It is common knowledge in the Digital Marketing world (or to any search users) how much Google changes – and how important it is to keep up with them.

About a month ago, Google announced the plan for their upcoming algorithm changes – different than the Panda updates of the past.  In this initiative, the search engine stated they would begin to punish websites that are “over-optimized” or “over-SEO’d.” They have since back-pedaled on their statements to push the focus of this campaign to webspam, but nonetheless, “over-optimization” is a component to watch for.

The update, dubbed “Penguin,” officially rolled out on April 24. The Penguin update is looking to penalize websites that utilize some of the following:

• Aggressive keyword targeting (over-optimization)
• Overuse of keyword domains (over-optimization)
• Low quality article marketing (spam)
• Keyword stuffing in links (spam)

Google aims to bring searchers the most natural results they can, first and foremost. This update is aimed toward giving the Google user the most positive experience and most relevant results.

So, what can you do to help your website? Keep things natural and relevant! When writing your landing page content or your blogging content, make sure that your content is driven by topics and information that would be useful to your customers and/or prospects. You can keep your content topic-driven without losing any of your keyword optimization.

For example, if you’re writing a blog post on some updates in health insurance legislature in your area, you can easily integrate any specific health insurance keywords you have without throwing them in the reader’s face – it’s all about natural integration and keeping the post topic-driven. If your post is about a legislative update, make sure you stay on topic and give the reader all of the information needed. If your health insurance keyword only naturally fits one time in the post without sacrificing the message, then so be it. It’s important now, more than ever, that Google and the other search engines see that your content is high quality and useful to the reader – not just a 500-word post stuffed with keywords you want to be found for.

You should use the same principles in your link building as well – keep it natural. For example, if you are writing a guest post on a local community blog and you’re trying to bring visitors to your website for a health insurance term, make sure you can integrate it without sacrificing the content quality or spamming the reader. Make sure your post is relevant to the topic of the keyword and don’t squeeze in numerous links. The best practice with using keywords in links it to keep it simple – post one link back to your website using your term and only if it fits into the content without disrupting the reader. If you have a blog on your website and you’re linking to other pages within the site, use the same principles; keep keyword links minimal, simple, and non-disruptive.

There are already reports of websites seeing negative effects as a result of the Penguin update, as well as sites see positive results, such as higher keyword rankings, better traffic, etc. As long as you are utilizing best practices and ensuring your internet marketing strategies are in line with what Google is looking for in a high quality website, you should eventually see the fruits of your labor. Think of how you feel when you visit a website that spams you, whether it’s through low quality content, excessive links, or obvious keyword stuffing. Enacting a high-quality SEO strategy takes time – these are long-term strategies. But, at the end of the day, you’ll thank your internet marketing team, representatives, or even yourself for sticking it out and taking the “righteous” path in your SEO strategy.

How is your website responding to the Penguin update? Tweet me @astonish_shawna with any Penguin stories or suggestions!

                          

The old saying goes “don’t judge a book by its cover.” Sadly, when it comes to blogging, many online readers do. For bloggers, our cover is our title. If you do not produce an eye-catching, jumping-off-the-page kind of headline, your blog will be quickly dismissed. There is nothing worse than that for us bloggers! In order to avoid having this happen to our posts, it is important that we are all aware of a few tips and techniques on how to create interesting and relevant titles in the world of insurance.

Before we get into the techniques, there are a few ground rules that one must follow. Both of these rules are what make the title process so tricky, but they are important for your insurance marketing strategy.

1. You should include your keyword or phrase that you are focusing on in the title.
2. Titles should not exceed 65-70 characters.

This definitely changes the difficulty level of titling your post, but it is not impossible! Now that we have the two rules in place, let’s talk about creativity. Below, you will find a list of tips and techniques that may help you when you go to write an interesting title.

