340% More Inbound Quote Requests for an Ontario Insurance Brokerage
How we turned a brokerage with zero organic presence into the top local result for high-intent insurance search terms — in under 9 months.
Before engagement
- Monthly organic visitors
- 180
- Google Map Pack appearances
- 0 of 15 target terms
- Monthly inbound quote requests
- 12
- Domain rating
- 6
- Google reviews
- 4
After 9 months
- Monthly organic visitors
- 1,340 (+644%)
- Google Map Pack appearances
- 11 of 15 target terms
- Monthly inbound quote requests
- 53 (+340%)
- Domain rating
- 24
- Google reviews
- 47 (avg 4.8★)
The Challenge
A mid-size Ontario insurance brokerage was generating virtually all new business through broker referrals and cold outreach. Their website existed but ranked for nothing. Competitors dominated the Google Map Pack for every high-intent local query — "home insurance Mississauga," "commercial insurance GTA," "auto insurance broker near me." The brokerage had strong close rates and an experienced team. The problem was discoverability: buyers who searched for insurance brokers in their area never found them.
What We Built
GBP audit and full rebuild
The existing Google Business Profile had an incomplete service area, no posts in 8 months, and 4 reviews with no responses. We rebuilt it from the ground up: correct primary category (Insurance Broker), all 22 insurance service types listed, service area expanded to cover Mississauga, Brampton, Oakville, Toronto, Burlington, and Hamilton. Implemented a monthly review request sequence that drove the review count from 4 to 47 within 6 months.
City + service landing page build
11 dedicated landing pages targeting the highest-volume local insurance queries: "home insurance Mississauga", "commercial insurance GTA", "life insurance broker Brampton", "auto insurance Oakville", and 7 others. Each page was 1,000+ words, included LocalBusiness + Service schema, embedded GBP map, city-specific content, and FAQ sections targeting the questions buyers actually ask before requesting a quote.
Google Ads restructure and launch
The existing Google Ads account had one campaign mixing all insurance types, no negative keyword list, and a homepage landing page. We rebuilt it: 6 campaigns by insurance type (home, auto, life, commercial, tenant, business), 40+ negative keywords added at launch, dedicated landing pages per campaign with message-matched headlines. CPA dropped 42% within 60 days of restructure.
Cold email outreach for commercial referrals
Built a targeted cold email sequence for commercial insurance prospects — real estate developers, contractors, healthcare practices, and manufacturers in the GTA. 3-email sequence with a quote trigger. Generated 8 commercial accounts in the first quarter of outreach.
Process & Methodology
The first 30 days were foundation: GBP rebuild, technical SEO audit, and keyword mapping. Months 2–4 focused on content production (2 landing pages per month) and Google Ads restructure. Months 5–9 were the compounding phase: link building through local business associations and insurance industry publications, ongoing review generation, and expanding the content cluster to cover every insurance product + city combination in the service area. The Google Ads account ran in parallel throughout, bridging pipeline needs during the 4-month window before organic traffic became significant.
"We were completely invisible online for our first 8 years. Within a year, we're the first result when someone in Mississauga or Brampton searches for a broker. Our biggest problem now is keeping up with the quote volume."
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