fundabroad.com operates in one of the most competitive verticals in Indian search — education finance. The keywords ("study abroad loan", "education loan for Canada", "MPOWER vs Prodigy") are all fought over by well-funded competitors. The site had a good product story but a weak visibility foundation.
Where we started
Our first RankStreet audit revealed:
- Overall score: 41/100 — "needs work"
- Mobile PSI: 34 — failing
- Desktop PSI: 62 — barely OK
- LCP mobile: 5.1s (target ≤2.5s)
- CLS mobile: 0.31 (target ≤0.10)
- FAQ schema: Missing
- Organization schema: Missing
- Blog freshness: No blog
- E-E-A-T: 42/100 — no author bylines, no credentials, no reviewed-by metadata (this is a YMYL site so trust signals really matter)
For a finance-adjacent (YMYL) site, this starting position was blocking Google from ranking them for anything beyond navigational queries.
What we shipped, week by week
Weeks 1-2 — trust foundation
YMYL sites live or die by E-E-A-T. We built the trust foundation first:
- Added
Organizationschema withsameAsto LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Trustpilot, and Google Business Profile. - Added
Personschema with credentials for the founding team on the About page. - Added visible "Reviewed by" bylines with expert credentials on every loan-product page.
- Published a comprehensive privacy policy, terms of service, and grievance officer contact page — visible in footer.
- Enabled Trustpilot integration and displayed rating badge above the fold.
Impact: E-E-A-T score 42 → 71. Trustworthiness section specifically 12/25 → 22/25.
Weeks 3-4 — performance overhaul
- Migrated hero images to WebP with 180 KB budget and explicit dimensions.
- Enabled server-side caching + Cloudflare CDN.
- Removed 4 unused third-party scripts.
- Deferred non-critical JavaScript (chat widget, analytics).
- Inlined critical CSS for above-the-fold content.
Impact: Mobile PSI 34 → 74. LCP 5.1s → 2.2s. CLS 0.31 → 0.06.
Weeks 5-6 — content depth + FAQ schema
The site had product pages but nothing that answered the actual questions borrowers ask. We added:
- An FAQ block on every loan-product page — 6-10 real questions from the sales team — wrapped in
FAQPageJSON-LD. - A "Compare loans" page with structured comparison tables.
- A country-specific hub for the top 5 destinations (US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany) with visa, cost-of-living, and loan-specific answers.
For the JSON-LD template, we used the same one from our FAQ schema markup guide.
Impact: AEO friendliness 38 → 76. Started showing up in Google AI Overviews for "study abroad loan for [country]" queries.
Weeks 7-8 — blog + fresh content programme
- Launched a blog with 8 substantive posts on loan comparisons, forex, visa financial requirements, and repayment strategies.
- Each post has an author byline with credentials, a "Reviewed by" line, and a visible "Updated on" date.
- Cross-linked posts to relevant loan-product pages.
Impact: Blog freshness signal flipped from "No blog" to "Active". Internal linking depth improved significantly.
Where we are today
| Signal | Before | After 8 weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Overall RankStreet score | 41 | 63 |
| Mobile PSI | 34 | 86 |
| Desktop PSI | 62 | 94 |
| LCP (mobile) | 5.1s | 2.2s |
| CLS (mobile) | 0.31 | 0.06 |
| E-E-A-T | 42 | 73 |
| AEO friendliness | 38 | 76 |
Overall score above 60 — the psychological threshold where a site moves from "needs work" to "acceptable" — reached in 8 weeks. Google PageSpeed passes on both mobile and desktop.
What we are still fixing
The score is 63 — we are targeting 75+ in the next quarter. Priorities:
- AEO scale-up: track 20 more prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and iterate the content that lifts the mention rate. See our ChatGPT citation playbook for the framework.
- Backlink strategy: earn coverage in edtech + fintech publications. Common Crawl currently shows sparse coverage.
- Country-hub expansion: add 10 more destinations with the same depth as the top 5.
- Real-user monitoring: Cloudflare Web Analytics is on; adding CrUX to catch real-world Core Web Vitals regressions.
Lessons for other YMYL sites
- Trust signals first, performance second, content third. On YMYL sites, Google will not rank a fast, well-written page if the E-E-A-T is thin.
- FAQ schema pays off fastest. Two weeks of FAQ implementation moves both Google ranking signals and AI citation rates measurably.
- Compounding beats big bang. Weekly, measurable ships across 8 weeks moved this site further than a "big redesign" would have.
Run the same audit on your site
Run a free RankStreet audit on your URL — the same score breakdown, the same section-by-section fix list, no signup for the anonymous run. The audit takes about 60 seconds.
If your site is where fundabroad's was 8 weeks ago and you want the same team to run the same playbook, talk to Digistreet Media. We work retainer-style with startups, SMEs and enterprises.
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About the publisher
Built by Digistreet Media
RankStreet is built and operated by Digistreet Media — a digital marketing and SEO agency with 13+ years of experience across Finance, FMCG, Real Estate, B2B, Automobiles, Fashion, SaaS, Healthcare, and Commerce. If you'd rather have a senior team execute the audit and the fixes for you, talk to Digistreet.