Do You Have a Website?

moretrax

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I've read Jeff Root's book: "The Digital Life Insurance Agent". Jeff takes a good portion of the book to explain SEO and getting traffic to a site. I know several people who do SEO for a living and I've been told there are over 300 individual tasks to complete in order to have a site fully optimized. Makes my head hurt thinking about that!:swoon:

Here's the question(s):
Do you have a website for your agency?
Did you build the site yourself or did someone else?
What aspects of SEO do you think are most important?
Do you receive leads from your site?
 
I've read Jeff Root's book: "The Digital Life Insurance Agent". Jeff takes a good portion of the book to explain SEO and getting traffic to a site. I know several people who do SEO for a living and I've been told there are over 300 individual tasks to complete in order to have a site fully optimized. Makes my head hurt thinking about that!:swoon:

Here's the question(s):
Do you have a website for your agency?
Did you build the site yourself or did someone else?
What aspects of SEO do you think are most important?
Do you receive leads from your site?


Problem with Seo it's ever changing

One of my sites is highly ranked with one seo grip up doing things one way

Another just got ranked really high with another group doing things completely different
 
If you don't know EXACTLY what you're doing, you need someone to build your website, it will end badly otherwise. I've heard nothing but glowing praise about advisor evolved. I unfortunately heard about Chris's work a little too late, I had ITC do mine just prior to hearing about him. They did a good job though.

It's been a process, but I do get leads. The form submissions are almost completely crap. However, I'm getting calls pretty much daily from people who find me searching Google. That's a direct result of investing in a website and doing what little I know of SEO.
 
Do you have a website for your agency?

I have two: Affordable Health Insurance for Connecticut and Connecticut Medicare Advantage & Medicare Supplement Plans ⇒ Local Agency

I have two because I want Medicare Advantage carriers to allow me to put their information on the second site. It will be easier to stay compliant with them and CMS with a site that has fewer pages.

I'm updating both sites. The first site should look like the second one soon.

Did you build the site yourself or did someone else?

I built both myself. But I now have an Internet marketing mentor who is helping me. I still do most of the work but I get advice now. She (my mentor) suggested using a template. I'm too hands on to work well with a designer. And I don't have a good eye for design.

I still do 99% the programming and database work. Every once in a while I will need something done in a language I don't know like python and I will buy a script.

What aspects of SEO do you think are most important?

Backlinks and content. The more inbound links you have and the more frequently you write new blog posts or create a new pages, the better you will rank.

Do you receive leads from your site?

Yes. I built my agency on the leads I generated from my sites. We had really high rankings for several years.

I created my first site in 2003 or 2004. I started working exclusively for myself in early 2005. My son and I have about 1,500 clients between the two of us.

We get referrals now and also use direct mail. However, the referrals have mostly come from clients that were visitors to our site. Similarly, our mailing list consists almost exclusively of site visitors.
 
So the answer is yes, although unless you have the time or energy to invest in it...your better off hiring someone to do it.

I personally don't have to worry about it, but the insurance contractors websites I've looked at are generally plain and simple. Which is not a bad thing. You don't want to scare off people.

Just my $0.02
 
Problem with Seo it's ever changing

One of my sites is highly ranked with one seo grip up doing things one way

Another just got ranked really high with another group doing things completely different

Thanks for all the comments.

SEO is a moving target and understanding what Google wants is the challenge. What is important seems to depend on who you talk to so find someone knowledgeable to help you build and optimize a site.

Content is most important. I would include here: keyword selection, keyword phrases and density. Use matching keywords in page titles, title tags and page descriptions. Backlinks from high ranking sites are also extremely important. I would add to that having a sitemap makes easier for Google to find you.
 
I currently have 3 sites and have plans for more in the works. Two are marketing sites and the 3rd is a general "agency" site.

SEO aside, if you do a website make sure you own the Domain/Hosting/Design. Many website services marketed to agents and billed on a monthly fee do no allow you to actually own the site (I can think of a couple who market themselves on this forum) .

Or they allow you to own the Domain (web address) but they own the actual design/content of the site. That means if you ever stop using their services you lose all of your hard work and your google ranking.

Ask if you will own the "Domain", then ask if you will own the "Source Code". If they answer NO to either one, then stay far far away.

You want to own your own Domain, pay for your own private hosting, & own the content within the site (source code). Anything else is a waste of your time and money.

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I would add to that having a sitemap makes easier for Google to find you.

You forgot the most important part... registering that sitemap with google!!
 
It is correct that SEO is important. However, what are your other options?

Buy leads for the rest of your life? Knock on Doors? Go to Bus Stops and Get to know people?

Build a Quality Site, Target Keywords for your specialty or area with blogging, and make sure that all of the major listing sites have your EXACT SAME address and phone number.
 
It is correct that SEO is important. However, what are your other options?

Buy leads for the rest of your life? Knock on Doors? Go to Bus Stops and Get to know people?

I am a believer in SEO, so I am not trying to knock that at all.

(I am spending a lot of $$$ on it :goofy:, so trust me I believe in it!)

Here are a couple other marketing options that I think a lot of agents/agencies might overlook. I know when I was a new agent, I was not thinking about these.

- E-mail marketing.

Many ways to do this one, the best way in my opinion would be a double opt-in form on your web site [Yes, this could link back to SEO].

You can also manually collect email addresses from the clients you have already written or even the "potential" clients that did not sign on the dotted line yet.

- Marketing to your existing clients [B.O.B.]

Again, multiple ways to do this one. As an agent, I would call and schedule annual reviews with policy holders. Most of the time, the policy was still in good standing and no changes needed to be made.

I would always be looking for more business that needed to be written in the house [Spouse, family members, etc.] or cross-selling a different policy to the insured. Even in the worst case scenario that no additional sale was made during the annual review, it solidified my relationship with the insured and kept me in the front of their mind.

Oh and there are always Telemarketed leads ;)
 
Originally Posted by moretrax View Post
I would add to that having a sitemap makes easier for Google to find you.
You forgot the most important part... registering that sitemap with google!!

I didn't forget. Once I had created a sitemap using XML Sitemap Generator (free) it was submitted to Google. Also created a Google Analytics account with code to put on each page.

Even a well optimized site is going to take several months to start getting any traction. I think of having a site as one piece of my overall marketing effort. DM, internet leads, telemarketed leads, networking are all part of the plan.
 
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