Creating and maintaining your agency’s digital presence is a must for success. Agency online visibility has moved from beneficial to necessary, and with it comes the challenge of digital marketing. No matter how engaging your agency’s website is, if no one can find you it’s all for naught.
So, how can your insurance agency increase its digital marketing? There are a host of tactics, but here we’ll focus on keywords in search engine marketing.
The What
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) focuses on increasing your website’s rank in online searches. There are a few SEM tactics marketers use, including backlinking and utilizing relevant keywords.
Keyword targeting is the most popular and effective, and what we will focus on in this post. Search engines have “crawlers” that take in the information on your website (text on page and metadata) and rank it based on its relevance to the search terms. Your site’s relevance increases if the search terms appear often, yet in a natural, logical way.
The Why
The majority of websites are found via online searches, and generally users focus on the first two pages of results. By paying attention and using highly searched keywords on your website, you can increase your agency’s page rank.
The How
- Assess your keyword needs. Find out the search terms that lead individuals to your agency’s site. Google’s Keyword Planner can provide this information, as can your site’s webmaster tools. Generally, local keyword strings have the highest digital insurance marketing impact (i.e. “insurance Columbus, OH”).
- Use your keywords. Once you’ve identified your keywords, use them on your website. Certain areas of your site have a greater impact than others. Focus on using your keywords in page and content titles, page URLs, and in image file names and alt tags. In the body of a page, try to use your keyword phrase three to five times, ensuring it also makes sense and is natural.
- Monitor impact. Keep track of how different keyword phrases are performing and adjust as needed. You may find some are not searched as often, or that new phrases need to be added as you add services or the industry changes.
- Consider an SEM agency. Search Engine Marketing can easily turn in to a full time job. Your agency can make an impact with any targeted efforts, but if you have the resources to outsource it is worth the investment.
The key to effective SEM is paying attention to how your site is viewed by search engines and users. This can be a challenge, especially in the rapidly changing insurance industry. As new tools and services are introduced, your search terms may change and your website should reflect those changes.
SIS can help your agency stay up to date on industry trends with our recent blog posts, including a focused section on insurance technology trends. Check out our resources page for even more educational materials, or contact us with your questions and comments.
