Cadence Bancorp Organic Growth Opportunities
1. Readiness Assessment
1. Readiness Assessment
2. Competitive Analysis
2. Competitive Analysis
3. Opportunity Kickstarters
3. Opportunity Kickstarters
4. Appendix
4. Appendix
Readiness Assessment
Competition at a Glance
An analysis of 2 key competitors, Regions Bank and Hancock Whitney Bank, shows that Cadence Bank currently ranks 2nd in organic search performance. Your domain attracts 287,073 monthly organic visits from 100,472 keywords, placing you ahead of Hancock Whitney Bank but significantly behind the market leader.
The top competitor, Regions Bank, generates 2,619,017 monthly organic visits and ranks for 439,992 keywords. This represents a substantial gap in market visibility and search engine presence compared to your current performance.
This data reveals a significant opportunity for growth. The market leader has established a keyword footprint that is over four times larger than yours, allowing them to capture nearly nine times more organic traffic. Closing this performance gap presents a clear path to capturing a much larger share of relevant search traffic from potential customers.
Opportunity Kickstarters
Here are your content opportunities, tailored to your domain's strengths. These are starting points for strategic plays that can grow into major traffic drivers in your market. Connect with our team to see the full traffic potential and activate these plays.
Create hyper-targeted financing guides for specific crops in key agricultural counties, positioning Cadence as the expert partner for agribusiness. This play captures high-value farm operators by providing granular data on operating loans, equipment financing, and market conditions for their specific crop.
Example Keywords
- “{crop} farm loans {state}”
- “operating line of credit for {crop} growers”
- “equipment loans {crop} {county}”
Rationale
While competitors offer generic 'ag loans,' this strategy maps financing products directly to the unique economics of specific crops, a massive gap in the market. Cadence's merger with Industry Bancshares provides authentic authority in rural and agricultural communities, creating a strong right to win this niche.
Topical Authority
The acquisition of Industry Bancshares, a bank with deep rural roots, gives Cadence a credible claim to agribusiness expertise. This play solidifies that authority by demonstrating a granular understanding of local agricultural economies, moving beyond the generic content offered by competitors.
Internal Data Sources
Leverage a combination of public and internal data, including USDA NASS acreage and yield tables by crop/county, live commodity futures from ICE/CME to create 'price pressure' sidebars, and approved dealer/implement lists from Cadence's vendor finance program. Summarized, anonymized data on historical charge-off ratios on ag credits can also inform content strategy.
Estimated Number of Pages
2,200 - 2,800
Develop county-level financial preparedness guides for specific natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. These playbooks offer practical advice and highlight relevant Cadence products, building immense community trust and capturing urgent, needs-based search traffic.
Example Keywords
- “hurricane recovery loans {county}”
- “tornado emergency banking {state}”
- “flood relief mortgage forbearance {county}”
Rationale
Competitors offer generic disaster pages, but this play provides hyper-local, hazard-specific advice that is far more useful during a crisis. It directly leverages and expands upon Cadence's existing /disaster-recovery microsite, which provides a strong foundation of topical authority and brand alignment.
Topical Authority
The domain already has a /disaster-recovery microsite, signaling to Google an existing interest and authority in the topic. Expanding this with granular, county-level hazard information is a natural and authoritative extension that competitors lack, reinforcing Cadence's role as a community pillar.
Internal Data Sources
Use internal branch outage logs and reopening timestamps to show resilience, historical SBA Disaster Relief loan approval stats from Cadence’s LOS to demonstrate expertise, and public data like FEMA Individual Assistance payouts per county to add depth. Real-time closure alerts can be used to auto-update banners during active events.
Estimated Number of Pages
800 - 1,000
Create dedicated financial resource hubs for military personnel and their families at each major installation in Cadence's footprint. These pages will combine information on military-specific banking products with resources for relocation (PCS), establishing Cadence as the go-to bank for service members.
Example Keywords
- “best bank near {base}”
- “military early payday {base}”
- “pcs budgeting fort {base keyword}”
- “va loan lenders near {base}”
Rationale
The military banking space is often dominated by on-base credit unions, but their digital presence is weak. By creating superior, information-rich content hubs, Cadence can intercept online searches from service members and leverage its nearby branch locations and military-friendly credentials as a key advantage.
