The financial sector is a dynamic and complex field, characterized by challenges and strict regulations. Consequently, businesses operating within this vertical need to approach the optimization of their local search presence and, specifically, their Google Business Profile listings with a higher degree of sensitivity and specialization compared to industries such as retail or restaurants.
These challenges arise from a range of factors, including adherence to internal branding guidelines, considerations for accessibility, regulatory compliance, and the need to align with different lines of business within the financial organization.
This implies that local listings in the financial vertical cannot be standardized, as they differ based on their specific functions. They can be categorized into various types, including branches, loan officers, financial advisors, and different types of ATMs (such as walk-up ATMs, drive-through ATMs, and “smart ATMs”).
Each of these listing types demands a unique set of attributes, hours of operation, hyper-local content, and categories, necessitating a distinct approach to overall optimization.
The objective of this article is to delve deeper into the reasons behind the importance of a tailored optimization strategy for businesses within the financial sector. Furthermore, it aims to provide industry-specific best practices for optimizing listing strategies that cater to the unique needs of financial brands.
Google Business Profiles Listing Types for Financial Brands
Listing optimization within the financial vertical presents a complex scenario due to the multitude of factors that impact it. Besides the varying listing features based on business functions highlighted earlier, Google introduces distinct classifications or types of listings, each governed by specific guidelines that come into play depending on the listing context.
This differentiation extends to the contrast between an organizational listing (e.g., a bank branch’s listing) and that of an individual practitioner (used to represent a loan officer, whether or not they work at the branch, which possesses a separate listing).
In the midst of these two primary divisions, there might arise a requirement for a departmental listing (e.g., differentiating consumer banking from mortgages).
Once again, it’s important to note that each listing classification adheres to its own set of rules and criteria, dictating how many listings can be established for a particular address and how they should be portrayed.
Disregarding Google’s guidelines in this context exposes businesses to the risk of having their listings deactivated or even facing penalties at the account level.
The Importance of Categories and Structure Over Content in SEO
Though such outcomes are relatively infrequent, the potential risks are inadvisable and could have significant adverse effects on both revenue and reputation, especially within an industry as heavily regulated and competitive as the financial sector.
Google Business Profile Category
Selecting categories for your Google Business Profile (GBP) is a pivotal and highly significant task when it comes to crafting and enhancing listings. This decision significantly impacts your ranking, visibility, and the traffic attributed to your listing.
It’s important to note that you can’t simply “keyword optimize” a GBP listing (unless you’re willing to breach Business Title guidelines), and this is a deliberate choice on Google’s part.
Given this situation, the primary and secondary categories you opt for become potent signals that guide Google in determining which audience should encounter your listing within local search engine results pages (SERPs), based on relevant queries.
It’s worth emphasizing that here, quality and precision outweigh sheer quantity. Part of the reason is that Google permits only one primary category selection. Moreover, inundating the secondary category field with as many entries as Google allows, particularly categories only marginally connected to the listing, can lead to unanticipated and unintended consequences.
The essential point is that an excessive number of categories often confuses Google’s algorithm, obstructing its ability to present listings effectively for appropriate queries and audiences. This misalignment can result in inadequate user experiences, driving inappropriate traffic. Additionally, the algorithm might struggle to measure relevance, potentially causing the listing to be suppressed or poorly ranked, ultimately leading to decreased traffic.
Cannibalization Versus Governance
Building upon our previous discussion about differentiating classification types and accurately selecting categories based on the business functions and goals represented by a given listing, these considerations work in tandem to shape a governance strategy within the realm of the organic local search channel.
The core concept revolves around establishing boundaries between lines of business (LOBs) to prevent internal competition for rankings and visibility. This ensures that search terms which are not aligned with one or more LOBs do not inadvertently compete and erode each other’s performance.
In simpler words, individuals seeking a financial advisor or loan officer should not be presented with a listing for a consumer bank branch, and vice versa.
This segregation is essential to uphold a positive user experience. Failing to do so could lead to user frustration, complaints, and potentially a decline in revenue.
The Significance of Choosing Categories
To illustrate this concept, consider the example below.
Let’s take a large investment bank as our example. For their Branches and Advisors, the recommended categories could be as follows (with an asterisk denoting the primary category):
Branch Categories
*Investment Service.
- Investment Company.
- Financial Institution.
- Advisor Categories
*Financial Consultant.
- Financial Planner.
- Financial Broker.
It’s evident that the Branch categories convey relevance for the entire institution, while the Advisor categories are tailored to individual practitioners. These listings serve distinct yet complementary roles.
When strategically optimized, these listings’ visibility will align precisely with the needs of users seeking information related to those specific functions.
While category selection is a crucial aspect of crafting a sound governance strategy, it’s not the sole factor to consider, although it holds significant weight.
With that being said, all the available data fields and content within the listings should be planned and optimized in harmony with appropriate governance considerations. This should also encompass the broader relevancy and content strategy applicable to the associated lines of business (LOBs).
Tailored Attributes for Financial Brand Listings
GBP attributes serve as data points that convey specific details about the business being represented within a listing. These attributes vary based on the primary category and present an excellent opportunity to address users’ requirements while enhancing performance through differentiation against competitors. Additionally, they provide Google’s algorithm with more pertinent information regarding the given listing.
This aspect is commonly referred to as the “listing completeness” facet of Google’s local algorithm, meaning that the more comprehensive the information Google possesses about a listing, the more accurately it can present that listing to users based on their localized queries.
