by Paul O’Donoghue, VP solution engineering, Uberall
The coronavirus pandemic has seen a dramatic increase in digitalisation across all aspects of our lives, from remote working and online shopping to digital banking. Indeed, during the UK’s lockdown period, six million people – the equivalent of 12% of the UK’s adults – have made the switch to digital banking, and according to Deloitte, over 60% of people who used online banking more during lockdown say they are likely to continue doing so in the future.
Whether it’s personal credit, loans, insurance or investing, customers are turning to their digital devices first to find financial services. But while customers are looking online, they’re also browsing to find local options, and as of May 2020, searches for “available near me” have grown globally by over 100% in just one year, per Google data. But how do financial institutions ensure that their local outlets are being found online, and that they can still attract new customers back in store, even with Covid-restrictions in place?
Considering nearly 60 million people in the UK alone are smartphone users, financial services have a huge opportunity to connect with more customers in their local area that are looking for financial services on their mobile devices ‘Near Me’. To succeed, financial companies must shift their digital strategies to fit this new paradigm, and move away from focusing on overall web traffic to instead optimising all the online touchpoints customers have with them, from the first online search, to engaging on social media and through online reviews.
What are ‘Near Me’ searches and how do I optimise them?
The term ‘Near Me’ made its debut in Google when people were looking for something they needed right away and close to them — like an ATM when they needed cash. For financial organisations, ‘Near Me’ searches are particularly pertinent as customers typing in local search queries usually wish to make a purchase or take an action right away.
As ‘Near Me’ searches grew, search engines got smarter and customers didn’t need to add ‘Near Me’ every time they were searching for something with local intent. The definition of ‘Near Me’ has expanded and is no longer solely about finding a specific place, “It’s now about finding a specific thing, in a specific area, and in a specific period of time,” said Google’s VP of Marketing for the Americas, Lisa Gevelber.
When it comes to optimising local searches, this is about ensuring a high ranking in search results, which is critical to being found online. For example, when a customer Googles “best home insurance agency London”, they are presented with three results, but recent research found that if a location doesn’t rank in these top three results, the click-through-rate falls to under 8%.
To increase visibility and connect with prospective customers who are searching for services at the exact moment they are ready to invest, purchase insurance or apply for a mortgage, financial institutions must ensure their online presence is optimised. This starts with listing branches and independent locations on business directories, map services and review sites – the number one way to rank highly in local search. This sounds simple enough, but where financial organisations fall short is in the accuracy and consistency of their business information.
Three steps to ranking at the top of ‘Near Me’ searches
Google uses the accuracy and consistency of business address, opening hours, contact details, business name, website and postcode as trust factors to see whether they should send a user to a specific location. The more accurate the information is, the more likely Google will rank the location in one of the top three spots.
Yet accuracy and consistency across the most important directories are a real problem for many finance and insurance brands — a recent Uberall study found that 96% of business locations had inconsistencies across Google, Bing and Yelp. This may seem trivial, but these small discrepancies undermine major search engine trust factors. If information is missing or incorrect for a particular location, customers looking for financial services nearby won’t be shown that result at the top of their local search.
To optimise these trust factors and subsequently gain visibility, financial services organisations must ensure accurate and consistent business listings information across multiple directories for their locations. In addition, and to encourage brand loyalty and repeat visits from customers, replying to reviews and engaging with customers online is also a must. Below are some more tips for how these organisations can keep customers coming back in the age of ‘Near Me’:
Step 1: Find out if locations are optimised for ‘near me’ searches
- Focusing on optimising listings and reviews is the best way to ensure connections with customers while they are searching for services near them. But first, it pays to understand how well locations are optimised across the directories that matter most for ranking in local search
- Perform a quick search to see if your locations appear at the top of the results, or see where they rank on Google compared to Bing and Yelp
- Knowing where you stand is key, and there are even tools available to help you find out your current online optimisation score.
Step 2: Optimise business listings
- Enter address, opening hours, phone number, business name, website and postcode on the most important directories, including Google, Bing, Yelp, Apple Maps, Facebook and Trustpilot
- Ensure that each location has the exact same information listed across different directories, review sites and search engines
- Be as specific as possible about the business and what it does, as the more information provided, the higher the ranking for specific search queries will be
- Include photos that display the highlights of the location.
Step 3: Optimise reviews
- Ask customers to leave reviews online by encouraging them at the end of a customer service interaction, whether that’s in-store or digitally
- Encourage them to leave reviews across the board including on Trustpilot, Yelp and Facebook — not just Google
- Make sure to reply to reviews, wherever they are — Trustpilot found that 75% of customers agree that positive customer ratings would make them more likely to become a customer of a bank, compared to only 9% who disagree
- Get as many authentic reviews as possible, as often as possible – review volume and velocity is critical for rankings.
‘Near Me’ searches are here to stay, even more so during the pandemic as people turn to local services. To ensure visibility and optimisation in these searches, it’s important to understand that business listings and review management go hand-in-hand. While having accurate and consistent business listings is a trust factor for search engines, so is a local review score, review volume and the frequency with which a business location replies to its customers. Search engines want to know that customers are engaging with you, that they can trust the information you are providing, and that you are engaging right back with customers when they need it most.
