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Amol Ghemud Published: October 16, 2025
Summary
What: Wise’s programmatic SEO strategy, generating over 90 million monthly organic visitors through automation and data-driven content creation. Who: Digital marketers, fintech companies, and SEO professionals seeking to scale organic traffic through automated, user-focused content. Why: This strategy showcases how targeting long-tail keywords in international finance can capture high-intent audiences and enhance global visibility. How: By automating content for user-centric pages like currency converters and bank routing numbers, optimizing with structured data, and continuously refining content based on performance insights.
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Wise’s programmatic SEO strategy utilizes targeted long-tail keywords, automation, and informative content to achieve over 90 million monthly organic visitors, demonstrating exceptional SEO prowess in financial technology.
Overview of Wise
Wise is a financial technology company specializing in international money transfers. They offer a multi-currency account that allows users to hold and manage various currencies, facilitating efficient international money management for both individuals and businesses. Their services extend beyond basic transfers, including a debit card and business account solutions.
A brief overview of Wise’s programmatic SEO strategy
Wise leverages programmatic SEO to generate a vast network of content targeting long-tail keywords within the international finance realm. These programmatically created pages focus on informativeness and user-friendliness.
Scalable Content Generation: Wise programmatic seo utilizes automation to create a vast amount of content targeting long-tail keywords relevant to international finance. This includes terms like “SWIFT codes” and “routing numbers.”
Informative & User-Centric: These programmatically generated pages prioritize user needs. They provide informative content that educates users on financial concepts while subtly promoting Wise’s money transfer services.
Key Page Elements: Effective elements include clear titles and descriptions, currency conversion tools, calls to action for money transfers, educational content, and links to relevant resources.
This approach allows Wise to capture a significant share of organic traffic for international finance-related searches.
Segregation of traffic numbers behind Wise’s programmatic SEO strategy
Direct: 50.55% (34.7M)
Organic Search: 42.99% (29.5M)
Here’s what makes Wise’s traffic a commendable achievement:
High Direct Traffic: A significant portion (over 50%) of their traffic is direct, indicating brand awareness and user loyalty. People know Wise and trust the brand enough to visit directly. This is especially impressive for a financial services company.
Strong Organic Search Presence: Despite the high direct traffic, Wise also has a substantial organic search presence (almost 43%). This suggests their SEO & content strategy efforts are successful, attracting users who might not be familiar with the brand but are actively searching for related information.
Having a strong presence in both direct and organic traffic channels demonstrates a well-rounded digital strategy. It shows Wise is attracting both loyal users and new ones who find them organically through search.
A Deep Dive into the Structure of Wise Pages/Section
Wise leverages programmatic SEO content strategy to target a wide range of long-tail keywords in the international finance realm. To understand their approach in more detail, let’s explore a case study that analyzes the structure of their programmatically generated pages. This case study likely dives into specific examples like currency converter pages and bank routing number pages, explaining the data points used to populate each page type.
Currency Converter Page
Wise utilizes programmatic SEO content strategy to target a vast array of long-tail keywords encompassing currency conversions, like “{currency 1} to {currency 2}”. These programmatically generated pages function as both informational resources and landing pages, guiding users towards Wise’s money transfer services. Let’s delve into some specific examples and explore the potential organic traffic they generate each month.
Example page
Monthly organic traffic
US Dollar to Mexican Peso
68.1k
US Dollar to Euro
94.1k
US Dollar to Indian Rupee
103.9k
Data Points
Wise infuses these programmatically generated pages with several key data points.Few of them are as follows:
Title comprising the names of two currencies
Currency converter input and output fields
CTA buttons
Currency conversion chart
CTA for email alerts for any price changes
Comparison with other competitors for sending money
List of Top Currencies
3-step guide on how to do conversions
Options to Change Converter Source Currency
Conversion rates for converted currencies
Bank Routing Number Pages
Wise leverages programmatic SEO to target informative content related to specific bank routing numbers, like routing numbers for {bank}. These programmatically generated pages serve primarily as informational resources, although they might also subtly nudge users towards Wise’s services.
Let’s delve into some concrete examples of these pages and explore the potential organic traffic they generate each month.
