Establishing SEO strategy for Hokodo and securing #1 positions in a highly competitive fintech industry

Project overview

Hokodo, a B2B Fintech company specialising in 'Buy now, pay later' solutions, approached me to enhance their SEO strategy and improve their organic search presence. Their mission to enable 1 million businesses to access better payment options by 2025 required a robust digital marketing foundation.

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Collaboration and process 

Working directly with Hokodo's internal team, I led the SEO strategy while collaborating with their content team. This partnership allowed us to implement both technical improvements in Webflow and content optimisations effectively.

Opportunity

The initial assessment revealed several areas for improvement:

• Limited SEO strategy: The B2B fintech space is highly competitive, and Hokodo's existing SEO approach wasn't maximising their visibility for key financial service terms and educational content.
• Technical foundation needed improvement: Core technical SEO elements required optimisation to compete effectively with established fintech players and ensure proper indexing of valuable content.
• Content gaps in key areas: Analysis revealed missing content opportunities around critical B2B payment topics and BNPL education that potential clients were actively searching for.
• Under-optimised content assets: Existing content wasn't fully aligned with search intent or structured to capture high-value B2B fintech keywords.
• Lack of data-driven approach to content: SEO hadn't been a focus so they weren't aligning their website content with user search behaviour data.

Strategy

I developed a comprehensive approach:

• Technical SEO foundation: Executed comprehensive technical improvements focusing on Core Web Vitals, schema markup, and mobile optimisation - critical elements for competing in the fintech SERPs.
• Keyword strategy optimisation: Conducted in-depth keyword and audience research targeting high-intent B2B BNPL terms, emerging fintech market search opportunities.
• Content performance analysis: Performed detailed content audit examining key metrics (traffic, conversions, engagement) to identify which content types were helpful and valuable.
• Strategic content development: Created detailed optimisation briefs aligned with B2B buyer journey stages, from awareness content about trade credit solutions to decision-stage comparison content.
• Competitive gap analysis: Leveraged market research, competitor analysis, and fintech community insights to identify untapped content opportunities in the B2B payments space.
• Content architecture refinement: Streamlined site structure by consolidating duplicate content and implementing topic clusters around core BNPL themes.
• Internal linking strategy: Developed systematic internal linking framework to strengthen topical authority around key financial service offerings and educational content.

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Results

Working with Hokodo, we achieved significant improvements in their organic search presence:

• Dominant search visibility: Achieved #1 ranking for core non-brand B2B BNPL terms, significantly increasing visibility among target financial decision-makers.
• Technical excellence: Built a robust technical SEO foundation and a strong process in place for continuous monitoring and improvement.
• Content performance: Successfully implemented data-driven content strategy leading to 60% increase in organic traffic to key product pages in the first two months ‍
• Scalable SEO framework: Established systematic SEO processes and guidelines for the internal team, ensuring sustainable organic growth.