• Top 10 lists. Numbers will often catch readers’ eyes and it means that the blog must be broken down into sections (much easier to read than long paragraphs that blend together). Example: Top 10 Ways to Save on Auto Insurance!
• Ask a question. Many online readers are often looking for answers when searching. By asking the question, you will lure readers in for answers. Example: Looking for Ways to Save on Health Insurance?
• Pop culture. If you write an interesting blog post having to do with pop culture, make sure you mention it in the title! This is a sure way to make your blog stand out from the straight-forward titles. I have a great example from a successful post I wrote about Shark Week. Example: Shark Week Rocks and So Does Life Insurance!
• Excite your readers. If you sound excited by using an exclamation point, you may get others excited. You want to get your readers revved up! Example: New Year, New Goals, New Coverage!
• Be a know it all. Online readers love being told how to do something. Write a title that showcases the fact that YOU know what you are talking about and have the steps to prove it. Example: How to Write a Blog Post in 60 Minutes or Less

As you can see, these are all great ways to make your title jump off the page the next time readers are scrolling their search engine results. Yes, catchy-titles take time, effort and a little practice but with these tips and a little research, you will be producing creative titles in no time!

Have you guys ever created a title that was a hit? Tell us about it in the comment section- we would love to hear about your successes!

                          

In my last blog post, I discussed the importance of link building on the web, and how links can improve your Google PageRank.  Here at Astonish we have our own link building methods, but these are some you can try yourself.

Although it might seem like a no-brainer, one of the best methods of getting a link is by e-mailing your friends, family, and loyal customers.  You already know that they would recommend you in person, so it makes sense that they would be happy to recommend you on the web as well.  Unless you ask, you’ll never know if one of them might have a popular website or blog on which a link to your site could result in tons of views!

Image Courtesy of Fourtune3.com

Another way to get links is to ask the owners of other websites if they will link to yours.  A good place to start is with pages that already link to similar content to yours, or that might have content which is related to (but not in direct competition with) yours in some way.  If you sell car insurance, you might want to ask local autobody shops, driver training schools, or maybe even car dealers for links.  Some of these companies may desire some sort of payment for putting a link on their site; in exchange, you could offer to link back to their sites on your webpage.

Making a donation can be another avenue to getting a link.  Frequently charities and nonprofits list the names of the companies and individuals who contribute to their cause as a way of saying thanks.  Some might be happy to add a link along with your name, if you ask.  Check out their website beforehand, to see if anyone else has a backlink.  Not only would you be doing something good for your community, but your company would be benefiting as well.  If you donate to a school or teaching hospital, you might even get your link on a “.edu” website, which are highly trusted sites.

If you try these different methods, you will probably be rewarded with a numerous links from a variety of domains.  This can be a big factor in improving your Google PageRank. A small effort or cost on your part could potentially turn into great results for your company.  Get your links out there, and you never know what the returns might be.

                          

Has your agency been locked into the social media game for a while? Now that the initial phase is over—getting acclimated with different platforms, setting up profiles, etc.—you may be ready to begin taking a more serious approach to your social media efforts. Whether it’s Facebook or Twitter, there’s always room for improvement, especially for the latter.

Using Twitter effectively to help grow your business is a more daunting task than you probably initially thought. Because there are hundreds of millions of users with just as many interests, getting mentions and retweets isn’t always a walk in the park—it’s more like a slow jog up a mountain. However, if you take the necessary steps and stay patient you’ll be sticking your flag at the summit in no time. But how is this done exactly? Let’s find out!

Growing traction on your Twitter account is all about making your profile more credible to users. As your profile slowly builds credibility, you’ll see an increase in your followers and the amount of mentions and retweets you receive. Take a look at some advice on how to improve your fledgling Twitter profile:

• Make Your Profile Stronger: Do you have a dull profile photo? You should consider using a picture of your face because research has shown that people are more likely to trust a face that they have seen multiple times. Additionally, your bio should be persuasive and informative. Don’t just simply state what your agency offers; let users know why they should be following you.

• Tweet links to content that mentions you: If any online content such as a news article or press release mentions your agency, always, always post it on Twitter. This will show followers that your business is legitimate!

• Retweet news: Tweeting about news and current events—local and national—will provide information to users looking for that sort of information. Twitter is all about sharing and spreading information and if users like what you’re sharing they’ll be more inclined to follow your account.

• Send Facebook Posts to Your Twitter Profile: When you have multiple social media profiles, it’s always a good idea to tell your respective friends/followers about your other accounts. Take the time to remind your Facebook friends about your Twitter and vice versa.

• Don’t forget your #hashtags! Part of being on Twitter is engaging in what is currently being discussed on the platform. If you’re tweeting about a trending topic, always remember your hashtags. Don’t be afraid to start your own topics as well!

