Summary
Product Unavailability: HDFC Bank doesn't offer Zero Balance savings account as a product. But Zero balance account theme had the highest search volume. With SEO efforts, we ranked our category page for zero balance account keyword variations. Inactive Paid campaigns: The biggest challenge was to sustain the organic traffic & business growth post pausing the paid campaigns, close to 23.43 Crores were spent in previous financial year compared to zero rupees in FY22-23.
Challenge
1. Minimal Discoverability on Search Engines 2. Coping up and adapting to Google's Algorithm Changes 3. Intense Competition making it difficult to secure top rankings for popular keywords 4. Technical SEO Issues such as duplicate content, site speed, poor site performance 5. Changing Search Behavior evolving over time, influenced by technology, trends, and societal changes 6. Penalties and Deindexing:Staying compliant and avoiding black-hat SEO practices is crucial to maintaining a positive online presence. 7. Measuring ROI: Proving the SEO efforts turning into business proposition
Objective
Improve Discoverability of Savings Account Product led searches Improve organic search rankings: Increase visibility in SERP: TOFU, MOFU & BOFU led keywords. CTR Improvement: Focus on creating click-worthy SERP Generate high-quality links: Develop link building strategy to acquire relevant backlinks & internal links Traffic improvements: Increase organic traffic from brand & non-brand keywords Increase Engagement of Users: Enhance user experience: Improve page load speed to provide seamless experience Optimize website content: Create and optimize content basis EEAT theory. User Interface/User Experience enhancement: Focusing on empathy mapping Drive Account Opens Digitally: Cross Selling & optimizing User Interface Funnel Analysis: User Drop Off Audit Microscopic CRO (CTA Audit, Testing Communications) Removing Technical Bottlenecks Leveraging High Visibility Assets like Homepage, Netbanking, ChatBot & Near Me Domain
Strategy
Identified Savings Account led Searches to understand the total addressable market (TAM) online basis competition analysis Developed strategy to get the maximum share of Voice (Traffic) of total addressable market online Focused on ranking for "High Intent + High Decision" led keywords which used to drive account opens for paid campaigns the previous financial year e.g. open bank account online Improved CTR by SERP Enhancement: Implemented structured data codes, Optimized content for Featured Snippets, integrated link in RHS for sitelink appearance. Identified & Optimized Low Hanging Opportunities (keyword Ranking in 4-20 positions) Created & Optimized 73 Articles to address informative queries Generated high-quality backlinks: Generated 64.4K Anchor Text Backlinks for "Savings Account" & "Salary Account" anchor text from subdomains https://near-me.hdfcbank.com/branch-atm-locator/ Resolved Technical bottlenecks & content plagiarism: Blocked duplicate indexed websites in Google like https://newsite.hdfcbank.com/ , https://portalnetuat.hdfcbank.com/ from getting indexed in Google. Thus, ensuring we weren't impacted by Google's content helpful update in Aug'22 & Dec'22. Vernacular: Tapped into vernacular queries in the below 8 languages Hindi Marathi Malayalam Kannada Gujarati Telugu Tamil Bengali Hyperlocal: Created 10 City led pages basis high traffic generating cities to target hyperlocal search queries. E.g. savings account in mumbai Mumbai Delhi Hyderabad Bangalore Chennai Pune Jaipur Patna Lucknow Indore Improved Conversions with CRO Activities: Chatbot Audit: Using EVA Chatbot to answer user related queries and accelerate the account opening Leveraging website assets like Branch locator Pages Via Targeted banners to highlight key features of HDFC Bank User Journey Enhancement: Tapping in NTB Users on Category page by eliminating Existing to Banking CTA such as Login to "Account Open"
Data
Impact of CTR Enhancement Activities: Featured Snippet: Mar'23: No of Keywords: 170 Search Volume: 159.0K Mar'22: No of Keywords: 47 Search Volume: 92.7K % Hike: No of Keywords: 262% Search Volume: 72% Sitelinks: Mar'22: No of Keywords: 20 Search Volume: 18,140 Mar'23: No of Keywords: 44 Search Volume: 28,800 % Hike: No of Keywords: 120% Search Volume: 59% FAQ Schema Appearance: Mar'22: Keywords: 0 Search Volume: 0 Mar'23: Keywords: 159 Search Volume: 478.5K Hike: Keywords: 100% Search Volume: 100% Improved Keyword Ranking of "Savings Account" keyword & "Salary Account": Savings Account Keyword - Rank Improvement: May-22 to Dec-22: 6, 4, 7, 5, 9, 1, 1, 1 Sustained (Oct'22 – Dec'22): 1 Salary Account Keyword - Rank Improvement: Jul-22 to Mar-23: 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 Sustained (Sep'22 – Mar'23) Note: Two listings of HDFC Bank for Salary Account were ranked, one with Informational intent (Featured Snippet) & the other with Transactional intent led pages.
