If your agency has a website, chances are you have received a site evaluation before. A website evaluation report can come from search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing companies, but they can also come from the carriers with which you work. While your carriers typically have good intentions when evaluating your website, a marketing company is likely looking to gain your agency as a customer.

Not all website evaluations are created equal. At Zywave, our customers receive these reports all the time, often unsolicited, which means you probably are too. Below you’ll find a round-up of the most common “issues” these evaluations find, and how to decipher the quality suggestions from the ineffectual babble.

Pass on these Suggestions:

• Keyword rankings
  Oftentimes, the keywords these types of evaluations look at have little to no search volume on Google and are hyper-local (e.g. “auto insurance Warwick RI). Ranking for keywords that do not receive search volume is like putting up a billboard ad that no one will see. Aside from that, ranking and search results appear differently to every search user. Ranking is not a reliable metric to track or base your website performance on. Read more on that, here.
• Stuff keywords
  Website owners need to be extremely careful not to “over-optimize” their websites. Creating keyword stuffed URLs (e.g. www.agencyname.com/warwick-ri-auto-insurance, rather than www.agencyname.com/auto-insurance), alt text, and meta data can show the search engines that you’re trying to game the system, not provide the best possible user experience.
• Add a large number of pages
  The search engines and users are smart enough to read through your content. The search engines have become a lot more sophisticated over the years. For example, both users and the search engines understand that if you discuss motorcycle insurance on your auto insurance page, your agency and your website are relevant for search pertaining to both products. The same goes for the suggestion of adding a landing page for every town you serve and want to rank for. This is an outdated strategy that can come off like you are keyword stuffing. Mention on your homepage and throughout your content the areas you serve best and the search engines and users will see the relevance. Read more on this, here.
• Increase the # of backlinks
  Backlinks are all about quality, not quantity. While gaining links back to your website from other trusted websites is good, you have to make sure that you’re obtaining these links naturally. You should never buy backlinks or solicit from them. You should obtain backlinks naturally through your carriers, local organizations, local business partners, etc.
• W3C compliance
  W3C compliance is irrelevant now. If you check any major website like Google, Amazon, or Microsoft, you will see that none of them are w3c compliant. Read more about that in our recent post.
• Add SSL certificate
  The weight that Google puts on SSL certificates and secure websites is not significant enough to warrant every website needing one. There are also negatives associated with going this route. Read more about secure sites and if your agency needs an SSL certificate in our post, Does Your Insurance Website Need to be Secure?

Move Forward with these Suggestions:

• Add alt text to images
  Adding alt text, or alternative text, to your images is important for both users and the search engines. The purpose of alt text is to describe an image when the image will not load properly. You can read more about the best practices for alt text, here.
• Fix broken links
  Having broken links on your website provides a poor experience to both users and search engines. Make sure to fix any broken links that are in your site content, menus and navigation, etc. This way, you ensure that all pathways you provide throughout your site lead users and search engines to the right places.
• Eliminate duplicate content
  Above all else, the content on your website should be unique to your agency. Google and the other search engines frown upon duplicate content, and it provides a poor user experience. Read more about content guidelines, here.
• Add meta data
  Meta data is important for your website; your title tags and meta description tell the search engines what your pages are all about, as well as search users. Read more in meta data, here.
• Mobile friendliness
  Your website being mobile-friendly is important now more than ever, whether you have a mobile site or your website is responsive. Read more about Google’s value of mobile sites, here, and the benefits of responsive design, here.
• Add conversion forms
  This should be a no-brainer. Your agency’s website should have conversion forms on every relevant page – products, service pages, contact pages, blog posts, etc. Make it as easy as possible for those visiting your website to contact you, and hopefully become a prospect!
• Regularly add fresh, relevant, and high-quality content
  Aside from your content needing to be unique to your agency, you want to make sure you’re always providing value. While your insurance product pages may not need to change a whole lot, you can continuously provide fresh content through blogging; read more on that, here.

If you are an Zywave client, always turn to your Client Success Manager or our help desk for suggestions involving your website and digital marketing strategy.