Friday, February 1, 2019

6 Simple Local SEO Tactics Financial Marketers Can Use Today

Large financial institutions have the advantage when it comes to SEO. But the confined geographic reach of community banks and credit unions can work to their advantage. Even if you only have limited time and budget to invest in an SEO strategy, it's low-hanging fruit that's ripe for plucking.

1. Add a Page for Each Branch to Your Website

Creating individual location pages would be an onerous task for a national bank. But the limited geographic networks of community banks and credit unions enables the creation of a specific page for each of your locations. This helps search engines easily locate your listing and deliver the appropriate location to the searcher.

While you’re at it, go ahead and have some fun! For example, Trailhead Credit Union not only includes the essential information on each branch page, like address, hours, and closures, but also fun facts about each branch and photos of surrounding landmarks.

2. Find and Claim Your Existing Branch Listings

Do you know where your branches are already listed? You may be surprised to find there are listings out there you didn’t even know about.

From an SEO perspective, it’s important to claim all listings under your business name, remove duplicates, and correct or update any inaccurate information. If you’re not sure where to start, a service like Moz Local can help you find all the listings associated with your business and provide concrete suggestions for improving your local SEO score.

Remember that for search engines to find your branch locations when consumers search, your business name, address and phone number must be consistent everywhere and should match what’s listed on your website.

And by consistent, we mean exactly the same. That means if you say “Avenue” on your website, your listings shouldn’t read “Ave.”

3. Update Your Google My Business Account, and Post Regularly

If your institution doesn’t yet have a Google My Business account, start one. Then make sure your name, address and phone number are correct (and consistent with what’s on your website).

Then flesh out the account with other relevant details and assets. These include items such as your logo, description, link to your website, and hours of operation. Attract more interest and add some pizazz with high-quality images of your branches. To keep multiple branch locations up to date, follow these instructions for bulk uploading.

Now that all the boring tasks are out of the way, here’s the fun part — you can post promotions, events, products, and services regularly (and for free!) through Google My Business. Your updated listing appears alongside search results for your business.

Wil Reynolds, founder of search firm Seer Interactive, says that for some of his clients, results from Google My Business posts have outperformed paid search, organic search, and nearly every other promotional tactic.

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