Having a website to reach current and potential clients is a crucial part of running your insurance agency. Perhaps you’ve even spent a lot of time and money investing in your insurance agency website. From your perspective, it’s probably one of the most beautiful sites out there and you think your agency website rocks. Unfortunately, even a good-looking site is not what draws and retains clients. You need to take things a few steps further. Here are some things to consider if you are looking to make the most of your website:
How well does your site load?
A slow loading website is an immediate turn-off for clients. Potential clients probably have a long list of site results from a search. They are not going to wait for your site to load a million graphics and other effects. Your site also needs to load well for all browsers and devices. Test your site by using a variety of browsers including Firefox and Chrome. Then test it with different devices. The most popular devices include:
- iPad
- iPod and iPhone
- Android tablets and phones
If you don’t own any of these devices, borrow one or hire someone to perform testing. You can also find programs that will simulate them for desktop testing.
Do your links work?
You have a great hook for getting browsers to contact you for more information. Have you tried the link? Does it work? If clients get 404-page errors when they click on your links, they will go somewhere else.
Do clients have to navigate through 20 pages?
If clients have to continuously click through a dozen pages to find what they are looking for, they will give up. The Internet has created limited attention spans and users want fast results. Users also want to be able to return to a home page without getting lost. Check your navigation menu and make sure that a link to the home page is available on all pages.
How is your SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is supposed to be king. Google does love changing the algorithms used to rank pages, but you can still use quality SEO. The biggest key in search ranking is to provide quality, in-depth content without excessive keyword use. Google also provides information on keyword ranking that can be accessed easily. Check out the variety of tools offered through Google Analytics.
Get rid of the pop-ups
Having a small pop-up in the lower right corner of your site for an instant chat feature is a nice touch for web visitors. Having a huge pop-up that blocks half of the screen is annoying. The same huge pop-up that refuses to close, or asks visitors why they do not wish to chat with you, will turn your browsers into someone else’s clients. Get rid of any pop-ups that block your information or require visitors to click endlessly to close the window. Once you have gotten control of the basics, you can start adding content. Continue to check your insurance website’s basic functions periodically to make sure that updates do not interfere with usability. With these points in mind, you will have a website that rocks.
Source: http://webdesign.about.com/od/testing/a/test-mobile-web-pages.htm, http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change, http://www.google.com/analytics/why/
