Number 1 on google but.....

[lockyer]

Now we have managed to get to number 1 for "commercial property insurance" on google, we have to work on increasing organic traffice.

What can I do to improve this?

:|Currently google gets around 8000 searches for this per month, but we are only getting around 300 click throughs.

As we haven't yet got a back end, we are only doing phone/email enquiries, but the good news is this is converting to 1-2 sales a day.

So if we get more views (without ppc), we will be doing quite well out of it.

[benjamin_c]

Maybe a lot of people are going with the PPC links on the top, try to get your site sorted out so you can do quotes online, i always get online insurance quotes, i can never be bothered to ring up unless i know its the best price. is there any standard back end sortware for insurance sites?

[sirearl]

Don't believe googles figures for traffic.

A more enticing meta description would help,also a professional copy writer may help your conversions.

A bit bland for my taste.

Earl

[lockyer]

Maybe a lot of people are going with the PPC links on the top, try to get your site sorted out so you can do quotes online, i always get online insurance quotes, i can never be bothered to ring up unless i know its the best price. is there any standard back end sortware for insurance sites?

The only people who've got an integrated back end for full comparison costs £15k at the minute, and only works between 6.00am and 10pm.

The problem is that it is a lot more comlplex than motor or home insurance wher there are set question sets.

Also these aren't cheap policies, and need expertese to sell them properly.

i.e there are a lot of questions regarding fire seperations etc depending on how the building is constructed.

To be fair online sales isn't our holy grail, but I want to get the site viewed more.

[lockyer]

Don't believe googles figures for traffic.

A more enticing meta description would help,also a professional copy writer may help your conversions.

A bit bland for my taste.

Earl

Bland is good to be fair, all we want is the phone to ring, as the kind of clients we cater for don't do "zany" or innovative.

How out of whack are googles figures?

Once we find the right back end, at the right money we will revamp the site, currently just working on getting traffic up.

how would you reword the meta description?

[Delicious Webdesign]

One of the many things I would recommend for you would not to concentrate on your 'perceived main search term' and look at other specific searches and then prepare your site and optimise for those searches. I see you have thought about the specific businesses that need insurance but havent broken sweat in preparing your site for them, specifically 'Pub and Restaurant Insurance' you have dedicated about 30 words to it and there must be 20,000 pubs and restaurants in the UK that could be looking for commercial insurance.

[lockyer]

you're looking at the wrong site. This thread is specifically about www.commercialpropertyinsurance.co.uk (http://www.commercialpropertyinsurance.co.uk) , and we have thought about all the the search terms that relate to commercial property insurance, this is just our core area of business.

note this has nothing to do with general business insurance, just the insurancefor the commercial property, which is usually arranged by the landlord.

[lockyer]

ps - pubs are not a good line to target due to volume of closures and management turnover.

[benjamin_c]

The only people who've got an integrated back end for full comparison costs £15k at the minute, and only works between 6.00am and 10pm.

The problem is that it is a lot more comlplex than motor or home insurance wher there are set question sets.

Also these aren't cheap policies, and need expertese to sell them properly.

i.e there are a lot of questions regarding fire seperations etc depending on how the building is constructed.

To be fair online sales isn't our holy grail, but I want to get the site viewed more.

Sorry i was nieve and just asumed it would be more or less the same as car/home insurance system, just look at what the other companies in your sector are doing and do the same but try and be better, being number 1 on google is a pretty big achievement for any company, so make sure you use it to its full advantage, i know loads of people who would do anything to be number one on the big G!

[sirearl]

how would you reword the meta description?

You need a hook in the meta desc thats says pick me.

"free sex " works quite well.:)

But pick something a tad more appropiate to your business."cheap" "cheaper" or "Cheapest" is always liked by the majority,and of course is a variable quantity.;)

Don't you believe the people you deal with are bland.

