Redesign Vs. Second Site

[JohnWalker]

Right now my agency is in the process of expanding and I am at a crossroads. My current site targets non-standard auto and accounts for about 40-50 policies a month.

Because how I've been performing in the search engines, I would like to expand my agency's product offerings and start marketing to preferred auto, homeowners, and commercial lines clients.

My initial plan was to leverage my current website's authority and re-design the site to portray a more premium service and increase my product offerings while still servicing our current customer base. The problem is that marketing to non-standard is completely different than marketing to preferred.

After much consultation, I've been introduced to the idea of keeping my old site the way it is and creating a second site to advertise specifically to this new market. I see the benefits of this route; however, it would require significantly more time, effort, and money to gain traction than re-branding.

I've weighed heavily on both options and would like some of your opinions.

 

[lrixford]

In your case I would create a second site. Let's talk. I might have some ideas for you.

 

[somarco]

Why not do both?

Add your new market to your existing site and create a 2nd site for the new line as well. Track your leads to see which site is pulling better.

Local HVAC companies have moved into plumbing and electrical work. Now when they advertise on radio they say something like "The name you trust for HVAC is now also available for all your plumbing and electrical needs"

At least one of them has incorporated the plumbing and electrical into their main site but also have a separate site.

 

[nonstandard4me]

What is the address of your current site? I'd personally like to see it and some of the more technical pros around here could probably benefit from seeing to give some feedback on how to integrate the preferred market into it.

 

[JohnWalker]

Why not do both?

Add your new market to your existing site and create a 2nd site for the new line as well. Track your leads to see which site is pulling better.

Local HVAC companies have moved into plumbing and electrical work. Now when they advertise on radio they say something like "The name you trust for HVAC is now also available for all your plumbing and electrical needs"

At least one of them has incorporated the plumbing and electrical into their main site but also have a separate site.

I like where you are going with this suggestion but I'm not sure how I would execute it logistically. Adding all the new products to my existing site and marketing them along with launching and promoting a second site would require a significant amount of resources which I don't know if I can fully commit too.

I run a 2 man agency. My employee handles 85% of the sales and service. While I handle business development and marketing. We are successful with this setup but are spread thin.

Because most of my traffic comes from the search engines, I would need to invest in ranking both the old and new site for at least 10 new lines of business, which equates to double the time, money, and effort.

I mean it won't hurt to just add the new lines to my current site but I just don't see too many "cheap car insurance" shoppers opting for homeowners or commercial lines products.

How would you handle this in my situation?

 

[somarco]

My situation is different. I operate on a shoestring mostly because I am cheap and it is just me. I am also a bit of a control freak and when I have farmed out some of the design, SEO and content writing to others I am not pleased with the results.

Back before Penguin, Panda, Poodle and all the other Google permutations I could put up a blog post and be on pg 1 within hours.

That changed and now I have to fight for space.

My primary site was designed to attract under age 65 major med clients and it worked well for years. About 5 years ago I decided to transition to Medicare. My thought process was, since I am getting traffic already why not put up a few Medicare articles and see what happens.

I watched it for a few months and did pick up "ancillary" traffic for Medicare so decided to launch a separate Medicare site. I rewrote some of the higher traffic Medicare pages and posts and put them on my new site. Gradually, over the next couple of years traffic on the Medicare site picked up and is providing me with a somewhat steady flow of Medicare clients.

Even though I have done nothing to promote the old site in over a year I still get about 2x the pure traffic I am getting off the Medicare site and some of it is for Medicare. The rest is for child only health insurance and dental coverage but I do get some Medicare traffic from the old site.

It has been a long, slow process but my Medicare income is starting to pick up steam and should completely replace my health insurance income in the next 12 months.

I spend less than $3000 a year on advertising, etc but my ROI is many times that. Still do a lot of my own work but i enjoy most of it.

With low overhead and a laid back approach I can chug along for several years with a low 6 figure income that pays the bills and has a few $$$ left over for a nice bottle of wine and steak from time to time.

 

[JohnWalker]

Thanks a lot Bob. This is the input I was looking for. It's perfect how similar your story is to my current situation.

Just curious since you said you haven't been marketing your old site, did you notice a decline in rankings for your old site once you started focusing on your new one?

I'm worried that if I leave my old site alone for too long my rankings will slip.

BTW I really appreciate your input so I took the liberty of sneaking your new site to DMOZ. I know it's not as powerful as it used to be but because of how "cheap" you are I figured I'd help stretch that marketing budget a bit further. You can check out the link here:

DMOZ - Business: Financial Services: Insurance: Agent Resources: Web Design and Development

 

[somarco]

Thanks for the kinds words and free help (DMOZ). However, outside of this forum, offering advice and marketing services to agents is above my pay grade.

Yes, the old site has deteriorated some but since I am not using it for leads any more it doesn't bother me. I stopped adding anything to it (other than Medicare posts) a couple of years ago.

Your situation is different since you want to keep that market you will need to split your time.

 

[ltcadviser]

BTW I really appreciate your input so I took the liberty of sneaking your new site to DMOZ. I know it's not as powerful as it used to be but because of how "cheap" you are I figured I'd help stretch that marketing budget a bit further. You can check out the link here:

DMOZ - Business: Financial Services: Insurance: Agent Resources: Web Design and Development

Very cool John! What a nice gesture!

 

[mkd1204]

You have a very strong site that is performing well for some tough to get keywords.. That will be difficult to duplicate.. I would try to incorporate some of the new lines of business into your current site... Google looks at your site as a whole but the rankings for each page.. It will be much easier to rank a blog post or page from this site than starting fresh..

Create some new categories for those lines of business and set up a silo structure for them.

BruceClay - SEO Silos - how to build a website silo architecture


I used to be very active on my website but haven't done much at all in the last year or so.. It is really nothing special but the rankings haven't changed a whole lot for me.