Example page
Monthly organic traffic
Citibank routing number
25.2k
Chase routing number
28k
Wells Fargo routing number
42.9k
Data Points
To enhance user experience and guide conversions, Wise programmatic SEO integrates various data points into these programmatically generated pages.
Title with little description
CTA buttons to get started with
Bank’s routing numbers for wire transfers
Bank’s routing numbers for different states
Different sections with diverse information about bank and routing numbers
FAQs
How Wise’s international SEO approach successfully executed with Wise programmatic SEO (If international SEO approach used)
Wise’s programmatic SEO approach appears to be successful based on the information we have about their organic traffic. Here’s how it demonstrates successful execution of international SEO:
Targeting Long-Tail Keywords: By programmatically generating content for long-tail keywords like “routing number for {bank}”, Wise captures a wide range of user queries related to international finance. This increases their chances of appearing in search results for relevant searches.
Informative Content: The focus on informative content, like currency conversion tools and explanations of routing numbers, positions Wise as a valuable resource for users. This builds trust and credibility, encouraging users to return and potentially consider their money transfer services.
Strategic User Guidance: While the content leans towards being informative, elements like CTAs (calls to action) gently nudge users towards exploring Wise’s money transfer services. This subtle approach can be effective in converting users who find the content helpful.
High Organic Traffic: The organic traffic figures (USA: 7.8M, UK: 3.8M, etc.) showcase the success of Wise’s programmatic SEO. These impressive numbers indicate they are capturing a significant portion of organic search traffic for their target keywords.
In essence, Wise’s programmatic SEO achieves international SEO success by:
Appearing in search results for relevant searches through long-tail keyword targeting.
Building trust and user base through informative content.
Encouraging service exploration with subtle CTAs.
Generating substantial organic traffic across multiple countries.
Critical Examination of Wise’s Programmatic SEO Strategy
Ethical Implications of Programmatic SEO
Programmatically generated SEO content, while efficient and scalable, raises ethical questions concerning transparency and the integrity of search engine practices. Wise leverages automation to create large volumes of SEO-optimized content, but it must balance the need for high-ranking pages with the delivery of genuinely valuable information to users. The benefits of this approach include increased reach and efficiency, but there is a potential risk of search engine manipulation if content is created solely to rank well, rather than serve users. Ethical programmatic SEO focuses on maintaining transparency, providing users with accurate information, and avoiding tactics that deceive search engines, such as keyword stuffing or thin content.
Comparison of Wise’s Programmatic SEO vs Traditional SEO
Wise’s programmatic SEO strategy contrasts with traditional SEO in both scope and methodology. Programmatic SEO uses automation to scale content creation across numerous search terms, while traditional SEO typically involves manual content optimization for specific keywords and individual pages. The advantage of programmatic SEO is the ability to quickly cover a large number of keywords, driving significant organic traffic, as Wise demonstrates with its 90M+ monthly visitors. However, traditional SEO allows for more targeted, personalized, and often higher-quality content, which can lead to better engagement metrics. In certain situations, such as niche markets or highly competitive search terms, traditional SEO may prove more effective, while programmatic SEO excels in broad-scale, data-driven content production.
User-Centric Design and Its Contribution to SEO Success
Wise’s focus on user-centric design plays a pivotal role in the success of its SEO strategy. By structuring its landing pages to provide clear, relevant, and valuable information, Wise not only meets user expectations but also aligns with search engine ranking factors that prioritize user experience. This approach, which emphasizes content that solves users’ problems, helps Wise convert organic traffic into business goals, such as account sign-ups or money transfers. The relationship between delivering value and SEO success is clear: the more useful the content, the higher the likelihood of attracting and retaining visitors, thus contributing to Wise’s overall business objectives.
Sustainability of Wise’s Programmatic SEO Strategy
While Wise’s programmatic SEO strategy is highly effective, its sustainability in the long term poses several challenges. Search engines are constantly evolving, and practices that work today may become less effective as algorithms change. One potential risk for Wise is over-reliance on automation, which could result in a loss of quality or user engagement if not carefully managed. To maintain long-term success, Wise will need to continuously adapt its approach by staying updated on search engine guidelines, refining its content based on user feedback, and possibly incorporating more human oversight into its automated processes. This hybrid approach could help ensure that the strategy remains both effective and sustainable.
