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[wildcat]

For SEO purposes, when adding new content, or writing an article, is it more effective to add a new "post" or add a new "page?"

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

I add posts. But I don't know if that's the better of the two. New posts generate new pages anyhow.

Spellcheck was not used in this email.

 

[Alston]

Not knowing anything about this, let's say I committed to running a blog and writing content on a regular basis (daily?), how would you go about converting it into leads?

Do you set the blog up independent of your website? Do you link it to your website to convert traffic to leads? I'm curious to how this actually works, not just the theory behind it.

If you write every day, and target search terms with moderate to low competition, you will probably do well even if you have no other SEO strategy.

You will need to link from your blog to your "money page(s)." My money pages are my questionnaires. I want people to request quotes and/or call me. You can use a simple text link.

On my sites I have the first part of my questionnaire at the top of each blog. This takes a little technical knowledge, but it only has to be done once.

You will do best if you place your blog on your website. Blogger and Wordpress both allow you to do this. Blogger makes it easier, but the consensus is that WordPress is better from an SEO standpoint. Again this will take some technical expertise, but again, it only has to be done once.

The blog that supports my Connecticut insurance agency is on the Blogger platform.

My other blogs are on WordPress including this one that is primarily about private medical insurance.

Blogging is great way to get good rankings. It is probably the best way for those who would rather invest time than money, especially for those who don't want to study a dozen books about SEO.

If you have some awareness of your keywords and their synonyms while you write but still primarily write for your clients, you will eventually improve your rankings. You should also include some links to other pages on your site in the body text, not just in the sidebar.

You should write as if your clients are all going to read your blog posts. Only a few will do so, but the search engines will read it if you write frequently enough. Writing for your clients will keep you from keyword stuffing which will be picked up by the search engines and attenuate any benefit you would otherwise have gotten from blogging.

 

[sunkist219]

If you write every day, and target search terms with moderate to low competition, you will probably do well even if you have no other SEO strategy.

You will need to link from your blog to your "money page(s)." My money pages are my questionnaires. I want people to request quotes and/or call me. You can use a simple text link.

On my sites I have the first part of my questionnaire at the top of each blog. This takes a little technical knowledge, but it only has to be done once.

You will do best if you place your blog on your website. Blogger and Wordpress both allow you to do this. Blogger makes it easier, but the consensus is that WordPress is better from an SEO standpoint. Again this will take some technical expertise, but again, it only has to be done once.

The blog that supports my Connecticut insurance agency is on the Blogger platform.

My other blogs are on WordPress including this one that is primarily about private medical insurance.

Blogging is great way to get good rankings. It is probably the best way for those who would rather invest time than money, especially for those who don't want to study a dozen books about SEO.

If you have some awareness of your keywords and their synonyms while you write but still primarily write for your clients, you will eventually improve your rankings. You should also include some links to other pages on your site in the body text, not just in the sidebar.

You should write as if your clients are all going to read your blog posts. Only a few will do so, but the search engines will read it if you write frequently enough. Writing for your clients will keep you from keyword stuffing which will be picked up by the search engines and attenuate any benefit you would otherwise have gotten from blogging.

Wow, that quote button is a genius idea! Was it a plugin, or did you make up the code yourself? I completely understand if you don't want to share how you did it b/c I'm not sure if I discovered something that cool, I'd want to share it. Or, if you want to PM me the details since I'm not your competitor (I'm P&C in New York) that would be great too!

 

[Alston]

Wow, that quote button is a genius idea! Was it a plugin, or did you make up the code yourself? I completely understand if you don't want to share how you did it b/c I'm not sure if I discovered something that cool, I'd want to share it. Or, if you want to PM me the details since I'm not your competitor (I'm P&C in New York) that would be great too!

I wrote the code for the "quote button."

The code isn't very complex. What was hard (for me) was to figure out how to integrate it into the Blogger and WordPress templates.

I'm not for hire as a programmer, but I can share the basic concept with your web designer or programmer if you'd like.

That code is in PHP but it can probably be done one of many programming languages. However, the programmer must know CSS to integrate it into the template.

 

[sunkist219]

I wrote the code for the "quote button."

The code isn't very complex. What was hard (for me) was to figure out how to integrate it into the Blogger and WordPress templates.

I'm not for hire as a programmer, but I can share the basic concept with your web designer or programmer if you'd like.

That code is in PHP but it can probably be done one of many programming languages. However, the programmer must know CSS to integrate it into the template.

Wow - you really know this stuff! Are you sure you should be working in Insurance? haha. So I might take you up on that offer once I talk to my programmer. I'll PM you when I talk to him
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Oh, I forgot to ask you, do you host do you host your blog (https://1800insurancect.com/blog/2009/01/buying-health-insurance-on-your-own.html) yourself, or do you use the free Blogger software? I only currently use the free version of Wordpress (wordpress.com) and I have a Blogger version too. Would I just have to insert the code in the Wordpress section that says "Custom CSS"?

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

Are you guys talking about putting an "Instant Quote" button on your blog pages? If so, yes...it is a great idea.

I have no idea how to do it, but Val does, and it works quite well.

 

[sunkist219]

Are you guys talking about putting an "Instant Quote" button on your blog pages? If so, yes...it is a great idea.

I have no idea how to do it, but Val does, and it works quite well.

yes - that's what I'm talking about. Who's Val?

 

[ABC]

It depends on which search engine you are targeting as to how you would do this. Each search engine has its own criteria that they use to rank site pages and how important they are in relation to the search query sent.

Also, everyone should note that Google uses something called "personalized search", where for a search query, Google will show you the most relevant sites that you have visited in the past (kind of creepy!) so the results can be different for each person. Google also uses several data centers around the world and depending on your geographic location, you can be pulling up search results that are completely different from someone elses when submitting the exact same search query.

This 100% right on
Google is changing everything on natural search term selection right now. You will notice most of the lead companies are no longer in the natural/organic areas but all in the PPC.

Just a couple of years ago web rankings had a lot to do with meta tags. Google does not really reconoizes them anymore.

I did a blog for two years but it really did not lead to anything. It brought some people to my site. Write a blog about the uninsurable and you will get all kinds of people that will not make it through underwriting.

Anytime you can add more content to your website that will help the search engines look at you as a real business and help with rankings. But blogging alone will not get you those top ranks.

If you want to get a lot of people to visit your site?

PM me and I will tell you the easiest & cheapest way to do it. This technique might not lead to a high closure rank but you will bring people in.

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

Sunkist...Val is the web design guy behind this Forum. He also built my site and we are working on another.

Good guy. Just married. Lives just around the corner.