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A buyer looking for a broker first sees comparison sites, online brokers and bank websites. These players buy advertising all year round and publish hundreds of pages. On general searches, an independent firm won't get ahead of them, and I'd rather tell you that now. That leaves searches that include a town, a type of project or the wish to talk to someone. I work your Google Business Profile and website for those, with your mandatory disclosures in their place.
15 years in SEO
4 books on SEO and GEO
200+ sites tracked every day
1M / month visits to my e-commerce site
They trusted me with their visibility
Darty
Eurofins
Cegid
EBP
CNP Assurances
Ingram MicroA result that could be a comparison site's
A couple in Cognac have signed a preliminary sale agreement and are looking for a broker. Your firm comes up third, below a comparison site and an online broker. Its title says “Broker | Find your financing”. The couple see neither your town nor your name. Rewrite those two lines.
Fig. 1. Three results for a loan in Cognac. Only one firm has a door in the town. (Your office was ten minutes from the couple. Nothing in the result said so.)
What this means for you. I rewrite the title and description of each page with the town, the type of project and the option of a meeting, without rates or promises.
SEO for a broker is the work that makes a brokerage firm visible on Google when an individual or business in its area looks for help with a loan or insurance. It relies on an accurate Google Business Profile, a website page for each type of project the firm handles, and a named presentation of the brokers with their registration. It is measured by the meeting requests received, and it is done within the framework that applies to credit advertising.
The problem
As soon as a search mentions rates or simulations, the page is taken by comparison sites and online brokers. They devote entire teams to it. You have neither the interest nor the means to go after them there. Your place is on searches where the borrower specifies their town or situation.
Many brokers pay platforms for contact leads. The same request often goes to several competitors, and whoever calls back first wins. You pay every month without building anything that belongs to you.
If you're affiliated with a network, your branch page repeats the text of every other branch. Nothing on it says who meets clients, for which applications, or in which towns. Google has no reason to prefer it to another.
An audit, for real
The site below doesn't exist, but its flaws do: they're the five I spot most often. Hover over a number.
Your project, our priority
We support you in finding your financing, for all your projects.
Calculate my loanFig. 2. Fictional site, reconstructed. Any resemblance to yours would be a good reason to call me.
What your customers type
Six searches I expect to find for a local brokerage firm. They serve as examples. The audit gives the real list for your area and your activities.
What works
It carries the local searches. I check the category, address, appointment hours, description and photos of the premises. A firm with two branches has two profiles, each linked to its page on the website and to the broker who meets clients there.
First purchase, second home, buy-to-let, new build, business loan, mortgage protection insurance: each of these projects has its own searches. Each page says who it's for, how the application runs with you and what the client should bring to the first meeting.
People hand over their income and bank statements to a person, not a brand. Each broker has their own page: background, the projects they handle, where they meet clients, their registration. These pages also help Google and AI tools understand who is speaking on the site.
I don't write your disclosures; that's your responsibility and your compliance team's. I make sure they appear on every relevant page, in a readable place, and that no title or description contradicts them.
A review that mentions the town, the type of project and how the follow-up went carries more weight than a star rating alone. I help you ask for it at the right time, after signing for example, and reply to each one without giving any personal information.
What costs dearly
That's comparison-site territory, and it's also a part of your communication that is closely monitored. A figure in the spotlight ages fast and exposes you. I put none in your titles or descriptions.
A calculation tool embedded from a provider gives Google no text. The visitor has already used one elsewhere. What they can't find elsewhere is an explanation of how you work and the name of the person they'll speak to on the phone.
These two activities have neither the same client nor the same searches. Mixed on an “Our solutions” page, they answer neither. Separated, each can appear for what your future clients type.
This page gives you an address online, nothing more. If your contract allows it, I add what is specific to you: your area, your brokers, your types of application, your reviews.
The method
Four steps. The first concerns your regulatory framework, because it sets what I'm allowed to write.
One-minute test
Five frank questions to find out whether support makes sense in your situation. Sometimes the answer is no, and I'll tell you.
What it brings in
A ranking doesn't pay a salary. What counts is what it brings: enquiries, customers, revenue. Move your page up and see what it could bring in.
