Insurance Citation Sites

[JoshuaMackens]

I've noticed there are, what feels like, a million and one local business sites that want to serve just the insurance market. And they're almost all crap.

They don't have contact pages, about pages, etc., don't offer a way to add or manage your listing, and don't appear to pull their results from any of the data aggregators.

Does anyone know where they're pulling this info from? Is there an insurance database out there like the NPI database but for insurance companies that they are pulling info from?

 

[Phil Rozek]

@JoshuaMackens, what are some examples? Most of the SERPs are carved up between Allstate and State Farm, with a few local agents' sites, and with the occasional bigger directory (like Expertise.com) in there.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Mostly crappy sites like:

flindependentagents.com
cheapautoinsurance.co
everquote.com
etc.

They have to be pulling their data from somewhere. I wonder where it is?

 

[Phil Rozek]

I don't get the sense they pull data from anywhere. The first two sites have super-incomplete directories, which means they probably got the insurance agents (or their marketers) to submit their own listings, one at a time. There is a "build it and they will come" component to certain niche directories. Everquote doesn't even seem to have a directory, as far as I can see, but rather this kind of deal: Auto Insurance Quotes Online, Free & Fast | EverQuote

 

[JoshuaMackens]

I thought they at one point allowed people to submit their own listings as well because it was so incomplete but I couldn't find any evidence of that in web.archive.org (although I can't say I searched extremely thoroughly). And there are other directories where they have a ton of listings. I think they have to be pulling from somewhere. If anyone knows, it would be great to hear about it.

 

[PKLilikoi]

I thought they at one point allowed people to submit their own listings as well because it was so incomplete but I couldn't find any evidence of that in web.archive.org (although I can't say I searched extremely thoroughly). And there are other directories where they have a ton of listings. I think they have to be pulling from somewhere. If anyone knows, it would be great to hear about it.

I'm going to have to agree with @Phil Rozek here. It looks like flindependentagents.com got the information from somewhere( maybe Trusted Choice) . They must have had the agents input the information. They even have an agent directory which you can find a variety of info when you input a city or agency name.