Stop chasing Google and start getting found: an SEO playbook for fintechs

Few topics are more misunderstood than SEO. And in fintech, that confusion runs especially deep.

The term itself has been distorted. When most startups say “SEO”, they usually mean “Google” – and when they say “we’re doing SEO”, they often mean they’ve started blogging and are waiting for magic to happen.

That misunderstanding creates two common traps:

• Over-investing in content that was never going to rank
• Ignoring it entirely because “we’re not an SEO business”

Both lead to the same problem: wasted effort.

This guide is here to reset the conversation – not with algorithm tweaks or audit checklists, but with signal and strategy.

We’ll walk through when SEO actually helps a fintech company (and when it doesn’t), what kinds of content are worth optimising, and how to approach search visibility without turning your blog into a graveyard of lifeless keyword posts.

You don’t need to chase Google. But you do need to be discoverable.

And that’s what this is really about: making smart content choices that help the right people find you – whether that’s through Google, LinkedIn, Substack, or wherever your audience is searching.

SEO isn’t just Google

Let’s widen the lens.

SEO stands for “search engine optimisation,” but most of the time, we pretend that just means optimising for Google. That’s increasingly narrow – and not especially useful.

A more useful definition is this: SEO is anything you do to help people find your content when they’re looking for answers.

Maybe that search happens on Google. Or LinkedIn. Or inside a Slack channel. Or a review site like G2. Or YouTube. (Yes, YouTube is a search engine.)

If your buyer is using search to solve a problem, that’s SEO. And if you’re publishing content without thinking about where and how they search, you’re not building visibility – you’re just filling a CMS.

That doesn’t mean Google doesn’t matter. It does. But for early-stage fintechs especially, the question isn’t “How do we win in Google?” It’s: “Where do our buyers go looking for help?”

That’s where SEO actually starts: with your buyer’s habits, not Google’s.

When SEO helps – and when it doesn’t

SEO isn’t useless. But it’s rarely magic.

When it works, it works quietly. A potential buyer searches for a term, finds your article, reads it, and thinks: “These people get it”. They might click around. They might sign up. Or come back six weeks later with a serious sales enquiry.

That’s the good version – but only when the right conditions are in place:

• Your content shows up for terms that buyers actually search
• The article delivers something useful, not generic filler
• The rest of your site signals credibility, not confusion
• There’s a clear next step

And those conditions are rare – especially for early-stage fintechs with limited domain authority and no distribution engine.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

If your blog is brand new, your traffic is flat, and your name doesn’t carry weight in the market yet, SEO content won’t save you. Not at first.

SEO is an amplifier. Not a starter motor.

That’s why the right question isn’t “Should we do SEO?”

It’s: “Do we have the foundation that makes SEO worth doing?”

That’s what we’ll explore in the next sections.

If no one’s reading, it’s not SEO – it’s shouting into the void

Let’s be blunt: SEO won’t rescue a blog that no one sees.

This is the trap many fintechs fall into. They publish keyword-driven articles, sit back, and wait for the leads to roll in. But without visibility – without distribution, sharing, linking, or any kind of amplification – those posts are just sitting in a dark corner of the internet.

A good article doesn’t rank just because it exists. It ranks because people link to it, quote it, reference it. That only happens if it’s read – and that only happens if someone puts it in front of the right readers.

That means:

• Sharing it on LinkedIn (ideally from someone your buyers respect)
• Mentioning it in sales calls or onboarding flows
• Letting support teams use it to answer recurring questions
• Including it in outbound, newsletters, or partnership channels

SEO content doesn’t live in isolation. It works best when paired with a content strategy that moves – one that circulates ideas through real-world conversations, not just Google crawlers.

If your blog has no traffic and no plan to change that, you don’t have an SEO problem. You have a visibility problem.

You can’t outrank Stripe – and you shouldn’t try

This is the second trap: thinking SEO is about “competing” with the biggest players in your category.

You won’t outrank Stripe for “card payments”. Or Wise for “international transfers”. Or HubSpot for “customer retention”. They’ve had a ten-year head start, thousands of backlinks, and entire teams maintaining their domain authority.

That’s not a fight – it’s a fantasy.

The alternative? Carve instead of chase.

