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Link Building for Financial Services

Luke Kyte

Posted by Luke Kyte

31 January 2025

Link building should be an essential component of a robust SEO strategy for any financial services brand. Quality links are one of the top-ranking factors in search algorithms, especially for the most competitive keywords.

After building over 23,600 links for our clients, across hundreds of campaigns, we’ve learned a lot about what works – and what doesn’t. In this article, we review our key insights and best practices.

How important is link building?

Financial services is one of the most competitive industries in SEO. Search engines handle a lot of pages for the top keywords and average content quality is relatively high, due to intense competition, quality standards (E-E-A-T, YMYL, etc.) and industry regulations.

So, how can search engines rank thousands of pages offering similar levels of content quality?

Well, we know that inbound links are one of the strongest ranking factors. Meanwhile, our campaign data shows that – time and again – link building is the highest-impact SEO strategy for increasing organic rankings. 

More specifically, we find quality link building is the fastest way to increase rankings for the most competitive keywords.

It all comes down to building the right links, from the right places – so how do you develop an effective link building strategy?

Developing an effective link building strategy

We have a dedicated guide to developing effective link building strategies that covers this topic in detail. But, let’s run through the key points we discuss in that guide.

Objectives

Link building campaigns can have a variety of different goals and objectives. Some might prioritise the highest-quality links, others on regular backlinks and others simply on creating linkable content.

Here’s a quick review of some of the most common link building campaign objectives:

  • Linkable content: Creating unique, linkable content.

  • Inbound link authority: Targeting high-quality referring domains.

  • Topical relevance: Gaining topically relevant links (page relevance, domain relevance).

  • Referral traffic: Generating traffic from backlinks.

  • Domain-level link building: Targeting links for your homepage and managing backlink profiles across the whole website – distribution, gaps, etc.

  • Page-level link building: Targeting links for specific pages.

  • New page link building: Quickly building relevant links to new pages.

A complete link building strategy consists of campaigns with a diverse mix of goals and objectives.

Types of backlinks

Some backlinks are more valuable than others but search engines value diversity in link profiles. Make sure you understand the value of different inbound links types and when to target them.

Resource pages

Resource pages include links to multiple sources covering a specific topic. For example, academic institutions might publish resources recommending financial services or advice to students.

Guest posts

Guest posts place backlinks in content you create for relevant, third-party websites. This is a great way to build topically relevant, keyword-rich backlinks for a wide range of topics.

In-content

In-content backlinks are naturally placed within the main body of content on the linking page. Dofollow, in-content backlinks from relevant, high-quality domains typically add the most value to your link profile.

Unlinked brand mentions

Any valuable domain that references your brand or notable people associated with your brand, without including a backlink, is a potential backlink opportunity. Reaching out to these publications is a great way to turn citations into quality, in-content backlinks.

Link intersect

Link intersects steal your competitors’ backlinks, both strengthening your profile and weakening theirs at the same time. We usually get the best results from interactive tools (eg: a savings calculator) or high-value informational content, but link intersect projects can sometimes uncover opportunities to build links to more commercial pages, where relevancy is high.

Backlink audit

Backlink audits are the foundation of managing a website’s backlink profile. Now, you want to audit link profiles at three key levels:

  1. Domain: The contribution of all inbound links pointing to your website and their impact on domain authority.

  2. Page: The contribution of inbound links to specific pages and their impact on page ranking.

  3. Keyword/topic: The balance and prioritisation of link profiles across keywords and topics throughout the website.

Running regular link audits flags up any issues that need addressing (eg: broken links, low-quality links, etc.) and unearths new opportunities at each level.

Competitor analysis

Link building is a competition and you can learn a lot from analysing your rivals’ link profiles:

  • Top backlinks

  • Backlink methods

  • Referring domains (domain and subfolder level)

  • Target keywords

  • Topic coverage

  • Content quality

  • Backlink acquisition rate

  • Broken links

Keep track of your competitors’ backlink profiles to know what you’re up against and find new opportunities.

Keyword research for link building

Keyword research finds some of the most valuable link building opportunities and informs the kind of content you need to create.

Run the following tasks regularly to find new keyword opportunities:

  • Search rankings: Identify important pages that could rank higher with a stronger link profile.

  • Channel performance: Look for keywords, topics, content types and assets performing well on other channels (paid search, social media, email, etc.) that could add value to your content and link building strategies.

  • Competitor analysis: Know what it takes to beat competitors, find opportunities from their link profiles, spot gaps in their strategy and even target their most valuable backlinks.

  • Keyword gap analysis: Always look for gaps in your own keyword strategy and backlink profiles – as well as your competitors.

  • Topic interest: Ensure your link building content appeals to a wide enough audience to interest third-party websites, whilst maintaining relevance to your market sector.

  • Trend monitoring: Analyse trends, audience interests and emerging keywords to optimise for new opportunities before your rivals.

For more detail on link building keyword research, take a look at our guide to developing an effective link building strategy.

Targeting domains

As a rule, you want to target links from relevant domains/pages with a higher authority score (or whatever metric you’re using) than the page you’re optimising.

However, you also have to consider the score of competitor domains/pages you’re trying to climb above.

The best sources of quality, relevant domains typically include:

  • Protected domains – .gov, .ac.uk, .nhs, etc. (topical relevance is key)

  • Leading finance industry publications

  • News publications

  • Related industry domains – eg: fintech, cybersecurity, etc.

  • Relevant pages on unrelated industry domains – eg: student finance articles, eCommerce payment solutions, etc.

