At the center of online insurance marketing is search engine optimization. While some less scrupulous search engine optimization companies may give promises of overnight success, the rise to the top requires a little time investment.

Websites that rank highly in Google and other search engines do so because of their clear design, navigation, sometimes age, and the quality of their website.

Search engines want to deliver the highest quality results to their search audience. Google claimed market share from competing search engines like Yahoo and Altavista by writing an algorithm that assessed a quality score to every website and ranked them accordingly. The result, a search engine that displayed top quality search results.

Of course by doing so, they raised the standards of website development and search engine optimization and made it a little harder to get to the top.

In most moderately competitive markets, rankings move up in a “two steps forward, one step back” motion that ultimately stabilizes in a preferred ranking on the first page.

To learn more about insurance marketing, insurance search engine optimization, insurance web design, insurance website or insurance agency marketing, visit ReadytoQuote.com or call 1.800.504.8593.

Everyday, we talk to insurance agencies and companies from all across the country. It is through this daily interaction that we learn about the concerns of insurance professionals in their pursuit of online insurance marketing strategies that work.

A major concern with many agencies and companies is whether or not they can compete, since they are coming into the online market much later than competitors that may have established a web presence well over a decade ago.

While it will not happen overnight, your insurance website can compete in the search engines.

When ranking a website, Google looks at two primary elements: your website and the number of quality links coming into your website. The advantage that other insurance agencies and companies have – that started many years ago – is simply their inbound link population.

As your insurance website exists, serves visitors and is referenced in third party articles or in the news, you start acquiring a number of inbound links (other websites linking to your website) which improves your credibility with Google.

If you do not previously have a website at all, you will have to get a little more aggressive. A new insurance website needs to (forgive the ancient motivational rhetoric) hit the ground running. From the time it goes live, you need a media machine putting content out on the web, news articles into online newswires, and a team of specialists distributing content through a series of social networks.

To learn more about insurance marketing, insurance search engine optimization, insurance web design, insurance website or insurance agency marketing, visit ReadytoQuote.com or call 1.800.504.8593.

If your insurance website is getting traffic but converting to fewer policies, one simple fix could be a quick upgrade.

Oftentimes, insurance agencies and companies that have been around a while, have traffic going into their website. If the domain name (www.yourlawfirmname.com) has a few years behind it, that greatly helps the search engine optimization process. Google looks at websites that are more established, have stood the test of time, and offer valuable content. So an aged domain name is a big plus for the search engine marketing side.

While Google likes seeing insurance websites that have been around the web for a significant length of time, that does not necessarily mean they want your design to be old. In fact, if your design is more than a few years old, it’s time for a new one.

The standards for web design have changed significantly over the years. Back in the early nineties, websites frequently used frames (a website structure that uses 2-3 webpages and displays them as one). Now if you use frames, chances are Google has tucked you away deep into their search pages.

With website designs constantly evolving, your insurance website should not be left behind. Most people put a lot of emphasis on the professionalism of websites when deciding to work with an insurance agent, make a purchase, or engage in any other transaction. Your website is an extension of your agency or company and represents the quality and professionalism of the service you provide to your policy holders.

So to bump up conversion and get more out of your insurance marketing dollars, a new website design could be a simple fix.

To learn more about insurance marketing, insurance search engine optimization, insurance web design, insurance website or insurance agency marketing, visit ReadytoQuote.com or call 1.800.504.8593.

When you have traffic on your insurance website, you are only halfway to your goal. Google wants to see high quality websites with error free code and professional design. Designs that offer easy navigation for both your end user and the search engine bots are key to getting favorable rankings in the search engines.

Once you have a professional insurance website with inbound links, and your website appears on the first page of search results, then it is time convert traffic to new policies.

Your insurance website must include a call to action. What do you want your visitors to do? Do you want them to read about your achievements, your history and your education? Certainly those are all very important items to have on your website to build a level of confidence but ultimately, you want a quote request.

The best way to improve your website’s conversion is through a call to action. You must tell your visitors what to do. For example, you can have information about your insurance lines, and then periodically interrupt with “click here to get a quote” That link should, of course, take your visitor to a detailed contact page or quote form.

Another important element for conversion is making a short contact form readily available. On every single page of your website, you should have a basic contact form or ability to start the quoting process. You do not want to make your prospective clients work to find out how to contact you.

Make it obvious and make it simple.

Those three items are the most important components of search engine marketing.

To learn more about insurance marketing, insurance search engine optimization, insurance web design, insurance website or insurance agency marketing, visit ReadytoQuote.com or call 1.800.504.8593.

As many took off today for Columbus Day, we continued to work hard to make sure that the insurance companies and agencies who trust us with their insurance marketing continued to climb the search engine ladder.

When Christopher Columbus embarked on his journey, he was searching for the Indies but clearly missed; and thus, landed in North America. When it comes to your insurance marketing, you can’t really afford misdirection as it never ends with discovering something better.

The Internet is still very young (only being commercially accessible to the public since the early 90’s) and still a little risky to explore. This is why it helps to embark on your insurance marketing journey with a map to make sure you are pointing in the right direction.

