Marketing your Insurance Agency on the Web
This article serves as a brief summary of how to market your insurance agency on the internet and how you can use our website to generate traffic and leads to your agency website.
In the beginning, there were search engines
In the late 1980's and early 1990's, the internet was a little-known project that would eventually develop into a facet of our everyday lives. As new websites began to populate the web and information began to build to unmanagable amounts, the concept of a search engine was born.
There are hundreds of search engines today, with the main players being Google, Yahoo, MSN Live, DogPile, AltaVista and a some lower-tier engines that are compiled from the search results provided by the main search engines.
Search engines compile their data by the process of "spidering" websites, which merely mearly means they send a "spider" or "bot" to read your page, and bring the information back to store in a massive database. This data is "indexed" into searchable fragments, so when a user types in "car insurance" into a search engine, relevant web pages are pulled from the database and displayed in the search results.
As search engines developed, so did website marketing
Search engines quickly became a useful way to search for information on the web, and website owners began to realize the value in being listed high in the search engine results placement (commonly called SERPs). Most people will not take the time to search through hundreds of pages of SERPs. They will usually click on SERPs that show up on the first page of the search engine, and occassionally they will delve a little deeper if looking for specific information.
As website marketing and SERPs became more important in driving traffic to websites, techniques evolved to maximize the likelihood of a website appearing higher in the SERPs. These techniques spawned the SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) industries. In recent years, the distinction between the two has dimished somewhat, as SEO techniques have been limited by new search engine algorithms and SEM techniques such as social networking, blogs and Pay Per Click advertising, such as Google AdWords, have come to the forefront.
Rank high in search engines and the traffic will come
Search engine marketing today consists of various strategies that are geared toward boosting your website in the SERPs. One of the best ways to give your insurance agency website a boost in the SERPs is to engage in an active link building program which aims to get quality, industry-related links to your site.
Search engines are smart. They know where links come from, and they know the topic of the site linking to your agency website. Many website owners make the erroneous assumption that all links are considered equal. By obtaining links from websites that are topically related to you site, you increase the validity of the link and can give you website a boost in topically-related searches such as "car insurance".
Anchor text isn't used to keep your boat from drifting
Anchor text is the actual readable text that users click on to link to your insurance agency website. A common mistake many website designers and owners make is to use the name of your insurance agency to link back to your site. That's great if you want to rank #1 for the search term "Smith Insurance Agency", but realistically very few people will actually search for your agency by name.
The key to maximizing the anchor text link is to use descriptive keywords that internet users would actually search for when searching for the lines of insurance you sell. Instead of "Smith Insurance Agency", how about (broad) "Car Insurance in California" or (narrow) "SR-22 Insurance in California" or even (VERY NARROW) "SR-22 Insurance in Los Angeles California". These links tell search engines what your site is about, and if you specialize in SR-22's and high-risk car insurance in Los Angeles, you just attracted quality traffic that is searching for exactly what you sell!
Agents who sign up to post articles and press releases on our website have the ability to include an informational section at the bottom of each post. This section can include links back to your website, information about your companies or lines, or other relevant information that would be useful to a reader. The links back to your website are from a website specializing in California car insurance (that's us). This is important, as other article and press release publishing websites are not focused on any particular topic, not even insurance!
Sign up to begin marketing your agency website today! It's FREE!
For more information on article marketing and press release marketing and how they can benefit your insurance agency website, read about article marketing here and press releases here.
If your insurance agency doesn't currently have a website, you NEED ONE! Even if it's just a business card site showing hours, contact information and directions. People are searching for insurance in your area every day, so don't miss the boat! Get an insurance agency website!
