FinTrust Solutions
FinTrust Solutions is a Pretoria-based financial services company that was established in 2019 by Sipho Mthembu and Claire van Wyk out of their personal passion for the financial industry. FinTrust offers B2B financial solutions to South African small and medium-sized companies and financial advisors.
This includes investment management solutions, compliance products and services, and advisory services.
The company has since branched out into 10 different financial sectors, and by 2024, had generated 150 reviews from their customers—a solid amount for a company of their size, and one that spoke to their trustworthiness and consistent quality.
The South African B2B finance market was worth $994 million in 2023 as small and medium-sized businesses across the country sought digital solutions to help them with their JSE compliance needs and scale up their investments.
FinTrust needed to work harder than ever to keep up with growing demand, so they approached EcoSEO to help improve their search engine performance and qualify more business leads.
Here’s the story of how we helped FinTrust grow to become a recognized name in financial services.
Lead Time: 6 Months
Sector: Financial Technology
Target Type: B2B
Demographic: Financial advisors and SMB owners, aged 30–60
Website Goal: Increase organic traffic and generate high-quality leads for financial solutions.
Services: Keyword Strategy, Content Optimization, Mobile Optimization, Local SEO Enhancement, Reporting Automation
80%
Boost In Organic Traffic
The Challenge
FinTrust already had a strong reputation, but their website performance was lagging. According to Semrush, they only generated around 2,000 visits per month from organic traffic—far from enough for the business to reach their full potential in the financial services space.
Top-ranking terms for their industry, including “South Africa investment tools” and “JSE compliance solutions", were nowhere to be found on Google.
The key challenges were:
- The marketing team had very limited time to work with, only around 10 hours a week, so efforts had to be as efficient as possible.
- Multiple pages were cannibalizing each other’s rankings as they targeted the same keywords.
- The website experience wasn’t optimized for mobile devices, creating a bad user experience and a low ranking for mobile-first queries.
- The company had not optimized for local search terms, reducing their search rankings for financial industry searches in South Africa.
- Reporting systems weren’t set up, which made it difficult to use data to make informed decisions on content strategy.
Acknowledging the pain points, Sipho and Claire decided to contact EcoSEO in May 2024.
They knew they needed to up their SEO game and reach financial industry leads through search engines in a competitive market.
Content & Keyword Analysis
Keyword & Content Intent
The South African financial services platform FinTrust had a problem familiar to any digital organization in a crowded industry: how to stand out?
EcoSEO developed a custom SEO plan, using competitor analysis from both local and global finance sites to inform keyword selection.
We identified the priority keywords and topic groups to help drive up their online visibility and produce more high-intent leads.
Selecting and Prioritizing Keyword Clusters
Utilizing Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool, we extracted terms with the highest purchase intent (e.g. JSE compliance software, South Africa investment management).
The EcoSEO team then produced 25 targeted content assets.
With Yoast SEO we strategically allocated the focus terms, ensuring pages were not cannibalizing each other in a seemingly inconsequential detail.
Google Analytics and Search Console then revealed a 25% increase in overall page traffic, with approximately 2,000 keywords now ranking on-site.
Positioning for Thought Leadership
After conducting a content gap analysis using Ahrefs’ Content Explorer to analyze the types of content that were performing well in financial markets, the team produced 15 in-depth educational materials on topics like JSE compliance regulations and tax-effective investing for SMEs.
After we distributed the content on LinkedIn, engagement from Google Analytics metrics improved by 20%, further establishing FinTrust’s brand as a trusted authority in the financial industry.
Mobile Optimization & Local SEO
Mobile Optimization
Insights from the Screaming Frog audit highlighted that FinTrust’s mobile performance was a significant weak point.
Pages were slow-loading and the site’s design was not responsive to different screen sizes. This was improved by optimizing images using TinyPNG and making minor adjustments to responsive design.
Mobile page speed, as reported in Google Search Console, improved by 30% and mobile bounce rates decreased by 15%, as per Google Analytics.
Local SEO for South African Searches
FinTrust also needed to bolster its local search presence. Semrush was utilized to pinpoint local keywords such as “Pretoria financial software” and “Cape Town investment tools”.
Ten pages were optimized for these local search terms through Google Search Console and local business listings were added to increase FinTrust’s local footprint.
Website traffic from South African visitors increased by 22%, as reported by Google Analytics.
Improving On-Page SEO
Semrush’s On-Page SEO Checker helped in fine-tuning meta titles, descriptions, and H1 tags for the pages that had been updated for South African targeted financial solutions keywords.
Combining data from Google Search Console and Analytics indicated a 10% improvement in click-through rates. This may not seem like a big jump, but every percentage point counts.
These improvements were achieved with a more focused and targeted approach to SEO.
Dashboarding for Automation
Google Data Studio was utilized to build a dashboard that reported on website traffic, lead generation, and keyword rankings on a weekly basis.
This saved the team approximately six hours per week in reporting tasks. Ahrefs’ Rank Tracker was also used to monitor competitors and FinTrust’s position on JSE compliance tools and other search terms related to FinTrust’s business.
The Results
Six months is a long time in search engine marketing, and the data tells a very positive story.
Some of the metrics exceeded expectations.
- Website organic traffic, for example, increased by around 80%. Monthly unique visitors to the website increased from approximately 2,000 to 3,600 visitors. This is a significant increase if you find yourself staring at the Google Analytics dashboard on a weekly basis and crossing your fingers for a positive trend. The number of new leads generated via the website increased at a faster rate still. New enquiries increased to around 100 per month, which equates to a 150% increase in new leads. You could practically taste the change in momentum in the office.
- FinTrust’s overall keyword coverage also increased: FinTrust now ranks for a total of around 2,000 keywords. Keyword share is spread as follows: approximately 150 keywords in the #1 ranking position (roughly a 30% increase), 200 keywords in the #2 position (a 50% increase) and 300 keywords in positions 5-10 (a 60% increase). A great result in six months’ time.
- Google Analytics also reported an 8% increase in lead-to-meeting conversion rates. This metric is a bit of a leading indicator for me. If users aren’t bouncing around your site but are discovering content that works for them, they’re likely to take the action you want them to: sign up, download or get in touch.
- Domain Authority increased from 20 to 25. This was supported by the acquisition of six quality backlinks. On a less obvious metric: the bounce rate on their website decreased by 12%. In other words, website visitors were no longer bouncing after viewing a single page on their site. In practical terms, fewer people were getting frustrated with the website, and more people were enjoying it.
- One particularly interesting success story was the creation of the lead magnet “Navigating JSE Regulations for SMBs”. For some reason (karma, perhaps? ), this article hit the mark straight away. It was ready for and shared by its target audience and now generates about 500 page views per month. FinTrust also acquired additional social media followers: 1,500 on LinkedIn, 2,000 on X.com and a total of about 900 on Facebook. Progress, not perfection.
In the end, all of these metrics were achieved because EcoSEO took care of the marketing heavy-lifting (Semrush audits, Yoast configuration, Google Data Studio dashboards, and everything else in between) and FinTrust kept their focus on what they do best: supporting South African small businesses and financial advisors.
And you can see it. FinTrust is generating more leads, getting more of them to convert, and establishing a stronger presence in the B2B finance market. It didn’t happen overnight, but the slow and steady approach will (in my experience) almost always lead to more sustainable growth.
Technical Tools:
Screaming Frog, Semrush, Yoast SEO, Ahrefs, Google Search Console, Google Data Studio, TinyPNG and Google Analytics
SEO Services
Keyword Strategy, Content Optimization, Mobile Optimization, Local SEO Enhancement, Reporting Automation
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