Automation and the Future of Digital Marketing
Wise’s success underscores the growing role of automation in digital marketing. As SEO becomes more data-driven, businesses are increasingly leveraging programmatic tools to scale their efforts. However, as automation grows, maintaining ethical practices and user-centricity becomes crucial. Wise demonstrates how automation can drive significant traffic while still offering value to users. The key to sustainable automation in SEO is striking a balance—businesses must focus not just on ranking but also on delivering meaningful content and experiences to their users. Ethical use of automation, combined with ongoing improvements in content quality, will define the future of SEO and digital marketing
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Key Takeaways
Scalable Content Generation: Wise creates vast content targeting long-tail keywords in international finance.
High Organic Traffic: Wise achieves substantial organic traffic, with 42.99% from search engines.
User-Centric Pages: Pages are designed with key data points, such as currency converters and bank routing numbers, to enhance the user experience.
Effective SEO Strategy: Combining automation, structured data, and informative content ensures Wise’s robust search engine rankings and brand visibility.
Wise’s Programmatic SEO Playbook
Driving 90M+ monthly traffic, leveraging power from upGrowth.in insights.
1. DATA 💱
Currency Pair Data Engine
The foundation: Compile real-time exchange rates and historical data for millions of currency pair permutations (USD to EUR, GBP to INR, etc.).
2. TOOL 🔗
Comparison Tool Templates
Design a master template for *comparison pages* (e.g., TransferWise vs. Bank X) and *calculator tools* (e.g., USD to EUR converter).
3. LOCALIZE 🌍
Hyper-Localized Generation
Programmatically generate content in **multiple languages** for every region, ensuring local relevance, context, and proper currency presentation.
4. CONVERT 📈
Long-Tail Conversion Focus
Each dynamic page serves a specific, low-volume keyword that, when scaled across millions, drives huge, high-intent traffic directly to signup.
1. What Is Programmatic SEO And How Does Wise Implement It?
Programmatic SEO is an automated data-driven approach to search engine optimization that uses automated tools and algorithms to generate content and target keywords. Wise implements it by creating programmatically generated pages for specific long-tail keywords, such as currency conversions and bank routing numbers, incorporating key data points to enhance user experience and drive organic traffic.
2. How Much Monthly Organic Traffic Does Wise’s Programmatic SEO Strategy Generate?
It varies depending on the specific page and target keyword. Still, some examples include the US Dollar to Mexican Peso generating 68.1k monthly organic traffic and the Wells Fargo routing number generating 42.9k monthly organic traffic.
3. What Are The Key Components Of Wise’s Programmatic Seo Strategy?
The critical components of Wise’s programmatic SEO strategy include:
Targeting long-tail keywords for specific financial topics, such as currency conversions and bank routing numbers.
Creating programmatically generated pages with critical data points enhances user experience and drives organic traffic.
Balancing informative content with subtle CTAs should encourage users to explore Wise’s money transfer services.
Implementing the strategy across multiple countries for a wider reach and higher organic traffic potential.
Constantly analyze and adapt the strategy based on data and performance metrics to ensure continued success.
4. How Does Wise Utilize Long-Tail Keywords In Its Programmatic SEO?
Wise utilizes long-tail keywords in its programmatic SEO by identifying specific financial topics that users may search for, such as “routing number for {bank}” or “currency conversion from US dollar to Mexican peso .”They then create programmatically generated pages targeting those long-tail keywords, incorporating key data points and relevant information to enhance the user experience. This allows Wise to capture a broader range of user queries and increase their chances of appearing in search results for applicable searches.
5. What Types Of Content Does Wise Focus On In Its Seo Pages?
Wise focuses on informative content in their SEO pages, providing valuable resources and tools for users. This includes currency conversion calculators, explanations of routing numbers, and other relevant information related to international finance. Wise builds trust and credibility by positioning itself as an informative resource, encouraging users to return and consider their money transfer services. Overall, their content strategy is geared towards providing helpful and relevant information while also promoting their services through strong CTAs. This balance between informative content and strategic promotion is vital to Wise’s programmatic SEO success.
