Generating Traffic at Your Web Site

[iDIQ]

Hello all – new to the site and have been enjoying reading some of the past threads.

I’ve been in the group health and life market the past 15 years and have found the market becoming increasingly stagnant so I’ve decided to give it a go in the individual health arena (excellent timing - right!) I’m about to launch a web site for individual and family health plans (with an on line quoting and enrollment tool) and now need to figure out how to start driving traffic there.

So my question is, what have you done to generate traffic at your web site?

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

In a word? Blog.

 

[iDIQ]

So how does blogging help? I've been on the IHIAA blog and the last post you have is from April. How does a blog with no activity in the past 6 month help you / IHIAA?

If the blog is attached to the web site, again, how do you direct traffic there?

As a side bar, I don't get social media / blogging (but I'm trying to understand it) so these questions are coming form a total lack of knowledge.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Completely different. Not a lot of competition for "health insurance training" which gets me on page 1 with almost no effort.

In contrast, there's a ton of competition for health insurance related keywords and phrases.

 

[Charpress]

A blog makes it super easy to update a site with new content.

Google (which owns Blogger.com) loves blogs and loves sites that have frequent updates. The more frequent the updates, the more frequent the spidering.

A blog doesn't even have to look like a blog. Again, if people visit a site a few time and never find anything changed, then they will not be back. It really is as simple as that.

On the other hand, if a site is intended only to have a place where people can check you out -to see if you are legitimate, or whatever, then having a static site is OK.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Sometimes the easiest way is to take a look at what others are doing in your state.

For example, if you live in FL, then Google "florida health insurance quotes." What's at the top? This:


Florida Health Insurance | Florida Individual Health Insurance Quotes


So, just start analyzing it. Does it look more like a website or blog? It's more like a blog.

 

[Charpress]

It's interesting if you analyze the source code for the site.

The HTML source for the title is shows what key words they are targeting: "Florida Health Insurance - Florida Individual Health Insurance"

Note how keywords are used in the heading and repeated in different places and in different orders.

The meta generator name, by the way, is "WordPress 2.9.2" so, yes, it is run on a blog chassis. As has been said, a blog site does not necessarily have to look like a blog. It can be quite sophisticated given the number of free business templates available for WordPress.

 

[iDIQ]

The more I learn the more I realize I have loads more to figure out. Thanks for the direction. Off to look for "Blogging For Dummies" ;-)

 

[mtnmusic]

The more I learn the more I realize I have loads more to figure out. Thanks for the direction. Off to look for "Blogging For Dummies" ;-)

Run some line ads in weekly shoppers such as Thrifty Nickel reading "Affordable health plans" listing your web address and an 800 number. It's cheap and it works.

 

[ABC]

Hire an SEO person.

You will need to set a budget.