Case study

MarketFinance: 250% Organic Traffic Growth Through COVID

How NUOPTIMA grew lender MarketFinance's organic traffic 250% (worth $81,000) in 22 months with content built ahead of COVID demand.

250%
Organic traffic increase, 2020 to 2021
$81,000
Traffic value
3.2x
Referring domains growth
132
Articles written (330,000 words)

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

Organic traffic chart showing MarketFinance's 250% increase working with NUOPTIMA
MarketFinance saw a 250% increase in organic traffic with NUOPTIMA

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.

MarketFinance, the leading UK fintech for invoice financing
MarketFinance is the leading fintech for invoice financing in the UK

Team

MarketFinance Team

Zubair Mohammad, Head of Marketing at MarketFinance
Robyn Schuleman, Content and Editorial Lead at MarketFinance

Responsible NUOPTIMA Team

Viktor Bartak, SEO Lead at NUOPTIMA
Isobel O'Sullivan, Writer at NUOPTIMA
Isabelle Day, Writer at NUOPTIMA
Katie Lestner, Writer at NUOPTIMA

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.

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.

Backlink profile showing NUOPTIMA's link building for MarketFinance in the business and financial industries
NUOPTIMA focused on building links in the business and financial industries

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.

Chart showing a 3.2x increase in referring domains for MarketFinance
3.2x increase in referring domains for MarketFinance

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.

Blog cover: 5 Ways Covid-19 Has Accelerated Software Development

30/03/2021

By MarketFinance

5 Ways Covid-19 Has Accelerated Software Development

Blog cover: What is Hybrid Work and Will it Work for My Business

28/02/2021

By MarketFinance

What is Hybrid Work and Will it Work for My Business

Blog cover: How to Apply for CBILs

05/06/2020

By MarketFinance

How to Apply for CBILs

Blog cover: 5 Types of Alternative Funding for SMEs

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.

Organic traffic graph showing MarketFinance's 250% increase during the NUOPTIMA engagement
A 250% increase in organic traffic while working with NUOPTIMA

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.

Excerpt from the 39 page technical SEO audit NUOPTIMA delivered to MarketFinance

Key takeaways

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

Frequently asked questions

What results did NUOPTIMA get for MarketFinance?

MarketFinance saw a 250% increase in organic traffic across the 2020 to 2021 engagement, worth around $81,000 in traffic value and roughly 12,000 unique visitors, plus a 3.2x lift in referring domains.

How long did the engagement last?

NUOPTIMA worked with MarketFinance for 22 months, spanning two UK COVID waves.

What did the SEO program include?

Contextual link building (66 backlinks at an average domain rating of 64), a content engine that produced 132 articles totaling 330,000 words, and one off technical SEO audits during the site migration, including a 39 page report.

How did NUOPTIMA handle the fast changing COVID market?

Because SEO takes 3 to 6 months to show effects, NUOPTIMA predicted demand for new financial products and published content in advance of the search traffic, capturing queries like bounce back loans and CBILS as they spiked.

Want results like these?

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