Most SEO tools include their own metrics to help you calculate the authority of websites. Ahrefs has Domain Rating while Semrush has Authority Score and Moz uses its own Domain Authority metric to rate website authority.

None of these metrics are perfect, but the higher they are, the more authoritative a domain generally is.

Domain traffic is another important metric to consider. If a potential website receives no organic traffic, it’s a good indicator of low quality.

Linkable content – what works and what doesn’t

Ultimately, the success of your link building strategy depends on your ability to create content that target websites want to link to. So what are the key elements and characteristics of content that earns the most valuable links?

What kind of content generates the most links?

Some topics capture more attention than others and, by extension, more coverage. Across all verticals, we find the most linkable topics include:

  1. Sustainability/going green/environmental awareness.

  2. Mental health support/wellbeing

  3. Supporting small businesses

  4. Students/young adults’ guidance

  5. Disability/mobility and accessibility awareness 

  6. Internet and online safety

  7. Driving and road safety

  8. Career planning and career development 

  9. Sleep health and hygiene 

  10. Workplace safety and wellness

Financial service providers have to work particularly hard to earn backlinks for the most relevant, competitive keywords.

You really have to produce content assets that stand out from anything else published online and form strong relationships with publishers for these keywords.

Don’t ignore the list of most linkable topics, though. You can earn a lot of quality backlinks by creating content that legitimately relates your products/services to interested audiences. For example:

  • 20+ ways to eco-friendly your finances (plus everything you need to know about green pensions).

  • Money matters: How parents can keep on top of their mental health with these important financial tips and tricks.

  • Student loan giving you headaches? Here’s everything you need to know reduce your debt and start to budget at university.

  • Keep your money safe online: Your ultimate bible on how to avoid falling victim to cybercrime in 2025.

  • Finances keeping you up at night? Get a better night’s sleep with 50+ easy tips that’ll turn your wellbeing around.

You’ll often find it’s easier to generate a regular flow of links from related topics. You might also earn a wider variety of links from sources that wouldn’t necessarily link to core financial services content.

Key elements of linkable content

Topics aside, websites generally link to pages that include certain elements of value:

  • Unique insights: In-depth research and analysis of relevant topics.

  • Statistics: Punchy, quotable stats that support the target website’s angle (ideally using primary data).

  • Reports, studies and surveys: Comprehensive findings on a topic of interest for the target website.

  • Data visualisations: Graphs, charts and other visuals that simplify complex findings.

  • Expert quotes: Concise, insightful quotes from credible and knowledgeable industry experts.

  • Multimedia elements: Images, videos, podcasts, social media posts and other rich, embeddable media formats.

  • FAQ sections: Concise, informative answers to commonly asked questions.

  • Tools: Software, apps and on-page tools that offer value to the target audience.

  • Compelling titles: Headline-worthy titles, headings and key points that target sites want to leverage.

Essentially, websites link to your content because these elements add value to theirs – and it’s easier to reference yours than create their own.

Key characteristics of linkable content

Even with all the right elements, websites want to link to domains, pages and content with certain characteristics:

  • Source reputation: Target websites want their audience to feel that you’re a reliable source of information.

  • Content quality: Good content isn’t good enough – websites want to link to the most valuable, trustworthy and relevant resources they can find.

  • Value: Content that adds value to the target audience and, in turn, the publishing website.

  • E-E-A-T and YMYL: Although target websites may not be familiar with E-E-A-T and YMYL, they scrutinise these factors just as much as Google (especially for financial services content).

  • Wide appeal: Content covering broad topics that appeal to a wide audience generally earns the most links.

  • Audience diversity: Content relevant to multiple demographic groups – e.g. parents and teachers – should appeal to a wider range of target websites.

  • Content freshness: Most websites want to link to up-to-date, relevant content (and you’re less likely to lose links by regularly updating your content).

  • Emotional impact: Content, statistics, headlines, etc. that emotionally motivates the target website’s audience is going to earn more links.

  • Actionable impact: Likewise, content or elements that have an actionable impact on audiences (do this, don’t do this, stop doing this, etc.) generally earn more links.

  • Evergreen value: Content that has longevity.

As a general rule, the more of these elements and characteristics you can implement into your content, the more links you’ll earn.

For more details on the anatomy of linkable content, take a look at How we built over 22,000 links. Part1: Content is king.

The impact of effective link building for financial services

Every link building strategy is different, but let’s discuss some of our campaign results as a point of reference. For one particular client, over two years, we reported the following results:

  • 2,000 backlinks from 1,600 unique referring domains over four key product areas

  • 100+ links from .gov, .edu and .ac.uk domains

  • 80% of links from unique referring domains

At the end of the two year period, 30% of the client’s most valuable links were built from our campaigns.

Before we started working with this client, they rarely ranked in the top 10 for the target keywords.

Within three months, we had them consistently ranking in the top 10. In less than a year, they were ranking in the top five and, now, they consistently rank in position one or two.

Between September 2022 and September 2024, we increased position 1-3 rankings by +288% and position 4-10 rankings by +176%.

Additional reading

If you want to improve rankings for competitive financial services keywords, an effective link building strategy makes the difference. For more insights on how we build links for our clients, take a look at the following resources:

About the author

Luke Kyte joined Reddico in 2014 as a content writer. One of Reddico’s first employees, he was responsible for building our content marketing department and establishing processes across the agency – helping Reddico to win its first campaign award back in 2017. In 2024, Luke took on the role of Operations Director and is now responsible for the day-to-day management of the agency – supporting and guiding our approach to SEO and link building operations.

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