In our last post, we looked at ways to make your website stand out, showing your agency’s reliability and great service. But, no matter how great your website is, it doesn’t mean much if it can’t be found.
Most potential clients will do an online search for independent insurance agents in their area and, if you want to be on that list, you’ll need to use the right tools to optimize your site for search.
There are many ways to optimize your agency’s site, but we’ll focus on three of the most efficient ways for independent insurance agencies:
Backlinks
Search engines have different ways of judging reputable websites, and one of the most common and well known is the number of reputable sites linking to it. You can gain links by asking for them from business partners or networking groups. You can also get links by writing great content that valuable sites want to share, or by writing as a guest blogger. Just be careful about which sites pick up your posts. While gaining links from reputable sites bolsters your searchability, links from poorly-ranked sites can hurt your online reputation.
Social Media
Social media brings you a double benefit: additional links each time you post a link to your site, and presence outside of a search engine. More and more people look to social media before bringing their business to an agency, and your presence on social media shows them you’re committed to serving your clients in every way possible. Plus, it’s another place where your agency can be found online, and will help drive traffic to your beautifully designed site.
To experience social media success, ensure you are posting quality content and you’re posting often. The better and more relevant your posts, the more likely they are to be shared, bringing you even more quality links to boost your search engine ranking
Local Focus
The best way to get local search traffic is by adding locality to your website’s page titles. When search engines look at your pages, they’ll focus on these titles first, and then on the words on the page. Simply adding “Columbus” or “Ohio” to the titles of your site’s pages will boost your credibility for an “insurance Ohio” search. Also, make sure your address is included in the footer on every page of your site – the more your agency’s name and its location are found together on the web, the more likely your site will pop up when someone searches for a local insurance agency.
You should also list your website on local listing sites like Google+ Local, Yelp, Bing Places, Internet Yellow Pages, and Yahoo! Local. This will again link your agency name with your location another place
As you implement these techniques to make your site findable, you may come across more ways to build your online presence. If you’re a Partner XE users, you can share these tips with our user group. To find out more about Partner XE, its community and functionality, contact us today!
