The purpose of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to rank for search queries on search engines. This is especially important for community banks so that people in your community can find you. Without SEO, consumers wouldn’t be able to find you on the internet. For example, if someone searched “banks near me” on Google, your bank would pop up in the search results because of SEO. Need more convincing? Here we’ll dive into the three main reasons SEO is beneficial to community banks.
SEO Provides Increased Traffic on Your Website and In Your Branches
Did you know that 70% of mobile searches lead to an action within one hour? That action could be contacting you via your website or visiting your branch in person. If you don’t optimize your website for search engines, you will miss out on traffic. When using SEO, it’s important to make it as effortless as possible for consumers to find the right information, your directions, or be able to get in touch with you directly.
SEO Gives Your Bank Credibility
Because people trust Google, appearing in Google’s top search results will give you credibility. This is one of the best ways to get in front of your target audience’s eyes. People tend to prefer to click on the results of Google’s first page. SEO can help get your website on the first page resulting in more website traffic and potential customers.
SEO is Cost-Effective
If you want to pursue organic SEO then it’s free. Someone in your in-house marketing team can optimize your website. Here’s everything you need to know about organic SEO (Links to an external site.). Although organic SEO is free it can take months for you to get on the first page of Google’s search results. A much faster way is to use paid-SEO strategies. These are other ways to optimize your website that you have to pay for. It’s very cost-effective and works well if you automatically want to be on the first page of Google for certain keywords. One example of a paid SEO strategy is using Google AdWords.
Here’s an example of using Google AdWords to get on the first page of Google. When I search, “banks near me” the first three results on the first page are ads from Capital One, PNC Bank, and Chase.
If you want to take deep-dive into the different strategies for free and paid-SEO click here .
I hope I was able to convince you of the importance of SEO for your bank especially when it comes to reaching those in your community. Regardless, if you follow free or paid strategies, it’s an essential part of your marketing plan.
Speaking of adding elements to your marketing plan, check out my latest blog post on email marketing and how it could help your bank connect to its target audience!
