Got My Site Launched

[TransferMan]

I see this all the time and have never figured this out.

Some resources say the best links are natural, where someone finds your site (post or page) and links back to it as a reference.

Then there are the Fiverr folks that will build 1000 links for $5 or the automated backlinking software for the incredibly low price of $19.99 but buy now because there are only 3 left at this price.

I susbscribed to a service a few years ago that sent out a list of 50 or so sites each month with details on how to get your link. You had to sign up as a member of a forum, or something along those lines and fill in personal data along with your own textual backlink.

Problem with that was the sites caught on that someone was selling their information and eliminated most of the profiles (and links) within a few weeks. Forums on aboriginal pygmy dating that normally had 2 new members a month went to 400 in one month they got suspicious.

So would you care to elaborate on your method?

The best links usually are natural, but the problem so many people have is that they don't have the time or the inclination to individually create hundreds or thousands of them in order to rank.

Cheap liniks in quantity are just that -- and they're worthless.

To put some perspective on things -- a true PR4/PR5 link will probably cost you $75 to $125 per month to RENT.

Forum profile links are worthless, because in order to access them, you typically have to log into an account. Search engines don't log into accounts. The value of a link is also often determined by how many other sites link to the profile link page. Usually there are none.

I've got a pretty good idea of what works with backlinks and what doesn't, because I've been selling them for years and have been involved with Internet marketing/advertising for 17 years. It's historically been my business to rank websites. That's what I do.

Mike Merten

 

[TransferMan]

Here are a few things I see...

1. I don't know if there is such a type of insurance as "true life insurance", but you could do far better with your domain name. If you had something like winston-salemlifeinsurance.com, you might actually surprise yourself and end up with a first page listing (in days) for the search term winston-salem life insurance. What are known as "exact match domains" still have a fair amount of pull with Google in particular in the way of website rankings. They're probably just about the only "free lunch" the search engines offer.

2. Your page title tags need to be reworked. Having a title tag like
High Risk Life Insurance Quotes- TrueLifeQuote.comTrueLifeQuote.com | High Risk Life Insurance Specialists reads like garbledy-gook to a human being -- I'm sure a search engine feels the same way.

3. You should really have a professional redesign your website. It LOOKS like a non-designer designed it with the idea in mind of producing a "scrapbook" effect where all your design components were pasted on the website page wherever it looked as though they fit best.

Good website designers should not have to cost an arm and a leg if you know where to look.

Years ago (I've been online 17 years), you could get away with a website that looked like your 17 year old sister designed it but, these days, people are very accustomed to very well designed websites. If you believe at all in "first impressions", you'll understand where I'm going with this.

Your website should very much have a local focus, which means it should be optimized for local searches. At a minimum, your website page title tags should read something like "winston life insurance", "salem insurance agency", "clemmons life insurance company", etc.

Unless you're a national company, you want to optimize for local searches -- be a "big fish in a small pond" (local presence) instead of a "small fish in a big pond" (national presence).

Unless you really think you can make your website super visible (and not take years to do it), your best shots might be to go for Local Search Marketing and Live Transfer Insurance Leads.

A lot of people aren't aware of this but, normally, website conversion metrics work very similar to what direct mail did many years ago. For every 100 visitors your website receives, you MAY get 1 to 2 contacts, i.e., 1 to 2 parties interested enough to contact you.

I hope this helps you and Good Luck.

Mike Merten