Many small businesses that begin using Twitter sometimes get immediately dissatisfied with the lack of traffic they’re bringing in. But what they don’t realize is that social media strategies not only take a lot of effort, but a lot of time and patience as well. It’s like Morgan Freeman’s famous quote in The Shawshank Redemption, “That’s all it takes, really. Pressure and time.” That’s how a social media strategy works: pressure and time. The more you keep clawing away at it, the more success you will see with your insurance website.

                          

Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been blogging for a while, there are a few blogging strategies you should be aware of to generate success from all those hours you’re spending or are about to spend on your blog.

In this post, we’ll talk about one blogging strategy that could really improve your insurance marketing plan. Have you ever considered writing content for each phase of the buying cycle? In insurance, there are a few phases most customers go through when deciding to purchase.

The first phase is the awareness phase. This is a good time to grab potential customers’ attention by writing about local events or recipes because, in this phase, a customer might not even be thinking about insurance. He or she is simply searching the web for other things.

Awareness Phase Blog Content – This is a great time to really brand your agency by writing about what’s unique about your agency. Perhaps your agency sponsors a local Little League team or gives to charities. Or perhaps your agency employs a host of gourmet cooks. Write about whatever sets the personality of your agency apart.

The second phase is the research phase. In this phase, customers may not be looking to purchase right away. They may just know they want to switch insurance agencies so they’re looking around on the web, not really urgently needing a new policy.

Research Phase Blog Content – This content can include blog posts about the product that is being insured, such as tips on how to properly maintain your car or tips on how to hire the right people for your company. Your goal is to get in front of people who are just browsing or thinking about purchasing a new policy.

The last phase is the purchase phase. This means potential customers have shopped around and they’re ready to purchase or they urgently need a policy.

Purchase Phase Blog Content – In this instance, very straightforward blog posts about what a particular type of insurance covers or how to save money on a particular policy are your best bet to converting a potential customer into a lead.

The purpose of writing blog content for the different phases of your customers’ buying cycle is to increase the number of internet leads you get from your blog. When you provide a mix of content, it’s more effective than if you just write the same type of blog article over and over. So mix things up and try writing different content for your potential customers’ different phases.

                          

It’s something we hear all the time: how do I know if my social media efforts are working? If this is a question you’ve asked yourself, you’ll first need to start by deciding what “success” means to you and your agency.

Social media success can come in many forms, and only you can decide what success looks like for you. For instance, is it a high level of engagement on your Facebook page? Is it valuable conversations on Twitter? It is referrals to your website, or is it a high level of lead conversion? Most likely, it will be a combination of all of these. Once you set goals, you’ll know what to measure!

• Forget about hard numbers. You may be used to looking at charts and spreadsheets telling you exactly how successful your other insurance marketing efforts have been. Understand that you will not have such cut and dry information when it comes to social media. People will read your posts, but they may not always call you to get a quote. Remember that brand awareness is a success, and the more people interact with you online, the more aware they are of your company.
• Examine engagement. When an individual has a meaningful interaction with your agency, they will remember it. Take a look at all your social profiles to see how many interactions you’re getting, but remember that it’s not all about the numbers. It’s quality over quantity when it comes to engagement! Facebook’s insights feature has some great tools to see which types of posts are most popular with your fans, and a quick Google search for “Twitter analytics” will provide you with hundreds of options for looking at engagement on Twitter. As time goes on and you manage your social media sites, you’ll know which types of content get you the best interactions.
• Are people talking about you? One of the best things about social media is that it’s so easy to share information with others. Count it as a huge success if your name is coming up in positive online conversations! It can be difficult to catch every single mention of your company online, but you can start by setting up Google alerts and using some other free tools to monitor these conversations.

One of the most difficult things to understand is the idea that social media success is not easily measured with metrics. But don’t worry; once you focus on creating value and interacting with your customers, you will absolutely see results!

                          

You deal with customers in the office all the time. Your insurance agency is the place where your community should feel safe and trust that your services will be personalized to their needs. So don’t you think this should happen within your social media and blogging initiatives? Show your clients you care about their interests, questions, and more by creating an effective space for conversation.

In today’s fast-paced business world, customer satisfaction is pretty much required, and you can strengthen it through a variety of channels, such as your Facebook page, Twitter account, onsite blog, and of course, in person. However, the digital outlets allow you to focus on your audience in a way you could never do before. Customer service is evolving to match customers’ expectations and you must relate to them in order to attract their business.

