Local SEO · Mortgage Lending
From invisible to the top of Google
When BankSouth Mortgage partnered with M16, its high-value, non-branded lending keywords sat on page 10 or deeper, far beyond where borrowers look. We rebuilt their organic presence from the ground up. Today, 49 of those competitive keywords rank in Google's top three, and 30 hold the number one spot.
Client
BankSouth Mortgage
Industry
Residential Mortgage Lending
Service
Local & Organic SEO
Footprint
10 Georgia markets
49
Non-branded keywords now in Google's top 3
30
Holding the #1 position
2,800+
Monthly searches captured in the top 3
10
Georgia markets covered
The Turnaround
A climb of 90+ positions, to where buyers actually click
We focused on the searches that win new business: the non-branded, high-intent keywords borrowers use to find a lender, not the brand terms a company already owns. Dozens of them moved from the back pages of Google into the top three.
When We Started
Page 10+
Most high-value, non-branded keywords ranked beyond position 100, past the point any borrower scrolls and invisible to the local searches that drive applications.
When We Started
Top 3
Most high-value, non-branded keywords ranked beyond position 100, past the point any borrower scrolls and invisible to the local searches that drive applications.
How We Did It
A deliberate plan, executed well
Built for every market
Purpose-built, deeply optimized location pages mapped to how borrowers search in each Georgia market, from Atlanta to Savannah, Valdosta, and Athens.
Won the hard terms
Took on high-competition, non-branded metro head terms, the ones national lenders fight over, and earned the number one organic spot.
Captured buyers early
An educational content layer that ranks for the questions borrowers ask before they ever choose a lender, filling the top of the funnel.
Built to hold
Technical SEO, structured data, internal linking, and authority signals engineered to earn these rankings and keep them.
The Results
Top-three rankings on the terms that win new borrowers
The wins span three non-branded search categories: competitive metro terms, local market terms, and buyer-education searches. Specific keywords are kept confidential; the figures below reflect the full tracked set.
Competitive metro terms
7
terms
High-competition, non-branded head terms in metro Atlanta, won against established national lenders.
3 at #1
all in top 3
Local market terms
37
terms
City-level lending searches across nine Georgia markets, the core of local borrower intent.
22 at #1
all in top 3
Buyer-education searches
5
terms
Top-of-funnel questions that capture borrowers during research, before lender selection.
4 at #1
all in top 3
Confidential
The business impact
This visibility drove a significant, sustained increase in organic loan inquiries and applications for BankSouth Mortgage. Specific revenue figures are confidential and withheld at the client's request. The ranking and search-visibility results shown here are independently verifiable in SEMrush.
Methodology & Data Source
Keyword positions reflect Google organic search results (United States) for the client's domain, tracked in SEMrush Position Tracking. Monthly search-volume figures are from SEMrush's U.S. keyword database (trailing 12-month average, rounded). Rankings captured May 2026. Results cover a tracked set of priority non-branded keywords and are a subset of the full universe for which the site ranks. Individual keywords are withheld for confidentiality.
Source: SEMrush Position Tracking & Keyword Database, United States, Google (May 2026).