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looking for some ojective input

 
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Aug 21, 2008 12:45 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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I`ve had my site up for about 7 months and it really hasnt generated the kind of inquiries from clients that I had hoped it would.  traffic is still very slow.  Rankings have increased but certainly not very impressively ranked.
 
I invite you all to stop by and tell me what you think.  Either as consumers or SEO/web design specialists.
 
 
Thanks!
HealthInsurancePro8/21/2008 12:50 PM


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Gateway Insurance Solutions

Specializing in Missouri Health Insurance for individuals, families, small businesses and self employed professionals.
vwebworld

posts: 1237

Aug 21, 2008 2:16 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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I`m not sure about other people, but contacting an insurance agent, broker, or firm is not one of my top 10 things to do... although it is higher on my list than contacting a dentist .  So, there may be some resistance "just because" it`s not something people want to do.
 
How do you overcome that resistance? You need to communicate a message that induces people to act (to contact you). What`s in it for them? How will they benefit? ... and make it easy. Your home page says -  "Get the Health Insurance You Need Today!" Not the most inspiring message/call to action. 
 
So, your content writing needs some work.
 
Site design - To me the site seems to have a lot of "wasted space" and is to wide for most computer monitors. This means the viewer must scroll to the right to see the rest of the page. I`d suggest reducing the size (width) of the page.
 
The bullets on the upper left... at first I didn`t realize they were links. You might consider either identifying that section as another menu or underlining those links.
 
The logo and menu / tagline / banner part of each page takes up a lot of space, forcing the content below it. So, people miss the main content of your site (on each page)... unless they scroll down. They may not scroll down unless they see something that makes them want to. I`d suggest reducing the height of the upper part of each page so your main content is more visible.
 
There are some text formating problems. Specialty products page - lines of text overlap each other (on IE). The red text on blue background is hard to read on the Small Business page.
 
Animated banner - it`s not a big point but, such animated banners get tiresome after awhile. Better to have one graphic with all the logos.
 
Your logo should link back to your home page.
 
HTML Code - you should put all the style code into an external stylesheet. While each page has a unique title (which is good) each page should also have a unique meta description.
 
~Roland


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Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter
Webline

posts: 687

Aug 21, 2008 3:06 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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For a lot of people, insurance is a luxury anymore .... most people just can`t afford it, regardless of how much they want or need it .... on top of the cost of everything else lately, it is moving down the list of what people are willing to pay for; "Do I buy gas and food this week, or health insurance?" .... I imagine that is part of the sales problem, that many just don`t have the finances.

That leads to a message I don`t see on your site right away, which is, "Can I, a potential customer, afford it?" If you state up front that you have affordable plans, or that you can provide plans cheaper than most others, or give me something to think that you are solving the financial issue for me right away, I`d be more inclined to check into it .... but all in all, right away it comes across as just another insurance program that I probably can`t afford, since there is no indication of anything different ..... "We work for our clients, not an insurance company" .... well yeah, that is what I would already expect from you, but that doesn`t solve my insurance coverage problem or provide a solution, it`s just a sales line.

In general .... what is setting you apart from any other company doing the same thing? How does your company benefit me more than your competitors can?



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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons


CraigL

posts: 9051

Aug 21, 2008 11:19 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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Kathy`s having a great deal of success using WordPress to build an offsite blog. The benefit is that the traffic back and forth between the two separate URLs makes us look better and better to the search engines.

Why not build a blog that talks about daily events, your thoughts and ponderings? The site itself would be the specifics and details---the process of insurance. But the blog could make it all personal. There, you could have articles like, "I was talking with my friend, the other day, about this gallbladder problem." Then go from there.
UrbanMelt

posts: 20

Aug 22, 2008 1:34 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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I`d say that Craig is spot on with incorporating WordPress.
 
The WordPress software has a great deal of search engine optimization built in. So, if you`re looking to attract clients locally, there`s much you can do to optimize locally. You can use their completely free version that would look like this = gatewayinsurancesolutions.wordpress.com. You can set that up easily at WordPress.com. Or you can download the WordPress software from WordPress.org to your own web hosting and use your own url/domain/website name. Some web hosting services offer 1 click installs of WordPress.
 
If I`m looking for an insurance agent, I will search "insurance, 60477" or "insurance, Tinley Park, IL". I want to be face to face with an agent. I think that`s how the majority feels.
 
You can plug your location information into the footer on the WordPress sites and that helps a great deal. I want to be up front here. I`ve learned most of this from a FRIEND`s website. I will give that link now: LocalNa8ion
 
He provides a great deal of information via video blog for local internet marketing efforts. It`s all free info. If you don`t have the time or patience to follow the advice he provides, you can hire him. That`s where the business model kicks in.
 
I hope this was a help.


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Emil Wisch
Community Servant & CoCreator
UrbanMelt.com
emil [at] urbanmelt.com
Twitter: urbanmelt
CeceMHill

posts: 33

Aug 25, 2011 12:10 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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I would definitely add content to your site and perhaps add some blog articles to give it more interest. Also, I would work on the text alignment of your elements so that your page looks more polished. Right now I'm working on a beauty site that specializes in body wrap products and I know what a challenge it can be to put together something nice that customers will keep coming back too. I think my site is pretty short on content as well but I think it will really make a difference to focus more on that.



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Nothing makes you feel of look better than body wraps.
akitso

posts: 5

Aug 28, 2011 2:59 PM ET    Quote  Report Abuse
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I noticed you haven't replied to this yet, if you want to make your business successful, really listen to what everyone is saying here, it's invaluable!



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$399 fully-featured websites for small businesses.
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