Setting up Twitter on your Website

Twitter is a very powerful social networking platform that can significantly increase the number of visitors to your website, if used correctly. IWB websites have the capability to automatically tweet with appropriate web addresses, any changes made to the website, e.g. updating pages, posting blogs, adding content. This is great for busy agents like yourselves.

1. Set up a Twitter account. Go to http://twitter.com and sign up for a account. Your user name should be your company name rather than your main keyword phrase (kp). A company name is better in the long run, as you will be changing out your main kp in a few months, and you would have to start your campaign all over again.
2. Make it look nice. Customize your account with your main kp as best as you can. The bio line should include your main kp. Make sure to include your website address in the profile settings. Your background and link colors should match your home site. If possible make your image a 72 pixel by 72 pixel version of your company logo. Nothing turns away a visitor faster than a default-looking, no-customization page.
3. Network with your website. Log in to the Admin Console, under Communication Settings, click on Social Networking Settings. Enter your user name and password and make sure to check the box that says Enable Twitter Posting. Now every time you make a change to your website, Twitter will know about it. 

Twitter is a great way to communicate with current and potential customers. Even though the website automatically tweets for you, don't let that be the only thing your feed is about. Integrate community news and events, current affairs, insurance news, and company news and promotions, to make your status updates more interesting. Happy tweeting!

Additional Resources:

• Read more about Twitter for Business.
• Learn how to set up a Facebook Business Page.
• Link Facebook to Twitter. 
• How Twitter is changing: A new study reveals Twitter’s new direction
  
• Social Media and the Insurance Industry

Twitter for Businesses

With Twitter releasing their new business model "Promoted Tweets" more businesses may want to look at creating a Twitter account. Check out Twitter 101 - a Special Guide for Businesses thinking about tweeting.

http://business.twitter.com/

Learn how to automatically Tweet from your IWB website.

Learn about Social Media and the Insurance Industry.

Ever Googled your Insurance Agency Name?

Ever wonder what exactly makes up the pieces of the search results you see at Google? Before that question can be answered, the process of how Google delivers results must be understood. There are three key processes in delivering search engine results.

First, Google "crawls" the world wide web and accumulates information about websites and their content. The program Google uses to accomplish this task is referred to as Googelbot. Googlebot uses an algorithmic process to determine which sites to crawl, and how many pages to read from each site. Next Google compiles a massive index of all the words and locations of the sites it crawled.

When a Google user enters a query, Google returns a result they feel is most relevant. The results that are displayed are referred to as Snippets. In general, Google reserves the right to display what they feel is best for their users. However, you have a great deal of control about what is displayed about your agency on Google.

There are three primary components that make up a Snippet.

Title
The first line of the Snippet is the title. The title displayed comes from the title of your webpage. We have found many websites where the designer will overlook this very important step when designing websites for their customers. WebPages not titled will appear in search results with the title as "Untitled" or "Home Page" which does not encourage the consumer to click and learn more. Whereas a title listing your agency name and a slogan or short concise description of what your agency offers would encourage the consumer.

Description
The description listed by Google typically comes from one of three places.

• Open Directory - If for some reason, when Google attempts to "crawl" a site and they are unable to read it, Google will then sometimes rely on the Open Directory Project, which is listed at www.dmoz.org

• Within the Page - Sometimes, Google pulls the description from within the page. Google determines what part of the page it will use so the description gives some context as to what the page contains.

• Meta Description Tag - the most preferred method and where you have the most control of what description is displayed is the Meta Description Tag which is included in the code of your website. By including a Meta Description Tag, you have the ability to dictate what is displayed about your site.

Descriptive URLs
The last component displayed is the link to your website or the page on your website that meets the searchers' query. Providing a descriptive URL is another key aspect to converting a searcher. For instance, a URL such as www.sampleinsurancewebsite.com/page.php?id=5134, doesn't tell the searcher they have landed in the right spot, whereas a URL such as http://www.sampleinsurancewebsite.com/automobile/car_insurance_quote.aspx will.

