24 TECHNOLOGY
Connecting with
your customers
When it comes to marketing their
Content is king
The search engine spiders that crawl across
business there are few better than
The importance of having regularly updated
websites cannot, for example, read images
brokers at working contacts on a
and relevant content cannot be underestimat-
and the text they contain, so will not count
face-to-face basis. However, when it
ed. If a site does not have new content the
them towards improving the site’s rating. So,
comes to online marketing, they are not
second time a search engine looks at it, it
if a broker has lots of scanned documents
quite so confi dent.
will take longer for it to come back and look
loaded up to the website in the hope they will
at it for a third time. The longer the content
improve the site’s ranking, they will be sorely
Successfully marketing a company is crucial
remains unchanged, the fewer times the site
disappointed.
if it is to win new clients and develop its
is crawled over by the search engines and the
business. Although many brokers have
lower its rating becomes.
Similarly, where companies try to take a short
taken to working in the online environment cut and trick the search engines into rating
without too many problems, the majority
This is why it is so important to update content
their site higher than it deserves, they risk
do not market their business as well as they
and there are numerous ways of doing this.
being blacklisted. In the past some businesses
could over the internet and struggle to make
Simple measures include incorporating a news
have taken keywords and phrases, such as
themselves visible in the electronic landscape.
feed or regularly uploading announcements
‘cheap car insurance’ and worked them into
and press releases. This not only creates new
the background of a web page. For example,
This month therefore, I want to look at some
content, but it also attracts visitors to the site.
by using white text on a white background
of the basic techniques involved in online words can be continually repeated without
marketing, explain how they work in a little
Similarly, providing things like Frequently
being visible to users or interfering with other
more depth and give an insight into some of
Asked Questions pages or a glossary of
content on the page.
the things that brokers should consider if they
insurance terms, will provide relevant content.
want to really steal an online march on their
In all of the material that is used, it is important
Embedding keywords in this way is just one of
competitors.
to make sure that the content is relevant.
the unethical (‘black hat’) tactics that the search
Where possible use the keywords that relate to
engines are now wise to and can result in sites
The fi rst and most widely used technique is
what the business does and where it is located.
being struck off the listings altogether. This is
search engine optimisation (SEO). The likes
Where these keywords appear on the page is
the worst possible outcome for any company.
of Google and Yahoo are the fi rst port of call
a factor in determining how effective they are
for virtually every online shopper and those
and when the site is crawled over by the search
When working to push a company’s website up
buying insurance are no different.
engines it will give prominence to words that
the rankings it is worth remembering that the
appear in headlines, titles and the opening
competition is not just other businesses, it is
If a broker wants to get in front of these clients
paragraphs of any copy.
every other page on the internet. The search
then making sure their business appears engines list results in terms of pages and so it
high up in the search engine rankings is
Taking time to structure the content of the
is possible for the same company to appear
essential. Without a decent ranking it is simply
site and the copy used will, therefore, pay
numerous times for a single search.
impossible to gain any visibility amidst the
dividends in the long run. It will also enable a
huge number of results that any search for
company to actively structure which keywords
Equally companies that are not necessarily
insurance tends to throw back.
drive positive results.
direct competitors, but have references
to a broker’s own keywords, can all create
So what can a company do to make its
For any broker making improvements to their
interference in the rankings and make it
website more visible to the search engines?
site, making the alterations search engine
more diffi cult for a business to come out on
There are somewhere in the region of 200
friendly is imperative. The site should be
top of a particular search. For example, a
factors that search engines look at when rating
coded and built in such a way as to make it
construction company discussing its liability
a website and of these content is one of the
easy for search engines to navigate across it
cover may fi nd its way onto search results
biggest hitters.
and read all of the information they need to
for insurance and liability, pushing a broker’s
give it as high a rating as possible.
own site down the list.
Insurance Brokers’ Monthly February 2010
Tech 24-25 FEB.indd 1 1/2/10 13:50:49
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36