Example assumptions, open to challenge: 300 searches a month for a mortgage broker in your town, 3% of visitors make an enquiry, one enquiry in three is signed (this varies a lot from one trade to another), €1,800 per client. Click-through rates by position are rough orders of magnitude, and they have been shifting since Google started showing AI answers above the results. Redo the calculation with your figures
Possible revenue€0
Close to home
In Charente, people mostly buy houses: on estates around Angoulême, stone houses in small towns, sometimes with outbuildings in the countryside. Comparison sites describe a national market and say nothing about these purchases. Newp, the agency I co-founded, is based in the department, and I build your pages at that scale.
Most of the department's searches start from there. A buyer from Soyaux or La Couronne often types the name Angoulême. Your branch page must name the town, the neighbouring towns and where you meet clients.
Around Cognac, your clients often work in or for the cognac industry: employees, growers, tradespeople. Some projects combine a home and a business. If you handle them, a page describes them in their own words, without straying into advice.
In Ruffec, Barbezieux or Confolens, the bank branch is sometimes far away and the broker travels. If you hold a regular local session or meet clients at home, this must appear on the profile and the website, with the days.
Beyond Google
Some borrowers now ask an AI like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Mistral before opening Google. The question looks like this: “we're buying a house near Jarnac, it's our first loan, who should we go to in the area?”. The AI explains what a broker does, then sometimes cites firms.
It finds them in what is published: your website, your Google Business Profile, your reviews, professional directories. A firm described the same way across all of these is easy to pick up. “Mortgage broker in Jarnac, first purchase and new build, appointments at the office” gives it facts. “Your project, our priority” gives it none. I include neither rates nor promises.
Question asked to an AIWe're buying our first house near Angoulême and the preliminary agreement is signed. Which broker should we turn to?
Three options for this first purchase:
Fig. 3. Reconstruction, names hidden. This is the spot we aim for: on the list, with the most precise description.
Three typical cases
These three firms are made up. They show how the work changes depending on the starting point. Your plan will come out of the audit of your own situation.
He has just obtained his registration and works alone, without a network.
It has a page provided by the network and depends on bought contacts.
It mainly handles individuals and wants to become known to tradespeople and shopkeepers.
In practice
Pricing
The fee depends on four things. I give you a precise amount after a free first thirty-minute conversation.
Fancy a game?
A giant takes up the whole first page of your market. It has five weak spots. Take the coin and slide it into the machine.
INSERT COINSLIDE THE COIN INTO THE SLOT
Fig. 4. Sixteen seconds. No towns were harmed in the making of this game.
Together, let's devour your competitors.
One by one, and in order. Every spot gained makes the next one easier to take: that's why it keeps growing. See the method
Who you're talking to
My name is Kévin Papot. More than fifteen years in the job, four co-written books, and the Newp agency, co-founded in Charente. I also run my own online shops, in France and internationally: one of them went from zero to a million visits a month.
Before we talk tags, we talk margin, average basket and profitability. When you book a call, I'm the one who picks up.
FAQ
On national searches, no. I'm not selling you that idea. On a search that contains your town or a specific type of project, a local firm has every right to be there, and the Google map is open to it.
Yes, it's the starting point. You give me your mandatory disclosures and your internal guidelines. I quote no rates and promise no savings. When a wording raises a question, your compliance officer decides.
No. I give no financial advice, and neither does the site. The pages describe your trade, your steps and the documents to prepare. Anything to do with the substance of the application stays in your meeting.
Not overnight. Until the site brings in its own enquiries, these purchases keep the firm going. The aim is to reduce that share over the months, by comparing what a meeting costs from each source.
It depends on your contract. Some networks allow a branch website, others only a page. I start by reading what's provided for, then I work on what's permitted: the Google Business Profile, the branch page, the reviews.
Yes, as long as you stay discreet. A client can describe their experience without detailing their application. I prepare a simple way for you to suggest it and replies that reveal nothing about their situation.
I advise against it in most cases. These articles need constant updating and put you up against the big sites. A few stable pages on your projects and your method are more useful.
A corrected Google Business Profile often moves within a few weeks. Project pages take several months to find their place. I don't commit to any date. I show you the progress at each monthly review.
Yes. The method is the same: one page per need and per type of client, a named contact, up-to-date disclosures. The searches differ, and I study them separately.
Fifteen years in SEO and four co-written books on the subject. I'm not a broker and I don't claim to be. I know how to find what your future clients are looking for, and I leave you in charge of everything that belongs to your trade.
See also
30 minutes · video call · with me
Together we look at where you stand on Google and in AI, and what should change first.