One of our sites is one of the most successful car lease sites in the country and is totally outrageous.:)

Earl

[paretowasright]

Hi well done on getting to number 1.
According to my data the phrase gets about 4500 searches per month.
Based on the fact most of your competitors on PPC and other top organic results are big companies I think you probably need to position yourself with your USP of being smaller specialists with many years experience etc etc. I can see you have tried this with the page description but it could be improved and needs a 'get a quote' 'free quote' type call to action.
Hope that helps.

[sirearl]

I think you probably need to position yourself with your USP of being smaller specialists with many years experience etc etc. I can see you have tried this with the page description but it could be improved and needs a 'get a quote' 'free quote' type call to action.
Hope that helps.

Agree but won't help you get picked in the SERP's.:)

Earl

[paretowasright]

Agree but won't help you get picked in the SERP's.:)

Earl

Sorry Earl can you explain exactly what you mean mainly for the benefit of the original poster. This is where SEO/SEM collides with a balancing act between seo orientated page descriptions and making the description compelling to the reader for click through.

[Mystro]

Well the Op says he gets around 300 clicks and makes 1-2 sales per day

so if we say his sales are around 45 per month from 300 thats a fair conversion rate 15%

I would target other keywords in your sector to try to increase the targeted traffic volumes and if you can keep on to your conversion rate that high im sure youll be onto a winner.

Have a word with whoever is doing your SEO and try to target other search terms in your sector, even trial a Adwords campaign, until you get your new keywords in a good position..

[Webtistic]

Now we have managed to get to number 1 for "commercial property insurance" on google, we have to work on increasing organic traffice.

What can I do to improve this?

:|Currently google gets around 8000 searches for this per month, but we are only getting around 300 click throughs.

As we haven't yet got a back end, we are only doing phone/email enquiries, but the good news is this is converting to 1-2 sales a day.

So if we get more views (without ppc), we will be doing quite well out of it.

Has this 300 been the monthly traffic level SINCE you hit number 1, or does that include traffic from when your search engine positions were lower?

[Colin Parker]

Bland is good to be fair, all we want is the phone to ring, as the kind of clients we cater for don't do "zany" or innovative.

This is the kind of definitive assumptive comment made by businesses who don't test their marketing.

You should do PPC because you can quickly test different ads and website squeeze pages and then apply the winning results to your SEO.

I have taken a quick look at the Google results page for 'commercial property insurance' and it is full of boring bland ads and sites. You don't have to be zany - just different and appealing. Having said that a low price in any insurance market is a huge driver of enquiries - your current 'three generations in insurance' is irrelevant to your market.

Colin Parker

[directmarketingadvice]

Don't believe googles figures for traffic.

That's because the "Google adwords keyword tool" is an adwords keyword tool. Adwords traffic and google organic traffic aren't the same thing.

BTW, it tells me there were 2,400 exact match searches last month. That's only 30% of the 8,000 the OP quoted.

(But still isn't a reflection of Google organic.)

Steve

PS I agree with others about the landing page. It's not great. Whatever the conversion rate is, it's probably only half of what it could be.

[awebapart.com]

:|Currently google gets around 8000 searches for this per month, but we are only getting around 300 click throughs.
I'd echo what other people are saying here, that those 8000 searches aren't real searches by real prospective customers in your target market.

First off, the 8100 figure is for global searches, whereas for local (UK) searches the figure is 3600 exact match.

But even that lower local exact match monthly figure wont be real searches by real prospective customers. That real figure will be much lower. For a start they are rounded figures, a progression of rounded numbers like 3,600 ... 4,400. A good proportion will also be site owners or their SEO companies regularly checking their positions for that term (possibly using automated rank checking software), site owners or their adwords companies regularly checking their ads are coming up, and possibly even some content network adsense data (e.g. britishinformation.com/commercial-property) in there too.

[lockyer]

just checked the keywords tool, and is says 33,100 global, but local has dropped to 6600.

The original post I made, asked how to get more people to click on the organic link. Don't want to throw anymore money at PPC, or web design until we have got this right, and got the back end sorted.

