Single Product Website or Multiple?

[lrixford]

Are your monthly recurring fees for 1 website? In other words each site has separate recurring fees?

Yes. However, you can add multiple domains to a site. This allows you to host separate landing pages on the same plan.

If you want to maintain two fully functional sites then it would be two charges.

Seems to be different schools of thought on this subject making it difficult to know which is best.

It is. This is why we also include powerful redirect tools to 301 & 302 domains and links to maintain SEO juice from prior sites.

 

[CALTCAgent]

Yes. However, you can add multiple domains to a site. This allows you to host separate landing pages on the same plan.

Is this as effective as having multiple websites ?

 

[lrixford]

Is this as effective as having multiple websites ?

The search engines will treat them as different sites but they really are only single page landing pages for your PPC/EMail/other marketing campaign. They will have limited SEO-ability so backlink lift will be minimum.

Multiple sites are only beneficial if you can devote the time (or money) to SEO them all equally. This is why most people want to focus on one.

 

[CALTCAgent]

The search engines will treat them as different sites but they really are only single page landing pages for your PPC/EMail/other marketing campaign. They will have limited SEO-ability so backlink lift will be minimum.

So, then they aren't as effective for SEO-ability. If SEO is important, multiple websites is better.

Multiple sites are only beneficial if you can devote the time (or money) to SEO them all equally. This is why most people want to focus on one.

I don't quite understand. If there are 2 different products you want to SEO, how is it cheaper and faster to do it through 1 website versus 2 websites ?

 

[lrixford]

So, then they aren't as effective for SEO-ability. If SEO is important, multiple websites is better.

I don't quite understand. If there are 2 different products you want to SEO, how is it cheaper and faster to do it through 1 website versus 2 websites ?

For a standard insurance website we usually put in 15-20 a month into doing SEO on a single site. If you have two sites you need to put in 30-40 total.

If you put in 20 hours on one site you can have a PR 2 fairly easy. If you have to do 40 hours and you get two sites up to a PR 2 then a backlink between the two is relatively benign. However if you spend 40 hours on doing SEO on a single site you could possibly get it up to a PR 3. A PR 3 is exponentially better than a PR 2.

Then you have to look at how the site's base PR affects each page's PR. So if your base is higher than it is easier to raise individual page PR.

For example:

Sweet & Baker Insurance
Business, Health & Tech Insurance, San Francisco, Bay Area - Sweet and Baker Insurance Brokers, Inc.

As of 7/13/2016 ...

Tech Insurance San Francisco - #1 Ranking on Google
https://www.google.com/webhp?q=tech insurance san fransisco

Health Insurance San Francisco - #4 Ranking on Google
https://www.google.com/webhp?q=health insurance san fransisco

Auto Insurance San Francisco - #9 Ranking on Google
https://www.google.com/webhp?q=auto insurance san fransisco

Notice that they offer auto, health and technology insurance on a single site (completely different markets)? In a competitive market (San Fran).

This is made possible by working on just one site versus having many. I can show this in other major markets like Dallas, Oklahoma City, Miami, and Houston.

 

[CALTCAgent]

For example:

Sweet & Baker Insurance
Business, Health & Tech Insurance, San Francisco, Bay Area - Sweet and Baker Insurance Brokers, Inc.

That is an ITC site, curious I don't see the ITC copywrite at the bottom of the site ?

As of 7/13/2016 ...

Tech Insurance San Francisco - #1 Ranking on Google
https://www.google.com/webhp?q=tech insurance san fransisco

Health Insurance San Francisco - #4 Ranking on Google
https://www.google.com/webhp?q=health insurance san fransisco

Auto Insurance San Francisco - #9 Ranking on Google
https://www.google.com/webhp?q=auto insurance san fransisco

Notice that they offer auto, health and technology insurance on a single site (completely different markets)? In a competitive market (San Fran).

I am not seeing them ranking for anything other than #1 on the "Tech insurance San Francisco". ?

This is made possible by working on just one site versus having many. I can show this in other major markets like Dallas, Oklahoma City, Miami, and Houston.

Would this be the same idea for having one site versus multiple for agents that market to a broader area, for example some agents market in one state, multiple states or all states ?

 

[scagnt83]

Caltc,
I dont think there is 1 single right answer for all situations. In my opinion, there are some products that lend themselves to a single website better than others. Also, I think it depends on the type of market you are going after as well.

Local seems to make a lot more sense to have a multiple product website (or agency type site) vs. marketing nationally.

Annuities & LTCI lend themselves very well to a single "specialty" site in my experience. Most of the guys doing major online business in those markets do so with a site dedicated to just that product.

I know multiple guys pulling in mid six figures off of nothing but a single product "specialist" site. I dont know of a single agent pulling in that kind of money off of JUST a multiple product site.


Take myself for instance. I do retirement plans and business benefits locally. But I will market annuities on a national basis. It makes no sense to have both on the same website.

There are lots of agents who target one line of insurance locally, but others nationally. In those instances I would not combine the services on a single site.


Above and beyond SEO concerns, the webpage and service model presented needs to make sense to the consumer. That is more important than anything else.

 

[CALTCAgent]

Great response, thank you!

Local seems to make a lot more sense to have a multiple product website (or agency type site) vs. marketing nationally.

That is what I was thinking. I have seen more multiple product websites locally. I have seen a few nationally too, but not as many.

Annuities & LTCI lend themselves very well to a single "specialty" site in my experience. Most of the guys doing major online business in those markets do so with a site dedicated to just that product.

That is interesting. I guess focus with the website is the key when someone is doing business with someone outside of their local area.

I know multiple guys pulling in mid six figures off of nothing but a single product "specialist" site. I dont know of a single agent pulling in that kind of money off of JUST a multiple product site.

Do you mean from only the SEO driven leads from their web site ?

Is this mainly because the consumer is more focused and perceives the person they are dealing with a specialist

Take myself for instance. I do retirement plans and business benefits locally. But I will market annuities on a national basis. It makes no sense to have both on the same website.

Did you focus on annuities nationally because retirement plans and business benefits are more suited locally and/or face to face ?

There are lots of agents who target one line of insurance locally, but others nationally. In those instances I would not combine the services on a single site.

Do you think it is more a matter of consumer experience and focus as to not combine the products on to one site ?

Above and beyond SEO concerns, the webpage and service model presented needs to make sense to the consumer. That is more important than anything else.

This makes a lot of sense.

 

[davidcberry]

You can do it with one site. My website gets trucking, general liability, workers comp, auto, homeowners, motorcycle, and life leads. Well built landing pages with good content, good onsite and offsite seo combined with social media cues and local cues will dominate. My site is always a work in progress, but it works to the tune about $10k per month in commissions. That's without doing a lot of work. The funniest part is that I have a simple wordpress hosted on WP-Engine. It's fast, content dense, and Google loves me. The key is to have a site that never dies. Most agents put sites up and fail to update content, answer comments, add articles, etc. That's where I dominate. Not only do I do that on my site, but I make sure write articles for other sites as well as syndicate my articles. Google loves sites that produce new content on a regular basis. So if you want to improve your SERPs, show the world that you're an expert and share that information online, in social media, article directories, Google local & plus, youtube, etc. In the end you'll be glad you did. The more likes and comments you solicit, the more business you'll get. I won't go into keyword strategy and all that jazz. Just remember to teach and answer questions in your articles. NEVER SELL! It really really works! If you want to see how well my site does, check out my MOZ ranking. My insurance site is txinsurancepro.com I'd love your feedback. Good luck!

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

"article directories"?

I thought they were dead. I actually have tried to delete all of my anchor text links in the too many articles that I submitted.