Here are a few things to consider before marketing online.

1) What are your keywords? – If you optimize for keyphrases that nobody searches for, you will get high placement in Google with no traffic to show for it. Make sure your search engine optimization company researches keyphrases and checks how many searches Google receives on a monthly basis for those terms before optimizing your insurance website. Most SEO companies guess the keyphrases that will work without doing any real research.

2) How are links getting built? – To get ranked higher, your website will need other websites to link to it. The best way to do this is through content. We write articles and press releases each month and then distribute them through online newswires (Google News), blogs, social networks and information resources. As the content is distributed, it syndicates and so does the link back to your insurance website.

3) Your website? – Just as an old ship can no longer be seaworthy, your website may also no longer be fit for the Internet. Web standards are changing and becoming more advanced. Internet users are expecting more from their website experience. Make sure your insurance website is delivering by updating or possibly completely renovating your online presence.

Those three items are the most important components of search engine marketing.

To learn more about insurance marketing, insurance search engine optimization, insurance web design, insurance website or insurance agency marketing, visit ReadytoQuote.com or call 1.800.504.8593.

Unlike other insurance marketing and search engine optimization companies, we like to express an honest expectation of how search engine optimization works. The insurance search engine optimization process is progressive, which means a newly optimized website will gradually make its way to the first page of Google for its related search terms.

So at first your insurance website may rank on page 5 (shortly after the SEO re-indexing) then it will work its way to page 3, then 2, and then ultimately to the first page.

So does that mean you are not going to see results for months? Not at all. Utilizing a series of traffic sources is what gets you to the first page.

You have two main elements of search engine optimization: onsite relevance and third party websites linking to your insurance website. The inbound links build credibility for your website, thus resulting in a high ranking.

What are the traffic sources?

Newswires – On most of our standard plans, we write two press releases every month for your agency or company. Those press releases go out to newswires that syndicate to Google News and other relevant news sites and blogs. As people read your press releases from these sources, they click through to your website, thus building not only links but traffic.

Blogs – Your website blog can be syndicated to Digg, your Business Facebook page and Google Blog Search (Google’s search engine for blogs). As content is posted to your onsite blog, it gets syndicated and distributed throughout the web – again, carrying your link and leading web traffic back to your agency’s website.

Social Networks – Social networks are a great traffic source. In fact, we now work with over 6 social networks. These networks allow us to post content to their high traffic, high page ranking networks. As a result, your information and website links reach a targeted audience of potential new clients looking for information related to your area of practice.

The combined search engine optimization process will yield immediate clicks and traffic to your insurance website, even before your website is ranked on the first page of search results. However, this isn’t necessarily the case with all insurance marketing companies because no other company offers the combined press releases, articles, blogging, social networking and writing services as a standard part of their insurance marketing package.

To learn more about insurance marketing, insurance search engine optimization, insurance web design, insurance website or insurance agency marketing, visit ReadytoQuote.com or call 1.800.504.8593.

As new methods of online insurance marketing surface and existing forms get enhanced, it’s important to notice another change in the webosphere. Things are getting prettier.

Sometimes we like taking a trip down memory lane and looking at the exhibits of yesteryear. First stop, the museum of website design. In 1990, an application was introduced called the WorldWideWeb Browser. It just so happened to also be an editor. You can see a screenshot of this masterful work at http://www.w3.org/History/1994/WWW/Journals/CACM/screensnap2_24c.gif.

The concept was simple. A website was little more than a bunch of textual pages linked together. A few pages of content, some links to other similar content, and tada, you have a website. Was it built for conversion and optimized for the 20 nonstandard search engines of that time? Probably not. But it was a website and it laid the foundation for the Internet we now have.

Nearly twenty years ago, there was much fascination with the concept of publishing something that could be accessed from anywhere in the world that had an Internet connection. The first Windows web browser that allowed background imagery was cause for excitement. But now, the honeymoon is over; the web is all grown up.

Believe it or not, some insurance websites still look like they were made with the above mentioned 19 year old program (WorldWideWeb). But to make it to the first page of Google, your insurance website needs to put on some makeup and its “Sunday best.”

If you search for anything that is popular on Google, you will notice that most of the websites on the first page look fantastic. They are easy to navigate, are very intuitive to work through, and the images and coloring make the site an overall pleasant experience.

For your insurance website to compete for page one, it’s going to need some improvements. Do a search for other insurance providers in your area, and notice how many pages their website has. Notice the simplicity for contacting the agency or company and getting information. Notice the colors used – are they soft or are they contrasting and obnoxious? Compare what you have to what others have and think to yourself, “If I didn’t know anything about either company or agency, which one would I call?”

Of course, sometimes it’s best to have an unbiased third party review it. Go ahead and request a quote and give us some of your competitors to compare websites. We will then make suggestions to improve your performance.

To learn more about insurance marketing, insurance search engine optimization, insurance web design, insurance website or insurance agency marketing, visit ReadytoQuote.com or call 1.800.504.8593.

