How NerdWallet Grew Organic Traffic by 4,255% in 2023-2024: My SEO Analysis

NerdWallet SEO Strategy by Danielog

Have you ever wondered what NerdWallet does to improve SEO search results in the competitive finance market?

I give you all his SEO financial market strategies of this year for FREE!!!

Over the past year, I’ve meticulously analysed every aspect of their SEO strategy, dissecting the content, keywords and technical foundations that drive their success. I’ve documented it all in a detailed breakdown, with screenshots and insights ready for you to dive into.

Why is this important? Because we’re not talking about just any site; we’re talking about a brand that has experienced a stunning 4,255% growth in organic traffic from January 2023 to November 2024. That kind of growth isn’t accidental, it’s strategic, and it’s worth understanding if you want to improve your organic traffic and enhance your SEO score.

In this analysis, you’ll discover:

  • How NerdWallet structures their content to grab attention, attract readers, and rank for high-value keywords.
  • The SEO strategies they use to stay relevant and competitive in an ever-changing financial marketplace.
  • Technical optimisations that ensure speed, mobile accessibility and search engine compatibility.
  • Link building techniques and partnerships that reinforce their authority in the financial space.

Want to know exactly how NerdWallet ramped up their traffic?

Here’s the full breakdown, with screenshots and step-by-step tips to help you apply his winning tactics to your own site.

Inside NerdWallet’s SEO Strategy: Winning in Financial Markets

NerdWallet Company

First of all, what is NerdWallet?

NerdWallet is a personal finance company that provides consumers with insights, tools, and resources to make better financial decisions.

Founded in 2009, NerdWallet offers advice on a wide range of financial topics, including credit cards, mortgages, personal loans, insurance, and investment.

Their platform combines in-depth articles, comparison tools, calculators, and reviews of financial products, helping users find the best options for their financial situations.

Through an extensive SEO and content strategy, NerdWallet ranks highly for financial topics, attracting a broad audience that ranges from those looking to improve their credit scores to those comparing mortgage rates or learning about investment options.

Let’s start by looking at NerdWallet’s organic traffic graph from January 2023 to November 2024.

NerdWallet SEO Strategy - Organic Traffic

In this organic traffic graph, we can see how NerdWallet has an organic traffic in January 2023 of 2,301 monthly users and in November 2024 it reaches 100,207 monthly users.

As you can imagine, this is not a matter of coincidence or luck. There are a number of factors behind this traffic spike, as we will see below.

This represents a 4,208% increase in organic traffic in just over a year and a half. This is truly amazing, especially when you consider that the financial market is very, very competitive.

Now, let’s take a look at the number of keywords indexed from January 2023 to November 2024.

NerdWallet SEO Strategy - General Indexed Keywords

The increase in indexed keywords is similar to the increase in organic traffic. This is logical and normal. Think about it, more indexed keywords = more traffic opportunities to your website.

Now, before I continue with the analysis, I would like to make a special mention to all those agencies or SEO specialists who offer you $9/month or $29/month plans. These types of agencies operate on this premise. More indexed keywords = more organic traffic.

The problem comes when these indexed keywords are not relevant to your brand, on the contrary… they have nothing to do with your brand.

Let me explain better, what they want to show you is that they have indexed 20 keywords in the first 3 positions of the search engine with high search volumes.

But this is very difficult to do in most markets. So they choose keywords that are almost easy to get into the top positions. Even though they have nothing to do with your brand and are unlikely to generate relevant traffic to your website.

For example, keywords related to “anime“, “cartoons” or any topic that has a lot of searches but very low difficulty.

But, anyway, let’s keep going with our analysis which is what we are really here for and what will really give you winning SEO strategies.

NerdWallet SEO Strategy First Page Indexed Keywords

Going back to the chart, let’s take a closer look at the first page and SERP keyword changes.

(SERPs are Google’s rich data that are also displayed on the results page such as Google Maps tab, People Also Ask, Images, Featured Snippets or Top Stories, etc.).

As we can see, all three lines are experiencing massive growth.

If we add the keywords indexed in the Top 3 + positions 4 to 10 and SERP features, we see an increase of 3,125% from January 2023 to November 2024.

This 3,125% increase in these keywords is what really explains the 4,208% increase in organic traffic.

However, it’s not just the keywords that are the important factor in their strategy.

Also factors like their keyword research, solid technical SEO foundation, their backlinks strategy and their high value content also play a crucial role.

Now let’s see which keywords are getting traffic.

NerdWallet SEO Strategy Keywords sorted by traffic

In the table above, we can see which keywords NerdWallet is acquiring traffic to its website. Their main keywords sorted by organic traffic.

I want to point out that there are many keywords really similar and related to the ones in the table that I have removed.

What I want here, is to get an idea of what topics, themes or main keywords they are using.

We see that almost all keywords have an informational search intent, which is great for attracting traffic that is not yet aware of the brand and start converting them into customers.

