This is a question we get regularly when talking to agents about using their blog or social media to grow their business online. Most businesses understand the importance of creating content to power their inbound marketing, but they get tripped up when it comes to deciding what content to provide. Luckily, there is a process that you can follow that takes a lot of the mystery out of it. In this article we'll share some actionable tips you can quickly put to use to get a step ahead of where you are today, and where many of your competitors are. Section Links How do you know what your customers are looking for? Well, in case you haven’t yet, you could ask them. I know that sounds a bit snarky but it's true. Start thinking of your customers and the problems they face, as well as the questions they have when deciding to buy your product or service. If you don’t know about keyword research yet, it may be time to learn a little about it.(I expand on this below) It’s just a small component of SEO(Search Engine Optimization), but it’s a good place to start getting found online and can bring big returns. It’s fairly easy to apply and there are free keyword research tools available. Whether you have something specific you want to write about or not, here’s how to find out what your customers are looking for online.
Customer ResearchOpen up a Google search page and type in words, phrases or questions you think your customers might have into google, like – “how to choose a life insurance policy”, and hit search. Notice that Google will try to finish your sentences. It does that because Google knows what people are searching for and is trying to help you. It may not guess your exact term but just be aware of those suggestions for now. Look at the bottom the page in the “Searches related to..” section. That is a list of terms of similar queries people have searched for previously. With this as a basic setup, let’s get a little more detailed and do some keyword research. Simple, FREE tools to help you write relevant articles and social postsLet’s start with some basic definitions just to clarify. Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific keyword phrases that visitors are more likely to use when they're closer to a point-of-purchase. With a keyword search tool you can see the volume of any term. Meaning, you can see how many people per month are actually searching for that term. If they’re not, then your information may not be what your customers are looking for, even though you may think it is. Download a FREE search browser tool like SEO Quake, or Keyword Surfer. Even better, install them both. Once installed, search for a term in Google and you will see data to the right of the search field at the top of the page, and the boxes on the right side of the page that were not there before, from Keyword Surfer.
In the screenshot above, note the keyword ideas on the rights side in the Keyword Surfer box. These are Keyword Ideas that other people have searched for, similar to your search term. This is a valuable list of keyword terms you may want to use as the basis for articles and other content to be found on Google. If you look at the organic search results, you’ll find the organic search results are now numbered. (The small red box on the left) This numbering of the organic search listing is part of the SEO Quake browser extension. It makes it easy to identify the organic search terms from the paid listings, and makes it easier to tell what rank a search result is as you scroll through the pages. What you first need to pay attention to is the Volume. In the case of FMO Insurance, we see that the volume is 320. Which means about 320 people search that term every month. The higher the volume the more people are searching for it. Every time you search for something it will tell you how many people are looking for that exact term per month. Now, this doesn’t mean that when you find a term with a volume of 100,000/month you should try to write an article to try and rank for it. If your website isn’t already ranking #1 for a lot of key words, or you are just starting writing content for your site, you will want to start with keywords with smaller volumes. There are plenty of long tail keywords with low volume that have little competition. Start there. When you see that you are ranking for those terms you can try ranking for keywords with more volume, and continue that process. If you see a keyword you really think is relevant but is way too competitive, just find a long tail version of that keyword with smaller volume. This is a long term game, but worth the effort. What to look forSearch for a term in Google until you find one with a reasonable volume. Is the content in these articles the same as what you intended for your search? By that I mean – Instead of searching for, let's say, “life insurance” - volume 246,000, search for “what is the best life insurance policy” - volume 390. It is also much more specific. So, someone searching this term is much closer to making a buying decision than the larger volume term. In general, when searching keywords, look to find results from other companies similar to yours. Bear in mind, this is a simplification of SEO and how search engines work, but if you aren’t applying these tactics already, then starting with these simple steps will get you started on the road to growing your organic traffic. And don’t forget to have a good call to action somewhere within the article. Key TakeawaysOk, this can get a bit dry so let’s put it all together. The point of this exercise is, you don’t have to guess what people want to read about. Take a good look at the first couple articles. You’re not trying to copy, just getting an idea on what made those articles great, in Googles eyes, so you can provide even more value to your prospective clients. It takes time for articles to rank on the first page, but when they do, they will deliver for you day after day. If you want organic traffic and leads from search engines, and you should, then you need to know what people are searching for. You know your business best. If you know that some information is important but just doesn’t have a lot of volume, according to google, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be written. Writing and posting content is a lot like investing. The results can be slow at first, but over time it will compound and really start to add up. Take the time to plant those seeds today. You'll be glad you did. Best of luck. Back To Top
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How to decide what to write on your Insurance blog
Posted by www.psmbrokerage.com Admin on Thu, Nov 02, 2023 @ 11:23 AM