As new methods of online insurance marketing surface and existing forms get enhanced, it’s important to notice another change in the webosphere. Things are getting prettier.

Sometimes we like taking a trip down memory lane and looking at the exhibits of yesteryear. First stop, the museum of website design. In 1990, an application was introduced called the WorldWideWeb Browser. It just so happened to also be an editor. You can see a screenshot of this masterful work at http://www.w3.org/History/1994/WWW/Journals/CACM/screensnap2_24c.gif.

The concept was simple. A website was little more than a bunch of textual pages linked together. A few pages of content, some links to other similar content, and tada, you have a website. Was it built for conversion and optimized for the 20 nonstandard search engines of that time? Probably not. But it was a website and it laid the foundation for the Internet we now have.

Nearly twenty years ago, there was much fascination with the concept of publishing something that could be accessed from anywhere in the world that had an Internet connection. The first Windows web browser that allowed background imagery was cause for excitement. But now, the honeymoon is over; the web is all grown up.

Believe it or not, some insurance websites still look like they were made with the above mentioned 19 year old program (WorldWideWeb). But to make it to the first page of Google, your insurance website needs to put on some makeup and its “Sunday best.”

If you search for anything that is popular on Google, you will notice that most of the websites on the first page look fantastic. They are easy to navigate, are very intuitive to work through, and the images and coloring make the site an overall pleasant experience.

For your insurance website to compete for page one, it’s going to need some improvements. Do a search for other insurance providers in your area, and notice how many pages their website has. Notice the simplicity for contacting the agency or company and getting information. Notice the colors used – are they soft or are they contrasting and obnoxious? Compare what you have to what others have and think to yourself, “If I didn’t know anything about either company or agnecy, which one would I call?”

Of course, sometimes it’s best to have an unbiased third party review it. Go ahead and request a quote and give us some of your competitors to compare websites. We will then make suggestions to improve your performance.

To learn more about insurance marketing, insurance search engine optimization, insurance web design, insurance website or insurance agency marketing, visit ReadytoQuote.com or call 1.800.504.8593.

A change in your insurance website could possibly upgrade your website’s performance. Imagine for a moment that you are shopping online for a product. You use the usual methods to find websites that are selling the very item you need or want.

Finally, you stumble across a couple of websites –both having the same product, but one is more expensive than the other. The more expensive item is offered on a nice website that has a professional design, easy to navigate menu, and even has an intuitive checkout process. The website offers clear images of the product, even multiple angles and comments from other buyers.

You could save fifteen percent if you buy from the second website. This website has random moving objects that are distracting. The bright red text is placed atop a black background making it difficult to read. And while the website assures you that you can purchase online, the “buy now” and “checkout” icons are not obvious.

More than likely, you will spend the extra money and buy from the cleaner website.

The same rules apply to your insurance marketing. When an individual or company is needing insurance coverage, a professional website that offers a clean, easy to navigate user experience and a substantial amount of useful information will lead to greater response.

Your website has to do what you or a representative of your company or agency would traditionally do which is achieve a comfort level with your prospective clients. Your insurance website has become the new marble floors and imported furniture in your lobby. It is the very thing that will either scare your prospective policy holders away or encourage them to contact you and setup a consultation.

Monitor your own web surfing habits. Pay close attention to the types of websites you gravitate toward and notice their quality of content, design and simplicity. Then ask yourself and those around you if your insurance website is just as alluring as the sites your frequently visit.

To learn more about insurance marketing, insurance search engine optimization, insurance web design, insurance website or insurance agency marketing, visit ReadytoQuote.com or call 1.800.504.8593.

Everybody knows Apple’s simplistic, clear, and intuitive. With their easy to identify stores, no frills images, and use of negative space (white space), they have been able to dominate their markets in a way that “clutter as much as possible” Microsoft has not.

When comparing Apple’s strategy to determine how you can integrate their wisdom into your insurance marketing strategy, we must first express that Apple’s website design style is unique to their size. They don’t have to include their keyphrases such as Apple, iTunes, iPhone or iPod because they already have the weight and strength to get top placement in the search engines for those terms with a minimal amount of text.

But you can still design your insurance website with Apple-like simplicity and still achieve a higher search engine ranking.

First, focus on the top. The very first things you want your prospective clients to see are what you can do and who you are… in that order.

At the very top of your page with as little distraction as possible, you should identify the insurance lines you offer and how to proceed with get a quote.

Below that top heavy introduction is where you should introduce content. The content should be easy to access, easy to read and always geared towards your audience contacting your insurance agency or company. Content is how Google can identify your site as being relevant to your insurance lines.

It’s always best to break up your insurance lines into as many sub-pages as possible to build a website that offers a substantial amount of relevant information.

The more pages you have to offer, the more substantial your website appears to be. You can have a lot of content, simplistic easy to use design, and achieve high conversion rates from Apple-like clarity.

You can always convert better by keeping it simple.

To learn more about insurance marketing, insurance search engine optimization, insurance web design, insurance website or insurance agency marketing, visit ReadytoQuote.com or call 1.800.504.8593.