Go after specifics, not generals:

• Long-tail queries that reflect real buying intent
• Pain points that show up after someone’s read the Stripe docs and still has questions
• Searches that blend product knowledge with operational nuance (e.g. “How to reconcile payouts from multiple PSPs”)

In SEO terms, this is called going after “low competition, high intent” keywords.

In practical terms, it means answering the questions your buyers are Googling when they’re two tabs away from switching providers.

It’s not about reach. It’s about relevance.

And that’s where most fintech blogs fall down. They chase volume, not value. They publish surface-level explainers on topics already covered by the market leaders, and then wonder why nothing lands.

Don’t write the third-best post on “What is PSD2?” Write the only good one on “How PSD2 exemptions affect card-on-file renewals”.

That’s how you win with SEO – by stepping sideways, not charging forward.

Why most fintech SEO fails

Let’s start with the obvious: if nobody reads your blog, nobody will link to it. No links means no rankings. And no rankings means no traffic. It doesn’t matter how many “optimised” articles you publish – if the site gets no traction, you’re just painting the walls of a house no one visits.

This is the mistake most fintechs make. They hire an agency, run some keyword research, and start pumping out content for terms like “what is open banking” or “benefits of cross-border payments”.

But think about the intent behind those searches.

• Who’s Googling that?
• What do they already know?
• Are they in-market for your product?

Nine times out of ten, the answer is: not your buyer.

And even if they were, there’s another problem…

You’re not going to outrank Stripe (because it’s worth repeating).

Let’s say you do try to rank for a high-intent term like “B2B payments API”.

Who else is on that page? Stripe of course. And Adyen. PayPal too. Maybe Plaid. Maybe a bank.

They’ve got decade-old domains, entire SEO teams, and backlink profiles you’ll never match. Competing head-on is a waste of time and money.

But here’s what you can do: carve your own niche.

Find the questions your real buyers are asking – and answer those with specificity.

Not with fluff. Not with repackaged listicles. With insight.

The game isn’t “rank for the big keyword”.

It’s: be the best result for the right person – even if it means being the third result on a tiny SERP with low volume but high intent.

SEO works when it’s long-term, specific, and written for your buyer – not Google.

What kind of SEO content actually works?

Not all SEO content is junk. But the stuff that works tends to have one thing in common: it’s written for real buyers, not for Google.

Good SEO content starts with the reader’s question – not the keyword. It doesn’t need to sound robotic. It doesn’t need to be buried in jargon. And it certainly doesn’t need to open with three paragraphs explaining what a payment provider is.

Here are a few formats that actually do land, especially for B2B fintechs:

The practical teardown

Take a complex problem your product solves and unpack it – step by step, no sales pitch. Think: “How to reduce false declines in card-not-present payments”. Focused. Useful. Real.

The perspective piece

This isn’t thought leadership for its own sake. It’s an opinion, backed by experience, on a topic your buyer is wrestling with. Not a TED Talk. Just a clear, readable take.

The “You’re Searching Wrong” post

When a buyer’s Googling a problem with the wrong language or assumptions, this is your chance to reset their framing. Think: “The real reason your KYC checks keep failing (and what to do instead)”.

The silent signal

Some posts won’t pull big numbers – but the right reader will see them and think, “They get it”. These posts build trust quietly. And trust, not traffic, is what moves high-consideration deals forward.

Don’t get hung up on the perfect keyword. Get obsessed with clarity.

Because clarity is what earns shares, links, bookmarks – and buyers.

So… should you invest in SEO?

Only if you know what it’s for.

SEO isn’t strategy. It’s a distribution method. A way of getting content in front of people who are already searching for what you solve.

That means SEO can work brilliantly – but only when it’s aligned with the stage you’re at:

• If you’re still shaping your positioning: hold off. You don’t want to optimise content for a message you’ll rewrite in three months.
• If your site gets 200 visits a month: SEO won’t save you. It’s not a volume game unless you’ve already got some.
• If your buyers Google the problem, not the product: now we’re talking. That’s where useful, focused SEO content can shine.

The key is to treat SEO as one signal path among many – not a magic lever.

You might write a post that ranks. It might take six months. Or it might be read once by the buyer who matters and then forwarded to the decision-maker. Both are wins. Just don’t confuse one for the other.

