Ask for a quote. Get a person.
People look for an agent when a renewal jumps or a claim lands. Show them a real person.
What the home page says
Section by section, in the order a visitor reads it.
Lines you write
List them in the words on a bill, like auto, home, renters, life and business. Someone with a contractor's truck or a farm needs to see that you write that risk before they fill in anything.
Quote request
Name, contact details, what they want covered and when it renews. A form can't bind coverage, so say a person will follow up. Leave out Social Security numbers, license numbers and policy documents, which don't belong in a contact form.
Carriers you work with
Independent agents earn trust by naming them. Check each carrier's rules before using its name or logo. If you're captive, find out what your carrier allows on a site of your own before anything else.
When there's a claim
Clients land here on the worst day of their month. Say who to call first, link to each carrier's claims page, and give your own phone number and hours.
Who you are
Your agents' names, photos and license details, and how long you've been in town. Your state's insurance department and your carriers may ask for specific wording, so check before you publish.
Where you're licensed
Name the states. Someone across a state line needs to know before they ask for a quote. Name the towns you know too, and what you see there, like hail or flooding.
How they search
- insurance agent near me
- independent insurance agent near me
- auto insurance quote
- home insurance agent
- life insurance agent near me
- small business insurance
- farm insurance agent
- renters insurance quote
What earns their trust
- Your license, and the states it covers
- The carriers you really write with
- If you're independent, or represent one company
- Who helps when there's a claim
- A named agent with a photo and a direct line
- Reviews on a claim going smoothly, if your state and carriers allow them
How it gets found
What moves a local insurance agent up in a town's results.
Get the listing's name right
Google counts insurance agents as individual practitioners. A solo agent at a branded office should share one profile, titled with the brand and then the agent's name. An independent agency uses its own name.
Choose your category by line
Start with Insurance agency. Google also has Auto insurance agency, Home insurance agency and Life insurance agency. Use a narrow one as your main category only if it's most of your book.
Give each line you want a page
Farm, contractor and flood insurance each come with their own worries. A page on the risks you see in your area gives a search engine, and a nervous visitor, more than a list of lines.
Skip a page per state
Being licensed in three states doesn't call for three copied pages. Name the states in one place, and write separate pages only where you have clients and something different to say.
How to sell one
A local agent is up against national ads and comparison sites, and has one thing they can't buy, a person in town who picks up the phone. Many agents have a carrier-supplied page they can barely change, or an agency site from years ago that lists every line the same way.
Ask which line they want more of, then show a page for it, such as contractors or farm, with a quote form. Ask early whether they're independent or captive, because a captive agent may need the carrier's say-so before any site goes up.
- “Corporate gives me a page.”
- Check what you can change on it, and whether it shows your town and your lines the way you'd say them. Then check your agreement, because some carriers limit a separate site. If yours does, I'd rather you tell me now.
- “Everything needs carrier or compliance approval.”
- Send them a review link. They can comment on any part of a page without an account, and nothing goes live until you publish. Every version is kept, so you can see what the site said and when.
- “People just want the cheapest price online.”
- Some do, and a website won't win them. Your site is for the person with a question, a business to cover or a claim to sort out, who'd rather talk it through.
- “I buy my leads.”
- Those stop when the payment stops. Your site is there when a client sends a friend your way or a renewal makes someone shop around, and it's the same link every time.
Common questions
Can't find your answer? Read Shingle Help or email [email protected].
The lines you write, the carriers you work with, the states you're licensed in, a short quote request, who to call for a claim, and your agents by name. A page for each main line, such as auto or farm, gives you room to talk about the risks you see locally.
No. A form built with Shingle sends you a request, and you quote and bind the policy yourself. There's no rating engine and no payment. Say on the form that someone will follow up, and that coverage doesn't start until you confirm it.
Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, medical details and policy documents. Answers arrive by email and in your team's inbox, and the form can't take files anyway. Ask for contact details, the line and the renewal date, then collect the rest through your agency's secure system.
Check with each carrier first, because each has its own rules. Ask your carrier or your rep what you can show, and get the approved logo from them. Naming a carrier in plain words needs the same check. Shingle is built to show a carrier only if you've told it you work with them.
Yes, and they vary by state and by line. Check your state's insurance department and your carriers' rules, and take extra care with Medicare, which has federal marketing rules of its own. Shingle doesn't check your site against any of them, so have whoever handles compliance read it first.
Sometimes. It depends on your agreement with the carrier, and many provide a page of their own. Ask what an outside site may say before you build. If it's allowed, a review link lets them read the demo and comment before you publish anything.
Read next
- Website formsForms that email you and send each lead where you work.
- Clone a websiteCopy a site you own or may copy, then change it.
- Local SEO for small businessHow it works, for an owner with an hour a week.
- Local business schema generatorStructured data for your page's head.
- Client review linksA private link where clients comment on the page.
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