Google Mixes It Up
Act cFluent Newsletter, November, 2010 - Subscribe today Subscriber benefits include early evaluation of new products and discounts.
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Google Instant - The Death of SEO?
Last month Google introduced a new search feature - Google Instant - that Google claimed saves 2 - 5 seconds per search.* Another benefit touted by Google: "Even when you don't know exactly what you're looking for, predictions help guide your search." Predictions to *guide* your search...hmmm, how nice. Whose predictions? Guide search how? Predictably, a firestorm of speculation has been raging ever since, with many prognostications including the death of SEO as we know it.
We're going to skip our additions to the hysteria, at least for now. Better to wait 60 days or so and let a few things settle out. Meanwhile, Google's own Matt Cutts has shared his opinions about Instant's impact on SEO, but the demise of the practice of optimizing web pages for search isn't one of them. Cutts unequivocally states that SEO will always be with us and he notes that every time Google introduces a new innovation, the blogosphere lights up with predictions of the death of search engine optimization.
Cutts does think there could be some changes to search behavior as a result of Instant, however. He believes that people may perform more varied and deeper searches as a result of Instant, which would mean fewer searches for generic, short tail search terms, and more long tail searches. In 2007, a blog post from SearchEngineWatch.com echoed what SEO pundits had been saying for years: Content is King. If Matt Cutts turns out to be correct, and long tail search becomes even more important than it is now, is content will still be king. The same things you should doing now to capture long tail search are almost certainly the same things you should be doing once the Google Instant implications become clear: blogging frequently, changing your home page content periodically, and customizing insurance product descriptions and other key web pages.
Keyword selection and optimization** should play a role in content development, but as always, compelling, readable page copy is always the best place to start.
*There are those who argue that Google may not really care about saving us time. On May 21, Google displayed a special banner in honor of the 30th anniversary of the classic arcade game, Pac Man. Showing off Google developers' clever use of HTML5 (see related article), the banner could actually be 'played', accounting for nearly 5 million lost man-hours at a cost to business productivity of $120 million. What Google giveth, Google taketh away.
**To learn more about writing with keywords and the mechanics of on-site SEO, you may want to sign up for Confluency's upcoming webinar on Keyword Optimization and Conversion Principles
Local Search Update - Progressive Insurance Ramps Up Help for Insurance Agents
Progressive Insurance recently introduced a new service for their agents, and more than a few Confluency agencies have asked us what we thought of it. The new program is called List Agent, and we heartily endorse it. For a nominal annual fee Progressive will help your agency list information with Universal Business Listings and Localeeze - the two big data providers to hundreds and hundreds of online directories. In the absence of agency owners claiming and updating the local search listings with Google, Bing and the others, the big local search providers will also rely on this data to populate listings. If you haven't taken advantage yet, don't wait any longer. You can enroll your agency through Progressive's FAO agency portal.
Local Search Update #2 - The Co-Mingling of Local and Organic Search
Among the other changes by Google in the last few months (see Google Instant), Google has quietly slipped local search results in-line, in the middle of organic search. Take a look at this screen shot for a search on 'insurance jacksonville fl':
As before, paid search shows up at the top and to the side, but the local search map has been placed in the right margin, pushing some PPC ads lower, to a less desirable position on the page. The even bigger, and potentially game changing impact, is the position of the local search listings, right smack in the middle of the organic listings (push pins are local). Page one of search previously displayed up to seven local search listings - and *always* - ten organic listings. The local listings were displayed at the top, right below the featured PPC listings, but the top 10 organic listings always made it to page 1.
On the page shown here, there are only 7 organic listings, and the in-line positioning of the local listings removes some of the differentiation between local and organic. I suspect that will result in even more click-throughs to websites from local search listings.
Another change that may be significant: local search listings now show the meta title and meta description from the business website, not from the Google Places listing. This is a further blurring of the distinction between organic and local listings. Previously, having an agency website was almost irrelevant to local search ranking. But now Google is using your home page meta title and meta description (if you haven't updated those, that might be a good way to spend your next 15 minutes); so actually having a website would appear to make some difference in local search. Stay tuned for more. Meanwhile...have I mentioned lately how important local search is to your insurance agency?
Keyword Optimization and Conversion Webinar
Content Management Systems, or CMS, take care of the mechanics of SEO, by providing the blanks for you to fill in. But you still have to have some idea about how to fill in the blanks if you want to truly optimize your web pages for the search engines. Confluency makes that easier than anyone else with a CMS that is specially customized for insurance agents, but there are still a few tips that will make your website a sticky search magnet; that is, a few simple changes will raise the visibility of your web pages in search *and* will increase the visit-to-conversion ratios when searchers do find you. Confluency will be conducting a best practice webinar on December 2, at 1:30 p.m. (sign up) to share these tips with you. The session is closed to Confluency customers and a limited number of invitees* - we hope you will take advantage by securing your seat today. A few hours of your time at the webinar and in the following weeks will reap benefits for months to come.
*If you have not received a separate invitation you can still try to sign up. If Confluency is unable to accommodate your request to attend we will email you with an explanation.
Recent Insurance Agency Website Enhancements...A Laundry List
Confluency continuously upgrades all insurance agency websites but a few times each year we roll out a collection of enhancements that is so extensive that it deserves a newsletter highlight. The last 30 - 45 days have been busy ones for Confluency's developers, with the debut of six significant enhancements.
Blogification
Confluency has always provided a wealth of content for agency websites and the ability for insurance agency website administrators to quickly add new articles. But over the last several years we have seen more and more websites shift much web content to a blog format. If you haven't updated any of your website settings then your articles and the related index looks just the same. But you now have the ability to switch to a blog format and allow comments to your blog posts. If you choose to enable comments, you will have to first authorize comments before they are displayed. Active blogs with visitor comments are good for SEO with the added bonus that you get a lot of unique web content effort free - your blog readers provide it for you in the form of comments.
HTML5 Video
There is a new version of HTML out - the computer code that controls the look and layout of web pages - and the new version promises a shift to more of a desktop experience when using web browser based applications. Google, You Tube and others have begun using HTML5 in a variety of ways and so has Confluency Solutions. All Confluency supplied video, previously served up in a Flash format, has been converted to HTML5. What this means to you (and visitors to your website) is:
- Your web pages load even faster so more visitors stick around to peruse your wares
- Your videos can be be viewed on important devices that don't support Flash, like the iPad and iPhone
- Web pages are far less prone to crashing
If a visitor to your agency website is using a browser that doesn't yet support HTML5 your video will automatically fall back to Flash so nobody gets short changed. Confluency will be doing even more cool things with HTML5 in the near future, so stay tuned for more updates.
Online Directory
We have made it even easier to customize your online directory with pictures, bios, and other details. It's a snap, so if your directory is presently just a ho-hum list of names, phone numbers, and email addresses, check out how easy it is to make your website directory pop. Plus, there is a hidden search benefit to updating your directory with detailed information (contact us to learn more).
Contact Page
Thanks to one of our client agents for pushing the envelope on this one. Many of our enhancements result from the suggestions of agents and we think you'll definitely appreciate the new tabbed Contact page layout and we think users will too.
Insurance Product Customization
Confluency has applied content management to the baseline insurance product details we provide. Content control, and keyword and conversion optimization are now in your hands. A few small tweaks to your most important product pages will pay big dividends. To learn more about what to do with this new feature, you should sit in on our keyword and conversion optimization webinar (sign up).
Google Maps 3.0
Confluency has upgraded map views on agency websites to Google Maps 3.0. Among other improvements is much improved viewing on mobile devices. More and more, your customers and target prospects are seeing your agency through your website as viewed on a mobile web browser. All Confluency's websites include an optimized mobile version, the maps upgrade makes it even better.
New Design and Layout Concepts
The prevailing look of the web changes continuously, and every few years, that change accumulates so that websites that are more than a few years old start to look *really* old. At the same time, learning opportunities have provided some of us with new insights for how to turn even more new website visitors into customers. Confluency's research and testing has led us to a new line of designs that we are pleased to introduce. If it has been some time since your website was *new*, it may be time for an upgrade - it's more than just a fresh coat of paint.
Contact us for more information.
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Confluency Solutions specializes in solutions that generate growth through high customer satisfaction. Easy to implement technology combined with traditional independent agency strengths vault your agency into the ranks of the top performers. Confluency Solutions provides complete business solutions, not just technology. We free you up to compete at an advantage, with any size competitor, in a way that just isn't possible without the right tools and without knowing how best to use them. Confluency Solutions makes the web work.
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