The bottom line?

If you’ve got strong positioning, decent traffic, and content worth surfacing – then yes, SEO is worth doing well.

But if you’re still finding your voice or audience, don’t start with search. Start with substance.

How to write SEO content your buyer will actually read

Let’s assume SEO does make sense for you.

The challenge is writing content that ranks – without sounding like it was built to. Most fintechs fail here. The moment they start chasing keywords, the tone flattens, the rhythm dies, and the entire piece becomes one long shrug.
So how do you avoid that?

A) Start with the question, not the query

Don’t open Ahrefs and look for keywords. Start by asking: what’s the actual question your customer is asking?

Maybe they’re Googling “chargeback protection for travel” or “how to lower fraud rates on high-risk items”. Great. But behind that query is a real-world question like: “How do I stop losing revenue to disputes?”

That’s the problem you’re solving.

If you start there, you’re already ahead of 90% of SEO writers.

B) Choose one helpful, ownable angle

Once you’ve got the question, choose a specific angle. Not just a keyword category like “B2B payments” or “AML software,” but a precise take that only you could write.

For example:

• Instead of “Top 10 onboarding tools,” try “How we reduced KYC drop-off by 40% in 60 days”
• Instead of “What is ISO 20022,” try “How ISO 20022 will change reconciliation for fintech ops teams”

You’re not writing Wikipedia. You’re writing for the buyer who’s already halfway down the funnel.

C) Optimise quietly

Once the draft is strong, you can gently optimise:

• Use the keyword in the headline, slug, meta description, and subheads (if it fits)
• Write a good intro that includes the query in natural language
• Add internal links to deeper resources and key product pages
• Use short, descriptive URLs
• Compress images and write clear alt text

But – and this is everything – don’t optimise before you’ve said something true. Otherwise, you’re just polishing a generic surface.

When it’s worth investing more

Not every fintech needs a full-blown SEO programme. But if you’re seeing signs that content is already pulling its weight, it might be time to invest further.

Here’s what that can look like:

You’re already getting inbound from content

Maybe a sales prospect references a blog post on a call. Maybe someone finds your newsletter via organic search. These are subtle but valuable signals. They mean the machine wants to turn – if you feed it.

At this point, you can start layering in intent-driven content: problem-focused landing pages, high-conversion explainers, long-form posts that tackle specific buyer anxieties. Still buyer-first. Still sharp. But more structured.

You have a clear market, a strong POV, and a reason to be found

If your product serves a specific audience with a specific need – and you’ve got something worth saying – SEO can work.

That might mean:

• You sell to CFOs who search for precise, financially driven queries
• You’ve built a better way to solve a legacy problem (e.g. treasury workflows)
• Your messaging answers questions your competitors dodge

Here, content can quietly do your positioning work for you.

You have time or budget to scale the right way

If you’re planning to scale content (whether with a freelancer, in-house hire, or agency), SEO becomes more viable. But only if the team writing the content knows the space, and you give them the space to write well.

It’s tempting to outsource SEO content to the cheapest option. But badly written content is worse than nothing. It’s wasted budget, wasted trust, and a slower site filled with polite irrelevance.

If you’re going to invest, invest in writing that earns its place in the search results.

Should you do SEO? The honest answer: it depends on your goals

There’s no universal SEO playbook for fintech. Anyone promising one is selling something.

The right strategy depends on:

• your audience
• your product complexity
• your sales motion
• your internal bandwidth
• and the kind of trust you’re trying to build

For some fintechs, search is an essential engine of growth. For others, it’s a slow, expensive distraction.

Most sit somewhere in between.

What matters is clarity.

If SEO is going to be part of your mix, be clear on what you want from it. Lead volume? Brand awareness? Shorter sales cycles? Then write content that actually serves that purpose – without falling into the trap of quantity over quality.

If SEO isn’t a fit, don’t force it. Start by building a content engine that actually fits your stage.

Share ideas where they’ll be seen. Build trust through the channels that suit your buyers. Write posts that are easy to link to and even easier to believe.

And if you’re not sure?

Start with one question your customer is actually asking. Answer it honestly.

Then hit publish.

That’s the only SEO trick that’s ever worked.