So in response to this, is the answer to re write the description that shows on google? If so what do I need to put in it?

[Colin Parker]

just checked the keywords tool, and is says 33,100 global, but local has dropped to 6600.

The original post I made, asked how to get more people to click on the organic link. Don't want to throw anymore money at PPC, or web design until we have got this right, and got the back end sorted.

So in response to this, is the answer to re write the description that shows on google? If so what do I need to put in it?

You are missing the point ...

You want more people searching for commercial property insurance to click on your link - and you won't get the answers by asking what people on this forum - who are NOT searching for commercial property insurance - think!!

That is why you should test PPC ads to quickly get the answer - the only answer that matters is from your target market - PERIOD.

Is that not obvious?

Colin Parker

[ooh]

Bland is good to be fair, all we want is the phone to ring, as the kind of clients we cater for don't do "zany" or innovative.

I find that statement gobsmacking. I shouldn't do though. How can anyone hold up bland, in a marketing and business context, as a good desirable thing?, something worth striving, aiming for?! Stunning. It doesn't matter what business you're in, you're dealing with people -- you know, those things with human brains. Bland isn't worth looking at. Bland gets you the opposite of what you want.

[awebapart.com]

The original post I made, asked how to get more people to click on the organic link.
Those people, including myself, who questioned the google stats, were answering part of your question in a round about way.

You were asking how to get "more" people to click on your organic link,

:|Currently google gets around 8000 searches for this per month, but we are only getting around 300 click throughs.

and what we're saying is that there might not necessarily be many "more" people to get anyway, certainly not as many as you might initially think (not 8000 - 300 = 7700), because those google stats are misleading.

If there are more people who are genuinely prospective customers searching, but who are not clicking on your organic link then they are either clicking on the other organic links or they are clicking on the ads.

I personally think that your link description is not the big issue. Yes it can be improved, but it doesn't seem to be any worse than the other descriptions in either the organic results or the adwords (there are a few that mention discount offers or savings, which might be a better call to action).

But there is one big difference between some of the other organic links and ads, and your organic link, and that is brand awareness. There are brands on that page like Endsleigh, Hiscox, Swinton, DirectLine, Cornhill etc, and it could well be these brands that the users opt for. If this is the case then you cannot really fix this issue directly, since a small business cannot get the same brand awareness as these brands - unless you are brokering insurance from some of these brands, in which case do name drop them!

[lockyer]

what I mean, is they aren't price or offer driven. The people we are aiming at are ususally the PA's of property owners, and they need us to be seen as dependable, trustworthy.....not going to get them fired.

It's the complete opposite end of the spectrum to home, motor, and sme business, and bought in very different ways. Premiums range from around £3000 to £300,000 PA.

[awebapart.com]

just checked the keywords tool, and is says 33,100 global, but local has dropped to 6600.
That is "Broad match". Under "Match Types" (down on the left with the new interface) you should be able to ask for just "Exact match" . That's where it changes to 8,100 global and 3,600 local - but even that 3,600 figure should be taken with a very large pinch of salt (http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=1290351).

[lockyer]

ahhhh I see

[kellyhoyor]

try to improve your key-words , or write more details about your website products description , maybe it's helpful :)

[venlions]

Google is At no 1 and one thing you'll keep in your mind. More than 70% people using Google. PPC is nice but i don't think it is able to give you traffic.

[Jazz Trio]

Your question is how to get more of the people who are seeing your result in Google to actually click on your link.

The only thing you can change is the text that shows on Google, and the best way to do this is to write a meta description. This is usually the text (along with your page title) that Google displays, but in your case the meta description just says 'Webshop", so instead they have used the first few lines of text from your page.

In case you are not clear what the meta description is, it's a few lines from the top of your html code: <meta name="description" content="Webshop" />
Change the word Webshop (keep the quotation marks) to a short descriptive sentence that will grab your potential customers attention (without making it 'spammy'). Once Google has re-crawled your site this is what will then show under your page title.

