The aggregator tax on comparison queries

Paisabazaar ranks p1 for "lowest home loan interest rate" (22,200 vol) and "home loan interest rate all bank" (27,100 vol). A borrower searching these queries — who is actively comparing lenders — never sees a bank's own website. They see Paisabazaar, choose a lender from the comparison table, and the bank pays a referral fee for a customer it could have acquired directly.

Banks rank for their own brand. Nothing else.

HDFC Bank's 2 home loan keywords are "login" and "branch near me" — both navigational queries from existing customers. ICICI Bank's 1 home loan keyword is "certificate download." These are servicing queries. They acquire no new customers. Banks have ceded the entire discovery and comparison layer to aggregators.

HDFC Ltd — the one exception

177 of HDFC Ltd's top 500 keywords are home loan related — 41% of its organic traffic. But almost all are deeply branded: "hdfc home loan portal," "hdfc home loan login," "hdfc home loan interest certificate." Strong with existing customers. Invisible to new borrowers.

The uncontested opportunity

Non-branded informational queries — "home loan eligibility calculator," "home loan tax benefit," "best home loan for self-employed" — are almost entirely owned by aggregators and personal finance publishers. No major bank publishes genuinely helpful content on these topics. The SERP is wide open for the first bank that does.