Category Archives: Search Engines

Discussions about various types of web search, how to maximize results, and avoid pitfalls.

Local Search – Is the Opportunity Slipping Away for Independent Insurance Agents?

8th
Jul. × ’10
By Kevin

Tweet The companies (collectively) that distribute through independent agents aren’t doing everything they could to help their agents gain visibility and business on the web.  Nationwide seems to be. Do it yourself, or get someone to do it for you, but get listed with the local search engines and directories.  Agencies that take advantage write [...]

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The Foundation for Growth: Four Things Every Insurance Agency Should be Doing

4th
May. × ’10
By Kevin

Tweet Something Old, Something New I talk to a lot of insurance agents.  Some are happy with their sales and profit growth, most aren’t.  That’s one thing most agencies have in common.  Some have little free cash to invest in marketing programs, some have literally invested over $100,000 in what they believe to be state-of-the-art [...]

Also posted in Customer Development, Email, Insurance Agency Communications, Local Search | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

How Much Business Does Your Agency Lose By Hiding?

1st
Apr. × ’10
By Kevin

One insurance agency’s $60,000 gain is anothers $60,000 loss.

Also posted in insurance agency website, insurance web marketing, Local Search | Leave a comment

Local Search: A Problem and an Opportunity for Insurance Agencies

30th
Mar. × ’10
By Kevin

Tweet This screen shot of the local search portion of a Google search for ‘insurance chattanooga, tn’ points up the problem for insurance agencies.  Why are four of the 7 pack spots occupied by doctors? The answer is because no local agencies have optimized their local listing in the Google Local Business Center.  Most haven’t [...]

Also posted in Local Search, seo | 1 Comment

Long Tail Search: Getting Past Googling Insurance

22nd
Oct. × ’09
By Kevin

(There) is an opportunity to capitalize on keyword phrases that will be searched, but that are often missed by the keyword research tools used by big budget on line marketing departments.

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Hate Customer Controlled Reviews? Maybe it’s Time to Get Over It

18th
May. × ’09
By Kevin

Tweet A lot of insurnce agencies I talk to are uneasy about customer reviews that might show up on the public web. The fact is, most business owners are nervous about losing control over customer commentary, but I tend to talk mostly to insurance agents. The local search components of all the major search engines [...]

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Search Optimizing Your Insurance Agency Website

26th
Mar. × ’09
By Kevin

Tweet The atmospheric noise about website search engine optimization and search ranking has increased significantly in the last year or so.  Insurance agencies are just as caught up in the chatter as other businesses.  Search optimization (SEO) and rank are complex topics, with signficant business implicaitons, so much so that our company, Confluency Solutions, has [...]

Also posted in insurance agency website, insurance web marketing, seo | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Leapfish – Advertising or Investment?

24th
Mar. × ’09
By Kevin

Tweet One of the nice folks at Kirby Insurance in Baltimore was recently approached by a company called Leapfish and was offered ownership of a keyword relevant to the insurance agency business. Who is Leapfish and what do they do? Leapfish is a new entrant into what is known as meta search – basically aggregated [...]

Also posted in insurance web marketing, paid search | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Your Insurance Agency’s “Community” Reputation

16th
Jan. × ’09
By Kevin

Tweet I have long encouraged agents to take control of their online reputation. Monitoring feedback left by others at various online rating and search services is a must. Encouraging positive feedback is even better. I recently concluded a purchase on eBay (where buyers and sellers are sometimes referred to as the ‘EBay community) and received [...]

Also posted in Local Search | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Add Local Search to Your SEO Arsenal

25th
Jun. × ’08
By Kevin

Tweet Update, March, 2012:  When Confluency Solutions started tracking local search visibility within the independent insurance agency universe over two years ago, more than 80% had not claimed their Google Place page, let alone other local search engine listings.  Today, that number has dropped to about 65% – a big improvement but there are still [...]

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