For the local insurance agency, competing for placement in the search engines is difficult. Independent and local agents are competing in search engine results against carriers, captive agents, direct writers, aggregators, and other local agencies! It’s important to ensure that you have set your brand and website up in the best way possible to compete locally in search. There are a number of things your agency can do to help your search performance. Here are three especially important items to consider:
1. Getting your website locally focused
2. Checking your local listings for accuracy
3. Branding your agency
Let’s start with the first item: Getting your website locally focused.
Focusing Your Website on Local
One of the most impactful ways you can impact local performance on your website is through your contact page(s). It is important to ensure that all of your agency location information is displayed somewhere on your website, typically through a contact page or location page. Whether you have a page for each office or not, it’s important that all of your locations have the following information on your website:
- Office names (e.g. corporate office)
- Address
- Local phone number
- Fax number
- Contact email (within the agency)
- Hours of operation
- Company motto / slogan / tagline
- Custom Google map
You can also add things like links to your local listings, pictures of the office, etc.
Take this page on Metropolitan Insurance’s website for their Chicago Office as an example:
This contact page details all of the information a user (and the search engines) could need about this agency’s office location, from their motto and basic business information, to their contact email and their custom Google map from their local listings.
Another way to get your website focused on local is through your content. It is important to ensure that your content speaks to your audience, the people in your area looking to purchase the insurance products and services that you provide.
For example, use local facts and information on your product pages. Writing about auto insurance? Why not discuss accident rates in the area? Stumped on ideas for your health insurance page? Talk about the rate of uninsured in your state. There are an endless number of ways you can localize your content, while keeping it true to your brand and providing the reader with the information they need to contact you for a quote, service, etc.
Next week, we’ll discuss number two: Checking your local listings – stay tuned!