A lender with a short product list and a small first page. 60% more keywords on page one.
I ran the SEO for a US lender that funds small firms through short-term working capital, fixed-term loans and general business lending. Its search footprint was small, and most of its clicks came from people who already knew the name. Between November 2025 and July 2026, keywords ranking on Google's first page grew 60%, top-three keywords about 80%, and over the year monthly clicks rose more than 100%.
Results
Page-one keywords
Google clicks
A thin first page, and the name doing the work
In late 2025 only a modest set of searches showed the site on the first page, and fewer than thirty placed it in the top three. Clicks ran in double figures most months, and nearly all the searches behind them included the lender's name.
The product range was clear but short, with a credit line also mentioned on the products page. That same page named eight industries the lender serves, everything from building contractors and clinics to fuel stations and insurance agencies, yet none had a dedicated page. The educational guides ranked far down, one of them around page eight for its own topic.
Plan only around loans the lender can arrange
The research and planning on this account ran between June and August 2026. One rule held throughout: write only about products the client had confirmed it offers.
- 01
Take stock before adding anything
In June 2026 I began with an inventory of the existing site: the service pages, the city pages and the fifteen published blog posts. Every new keyword was then checked against those posts, so nothing planned would end up competing with a page that was already live.
- 02
Map what owners ask
I gathered around sixty questions that owners of small firms type into Google and grouped them into ten topic clusters, from managing cash flow to financing a business in the lender's home state. Each row is tagged for difficulty, priority, the page it supports, funnel position and intent, so the plan doubles as a production queue.
- 03
Shelve unconfirmed products
Seven product pages had been proposed for loan types the lender had not confirmed it offers, so in July 2026 I set them aside. A page about a product the business cannot arrange would attract enquiries it could not serve, which is a poor trade in a market that runs on trust.
- 04
Build by industry instead
In their place I mapped nine industry pages, each wrapping the confirmed loans around one sector's cash-flow problems, every one with its own address and main buying keyword. Each sector came from the lender's own list. For future city pages I proposed six fresh modifiers, so none would repeat the existing eight.
More of page one, with and without the brand
July 2026 closed with 60% more page-one keywords than November and about 80% more top-three keywords. Across two quarter-long windows, the keywords the site ranked for grew about 70%, page-one keywords 60% and top-three keywords 90%, while clicks in the same windows rose roughly 100%.
Clicks still lean heavily on the brand, which is why the non-brand view matters. Leaving out every search that contains the name, page-one keywords grew about 50% and top-three keywords about 80% between those windows. Monthly impressions finished 130% above November's, after a May high about 360% above it.
Other case studies
Want a result like this for your site?
A 30-minute call, no pitch deck. Tell me where you are stuck and I will tell you honestly whether I can help - and if I cannot, who can.