Uncategorized

Nearly every insurance agency website builder offers "template" websites. They do this because creating original content is the biggest expense when building a website and they want to keep their costs down to be competitive. This is another case of "You get what you for". Unfortunately, insurance agency owners don't realize the mistake they are making and why insurance agency websites should have all original content. Before I continue, I bought a "template" website for my agency several years ago and unfortunately, I did not get what I paid for! There is an online tool that provides a service (both free and paid) that will scour the internet and that will list other websites that have the same content (just like Google does when crawling your website). I subscribe to this service because I absolutely want to make sure my site and my clients’ sites have original content. Why is this so important? One word, Plagiarism! Creating new, original content is time consuming so many have copied content from other websites to pad their own website with content. Some years back, Google caught on to this and now penalizes sites for duplicate content. This is one of the reasons the template site I bought never gained traction. Does your insurance agency website have duplicate content? Go to http://copyscape.com/ and enter the URL for some of the pages of your site. Actually, if you want to be sure you have all original content, it’s worth testing all of your pages. The paid version offers a “batch” option that will search your entire site. Of course, if you personally wrote the content, you still may want to check to see if someone has stolen your content. The [...]

There could be dozens of reasons why a website isn’t generating response. Poor copywriting and design, duplicate content, improper use of keywords and SEO settings and lack of personality are just a few. I discuss these in more detail in my free report that you can download at the end of this article. However, in this article I want to discuss 3 tools that reveal SEO issues for insurance agency websites. Each of these tools will ask for the URL of the page you want to test. Log on to your website and simply copy the URL from the address bar in your browser and paste in to each tool. SEO Settings- https://www.quixapp.com/seo/ Be sure to check multiple pages of your site, not just the home page. Every page that you want indexed by the search engines should be tested. If you find any pages that you want to show up in the search engines that do not have the settings correct, fire your web master now! This is SEO 101. Original Content- http://copyscape.com/ Again, be sure to check several pages on your site. This is how web builders can offer their websites at such a low cost. It’s not cheap to write original content, especially well-written content. Web Page Speed Test- http://www.webpagetest.org/ This test should be done periodically on your website. Often times as your website and plugins are updated, the factors that cause slower load times can appear in your site. Still reading? What are you waiting for? Run these tests now and come back when you’re done! Does Your Insurance Agency Website Have SEO Issues? Did All of Your Tests Result in a Greenlight? If you did, congratulations! You’ve made a smart [...]

How often do you check reviews before purchasing a product or choosing a restaurant for a special dinner? I do it nearly every time. Why? Because I want to make sure I am making the best choice. More consumers are relying on reviews for their buying decisions than ever before. There are several review platforms but how important are Google Reviews for your insurance agency? People Will Believe Others Before They Believe You. Last year, I was looking for a new florist to deliver flowers for Valentine’s Day. My old florist wasn’t meeting my expectations. I checked Google reviews and decided on a very well established florist in town. They had hundreds of 5 star reviews and I felt confident they would not ruin this special day. I was wrong. As the day went on the flowers never showed up. I called numerous times throughout the day and left several messages with no reply. I remember that evening trying to enjoy a delightful dinner yet feeling like I failed by choosing the wrong florist. The next morning I went back to Google and apparently I wasn’t the only victim. Dozens of other disappointed customers blasted negative reviews the night before. Of course, I chimed in as well. Within 30 minutes the manager of the shop called me. They had a complete melt down on the busiest day of the year. Their excuse was 3 drivers didn’t show up. They promised to deliver the flowers in the next few hours for free. This didn’t help me feel better. Damage was done. Over the past year, I have received several discounted offers and even a voucher for a free dozen of roses delivered. All of this went [...]