Local SEO

Business Listings / Citations

Claim Listings 

It’s an important step to claim your business online because it verifies that you’re the owner of an online business. It’s often an easy step to claim your brokerage but make sure you do it properly. It’s prudent to be the business owner when you claim the listing so you can make changes and fix errors down the road.  

The verification process will include an email, a phone call or a postcard in the mail that provides you with a pin number to confirm the verification. 

Remove Duplicates 

If you have multiple business listings and you’re updating them manually, make sure you keep a detailed spreadsheet of all the listings for reference. Listing your businesses automatically, not claiming it, can be done via a service like Moz Local.  

These services can also help remove duplicate listings.  

Why are local citations important for SEO?

Local Citations Can Impact SEO Rankings - Local citations comprise your brokerage’s online NAP. NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number. Citations may also include various elements, including hours of operation, business description, email addresses, and taglines – to name just a few. 

Why NAP information should be consistent and correct across all your business listings.  

As an insurance brokerage, when you’re optimizing your website, you need to have accurate NAPs across all your listings.  

We explain the reason why local citations are so important below. 

SEO Ranking 

With correct business information, you eliminate any confusion for Google and other search engines and directories to find you, as you’re marked as a reliable content source. Without this certainty from search engines, your rankings will dip. Besides losing your top ranking, you will lose revenue as your potential customers may visit or call the wrong business.  

There are local listings scoring tools you can use, including Moz’s Local Listing Score tool. [https://moz.com/products/local/check-listing ], which will pinpoint any inaccurate data or locations for your business so you can fix them immediately, so your ranking is not impacted.  

Industry Platforms 

As a company in the insurance industry, you can create a citation on websites that cater to your industry. Under insurance, this would include insurance directories and websites, including the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada (IBAC).  

Check out Google My Business, Bing, Apple Maps, Yelp, Yellow Pages and directories relevant to the insurance industry.  

Open

Google My Business

Google my business (GMB), which is free to set up, is a useful tool to get views and clicks from possible customers. In addition, consistent posting (at least once a week) may land your brokerage in the local 3-pack - the top three business listings on Google for relevant search terms. 

Why it is (the most) important.

Optimizing your Google My Business listing is a sure-fire way for clients to call or visit you in person. Without optimization, they likely won’t find the pertinent information when they do a Google search.  

Top Features 

• Description

  • A summary of your business in 750 characters or less helps you describe your brokerage to your customers.  

• Reviews

  • Google business reviews are essential for the survival of your business as people often rely on them when they decide on which business to buy from. Reviews also boost your brokerage’s reputation.

• Posts

  • You can write a post and link to an article on your website. The post character limit is 300 characters.  

    • Posting to your GMB listing at least once a week can significantly increase clicks and views of your business because you’ll be posting about new products, offers and any relevant information existing and potential clients will be searching for.  

• Q & A

  • Questions come from customers about your business. It’s critical to answer these inquiries from people who could be existing or potential customers. We recommend using the questions as a platform for blog content on your website. There is likely more than one person who has the same question – answering the questions in a blog is a timely way to satisfy your customer’s questions.  

• Booking Function

  • If you own an insurance company or brokerage and have multiple locations, it’s useful to have a booking function on your Google My Business page.  Customers can easily click on this area of your GMB and book an appointment.  

• Product listings 

  • You can list your products on your page to entice potential customers of what you offer or inform your existing client base of new products or services. 

• Analytics 

  • My Business Insights is a handy tool that lets you see ow many visitors are viewing your company’s profile and what information they are looking at, and where they navigate on your website.  

• Respond to reviews

  • It’s vital to respond to your negative and positive reviews on Google. Potential customers will see that you care about what people are saying about your organization, whether it’s in a positive or negative light.