Solution
Business Driven Keywords: Focused on ranking for "High Intent + High Decision" led keywords which used to drive account opens for paid campaigns the previous financial year (e.g. open bank account online) Identification & Rectification of High Traffic & Low Converting pages: Call to action Audit, Content freshness, communication testing with persoanlized banners, AMP User interface update Identification of Drop offs from Lead Form Journey: Used Funnel journey visualization to understand the drop-off of users once they land on the account opening lead form & rectified the issues identified such as OTP issues, banner covering the lead form details etc. This resulted in 38% growth in organic conversion rates Early Adopter for Hyperlocal Searches: None of the competitors are focusing on Hyperlocal searches, which we had created leading to first movers advantage Leveraged on every theme in search universe: Covered themes like Informative, Hyperlocal, vernacular, Zero balance, Savings account variants, High Intent + high Decision & core keywords Traffic Retention: Dominated the search space for non-brand keywords by retaining the rankings in top 3 positions (every month for whole financial year) User Engagement Retention: Multiple Content Format Integration (Relevant video + Content Update + Adobe targeted Banners + Infographics on AMP) Improved Conversions with CRO Activities: Mobile First Approach: Overcame CMS challenge of page load time, by Creating Accelerated Mobile Pages for top performing pages Enhancing User Experience/User Interface: Identified High Traffic, Low Converting Pages & Optimized AMP UI for better conversions with the Serial Positioning Effect, contextual CTA placement & testing of communication Reducing User Journey Bottlenecks: Integrated Compare Savings Account Functionality leading to better clarity for users to make decisions Lead Form Audit: Focused on reducing the funnel drop off via testing communications on forms.
Results
Organic Business Performance: Traffic Metrics: 32% growth in traffic 30% growth in form completes 57% growth in account opens 15% growth in contribution to overall traffic 38% growth in conversion rate 2X Growth in Non-Brand Organic Traffic Share – Top 3 Non-Brand Traffic Share on Mar'23 (HDFC Bank vs Competition): (Source: Semrush): Sr. No. Banks Traffic Generated (Non-Brand Keywords) 1 HDFC Bank 178.3K 2 ICICI Bank 128.7K 3 Bank of Baroda 118.1K 4 IDFC First Bank 94.9K 5 SBI Bank 85.5K 6 Kotak 47.6K 7 Axis Bank 41.0K 8 Union Bank 23.0K Non-Brand Keyword Ranking Performance as on Mar'23 (Source: Semrush): Sr. No. Ranking Positions (No of Keywords) 1 HDFC Bank 2 ICICI Bank 3 Bank of Baroda 4 Axis Bank 5 SBI Bank 6 IDFC First Bank Non-Brand Keyword Ranking Performance as on Mar'23 (Source: Semrush): Sr. No. Ranking Positions (Search Volume) 1 HDFC Bank 2 Bank of Baroda 3 ICICI Bank 4 SBI Bank 5 IDFC First Bank 6 Axis Bank