Insurance Website Builder
Every website we design, we include a descriptive title, on-target description, and all of the URLS quickly identify to the searcher what they contain. In addition, through our admin console, our users can update their titles and descriptions at any time and is easy as using any word processor.

Get specific details on how to fill in the title, description and keywords for your website.

Web Statistics and Tools

Setting up web statistics and tools can be very helpful in tracking your website. You can set up webmaster tools for Google, Yahoo and Bing and analytics for Google. The webmaster tools help you see if the various search engines are able to crawl your site and if there are any errors stopping them from doing so. The analytics tool helps you track the numbers of visitors to your site, how many of those are returning or new; which websites are referring those visitors; and overall traffic to your website among other things.

Click on the following links below to learn how to set up these tools for your IWB site:

• Google Webmaster Tools - Watch a video intro from Google.
• Yahoo Site Explorer
• Bing Webmaster Center
• Google Analytics

Show up Your Competition and Generate Online Referrals

73% of insurance consumers used the internet to research auto insurance last year. Therefore, increasing your ability to be found online is a critical component to compete in today’s environment.  One of the primary drivers to increase your online visibility is to increase your ranking with the search engines, such as Google and Yahoo. A heavily weighed factor used by search engines to determine your placement on a search results page is the number of external websites that refer back to your site. These links from other websites to yours are called backlinks or are also referred to as inbound links.

Explore who is referring online visitors to your competitor's website.   Visit https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com, type in your competitor's website address and click on "Explore URL".  By default, Yahoo will provide a list of all of the pages that are included on your competitor's site.  To get a list of referring websites, click on "Inlinks" and then under the drop down box "Show Inlinks" select "Except from this domain". Be sure to check out who is referring your website while you are there.

Just as you receive credibility when someone refers business to your agency, your website receives credibility with the search engines when an external website refers to it. Backlinks improve your rankings on search engines and also entice visitors to come to your website.

5 Tips to Get Free Referrals (backlinks) to Your Website.

1. Forum Posting.   There are several forums online where consumers post their insurance-related questions. These forums offer a great opportunity for insurance agents to get online exposure by posting answers to their questions. More importantly though, many of these forums allow you to include a link back to your website in the signature line included with your answer. A great example of such a forum is ampminsure.org.

2. Article Marketing. Submitting short insurance-related articles to sites, such as Ezine Articles, is another very effective way to get quality backlinks. Joining EZine is free, however, they do uphold strict guidelines that prevent people from spamming their sites with sales ads. Keep the article informative and educational to show that you are an expert in your field. For example, write a short article on why it is important to carry renters insurance or outline the criteria involved in determining a rate for auto insurance. When submitting the article, be sure to include your link as part of your signature.

3. Social Networking Sites.  Including an informative blog on your website meets another demand of search engines by keeping your website full of fresh and relevant content.  Insurance related blog posts will be chalked full of keywords that your prospects search for when looking for insurance. To get the maximum benefit of your website blog posts, use social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn to refer your followers back to your blog.  Social media sites are a great way to develop a loyal following as well as get quality backlinks.

4. Industry Association Backlinks. Industry associations are typically a great place to network and share ideas with other colleagues. Contact your industry association and ask if they accept short articles or blog posts from members.  Again, always be sure to include your website address in your signature.

5. Company Backlinks. Company backlinks are probably the easiest to obtain. Most companies include a “Find an Agent” section on their website. Check these sections and make sure they are listing your website next to your agency name.

How to Get Your Business Ranked Higher in Local Google

Having your website show up in local Google maps, now called Google Places, search results can be very beneficial to increasing traffic to your website. There are two main steps to having your local listing show up.

ONE

One way to do that is to fill in as much information as you can on the listing.

1. First find your business on Google maps, or add it here http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter. (Note you will have to verify your address first, either by phone or snail mail.) 
2. Add as much information as you can, fill out every field, upload pictures and logos, even videos if you have them. Make sure your main kp appears as well. Google has a very handy article to help - Google Places Help for Business Owners.

TWO

The other way to get your business listing higher in the local results is to get your customers to write reviews. The more good reviews you have, the more precedence Google will give to your listing.

UPDATE: Here is an excellent example of an insurance agent keeping up with reviews. If you were a customer, wouldn't you be inclined to visit this agency?

1. To find your business listing go to http://maps.google.com and type in your business name and the city and state it's located in. 
2. Once you find it, click your agency's name. This will take your company's page for Google Maps.
3. Copy the listing's web address and paste into an email. This will be a very long link so you will have to use anchor text.
4. Send it to all your customers and even friends and family. Ask to them write a review by logging in to Google and then click on the Write a Review link on your company's page.

That's it! That's all you have to do. Of course you could also spend every waking moment getting anyone you can to write a review for you. But that's up to you.

Similar factors affect Local Yahoo and Local Bing. It only takes a few minutes and is well worth the effort.

Read more about how you can help users find your business on Google.

How Facebook boosts Rankings

Facebook, and indeed all social networking sites form an integral part of SEO. One of the advantages of signing up for a Facebook profile is creating backlinks from a highly ranked website (PageRank 9/10), but also building a network among like-minded people.

These articles show how to get the most out of Facebook:

• 11 Business Benefits of Using Facebook Applications
• How to Get Maximum Benefits from Facebook Marketing
• 7 Simple Facebook Page Tricks
• How to build fans on Facebook

How to Create Effective Backlinks

Creating effective backlinks are essential to a successful SEO campaign.

A backlink is link from another website coming into your own website. Backlinks contribute to the PageRank (PR) of your website. A backlink must include your main keyword phrase (kp) in the anchor text. This means creating a link with the words of your main kp e.g. Dallas Car Insurance rather than using the web address as a link or even "Click Here" or "Visit Us".

Backlinks only help to boost rankings if they are from high ranking, high quality websites, in other words websites with a high PR. Ranked out of 10 websites with PR 4 and upwards are worthy sites. Websites with lower PRs are good but more backlinks from this type of websites are needed to equal a website with a high PR. You can check PR by downloading the Google Toolbar.

You can post a backlink in business directories, local directories, social networking sites and other blogs.

Here are some directories where you can post your link for free.

• Local Google
• Local Yahoo
• Local Bing
• Yellow Pages - PR 8/10
• Super Pages
• Local.com - PR 7/10

Make sure to add your website address and wherever possible with your main kp.

Read about inbound links straight from the horse's mouth (Google).

Read more about What PageRank Means for Your Website.

How to Choose a Main Keyword Phrase

A main keyword phrase (kp) is the most important part of your SEO campaign. This is the phrase you would like potential customers to use to find your website in the search engines. It is used as an anchor text to link back to your website. It must also appear "as is" without any variations, at least 3-5 times on your homepage.

A main kp normally consists of 3-4 words. Any more or less will dilute the effect your SEO campaign. A main kp can take two main forms:

1. Geo-target Line of Business e.g. Dallas car insurance
2. Line of Business in Geo-target e.g. Car insurance in Dallas

The geo-target can be a city, county or state. It can be the city your main offices are in, a place that you would like to attract a larger customer base from or a new area that you would like to break through to. If you cover multiple cities then the county that encompasses all of them or even your state will be beneficial.

Some things to consider when choosing a geo-target:

• A city is what most potential customers search by. If it is a common name, it may be necessary to add a qualifier, eg. the "TX" in Dallas TX Car Insurance.
• Consider the number of search results in your decision. Do a search in Google for the different geo-targets with the line of business, and see how many other companies/entities you are competing with. The larger the area, the more entities you are competing against e.g. State vs. City. If the results run in the millions then it may not make sense to pursue that keyword. Consider adding a qualifier or changing the geo-target altogether to reduce the number of results.
• Choosing a lesser known or smaller city will get you to the top of search engines faster as there are not many entities you are competing with. However, that may also mean that less people will consider using a smaller city to search by.
• Not many people search for insurance by county, however if you feel it most accurately describes your geo-target then go for it.
• Choosing a state as a geo-target will have the largest pool of competitors. You should think seriously about choosing a state, as this will take longer to show favorable results.

Some things to consider when choosing a line of business:

• Choose a line of business that you want to attract the most new customers with.
• Choose a line of business that you can guarantee will get most the new customers and then entice them with another line of business once you have them.
• Consider the number and kind of competitors for that line of business; if you have numerous competitors in your area who concentrate on auto insurance, then it may be viable to focus on something else like home insurance which may get you to the top of search engines faster.

Bear in mind that the main kp you choose is not the be all and end all of your SEO campaign. With this type of “natural” SEO, it can take up to a month or two to see favorable results. However if you find after two or three months, this main kp is not working for you, then change it to another geo-target or line of business.

You can also create secondary and tertiary kps. These are normally in the form of the same geo-target but with different lines of business. You can add these to the page keywords or anywhere else it is necessary.

As with all SEO, no guarantees can be made with regards to results. Consult your SEO Coordinator to determine what is best for your agency.

Read more about how and when to use your main kp for On-site Optimization and Off-site Optimization.

How to Write an Optimized Blog Post

Keyword phrases (kp) are the most important elements of SEO. IWB customers can log in to the Administration Console to blog on their website.

• Title - The title of your blog post must have some keywords in it. For example, Dallas Auto Insurance, New rate cuts for Dallas Auto Insurance, Fresh focus on Home Insurance in Dallas etc. Google loves fresh content, and if that content has your keywords in it Google will pick up on it and associate it with your website. Also, IWB websites automatically converts the title of your post to a URL, which once again helps the search engines find your website easier.

• Body - The body of your blog post must not be too long, ideally 1-2 paragraphs, maximum of 3 paragraphs. People do not want to spend too much time reading, so the shorter and more concise your post the better.  Always include links back to your website. Make sure those links include anchor text or the actual keyword phrases. Do not link “Click here”, “Visit us”, “www.agencyname.net.” The more links that go back to your website the better. The links do not necessarily have to link to the homepage. If you have something interesting to say about health insurance, link back to the health insurance page or even the quote forms. Just make sure you have at least one backlink in your post.

• Pictures -  Add pictures to your entries. These help to make your posts more interesting and break up the content. Make sure you have permission to add them.

• Content - Writing your own content is highly recommended – it’s unique to you and therefore more valuable. However if you don’t have the time to write something yourself, you can re-post news articles, community news, industry news on your blog. Just make sure you cite the source, with the original web address. If you are copying insurance articles on to your blog, make sure to delete links to other insurance agents websites. You can still link something within that article back to your website. It’s important to blog at least once a week or as often as you can. If you cannot do it yourself, perhaps get another agent or secretary to do it, as long as you have fresh content. Ask questions in your blog posts. This gets your readers thinking, and they can now post their comments in IWB's new blog commenting section.

• Tags - Also known as keyword or blog tags. Tags help you to categorize your posts, which makes it easier for people as well as search engines to find your blog entries. Make sure to use the same tag whenever you can, rather than variations of that tag, e.g. use blog instead of blogging, blog entries or blog posting. This helps us find entries easier and especially with the way IWB websites use them, and makes the search engines find them easier too. IWB websites handily displays all tags used to the right of every blog you post.

Additional Resources:

• To Blog or Not to Blog
• How to Choose a Main Keyword Phrase
• Top Blogging Tips by the Best Bloggers  

(Photo courtesy of BlogTrepreneur.com)

How to Optimize your SEO settings

This information should be entered in the SEO Settings section of the Administration Console. Watch a video on how to optimize your SEO settings for your IWB website.

