
Why SEO is Important for a Mortgage Broker?
Firstly, a basic overview of SEO for some context. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), simply put is a process where you hone in on and tidy up your online (website or social media) presence. This is so that you can easily be identified and appear in search rankings and improve those rankings over time.
So why is this important for a mortgage broker? That’s a good question; The reason that this is important is because the fundamental goal of SEO is to improve your ranking so that your product/service is visible in search results. If your product or service is visible in search listings for a given search query (keywords – we will explain more further down) that a potential searcher (active interest not reactive) is looking for – then the chances that they will click on your URL is more likely.
What is a keyword? A ‘keyword’ or ‘keywords’ is a set of words that trigger search listing results. For example, Ted is looking for a ‘first-time buyer mortgage Camden’, as he lives in London, Camden. Ted doesn’t want to travel too far to visit a broker due to time constraints.
Ted visits his favourite search engine ‘Google’ and enters his search query: “first-time buyer mortgage Camden”. Following his query any businesses that are indexed in the directory that tick the right boxes for results relevancy with Google’s search algorithm (there are 200+ ranking factors); these businesses will be listed accordingly, with the most relevant higher up the search results.
Okay, let’s move this, further along, let’s say a Company called ‘Fictional Mortgage Brokers’, is based in Camden, has a website, and is actively working to meet the ranking criteria set out by Google. To make things simple we will say that currently they only have 10 active keywords that they are working to keep improving. One of those is ‘Camden broker first home mortgages’.
Based on Ted’s search query: “first-time buyer mortgage Camden”, he will be presented with a list of relevant results. Depending on the SEO efforts (competing against competitors for keywords plus much more) that ‘Fictional Mortgage Brokers’ have been making – we’ll assume they have done a cracking job, and been gaining momentum for a years, there is a likelihood that the business will appear in the search results for Ted’s query.
SIDE NOTE: it is important to mention that a business may not necessarily appear on the first page of results, as we also need to factor in competitors that are also investing in pushing their keywords higher in search results. But in this scenario let’s assume that Fictional Mortgage Brokers have carried out some aggressive SEO tactics, and are now on page one for Ted’s search query.
What does this mean for Fictional Mortgage Brokers?
First-page ranking is a coveted spot, and research has shown that the top result on the first page of search listings has an average CTR (Click Through Rate) of 31.7%. Also, the first result on the first page is 10 times more likely to receive a click compared to a result on page 10.
Ranking on the first pages essentially increases the likelihood that someone like Ted who is actively looking for a product or service, is shown your business listing, effectively improving the flow of traffic to your site – in turn increasing the chances to convert that traffic to sales.
ROI AND SEO
SEO services do not necessarily cost the earth. But they are a long-term investment, and good quality SEO can take several months to well over a year to see significant results depending on the competitiveness of your sector. However, once the rankings have reached high enough in the search results the potential ROI can be outstanding.
Perceive Digital has experience providing SEO services to the Mortgage sector, if you are interested in SEO services for your business get in touch to see how we can help you.