Content audit for financial services: A clarity-led approach for regulated industries

Financial services content carries a level of responsibility most B2B industries never have to deal with. You’re not just promoting a service or explaining a product. You’re giving people information they rely on to make confident decisions, often in areas they don’t fully understand.

That’s why a financial services content audit needs to be handled differently. It’s not the same as a standard content audit, and it’s definitely not the same as a technical SEO audit.

A technical SEO audit looks at structure, indexing, metadata and performance. It’s incredibly useful if you already know SEO or you’ve got a technical team ready to action the findings. If not, it can feel disconnected from what actually needs fixing.

A financial services content audit is different. It focuses on the words, the messaging, the structure and the user journey. It also looks at how well your content works for search, but from the content and intent side rather than the technical side. That includes things like keyword alignment, search intent, topical coverage, user questions and content that supports AEO by giving clear, accurate answers people are actively searching for.

If you want broader context on my audit approach, you can read What is a content audit. This piece builds on that, but speaks specifically to financial services and fintech brands.

Why financial services needs a different approach

Financial services content gets pulled in different directions by different stakeholders. Product teams want accuracy. Legal teams want caution. Marketing wants clarity and connection. Users want simplicity. And search platforms want helpful, trustworthy content that actually answers people’s questions.

When all of that collides, content often ends up too complex, too vague or simply out of date.

A few familiar issues show up across almost every financial brand:

• Content written with internal language that assumes too much knowledge
• Pages stripped back so far they lose meaning
• Blog posts and explainer content that haven’t kept pace with product, policy or market changes
• Search demand shifting faster than the content strategy
• Content that doesn’t answer the questions users actually have
• Articles that don’t match the search intent they’re meant to target

These aren’t technical SEO issues. They’re clarity, accuracy and intent issues. And that’s exactly what a financial services content audit uncovers.

If this sounds familiar, I break down how to handle outdated, inconsistent libraries in If I were starting with too much content. A lot of teams fall into this pattern because their strategy hasn’t kept pace, which I cover in How to build a content strategy that aligns with business goals.

Key audit areas: clarity, accuracy, consistency and content SEO

A financial services content audit is a communication-first review that also assesses whether your content is working for search. Not the technical side, but the content side: keywords, questions, intent alignment and how well you’re positioned to show up in AEO-driven search experiences.

Clarity

Clarity is the biggest challenge in financial services. I look at whether someone who isn’t an industry expert can follow the logic on the page, whether jargon is explained and whether the content guides the reader toward understanding without overwhelming them.

This is especially important in financial services, where complexity itself increases writing effort, something I talk about in It’s not the length of the content. It’s the complexity that makes it expensive.

Accuracy

Financial content ages quickly. Policies change, examples become outdated and blog posts quietly drift away from your current positioning. I look for:

• outdated product or service information
• incorrect or outdated examples
• posts that reflect older rules, practices or assumptions
• conflicting explanations across pages

You also see this happen in AI-assisted drafts, which I break down in How to fix your AI generated content.

Consistency

When content comes from different writers, teams and eras, it becomes fragmented. Tone shifts. Terminology shifts. Messaging shifts. A content audit highlights where you’re aligned and where you’ve drifted.

Content SEO and AEO alignment

This is the part that does matter for search, but in a way that’s accessible and actionable for content teams.

I look at:

• whether your pages and blogs align with the keywords people actually use
• whether content matches the search intent it’s meant to serve
• whether your site answers the common questions users are asking
• whether your thought leadership and guides reflect today’s search behaviour
• whether you’re covering the topics your category is known for
• whether content has the clarity AEO rewards

It’s SEO, but in a practical, human way. You don’t need to know technical SEO for any of it to make sense.

Common issues in financial services content

Across banks, lenders, insurers and fintechs, the same issues appear again and again.

Overly technical explanations

Internal teams understand the finer points of offsets, premiums, contributions and risk profiles. Most customers don’t. When content assumes too much knowledge, users fall behind quickly.

Legacy content that’s quietly outdated

Blog libraries often contain years of information that’s no longer accurate. Old examples, old features, old rules. It’s harmless at first glance, but it chips away at trust and search performance.

Tone that tries too hard to avoid saying the wrong thing

In an effort to be cautious, content becomes vague. It ends up sounding unsure and harder to trust. I explore this in my article Why your tone of voice sounds vague and how to fix it.

Content that doesn’t match search intent

This is a big one. If someone searches for “how mortgage offsets work” and your article is really a product pitch, you’ll lose both the user and the ranking opportunity.

What a financial services content audit includes

Your audit depends on whether you choose a website audit or a blog audit, but the process stays consistent.

Website audit

A website audit looks at your core pages in a holistic way. I review how well each page guides the user, whether the messaging is clear, whether the flow makes sense and whether the CTAs support the journey people are actually on. I also look at the language you’re using, how confidently it communicates your value and whether the content aligns with the keywords and questions people search for.

It’s not technical SEO. It’s the content side of SEO and AEO, combined with the fundamentals of good communication and conversion. By the end, you’ll know what needs rewriting, what needs refining and where your messaging and structure need to evolve so the whole experience feels clearer and more intentional.

Blog audit

A blog audit looks at your whole library, not just individual posts. I review how well your content supports your broader strategy, whether the topics align with what your audience actually wants to know and how each piece fits into the overall story your brand is trying to tell. I check for outdated articles, overlapping themes, inconsistent angles, keyword gaps and missed opportunities to answer the questions people are searching for.

I also look at the structure and readability of your posts, how clearly they explain complex concepts and whether they guide the reader toward the next step in their journey. In many cases, the biggest improvements come from consolidating similar blogs, retiring pieces that no longer reflect your stance and strengthening the posts that have real potential.

Most financial services brands discover they’re publishing far more than they need to, and that a smaller, sharper and more intentional library performs far better for both users and search.

What you get

Instead of numeric scores or technical outputs, you get a clear, practical plan that includes:

• what to rewrite
• what to refresh
• what to combine
• what to retire
• what to create
• which topics need better coverage
• how to better match user intent
• where search opportunity is being left on the table

The goal is simple: show you what will make the biggest difference.

What happens after a financial services content audit

The audit gives you a clear picture of your content. The real impact comes from what you do next.

After a website audit, most teams move into a targeted website rewrite. Once you know which pages lack clarity or alignment, rewriting them becomes easy and effective. You end up with a website that’s more confident, more helpful and more consistent.

After a blog audit, many financial organisations focus on refreshes, rewrites and consolidation. Cleaning up old posts improves authority, reduces risk and strengthens your overall search presence. It also gives you a more strategic understanding of what topics actually matter.

Some content needs to be retired entirely. Older content often no longer reflect your products, your stance or the market. Removing them gives you a cleaner, more trustworthy foundation.

How AX Content supports regulated industries

Financial services is one of my core sectors. I work with lenders, brokers, super funds, insurers and fintechs that want content that’s clear, accurate and easy to understand. I don’t provide compliance assessments, but I write with responsible clarity in mind. And I understand how to communicate complex concepts without confusing or overwhelming your audience.

If you’d like to see examples of this, explore the financial services and fintech industry page or case studies like GuildSuper and Lexicon.

Book a financial services content audit

If you want clearer, more confident and more accurate content, a financial services content audit is the first step. It shows you what’s working, what’s outdated and where your biggest improvements sit. From there, we can move into rewriting, refreshing or rebuilding the content that matters most.

Book a financial services website audit, blog audit, or get in touch if you’d like to talk through your situation.