Your clients are continuing to be deeply engaged with digital tools, which is why your agency should too. They will remain loyal to your services because of your comprehensive products and the quality of service that brings them back. So improve customer satisfaction by understanding these three main categories:

1. Quality Control: Developing and presenting your products in a unique way through a social or blogging outlet is critical to your business. But keep in mind, great service is not just about speed and accuracy, but also about personalization and understanding. Your customers trust your agency, so show them you understand their needs by keeping up the conversation.
2. Relationships Among Staff and Customers: Promote Agent-Customer relationships. You can do this by having a staff member run your social media accounts, where they can answer questions, address concerns, or just create interesting conversations directly with your customers. By having this form of support, it will result in better service, faster resolution, and a happy community.
3. Overall Customer Experience: At the end of the day, your clients are buying experiences, not products or services. They want to feel comfortable with your agency and trust that you can give them what they want to meet their unique needs. By utilizing social media and blogging initiatives, you can humanize your agency by giving it a voice all its own. Using this method will allow you to create experiences that will make customers feel good about the products you have to offer.

Understanding how strong customer relationships relate to the success of your agency is the key to customer satisfaction. Putting yourself in the clients’ shoes will give you a better grasp on evolving your insurance marketing strategy. Every interaction your community has with your company is an experience. Therefore, make it your responsibility to show them you care no matter what means of communication you use!

                          

If press release distribution is part of your Internet Marketing strategy, you’re on the right track with your insurance marketing strategies. However, you may wonder how valuable these optimized releases are when you take a look at your news release summary reports. Was the release picked up by relevant news outlets? Have you received any media inquiries? If the answers to these questions are “yes,” great! But you can do better.

Image Courtesy of SocialMediaMagic.com

Taking a holistic approach with your internet marketing strategy by interweaving your press release content within your blogs and social media updates can really boost your results.  Consider this recent story published on one of Mediabistro.com’s blogs. The #CancersNoJoke campaign from @AbolishCancer, which focused on raising awareness for the need for bone marrow donors across the U.S., ran for one week on Twitter. After spending just $200 on creating a press release, the team behind the campaign was able to gain 22 million unique impressions by spreading the word on the social media site. So, what does this mean for you?

If you want to make the most of your press releases, don’t forget to share them on your blog and social media pages. Create a hashtag on Twitter so that you and your followers can spread the word about your press release content more effectively, and so you’ll be able to easily track how many people are talking about your release on the social platform. While it’s important to engage in press release distribution, social media and blogging, don’t do each of these separately; use all three combined to reach more potential customers. Even if your business needs a little social networking training before you get started, it will certainly pay off in the results!

                          

Have you ever done a Google search, looked at the paid search advertisements on the top and right side of the search results, and thought … “What does that advertisement have anything to do with my search?”

Recently, I executed a search for the keyword “insurance”.  Amongst all of the competition for top billing in these search results, I saw an ad for “Assurance Wireless” promoting a free cell phone:

Obviously, this is a poorly placed PPC advertisement.  The advertiser didn’t want to appear in results for the highly competitive and highly searched term “insurance”.  The obvious mistake is that the advertiser (either intentionally or not) targeted the misspelling of their brand name “Assurance”.  The advertiser will not be happy when it realizes that a large percentage of their paid search budget is eaten up by clicks that come from a keyword that isn’t relevant to their business at all. Inevitably, search engine users will see this ad, click through (perhaps by mistake) to the advertiser’s site, and quickly exit, obviously with a poor user experience.  The advertiser has potentially just paid $25-$30 for each click on this mistakenly placed advertisement.  That is an expensive mistake.

This is an extreme example of poor ad copy construction, but it got me thinking about three common PPC ad copy mistakes that advertisers often make.

Mistake #1: Using your brand name in the ad’s headline

The “headline” in a PPC advertisement is the blue bolded line at the top of every text ad.  It is the attention-grabber, the first thing that your audience sees when your ad comes up in search results.  One hint: don’t waste that space on introducing your company’s name.  Chances are (and I’m sorry to break the news), your small company doesn’t carry enough brand recognition to become an asset in text-based advertisements.  If someone searches on the term “auto insurance quote”, they’re not necessarily looking for a specific company (like yours), they’re just looking to get a quote.  So, instead of mentioning your company in the headline, why not focus on what is going to be most effective in drawing in the audience?  The first thing that searchers should see is the benefits of your “product” — such as “Free Auto Insurance Quote”.  Don’t waste valuable space on your company’s brand, unless you’re a company with strong brand recognition (like Geico).  Besides, if someone is actually looking for your company by name, you’ll show up in search results regardless (because you ARE advertising for your company’s name … aren’t you??).

