Nowadays, when most credit unions understand the importance of having an effective SEO strategy in place it is not a surprise that they try their best to get that desired first page on Google. And again it is no wonder that many of them make mistakes in the process. Let’s be honest, there are countless resources and SEO tips available today that can sometimes be overwhelming. This may lead many businesses – credit unions included – to fall into some SEO traps without even being aware of it.
Step one into solving this problem is understanding what you are doing wrong. Here are the 4 most common SEO mistakes that credit unions make when implementing their strategies.
Having only one location page
The first thing that credit unions should pay attention to when optimizing their website is the local SEO. And in most cases, that’s exactly what they do unaware of one problem that can come out of it. The most common mistake that credit union websites make in this process is creating a single page listing their branch locations.
In this way, the website is not optimized for a specific location which means that your potential customers may not be able to find their local branch easily. Instead, the better approach here would be to create multiple location pages so that your website can gain visibility for online searches related to the different states, cities, or counties where you operate. Otherwise, the local SEO won’t serve its purpose.
Short Product Description
One of the most important aspects of all credit union websites is the user experience which is why all credit unions do their best to create an eye-catching, responsive design and avoid adding too much content. The main reason why credit union websites limit their content is the notion that visitors won’t actually read it if it’s too long. Well, that’s not a smart move in the SEO strategy. Actually, most experts in SEO claim that longer content ranks higher on search engines, it is shared more often and most importantly it converts better.
A helpful tip in determining the length of the content on your pages is to go ahead and analyze the pages that rank the highest on Google. In that way, you can understand what type of content do search engines prefer and follow the lead.
Leaving out location-related keywords
Content is king. Anyone who is trying to implement an effective digital marketing strategy has probably heard this too many times. And it really is a statement that shouldn’t be ignored. Still, it’s worth mentioning that not any type of content can provide value to your website. It’s not enough to just write over 1000 words worth of content on your pages if you don’t optimize it accordingly.
One of the mistakes that credit unions make in this area is optimizing the content only with credit-union-related keywords. As we have already mentioned local SEO is very important for credit union websites, therefore it’s a good idea to include location-related keywords into the copy of your pages. Mention the cities, counties, or different areas where you have branches, and make sure the content is not repetitive.
Duplicating meta tags
It is not uncommon that some credit union websites simply duplicate the meta tags for some pages especially because they offer similar products for personal or business use. To them, pages such as calculators or blogs are not of high preference so they use general meta tags for all similar pages.
In order to improve your credit union website’s SEO strategy start adding unique meta tags for every page. This practice will help search engines determine the purpose of the pages and reward them accordingly.
How Can Credit Unions Avoid Making SEO Mistakes
The simple answer to this question would be to plan and execute an effective SEO strategy. Even though this may not sound like an easy solution, if you have the right team to guide you through the process there’s nothing to worry about. Our team at CUWebsite Services is here to support you and help with many SEO tips.
