Project overview
Customer brief
- Develop a new brand identity and logo
- Design and develop a new search optimised website
- Grow organic traffic
- Increase local rankings
- Research and deliver a content strategy
Targeted SEO Services
- Branding and visual identity
- Brand-new optimised website
- Technical SEO
- Content Strategy
- Local SEO campaign
Where we started
In just six months, we unlocked the door to SEO success for a growing firm of mortgage brokers
The mortgage industry is highly competitive, with over 5,000 UK mortgage brokers vying for the attention of potential clients in an increasingly digital market. Visibility in search engine results is essential to generate organic website traffic and a steady stream of enquiries.
Simmonds Mortgage Services, a leading mortgage broker in Berkshire, recognised this and understood the potential of SEO to boost its online presence.
The Simmonds team has heaps of experience and expertise in the Berkshire mortgage market, but their website didn’t reflect that, and it wasn’t ranking on page one for their services. Fortunately, they found Targeted SEO after discovering the success we’d had with another mortgage broker in their network. We embarked on a 6-month SEO strategy that has delivered impressive results, as the numbers clearly demonstrate.
What we delivered
Impactful new Mortgage Broker Brand identity
While simultaneously developing the new website, we presented ideas for a new logo and visual identity to resonate with the target audience. The Targeted SEO team has great expertise in graphic design, and we have created a distinctive and cohesive brand to represent Simmonds’ brand values of prestige, trust, expertise, and reliability.
A brand new, fully optimised Mortgage Broker website
We crafted a brand new WordPress site from scratch that prioritised user experience with intuitive navigation and visually engaging pages. We carried out meticulous keyword research to identify high-value terms relevant to the mortgage broker services in Berkshire, which we integrated into key on-page elements such as meta titles, descriptions, headers, and content.
The great benefit of building a new WordPress website is that we can nail the technical SEO aspects from day one so that the website starts being indexed straight after launch. On every page of the new Simmonds site, we optimised URL structures, image alt tags, and internal linking to improve crawlability and overall site performance. This has resulted in the website performing well in SERPs within just six months of launch.
SEO Content and strategy
Google prioritises useful, high-quality content that provides value to users, leading to higher rankings in search results. Rich content is particularly important for finance websites, especially those that are aimed directly at consumers. The mortgage market is vast and complex, so each page of Simmonds’ new website had to inform, reassure, and ultimately drive action.
Our content strategy focused on creating detailed service pages and blog posts that directly addressed common questions and concerns. Simmonds’ target market is diverse, including both consumers and businesses, so it was important to tailor the information and tone of voice for maximum engagement.
Our thoughtful and thorough approach to content has resulted in valuable featured snippets for Simmonds on key topics related to their services.
Local SEO
Primarily, Simmonds wanted to target all major towns in the Berkshire area. So we started with a local SEO strategy designed to boost their presence in Berkshire-based mortgage searches. This included using local schema markup and creating localised content with geo-targeted keywords.
The local campaign has been incredibly successful, placing Simmonds in the top 3 local Google pack and number one in the organic search results for ‘mortgage broker Berkshire’.
Following on from this success, we have since broadened the campaign to target other areas further afield.
SEO Results
An Integrated SEO & Web Design Approach
The results we have achieved for Simmonds Mortgage Services in just six months are proof of how building SEO into a website from day one is so powerful. It also signifies the importance of an integrated approach to SEO.
While it’s not guaranteed to get these kinds of SEO results in such a short space of time, it shows what is possible with a strategic and dedicated approach. It’s a testament to the team at Simmonds, who have trusted the process, been collaborative and a joy to work with.
We look forward to seeing where we can take it in the next six months!
We have used Targeted SEO to build our new website for a mortgage brokerage and also to do all our SEO, and wow what a website, and we have seen amazing results in a short space of time. Pushing to 1st page of Google on keywords in brand new locations!
Highly recommend the team at Targeted SEO!
Andrew Simmonds, Managing Director, Simmonds Mortgage Services
Ready to unlock your finance firm’s full potential? Targeted SEO can help you climb the rankings and boost your business growth. Learn more about the SEO services for mortgage brokers we can offer you.
UK Search Awards
Shortlisted at the UK Search Awards 2024
This project was shortlisted at the UK Search Awards 2024 for Best Low Budget Campaign [SEO] [Small].
That recognition meant a lot to us because this was not a huge-budget campaign. It was a focused, carefully planned project that combined branding, website design, technical SEO, on-page optimisation, local SEO and content strategy to help Simmonds Mortgage Services grow their visibility in a competitive mortgage market.
The results were strong. Organic users increased by 1,198%, from 97 to 1,259 per month, website contact form entries increased from 6 to 20 per month, and by May 2024 the website ranked for 4,615 organic keywords, including 375 page one keywords and 513 keywords with local intent.
The campaign was also highlighted on the UK Search Awards website as part of Targeted SEO’s two 2024 nominations, alongside our shortlisting for Best Small SEO Agency.
It was a proud moment for the team, but more importantly, it showed what can be achieved when SEO, content, technical performance and website design are all working together.