Topical Authority
Cadence has numerous branches physically located near military installations and has received awards as a military-friendly employer. These existing real-world signals (E-E-A-T) provide a strong foundation for ranking content targeted at military personnel and their unique financial needs.
Internal Data Sources
Incorporate an ATM surcharge-free network map radius around each base gate, internal VA loan closing-time metrics to showcase efficiency, public DoD Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) API data to pre-fill budget templates, and transcribed testimonials from military employees.
Estimated Number of Pages
350 - 450
Build a comprehensive set of pages that break down property tax and mortgage escrow calculations for every single county in Cadence's service area. This play provides an unmatched utility, capturing high-intent homebuyers and refinancers by answering their most pressing local financial questions.
Example Keywords
- “property tax rate {county}”
- “how much is escrow in {county}”
- “mortgage payment calculator {county} {state}”
Rationale
Homebuyers are desperate for clear, local information on their total housing costs, but no bank provides this at a county level. By creating these static calculator-style pages, Cadence can dominate high-volume local real estate search terms and build trust as a transparent mortgage partner.
Topical Authority
The domain already ranks for numeric and fact-based queries like routing numbers and CD rates. This proves Google trusts Cadence to provide accurate data, making it highly likely to rank for other data-intensive queries like local tax rates, which competitors have overlooked.
Internal Data Sources-
Combine public data from County tax assessor CSVs with internal data from the Mortgage LOS on escrow formulae. Use a real-time rate API to inform the static APRs used in calculator examples, ensuring the content is both accurate and relevant.
Estimated Number of Pages
1,100 - 1,300
Create a resource hub that catalogs state and federal grants, tax credits, and incentives for specific industries. By mapping these opportunities to Cadence's own business lending products, the bank becomes an indispensable growth partner, not just a lender.
Example Keywords
- “small business grants for {industry} in {state}”
- “{state} tax credit for manufacturers”
- “startup incentives {industry} {state}”
Rationale
This strategy captures high-intent business founders at the very beginning of their search for capital. While competitors focus on selling loans, Cadence can win by providing a more holistic funding resource, building a pipeline of highly qualified commercial leads who view the bank as a strategic partner.
Topical Authority
Cadence's existing commercial and treasury management content provides a base level of authority in B2B finance. This play elevates that authority by demonstrating a strategic understanding of business growth and public-private funding partnerships, a topic competitors have ignored.
Internal Data SourcesAggregate and curate public data from Grants.gov, SBA, and state commerce sites. Enrich this with internal CRM win-rate data to prioritize calls-to-action and dynamically insert relevant case studies from a treasury management success story library.
Estimated Number of Pages
600 - 800
Improvements Summary
Target high-volume, low-competition branded queries by optimizing login, enrollment, outage, and security pages. Refine on-page SEO, expand content, and strengthen internal linking to move key pages from page 2 to top 5 positions.
Improvements Details
Map primary and secondary keywords to each URL, update title tags and meta descriptions with target phrases, and expand content with step-by-step guides, FAQs, and video walkthroughs. Add real-time service status modules, improve accessibility, and publish supporting articles that link back to core pages. Strengthen internal links from blog posts and product pages, and implement structured data, canonical tags, and local branch locators.
Improvements Rationale
These actions address user intent for quick account access, troubleshooting, and security information, while capitalizing on easy-win keywords with high search volume. Improved meta tags, structured content, and internal linking will increase CTR, organic rankings, and user satisfaction, directly supporting customer retention and reducing support calls.
Appendix
| Keyword | Volume | Traffic % |
|---|---|---|
| best seo tools | 5.0k | 3 |
| seo strategy | 4.0k | 5 |
| keyword research | 3.5k | 2 |
| backlink analysis | 3.0k | 4 |
| on-page optimization | 2.5k | 1 |
| local seo | 2.0k | 6 |
| Page | Traffic | Traffic % |
|---|---|---|
| /seo-tools | 5.0k | 100 |
| /keyword-research | 4.0k | 100 |
| /backlink-checker | 3.5k | 80 |
| /site-audit | 3.0k | 60 |
| /rank-tracker | 2.5k | 50 |
| /content-optimization | 2.0k | 40 |
Ready to Get Growing?
Request access to the best–in–class growth strategies and workflows with AirOps