Here’s a list of attributes particularly beneficial for the financial sector:
- Online Appointments.
- Black-Owned.
- Family-Led.
- Veteran-Led.
- Women-Led.
- Appointment Links.
- Wheelchair Accessible Elevator.
- Wheelchair Accessible Entrance.
- Wheelchair Accessible Parking Lot.
Managing Hours Of Operation
This aspect holds substantial significance yet is frequently disregarded in both financial and general listings management.
Foremost, including hours of operation in listings is essential and should not be overlooked. While it might not be compulsory, omitting this information can negatively impact user experience and overall visibility.
Just as with the aforementioned factors, the operating hours for a bank branch (e.g., 10 am to 5 pm) will inherently differ from those of a drive-through ATM (operating 24 hours), as well as from those of a mortgage loan officer and a financial advisor who share the same address.
For optimal representation, each of these services and lines of business should have distinct listings, each featuring its own set of operating hours.
Neglecting these details or applying uniform operating hours across all these lines of business and listing types can lead to user frustration and hinder Google’s ability to accurately display and communicate a location’s availability (including messages like “open now,” “closing soon,” or “closed,” as relevant).
Ultimately, these situations either result in missed opportunities, where omitted hours allow a known open competitor to rank higher in SERPs, or they lead to dissatisfied customers who arrive at an investment banking office anticipating services like consumer deposits or ATM usage.
Appointment URL With Local Attribution Monitoring
This holds particular significance when considering individual practitioner listings, such as financial advisors, mortgage loan officers, and insurance agents.
The inclusion of Appointment URLs provides brands with the opportunity to share a link where clients can seamlessly schedule appointments with the individual whose listing they’ve come across and engaged with during their search.
This strategy represents a straightforward yet impactful approach that can swiftly contribute to lead generation and revenue growth.
Moreover, elevating this tactic further involves the addition of UTM parameters to these links (for brands utilizing Google Analytics, and equivalently for other analytic platforms). This tagging allows for the tracking of conversion events, leads, and revenue attributed to this specific listing feature.
Leveraging Services
Incorporating services into a listing provides a means of informing potential customers about the range of offerings available at a particular location.
The availability of services within GBP is contingent upon the primary category chosen, underscoring the significance of proper category selection, as previously discussed.
Once services have been added to a listing, they are prominently showcased on the listing itself within the mobile Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), accessible through the dedicated “Services” tab.
This not only enhances data completeness, benefiting both mobile and desktop performance but also amplifies engagement within mobile SERPs. This engagement encompasses actions like clicking through to the website, making calls, and obtaining driving directions – all of which are pivotal bottom-funnel Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that directly contribute to revenue growth.
Google Posts
Google Posts offer a valuable content marketing avenue that holds significance on multiple fronts. Organizations can use this platform to share pertinent and evergreen content, strategically optimized to target localized keywords, services, and product offerings.
While there isn’t explicit confirmation or acknowledgement from Google regarding the direct influence of relevant content on overall rankings for a listing, observations strongly indicate that well-optimized posts do lead to the appearance of listings within the local SERPs for keyword searches aligning with that content.
This manifests through “related to your search” snippets, a phenomenon extensively observed since 2019. This holds several implications that underscore the advantages of integrating Google Posts into your local search strategy.
Firstly, considering that Post snippets are triggered, it’s reasonable to deduce that listings lacking the relevant post might not surface at all in the SERPs. Consequently, there’s an inferred advantage in terms of visibility, which directly correlates to heightened traffic.
Secondly, it’s widely established that featured snippets are linked with amplified click-through rates (CTR), further accentuating the traffic upsurge resulting from the enhanced visibility alone.
Additional Post Benefits
Apart from these evident advantages of Google Posts, they also deliver multiple benefits in terms of effectively communicating with potential visitors and clients by furnishing them with pertinent information about a location, encompassing details about products, services, promotions, events, limited-time offers, and possibly more.
Practical scenarios could involve consumer banks showcasing free checking or direct deposit services, or financial advisors promoting a complimentary 60-minute initial consultation.
Investing effort into creating posts that highlight such distinguishing features could yield quantifiable impacts on traffic, click-through rates (CTR), and overall revenue.
Another noteworthy aspect of Google Posts lies in their previous design, where they were configured to be visible during specific date ranges. At one point, they would “expire” or vanish from the SERPs once the designated time period lapsed.
However, specific post types have been observed to persist in the SERPs even after their expiration dates if there is a pertinent match between the user’s query and the content. This dynamic serves as an added advantage in extending the visibility and impact of relevant posts.
Final Thoughts
The financial sector demands a specialized and finely tuned optimization strategy for Google Business Profiles (GBPs), meticulously tailored to address user needs, lines of business (LOBs), and regulatory requirements.
Key factors such as primary and secondary categories, operating hours, attributes, services, and content (via Google Posts) collectively contribute to shaping this comprehensive strategy. This approach also involves establishing and upholding crucial governance boundaries between complementary LOBs.
By holistically and strategically managing all these available listing features, financial institutions and practitioners can effectively enhance visibility, engagement, traffic, revenue, and overall performance derived from local search efforts. Simultaneously, this approach minimizes instances of internal competition, complaints, and subpar user experiences.
Would you like to read more about tips to optimize Google Business Profiles for the Financial Sector related articles? If so, we invite you to take a look at our other tech topics before you leave!
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