I am looking for organic traffic results, not pay per click. I believe I only received 3 quote requests in 2012, but closed 4 policies. Since that is terribly low traffic, but a fantastic closing ratio I am thinking of investing in a professional site in 2013 and would like to hear about what kind of results I can look forward to. If you wouldn't mind mentioning if you spend a lot of time on seo that would also be helpful.
How Many Quote Requests Did Your Website Receive in 2012?
Define a "professional" site. Will you write content or farm it out to someone else? What kind of budget are you looking at? How did you get your current (past) visitors?
What is your market? Line(s) of coverage? How much competition do you have for those lines?
I have been using my site for years to generate leads. On average, for every 10 quote requests, about 6 are bogus or they never answer or respond to VM messages.
Roughly half the remaining 4 have no money or are uninsurable.
Or both.
That leaves 2 out of 10 as possible buyers and I usually close most of them.
What is your market? Line(s) of coverage? How much competition do you have for those lines?
I have been using my site for years to generate leads. On average, for every 10 quote requests, about 6 are bogus or they never answer or respond to VM messages.
Roughly half the remaining 4 have no money or are uninsurable.
Or both.
That leaves 2 out of 10 as possible buyers and I usually close most of them.
- 11,996
I have a few folks I've done insurance SEO work for that have done pretty well, one made over $10k this AEP over it. Since I mostly do my list business now (did five life policies and one annuity last year, zero this year) that's where I've been putting my efforts. I get 10-20 people/week that either fill out something online or call me (other than folks from the forum). Twelve months ago I was basically only getting traffic from the forum, so that's a big step in the right direction.
What do you mean by "professional" website? As far as the SEO goes, I've spent a lot of time and resources building up my site the way I have and the results have been well worth it.
What do you mean by "professional" website? As far as the SEO goes, I've spent a lot of time and resources building up my site the way I have and the results have been well worth it.
- Thread starter
- #4
- 11,996
You might want to look into wordpress. It's going to probably be somewhere in the middle in terms of quality, but definitely respectable. Most of the agents on here with sites that are doing very well are using wordpress. You can pay a designer to make one for you, use free themes, or you could go to a site like themeforest.net and find some themes you like for about $50. There are other options too such as woothemes or elegantthemes, but I'm not much a fan of them.
You're probably looking at the wrong metric. How many visitors do you have come to your site? Take a look at craigslist.org. It's a hideous site. It's boring, lame, and aesthetically has nothing really going for it. That said, it's a big deal of a website and hundreds of thousands if not millions people use it on a regular basis. There are a number of sites that convert well because they don't seem to offputing. Let's not forget that many consumers have been burned by putting their info into a lead gen site and have been harassed for years because of that mistake, if you're site looks like you're just one agent that's not going to resell their info, that might be attractive to them.
- 10,276
"and around $39 a month"
Fail.
Fail.
To be honest, you won't find many agents that make much off of their website. Josh's doesn't count, he doesn't sell insurance.
A website is necessary, but you won't even make a dent in making a living on it in P&C in the LA area. You need it as a reference site for your clients and prospects though, so it should be done professionally.
People will disagree with me, but in my view, you want a decent site but then spend your time and money in relationship marketing, and simply point people to your site for info. I don't know of a single P&C agent that makes a living on their website traffic. I've known a few to claim to, but when you talk to them, its not their website (i.e., buying internet leads).
The time and money people spend trying to develop organic traffic on a small P&C website simply has a terrible ROI. I don't know how to be more blunt than that.
Dan
A website is necessary, but you won't even make a dent in making a living on it in P&C in the LA area. You need it as a reference site for your clients and prospects though, so it should be done professionally.
People will disagree with me, but in my view, you want a decent site but then spend your time and money in relationship marketing, and simply point people to your site for info. I don't know of a single P&C agent that makes a living on their website traffic. I've known a few to claim to, but when you talk to them, its not their website (i.e., buying internet leads).
The time and money people spend trying to develop organic traffic on a small P&C website simply has a terrible ROI. I don't know how to be more blunt than that.
Dan
- 5,056
I remember when I first got licensed, I had put up a Google Local Listings, without any optimization, and got a call out of the blue (had forgotten I had even put it up) with a laydown/rollover $600/mo GoldenRule sale - $1500 fyc, and never got another one ever again. LOL - never messed with local.
I have a site I do for an agent on this board, get's about 60-70 leads a month, I did 1-2 months work of work and it's pretty much been on auto pilot since.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Overcharging noobs for websites.....
SUCCESS!
Last edited:
- 11,996
A key difference to is if you're doing local vs nationwide. I get search traffic from everywhere and what state (or country for that matter) what they're in doesn't make a difference in what I can or can't sell them. Local SEO is a very different ballgame. If you're trying to get traffic through your site, statewide is the best most folks do.
- Thread starter
- #10
Thanks, you gave me the best answer so far. If it is unlikely I can recoup my investment in the website it is not worth it with me to spend my time and money on it. This is really all I was wondering. I do not "love" my current site, but the upkeep costs practically nothing and it gives me a web presence and a couple (2..wow) of new clients for the year so I guess it will do.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I have no idea what you mean. Are you saying $39/month is too expensive for a website? I've heard of others charging substantially more so I am surprised if that is what you were alluding to.
Last edited:
