What’s the first thing most people do when they need an insurance agent?
They go to Google, search for “insurance agencies near me” and call the first few at the top of the listing.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is what helps agencies get found online. A strong SEO strategy is going to help you generate more leads. The data speaks for itself. One study found that organic traffic accounts for 51% of the visitors that land on a website. And 81% of consumers perform a Google search before making a purchase.
Granted, SEO is a complex endeavor and most people don’t really know where to start. If that’s you, then you’ve come to the right place. Below, we will list some of the essential steps insurance agents should take to implement an effective SEO strategy.
Step 1: Lay a Solid Foundation
“The Three Little Pigs” is a story about three pigs who built their houses from different materials: straw, sticks, and bricks. What does this story have to do with your SEO? If you build your house (website) on a weak foundation (cheap, unreliable hosting), then you can expect a lot of problems along the way. Low-quality hosting can lead to website crashes, low site speed, spams, and so on. All these glitches can affect user experience. If the people who visit your website are not happy and exit quickly, then Google is not happy either.
Google places a lot of importance on a website’s performance since it can have such a big impact on user experience. So, if you want to improve your SEO, it may be a good idea to start by investing in premium web hosting. It also would be a good idea to perform a website audit and make plans for improvement.
Step 2: Ensure a Secure Experience
High-quality hosting doesn’t only mean higher performance, fewer crashes, and less spam. It also ensures a secure experience for the users that visit your website. And Google cares about security… a lot.
That’s why it’s essential to buy and set up an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate. When you do that, it means that your website will be accessible at https://domainname.com instead of http://domainname.com.
It may seem like a small, insignificant difference, but Google has started displaying a message in the Chrome browser, warning users that the website they are about to visit is not secure. And, people are less likely to visit a website if they don’t trust it’s safe.
Step 3: Keywords Research
Keywords are the foundation of every successful SEO for insurance agents campaign. It might seem like a good idea to stuff as many keywords as you can into your website and Google listing, however that’s probably not the best strategy. Nowadays, keyword research requires more finesse and a good understanding of your audience’s search intent.
Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest to see what keywords your audience is using, their search volume, and other related keyword searches. As mentioned earlier, keep intent in mind when creating your keyword list. Try to find out what keywords your audience is using when they want to buy (example: “insurance agent near me”) versus when they want to learn something (example: “uninsured vs underinsured coverage.”) Put yourself in the mind of your target searcher.
Once you have your list of keywords, you can start optimizing your website and online listing to ensure that you will rank high for those terms.
Step 4: Create Quality Content
When marketers say that ” content is king,” they are not exaggerating. Here are some of the benefits quality content can provide:
- Organic growth and audience retention: If the content is good and provides the answer to a particular question or problem, then people will read it. Moreover, they will be compelled to return for more.
- Establishes you as an expert in your niche: when you create quality content, your audience is more likely to see you as an expert and trust your service.
- Lead generation: When your audience likes and trusts your content, they are more likely to inquire your services.
Creating quality content is easier said than done. The most important piece of advice you can take is to create content that your audience WANTS to read. Look at your keywords and see what people are searching for and turn those questions into blog posts. Try to create content that is well-researched, helpful, in-depth, and provides a unique solution or answer to a problem.
Step 5: Build Quality Links
Backlinks are one of the primary ranking factors that Google uses. The logic goes like this: if other authoritative sites link back to yours, then it means that your website is trustworthy and users can benefit from visiting it. As a result, Google will consider this when deciding what sites to rank high for a particular query.
The Skyscraper Technique is an effective way of getting quality backlinks. It works like this:
- Look for high-performing articles written by the experts in your niche.
- Ask yourself how you can improve that article. Maybe you can make it longer, turn it into a compelling infographic or find an interesting angle.
- Create the article and publish it on your website.
- Reach out to the webmaster or blogger and let them know that you have a different take on an article they’ve published. Don’t ask for a backlink specifically. If the content is good, they will most likely link back to you.
Step 6: Don’t Forget About Local SEO for Insurance Agents
About 88% of the people who do a local search visit or call a store within a day. Moreover, 46% of all Google queries are related to local search. So, if your business is not optimized for local search, then you are missing a lot of potential customers.
Begin by claiming your Google My Business listing and then optimize it for local search. That means providing detailed information about your company, such as your address, phone number, location, working hours, pictures, reviews, etc. Make sure to create content regularly too as Google favors businesses that are constantly updated.
Do You Need Help with Your SEO?
This is just a basic outline of the things that you need to do to build and implement a successful SEO for insurance agetns strategy. Of course, if you get to the nitty-gritty of it, things tend to get a bit more complex and require constant monitoring and tweaking.
This information can help you lay a solid foundation for your search engine optimization efforts. But, if you would like some expert help, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’d love to help you start succeeding with SEO and get found online!