, or PPC, advertising. With this approach, your financial institution will pay a small fee each time a customer clicks on one of your ads. These ads will appear at the top of relevant search engine queries or on certain websites related to the various financial services your institution offers.
Most businesses will make bids on the most frequently searched keywords related to their services. When customers search for these keywords, their ads will appear in the list of results. The quality of the ad and the amount spent on the PPC campaign will determine how often the advertisement appears in relevant searches.
PPC advertising works well to draw traffic to a website quickly, but understanding how to manage PPC campaigns can take time. Avoid bidding on generic keywords or spending too much money on one particular ad. Instead, create multiple ads centered on various keywords and gauge their performance over several days, weeks, or months.
Successfully Drive Traffic to Your Site
Driving more traffic to your website may seem difficult at first, but incorporating these tips into your online marketing strategy can make the task much less daunting. By curating original, high-quality content optimized for search engines, you’ll start to see a change in your website performance metrics. Don’t forget to consider PPC advertising to expand your brand exposure across the web. By combining all these strategies, your financial institution will build a better reputation, attract more leads, and ultimately grow at a faster pace.
Many marketers struggle to quickly and efficiently get their marketing materials approved by leaders or team members. Without a quick approval process, it’ll take longer to see the results of your online marketing strategy. With Kadince, marketing material approvals are fast and easy. Visit our page or schedule a demo to learn how to streamline your approval process and get marketing materials out the door faster.
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