[Bizman2010]

Now we have managed to get to number 1 for "commercial property insurance" on google, we have to work on increasing organic traffice.

What can I do to improve this?

:|Currently google gets around 8000 searches for this per month, but we are only getting around 300 click throughs.

As we haven't yet got a back end, we are only doing phone/email enquiries, but the good news is this is converting to 1-2 sales a day.

So if we get more views (without ppc), we will be doing quite well out of it.


Hi, is it ok to PM you?

thanks

[campbeji]

Hi,

Congratulations on the No. 1 position.

Although your initial question seems pretty simple, to give a 'complete' answer is harder. The simple answer is to 're-write the info that shows on the Google search', but that then raises the question what should I write. That is something that is harder to answer without a lot of work and research, I could suggest things of the top of my head but I wwouldn't know if it would improve things or make them worse.

The best way to research it is to run an Adwords PPC campaign, now I'm not saying to spend a lot of money, in fact don't spend a lot of money. Run a campaign with your keywords but use two different adverts, you'll see pretty quickly a trend emerging, one of them will probably get a higher click through rate. Once this is clear you can incorporate the text of the ad into your meta tags of the site. Go back to your Adwords campaign, get rid of the ad that didn't work so well and make a new Advert based on the better of the two but make a single change to it, run the ads for a while and see how well they do now, then rinse and repeat. Basically what you are doing here is getting your clients to tell you the best text to use to advertise to them, it works because you can see them making their choices. In one of my campaigns I have some adverts running, the best one is giving something in the region of 8% click through and the next is running at about 4.5%.

Another thing you might want to look at is the 'niche' you are advertising to, you are at no.1 for 'Commercial property insurance', but people tend to think of themselves when entering their search terms, so a restaurant owner might enter something like 'property insurance for restaurants', or a warehouse operator will enter 'warehouse insurance'.

Your goal is to get as many clicks into your site as possible (at a sensible cost) so you have to get your advert in front of as many prospects as possible and then gat as many of them to click through as possible.

Of couse once they click through you have to maximise on this by having an effective site that will sell the product, encourage them to phone you or collect their details so you can phone them. But thats for another post.

Good Luck.

Jim

[Astaroth]

Agree with much of what has been said before.

The other point which other people havent touched on at all is ultimately your URL.

My front end insurance experience all comes from the heavily commoditised end of the market so will have to trust your judgement on the fact that these people are more motivated by quality/ trust than price.

If this is the case then looking at the results of a google (ignoring if sponsored or organic) I have Hiscox, DL, More Th<n, Endsleigh, Cornhill all on the screen above the page fold. All of these are household names and ones that most are going to trust. Seeing "CommercialPropertyInsurance.co.uk" doesn't give a feeling of trust but if anything more of a fly by night organisation capitalising on a domain until it burns out.

Whilst it makes obvious SEO sense to get you there, being there is only part of the battle, getting selected is as (if not more) important.

[lockyer]

Hi,

Another thing you might want to look at is the 'niche' you are advertising to, you are at no.1 for 'Commercial property insurance', but people tend to think of themselves when entering their search terms, so a restaurant owner might enter something like 'property insurance for restaurants', or a warehouse operator will enter 'warehouse insurance'.



Cheers for the post Jim, and will take what you have said on board. Just a quick point about the target market, though which most people have missed completley. This mini site is soley for insuring buildings, not the businesses inside them.

The clients are the freeholders, not the leaseholders, and do not occupy the buildings inside them, and generally don't own 2 buildings used for the same purpose. This means we have to be general as possible with the search terms. They generally see themselves as property owners, commercial property owners, landlords or property investors.

If (for example) the restaurant owner, owned the building as well as the business, that would generally be added to his restaurant package insurance.

[terryuk]

Your get quote button on the index goes nowhere.. I'd find this a major turn off and probably close the page at that point. I would at least point it to the contact us, or get rid..

