No one flits through three Google pages in search of that one insurance company they've heard good things about. In fact, the first organic Google search result has a 28.5% clickthrough rate, according to Search Engine Journal. That number falls through the rankings—15% for the second search result and 11% for the third.

How do you get your agency high up on that search engine results page? One important component is backlinks.

How Do Backlinks Work?

Backlinks, also known as inbound links, are a vital part of search engine optimization (SEO). When another website mentions an external domain, it will provide a direct link from its site to yours. 

For example, if you were discussing conversion rate e-commerce tactics in an article, you might provide a backlink to a domain with more information on the topic. This works the other way around too.

When an authoritative website provides a backlink to you, Google sees this as a positive reference. Essentially, it's a vote of confidence because your website is backed by another trusted website. The more highly rated backlinks your company has from other trustworthy websites, the higher you'll appear in Google rankings and the more trustworthy you'll be perceived.

The greater the number of backlinks from respected sources, the stronger your SEO impact. This entire process is designed to boost traffic to the sites that deserve it. 

Why Is Search Engine Ranking So Important?

Primarily, backlinks are useful for insurance-related SEO because of their power to improve your search engine results page (SERP) rankings. For that reason, they should be an essential part of your SEO costing and strategy. 

When it comes to insurance, backlinks are essential. Insurance usually involves reasonably large payments for no immediate return other than peace of mind or the need to satisfy a mandated requirement. It's essentially an investment and can help in sales training. This means trust is important when choosing a company. 

How to Build Your Strategy

For other trusted websites to provide backlinks to your domain, your content must be high quality so other companies trust what you've written and feel comfortable citing it. Be “quotable" when writing about your field so authoritative websites want to share what you're providing. 

Invest in a top-quality design to make sure your website appears professional and reputable. When another site includes a backlink to yours, it also reflects on their credibility and reputation. 

Good content and a quality website that delivers reliable service makes you a more obvious candidate for backlinking. 

Jessica Day is the senior director for marketing strategy at Dialpad, a modern business communications platform that takes every kind of conversation to the next level—turning conversations into opportunities. Day is an expert in collaborating with multifunctional teams to execute and optimize marketing efforts, for both company and client campaigns.