How We Grew Organic Leads 40% for a Financial Services Company

When a financial services company approached us, its website appeared professional on the surface. But it wasn’t generating new clients. Traffic was flat, contact form submissions were low, and the site wasn’t ranking for the search terms most important to their business. Over several months, we combined technical SEO work with a focused web design overhaul to grow their organic leads by 40%. Here’s what we did, why it worked, and what other financial services companies can take away from it.

With the website’s current challenges in mind, we first needed to diagnose what was truly holding it back.

Before changing any design elements or writing new content, we needed to understand exactly where the site was falling short. We ran a full technical audit, reviewed the site’s existing search rankings, and mapped user behavior once they landed on the pages.

Several problems stood out. Each one compounded the others, dragging down both traffic and conversions.

The audit revealed four main problem areas:

• Mobile page load times were slow, pushing users away before they saw the company’s value.
• Many service pages lacked the structure and depth that search engines needed to properly understand and rank them.
• Weak internal linking made it hard for search engines to discover key pages.
• Trust signals such as client testimonials, credentials, and professional disclosures were either missing or buried, where visitors rarely scroll.

“Financial services websites carry a higher trust burden than most. A visitor deciding whether to call a financial advisor is making a bigger commitment than someone ordering a product online. The design and content have to earn that trust before the phone rings.” — Strategy Team, Emulent Marketing.

Addressing these technical and content issues required us to rebuild the website’s foundation to support future growth.

Technical SEO—the behind-the-scenes setup of a website—makes it visible to search engines in the first place. Without a solid technical foundation, even well-written content can stay buried in search results.

We started with Core Web Vitals, Google’s set of performance measures that include loading speed (how fast a page’s content appears), visual stability (how much elements shift as a page loads), and interactivity (how quickly users can interact with the site). The site was failing on mobile in particular. We worked with the development team to compress images, reduce render-blocking scripts (pieces of code that slow page load), and improve server response times. These changes alone improved the mobile performance score and directly impacted search rankings within a few months.

Next, we addressed the site’s crawl structure. Search engines need clear paths to find and index every page that matters. We fixed broken internal links, removed duplicate pages that were splitting ranking signals across multiple URLs, and updated the XML sitemap to reflect the site’s most valuable content.

We also added structured data markup (known as schema—code that labels specific information for search engines) to key pages. Schema helps search engines understand the context of your content, leading to more detailed search results and higher click-through rates. For this company, that meant marking up service pages, FAQ sections, and local business information so Google could present that content more clearly to searchers.

The technical improvements we prioritized:

• Core Web Vitals fixes focused on mobile loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability
• Internal link restructuring to strengthen the authority of high-priority pages
• Removal of duplicate and thin content pages that were dividing ranking signals
• XML sitemap updates to highlight the site’s most important pages
• Schema markup added to service pages, FAQ sections, and local business listings

With the technical foundation strengthened, we shifted our focus to the role of content structure in improving search rankings.

With the technical foundation set, we focused on content. Financial firms tend to write dense, formal copy for complex subjects. This style hurts both rankings and user engagement.

We reorganized service pages around specific search queries from real prospects. Instead of a broad ‘financial planning’ page, we created separate pages for retirement planning, investment management, tax strategy, and estate planning—each written to answer the questions prospects type into Google.

“One of the most common mistakes we see with financial services websites is treating all services as equal. From a search standpoint, a page about retirement planning and a page about 401(k) rollovers target very different audiences with distinct needs. Splitting them out is one of the most direct ways to grow organic traffic for firms in this space.” — Strategy Team, Emulent Marketing.

Beyond the service pages, we built a resource section with articles that address the questions the firm’s team most often fielded from clients. This built topical authority over time and brought in visitors who were early in their research process, before they were ready to contact anyone. Those visitors didn’t convert on the first visit, but the internal links from those articles guided them toward the relevant service pages when they were ready.

Content structure changes we made:

• Expanded single broad service pages into targeted individual pages built around specific search queries
• Wrote each service page to match the intent of a prospect searching for help in that specific area
• Built a resource library of educational articles tied to core service topics
• Added FAQ sections to service pages targeting the questions prospects ask most
• Linked resource articles back to relevant service pages to support the conversion path

After optimizing content, we turned to web design changes that would support and drive lead conversion.

Ranking higher brings more visitors. But the site’s design determines whether those visitors become leads. The two have to work together, and it’s common for businesses to focus on one at the expense of the other.

The original design was clean but had several problems. The primary calls to action were vague, with buttons labeled “Learn More” that linked to general overview pages. Contact forms only appeared at the bottom of long pages. On mobile, key conversion elements were hard to tap or difficult to read.

We redesigned service pages with clear conversion paths. Each page answered likely visitor questions, built trust with visible signals, and made contacting the firm easy.

“We think of web design in terms of the conversation a visitor is having in their head. They arrive asking, ‘Can this company actually help me?’ The page needs to answer that question before the visitor makes it halfway down.” — Strategy Team, Emulent Marketing

Trust signals got a full rethink. We moved client testimonials, certifications, and professional credentials closer to the top of key pages. We added a clear display of the firm’s years of experience and the types of clients they serve. For someone deciding whether to trust a company with their finances, these details carry real weight. Having them near the bottom of a page, after someone has already made up their mind to leave, does very little.

We also simplified the contact process. Forms were shortened to remove unnecessary fields, a “Schedule a Call” option was added for visitors who preferred it to filling out a form, and every service page included a visible, specific path to getting in touch rather than just a generic footer link.

Web design changes that improved conversions:

• Replaced vague CTAs with specific, benefit-focused language tied to each service
• Moved contact forms and scheduling options above the fold on key service pages
• Placed client testimonials, credentials, and trust signals near the top of service pages
• Redesigned mobile layouts so CTA buttons and forms were easy to use on smaller screens
• Improved the visual structure so visitors could quickly scan pages and find what they needed

These combined technical, content, and design improvements produced measurable results after six months.

Six months after the work, metrics showed steady, compounding progress across each area tracked.

Organic traffic grew over 35%. The site jumped from pages 2 and 3 to the top spots for major local search terms. Contact form submissions and call volume—tracked by CRM—increased 40% year-over-year.

The resource section became one of the site’s top traffic sources, with multiple articles ranking on page one for targeted financial planning questions. Those articles drove visitors to the service pages, where most conversions occurred.

Lead quality improved. Content tailored to high-intent searches brought in prospects later in their decision process. Calls were more focused, and prospects were clearer about services, shortening sales conversations.

Key results after six months:

• 40% increase in organic lead volume compared to the prior year
• 35%+ growth in organic search traffic
• Multiple service pages moved from pages 2 and 3 to page 1 in search results
• Resource articles became a significant source of traffic and lead nurturing
• Higher-quality leads with stronger buying intent arriving through organic search

What This Means for Other Financial Services Companies

The results here weren’t driven by a single tactic. They came from addressing three things at once: the technical issues limiting visibility, the content gaps that kept the site from matching what prospects were searching for, and the design problems that were losing visitors who could have converted. Fixing one without the others produces limited results. All three working together is where the growth actually comes from.

At Emulent Marketing, we help financial services companies build a web presence that consistently brings in new clients through organic search. If your website isn’t generating the leads it should, we’d welcome the chance to take a look at what’s holding it back. Reach out to the Emulent team today to start a conversation about your SEO and digital marketing strategy.