Geo Keyword Challenges, Duplicates, Answer Box Focus
Local SEO Case Study with Mortgage Educators
Project Overview
369
Keywords in Top 3 Positions
25%
Keywords on First Page
43.5%
Increase in Organic Traffic
| Website: | http://mortgageeducators.com |
| Industry: | B2C |
| Value Provided: | Local SEO |
Project Overview
Mortgage Educators and Compliance specializes in helping individuals obtain an MLO license from the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System & Registry (NMLS). However, they had trouble informing their audience about this service—many of their competitors ranked higher for most search terms Mortgage Educators tried to target.
Lucky for them, one of their former employees moved to a digital marketing agency: Big Leap. Through that referral, we were able to connect with Mortgage Educators to get their SEO on track and help them win better rankings and more organic traffic.
In our 18+ month business relationship, we were able to get nearly 25% of their keyword-ranking content to the first page of search results. Read on to find out how we did this and more.
Our Strategy
Our Strategy
Geo-Specific Keyword Research
Every reputable organic search strategy relies on in-depth keyword research. As we looked for keywords that captured Mortgage Educators’ services, we found large search volumes based on the user’s geographic location. This is likely because each state has its own specifications for getting an MLO license.
We dove through keywords pertaining to all 50 states to find different variations in keywords about obtaining mortgage licenses. Then, we prioritized the states that had the most volume for their keywords so we could target more audience members at the beginning of the campaign. Then we created pages for the rest of the states.
State Page Optimization/Creation
After finding these keywords, we focused on Mortgage Educators’ informational web pages about licensure requirements for each state.
While Mortgage Educators already had content written for these state-specific web pages, they were unfortunately full of duplicate content. We planned out unique landing page content for all 50 states and started rewriting their current state pages. This helped the pages focus on the unique educational requirements from each state and the subtle nuances of the licensure steps.
Answer Box Targeting
While creating the aforementioned state pages, we also found many answer box-type questions (questions like “what are MLO requirements in Utah”) during our keyword research. These are questions that, when typed into Google, generate an answer box that offers a direct answer. To improve our chances of capturing first-page rankings, we targeted many of these questions in the new content.
These keywords weren’t just for show. Between November 2020 and May 2021, we helped Mortgage Educators increase their organic traffic by 43.52%.
Results
The Results
Big Leap was able to significantly increase Mortgage Educators’ keyword rankings. Between July 2019 and May 2021, Big Leap increased Mortgage Educators’ total keyword rankings in the top three positions by 132% (a total of 369 keywords). In total, almost 25% of their rankings live on the first page of search results.
These keywords weren’t just for show, either. Between November 2020 and May 2021, we helped Mortgage Educators increase their organic traffic by 43.52%.
Additionally, we were successful in our endeavor to capture Google’s answer boxes. Here is one we captured for “Utah mortgage license requirements.”
Get the Space You Deserve on Search Engines
If you’re like Mortgage Educators and need help to skyrocket your rankings and smash your competition, Big Leap is the one to call. We have over 13 years of experience in digital marketing and strive to continuously improve our strategies every day.
Contact Big Leap today to learn how your company’s SEO and digital marketing efforts can improve.
Here’s the thing about our SEO agency: We prefer long-term partnerships that are deeply rooted in trust. Before we dive right into this, we’d like to get to know you better, get a feel for your current situation, and talk about your marketing goals and expectations.
You can call us now, or we can meet over lunch. Either way, we’re excited to meet you.
