A Series B fintech company offering B2B lending solutions was struggling to compete organically against established financial institutions. After 12 months of strategic .edu backlink acquisition from business schools and economics departments, they achieved a 340% ROI on their SEO investment.
Client Overview
The client is a venture-backed fintech company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Their platform provides working capital loans and lines of credit to small and medium-sized businesses. They raised a $28M Series B in 2024 and needed to diversify beyond paid acquisition.
| Metric | Before Campaign | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Company Stage | Series B | $28M raised |
| Platform Type | B2B Lending | SMB working capital |
| Domain Age | 4 years | Relatively new domain |
| Domain Authority | 32 | Below competitors (avg. 55) |
| Organic Traffic | 3,200/month | 92% from branded searches |
| Non-Branded Traffic | 260/month | Major growth opportunity |
Challenges
B2B fintech faces unique SEO challenges due to YMYL (Your Money Your Life) classification and competition from established financial institutions:
YMYL Scrutiny
- Financial content subject to stricter quality signals
- E-E-A-T requirements particularly high for lending advice
- Google requires strong authority signals for financial rankings
- Thin content penalized more severely in YMYL categories
Competitive Landscape
- Competing against banks with DA 70-90
- Major fintech competitors with established SEO (Kabbage, OnDeck, Fundbox)
- Long-tail keywords dominated by review sites
- High CPCs making paid acquisition expensive ($45-120/click)
The YMYL Factor
Strategy & Approach
Our strategy focused on building authority through academic finance and business sources that would signal expertise to Google's YMYL evaluation:
1. Target Universities
We prioritized institutions with:
- AACSB-accredited business schools
- Entrepreneurship and small business development centers
- Finance and economics departments
- Student-run investment or business clubs
2. Linkable Asset Development
- Small Business Financing Guide (12,000 words, regularly updated)
- Working Capital Calculator (interactive tool)
- Industry financing reports with original data
- Entrepreneurship scholarship information page
3. E-E-A-T Enhancement
- Author bios for all content with credentials
- Expert review process documented
- Source citations from academic research
- Regular content updates with dates displayed
Implementation
The campaign ran for 12 months with steady link acquisition:
| Quarter | Links Acquired | Primary Sources | Avg. DR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 (Mo 1-3) | 4 | Business schools, SBDC pages | 68 |
| Q2 (Mo 4-6) | 5 | Entrepreneurship centers, finance depts | 72 |
| Q3 (Mo 7-9) | 4 | Economics resources, student orgs | 70 |
| Q4 (Mo 10-12) | 5 | Business libraries, research centers | 74 |
Total links acquired: 18 editorial .edu placements with an average DR of 71.
Results
Before Campaign (Month 0)
After Campaign (Month 12)
Monthly Organic Traffic Growth
Keyword Breakthrough
ROI Analysis
The fintech's long sales cycle (average 45 days) and high customer lifetime value made ROI calculation straightforward:
| Metric | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign Investment | $84,000 | 12-month program |
| New Organic Leads (12 mo) | 847 | vs. 144 baseline = +703 |
| Lead-to-Customer Rate | 12% | Consistent with paid |
| New Customers from Organic | 84 | |
| Average Customer LTV | $4,200 | 2.1 year avg. relationship |
| Organic Revenue Generated | $352,800 | |
| ROI | 340% | (Revenue - Cost) / Cost |
Ongoing Value
Organic Leads Per Month
Key Learnings
Key Takeaways
- YMYL sites need authoritative backlinks. .Edu links from business schools directly address Google's E-E-A-T requirements for financial content.
- Interactive tools attract natural links. The working capital calculator earned 3 additional organic .edu links we didn't pursue.
- Non-branded traffic is the growth lever. Moving from 260 to 9,420 non-branded visitors represented the real win.
- B2B fintech has exceptional LTV. High customer lifetime values make even modest traffic gains highly profitable.
- Patience through YMYL scrutiny pays off. Months 1-4 saw slow movement as Google evaluated signals; months 5-12 accelerated rapidly.