SEO for Insurance Companies and Brokerages

If you’ve read my post on PPC prices via Google Adwords, you know that insurance companies and brokerages like yours are paying a lot for advertising.  The high rates tell us auto insurance buyers are online in droves looking for car insurance coverage or possibly to change providers.

When insurance companies are willing to pay $80 per click, it tells you right away that it’s a lucrative business sector and that you can save a lot of money by creating leads via SEO, Content Development and Social Media. These three approaches work very well together. A key note on content development is that it must resonate on the insurance topics and be presented in a way that is consistent with Google’s quality algorithm update and Rankbrain update.  Google is a different beast than your regular insurance customer.

Inhouse or Expert? Please don’t continue with inhouse digital marketing if your team can’t make it work. If they don’t have the skill and creativity, they likely never will. You need a seriously competitive and innovative SEO consultant who isn’t afraid to tackle any challenge and who has experience with several insurance companies and brokerages.

Take a look a few of the prices that insurance brokers are paying online. And keep in mind, these are suggested prices to show up. These won’t get you to the top advertising position. And if your landing pages aren’t high quality, you’ll have to pay even more.

Keyword Phrase Avg. Monthly Search Volume US (exact match only) Suggested Price per Click
performance car insurance 50 $74.07
company car insurance 140 $72.63
young drivers car insurance 30 $59.38
insurance car quote 480 $57.57
auto insurance 165000 $56.99
automobile insurance quotes 880 $56.40
affordable insurance 12100 $55.74
business loans 27100 $55.29
auto insurance quotes online 3600 $54.41
best car insurance 12100 $54.20
get a car insurance quote 320 $53.52
quick car insurance quote 320 $53.50
get auto insurance quote 1000 $53.34

While it’s true that minimal, low budget efforts won’t deliver much, it’s always a good idea to use SEO for the long run. It’s important to supplement your leads gained via advertising. And it’s important to keep your current customers informed and glued to your brand and value proposition. SEO does all of this.

Building a Preference for your Brokerage

Why do insurance consumers choose the companies they do. I’m sure Geico would tell you it’s all about fun branding while esurance will tell you its about advertising and insurancehotline will say it’s SEO. Yes, location is everything and being number one on Google search is prestigious and highly converting. The higher your rankings, the more easily you’ll convert visitors.

The principle is simple. If they come to your site first, they haven’t been contaminated with your competitor’s insurance offerings, propaganda and promises. Avoiding competition is truly important in any medium. It’s tough to beat a thousand other offers.

If a thousand advertising leads are worth $50,000 then organic SEO and content development have to be worth it. You can do a lot with 50 grand. Consider moving your ad budget to SEO. It will even help your Adwords/Facebook advertising effectiveness because being visible in organic gives your ads instant credibility — that your company belongs there and hasn’t just bought its way in.

SEO is great in that your branding gets a boost from being associated with important keyword phrases (e.g., los angeles car insurance quote) and thus becomes more significant and relevant to car insurance shoppers.  It keeps on producing for free for a long time, and forever if you keep me working on your website and social media pages.

Let’s get started with your SEO and Content Development Campaign. I want to make your company epic!