A new analysis from the Centre for Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO) reveals that an astonishing 62% of Canadian P&C brokers have not implemented a mobile-optimized website for their business, and even the sophisticated market in Ontario only boasts a 44% adoption rate.
While smartphone-friendly websites may seem unnecessary in the face-to-face world of insurance business, brokers who did implement mobile websites told CSIO that doing so resulted in more web traffic and an enhanced online presence.
“Thanks to Google Analytics, we know that mobile device traffic on our Groupe Confiance website has increased by about 18% per month since the mobile site has been up and running,” Vincent Boulanger, owner of Assurancia Groupe Confiance (
http://www.gconfiance.ca/), told CSIO. “And now we’re on the first Google page for certain very important insurance keywords, such as ’event insurance’. Because of that, we’re a leader in the field with our Assurance Événements website.”
The process does not need to be challenging, either.
“The good news is that it’s not necessarily difficult to improve these numbers, as there are options for brokers to mobile optimize their websites relatively easily and inexpensively,” said Grant Patten, communications specialist, CSIO.
Patten points out that there are two options for mobile sites: one that is an entirely separate site designed for mobile and maintained apart from the desktop site, and a responsive design that is a single site but adapts to display clearly and in a user-friendly manner on whichever screen it appears. His recommendation between the two depends on a broker’s forthcoming technological plans.
“If brokerages are contemplating designing an entirely new website within the year, responsive design is the ideal solution because it’s better optimized for Google searches and allows the search engine to crawl content more effectively when it’s all on one URL,” he said.
For brokers who are not planning to implement a new website in the next 12 months, however, he recommends a separate mobile website to avoid building an entirely new site.
An easy first step for brokers who want to get started is to conduct a quick search online encompassing a request such as “make my website mobile,” and if preferring to work with a web developer in their area, add the brokerage’s town/city name and province. In addition, once developed, CSIO suggests the following best practices for the site itself:
- Link to authoritative domain names such as provincial broker associations and/or the IBAC in order to rank higher in Google searches
- Cross-link to social media outlets
- Examine data through such platforms as Google Analytics to see which pages perform well, and then try to feature more of those
- If using a separate mobile site in place of responsive design, provide a link back to the desktop website, in case mobile users prefer that to the optimized one
- Remove non-essential content
- Provide a “click to call” link that allows users to press a button and be instantly connected to the brokerage
Brokers should also partake in one of the practices they do best, which is interacting with clients.
“If brokers haven’t already done this type of research, they should conduct interviews, surveys and maybe even host a focus group with consumers to discover what type of information they need and what they should prioritize on their mobile sites,” said Patten.
For further advice and to see case studies of brokerages that have championed mobile-optimized websites, please view the CSIO white paper and additional resources at
http://www.csio.com/mobile-websites.
