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Client in the Mortgage industry
180-Days SEO Growth Journey
Six months ago, LendFriend Mortgage partnered with ClickTraces to improve its online visibility and attract more qualified mortgage leads. Although their website had great potential, it wasn’t generating enough organic traffic or ranking for competitive mortgage keywords.
Client Overview
LendFriend Mortgage is a U.S.-based mortgage company that helps homebuyers find affordable loan options. Their platform provides tools, calculators, and educational content to simplify the home financing process, but they needed a stronger search presence to reach their ideal audience.
The Journey Begins
- Low organic visibility and few ranking keywords
- Weak average positions across mortgage-related terms
- Low CTR and engagement despite existing impressions
- Limited authority and backlink profile in a competitive niche
Our Approach
On-Page SEO
We noticed their pages had weak metadata, poor internal linking, and inconsistent keyword targeting.
To fix this, our team:
- Rewrote titles, meta descriptions, and headings to align with search intent and improve CTR.
- Organized page hierarchy so both users and Google could easily understand the site structure.
- Placed target keywords such as “mortgage broker Austin, TX” and “mortgage lenders Austin” naturally within key service pages.
Content Optimization
The existing content was thin and didn’t speak directly to user intent. Visitors weren’t finding the answers they needed, and Google wasn’t finding enough relevance to rank the site.
We:
- Expanded core service pages with informative, keyword-rich content that addressed user queries.
- Added dedicated sections explaining mortgage types, rates, and lending options specific to the Austin market.
- Created supporting blog content targeting long-tail searches like “how to choose a mortgage lender in Austin.”
- Ensured every page guided users toward the next step — from learning to applying for a loan.
Technical SEO
We found multiple crawl errors, missing sitemaps, slow load speeds, and Search Console indexing issues that were limiting performance.
Our technical team:
- Improved XML sitemaps to ensure every mortgage page and blog post was easily discoverable.
- Resolved Google Search Console errors related to crawl anomalies, duplicate pages, and indexing gaps.
- Optimized scripts and compressed images to improve page speed and Core Web Vitals.
- Strengthened mobile responsiveness since most mortgage searches came from phones.
- Refined internal linking so authority passed smoothly between service and blog pages.
Backlink Strategy
The client had a low authority score and few relevant backlinks. This made it difficult to compete with larger mortgage sites.
To build credibility, we:
- Reached out to finance and real estate publishers for high-quality guest posts and mentions.
- Earned backlinks from mortgage industry directories and related local sources.
- Cleaned up spammy or low-quality links that were hurting domain trust.
- Created a balanced anchor text strategy to keep the backlink profile natural and effective.
Local SEO
Even though LendFriend Mortgage served the U.S., they wanted stronger traction in Texas searches.
We:
- Optimized their Google Business Profile with service categories, images, and keywords like “mortgage lenders Austin.”
- Built consistent NAP citations across top directories to improve local trust signals.
- Encouraged satisfied clients to leave Google reviews, improving credibility and map rankings.
- Created location-based content and backlinks targeting Austin and nearby areas.
Results
Organic clicks: 5,450+
Organic clicks surged to 5,450+, bringing more qualified visitors to key mortgage pages.
Total impressions: 1.19 million
Total impressions reached 1.19 million, showing significantly higher exposure in search results.
Limited organic reach and inconsistent traffic.
+423% organic traffic growth within 3 months, consistent visibility, and stronger engagement.
Organic traffic:
+423% growth
The site ranked for 200 keywords, limiting its online visibility.
Ranking keywords increased by 88% (200 → 2K), bringing greater reach and search presence.
Ranking keywords:
+88% (from 200 → 2 K)
Average position
Average position improved to 20.4, putting the site on the first two pages of Google and increasing visibility.
Authority
Strengthened with 1.1K backlinks (+81%) and 348 referring domains (+77%).
Ongoing SEO Strategy
Our partnership with LendFriend Mortgage continues beyond the initial wins. We track keyword performance, refresh landing pages, and build high-quality backlinks each month. SEO isn’t a one-time task, it’s an ongoing process to maintain authority and stay ahead in a dynamic market.
By continuing to build on the strong foundation from the first 3-6 months, we ensure consistent growth, so you can start your own SEO journey today.