NerdWallet was launched by Tim Chen and Jacob Gibson back in 2009. San Francisco-based firm is relatively young, but it achieved some exceptional results in the last couple of years. At first, NerdWallet was just a small company that compared various credit cards and presented it to its users. Now, we can see that this organization is an authority in the world of finance.
Naturally, this journey wasn’t easy. However, one of the most impressive things the company managed to attract so much search traffic. It is estimated that its website has roughly 11 million organic traffic monthly, according to SEMrush. This cannot be done without having the right approach. Now, let us look at some of the methods NerdWallet implemented in their content strategy and made it so effective.
1. Keywords and SEO
Sure, there is much different content that can reach Google’s first page due to keywords and backlinks. When talking about NerdWallet’s most popular content, it should be said that it has many guides and tools. This made it possible for the website to create a loop of backlinks and traffic, where both of these two elements reaped benefits from each other. Organic traffic is attracted by generating reviews and ratings of different services and products. By creating this content, it’s possible to capture all the relevant keywords.
2. Link Building Method: Ego Bait
In case you weren’t aware, ego bait is a method of producing content that heavily relies on other sites’ need to get a backlink. NerdWallet mastered this method by reviewing services and products and handing out some symbolic awards. It goes without saying that showing the awards and recognitions is a good way of promoting a company. Therefore, these awards are posted on the company’s website. Whenever this was done, NerdWallet had another link to its website.
3. Ask for Your Site’s Reviews
An element that played a pivotal role in NerdWallet’s content strategy was the competition’s online reviews. This means that they could identify websites within their own industry who were more than willing to post reviews about their competition. So, after they’ve properly done their branding, they were able to reap the benefits of these reviews. How’s this done, you ask? There are four steps you need to follow:
Find relevant websites with directories of business and active blogs. Propose them to review your website and point out why it is relevant to their readers. Send them some piece of content or information sheet where they can see crucial points of your business. Make sure they included your links in the review.
4. Social Media Shares
NerdWallet focused on creating content that’s likely to be shared on social media. This type of content is usually op-eds or top 5 or 10 lists. Naturally, people tend to share content they believe to be relevant enough. Simultaneously, content that causes emotions, either by being opinionated or humorous, represents a high percentage of content shared on social media. There are a couple of relevant examples we can take a look at.
Top 10 Credit Cards Deals: As you can see all over the internet, people love top 10 lists. This one managed to get more than 9k shares. Best Balance Transfer Cards: Everybody likes to find the best solution for their issues. This page was so well-liked that it managed to hit slightly more than 45k shares.
What Have We Learned?
In the case of NerdWallet, we can see a perfect example of a successful content strategy. Without a doubt, this one managed to develop a highly-reputable brand from scratch. If you are in the same niche as NerdWallet, be sure to check some of their content out and try to create a similar one. Above, we’ve provided you with steps this company covered to build one of the most reputable brands in its niche.