6. What are the key benefits of Wise’s Programmatic SEO strategy?
Increased Organic Traffic: By targeting a large volume of long-tail keywords, Wise attracts a wider range of users searching for specific financial information.
Improved Brand Visibility: Ranking for numerous relevant keywords makes Wise more visible to potential customers searching for financial services.
Enhanced User Experience: Pages are designed with user intent in mind, offering valuable information through elements like currency converters and bank routing number lists.
Scalability & Efficiency: Automation allows Wise to create and manage a vast network of SEO-optimized pages without manual effort.
7. What types of pages does Wise create with Programmatic SEO?
Two prime examples are:
Currency Converter Pages: These target long-tail keywords related to currency conversions, such as “{currency 1} to {currency 2} today”. They provide live exchange rates, historical charts, and convenient conversion tools, subtly guiding users towards Wise’s money transfer services.
Bank Routing Number Pages: These target keywords related to specific bank routing numbers, offering comprehensive information on routing numbers for different banks and states. While primarily informational, these pages also subtly promote Wise as a solution for international transfers.
8. Can other businesses replicate Wise’s Programmatic SEO success?
Yes, but it requires careful planning and execution. Businesses need to identify relevant long-tail keywords, develop valuable content that caters to user intent, and leverage automation tools effectively. Partnering with experienced SEO professionals can help navigate the complexities of programmatic SEO and maximize its potential for driving organic growth.
Programmatic SEO – An automated approach to optimizing content for search engines.
Organic Traffic – Visitors who arrive at a website through unpaid search results.
Long-tail Keywords – Specific keyword phrases that target niche audiences.
User Intent – The purpose behind a user’s search query.
CTAs – Calls to Action, prompts encouraging users to take specific actions.
Visibility – The extent to which a website appears in search engine results.
Content Strategy – A plan for creating and distributing valuable content.
Automation Tools – Software that streamlines repetitive SEO tasks.
Engagement – The interaction between users and content on a website.
Landing Pages – Web pages designed to capture visitor information or drive conversions.
For Curious Minds
Programmatic SEO is Wise’s primary tool for achieving massive scale in organic search, allowing them to create millions of pages that answer highly specific user queries automatically. This strategy excels in the international finance space because customer needs are often template-based, such as converting currencies or finding bank codes, which perfectly aligns with automated content generation. By creating dedicated pages for nearly every conceivable long-tail query, like ‘US dollars to Indian rupees today,’ Wise builds a vast digital footprint that intercepts users at the exact moment of need. Their approach combines automation for scale with user-centric utility, providing instant answers through tools and data while subtly positioning their transfer services as the logical next step. This builds topical authority and captures a significant 42.99% of its traffic from organic search, proving that you can scale content without sacrificing user value. Examining their page structure reveals a repeatable blueprint for market dominance.
A high direct traffic share of 50.55% indicates powerful brand recognition and user loyalty, which works in tandem with a strong programmatic SEO strategy. While their 42.99% organic traffic demonstrates an effective customer acquisition engine, the massive direct traffic shows that Wise has successfully converted those acquired users into a loyal base who return without needing a search engine. This dual strength is the hallmark of a mature digital brand. The programmatic pages act as the top of the funnel, introducing new users to Wise through informational queries. Once these users experience the service, they develop trust and begin navigating directly to the site for future needs. This symbiotic relationship means their SEO efforts build long-term brand equity, not just short-term traffic, creating a defensive moat that is difficult for competitors to penetrate. Discovering how they balance these two channels is critical for any brand aiming for sustainable growth.
Wise’s programmatic SEO strategy prioritizes breadth and scale over the deep, narrative-driven content typical of traditional editorial marketing. Instead of writing long-form articles on broad topics, Wise uses templates and data to automatically generate millions of highly specific, tool-based pages for long-tail keywords like ‘{Bank Name} Routing Number’. The key difference lies in the creation process and user intent.
