If you’re a new fintech startup in an increasingly crowded marketplace, it’s paramount that your customer can find you quickly and easily. That means having an excellent search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy in place in order to be found when people search for your product or service online.
But it’s not just about researching and using these words; fintech companies often fall within Google’s Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) bracket. The definition of YMYL is all websites and web pages that ‘could potentially impact a person’s future happiness, health, financial stability or safety’.
That’s just one aspect, however. In order to perform well in terms of searches within that category there are four key areas where you need to demonstrate excellence: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness (EEAT).
Also read: 4 Ways an SEO Agency Can Boost Your SEO Strategy.
The four key areas that can improve SEO
Google’s guidelines ask a crucial question; does the content creator possess the indispensable firsthand knowledge or life experience relating to the subject matter? If you’re a highly knowledgeable expert in the area of regulation in FinTech, for example, boasting a significant social media following, this provides a golden opportunity to exhibit your experience in the field. One effective way to accomplish this is by prominently presenting yourself as the author of each article you publish on your website.
On the one hand, the customer can achieve their intended outcome far easier without any problems. On the other, you can leverage it to win more business, as well as build brand loyalty and trust.
When customers deal with a company, they want them to know what they’re talking about and that they will provide them with the service they want. That’s even more important in a relatively new industry such as fintech, where previously with traditional banks, customers have been used to keeping their money and making transactions and may not fully trust the technology.
Therefore, fintechs have to evidence their expertise. This takes the form of clearly showing any relevant accreditation, awards or qualifications that will stand to benefit the customer from using their service or product. Credence can be lent to that by using true experts in their field to write the content, showcasing their knowledge, but without filling it with meaningless jargon and unnecessarily complicated words.
Establishing authority and trust
Most fintechs are fairly nascent. But given the fast-moving nature of technology, that doesn’t mean they can’t build up a strong reputation and establish themselves as market leaders.
If there is an area that you are renowned for, play on that. To back that up, you should use reputable and reliable sources on your site which will underpin your authority on the topic.
Also read: What is Link Juice, And How Does It Impact Your SEO?
Trust is of the utmost importance too, particularly given the sharp rise in fraud in banking and finance in recent times. By presenting yourself as a trustworthy and bona fide business that ensures transparency, accuracy and security, as reflected in customer reviews, you can build a greater rapport with your target audience.
Better SEO equals stronger SEO
Fintechs that tick all four of these boxes when it comes to high EEAT standards tend to have stronger SEO also. The benefits are that you are more likely to be found by your customers and the easier you make it for them to do this through the use of rich keywords, the better the chances are of winning repeat business and referrals.
While applying EEAT to websites is relatively straightforward, it’s anything but for apps – which are widely used by most fintechs. Given their reliance on JavaScript as a programming language, this makes search engine discovery, crawling (using teams of robots to find new and updated content) and content indexing infinitely more difficult. Ideally your website needs to be built in an SEO friendly way from the very start. Alongside this, app store optimisation is also a must.
Also read: SEO Strategy for Forex Brokers.
Once all of that is in place, you need to run the analytics to monitor user activity and make sure that the SEO is performing as well as possible across all channels, whether that’s apps or web pages. That way fintechs can reach their full digital potential and maximise the customer buying journey.