{"id":60541,"date":"2021-02-17T13:22:25","date_gmt":"2021-02-17T13:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/corp\/?p=60541"},"modified":"2025-07-22T07:30:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T07:30:26","slug":"mortgage-websites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/research\/market-research\/mortgage-websites\/","title":{"rendered":"How Mortgage Websites Are Building an Edge Over the Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interest in mortgages skyrocketed in 2020 \u2013 a year defined by lockdowns and stay-at-home orders. Record-low interest rates<\/a> in the U.S. and the real estate impact also likely helped boost demand. The result: Traffic to mortgage websites shot up by 71% from 2019 to 2020.<\/p>\n

The extraordinary rise<\/a> in mortgage industry-related traffic outpaced the greater financial services industry, which climbed just 25% over the same time frame. Seeing growth across the mortgage industry as a whole, raises the question: Which mortgage company websites benefited the most and how?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here we\u2019ll break down the industry insights using Similarweb\u2019s website analysis<\/a> to investigate what marketing strategies were most effective in helping companies win a greater slice of the market share<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mortgage Websites – The market leaders<\/h2>\n

Our competitive set includes U.S. mortgage lenders: Chase<\/b><\/a>, Bank of America<\/b><\/a>,\u00a0U.S. Bank<\/b><\/a>, Quicken Loans<\/b><\/a>, Wells Fargo<\/b><\/a>, and Rocket Mortgage<\/a>. <\/b>We analyzed these companies’ websites and also focused on their mortgage segments with Similarweb\u2019s segment analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Mortgage<\/p>\n

BoA and Wells Fargo win for organic<\/h2>\n

Organic traffic was the most relied upon marketing channel for the mortgage lenders.<\/p>\n

Bank of America<\/b> and Wells Fargo<\/b> saw nearly 80% and 66% of all their mortgage traffic coming through organic search, respectively.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Rocket Mortgage<\/b>, the company with the lowest dependence on organic traffic in the group overall (28%), actually saw its share of voice<\/a> grow the most over 2020.<\/p>\n

Rocket Mortgage\u2019s traffic rose across channels over the course of the year, including organic traffic, direct, and referral traffic. But how did they grow their organic traffic? A greater focus on website optimization and content strategy<\/a> was the most likely driver.<\/p>\n

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Quicken Loans invests in paid channels<\/h2>\n

Paid channels also proved to be critical for mortgage lender sites in 2020. The data shows a heavy reliance on paid and partnership channels like paid search, display ads, and referral traffic.<\/p>\n

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Quicken Loans focused more on paid channels like PPC, display ads, and referrals than other sites, likely in an effort to increase brand awareness<\/a>.\u00a0Quicken Loans saw a rise in display ad traffic in Q4 but weren\u2019t alone. Rocket Mortgage also saw an upswing in display traffic in Q4.<\/p>\n

Using Similarweb\u2019s competitive analysis tools<\/a>, you can dig into your competitors\u2019 data to analyze what\u2019s working, and what\u2019s not. This helps you to learn from their mistakes and sharpen your strategy with ease.<\/p>\n

Keywords driving traffic to mortgage websites<\/h2>\n

1. Rocket Mortgage and Chase lead for seasonality<\/h3>\n

Not all seasons see the same search volume for industry keywords. In fact, mortgage industry keyword traffic jumped in February, March, and April 2020. The real estate impact here is clear, considering spring is the peak season.<\/p>\n

Rocket Mortgage and Chase took advantage of the trend, focusing on seasonal keywords. Chase led for mortgage calculator-related keywords. And Rocket Mortgage was also a traffic leader for multiple seasonal keywords.<\/p>\n

Similarweb\u2019s Seasonal Keyword Trends feature gives you an in-depth view of when search volume for specific keywords rose historically.<\/p>\n

Approaching keyword research<\/a> from a seasonal angle helps you to identify seasonal keyword trends<\/a> so you can plan ahead and capitalize on anticipated spikes for search volume and traffic.<\/p>\n

2. Financial affiliates grab mortgage keyword traffic<\/h3>\n

Mortgage websites top keywords included question queries and long-tail keywords<\/a>. Other popular search terms: calculators and pre-approval keywords. Most of the traffic leaders were financial affiliates like NerdWallet, Investopedia, and Lending Tree.<\/p>\n

\"Keywords<\/p>\n

Pro Tip: <\/b>Keyword traffic winners are often best-in-class content sites. Even if they aren\u2019t your direct competitors, it\u2019s worth breaking down their strategy to see what they got right.<\/em><\/p>\n

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3. Rocket Mortgage doubles lending keywords’ traffic share<\/h3>\n

As for lending keywords, Chase<\/b>, Bank of America<\/b>, and U.S. Bank<\/b> experienced growth year-over-year in their share of voice. Rocket Mortgage<\/b> held the largest share of voice for mortgage lending keywords, seeing shares more than double in 2020. Search volume for lending keywords peaked in March for all sites, likely because of record low interest rates.<\/p>\n

4. Mortgage Sites disrupting the mortgage space with keywords<\/h3>\n

Own Up and Flyhomes are two companies disrupting the mortgage industry with their keyword strategy. This video explains how they are doing it and introduces other potential movers for the space.<\/p>\n