Programmatic SEO: Focuses on transactional or informational queries that can be answered with data. It’s built for efficiency and capturing a massive volume of high-intent search traffic. The goal is utility at scale.
Editorial Content: Focuses on building thought leadership and brand affinity through expert-written guides and stories. It targets broader, research-oriented keywords and aims for deeper user engagement.
The trade-off is clear: programmatic offers unparalleled reach and efficiency for certain query types, but it may not build the same emotional connection as handcrafted editorial content. Wise succeeds because its core business aligns perfectly with the scalable, data-driven nature of programmatic SEO. Understanding this distinction is vital for allocating marketing resources effectively.
Wise’s currency converter pages are masterfully engineered to provide immediate value, which is key to their massive organic traffic. They satisfy user intent by programmatically including several critical elements on a single, clean interface. The core of the page is a live currency conversion tool that answers the user's primary question instantly. This is supported by clear titles and descriptions that match the long-tail search query, such as ‘US dollars to Indian rupees today.’ Below the tool, they include educational content about the currency pairing and the transfer process, building trust and authority. Most importantly, they integrate clear calls to action that guide the user to their money transfer service, turning an informational page into a powerful lead generation asset. This template-driven consistency across millions of currency pairs allows them to capture a huge volume of search traffic and is a primary driver behind their 90M+ indexed pages. The success of this model provides a clear case study in converting informational intent into commercial action.
Targeting hyper-specific, utilitarian queries like "{Bank Name} Routing Number" is a core pillar of Wise’s SEO dominance. This strategy reveals a deep understanding of the pre-transactional customer journey, where users seek specific data points before making a financial decision. By providing a reliable, automated answer for these needs, Wise accomplishes several goals at once. First, it captures an enormous volume of long-tail traffic, contributing to their 92M monthly visitors. Second, it establishes Wise as an authoritative and helpful resource in the financial space, building brand trust even before a user considers a transfer. Third, it allows them to subtly introduce their own services on these pages, cross-selling to a high-intent audience. This approach demonstrates that you do not need to target purely commercial keywords to drive business value. By solving small, practical problems at a massive scale, Wise creates a powerful inbound marketing funnel. Exploring their execution offers a lesson in leveraging informational content for business growth.
The precision of Wise's keyword targeting is the secret to its high-conversion SEO model. By focusing on patterns like '{Currency1} to {Currency2} Today,' they capture users with immediate, transactional intent related directly to their core service. Someone searching for the "US dollars to Euro today" exchange rate is very likely considering or needing to make a transfer soon. This is far more effective than targeting a broad keyword like "money management," which has vague intent. This long-tail strategy allows Wise to:
Match Specific Intent: They meet the user with the exact information they need at the moment of consideration.
Reduce Competition: There is less competition for millions of specific long-tail phrases than for a few high-volume head terms.
Improve Conversion Rates: The traffic is highly qualified, making the transition from informational query to using Wise's transfer service a natural next step.
This approach, replicated across 90M+ pages, creates a highly efficient customer acquisition funnel, turning search engine users into customers by solving their exact problem. Understanding their keyword selection is a lesson in aligning SEO with business goals.
A B2B fintech can adapt Wise's strategy by focusing on a specific, data-rich niche instead of broad consumer finance. A foundational plan involves identifying repeatable user queries and building a scalable template to address them, which is crucial for gaining initial traction without Wise's resources. Here is a three-step implementation plan:
Identify a Data-Driven Niche: Instead of currency rates, focus on a B2B-specific dataset. This could be SaaS integration guides ("How to connect {Payment_Gateway} with {Accounting_Software}"), regulatory compliance checklists for different industries, or international trade code lookups. The key is finding a query pattern where variables can be swapped programmatically.
Design a Minimum Viable Template: Create a single page template that provides a clear, concise answer to the user's query. This page must include the core data, brief explanatory text, and a clear call to action for your B2B service. Focus on utility and clarity over complex design.
Launch and Iterate on a Small Scale: Generate an initial batch of 50-100 pages targeting your most valuable keyword variations. Monitor their performance in Google Search Console. Use this initial data to refine your page template before scaling up production. This phased approach minimizes risk while validating the strategy.
