Frustrated with how competitive Google has become for insurance agents? For an insurance
agent website to be truly successful, it not only needs a professional, functional
design, it must also be found on search engines. Getting ranked on the first page
of Google, Yahoo, or Bing for a keyword search is now a top priority for any insurance
agent.
Internet searches are becoming increasingly more localized and specific to geographic
locations. Geo-targeting and local search is on the rise as people become more sophisticated
search engine users. Thus, local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should be considered
as part of an insurance agency’s online marketing strategy.
According to comScore, 54% of Americans have substituted the Internet and local
search for phone books. Ninety percent of online commercial searches result in a
local offline purchase and 61% of all local searches results in a sales transaction.
Do I have your attention yet?
Local SEO offers the opportunity to overtake both national and local competitors
alike, but most agents are unaware of it and most web design companies don’t do
it well. Therefore, what is Local SEO and how can it work to your advantage?
Local SEO 101
When people type in searches for local products or services into Google such as
“plumbers”, “insurance agents”, or “steak restaurants”, Google will insert "local
business results" at the top of the search results page. As you can imagine, being
on top of the normal “organic” (or non-advertising) results gets your agent website
a lot of attention and traffic. This is an extremely valuable piece of Google real
estate that’s off limits to national websites.
As you can see in the image above, when you search for “Pittsburgh business insurance",
Google will display local business search results above the normal organic results.
Google displays local search results in groups of one, three, or seven listings.
To qualify for the local results, you must have a local street address, verified
by Google, in or near the city queried.
Is the geographic name needed in the search phrase? Not anymore. In 2009, Google
made a major change to their local search results. A geographic name in the search
phrase, like Pittsburgh or Long Island, was no longer required in order to display
a list of local businesses. Google will now detect the physical location of the
search engine user’s computer and display local search results for that area. This
change shows how much importance Google places in providing local search results.
Use Local SEO to Your Advantage
Effective local SEO can get you on the top of Google and other search engines, ahead
of all the normal organic results.
While there are similarities to traditional SEO, optimizing for local SEO is a slightly
different, lesser-known animal. So not only is there an opportunity to get an edge
over national insurance websites and agent directories, you can also get an edge
over other local insurance agents who either don’t know about local SEO or aren’t
using it to its full potential.
Many website design companies are also unfamiliar with the specific needs and nuances
to do effective and ethical local SEO, so even if your competitors hire a web design
company to provide a website and SEO services, there’s still a good chance they’re
not doing local SEO properly.
Effective local SEO combined with a professional SEO-friendly website is a great
way to stand out in the increasingly crowded and competitive insurance market.
For more information on INS Digital Media, SEO, and insurance agent websites, please
visit www.insWebsites.com.
Since the company was founded in 2000, INS Digital Media has been delivering professional
websites and search engine marketing services for the insurance industry, including
P&C Agencies, Life/Health Agents, Insurance Brokers, and Captive Agents.
INS Digital Media offers a wide range of insurance website services and Search Engine
Marketing. In addition to insurance agent websites, INS Digital Media also provides
reliable web hosting & e-mail service, search engine optimization, search engine
advertising (PPC), and branding services.