Promote Your Insurance Agency Website

I would like to thank all of our new visitors who are arriving from Google AdWords links. If you are an insurance agent looking for ways to enhance your insurance website then you are at the right place. This is a fairly new blog with about 100 or so regular visitors. (Most of our visitors are customers of Confluency Solutions, Inc. you can view a couple example insurance agency web sites here: http://demo.cfluent.com and http://demo2.cfluent.com I can provide you more examples if you like.)

As you may have guessed, I will be playing around with paid adwords from Google, Yahoo and MSN for this blog and a couple select insurance agencies who are interested in testing the waters of online advertising. If you are interested in paid search for your insurance agency let me know.

My next posting will be Monday, September 1st, 2008.

Over the past 4 weeks I have talked about search engines and why it is important to take the time and make sure your insurance website is submitted to all of the major search engines & directories. Google, Yahoo, MSN Live & DMOZ.

Those are not the only search engines out there, there are others; they may not be as popular as Google or Yahoo but they do have web users searching on them. So how important is it to submit your insurance website to the major search engines? Extremely! Take a look at the list below and see how many search engines (This is only a partial list) scan Google, Yahoo or DMOZ for their own search results.

Over the last couple of weeks we have discussed more traditional types of search engines;
Google, Yahoo & MSN Live. This week we are going to talk about a not so traditional buy still very powerful online directory called DMOZ.

DMOZ (Owned by Netscape which is owned by AOL) is more of an online directory than a search engine. DMOZ is indexed by real people and not computer robots. Making the search results much more reliable.

The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors. Source.

DMOZ has its benefits and it has its disadvantages. Since each site is reviewed by an editor (living, breathing human being) the quality of the search index is better than any other search engine.

The biggest disadvantage that I have noticed is it takes a long time (anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of months) to get a site added to their search index and sometimes your site submissions will be rejected for no apparent reason. I have also seen sites rejected due to poor website layout or invalid categorization.

Nonetheless, DMOZ can be a powerful search tool that separates your insurance agency website from the competition.

Have your insurance web site added to: http://www.dmoz.org/add.html

Just like Google and Yahoo, Microsoft has a live search where you can go and claim your business and enter in your own information.

To claim your business through Microsoft’s Live Search go to: http://maps.live.com/localsearch/YPDefault.aspx

Enter (search for) your insurance agency name and city.

Once you find your insurance agency name in the search results: (If you are unable to locate your insurance agency web site in the search results than you will need to submit your domain to MSN Live Search first.)

Select your agency from the list. (While you are there be sure to give yourself 5 stars!)

On the bottom right of the page under the map there is a link that reads: “Business owners edit listing” (The link may also read: “Change your business listing”)

Select that link and follow the instructions to update your information.

See also:

Google Local Search
Yahoo Local Search

Next week: DMOZ

Much like Google Local, Yahoo also has a very impressive and important local search. Signing up for Yahoo Local search is simple.

Go to: http://listings.local.yahoo.com/csubmit/index.php and complete the necessary information. It is important to complete the information to the best of your ability, use descriptive words that include your location or a major metropolitan area near your agency.

See also:

Google Local Search
Local Search – MSN (Live.com)

Next week: MSN Live local search