Page Title

• Should be the Main Keyword Phrase (kp)
• Must 60-70 characters long (including spaces)
• The main kp is normally 3-4 words long in the format “Geo-target Line of Business”, e.g. Dallas Auto Insurance, Cheap Dallas Home Insurance, Dallas TX Contractors Insurance
• Only insert the main kp. The Website automatically adds “ - Company Name” at the end

Site Description

• Must be 150-160 characters (including spaces)
• Must include main kp
• Must describe the website, what it offers, what the company specializes in
• Must be a full sentence, i.e. humans read this, so it must make sense, with a full stop at the end, appropriate capitalizations etc.
• Can include areas covered, e.g. cities, counties, state
• Do not include address, hours of business

Page Keywords

Note: The top 3 search engines, Google, Yahoo and Bing do not take page keywords (meta keywords) into account when ranking a website. As such, these are not important if you want to rank in the top 3. However the smaller search engines may still use this data, so it's best to add some.

• Must be at least 10-15 keywords
• Must be comma delimited
• First keyword must be main kp
• Can include derivatives of main kp e.g. home insurance, home, insurance etc.
• Each keyword must be present somewhere on the homepage, be it in the main body or navigation.
• Can include areas covered
• Do not include zipcodes, area codes

Read more about how this is reflected on Google's Search Engine Results page.

Off-site Optimization

One of the two main components of SEO is off-site optimization. Off-site optimization involves putting links on other websites to your own website, otherwise known as backlinking or inbound links. The other is on-site optimization.

• Social networking sites. You can create Twitter, Facebook and Linked In profiles or any other type that is popular, and then link those back to your homepage.
• Commenting on blogs. You can comment on other insurance blogs, or blogs in general and put your web address in the comment.
• Google likes fresh content. One way to do that is to blog on your website. You can find this in the Admin Console under Communication Settings. You can have links that link to other pages in your website. You can blog about interesting news articles, community news, financial news, any promotions your business is holding. Watch a video on how to blog on your IWB website.

On-Site Optimization

One of the two main components of SEO is on-site optimization.  This involves optimizing your site by using keyword phrases both in the source code and the content of your website. It is crucial to have unique, keyword-rich, relevant content on your homepage. Google puts heavy emphasis on website content and this is one of the easier requirements to meet. 

• Choosing a main keyword phrase (kp) and sticking to it. This phrase must have a geo-target and a line of business associated with it, e.g. Dallas car insurance, cheap Dallas home insurance, Dallas TX business insurance.
• Optimize SEO Settings on your website. Your page title, page description and the first phrase in the page keywords section in the Admin Console should all contain your main kp.
• Embolden important keywords. This will alert the visitor and Google what is most important on your page. 
• Make sure all words in your meta keywords appear somewhere in the homepage. Navigation links and footers can include the phrases.
• The kp must appear in at least 3 places. Your main kp must appear on your homepage 3-5 times. This can be as a heading, in the footer and the body of the content.
• Add an H1 heading tag containing your main kp. In the Admin Console, under Site Content Editor, select Home Page from the drop down menu. In the HTML side type your heading like this:  <h1> Dallas Auto Insurance </h1>
  The main kp is closer to the top of the page and Google will read that first. Google reads text from top to bottom, so it is crucial to have your most important information close to the top of the page. Alt tags for images are also very important (contact your webmaster or IWB Support for help on this).
• Add your main kp in the footer. For the footer go to www.reliableins.net to see an example. In the Admin Console, under Site Content Editor select Site Footer. Type in your main kp, Dallas Auto Insurance. To make it a link do the following:
• Click the chain link icon on the toolbar within the content editor to open the Hyperlink Manager.
• In the URL textbox type in the URL.
• In the Link Text textbox type in the link's description.
• Select New Window in the Target drop down box. 
• Once completed, click the Ok button.
  

The other main component is off-site optimization. This involves creating inbound links to your website.