Hiring an SEO Expert

[holdenc85]

Happy MLK day Everyone,

I am looking into hiring a company for SEO to help generate organic Medicare and Life Insurance leads.
At present, I am targeting 85 different zip codes and would like to know if my cost per acquisition goal of $15-$20/ lead is realistic( please hold the laughter=)

If this is not realistic, is Facebook advertising a better idea? My budget is about $1,000/mo., and my experience with lead companies so far has been abysmal.

NOTE: if you are trying to sell me on a service, PM me instead.

Thanks!

 

[keith48]

Happy MLK day Everyone,

I am looking into hiring a company for SEO to help generate organic Medicare and Life Insurance leads.
At present, I am targeting 85 different zip codes and would like to know if my cost per acquisition goal of $15-$20/ lead is realistic( please hold the laughter=)

If this is not realistic, is Facebook advertising a better idea? My budget is about $1,000/mo., and my experience with lead companies so far has been abysmal.

NOTE: if you are trying to sell me on a service, PM me instead.

Thanks!

85-95% of the time, an SEO company is going to bank your money and do very little to help you. There is no magic overnight formula to generate leads in a week, a month, or even a year through SEO alone. SEO is a long-term endeavor. I would suggest you study and learn as much about how to do it yourself. There are plenty of free resources all over the web on how to do SEO. Even pay for some of the knowledge if you have to. But it takes TIME. While you are learning and building your site and brand, buy some leads to get you through until you start getting results. And use your nights and weekends to build your web presence.

 

[somarco]

Sounds like you want local help. Most SEO's will TELL you they can help but are really geared towards national marketing.

They also have no clue how our business works and really don't care.

Two sites to do research.

Local Search Forum

Google Places Optimization - Catalyst eMarketing

 

[Justin Bilyj]

The biggest difference between local SEO and national or "global seo" is that it heavily revolves around business citations or listings e.g. Manta. The more (relevant) citations you can add the better.

Also, the biggest reason citations don't help an agent with their local SEO plan is because his citations are either not relative to his area of practice/location or they're not optimized to display the correct NAP which is:
Name
Adress
Phone

ALL citations should match when it comes to NAP - the best way to figure out the most correct way to display NAP is get your GMB (google my business) listing. When Google sends you their confirmation postcard it will have the correct NAP you should use with all your citations. Use something else that Big G doesn't use (NAP) and it's a waste.

You may need a citation audit to make sure all your citations are optimized.

Another huge local seo ranking factor is still links, but also REVIEWS. If you don't have a strategy to collect reviews then you're just waiting for some other agent to come up behind you with a content burst to outrank you. GATHER REVIEWS - and make sure they are put on your Google page - forget other review sites until you have more than double reviews of your competitors, THEN you can focus on YELP (better for P&C agents), but only build up reviews to show a competitive presence on YELP then switch back to Google reviews.

Getting back to backlinks - this is very important, but you won't find the same sites and metrics as you would with Global SEO. That's because most local businesses are local, and their domain authority is not as high as global ranking sites.

You need to find local influencers that have blogs, podcasts, sites etc. that you can get a link from. Generally that requires superior content (in a variety of forms e.g. infographics, blog posts, articles etc.) as a bait to link to you so this is probably where you want to hire a good SEO company who can not only figure out what's link-worthy in your area, but who can handle the outreach for link acquisition.

Just saw a great article on a top seo blog, that the average SEO company has an hourly rate of $75-$100+ - which I'd rather pay than outsource it to a foreign company who has no grasp of the English language.

So to recap, to rank with local SEO you'll need:
1. Perfect NAP in your citations
2. Reviews on your GMB page
3. Local link building

Bob's right most seo agencies aren't situated for local seo - outreach is definitely harder since the sites your looking to get a link from might not have the optimal seo metrics most companies look for.

 

[holdenc85]

Great Post Justin, Thanks

 

[Matthew King]

Really great post, Justin. Additionally when looking to hire an SEO expert. It makes me remember this video:

I believe this guide is also helpful on top of what Justin has already put here Do you need an SEO? - Search Console Help

 

[InfinityLeads]

While I won't say that SEO is completely dead, creating content and driving traffic to your page is faster, much more effective, and potentially cheaper than SEO.

 

[5 Stars]

I think its important to understand that when people go to Facebook they are not usually looking for insurance specifically. It could work if you use ads but if I were you I would look at something that will give you a better ROI.

 

[MosesNewmanNAAIP]

I highly suggest you join our Noon ET conference at N.A.A.I.P. . Monday thru Friday and hear what a world renowned expert has to say about SEO. It is an open forum. A certain member of this forum spent in excess of 500k because he was so impressed by this daily conference call that he felt compelled to try to destroy it.

Conference Call on SEO:
Weekdays Noon & Sundays 2pm ET
Dial (888)532-9320 - No Pin needed

 

[EugeneM]

Outside of the zero gaurantee SEO is hard to track and if necessary dispute.

From my experience 1k of adwords will translate into WAYYYYY more right off the bat (keep in mind it takes months before seo gets going usually at least 2-3 for map and can be longer for organic). Better doing adwords in those zips and playing the bid war.