Backlinks: Your Key to SEO Success

BacklinksYour Key to SEO Success

John DessommesSEO Consultant

This Week’s Masters of Marketing Webinar

• Follow on Twitter using the hashtag #MastersMktg

• Ask questions in the chat box

• A recording of this presentation and slides will be posted later today at our online Agent Resource Center.

Backlinks 101

• Backlinks are created when one website links to another website.

• Backlinks are a top ranking factor for Google.

• Backlinks are either DoFollow and pass link equity or NoFollow and do not pass link equity.

• Link equity is measured by the linking page’s authority, trust, topical relevance, link placement and accessibility.

Most Common Insurance Backlinks

• Most insurance agencies have backlinks from business listings such as yelp.com and insurance directories such as cheapcarinsurance.net.

• Your agency should build these types of links. Whitespark’sinsurance agency citation list and top 50 citation sources are great places to start.

Backlink Strategies that Move the Needle

Testimonial Backlinks

• Know of local businesses (not corporations) with a website? Chances are they have a testimonials page or scrolling testimonials on their home page where you can add your review and link to your website.

Partner Backlinks

• If you have a Gold or Platinum website, you have the ability to customize your own partner pages.

• Leverage these partner pages to create backlinks for your partners and ask your partners to create a page for your agency.

NonProfit Backlinks

• Build your brand and online visibility through a local NonProfit organization.

• These organizations will typically ask for a donation to add your logo and link it to your site.

Unlinked Mentions

• An unlinked mention is simply text on a webpage that is not linked.

• If your agency has been around for years, you may have unlinked mention backlink opportunities on Google.

• Here’s how to find them. Let’s say your agency’s name is Dessommes Insurance Agency and your domain name is Dessommes.com. Go to Google and search using “Dessommes Insurance” and perform a second search using “Dessommes.com”.

• You won’t be able to gain a backlink from every result, but websites for organizations, associations, etc. may be willing to link to your site.

Scholarship Backlinks

• Create a scholarship page on your website.

• Reach out to high schools, trade schools, universities and colleges.

• Check out this guide for strategy details.

HARO (Help a Reporter Out)

• Journalists contact you to write for media outlets.

• Sign up as a source.

• Make the pitch.

• Only respond to requests that are relevant to your expertise.

• Here’s a blog about HARO link building with some great tips.

.Edu Resource Backlinks• Email colleges and universities to include your agency link

on their resources pages.

• Search on Google using:

site:.edu insurance

site:.edu insurance resources

site:.edu insurance inurl:links

site:.edu insurance “other sites”

Chamber of Commerce Backlinks

• Become a member of your local chamber of commerce.

• Membership will usually include a link to your site.

• Memberships are typically annual and start at a couple hundred dollars.

Local Business Neighbor Backlinks

• Chances are you have non-corporate small businesses surrounding your agency.

• You probably know some of these small business owners. Use your partners page to create a backlink and ask them to reciprocate.

Twitter Guest Post Backlinks• Find recent guest posts on Twitter to identify opportunities.

• Search for these:

insurance guest post

insurance guest author

insurance write for us

insurance guest article

Business Insurance Client Backlinks

• If you’re an agency that insures businesses, Google your clients and view their website for opportunities.

• If opportunities are found, leverage your partners page to build backlinks.

The SEO Guidebook for Insurance Agents

• If you’d like to learn more about SEO, my colleague Dylan Brooks created an in-depth guidebook for insurance agents.

• This guidebook includes the basics about SEO, on-site SEO (strategy, keywords, content, blogging) and off-site SEO (business listings, reviews, links).

• The guidebook can be downloaded here.

Next Masters of Marketing Webinar

• Karly Baker will host the next Masters of Marketing on Thursday November 16th at 12PM Central Time.

• Karly’s topic will be “How Do You Know If Your Website Needs to be Updated?” Click here to sign up.

Have Questions?

• Ask me in the chat box or email me.