I’m heading back to BrightonSEO to talk about our Geico.com case study, and how people really do searches for local services.
After my recent jaunt to Ireland to speak at DMX Dublin 2014, I’m hopping on a plane to speak once again, this time in England at BrightonSEO.
My talk on April 24 will be diving deep into how people actually search for local services, using insurance industry leader Geico.com as a case study.
Our newest research has revealed some surprising things, including new opportunities not only for the big players in the insurance field, but also for up-and-comers who want to get into the game with organic search rankings.
Last fall, I spoke at BrightonSEO on large-scale SERP analytics, and we released a downloadable crib sheet to go along with it. The response was so strong that we knew we had to go back.
Brighton Pier at dusk
One of the city’s most loved (and most mocked) attractions. (Image: Eric Hossinger.)
Plus, I have to admit that Brighton is damn charming, in its own quirky British seaside sort of way. Jenn Wallis, STAT’s Marketing and Communications Manager, will be joining me for the first time. I can’t wait to introduce her to some old friends and show her some of the city’s loopier sights. (Brighton Pier and Royal Pavilion, I’m lookin’ at you.)
Maybe I’ll even make her eat jellied eels on the boardwalk.
Localization and organic search
As we all know, people enter search terms into the SERPs in many different ways. Geo-modification and keyword syntax are just two variations that add huge diversity and complexity to search behaviour.
So, we embarked on a case study of the US insurance industry, using Geico.com as our guinea pig. We wanted to know how people are using Google to search for insurance services, how they modify their searches to find services in their area, and how searcher behaviour changes state by state.
We looked at different lines of business state by state in the US, and segmented our search queries into syntax groups:
- Suffix [car insurance Alabama]
- Prefix [Alabama car insurance]
- For Suffix [Car insurance for Alabama]
- In Suffix [Car insurance in Alabama]
- Unmodified [Car insurance]
In order to get a comprehensive picture, we tracked 45,133 keywords, as well as the correlating search volume, CPC, and advertising competition metrics.
As we expected, we uncovered some surprising insights—insights that can be used to build winning local SEO strategies in the insurance industry and in any industry that depends on local search.
We’ll be releasing the crib sheet version of our research to BrightonSEO attendees, and then the full research at a later date. Want to make sure that you get your hands on it? Sign up for our newsletter and we’ll give you a heads up when it comes out.
Hope to see you in Brighton—and remember to keep off the groynes!
On the beach, Brighton
Always good advice. (Image: Clem Rutter.)
