Our Las Vegas roots tell us it’d be a smart bet to put money on where your insurance agency’s clients come from. Primarily, you’re getting word-of-mouth referrals from previous happy clients. And the second-largest group is from Google searches for “insurance agency” or “insurance agent near me”, right?
If so, you’re doing something right. If not, it’s probably time for some adjustments to your insurance agency marketing plan. Either way, the work of improving your insurance agency’s ranking in a Google search is never complete. Read on to learn how Google’s algorithm impacts your search ranking and what you’ll need to improve the number and quality of leads dialing your office for their insurance needs.
We Don’t Make the Rules, Google Does
Upwards of 3.5 billion searches happen on Google every day. With traffic like that, it’s no wonder Google plays such a crucial role in the success of any business—brick and mortar or virtual. When people (you, too. And us!) need to find something but they don’t know where to start, they start with Google.
For over twenty years, Google has been the primary way to connect internet users to internet information. Everyone turns to Google because Google works exceptionally well. Google can parse search terms to determine a searcher’s intention, then process and deliver the most relevant results all within milliseconds. Google alone knows exactly how it catalogues websites and information in its search engine, but there are a few key attributes marketers (insurance marketing agencies like Melon included) know every Google search takes into account when ranking websites in results.
Your Insurance Agency’s Website Needs to Play Nice with The Algorithm
When we mentioned above that the work of SEO is never complete, we weren’t kidding. Google’s search and website indexing algorithm is updated almost once a year because, just like every great company, they’re constantly working to improve the experience for their customers. As of this article’s publication, here’s what we know they want:
Relevance
Google wants to send its searches to pages that have the information they’re looking for. Easy as that. If you search “how to peel a melon” and you find Melon Local Insurance Marketing Agency, something is amiss.
Authority
In order to keep searchers wanting to use Google, it checks whether a website and its information are trustworthy before showing it in their results pages. That means finding ways to establish a good reputation for your site and verify your website’s validity by borrowing from existing site’s reputations.
User Experience
Google wants its users to enjoy using it. And, just like you’d only recommend a restaurant you enjoyed to your friends, Google assesses a website’s user experience before sending searchers to it. It’s just another way to keep people Googling.
How to Improve Your Insurance Agency’s Google Ranking
There’s no one-size-fits all solution to improving ranking. It all depends on your established online presence and what your insurance agency’s marketing goals are. Based on what we know, here’s what we’d suggest:
- Update your website regularly. If you have a full website, ensure there’s a steady flow of new, relevant and high-quality content on your site that your target consumer wants to engage with.
- Link to other sites with relevant information. This will improve your trustworthiness. On the flipside, you’ll also eventually want other trustworthy sites linking to yours.
- Keep up with Google’s tweaks to the algorithm. If to you this sounds like treading water during an unpredictable storm, you’re not alone. Keeping tabs on Google is an entire career path in its own right.
- Find SEO experts that understand your needs. Outsourcing your insurance agency marketing to digital marketing gurus is the best way we know of to keep your agency climbing to the top of Google’s search results pages.
Don’t worry if this all sounds like too much. It’s what we do best here at Melon and some days it feels like too much even for us! Get in touch with us to learn more about how we can take on some of the heavy lifting for your insurance agency’s marketing needs.