NERDWALLET

Designing a modular, SEO-focused page template for small business loan articles

MY ROLE
  • Research
  • Conceptualization
  • Design
  • A/B testing
  • Dev handoff
TEAM
  • Design manager
  • Product manager
  • 2 Engineers
  • 2 UX writers
DURATION
  • 3 month
INTRODUCTION

SEO expansion

NerdWallet’s small business (SMB) vertical grew a lot in Q1 2023 and the next step of expansion was to focus on solidifying a top spot in SERP rankings. My team and I were tasked with redesigning the existing article pages, optimizing them for organic traffic and boosting bottom-of-funnel conversion.
Existing state of the article page

Weathering the storm

2023 shaped up to be a tumultuous year for organic search with 10 Google algorithm updates being pushed out. Because SEO is dynamic, we had to continuously adapt to these updates by focusing on quality, user-first content and proactively testing components.
List of Google algorithm updates that occurred in 2023
SETTING GOALS

Balancing business and user objectives

Our primary objective was to develop and design a scalable template that could be applied across all article pages within the vertical. I broke down our goals in terms of user needs and business needs:
🙋 As a user, I need...
Clear and accessible content
  • Users might feel uncomfortable sharing sensitive financial information or may not trust the platform with their data
Regulatory Compliance
  • Content adheres to industry standards by providing factual accuracy and disclosure of financial partnerships
Transparency & trust
  • Information is based on expert research and proprietary scoring methodologies to ensure accuracy and fairness
🏢 As a business, we need...
Demonstrate E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust)
  • Showcase to Google’s criteria that our content is relevant, engaging, and backed by domain expertise
Convert incoming traffic into NerdWallet’s loan matching flow
  • Drive organic leads into NerdWallet’s bottom-of-funnel experience, the loan matching flow
Elevate SERP ranking
  • Maintain pages with high SERP ranking and boost lower ranking pages with keywords identified for growth
CONDUCTING RESEARCH

Auditing industry comparisons

Competitor analysis on internal and external sites
Auditing NerdWallet’s highest performing verticals
NerdWallet’s credit card and car insurance pages both consistently rank #1 on high traffic keywords. I identified components that we could recycle and adapt to our SMB pages like:
  • Granular methodology callouts
  • Interlinking modules for relevant keywords and topics
Analyzing industry competitors
I scanned the competitive landscape for a better grasp on how UX design meets SEO:
  • Bankrate has an engaging, CTA-focused hero section
  • LendingTree and Fundbox leverage trustpilot badges and trustbuilding CTAs
  • Mid-page CTAs were consistent across multiple sites
  • Sticky Table of Contents were utilized to navigate long form content
LET'S TINKER!

Low-fidelity prototyping

Snippet of our low-fidelity explorations
During rapid prototyping...
I spent my time focusing on how to format the information housed within NerdWallet articles. I broke the designs down into 3 focus areas:
  • How can we create a more engaging above-the-fold experience to reduce bounce rate?
  • How can we introduce conversion-focused components to steer incoming traffic towards a clear CTA?
  • How can we break down long-form information into a more digestible, user-centric experience?

Rapid testing

Since we were operating under a 1-week sprint, we utilized UsabilityHub to conduct preference testing. Components were tested with a sample of 10 participants and allowed us to quickly validate design decisions, greatly reducing time-to-market (TTM).
FINAL OUTPUT

Winning components

Following preference testing, the winning components were rolled out as an A/B test on the live site. Outperforming components were cemented into the new template.
Redesigned hero section
Enhancing our above-the-fold content with a clear call to action to improve engagement.
  • 31% engagement with element
  • SERP rank: +6.4%
  • Conversion: +27.1%
  • Loan app completion: +33.5%
Sticky table of contents
Improving the readability of long-form content by introducing a sticky table of contents.
  • SERP rank: +12%
  • Loan app completion: +30.2%
Methodology call-out
Increasing our E-E-A-T score by highlighting our methodology within articles.
  • SERP rank: +7.8%
  • Conversion: +5.6%
  • Loan app completion: +10%
Author bio redesign
Highlighting our editorial team’s expertise to increase E-E-A-T score.
  • SERP rank: +10.9%
  • Conversion: +9.2%
  • Loan app completion: +14.5%
Mid-page CTAs
Breaking up long-form content by introducing mid-page CTAs throughout the page.
  • 20.6% engagement with element
  • SERP rank: +40%
  • Conversion: +11.9%
  • Loan app completion: +16%
Interlinking
Promoting related content and providing additional value via relevant keywords/pages.
  • SERP rank: +18%
LOOKING AT THE DATA

Summarizing our success

These components were tested across 10 different pages, targeting specific keywords indexed for growth. Showcased below is the averaged metric impact of the redesigned article template:
9 out of 10 pages rank top 5 for high volume keywords
Bounce rate
72.5% -> 65.8% (9.2% decrease)
Conversion
7% -> 8.4% (20% increase)
Loan app completion
8.6% -> 9.8% (14% increase)
The redesigned page boosted SERP rank, reduced bounce rate, and increased conversion by enhancing reader experience, targeting, and attracting higher-intent traffic.