SEO for small, independent insurance agencies -- is it possible?
-
I work with a lot of small, independent insurance agencies and have found through keyword research that most people search for insurance by state (e.g. pennsylvania auto insurance) or simple by product (e.g. auto insurance). Only if an agency is located in a densely populated city like San Francisco do I see people searching for insurance by city. As you can probably guess, these keywords are extremely competitive. Big companies like Geico and Progressive tend to take over page one for these searches.
So, if I'm trying to optimize a website for an insurance agency in Quakertown, PA, for example, a small town with very few monthly searches (zero according to Google's keyword tool), how should I focus my on-page SEO efforts? Should I focus on "state + insurance," "city + insurance," or a combination of both? Or am I approaching this all wrong?
Thank you in advance for your help. I'm feeling really stumped and would appreciate any fresh perspective.
-
I think everyone else has been talking about it a bit but I think you're on the right track with Local. You can't win "auto insurance" in Quakertown but you can absolutely be the A) Local listing if you increase your citations. Try Whitespark, see what's out there?
Bob J... is C) for quakertown PA auto insurance with a DA 10, PA 23. Not exactly impossible to beat. Organic results, yes you'll struggle because the big agencies have it setup right - unless you're working for one of their partners, you'll find it rough going.
Looking at your keywords in Adwords Tool, the only one with even "Medium" competiion is "insurance company" - by adding company the search gets SO large that even big competitors don't monopolize it. If you're ranking locally, adding "company" to at least some searches may help you as well.
Your best bet otherwise may be long tail keywords. Don't forget county searches. Bucks County insurance, etc. Auto, car, vehicle, home, house, homebuyers, renters, whatever - just do an Ubersuggest search and see what you're not using for important keywords, as well.
But I agree, it's going to be probably 95% local, 5% everything else.
-
Thanks, EGOL. This is an approach I have been using, so I'm relieved to have it verified by another professional. I've been focusing on claiming listings, keeping them consistent, and linking back to the website. Hopefully, this will benefit my clients in the long run.
-
Exactly -- take advantage of all the tools at your disposal. In this case, local results will be displayed more often than not. In a nutshell, you need to be setting up Google+ Local pages for the businesses you are working with rather than clinging onto the hope of competing with the big dogs for organic search position.
-
You want to get listed in the local results.
When I search for "auto insurance" and change my location to quakertown pa I see the map with push pins showing me offices for....
Aaron Landis, Bob Wimer, R&R, Reise, Jime Wiley
I would put my work into getting on the map.
-
I'm not experienced in the insurance industry, but I think your suspicions are correct in that you will have problems competing with the big players in the industry.
One question for you: Does a search for something like 'Quakertown PA auto insurance' bring up local results (map) or just standard results?
I would put my focus on the city level. Try to build links and local citations. Also, focus on what sets you apart from the big agencies. Perhaps there are people searching for 'locally owned insurance companies in Quakertown.'
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Blog - SEO Better? MyCompany.com/blog or marketing.MyCompany.com/blog? Percent difference?
We started blogging aggressively 3 months ago to bolster our organic search. We are building a new website and wonder if hosting our blog directly on our site is better than marketing.mycompnay.com? Is MyComanpany.com/blog a better choice - what percentage of SEO value would it be? We are building a new WordPress website. Our blog is currently hosted on a subdomain with HubSpot software. WILL OUR SEO BE SIGNIFICANTLY MORE EFFECTIVE HOST THE WEBSITE DIRECTLY OUR DOT COM? It won't be as convenient with HS tool but we want the best possible SEO.
Keyword Research | | Joseph.Lusso0 -
What is 'SEO copywriting' in 2015?
Howdy forum-fans! I've been toying with the idea for a while now, that 'SEO copywriting' and 'writing for Google' is no longer something that SEO's should be focusing on, but rather writing great, relevant, unique content for customers. The theory is that Google is smart enough to pick up on this and, via it's algorithms, know that it's content worth ranking as it'll be useful to people searching for queries related to the content. Additionally a well written peice of content should naturally contain keywords, phrases and links, taking away some of the overthinking that I've sometimes experienced (first hand) when writing content. What does everyone think? Is 'Writing for Google' dead in 2015 and, if so, has 'Writing for customers' replaced it? Or is there still a place for SEO copywriting; Eg. Well formed titles, URLs, meta-data (does this count as copywriting?)
Keyword Research | | JAR8972 -
All In One SEO Plugin & Titles
When I first started blogging I hired a company to design and develop my website. They provided SEO training which I've followed religiously but now I'm starting to wonder (after researching more and more about SEO) if by following these guidelines I may be placing myself in jeopardy. I write a blog about desserts. I was told that my SEO title should be different than my blog post title and I should incorporate a few different keywords in the title, write a meta description inserting a few keywords, and also attach 10 keywords, ie here is a typical post: Dark Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Cherry Ganache - post title Moist Chocolate Cake-Chocolate Ganache Cake-Chocolate Cherry Cake - SEO title Find recipe for quick and easy, moist Dark Chocolate Cake topped with Chocolate Cherry Ganache & fresh cherries & other Chocolate Desserts at Grace's Sweet Life. how to make chocolate cake, best chocolate cake, chocolate cake from scratch, best chocolate cake recipe, moist chocolate cake, simple chocolate cake, easy chocolate cake, homemade chocolate cake, chocolate cherry cake, chocolate fudge cake, chocolate ganache recipe I've come to realize that I really don't know how to keyword search (not so much how to search for phrases but how to implement them properly) and I'm wondering if there's such a thing as "hiring a trainer or consultant" to put me on the appropriate path for keyword research.
Keyword Research | | gracessweetlife0 -
Can I Trace The Keywords From a PPC & SEO Campaign That Brought The individual To My Site Without Using a Call Tracking Service?
Hi All I was wondering if it is possible to trace the individual keywords/key-phrases that someone has used to get them to my pages/site and if they came in from PPC or SEO, preferably without having to use a call tracking service, code under number, or multi-telephone line system? Regards Nic
Keyword Research | | KDWeb0 -
SEO Strategy for a Small Budget
Hi Everyone, I have a considerable amount of clients that have a relatively small budget for SEO and was formulating a new strategy for them. Generally their sites are small < 10 pages, so to get them ranking I was thinking of doing the following: work with the client to choose up to 3 key phrases to target check the competition level of those phrases if they are fairly easy to rank for, pound those phrases to get them ranked. I would still include some variations of the text to get the long-tail phrases or plurals of words, but I was wondering if this would harm their overall rankings. Thanks Eric
Keyword Research | | MLTGroup0 -
I have a client that wants listed in about twenty surrounding small towns surrounding Dayton , Oh
Is this ok to do?. It will be alot of keywords. we are talking about 20 different communities surrounding Dayton, Oh.
Keyword Research | | MarkBolin0 -
Start to SEO
I'm just starting out in SEO and would like some pointers as to where to start with things. I have a few sites that I've been passed to do some SEO stuff on and was wondering where people find the right keywords to optimise for.
Keyword Research | | Tinderbox0