Today it’s no question that your agency has to adapt to digital to remain competitive. According to the 2020 Agency Universe Study, “all the top marketing strategies are digital”. This makes complete sense coming from the shelter-in-place restrictions, where agencies were forced to get more creative in finding new business. However, most agencies looking to proactively market for new leads and prospects through digital means generally get started by leveraging Google SEO. With over 69% of insurance consumers running a search before making a purchase, where your agency appears in the Google listings matter!
SEO or search engine optimization is the art of building your Google presence so that Google ranks your site in top positions for the keyword phrases your prospective clients use. Ranking in the top 3 spots on Google can be a goldmine for your insurance agency because you can better reach people who are actively looking to purchase insurance. With the proper setup on your Google presence, you can generate new leads on auto-pilot, across the cities and states you serve.
On the other hand, maybe your agency has already tried to execute SEO in-house or hired SEO experts to do it for you, but never saw increases in traffic, leads, and sales. Or maybe you ran SEO campaigns that generated some leads but didn’t attract the exact kind of leads you wanted. You start to wonder whether SEO is the right strategy for your insurance agency. If that’s you, this post will provide clarity on why your SEO isn’t working and what you could do instead. Disclaimer: I will share some relevant tools and resources as well, however, I am not affiliated with these organizations.
For starters, the majority of your SEO problems will fall into either one of two buckets, web-related or strategy-based issues.
Why Your Insurance Agency’s Website Isn’t Ranking
Your website is outdated
When you land on an outdated website that looks ugly, old, or neglected you assume some things. Google does too, as they should. If you don’t consistently update your website, your rankings will suffer. Fail to secure your site, your rankings will suffer. If your website is slow and doesn’t load quickly, your rankings will suffer.
What to do to fix it:
- Ensure that you have your free HTTPS security certificate
- Check your page speed here: https://gtmetrix.com/
- Update your web copy and graphics if you haven’t in the last 3-5 years
Your website isn’t mobile responsive
Increasingly so, your prospects are choosing to interact with their agencies via mobile devices. This means your site experience has to match your client’s expectations. This means your mobile site must load quickly, be responsive, meaning it must be easy to browse on mobile, and finally, should have easy-to-find call-to-actions that stand out and are easy to find.
What to do to fix it:
- Test your mobile web-friendliness on there: Mobile Friendliness Test
You’re not creating blog content
Your prospective clients have questions, and they are visiting Google typing questions in search of answers. Having an insurance blog that answers your prospect’s questions helps to keep your website fresh and current, attracts people to your website and keeps them there longer, identifies your long-tail keywords, and generates backlinks as other websites use your content. All of these benefits will work in helping you rank on Google.
What to do to fix it:
- Create search-engine optimized content based on keyword research using this tool: Moz
Your business listings and social media presence are not optimized
Your social profiles and business listings rank among search results as well. They are designed to drive traffic and provide visibility to your content. For small and regional agencies that serve local markets, optimizing your business listings are especially important for local SEO, or ranking for people in your agency’s area.
What to do to fix it:
- Optimize your social media profiles
- Verify and optimize the following listings based on the keywords you found from MOZ above:
Your website isn’t converting
Driving high-quality traffic to a poor page is worse than not doing SEO at all. Without a sleek website that is designed to convert, no amount of web traffic can save you. Your website requires conversion elements designed to enhance your client’s web experience and compel them to contact your agency.
What to do to fix it:
- Include click-to-call links for your phone numbers and chatbots
- Include a lead form on your homepage and across your site
- Create easy to find “call to actions” to compel visitors to contact you
Why Your Insurance Agency’s SEO Strategy Isn’t Generating Leads
Strategy-related problems are an entirely different issue in relation to web-based problems. Web-based problems prevent you from ranking as a whole, regardless of keyword. Strategy-related problems are based on your agency and the markets your agency is seeking to expand within. Getting your strategy correct is essential to leveraging SEO in a manner that is aligned with your agency’s growth objectives. This means, being positioned on Google, to find the types of clients you want to do business with. Here’s how to troubleshoot 5 of the biggest problems insurance agencies have with their SEO strategy.
You don’t have the expertise
SEO is not free. Whether you are working with an in-house team or working with an SEO agency, there is a significant cost in terms of time and resources available. With an in-house team, unless you have a dedicated expert, you’ll be expecting them to get it right, despite not having the time or know-how. With an SEO agency, you could be working with highly touted experts, but experts who don’t have an affinity for insurance. Either way, without the right pieces in place, SEO won’t be effective for your agency.
What to do to fix it:
- Share this guide with the person in charge of SEO: Google SEO Guide
- Hire an SEO agency that specializes in insurance
You’re targeting the wrong keywords
There are many different types of keyword phrases. Some included geographic language, some are classified as “long tail” or containing more than 4 terms, or some have varying levels of competition. What your prospects search also says a lot about where they are along the buyer’s journey. Given the sheer number of facets you have to consider, chances are you could be going after keywords that are too difficult or keywords that don’t have a significant volume of high-commercial intent searchers.
What to do to fix it:
- Find your root keywords so that you can find more long-tail keywords: LSIGraph Keyword Tool
- Better understand your searcher’s keyword intent
- What kind of intent does my searcher have?
- Navigational – where users search for a particular site
- Informational – where users search for answers to questions
- Investigational- where users search for information that may eventually lead to a transaction
- Transactional – where users are ready to buy
- What kind of intent does my searcher have?
You don’t give Google what they want
When you attempt to rank organically on Google, you must be Google compliant! The problem is, no SEO, content marketer, or even top-level Google techie can understand everything that’s happening on the search engine. Google’s algorithm is constantly changing, and you’ll have to stay on top of major changes and updates to remain relevant. These changes are only to improve user experience and help them find the right information they are looking for as quickly as possible. As a company asking Google to rank them high, you’ll have to help them in creating the experience your prospects want to engage with the most.
What to do to fix it:
Track and update your website based on Google Algorithm updates frequently updated here: @searchliaison
You aren’t patient enough
Regardless of how solid your team and strategy are, ranking for insurance-related search phrases will not happen overnight. Unfortunately, one of Google’s ranking factors is domain age. Not to mention, your Google SEO strategy is a long-term strategy that takes time to develop. At the end of the day, building authority takes time and you have a ton of competitors vying for the same spot. There’s not much I can say to help you here. If you want to rank organically, ultimately, you’ll have to be patient.
What to do to fix it:
- Be patient, or skip the line instead
Your strategy should be SEM
What if you don’t have 3-6 months to wait for results to trickle in? Or what if you don’t want to guess or be in the dark regarding your rankings and performance? What if you don’t want to have to adapt to Google’s algorithm change multiple times per year to compete on Google? Or how about if you want to target certain niches and guarantee that you’ll make it to the top three spots? Sound like you? Then maybe SEO isn’t the right strategy for your agency? The cousin of SEO, called SEM or search engine marketing might be a better fit for agencies looking to reach new clients quickly and predictably.
What to do to fix it:
- Fasttrack your agency to the top three spots by creating a Google ad account and advertising on Google Ads instead
Wrapping It Up
As Google increasingly becomes a “pay to play” platform, ranking organically through SEO will become tougher. While these tips and tricks will help you troubleshoot common SEO issues in the insurance space, insurance agencies looking to become more competitive on Google should seek to shift to SEM. This way they’ll ensure that their digital marketing efforts can be deployed in a scalable and transparent manner.
Need clarity on finding insurance clients through Google? I’m offering new subscribers a free Google audit for your agency! On this call, I will with you the exact keywords I used to attract over 3,000 insurance prospects and rank in the top 3 spots like the big guys. Find out more here.
