Unpacking NerdWallet’s SEO: 10 Things I Discovered
Nobody needs SEO like NerdWallet. Their S-1 shows over 70% of traffic is unpaid. For a business that transforms knowledge-seeking into profit, that’s a perfect strategy. But it’s also imperfect. As a public company, NerdWallet must openly admit when its SEO fails. Worse still, dips in organic traffic can trigger falling stock prices and potential job losses. Lower organic can trigger falling stock prices, which can lead to job losses. And when Google tweaks its algorithms, it sends ripples through NerdWallet’s entire ecosystem—from employees to stockholders. Can you name another company with more skin in the SEO game? NerdWallet’s journey offers a masterclass in SEO strategy and adaptation. Their SEO success story is impressive, to say the least, but they’re walking a tightrope where missteps aren’t an option. This is precisely why there will always be much to learn from NerdWallet. Here are some things I learned from spending too much time in Numberland with NerdWallet. “Unexpected headwinds” swept away 6M in traffic According to our data, NerdWallet lost an estimated 6M in organic traffic in three months. That’s a 23.6% loss in a very short period. This loss was caused by “unexpected headwinds”, as their CEO put it in the 2024 Q2 financial report. And it looks like the loss in traffic resulted in a significant loss in revenue and stock value. Here’s what the traffic looked like before the start of Q3 2024. And this is how the stock value chart looked when they told everyone how the traffic looked. Source: Google. Interestingly, it happened around the same time as the recent March core update. The update was said to “fix” what you see on Google’s search results by 40% by literally punishing sites that tried to take advantage of Google. Was it the update that hit NerdWallet so badly? Julien Brault…
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