One of the most common topics the Zywave inbound marketing team receives questions on is search rankings. Over the past couple of years, rankings have become a bit controversial in the world of search, especially after Google’s Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, and various layout algorithm (or ranking system) updates. It is becoming increasingly difficult for those outside of the industry to reconcile the “old school” ways of SEO and search rankings with the “new world” of inbound marketing.
Let’s revisit search rankings and understand why they’re not reliable metrics to track, and also not accurate indicators of SEO success for your insurance agency.
Why Not Track Search Rankings?
The SEO industry, as a result of Google’s many algorithm updates, has shifted to a place where individual rankings are not the most important metrics. There are many industry leaders following suit, from SEO tool providers to digital marketing education resources (such as Raven Tools, Majestic SEO, Moz, and more). Tracking performance metrics such as organic traffic, conversions, and engagement is the best way to measure your success.
Furthermore, for Zywave clients, we have not typically seen a correlation between first page rankings and organic traffic and conversions.
Keyword ranking data can never be 100% accurate due to search users’ geography, personalization, and more. Search results for you will look different from the person next to you and your customer down the street. Google tailors their results pages to its users, making rankings unreliable and not as meaningful. Results appear differently to every user due to browser settings, web history, search preferences, location, social media activity, and more.
For example, take this search for “auto insurance.” Two different searches produced two different results. In the first example, a search for “auto insurance” was done logged into a Google account, without any search history or cookies cleared. In the second example, a search for “auto insurance” was done in an incognito browser that was not signed into a Google account.
These search engine results pages (SERPs) are different based on a number of factors (as mentioned above) – one of them shows a traditional layout with paid advertisements and 10 organic results and the other shows a more local focused layout with paid advertisements, local listings, and fewer organic results.
What Metrics Should Be Tracked?
As mentioned above, your key measures of success for your inbound marketing strategy should be:
- Traffic
- Engagement
- Conversions
You should monitor the direct traffic, organic search traffic, and referring site traffic that is coming into your site. You should also monitor the engagement on your website, which includes your bounce rate, time on site, pages visited per visit, and more. And lastly, you should be monitoring both your website form conversions and your phone call conversions. All three of these measures can be monitored through a service like Google Analytics.
These metrics are much more accurate, reliable, and indicative of inbound marketing success than keyword rankings.
What Can the Local Agency Do?
When considering performance in the SERPs, the best place for independent insurance agencies to start is with local search listings. The local search listings are where local agencies need to be to compete. Remember, insurance is one of the most competitive fields in search, so it’s important that as the local agent, you represent your agency as such. Make sure your local search listings on Google, Yahoo, and Bing have:
- Correct agency information – name, address, phone number, hours, etc.
- Pictures and videos (where applicable) from within the agency
- Reviews (where applicable)
Also, make sure your agency is posting blogs, social media updates, and press releases whenever it is involved in local events, business partnerships, and charities. Promoting your activity within the local area is a great way to tie your agency to your specific location – this helps to support Google’s intent of matching your agency with those in your area looking for insurance.