The financial field is one of the more serious SEO fields of maneuver. Today we want to introduce you to Glenn Blackman, a partner at FundInvoice LLP.

He shares his knowledge and experience in the financial sphere and explains how WebCEO helped establish great search engine (SEO) performance.

LEARN WHO GLENN BLACKMAN IS AND WHAT HIS COMPANY PRESENTS TO CUSTOMERS

Allen MacCannell: Good to have a conversation with you today! Thank you for giving us your consent to take part in this interview series!

Glenn Blackman: Likewise, I’m happy to be involved in this project! The financial sphere doesn’t interest enough people and I’d like to change that.

A: Is this the global mission of your company? How long have you been in the sphere?

G: At FundInvoice our mission is to enable the best business funding and invoice finance deals to UK companies. Our business finance brokerage started back in 2013.

A: What is your agency like now compared to how it was when you started?

G: We have been pleased to see our business grow consistently as customers that need help have been able to find their way to us.

A: Could you tell our readers more about your business and services you provide please?

G: As it is said on our website, we provide the UK’s first free, market research based, independent business funding & invoice finance support and search service. We specialise in business loans, invoice finance, factoring, invoice discounting, trade finance and asset finance and we have undertaken extensive, independent invoice finance research, within those sectors, to be able to help our clients find the right funding solutions that best meet their needs.

A: That’s kind of a serious matter actually. Nowadays a lot of companies, especially in a startup stage, need professional financial advice. You do such meaningful work!

MORE DETAILS ABOUT HOW SEO HELPS IN THE WORLD OF FINANCE

A: What was the process of joining the SEO field like? Did you start with a few tools for different purposes or with an all-in-one SEO platform? When was the first time you started using WebCEO?

G: Before using the WebCEO platform I had tried a few tools for scanning our website, to ensure that it was search engine friendly. Nothing was as comprehensive as WebCEO. Being able to trial the service for free allowed me to try it out and the decision to buy was a “no brainer”.

I have been using WebCEO, in my capacity as a Partner at FundInvoice LLP, since 2016. I have found the platform superb for tracking and improving my site rankings.

What do you find unique about WebCEO?

“Just how comprehensive the platform is. I feel it’s like piloting an F15 fighter jet, the amount of power at your fingertips is mind blowing!”

A: How does WebCEO help you with your work?

G: At FundInvoice we are all about finding the best business finance deals for the companies that contact us. As an example of the service we offer, on average we have been able to save clients 28% (across 2019/2020) on invoice finance quotes received elsewhere. The issue for a small business like ours is connecting with that audience of companies that are seeking that type of business funding. That is where WebCEO came in. It has helped us get our website noticed so customers could find their way to us.

A: What is your favorite tool in WebCEO and how did it help in your work?

G: Broken link alerts from the Website Audit! Before I used WebCEO I had no idea how often you end up with broken links on your site. They impact the customer experience and can be perceived negatively by search engines. The software is constantly checking and alerting you to any problems that you need to fix.

Checking search rankings with the Rank Tracking tool is of course the most used, but I also like seeing how we are doing up against our competition in the Competitor Metrics tool.

Site audit in general has served us well. There have been so many broken links that have surfaced over the years, each one affects the customer journey. The way that WebCEO constantly checks for broken links allows me to fix them immediately.

A: Which SEO tasks eat up most of your team’s time?

G: Creating quality content is the primary focus of our available time.

A: How exactly did WebCEO help optimize your working process and save your time?

G: The amount of time that would be required to undertake tasks such as checking search engine rankings would be enormous. The software does in minutes what would take days to complete manually.

A: Can you share some figures on how WebCEO helps you dramatically cut your costs?

G: It is hard to underestimate how much time it has saved. We would have needed several people employed full time to conduct the type of analysis that the platform produces in a few minutes.

A: How do you track your SEO results?

G: We use the reports. I schedule weekly reports of rankings and I monitor related articles that have been published on the web.

A: What was the most remarkable challenge that your company faced?

G: The biggest challenge for our business has been how to promote our business without any marketing budget. Aside from the maintenance of our site and a few automation tools, we do not spend any money on promotion and advertising. WebCEO has been a key part of enabling us to achieve results without having to spend money on advertising.

USEFUL ADVICE ON ESTABLISHING AN EFFICIENT WORKFLOW

A: You have never missed deadlines. What advice can you give to other companies and businesses to avoid the pain of missed deadlines?

G: Be realistic when agreeing on targets and always factor in a margin for delays.

A: Are there some SEO hacks for gaining high rankings and driving traffic to a website that you can share?

G: The quality of the content that you produce is the most important factor. If it’s poor nothing will help. If you produce good content, others will engage with you.

A: How do you keep an eye on multiple customers’ profiles?

G: We only have our own profile to worry about, but I can see how SEO consultants could manage multiple clients via the platform. We have tracked our other domains and it is easy to switch between projects.

A: A professional tip: how often do you recommend SEO & technical audits? How often do you usually schedule reports?

G: I schedule them once a week, that seems enough to see changes and it gives me time to react to the information.

A: Thanks for being with us today, Glenn!

G: Thank you for inviting me!

READ MORE: