This is the ultimate guide to help increase your search engine rankings and get more qualified leads.
We’ll share B2B SEO strategies we’ve used for brands like Arielle, which boosted its traffic from 9,000 to 70,000 monthly visitors and tripled its SQLs.
We understand your main problem is playing in a crowded market with complex, unsexy products.
Those insurance products need to come in front of the right target.
Solid SEO for corporate insurance can solve these issues.
In this article, we’ll share our in-house insurance SEO strategies, from minute on-page optimizations you didn’t even consider to finding niche keywords your competitors aren’t even thinking about.
Let’s start.
TL;DR:
- SEO Importance: SEO is crucial for corporate insurance companies to stand out in a competitive market, attract more qualified leads, and boost online visibility without relying on paid ads.
- Strategies Outlined:
- SEO Audit: Essential for identifying strengths and weaknesses in your current strategy, including website analysis and keyword assessment.
- On-page SEO: Focuses on optimizing web page elements like title tags, meta descriptions, and content structure to rank higher in search results.
- SEO Content Creation: Involves creating high-quality, search-engine-friendly content that addresses the searcher’s intent, supplemented by competitive gap analysis and keyword research.
- Local SEO: Targets local clients through optimized Google My Business profiles, positive reviews, and local content.
- Service Page Optimization: Combines keyword research, engaging content, and smart site architecture on product or service pages.
- Off-page SEO: Builds authority through quality backlinks and social media engagement to enhance search rankings.
- Technical Optimization: Focuses on improving technical aspects of the website like mobile speed, page speed, and schema markup to aid indexing and user experience.
What Is SEO?
earch engine optimization means making your insurance business website better to have a solid online presence in organic search results.
SEO is an essential component of your digital marketing strategy because you can attract potential customers through strategic adjustments to your website and content.
Unlike paid ads, which stop generating leads once the campaign ends, a well-executed SEO campaign offers sustained visibility and lead generation over time.
Also, SEO is more than attracting targeted visitors.
SEO means building trust and credibility among your insurance industry audience.
Insider tip: From our experience at Blue Things, it’s best to view SEO as a long-term investment rather than a quick fix.
SEO builds a solid foundation for your online visibility, leading to lasting growth in your sector.
Here’s the most recent performance of one of our top clients, inBeat.co, showcasing this exact point about building a sustainable organic traffic machine:
Why Do You Need SEO for Your Corporate Insurance Company?
The corporate insurance industry is very competitive, so standing out to potential clients requires more than traditional advertising or referrals.
SEO helps insurance agencies and brokers like you connect with your target audience, generate more qualified leads, and boost sales.
Here’s how that works:
Firstly, your digital presence is essential.
69% of insurance research starts online, which means your insurance company must be visible in search results.
SEO ensures your website and content are optimized for search engine algorithms, thus increasing your search rankings and online visibility. So more people can actually find you.
Secondly, insurance products are complex, and decision-makers search for valuable content that explains these intricacies.
SEO helps you find the best topics and assess user search intent.
Therefore, you can offer your target audience relevant content that meets this user intent. As you educate and engage insurance consumers, you can ultimately influence their buying decisions.
Take the major commercial insurance company Liberty Mutual.
Over a two-year period, its organic traffic decreased by $68,700 and its traffic value by $260,000.
That suggests they may not be targeting the right keywords, but we’ll tackle that in a second.
For now, consider this challenge:
Insurance agents and companies need trust and credibility.
SEO can do that.
A high search engine ranking signals to potential customers that your business is a reputable source of information and services in the insurance market.
Besides, your slew of service pages and in-depth blog posts also prove your authority.
Besides, adding SEO to your digital marketing strategy improves user experience, a factor that search engines consider highly when ranking websites.
Of course, you must consider mobile optimization and easy navigation, which are vital because over 50% of insurance searches start on mobile.
Plus, SEO provides measurable results.
We advise you to use SEO tools like Ahrefs, Google Analytics, and Google Search Console to refine your strategies and target potential clients better.
Insider tip: Incorporating SEO is not about replacing other marketing tactics but complementing them.
Basically, you must build a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that addresses insurance consumers' unique needs and behaviors in the corporate sector.
7 Ways to Nail SEO for Corporate Insurance
If we’ve convinced you why you need SEO for your commercial insurance agency, you’re on the right track.
In this chapter, we’ll explain on-point SEO tactics you can implement to boost your online presence starting today.
Pro tip: You should still read this section even if you’re thinking about hiring an SEO agency.
Familiarizing yourself with these tactics helps you ensure they use the right approach.
1. SEO Audit
SEO audits are a never-skippable step.
They identify strengths, uncover weaknesses, and discover opportunities for improvement.
An audit comprehensively analyzes your current SEO strategy, online presence, and website's adherence to best practices.
This is particularly important for insurance agencies like yours because the market is very competitive.
As such, you need a website that ranks well and delivers a user experience that converts visitors into potential clients.
Insider tip: We often saw tiny SEO issues like poor meta descriptions affecting our clients’ rankings.
Cumulating these apparently insignificant errors can produce massive damage.
Here's how we typically conduct an SEO audit for insurance companies:
- Crawl your website: Using tools like Google Search Console, we initiate a crawl of your site to understand its structure and identify any crawl errors or broken links that might be hindering your search engine rankings.
- Analyze keywords: We plunge into your current keyword strategy, assessing if you're targeting relevant keywords and long-tail phrases that potential customers in the insurance industry are searching for. This also includes evaluating your content for search intent alignment.
- Evaluate on-page SEO: We check your web pages for on-page SEO elements like meta descriptions, content quality, and the use of target keywords. Insurance websites must have authoritative content that addresses specific insurance-related queries and needs.
- Assess user experience: We examine your website's user experience, including mobile optimization and page load speed, which can increase bounce rates if not properly optimized. Remember that you’re addressing lots of busy professionals seeking insurance solutions on the go.
- Check off-page SEO: We analyze your site's link-building strategy to ensure you have quality backlinks from reputable websites in the insurance and business sectors and don’t have any toxic links from shady practices like link farming.
- Review content strategy: We look at your content plan to ensure it provides fresh content that's relevant and valuable to your target audience. This type of content drives user engagement and establishes your site as a thought leader in the insurance market. As such, your content assets attract more backlinks, all of which signal to Google that you’re an authoritative source. As such, your ranking will increase.
- Measure performance metrics: We analyze key performance metrics, such as bounce rates, conversion rates, and organic search traffic, to understand how well your site engages and retains visitors.
Insider tip: We assessed SEO tools like Ahrefs vs. SEMrush vs. Ubersuggest, and we like the fact that Ubersuggest has a free SEO analyzer.
We recommend it to all our potential clients who want to double-check their website without buying or installing a tool.
Remember corporate insurance company Liberty Mutual?
Ubersuggest’s free version found the following SEO issues, all of which are easy to fix but have a big impact on the website’s ranking:
2. On-page SEO
On-page SEO means optimizing your website’s page elements to ensure search engine crawlers can understand it better and, thus, rank it higher in search results.
Here are the main issues we noticed insurance websites tend to miss:
- Title tags: You need concise and informative title tags that include relevant terms specific to the insurance industry. Each title should summarize the page content and use your primary target keyword that reflects the user's search queries.
- Meta descriptions: These texts offer a brief overview of the page content. Use this space to include a call-to-action, encouraging potential clients to click through. Ensure it contains relevant keywords related to insurance products or services offered.
- Structured URLs: Construct short, readable URLs that include a target keyword. For example, including terms like "business insurance" or "corporate health insurance" can enhance clarity and relevance.
- Alt image tags: Ensure all images on your website have descriptive alt tags that include keywords. This helps search engine ranking and improves accessibility for users with visual impairments. For example, an image of an insurance consultation could be tagged as "corporate-insurance-consultation-service."
- Headings and content structure: Use headings (H1, H2, H3) to structure your content effectively. Start with a strong H1 tag that includes your primary keyword, followed by H2 and H3 tags that break down the content into digestible sections, incorporating insurance-related long-tail keywords where appropriate.
- Internal linking: Strategically place internal links to other relevant content or even service pages within your website. This approach enhances user engagement and allows search engine crawlers to navigate and index your site more efficiently. For instance, linking to a case study on “effective corporate insurance strategies” from a related blog post can boost both pages’ authority and relevance.
Let’s look at Tokio Marine, another massive corporate insurance company.
A quick website audit shows plenty of on-page optimization issues that could be improved to help this company outrank its competitors:
The thing is that Tokio Marine is a massive corporation; imagine what these issues can do to a smaller company like yours.
3. SEO Content Creation
SEO content means having search-engine-friendly content on your service pages and blog while simultaneously satisfying the searcher’s intent.
No pressure.
Here’s what we advise you to do.
3.1. Competitor Gap Analysis
Competitor Gap Analysis means checking your competitors’ websites to see what they're doing well and what they're lacking.
