Things To Know Before Paying For A MedicareAgentsHub.com Listing
by Jesse Slome, American Association for Medicare Supplement Insurance
July 1, 2024 – 3 Minute Read – Verified by AAMSI
We posted this webpage back in February 2023 following inquiries from Medicare insurance agents who were being solicited. Last month we spoke with Joe from MedicareAgentsHub and have a better understanding of their business. Thus I am updating the page and information.
It was explained that their website is owned by a private equity entrepreneur. They are not in the Medicare insurance business (beyond the directory). Initially their website cited data based on our website (not theirs). That information has been removed.
If you have information you’d like to share – please feel free to reach out to me.
What Do I Want To Tell Medicare Insurance Agents
I created the Association’s directory because consumers were calling us. And, we don’t sell Medicare insurance (or sell leads). We priced the directory to be affordable ($185 for 1 year). Do a Google search for the term “Medicare insurance agents near me” and we typically rank at the top of the ORGANIC results. As a result, we do have consumers using the directory to find agents.
Competition is always inevitable. You have to decide where to spend your hard-earning money. I’m pleased that Medicareagentshub now posts testimonials (we have too since beginning). They are quite a bit more expensive …
How would I decide? Well, you could try a year with both – and see which generates better results.
You could do a Google search and see which directory ranks higher for your area.
You could try their free listing (a very smart move I add).
Bottom line, I am very proud of what we provide for agents. If you want to know more about what goes into generating online leads, keep reading.
Thank you for your interest.
Getting Medicare Insurance Leads From Online Directories
If you are an insurance agent looking to get leads from an online directory keep reading.
The American Association for Medicare Supplement Insurance maintains an online directory. Agents pay $185 for a 1-year listing and $289 for 2 years. We can’t ever promise leads (no one can!). But, our premise is that 1 sale made over 2 years MORE THAN PAYS for the listing. And, if you read our agent testimonials, you’ll see many agents have made many more sales than that.
Medicareagentshub also maintains a directory. From what we understand, their (paid) listing costs about $800 a year. They have now started posting testimonials. And that’s a good thing.
What Data Should Matter To Medicare Agents?
Website traffic. Keyword ranking on Google and Bing.
Both directories rely on what’s called ‘organic’ searches. That means a person enters a search and clicks on one of the resulting listings. Google and Bing (Microsoft) earn billions from charging for ‘sponsored ads’. Those appear at the top. When someone clicks on one of the sponsored links, the advertising company pays. For Medicare it’s typically between $30 and $60 (even if the person just clicks off!). Advertising is EXPENSIVE.
Generating free ORGANIC leads takes work. The measure is how many visitors your website gets – called ‘traffic’.
The following is screenshot from a report run today (7/1/2024) by similarweb.com. We compared the 2 websites (medicaresupp.org – the Association’s website and Medicareagentshub).
As you can see, the Association’s website got 18,336 monthly visitors. Medicareagentshub.com got 6,164. NOW that is progress because below you can see a report from 2023 where none were being recorded. To be fair, one should look at what’s called ‘unique visitors’. We had 7,500 a month. Thus some 11,000 may visit our site multiple times. And we can’t tell are they coming to read data we posted. Or to find a local Medicare insurance agent near me.
But traffic does matter.
Google Ranking Matters Too
Most people do their searches via Google. Bing ranks a very distant second. One way to know how Google views your website is by looking at your ‘authority ranking’. A free service (Ahrefs) offers a great Authority checker. Here’s what they report today (July 1, 2024).
As you can see, the Association’s website has a domain rating of 58. And some 465 websites link back to the Association’s website. That is a key measure.
Medicaereagentshub only has a domain rating of 19. Again, this is progress from 2023 when their rating was under 2.
WHY HAVE WE ADDED THIS WEBPAGE? Starting this month, I’ve been receiving inquiries from Medicare agents who are listed on the Association’s Find A Medicare Insurance Agent online directory. Some were confused, thinking we had changed websites or were setting up something new. They shared the website address for MedicareAgentsHub so I began checking and here’s what I’ve found. If you’re being contacted, here’s what I think you need to know.
I WELCOME COMPETITION AND SERVICES THAT BENEFIT AGENTS. Yes, even if it impacts us. But information on their website is misleading (with claims and words literally pulled off our website). So, please keep reading if you want to know the truth.
FIRST OF ALL – FREE IS GOOD (okay GREAT!). I’m told they are adding listings for free (at least as a come-on). You can’t beat free. Of course, free is meaningless if no one actually finds their directory … but keep reading. Their website claims their plans range from $29 to $79-per-month. Wow (maybe we should raise our rates!).
WEBSITE COMPARISON ANALYSIS PERFORMED BY SIMILARWEB.COM
The following is screenshot from a report run today (2/21/23) by similarweb.com. We compared the 2 websites (medicaresupp.org – the Association’s website and Medicareagentshub).
As you can see, the Association’s website got 15,626 visitors between Nov 2022 and January 2023. Their number N/A.
NO RANKING & NO LINKS = NO ORGANIC VISIBILITY
You likely have heard the term Search Engine Optimization (or SEO). That’s how Google ranks websites. One of the top services that tracks this is ahrefs.com and you can do a comparison yourself.
The Association’s website (as of 2/21/23) has a DOMAIN RATING OF 55. That’s pretty good and has taken me years to achieve. We have over 24,000 different websites that link to us. That’s good too. I continually work hard to keep that number growing. Because that’s what Google uses to determine how they rank websites. Sites that rate well are ranked higher up. As you will see below.
Medicareagentshub has a Domain Rating of 1.5 (NOT 15, but 1 point 5). And one website linking back to them. Good luck being ranked by Google.
Who Really Ranks For “Find A Local Medicare Agent”?
The Association’s website does rank!
Do your own Google search right now. I just did and here are the results.
The top links are paid Ads. The 4 companies pay anywhere from $40 to $70 for each person who clicks.
Below the paid Ads are ‘organic’ listings. The Association’s website (medicaresupp.org) ranks #1 here. Sometimes we’ll rank a little lower. See if you can find their website anywhere … keep scrolling (and scrolling and scrolling). Give up? I did.
Real Google Analytics Data from www.Medicaresupp.org
Google provides free tools that provides tons of data about your website. Here is the 2022 Google Analytics report for the Association’s website https://www.medicaresupp.org.
100,937 visitors (Jan 1 – Dec 31). A 14.64% increase. 2022 was the highest year for our website traffic. We are up for 2023 too!
Questions To Ask MedicareAgentsHub?
Here’s what I’d want to know.
- Who are you? If they are an FMO (General Agency) expect them to be soliciting you for all sorts of stuff.
- Send me a Google Analytics report for the website (1/1 – 12/31/2022). I doubt you’ll ever get one but if you do, please share that with Jesse . Thanks.
- Since you claim to be #1 – can you send me some agent testimonials?
A Final Word from Jesse Slome
I’m the first to tell Medicare agents that I can’t promise a listing on our website will generate leads. Some agents get nothing. Others get a few each year.
We set up the directory to help consumers. If you get a sale or two, the $144/year (2 year listing at $289) paid for itself. You have a new client too.
That said, I regularly post testimonials from listed agents. You can click this link to read Medicare agent testimonials. You’ll see their words and actually be able to see their directory listing (NO BS testimonials posted!).
Thanks for taking the time to read. If you are NOT already on the Association’s directory and want to add your Medicare agent directory listing, click the highlighted link.
Many thanks for your interest.
Jesse Slome
American Association for Medicare Supplement Insurance