What Signal Is Your Website Sending?

Your website can help you do a lot of heavy lifting. In fact, according to research from Gartner, a global best practice insights and technology company, a website is an important part of a small business owner’s purchase decision process. Small business owners typically consult three or more sources before determining fit with a provider, including:

1. Peer or professional acquaintances
2. Provider or agent websites and online ratings and reviews
3. Providers or agents

So, while a website is just one part of the decision process, it’s an important one, and often gives potential customers their first impression of your agency and its trustworthiness.

Don’t worry though! We have four quick tips to help you give your website a spring refresh and improve your website’s credibility, no matter the size of your agency.

1. Contact information

Let’s ease in with something pretty simple—where your customers can contact you. The contact information you publish on your site should include your physical address, a main phone number, and an email address. This will show customers that you’re a legitimate and established agency.

If you feel like doing a little extra credit, survey your friends to learn how easy or difficult it is to find your contact information on your site. This information doesn’t need to be front and center, but it should be easy for a customer to locate.

2. Check for errors

This one might seem obvious, but errors can take many forms, including broken links, outdated information, typos, etc. Errors hurt your credibility more than most people realize, since they send a negative message—if you can’t keep your site error free, how will you be able to service a customer’s policy without making mistakes?

Bonus tip: Comb through your site twice a year to check for broken links and typos and to update your business information.

3. Highlight your expertise and services

This shouldn’t be too hard—talk about yourself and what differentiates you as an agency! Tell your customers about your experience in the industry, the types of insurance you specialize in, and how you can help them. Are you a member of any respected organizations? Have you won any community or professional awards? Do you have any professional credentials? List them on your website.

This is also a good opportunity to take a look at what you’re linking to on your site. Make sure you link to credible sources, because what you link to reflects on your agency’s expertise and trustworthiness.

4. Professional site design

This one might be more complicated depending on how your site is built and your experience with websites. But don’t worry! You don’t need a site that rivals that of a billion-dollar tech company to be successful. Your visual design should match your site’s purpose.

Here are three quick things that can really help your site:

• Typography: Limit your pages to a couple of web safe fonts. org lists 15 web safe fonts and details the best use for each.
• Images: Any pictures or photos on your site should represent your agency’s purpose or showcase your agents. If you’re using stock photos, make sure you have the rights or that they’re royalty free so you don’t get hit with fines.
• Layout: Keep it simple and minimal! This will help customers navigate your site with ease.

When you do these four things today, your website will send the right signals—and make a great first impression with customers! And if you’re feeling stuck or aren’t comfortable making changes to your site on your own, check out the website services tools on the Progressive Marketing page—we can help!

Jessica DeCrane

Jessica is a writer and communicator with Progressive’s Commercial Lines group. When not writing she loves to run, read cookbooks, and try new foods.