Fast, slick, rich life insurance?

Commentary January 24, 2013 at 11:20 PM
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Keywords are a big thing in Internet marketing. We pickle our content with them, pay for rankings for them, and search for the ones that might give us top-of-the-page ranking while still maintaining relevance to our audience. Like any good puzzle, it can be a lot of fun. And also like any good puzzle, you find some strange pieces.

A couple of weeks ago, I was doing keyword research, looking for keywords with low competition and high monthly views. Life insurance-related keywords are some of the most expensive if you're employing paid strategies, and they're highly competitive. Using a keyword research tool, I pulled a list of phrases related to some typical life insurance lingo. Halfway down the page was "fast slick rich life insurance."

Say what?!?

Have to admit, I giggled for a minute, as visions of the uber slick salespeople I've met in my life danced through my head. (Yes, they danced, like all good slick salespeople do.)

So upon further review — okay, fine, just a click away — I found the author and ruler of this term, the guy who holds the No. 1 spot for those searching for "fast slick rich life insurance." I'm not going to bash said author or tear apart his argument. That wouldn't be nice. After all, he seems to be an advocate for the cause.

Thank you, Mr. Fast Slick Rich Life Insurance. I would reach out to you to discuss your article, but you seem to be anonymous, other than your form to sign up for your newsletter. You might be an Internet marketer; you might be something else. I really can't tell. And forgive me for assuming you're a man, but it just sounds better than Mrs. Fast Slick Rich Life Insurance.

My point in all this is that there's a lot of nonsense out there. Those of us who are truly in the insurance profession have had a tendency to stay away from Internet marketing, allowing a sub-culture to develop that's hurting us. I'm in no way advocating the type of rigid regulation that exists at times with regards to content and marketing, but there is a whole lot of misleading content on the Internet that hurts us when we sit down with a client.

I've always marveled when I've reviewed some of the more esoteric uses of life insurance and asked, "But how does it really work? Tell me in plain English please." And it never happens. I'm given some sort of salesy song and dance that doesn't speak to my logic. And I'm finding that on the Internet, too. People are out there waxing poetic about all kinds of life insurance topics, but not all of it makes sense. This is where my sense of responsibility for the industry kicks in. How do we clean it up without being overly controlling? The freedom to post responsible content is amazing. I don't want to lose it.

This story isn't really about cleaning up the Internet or any form of regulation. It's about our responsibility as professionals and creating good content, with a side of keyword influence. Let's not let the cart drag the horse. What we've got in our cart is a product that provides protection, security and thoughtfulness. But to some, it's fast, slick, rich life insurance.

Are we really fast, slick and rich?

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