From members typing the URL to search doing the work

In 2024 the website was heavily dependent on direct traffic: between 51 and 82 percent of sessions, depending on the month, came from people who already knew the address. Organic search was a minority source, as low as 8.64 percent in February. The credit union had a loyal member base and almost no visibility to the far larger group of people searching for fair financial services online.

We made a sustained SEO investment built around high-intent search and content relevance. Rather than chasing volume, we focused on making sure that when a prospect found the site, they found exactly what they needed. Alongside the search work we developed referral partnerships so the traffic profile stopped depending on a single source.

• Technical fixes so pages could be crawled and ranked properly
• Service content rebuilt around what people actually search for
• Engagement-first content so visitors stayed and acted
• Partnership development to grow referral traffic

Organic search rose from a minority share to between 49 and 62 percent of all sessions in 2025. March 2025 saw 240 percent year-on-year growth in organic sessions, and February's total sessions were up 80 percent on the previous year. Engagement rates climbed from an average of 55 percent in 2024 to consistently above 65 percent, peaking at 70.6 percent in June. By October the site was recording 955 key conversion events a month, and referral traffic had surged 147 percent by September.

South Yorkshire Community Bank now has a healthy mix of organic search, direct, paid social and referral traffic, with search doing the job of bringing in new people every day. Growth that comes from being found rather than already known keeps compounding.