You may be asking– what is SEO? SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO is vital to increase views on your site and increase growth potential. It all starts with getting into the mind of the consumer. Think to yourself– I am looking for “this” insurance product, I have a business but I don’t know a lot about coverage. What am I going to type into my search engine? These are the thoughts going through a potential client’s head. Make yourself easy to find!
When looking at your website do you have words that a client would look for? As an agent you know more detailed words to search such as “Primary policy premiums” or “Occurrence office liabilities” that your client may not. Instead your client will type in things like Nursing Home Insurance in Indiana or Cost of insurance Premium; common words and phrases people outside of the industry would be familiar with. Always try to understand where your consumers are coming from when marketing.
The Top 5 Ways to Increase SEO for Your Agency
- Keywords
One of the best ways to push traffic to your site is through keywords. Keywords are ever changing words that are most likely to be looked up when someone is looking for a specific service you offer. For instance: If I were to be a Bee farmer and sell honey the obvious keywords I would include on my site are Bee Farmer, Homemade Honey, Honey. Some other key words I would also use not directly related to honey would be things like sustainable, small business, Bee Protection. The key to using words like these is to further expand your website’s reach. Key words in the very first step to driving traffic to your site, more traffic means more client reach. The biggest part of using successful keywords is to use words your target audience would use. I even recommend asking another professional or friend what they would type into a search engine when looking for insurance. This trick will help you think like the target audience. When you add these into blog posts, social posts, and landing pages you are more likely to have your site looked at when someone searches with any of the above words. The ultimate goal would be to have your site pop up between the spaces of 1-10. Marketers will mark a site as good performance when between these spots when looked up on a search engine.
- Content
You need quality content to reach out to your audience. It is recommended for your main landing pages on your site to have at least 900 words on them. Landing pages are one of the main indicators of who a company is, what they offer, and if they give off a good impression. There is the saying you only get to make a first impression once and in the age of technology that first impression is through your content. So what types of content are important to produce?
Landing pages are the first impression content. Your landing pages set the tone for the rest of your site and business branding. To further brand your business and increase your SEO you also need to produce blog and social media content. One thing to make sure is all your social channels are linked to your website. It helps drive traffic and keeps people engaged. We live in a social media based society so your social pages being up to date is as important as your landing pages. Social Media is secondary impressions and you want to make sure your company is shining through on those platforms as well. When looking at content you want a good mix of small short little posts such as linkedin, twitter, instagram and tiktok and then you want more detailed content such as landing pages, reference sheets and blogs.
When posting to social media and blogs you want to produce content with a call to action. When you make a blanket statement there is no intrigue or reason to further explore. However, if you ask a question of your audience or hint to upcoming changes people are more likely to click through your content and back to your site. A good example is if you want an upcoming blog, post to your socials a question that blog is going to answer, and link the post back to the blog on the site. Now that you have great content how do you ensure it opens properly on desktops and mobile devices?
- Mobile Everywhere
In today’s society most people look at small posts, emails or do quick lookups all on their phone. Even with your computer open if an email pops up on your phone or a social notification, you are more likely to look at it on your phone than the desktop in front of you. Think about your day and how often you look at your phone or social media. It is vital your website, emails and social media channels transfer nicely onto a phone platform. When building your site you are not just building it to be looked at on a normal size computer screen. You have to make it work on a smaller ipad and phone screen as well.
One of the best tricks marketers use is a use of photos. By breaking up a webpage with photos it appears clearer on the phone with more room between content making it appear as though it was written directly for a phone. The last thing you want is a massive amount of words pushed together in small print while someone is trying to scroll through on their phone. The same goes for emails. People are less likely to read two paragraphs with a basic logo especially when opened on a phone. If you are sending a mass marketing email making the email less than a paragraph, bullet points are preferred, with a clear concise point.
- Clear and Concise
Your content needs to be clear and concise. Now you may be wondering how do you get clear and concise content and also reach a 900 word landing page? Well there is a version of clear and concise for landing pages and a version for social media.
You want to put words and content not only in broad terms but have a specific niche section as well. You want your content and company to be identified by your specific style.
To start with landing pages when I say clear and concise I do not mean short. When putting together a landing page you want all of your information to have meaning but you need to go into detailed meaning.
(EX: We insure nursing homes. Vs. We insure everything in nursing homes from Worker’s Compensation, building damage,disability and commercial vehicles used.)
Social Media needs to be clear to the point and catchy with a call to action. The best approach is 1 to 2 lines only and a graphic.
(EX: We sell insurance. Contact us. Vs. Do you have a hard to place risk? Don’t worry DOXA can help, Contact us today!)
- Link it all up
The final fifth step is to link everything. It is so important to link everything back to your site through your bio, embedded in your site as well as embedded in your emails. Some of the biggest things are to add links on your socials, to posts, to blogs, to scannable QR codes at trade shows, to make it easy for people to find you. You want people when they read an email or look at a post to click one button and land on your site. People are more likely to explore further when they just have to click vs if they have to actually type in your web address. Make it easier on them. When trying to get a client it is in your best interest to make everything as clear and easy as possible, that includes finding more information and contacting you.
Using these 5 steps can help increase your SEO standing on search engines as well as help keep your brand identifiable. The more engaging your content and the more accessible to your target audience the better chance you have of reaching a wider audience and gaining more clients.
