If you’re looking to enhance your online presence and take advantage of essential digital marketing opportunities for your business, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the key. Once you have a website that contains important details about your business, you can take it to the next level with SEO. To help you get started, here are some SEO best practices with examples specifically for insurance agents and financial advisors.

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What is SEO?

Before we get too far, let’s define what SEO actually is. Essentially, Search Engine Optimization is the process that allows your website to get traffic from organic search results on search engines, such as Google. An effective SEO strategy involves incorporating specific design elements, headings, URLs, and other content on your website pages to attract visitors who are seeking the information, products, and services you provide.

It’s important to be aware that search engine algorithms are constantly changing. Although this can make it difficult to keep up with more advanced SEO strategies, you can incorporate some basic elements into your site. These basic tactics have stood the test of time and tend to change at a more gradual pace. Plus, even the basics can make a big impact on your website traffic.

Basic SEO Strategies to Get Started

1. Include your city and other nearby locations into your website headings and content. Since you want to attract clients from your area, this can notify Google and other search engines of your target location, so you are more likely to show up in the search results for potential customers in those areas. For example, on a website page about renter’s insurance, you could use the heading, Renter’s Insurance Agent in Denver, CO.
2. Use keywords with purpose. The keywords and headings you use for each page should indicate precisely what is on the page. For example, if your keyword is a question, you want to make sure you are answering the question within the content on that page. You don’t want to make your website visitors work too hard.
3. When in doubt, be specific. Longer, more specific keywords tend to perform much better on search results pages. As you can imagine, short keywords, such as Long-Term Care Insurance, have a lot of competition on the internet. On the other hand, more specific keywords can attract people looking to solve a specific problem or answer a specific question. For example, Am I Healthy Enough to Qualify for Long-Term Care Insurance? would be a more SEO-friendly heading.

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Analyze SEO Performance

Once you put your SEO strategy into motion, it’s important to pay attention to what works and what doesn’t. Make sure you check your website performance via Google Analytics or the built-in analytics tool on your website platform. Also, keep in mind that building up your website’s SEO takes time. In some cases, you might not see major results until after 6 months, 1 year, or more.

If you’d like to learn more about digital marketing as an agent, download our recent white paper, An Agent’s Guide to Digital Marketing.