Earning Backlinks vs. Building Them

The goal of any SEO strategy is to get your website noticed. One of the more important aspects of most SEO strategies is developing backlinks. Backlinks are links on other websites that link back to your site. These links tell the search engines, “Hey, this site has some good info, and I link to it!” Most search engines use this to determine how popular a website is on the Internet. Let us first look at why search engines use this as a primary metric in determining where your website shows within the organic search results.

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How Social Media Can Hurt Your Agency's Brand

The insurance industry has begun to embrace social media. It's even become the norm to have more than one social media account. (Heck, we have five Twitter accounts, four Facebook Pages, two Google+ accounts and one LinkedIn business page.)

Social media moves quickly. Poorly managed social media accounts could backfire and instead of building relationships and raising your awareness online you could be hurting your agency. How? Here are six things to watch for and take care of immediately.

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10 Common Mistakes that are Hurting your SEO

Search engine optimization can be overwhelming and confusing. There are a few key tips to always remember when optimizing your site, but there are also a few key things to always watch out for. Make sure you’re not letting your hard work be undone by any of these common mistakes.

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Throttling It Up to 110%

From my dad to coaches and everyone in between would tell me to give 110%. Being rooted in logic and mathematical numbers, I always thought how can you give more than 100% when 100% is all you have?

I was a huge Space Shuttle fan. I watched every launch, knew every detail, and even tried to become an astronaut until they told me that being 6’5” tall pretty much ruled that out. One of the things that has continued to intrigue me about the Space Shuttle was that it normally operated at 104.5% power and even as high as 111% in emergencies. How could these super smart rocket scientists get it wrong and allow something to do more than what it could do? Was I missing something?

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Insurance Website Builder Introduces Site Search

When creating a website you might think of everything, the best graphics, the nicest layout, and the friendliest navigation. This all works well in the beginning, however, once you site begins to grow and change over time you start to develop a lot of content that is nested deep within your site.

Using best navigation practices it is impractical (and not recommended) to link to every piece of content that you have ever created. Therefore, it is imperative that you have a utility that allows users the ability to easily search your site for the content they need.

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Easy List of How to Fully Benefit from Your Website

1. Site Title & Description
   This is what search engines read and display, so make it concise, but descriptive. (For example, ‘Auto, Home, Life Insurance – Dallas, Plano, Richardson TX’ for the title and ‘Example Insurance Agency specializes in auto, home and life insurance in Dallas, Plano, Richardson and the surrounding areas of Texas.’ for the description ) Limit your title to 65 characters and description to 150 characters. Search engines will not index characters beyond this limit. Use this Javascript Kit webpage to count your characters.

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9 Ways to Destroy Your Agency's Brand

Many insurance agencies don't have an employee dedicated to their agency's marketing. Those employees who do their agency's marketing often have other duties and responsibilities that take time and focus away from the agency's brand. And that's fine.

However, there are things that could hurt or destroy your brand if you're not careful. Here are 9 marketing moves to avoid.

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Selling Value Insurance with Price-based Marketing

The holidays are approaching. The time for sales, door busters, and insane pricing is upon us. It reminds me of last year when I wanted a new TV. Holiday discounted prices finally caused me to act and get rid of my old TV.

I ventured down to my local electronics store and started checking out the deeply discounted TV mentioned in an ad. Right next to it was an even better TV for just a few dollars more. The salesperson helpfully explained to me why it was better than the cheaper TV: better picture, better sound and able to connect to the Internet. “Wrap it up,” I tell him. He continues to tell me that if I want that awesome picture I would need the gold plated HDMI cables. Fine; throw it in the cart. 

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Where to Look for Great Content Ideas for Your Blog

We talk a lot about blogging here on the ITC Marketing Blog. For good reason as it plays an important role in adding fresh content to your website, which search engines love, and promoting your agency and your knowledge as an insurance expert, which your clients appreciate.

Blogging can easily become a daunting task. Especially if you struggle with what to write about. There are several places to look for ideas on what to blog about. But the best place to look are your customers.

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16 Questions Your Insurance Website Must Answer

You only have three seconds to convince website visitors to stay on your website. If you don't make a good first impression, they will not hesitate to leave and never come back.

When consumers come to your insurance website for the first time, they have questions. Questions you should answer. We look for subconscious clues on a new website to determine if that website is going to give us what we want. Prove your website is trustworthy and that it has the answers consumers seek, and they'll stick around longer.

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