Building an Effective Content Strategy That Drives 7M Web Visits Per Year

Key Takeaways

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Organic Search — Commit to Amassing Relevant Keywords: The content strategy requires commitment and continuous effort. Year over year, Wealthsimple worked on building out its Learn section, adding more relevant and searchable content. Wealthsimple doubled the number of keywords their website ranks for in 2020 (vs. 2019), which elevated their SERP positions. 

Content Strategy — Balance Non-Branded Keywords with Brand Mentions. An expansive content strategy unlocked opportunities to build brand awareness amongst financial-conscious consumers that followed non-branded keywords to Wealthsimple’s website. Wealthsimple paid attention to the areas of public interest and concerns and created content to effectively leverage these topics, increasing the number of non-branded keywords and traffic they bring year on year.

Organic Search — Focus on Evergreen Content or Regularly Update Content: Wealthsimple built out an impressive collection of articles on various financial topics that live in the Personal Finance 101 section. This section alone accounts for 46% of all organic search traffic. While most of the content in the Learn section is evergreen, Wealthsimple ensures to update any time-sensitive articles (e.g., CPP Pay Dates for 2021, TFSA Limit 2021). 

Content Strategy — Invest Resources to Create Truly Valuable Content: While some of the content in either the Learn or Magazine section isn’t directly related to investing or stock trading, it serves as a wide funnel to attract and build brand familiarity with those who might consider investing or trading in the future. In addition to creating new content, Wealthsimple also improves what’s already available. For example, the usability and functionality of Wealthsimple’s Retirement Calculator is significantly higher than any other available tool.

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The 2020 global pandemic brought along:

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Market volatility, more free time, and financial concerns drove an interest in trading stocks and investing.

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Wealthsimple was well-positioned to leverage favourable market conditions.

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Wealthsimple’s web traffic almost doubled (+93%) YoY in 2020.

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Direct and organic search channels drove the highest volumes of traffic. Organic search brought +163% more visits in 2020 compared to the previous year.

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Traffic from non-branded relevant search terms has been growing YoY. By the end of 2020, 49% of the search web visits came from the non-branded keywords.

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Wealthsimple has been putting continuous effort into increasing (+138%) the number of relevant keywords on its website.

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Increase in relevant keywords helped improve Wealthsimple’s search engine ranking. The number of the keywords qualifying for Top 3 search results grew by +112% YoY in 2020.

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Wealthsimple’s elaborate Learn section contains the highest concentration of keywords and is the place where 58% of all organic search visits land. The homepage is the second most popular area for search traffic visits.

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The Personal Finance 101 area in the Learn section proves to be an invaluable source of financial information and attracts 46% of all inbound search visits.

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Personal Finance 101 is an evergreen collection of the financial literacy articles that cover investing, saving, taxes, crypro, accounts, finance and retirement topics. 

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Interactive Retirement Calculator is another search magnet, capable of attracting as much as ~60K monthly search visits.

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Paid search accounts for only 8% of all search traffic. In 2020, Wealthsimple spent most of its search ad budget on promoting the Wealthsimple Trade app.