Common Local SEO Mistakes Insurance Agencies Should Avoid

The SEO field is changing day by day as Google is continuously updating its criteria due to the changing online interactions of users. One of the important factors of SEO is local SEO. Different insurance companies want to attract local clients because they know that 69% of overall traffic comes from organic and local searches. The competition in local SEO is also getting more and more with time and makes it difficult to rank at the top. But in this competitive condition if you avoid some minor mistakes then it is possible for you to rank at the top. To help insurance agencies succeed, let’s discuss these local SEO mistakes that are important to consider and the ways to avoid them. 

What is Local SEO?

Before going to the local seo mistakes let’s first see what is local seo for better understanding. Most people don’t even know the difference between Local SEO and simple SEO but we need to eliminate this misconception of people. Local SEO is the process of increasing your business visibility locally in a particular area, city, or country in Google Maps, Google Search, or any other search engine.

Insurance agencies want more insurance leads and this is possible through effective local SEO. Just like a local restaurant different insurance agencies can benefit from local searches for all their national or regional operations. Through in local SEO 40% of campaigns achieve a 500% or more ROI. That’s why more insurance agencies prefer to have effective local SEO services

local seo mistakes

Mistakes of Local SEO

No Directory Listings

The first thing that Google uses to verify a business’s existence is listing. This is the common mistake of most of the insurance agencies and they forget to mention their directory listing. A directory is a place that stores your NAPW information like Name, Address, Phone number, and website. This directory helps Google verify your business existence as well as customers who want promotional and helpful information about your business and search through keywords. If you want to overcome this mistake then you need to create a spreadsheet of online directories and by checking competitors’ directories fill your directories. 

Ignoring Google My Business Optimization

One of the most common errors insurance companies make is neglecting their Google My Business (GMB) profile. Google My Business is a place that helps your site to rank on local searches.  A fully optimized GMB profile is very important for the local search visibility of insurance agencies. The mistake people make is having inconsistent business information so try to make it consistent and check your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) in all the places and verify all information is accurate and matches your website. Then choose the most relevant primary and secondary categories for your agency and verify listings. If you want to make your profile more engaging then post updates regularly like photos and special offers that your insurance agency provides to its customers. 

Poor Website Content:

Content is also an important part of local SEO. People do not consider this and think that they will rank in local searches with poor content. High-quality content helps your website to increase its credibility. It helps to educate your client more about your business and attract customers through engaging content that helps to grab the attention of people. You can do this by writing localized content according to the local community of the targeted country. Fill out with local keywords that are more relevant. 

Duplicate Listing:

Duplicate listings always confuse people as well as Google. It affects your business credibility and is considered bad SEO. Double listing in SEO for an insurance company can be caused due to different reasons like if your agency changes its name or address and you forget to change in all the places. When your site has duplicate listings then your site becomes shady for Google and as a result, Google drops your site from local searches. To avoid this mistake you need to have a standardized process of listing. Verify and update your NAPW, remove all the duplicate listings, and make sure only a single listing of your insurance agency. 

Neglecting Localized Keyword Research

For local SEO it is important to use high-volume keywords with local searches. You not only target keywords that people are searching for instead you need to use those keywords that people in your specific area are searching for. Most of the insurance companies do not optimize for local keywords and use generic keywords only which is wrong. To optimize local keywords you need to search geo-specific or service-specific keywords. Focus on long-tail keywords like auto insurance in [city]” or “home insurance near [location]. Search competitors’ keywords and try to use them in your content. 

Poorly Optimized Website for Local Search

Like traditional SEO, it is important to optimize your website according to local searches of people. Most people search for the specific keywords related to the place of your business. Most of the websites have No Location-Specific Pages so try to create the pages for each location of your agency with unique content and local keywords. If your site is slow then try to optimize images, caching, and contact hosting providers for fast load times. The local searches through mobiles are 57% that’s why it is important to have a responsive and mobile-friendly website design. It is important for both user experience and search rankings. Use the local keywords in meta, title, and headings. If you want to improve your local SEO presence, then you must consider a local SEO company that provides you best required results.

Overlooking Online Reviews

Reviews play an important role in online business. When businesses have good reviews they also get bad reviews at the same time. But ignoring these bad reviews means having a big NO for SEO. It not only affects a business’s reputation but also affects the ranking in local searches because Google wants to show the best things to its customers. Have you ever seen people click on sites having one start? Not even if you rank in local searches. To deal with these reviews you need to respond to them. You can also make a customized review for each negative review because templated reviews may annoy customers and not address the problem that people face while experiencing your business. You can also explain the main issue in social media to clarify your side. You also have the option to report negative reviews so they remove them. 

Final Thoughts:

To rank your insurance agency website in local search results you must have to avoid all the common mistakes that are listed above. Insurance local SEO is necessary to increase the visibility of your websites in local searches. 

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