That’s how you can spot opportunities they've missed and areas where you can differentiate your insurance agency or company.
Impromptu case study: Let’s see how Liberty Mutual is doing here.
We promised to explore its content strategy earlier, so let’s take the first step.
First, we see many profitable keywords its competitors are targeting, such as “car insurance,” “state farm insurance,” and progressive insurance.
These key terms have high KDs, i.e., keyword difficulties.
Basically, there’s a lot of competition around them.
However, we can find better target terms that are easier to rank for in the next step.
3.2. Keyword Research
Keyword research helps you find the search terms and queries your potential clients are using.
Then, you can pick the most profitable ones according to your strategy.
One solution is to start from that content gap analysis above and select the KD in ascending order so you can find easy keywords:
Alternatively, you can input broad insurance-related terms into Ahrefs and then check “Matching terms,” “Related terms,” or “Questions” to drill down into more specific long-tail keywords like “affordable corporate health insurance.”
You can again order results by ascending the KD level to see the easiest-ranking keywords first.
Like so:
Pro tip: Ahrefs will also provide insights into search volumes, SERP results’ organic traffic, and traffic value.
That means you can prioritize keywords that drive targeted online traffic to your insurance products.
3.3. High-Quality Content Development
In the insurance industry, trust and authority are essential.
That means you must develop a range of content types. Consider:
- Blog posts: Topics like “Effective Insurance Strategies for Small Businesses” or “Choosing the Right Insurance Policies for Your Business” allow you to address common concerns and questions insurance consumers might have.
- Case studies: Showcase your success stories and clients you’ve helped with their insurance needs. You can highlight your expertise and the positive reviews from satisfied clients here.
- Guides and e-books: Develop comprehensive resources on insurance topics, such as “A Complete Guide to Corporate Insurance,” which can be used to capture email addresses for your sales funnels. Even better, these guides can attract backlinks from reputable websites in your niche.
- FAQ sections: Include these sections on your insurance products and service pages. Optimize these FAQs for search queries to improve your site's visibility in search results.
4. Local SEO
Local SEO helps you attract more business from relevant local searches.
Basically, you can connect your corporate insurance company with potential clients in your geographic location who are searching for insurance services.
So, for example, when businesses in Portsmouth search for insurance providers in this area, local SEO ensures your company is on top of their search results.
There are three main strategies our SEO agency uses for local SEO:
4.1. Google My Business
Set up and optimize your Google My Business (GMB) profile to dominate Google Maps SEO.
Basically, this is an awesome free tool that allows you to manage how your insurance company appears on Google Maps and search results.
Insider tip: Make sure your listing includes all accurate details like your company name, address, phone number, and services offered.
We always advise our clients to update their GMB profile with fresh content, such as their awesome posts about insurance products or special offers they may have.
This approach can also enhance your visibility in local search results, especially if you’re targeting a local audience.
4.2. Reviews
It always surprises us how often companies can neglect online reviews.
In fact, online reviews are essential for local SEO and how potential customers perceive your insurance agency.
To get more positive reviews:
- Encourage satisfied clients to leave positive reviews on your GMB profile and other review platforms.
- Respond to all reviews, whether positive or negative, professionally.
This strategy improves your online reputation, true, but there’s more it can do. In fact, it signals to search engines that your business is active and trusted by its clients, so they’ll boost your search rankings.
4.3. Local Content
Create content that resonates with your local audience to get more local SEO points.
For example, you can develop blog posts, articles, and guides that address the specific insurance needs and questions of businesses in your area.
Remember: Include local keywords and phrases relevant to your community, such as “insurance services in [Your City]” or “small business health insurance in [Your Region].”
Ahrefs saves the day:
Pro tip: Create separate URLs for different geographical locations, either by using country-specific domains (e.g., .co.uk for the UK) or by organizing content into subdirectories or subdomains with country codes (e.g., /uk/ or uk.yourwebsite.com).
This structure helps search engines and users understand which content is intended for them.
Another great strategy is to offer your clients the opportunity to search for specific services by ZIP code, like so:
5. Optimize Your Service Pages
SEO-optimized product or service pages combine quality content, smart site architecture, and several other SEO best practices.
Here’s what we advise our SEO clients to focus on:
- Keyword research: Again, you should identify the keywords and phrases your potential clients use when searching for insurance products or services. Tools like Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs can help you find relevant keywords, including long-tail phrases specific to the types of insurance you offer (e.g., "commercial property insurance," "health insurance for small businesses," etc.).