And yeah like campbeji said.. I would look at making some pages for more specific businesses too.

[nextdayprint]

Still half asleep, so if I dont make sense...

1) Your site needs work, and is losing you at least some of the potential customers - personally I look at it (chrome) and it is messy and very amateur.
2) The whole thing about "bland" and you referring to your customers being "pa's", research your market but find a way to attract their attention and whilst im not saying go as far as we have (hippoprint.co.uk (http://www.hippoprint.co.uk)) you still have to give the site a more professional and corporate feel (your lockyer home page looks a lot better).
3) Not sure on this one as we decided against it for our purposes but could be worth trying/asking around about it: local rate/freephone number. In the mean time try splitting your number into "895 568" for easier reading.
4) Dont know what Oval insurance did right but 5 years ago they were a small local firm and now they are huge, look at them and their model, see if there is anything you can learn from them - maybe be cheeky and pop into their Wakefield office (the founding one).
5) Work on your website, take in what everyone has said about things like "get quote" not linking, being shifted onto your main site and suddenly being locked out of this one, etc.
6) Was LIDL opposite you guys before you chose that colour scheme or after? :P
7) Go to Lindleys in the center of Wakefield and spend loads of money - that always helps ;)

Good luck.

[michellemoore]

What can I do to improve this?

:|Currently google gets around 8000 searches for this per month, but we are only getting around 300 click throughs.


8000 searches that are of broad match, people exactly searching for this key-phrase is less, and to increase traffic I would suggest use twitter & facebook also.

[lockyer]

Your get quote button on the index goes nowhere.. I'd find this a major turn off and probably close the page at that point. I would at least point it to the contact us, or get rid..

And yeah like campbeji said.. I would look at making some pages for more specific businesses too.

Cheers for spotting that, it was working last week, god knows whats happened. Will fix tomorrow.

This is just a mini site, but we will be creating others for our other core areas. This however is just for commercial property insurance. there is a link at the top back to our main site marked busines insurance.

Like most other brokers, we have areas we are more competative in, and areas that we don't want to market to as they are low earners/uncompetative for us.

[lockyer]

Still half asleep, so if I dont make sense...

1) Your site needs work, and is losing you at least some of the potential customers - personally I look at it (chrome) and it is messy and very amateur.
2) The whole thing about "bland" and you referring to your customers being "pa's", research your market but find a way to attract their attention and whilst im not saying go as far as we have (hippoprint.co.uk (http://www.hippoprint.co.uk)) you still have to give the site a more professional and corporate feel (your lockyer home page looks a lot better).
3) Not sure on this one as we decided against it for our purposes but could be worth trying/asking around about it: local rate/freephone number. In the mean time try splitting your number into "895 568" for easier reading.
4) Dont know what Oval insurance did right but 5 years ago they were a small local firm and now they are huge, look at them and their model, see if there is anything you can learn from them - maybe be cheeky and pop into their Wakefield office (the founding one).
5) Work on your website, take in what everyone has said about things like "get quote" not linking, being shifted onto your main site and suddenly being locked out of this one, etc.
6) Was LIDL opposite you guys before you chose that colour scheme or after? :P
7) Go to Lindleys in the center of Wakefield and spend loads of money - that always helps ;)

Good luck.


1) point taken but not what I asked advice on
2) working on it now
3) ill have a look
4) I don't want to be as big as oval to be honest. They have been big for more than five years though, a lot of VC money has helped it grow to that side, and they will be floating in the next year or so.
5) this was just V1.0
6) Before, but the shop looks a lot different to the one on google street view now.

[Jazz Trio]

Nothing to do with your original question, but one thing I noticed across your site is that the grey 'footer' box tends to have line-breaks at inappropriate points; for instance: the "About Us" link is split across two lines in Safari and Opera, although it seems fine in Firefox. It might also be better to add natural line-breaks to the address etc., rather than just let it break on its own.