Mistake #2: Don’t be too broad in your ad copy

Make sure that your ad is as close to the search query (the term that search users choose in Google) as possible. Be as specific as possible.  In keeping with the insurance example from above, imagine that you are an agency looking to attract new customers for home insurance, auto insurance, and flood insurance. Make sure that your ads for each category are specific to that search as possible.  When someone searches for “flood insurance”, make sure that the ad they are served doesn’t reference a broad and generalized “insurance company”.  Instead, make sure that you include language specific to “flood insurance”, otherwise your competition will have a leg up on you.

So, tailor your ad copy to each type of keyword search that you are targeting – don’t run a homogenized “insurance”-based ad copy for each type of insurance, make sure you speak to the search engine user’s intent with specific language in your ad.

Mistake #3: Target the audience that is at the end of the buying cycle

In other words, we want to attract search engine users who are ready to perform a specific action – such as “get an insurance quote” or “buy auto insurance”.   These people are the most qualified audience out there, those who have signaled their intent to purchase with their keyword search.  Not only do we want to show up on keywords like those I just mentioned, but we want to emphasize those behaviors in our ad copy.

Too many advertisers use broad language in their ads, with the hope of attracting as many users as possible.  I’ve actually seen some ads with the headline “Curious about insurance?” – an attempt at generating visits to the advertiser’s web site, no matter what the user is looking for.  Instead, make sure that you don’t waste your PPC budget on people at the top of the sales funnel (those who are just browsing, or are curious) by offering ad copy that speaks specifically to those who are close to purchasing.  Use language like “Buying auto insurance?”, “Need a home insurance quote?” , or “Get a fast and free business insurance quote now”.  Not only will you appeal to those who are near the end of their search, but you’ll actually dissuade those who are just browsing (and thus saving your PPC budget for more serious shoppers!).

The lesson, when constructing paid search advertisements, is to speak to your audience as specifically as possible.  It will benefit your campaign by providing just the traffic that you are searching for.

                          

The world of Internet Marketing is always changing, so Astonish Results makes it a priority to provide employees with opportunities to educate themselves and stay on top of the latest trends. On April 2, I was lucky enough to attend Distilled’s LinkLove conference in Boston.

LinkLove is the ultimate gathering of the web’s top link builders. We met at the Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School (I like to think spending the day at Harvard made me smarter by osmosis) and had the honor of listening to nine speakers, each with their own area of expertise. The presenters were the best of the best in our field. If there was a king of SEO, Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz would be the reigning monarch…and he was there! Other presenters included Justin Briggs, Ross Hudgens, Rhea Drysdale, Wil Reynolds, John Doherty, Adam Audette, Colby Almond and Tom Critchlow – all AWESOME.

I learned a ton and look forward to implementing some things I learned in to Astonish’s link building tactics, but there are also some things I learned that are great for you as a business owner to keep in mind:

1. Focus on good, quality content. When you invest in top-notch content, you can target multiple marketing channels all at once resulting in stronger social following, more brand visibility, higher organic search rankings, more direct traffic, bigger fan base and more referring links.
2. Discover what your audience shares. Although insurance is a necessity, it is not necessarily the most interesting of subject matters for your target audience. Think about what kind of people buy insurance from you, and then think about what those folks are interested in in their daily lives. You want them to find some kind of value in the content you post so they like it enough to share with their friends and family. They may not be shopping for insurance right now…but they will be eventually and they will remember that fun little agency that posts interesting content. Tip: Check out Followerwonk- you can browse the profiles of your Twitter followers and analyze them. It gives great insight in to what your followers like!
3. Thinking of trying Pinterest? There’s a lot of buzz around the 3^rd most popular social media website. When is the best time to “Pin” your content? Colby Almond says that you should submit your content at 5AM or 5PM. Why? Because traffic is highest at 6AM and 6PM.

I want to thank Distilled for hosting such an outstanding conference and Astonish Results for giving me the opportunity to attend. I can’t wait to put all of the speakers’ great tips and tricks in to action for our clients!