- Content creation: Write clear, informative, and engaging content for each product or service page. Your content should answer common questions and provide key details that potential clients might be looking for, such as coverage options, benefits, eligibility criteria, and how to apply or get a quote. Ensure to naturally incorporate your target keywords within the content, especially in headings and early in the text, to signal relevance to search engines.
- Page titles and meta descriptions: Write unique and compelling page titles and meta descriptions for each product or service page, including relevant keywords. These elements appear in search results and can influence whether someone clicks through to your site.
- Site architecture: Organize your website’s structure to make it easy for users and search engines to navigate. Each product or service should have its own dedicated page that is easily accessible from the main menu or other navigation elements. A clear hierarchy and logical link structure help search engines understand your site and index your content effectively.
- Internal linking: Use internal links to connect your product or service pages with related content, such as blog posts, FAQs, or guides. This approach enhances the user experience because you get additional valuable information.
- Focus on user-friendliness: Ensure your website is optimized for mobile and loads fast. Compress images, leverage browser caching, and minimize code to improve loading times. Plus, collect customer reviews for your insurance products and display them on your service pages. That’s a great approach to boost both social proof and SEO.
- Use schema markup: Implement schema markup to provide search engines with more information about your products or services, which can enhance how your pages are displayed in search results (e.g., through rich snippets).
Allstate Insurance offers a great example because it neatly organizes all its product categories right on the homepage:
And it has specific categories in the upper right corner, too:
6. Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO involves applying optimization strategies outside your website.
But the thing is, they can also influence your rankings on search engine results pages.
Here’s how that works.
Off-page SEO builds your website's authority and reputation, letting search engines know that your business is a trusted and reliable source in the insurance industry.
For example, if authoritative websites in the finance and insurance sectors link back to your content, you get valuable link juice that acts like a powerful ranking factor to search engines.
To implement off-page SEO, focus on:
Quality link building: We advise our clients to acquire backlinks from reputable websites within the insurance and business sectors.
You can achieve this through guest blogging, for example, where you provide valuable content for another site in exchange for a link back to your site.
For instance, writing an in-depth article on the latest trends in business insurance for a well-respected financial news outlet can direct their audience to your website.
Social media engagement: While social media signals are not a direct ranking factor, they increase visibility and traffic to your website, which can indirectly affect your SEO.
So, you can share helpful content, insurance advice, and even industry news on your social media platforms to engage with potential clients and drive traffic back to your website.
Allstate Insurance offers another great example here:
- PR link-building: Distribute compelling content and press releases about your insurance services, customer success stories, or company achievements to media outlets and content aggregators. You can also answer your potential customers’ questions or build online calculators that creators in your niche will be willing to mention.
For example, Allstate Insurance, our favorite SEO case study, has developed an app for its potential customers:
7. Technical Optimization
Technical SEO focuses on improving your website’s technical aspects to enhance its ranking.
Technical errors are very common and they pose a lot of problems.
For example, they impact online visibility, ease of navigation, as well as website indexing.
The most common issues to focus on include:
- Mobile speed: Most people use smartphones for business tasks. That’s why your website must load quickly on mobile devices. And it’s not just about user experience; it's also a ranking factor for search engines. We advise our clients to solve that issue by implementing a responsive design, compressing images, and leveraging browser caching.
- Page speed: A fast website keeps potential clients on it for longer. Conversely, slow-loading pages lead to high bounce rates, negatively impacting your SEO rankings and your ability to retain visitors seeking insurance information. some text
- Pro tip: Use tools like Google's PageSpeed Insights to see what's slowing your site down and get specific recommendations to fix this.
- Schema markup: Schema helps search engines understand your website’s content, making it easier to display rich snippets in search results. For example, you can implement schema for reviews, FAQs, and corporate contact information to enhance your visibility in SERPs. That will also make your listings more attractive and informative to potential clients.
- Broken links: These links significantly harm the user experience and your website's indexing. So, conduct regular audits to find and fix broken links. some text
- Pro tip: We use tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider to automate this process, so it’s easier to maintain healthy, user-friendly websites for our clients.
Wrapping Up
This article explained the intricacies of SEO for corporate insurance, but the fact is these tactics barely scratch the surface.
You need personalized strategies that fit your website and marketing goals.
So, prepare for a lot of trial and error.
And just like we said in the beginning, remember that SEO is a long-term strategy.
You won’t nail it in a month, but the high-quality organic traffic it comes from it will make you happy you tried.
If you need assistance getting started, we’re just a strategy call away.