Evaluating the SEO Strategy of a Leading Belgian Bank to Drive Increased Revenue from Organic Traffic

Client Background

A leading Belgian financial institution sought to strengthen its digital footprint and drive organic growth. With SEO (search engine optimisation) serving as the primary source of traffic to its public website, the bank aimed to optimize its online presence to attract and engage a wider audience. To achieve this, the institution required a data-driven strategy to not only measure the financial impact of SEO but also implement a roadmap to increase customer acquisition and maximize revenue from organic search.

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Objective

Our retail banking website benchmark revealed that websites continue to be a major acquisition channel for retail banks, with SEO as the primary driver of traffic. However, the challenge lies in quantifying the specific value of SEO for a banking website that serves multiple purposes, from scheduling appointments to facilitating online sales like opening an account.

Sailpeak was tasked with evaluating the business value driven by the bank’s SEO efforts and providing a comprehensive roadmap to increase organic traffic while understanding that its website served multiple goals. The bank needed a strategic, data-driven approach to ensure SEO played a central role in attracting and converting visitors.

Our mission included not only identifying areas for SEO improvement but also delivering solutions to enhance the bank’s understanding of SEO’s importance. A key focus was on building a strong business case that would secure more bandwidth on the IT roadmap by demonstrating the financial impact of SEO growth.

Specifically, Sailpeak’s objectives were to:

• Conduct an in-depth review of the bank’s current SEO performance.
• Diagnose key pain points and identify opportunities for growth.
• Develop a clear strategy and action plan to significantly boost organic traffic.
• Quantify the potential financial impact of these improvements by linking traffic growth to revenue, factoring in the lifetime value of the bank’s financial products.

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Challenge

One of the primary challenges in this project was shifting the perception of SEO as a critical channel for driving customer acquisition, especially within a non-ecommerce environment. The difficulty lay in making stakeholders understand the long-term value of SEO compared to more immediate, direct marketing efforts. We needed to demonstrate how improvements in organic search rankings could lead to measurable financial benefits over time. 

This involved not only quantifying enhanced traffic but also linking it to key financial metrics, such as customer lifetime value (CLV), product margins, and conversion rates. Assigning a monetary value to the bank’s various financial products required a strong understanding of both SEO metrics and the performance of these financial offerings, as well as the ability to project long-term gains from SEO efforts.

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Sailpeak’s Approach

We employed a scenario-based approach to help the bank clearly understand the potential financial outcomes tied to different levels of SEO investment. Our goal was to provide a data-driven perspective by calculating the projected revenue gains and business value associated with SEO improvements. Specifically, we developed three scenarios, each representing a different depth of SEO implementation:

• Scenario 1: Minimum scenario: Focused on basic, must have technical improvements to solve legacy issues 
• Scenario 2: Enhanced scenario: Included a broader strategy covering advanced SEO, on the page optimisations and building content for key pillars of the bank
• Scenario 3: Rock star scenario: Involved a complete overhaul of the bank’s SEO strategy: focusing on transforming the bank’s culture into one that embraces SEO as a key driver for growth, ensuring the organisation becomes more SEO-centric in its content creation and technical decision-making

Each scenario was presented with projected traffic increases and corresponding revenue gains, allowing the bank’s leadership to make informed decisions based on their desired level of investment and risk appetite.

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Conclusion‍

Through our strategic approach and detailed analysis, Sailpeak provided the bank with a groundbreaking evaluation of the business value driven by SEO—something that had never been done before. We demonstrated the direct correlation between increased organic traffic and revenue growth, presenting a clear financial case for prioritising SEO within the bank’s IT roadmap.

By the end of the project, the bank’s leadership had a comprehensive, actionable roadmap for enhancing their digital presence through improved SEO. Our analysis quantified the substantial financial potential of these changes, empowering the bank to make data-driven decisions that would not only solidify their leadership in the Belgian financial services market but also unlock significant revenue growth through organic channels.

Sailpeak’s deep expertise in both financial services and SEO optimisation enabled us to deliver a tailored solution that addressed the bank’s unique needs, setting them up for long-term success in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.