TLDR
- Who: MarketFinance, the British fintech lender that pioneered borrowing against outstanding invoices.
- What changed: A 22 month SEO program of content built ahead of demand plus contextual link building, timed to shifting COVID search patterns.
- The number: 250% increase in organic traffic across the nearly two-year engagement.
250%
Traffic increase
$81,000
Traffic value
12,000
Unique visitors
About MarketFinance
MarketFinance is a British finance and invoicing lender. It was the first company to let businesses borrow against outstanding invoices, and it raised over £500m from VCs and incumbent banks including Barclays and Santander.
MarketFinance approached NUOPTIMA after seeing the growth that CBD marketplace Alphagreen.io went through as NUOPTIMA scaled its internal content team. We were engaged during COVID to help launch new financial products and capitalize on the changing search patterns of businesses looking for funding, including bounce back loans. That put fintech SEO at the center of the work: content and links that matched real demand as it moved.
Who we were targeting
MarketFinance's buyers are businesses looking for funding, and during the COVID engagement that search behavior shifted fast as financial regulation and business needs changed. The content program was built to meet those buyers as their queries moved, rather than chase a fixed keyword list.
- Businesses researching COVID-era funding options as they became available, including bounce back loans, reached through content written ahead of the search demand rather than after it.
- SMEs and companies comparing alternative funding and invoice financing products, the core of MarketFinance's business, covered through technical articles on the specifics of each product.
- Business audiences reading COVID-adjacent operational content, such as hybrid work and software development pieces, that brought in relevant traffic beyond pure finance queries.
Team
MarketFinance Team
Responsible NUOPTIMA Team
What we did
22
Months engagement
2
COVID waves
NUOPTIMA worked with the MarketFinance team for close to two years, across nearly two years. Over that time the SEO goals shifted as the UK moved in and out of COVID waves. Financial regulation adapted alongside it, which meant a steady stream of new financial products MarketFinance could offer.
Because SEO can take 3 to 6 months to show effects, we worked closely with the MarketFinance team to predict the need for future financial products and write content in advance of the search traffic. The program had three parts: contextual link building, a high volume content engine, and one off technical SEO audits during the site migration.
Backlinks
66
Backlinks
64
Average domain rating
MarketFinance already generated authoritative press links from a strong PR team, so NUOPTIMA focused on building links from sites that were contextually relevant. To Google, contextual links are highly valuable and help drive the correct rankings to a domain.
As a result, MarketFinance saw a 3.2x increase in referring domains through the engagement, and we built a strong roster of financial and business publications relevant across a wide range of B2B segments.
Content writing
330,000
Words written
132
Articles written
After analyzing the competitive Fintech SEO space, hunting for green space opportunities and matching business needs, we regularly presented high quality content plans to the MarketFinance team. Every few months the team would batch approve and discuss the content for the coming months before our writers began.
Content plans ran from COVID related and timely pieces to highly technical articles on the intricacies of financial products.
30/03/2021
By MarketFinance
5 Ways Covid-19 Has Accelerated Software Development
28/02/2021
By MarketFinance
What is Hybrid Work and Will it Work for My Business
05/06/2020
By MarketFinance
How to Apply for CBILs
08/09/2020
By MarketFinance
5 Types of Alternative Funding for SMEs
Results
As a result of the content writing and backlinks, MarketFinance saw a 250% increase in organic traffic across the engagement, worth roughly $81,000 in traffic value and around 12,000 unique visitors. The published post dates above, from June 2020 to March 2021, mark the window this growth was built in.
Technical SEO
We also ran one off in depth SEO audits for MarketFinance as they migrated their website and blog. Our SEO specialists spent 2 to 3 days doing a complete deep dive into the site and producing an actionable report, a 39 page document for the development and content team. It included a strategy session to work through open questions.
Key takeaways
- Writing content ahead of demand wins when the market moves fast. Publishing on new financial products before the search traffic arrived is what let MarketFinance capture COVID era funding queries as they spiked. Our B2B SEO approach is built around that timing.
- When a client already has strong press coverage, add contextual links, not more of the same. Focusing on business and financial relevance drove a 3.2x lift in referring domains rather than raw volume.
- Content plus links plus a clean technical base compound. The 250% traffic increase came from all three running together over 22 months, not one tactic in isolation.
If you run a fintech or lender and want organic traffic that keeps pace with a shifting market, book a call and we will map the plan.