Wise’s success signals a significant shift in fintech SEO, where competition is increasingly defined by informational scale and authority rather than just commercial keyword rankings. The implication is that head-to-head competition with established players like Wise on broad terms is becoming unfeasible for smaller companies. The barrier to entry has been raised, as users now expect comprehensive, tool-based answers for their financial queries. To compete, smaller players must adapt by finding underserved niches and focusing on depth over breadth. Instead of targeting all currency conversions, a startup could build programmatic tools for niche B2B forex calculations or emerging market payment methods. Another strategy is to combine programmatic content with a strong layer of human expertise and community, creating content that is difficult to automate. The future of fintech SEO is not about out-scaling Wise but about identifying and dominating smaller, valuable verticals they have overlooked. Uncovering these niche opportunities is the key to survival and growth.
The rise of AI-driven search presents both a challenge and an opportunity for Wise’s programmatic strategy. AI overviews may directly answer simple data queries like "Wells Fargo routing number," potentially reducing clicks to Wise's pages. To maintain its nearly 30 million monthly organic visitors, Wise will need to evolve its strategy by adding more irreplaceable value and interactivity to its pages. This evolution could involve several adjustments:
Enhanced Tooling: Moving beyond simple data display to offer more complex calculators, comparison tools, or simulators that an AI answer cannot replicate.
Deeper Integration: Tightly integrating user-specific information to provide personalized answers.
Proprietary Data: Highlighting unique data sets, such as real-time transfer speeds or customer satisfaction scores across corridors, that are exclusive to the Wise platform.
The goal is to shift from being an information provider to an indispensable, interactive financial tool. By making their pages a destination for action, not just answers, Wise can ensure users continue to click through.
Wise avoids the "thin content" trap by ensuring every programmatically generated page delivers genuine, tangible value to the user. Their strategy is rooted in utility, not just volume. Instead of populating pages with generic, spun text, they build them around functional tools and specific, hard-to-find data points that directly answer the user's question. For example, a currency conversion page provides a live, interactive calculator, and a routing number page provides the exact code the user is searching for. This focus on function and data is the key differentiator. They solve the user's problem first and foremost. This approach is reinforced with supplementary educational content and clear navigation, making the pages feel like complete resources. By prioritizing user-centricity and functionality within their templates, Wise ensures each page serves a distinct purpose, thereby earning high rankings and avoiding penalties despite their massive scale. A deep dive into their page elements reveals this commitment to value exchange.
Wise likely overcomes the challenge of internal linking at scale by programmatically building a logical and hierarchical site structure. Instead of creating isolated pages, their system probably generates contextual links based on the data relationships within their templates, preventing pages from becoming orphaned and ensuring authority flows throughout the site. For instance, a page for "US dollars to Indian rupees" would automatically link to related pages like "US dollars to Euro" or a higher-level "US Dollar (USD) Currency Profile" page. Similarly, a specific bank's routing number page might link back to a main profile page for that bank. This programmatic interlinking creates a cohesive web of content that is easy for search engine crawlers to navigate. It signals the relationship between topics, reinforces their topical authority on international finance, and distributes link equity efficiently across all 90M+ pages. This structured approach is fundamental to making a site of this size work.
For a financial comparison site to replicate Wise's model, the foundation rests on securing reliable, dynamic data feeds and building a robust technical backend. The success of programmatic SEO is entirely dependent on the quality and structure of the underlying data. Key data sources would include:
Real-time or daily updated APIs for currency exchange rates.
A structured database of financial institutions, including their SWIFT/BIC codes and routing numbers.
Product information feeds from different providers for comparison points like fees or transfer speeds.
Technically, the essential elements are a scalable content management system or a custom-built solution that can handle millions of pages. This system needs a powerful templating engine to inject the data into predefined page layouts. You also need automated processes for generating sitemaps and a system for monitoring page indexing and performance. Investing in this data and technology infrastructure upfront is non-negotiable for success.
Amol has helped catalyse business growth with his strategic & data-driven methodologies. With a decade of experience in the field of marketing, he has donned multiple hats, from channel optimization, data analytics and creative brand positioning to growth engineering and sales.
Growth Strategy and Planning
