The Importance of Local Search Optimization

Whether you are a new agent or an established agency, one of the most challenging tasks for your business is lead generation. No matter how long you’ve been in business reaching new customers by marketing on the World Wide Web should be a part of your internet marketing strategy.

While there are numerous ways to promote your insurance agency online, Local search engine optimization or Local SEO for short, is one of the most effective and affordable ways to reach your local audience; which for most agencies is where majority if not all of their sales are generated.

Local SEO is a technique that combines optimization of website content, search phrases, social media, local listings such as Yelp, and customer reviews to make your agency easier to find, research, and reach by potential customers in your local area looking to buy the insurance products that you provide.  Local SEO is also a cost effective way to help your website get more traffic, page views, and higher search engine rankings.

According to recent studies, 97% of consumers use the internet to research products and services in their local area and 54% of Americans have substituted internet and local search for phone books.

Google, the king of search engines, processes over 40,000 searches per second; which translates to 3.5 billion searches per day or 1.2 trillion searches per year. These statistics make it easy to see why every insurance agency that wants to create an effective marketing strategy, should have a local search optimized website; especially if the goal is to attract new customers.

For example let’s say Tim is an insurance agent located in Los Angeles, California. Tim wants to find more customers in and around Los Angeles to sell auto insurance to. Local SEO could help Tim by making sure his website gets indexed by Google and other search engines for terms like “auto insurance in Los Angeles” or “Los Angeles auto insurance agent”. It would also help Tim’s customers find information about his business like his website, reviews he’s gotten from customers, how to contact his business, where his business is located, and directions to his office.

Without Local SEO, a lot local insurance shoppers would have a very difficult time finding your agency instead of your competitions. If your insurance agency website hasn’t been optimized or is not getting you the traffic you need, please call 1-800-811-7949 or email our marketing experts for a free consultation and website review.

Sources:
BIA/Keilsey Group
comScore