Is this worth doing?

[ValeRosso]

I've read about making a website and using SEO to develop organic traffic over time, with the goal of generating consistent leads. I've read about several people who've developed a system for this exact purpose, but I've been told by others that it's a waste of time nowadays, and that it takes years of daily activity to be able to rank organically with google.

for those who have/had their own lead generating website…can you please give some input on your experience? Like when did you start, how long did it take you to get consistent leads, how did you generate traffic, was it worth your time money and effort, etc.

I'm trying to get a feel for the direction I should be going, as I want to plan for the long term in this industry, and don't want to be buying leads 15 years from now if at all possible. If it's really going to take 2 years of daily work before I get results, I don't think the website would be my best option, just knowing myself.

Thanks for any input.

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

In terms of priority, get your Google My Business (GMB), the local profile Google allows you to set up for your business set up and optimized. That will deliver more inbound calls that your website until SEO efforts pan out. Even after that, GMB Calls may still account for more phone traffic than organic seo.

 

[Travis Price]

Short answer, depends on the products you sell.

If you're selling Medicare, focus on local SEO and you'll get some leads, but it's not a rainmaker.

Life insurance, forget about it.

You should always have at least three ways you generate leads.

Mine are:

My website
Referrals
Email
And a mailing campaign.


Your website will not, by itself, generate enough organically to sustain your business.

 

[marindependent]

I agree with both the previous posters:

• You need at least three major lead sources
• Your website more than likely will never be your sole provider of leads [nor should it]
• Focus your website either on "a Local consideration" or "an exceptionally narrow band of business, but nationally" as an example of this last one: "Business Insurance for at home Bakers", again nationally.
• Google Local should be a focus for everyone.

Although it is technically possible to get ranked and build a business out of purely a website, chances are you are way too far behind to even make a major go of this. Why? Because of all sorts of reasons - two that you should be aware of. Google gives preferance to older websites and there are firms out there that have million dollar budgets and a full time staff that that write content, curate links, do guest posts, and have done it for ten years.

But creating a top notch local website is much much easier and can be just as lucrative. You are in Maryland and I am sure that there are lots of insurance needs to people there. Special considerations for zip codes near you. You have a real chance there. Lastly I would expect a website build, content addition, backlink creation with results for a simple website to be at a minimum three years of hard work with no guarantee of success.

 

[DaKine]

Websites are over rated. Better would be creating relationships and building a database. Then marketing to that database through phone, text, email, social media. You can use your website to hang links included in text and email. I would not expect much business from SEO. May as well just buy leads in that case.

 

[DaKine]

Short answer, depends on the products you sell.

If you're selling Medicare, focus on local SEO and you'll get some leads, but it's not a rainmaker.

Life insurance, forget about it.

You should always have at least three ways you generate leads.

Mine are:

My website
Referrals
Email
And a mailing campaign.


Your website will not, by itself, generate enough organically to sustain your business.

You basically have a database that you are marketing to and you continue to add to that database from mailings, referrals, and the occasional website lead.

 

[Up In Smoke]

Websites are over rated. Better would be creating relationships and building a database. Then marketing to that database through phone, text, email, social media. You can use your website to hang links included in text and email. I would not expect much business from SEO. May as well just buy leads in that case.

agreed, keep refining a database can be a major project. And still, explore other marketing sources along the way. Diversifying would always be a good idea. Just need to know your focus though.