Informational intent keywords help establish NerdWallet as a trusted source, educating users before they make critical financial decisions.

Another important factor to note are the topics. They focus on pain points of the B2C audience. I mean, “ways to make money online“, “pre-authorised transaction“, “utility bills“, “what is a good credit score“.

Have you noticed? These are times when the audience, or in other words, their target audience, is more open and more willing to browse and research.

The more time users spend searching for answers on your site, the more you gain their trust and the more likely you are to become a leader and a source of information.

But let’s not stop here with keyword analysis. Now let’s see how NerdWallet maps the topics to the user journey.

NerdWallet SEO Strategy Keywords mapping in their Buyer Journey

NerdWallet’s choice of topics is tailored to different stages of the customer journey, creating a path that takes users from initial curiosity to deeper engagement with the brand.

For example, topics such as “what is a good credit score” or “how to make money online” are entry points for users looking for basic information.

By answering these high-interest informational questions, NerdWallet not only engages users in the early stages of their journey, but also positions itself as a trusted authority.

Once users land on these pages, they are subtly guided towards more product- or solution-specific content.

For example, a user searching for credit scores may end up navigating to pages about credit cards or financial tools, turning initial curiosity into engagement with NerdWallet’s offerings.

This strategic mapping of keywords and topics aligns the user’s needs with NerdWallet’s resources, fostering a seamless journey from information search to decision making.

But that is not all, in order to gain the trust of the users you need to reach a well-established authority and this is where the backlink strategy comes in.

NerdWallet SEO Strategy Domain Authority

In the table above, we can see that they have links from high authority domains. For example, “Bing“, “Yahoo“, “Entrepreneur“, etc.

What they have done is to create high quality news and attract the interest of the audience. They generate enough interest that the search engines include them in their news sections.

In this way, NerdWallet not only gets a backlink from an authoritative domain.

In addition to improving the SEO rankings of their pages, they are also generating a new source of traffic to their site through the news sections of Bing, Yahoo, etc.

It is through these actions that NerdWallet has been able to gain authority as one of the most important leaders in the financial marketplace.

Achieving a domain authority of over 80 with just over 600 referring domains.

We also noticed that NerdWallet has no active PPC campaigns, which means that its traffic acquisition strategy is based on SEO.

Why skip PPC? Because NerdWallet understands the long game. Instead of pouring money into paid ads, they’ve invested heavily in SEO to drive steady, organic traffic that won’t disappear when the budget runs out.

It’s a smart, sustainable play, especially in the financial world where ad costs can spike.

Plus, think about the trust factor. When you see NerdWallet ranked naturally for “best credit cards” or “how to build credit,” it feels more authentic than a paid ad.

People looking for financial advice are often looking for authority and reliability, and organic search rankings give that trust boost.

Best of all, by focusing on SEO, NerdWallet catches users when they’re curious and ready to learn. Whether someone is searching for “ways to save money” or “understanding credit scores“, NerdWallet is there with helpful, free content.

It’s less of a hard sell and more of a friendly guide that keeps users coming back and builds a loyal audience over time.

This organic-first approach helps NerdWallet consistently grow traffic without being tied to ad budgets. It’s a strategy that’s as steady as it is smart.

But… none of this would have been possible if their technical SEO foundations had not been healthy.

NerdWallet SEO Strategy Broken Links

First off, NerdWallet keeps a healthy level of broken links, sitting at just 7.6%.

Sure, there’s room for improvement, but considering they manage between 6,000 and 12,000 pages across various countries, that’s actually impressive.

A lower percentage would be ideal, but for a site of this scale, it’s a solid indicator of good site maintenance and attention to detail.

NerdWallet SEO Strategy Page Titles

They do not have any missing page titles. This indicates that all their pages are optimised for SEO and have been analysed.

NerdWallet SEO Strategy Meta Description

They just have 2 missing meta description and 2 duplicated ones. Which is impressive for a website of this size.

NerdWallet SEO Strategy H1

They do not have any missing H1

NerdWallet SEO Strategy H2

They just have 19 missing H2s, which is less than 0.9%.

NerdWallet SEO Strategy Low Content Pages

Only 4 pages with poor content. This really points to the high value of all the content they publish and how well they target the user’s search intent.

NerdWallet SEO Strategy Canonical Pages

It’s worth highlighting the good use of canonical URLs, effectively preventing duplicate content within the website.

This aspect is crucial for indicating to Google which page contains the original content among several similar pages.

NerdWallet SEO Strategy Page Speed Performance

And finally, the page speed performance. Successfully passing the Core Web Vitals assessment.

This means that the website loads quickly, which is one of the most important factors for improving SEO scores and preventing the loss of incoming users.

If you would like me to analyse your website and see together possible ways to increase your organic traffic and improve your Google Rankings, book a free video call with me or contact me.

And if you think it can help more people, I’d love you to share it so that together we can go further. 🙌

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