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When it comes to nurturing your insurance agency’s online business reputation, there are numerous strategies you can use. However, if you have to pick just one or two areas to start with, it’s a good idea to focus your efforts here:
- Boost your search engine ranking, and
- Optimize your Google Business page
Why focus on these two aspects specifically? Because getting them right can have a huge positive impact on your agency’s online reputation. Keep reading to find out why these areas are so important, and steps you can take to improve.
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Search Engines And Customer Reviews—The Keys To Improving Your Online Business Reputation
In the business world, your online presence means everything. After all, think about your own shopping habits when you need a product or service.
- When you’re looking for a dog groomer, are you more likely to crack open a weathered copy of the Yellow Pages, or type “dog grooming near me” into a search engine?
- If you’re doing an online search for the best cheeseburger in New York, do you open the first few links looking for the perfect match, or do you click through to the fifth or sixth page of Google results and read every single entry?
- When you need a plumber at 3 a.m., do you dial the first number that comes up, or do you take a moment to check out a handful of reviews and make sure the man you’re inviting into your house in the middle of the night seems reputable?
If you’re like most people, you search for a product or service online, check out the top ten or so results that show up, and then make your selection based on which business has the best user reviews.
It should be clear, then, why you want your agency to rank high in search engine results and capture good reviews for display on your Google Business page.
Next, let’s dig into some specifics on each of these elements.
Focus Area #1: How To Improve Your Agency’s Search Engine Ranking
Have you ever read a web page or a blog post from several years ago that seems awkwardly written with repetitive, chopped-up phrases that don’t quite seem to fit? That post was probably stuffed with keywords in an attempt to make it rank higher in Google searches.
In today’s world, that’s a clear example of what not to do.
While keywords are still important, most search engines nowadays prioritize a good consumer experience. If a webpage is clear, helpful, and packed with engaging content that makes readers want to stick around, it will likely outrank another page that’s peppered with keywords that make no sense in context.
With that said, Google’s algorithm is notoriously complex—on purpose. The folks at Google don’t want people deliberately gaming the system for the sake of search engine rankings.
This means the best thing you can do—or the best thing you can hire someone to do—is make your web pages helpful, engaging, and relevant to your business.
And if you can fit in a couple of keywords here and there, that’s even better.
Let’s take this very blog post as an example.
We’ve worked the phrase “online business reputation” into a few places so that search engines understand what the article is about and can display it to you—someone who has presumably searched for articles about maximizing your insurance agency’s online presence. But the core focus is not to pepper the entire blog post with keywords to make Google happy, it’s to give you helpful information that might actually make a difference to your digital marketing strategy.
As you optimize for online searches, try not to get too focused on Google. Getting your listing on Bing or setting up a Facebook/Meta business profile, for example, provides backlinks that Google views as important to your priority ranking. For this reason, putting a little effort into other platforms actually helps your Google ranking at the same time.
It’s worth noting that professional digital marketers are constantly educating themselves on the current best practices preferred by Google and the other major search engines. That’s because those best practices change along with every algorithm update. What works well for you one day might not work as well in six months. Your strategy will need to shift with the times.
However, one practice will hopefully never go out of style: Providing quality content to your readers that lets them know what your business is all about.
You can do this in a few different ways. Your top priorities could be:
- Consistently publishing educational blog posts that help readers understand some of the more complex details of shopping for and purchasing insurance
- Creating videos or webinars that tackle similar topics in an engaging way
- Posting new photos (think headshots of your management team, bios for each agent, and/or snapshots of events you’ve sponsored in the community) or helpful insurance-related insights on a regular basis
- Filling out your Google Business profile so Google and potential customers can find and learn more about your business
This last step brings us to the next crucial component of digitally marketing your agency.
Focus Area #2: How To Maintain Your Google Business Profile
Google Business page optimization is one of the most frequently overlooked aspects of digital marketing. This is unfortunate, because search engine rankings can only get you so far. Whereas appearing in top search results makes your business discoverable, your Google Business profile is what helps make your agency attractive to potential customers.
A large part of this attractiveness comes from having a variety of good reviews.
If you only have a single one-star review (or worse, several of them), potential customers are likely to pass over your profile and opt for another business with a better reputation. On the other side of the coin, a profile with plenty of four- and five-star reviews is going to look attractive because customers feel relatively safe giving you their money and expecting quality service in return.
Interestingly, reputable digital marketing firms are not allowed to deliberately solicit reviews. And, to dissuade private companies such as your agency from soliciting or falsifying good reviews, Google will actually treat a page with too many over-the-top glowing reviews—or too many within a certain time frame—with suspicion.
So, resist the urge to ask your mom and your best friend for a rating, and definitely don’t post false reviews. You’re better off providing a good quality service and letting the positive reviews roll in organically. It helps if you have an easy way to link to a review submission page on your website. You can simply send it to each happy client after a job well done.
Once you do receive some feedback, respond to each review politely. This is a great opportunity to engage with your clients publicly, offer them a heartfelt thanks for doing business with you (and work in a well-placed keyword while you’re at it).
Another key piece of the puzzle is images.
Have you ever come across a business profile that was clearly auto-populated by Google Maps, and no one ever bothered to check it for quality? We’ve seen photos where a semi truck is completely blocking the face of the building, for example. If your business page lacks good photos, uploading your own engaging imagery is a great way to boost user engagement almost instantly.
Additionally, make sure your business details are clearly listed in your profile. Potential customers want to know your agency’s physical location, mailing address, phone number, website, hours of operation, and any other relevant information you can provide. Be sure your agency’s website is also linked (and up to date) so users can click through to learn more about what your agency offers.
Overwhelmed? Outsource your reputation management!
If all this seems like a lot to worry about, that’s because it is. Digital marketing is a complex process that never truly ends. If you’re doing it properly, you’ll always be checking your Google Business profile, curating and responding to reviews, updating your web pages, and paying attention to your website traffic. It’s a full-time job by itself!
That’s why it can be helpful to work with a professional digital marketing team. They can do all of the above (and more) for you, in addition to sticking to the very latest best practices recommended by Google. Even better, you can supplement your digital marketing services by purchasing warm leads from us to really give your business a boost.
Contact us here to get started.
