Getting Search Engines To Notice Your Website

A lot of agents get their first website, then sit back and wait for leads to begin beating down their door. If only getting loads of people to visit your site was that easy.

People won't visit your site if it's impossible to find. You can help guide leads to your site by getting it listed in popular search engines.

Two Kinds Of Listings

Search engines group their search results in two different ways.

Organic. These results are website pages that the engine determines are the most relevant to the term you entered.
Paid. On most search engines you'll notice a "Sponsored Links" section pops up after you perform a search. Advertisers pay the search engine to display their listing when the search terms they bid on are used.

Competitive paid search, or pay-per-click, campaigns aren't cheap - especially for such a big category like "insurance". The amount of leads you get might not justify the money you spend on it.

Narrow Down The Field

With so much competition out there, can you really get the search engines to notice your site? Possibly. Being listed for "auto insurance" may be impossible, but being listed for "John Smith Auto Insurance" may not be.

You can encourage people to search for you this way. If your prospects are aware of your name, what you do, and that you have a site, there's a better chance they'll search for specifically for you instead of searching for a broad category like insurance.

Practical Ways To Drive Traffic Through Search Engines

Here are a couple ways you can get prospects to use the search engines to find you online.

Make your website address public. Start adding your web address to all your marketing. That includes everything from your Yellow Pages ads to your direct mailers to your business cards.
Ask other sites to link to yours. The more links from relevant and reputable sites there are, the easier it is for prospects to find you. Starting local is a good idea. You can try your chamber of commerce, as well as professional associations you participate in.
Important: Stay away from sites that are big collections - or "farms" - of links. Your prospects don't find them useful, and being included on one can actually damage your search engine rankings.

You can read up on more online marketing ideas for agents in our Insurance Marketing Resources.

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