We’re back again with the 2019 credit union annual benchmark report blog post series. Today we are tackling the subject of organic traffic growth for credit unions. 

To catch up on what you missed in this series, check out: 

How Long Does the Average Visitor Spend on a Credit Union Website?

What is the Average Bounce Rate for Credit Union Websites?

Where Does the Average Credit Union Website’s Traffic Come From?

In our last post, we determined that organic traffic (users finding your website through a search engine) is a major traffic source for credit unions, accounting for 34% of traffic for our clients in 2019. 

But did your credit union’s organic traffic increase, decrease, or remain about the same in 2019? If your organization is like our average credit union clients, it grew! WebStrategies’ credit union clients saw an average of 12.69% organic traffic growth year over year. 

Why Organic Traffic Grows for Credit Unions

If your credit union experienced organic traffic growth in 2019, it could be for a variety (or a combination of) reasons. Perhaps you heavily invested in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies and your work paid off with an increase in rankings. 

Other reasons for organic traffic growth could be the opening of a new branch or an acquisition in 2019. Major events like these are a reason for users to search for your credit union. 

Finally, a focus on branding and awareness through other digital media (search or display ads, social media advertising) or media channels (TV, radio, etc.) could result in an uptick in organic traffic as users conduct branded searches (searching your credit union by name) to find out more about your organization after hearing about it elsewhere.

Why Might Organic Traffic Decline for Credit Unions? 

In our 2018 report, we found that on average credit unions didn’t see organic traffic growth year over year; the traffic remained stagnant. If your credit union didn’t see any organic traffic growth or saw a decrease in organic traffic, why might this be? And should this metric ring alarm bells? 

It depends on the situation. If your credit union launched or updated a mobile app and many members have adapted to using it to access banking, a drop in organic traffic is not a concern - as long as conversions haven’t dropped along with the organic traffic. 

In another scenario, it is likely that many users don’t have to enter your credit union’s site to answer their questions anymore. Through the Google platform, users can see the credit union’s phone number, hours, and directions to branches without visiting the site at all. This ease of access to information limits the need to visit the credit union website itself. And like the app, as long as conversions aren’t affected, this is not a cause for concern. 

When is Falling Organic Traffic an Issue for Credit Unions? 

WebStrategies tracks keywords for our credit union clients, and it is wise to do so. If your credit union is suffering from SEO perspective, you will want to be aware of this problem and address it through the use of SEO strategies. 

Be aware of how well your organization ranks for search terms like “credit union near me”, “credit union in [town name]”, etc. Always be watching to see if these keywords are falling or rising in ranking. If rankings are falling to the second page of the search engine (or later), potential members are far less likely to visit your page and convert. This is an issue to be rectified. 

We’ve taken a look at where most credit union site traffic comes from and how organic traffic has increased year over year. But smart credit union marketers will want to know more. Who is driving this traffic? What is the average age of credit union site visitors? Stick with us because we will address those very questions in our next post.