I was bored and browsing through a local paper (getting old?) when I read a big ad accompanied by an article featuring RCBC's loan website - GetALoan.com.ph.
I come to visit the domain and kind of get disappointed of a very poorly utilized domain that can do lots of potential if tweaked and optimized.
As seen in the screenshot, the design looks old. It looks so into the 90's and the overall feel is just not as accommodating. There's a bunch of ugly tables around the inline frame that has a horizantal scrollbar. There's a loan calculator wherein you can input letters. There's really not much of a clear CTA (call-to-action) motive except that little green "START HERE" button that leads to a long ass questionnaire. The links at the bottom don't work, one of which is the Privacy Policy. Overall it's just so messy and not that enticing.
On the side of RCBC, they are actually going in a nice direction. They have been since 2009 based on that outdated Copyright text. But it would seem there's a shortage of dedication and knowledge as to how this could have brought nice applications in favor of the bank.
According to the article, the website's been gaining steam and what's good about it is that despite being under-optimized, it claims to have at least 1,500 visits a month. Think about it 1,500 potential clients and loan applications - that's big.
The keyword statistics aren't that impressive in terms of locality. "Loans" or "Loan" would have been ideal, although "Get a Loan" rolls pretty nice off the tongue. I would consider this highly valuable in terms of branding and the fact that the domain is very easy to remember (than say 'GetLoan') and RCBC has the resources to propel such a nice domain.
If they really wanted to utilize keywords, they should have done research and aimed for the other loan-related domains that have nice statistics, which are currently available.
They fail on not getting the .PH. What if I was Metrobank or BDO and I decide to get GetALoan.PH and everytime people want to visit RCBC's loan application, they have themselves redirected to other banks' loan pages? That's traffic and typo bleed. What's worse is if the visitor knew both URLs working but chooses the .PH because it lead to a finer more aesthetic look.
There are actually updates and news there. Still not as inviting to read about.
Impressively, RCBC owns RCBC.com which is by far superior considering they are already established and type-ins would definitely be a factor. But hey, under Google PH, they rank third for "Get a Loan". The rest of which in this first page are international pages.
I personally like to see this grow and be better.