I’ve been around the block a few times when it comes to insurance copy.
Having previously written for Age Co (home and car insurance), Chill Insurance (home and car), Zurich (business) and Markel (business), I’ve been met with feedback from compliance teams, specificities about what can and can’t be said, and a ton of praise for helping businesses like these bring in thousands of organic sessions through quality copy.
But before I write any copy, I like to perform a content audit to first understand what I’m actually dealing with. No point shoving 50 articles on a blog without first understanding whether it a) already has existing content and b) has technical issues that have gone unnoticed.
Equally, there’s no point in rewriting a service page that is already getting thousands of impressions and clicks organically.
With my experience in the insurance field, I thought it would be a good idea to show the biggest mistakes I see insurance brands making time and again. But the good news is, they’re all quite easily fixable.
Mistake #1: Thin content that doesn’t provide clarity
One of the biggest issues is simply not giving the people what they want. While yes, we’re all about scannable, easy-read content, you also need to provide the absolute essential information about the product. When it comes to insurance, there’s a lot of information that’s necessary for the page, and most insurance businesses choose not to include it.
What you end up with is a page that looks like it was written in a rush or padded out with generic filler.
Visitors land on the page expecting clarity and end up with two vague paragraphs that don’t actually explain the product properly.
These people will never convert.
And thin content isn’t just unhelpful to humans. It can hurt your search visibility because it damages your brand’s trust, an essential part of EEAT.
If someone can’t quickly understand what you cover, who it’s for and why it’s worth paying for, they’ll click away and try another provider who explains it better.
Good content answers obvious questions before the customer has to ask them. It gives examples, explains benefits clearly and leaves no room for guesswork.
I’d say any insurance product page needs at least 800 to 1,000 words to cover all bases.
Mistake #2: Duplicate policy pages that confuse humans and Google
Another biggie is duplication. I see this a lot on multi-product insurance sites. There’s one page for “Home Insurance”, another for “Our Home Insurance”, and a third for “Buildings and Contents Cover” that says basically the same thing.
From a customer’s point of view, it’s messy and repetitive. From Google’s point of view, it’s a ranking nightmare because your pages end up competing with each other.
A content audit will be able to identify these kinds of duplicate pages and then they can be consolidated into one page to make everything a little less confusing.
A well-organised structure can help your customers to navigate faster and reduces complaints. It can also make your site look much more professional.
Mistake #3: Jargon, jargon everywhere
Don’t get me wrong, I do think jargon has its place, particularly in an industry that is so highly regulated as insurance. In some cases, it can’t be avoided.
But many insurance brands take it too far and end up sounding like a policy booklet instead of a helpful, human business.
When customers stumble across sentences packed with “endorsements”, “perils”, “applicable limits” and “material facts”, they don’t feel reassured. Instead, they feel overwhelmed, and overwhelmed people don’t convert.
It’s completely possible to keep the terminology accurate while explaining things in a way normal people actually understand. If someone reads your quote page and thinks, “I’ve no idea what they’re on about,” you’ve already lost the sale.
Keep your copy clear and concise but without leaning into the patronising zone. It’s a slim border, but an important one.
Mistake #4: Overly cautious copy
In an industry like insurance or health, compliance is necessary and imperative. But sometimes, the fear of saying the wrong things results in copy that is so watered down, it hardly says anything at all.
When copy becomes cautious, it is cold and insensitive. The key here is to add warmth, add personality, add empathy. You can still be careful about what you’re saying, but what you do say should show a bit of care and intention.
Your web copy needs to persuade, and it needs to make the customer feel confident that you know what you’re doing and that your product is worth buying. If every sentence sounds like it’s been triple-sanitised by a risk-averse committee, you’re missing the chance to communicate value.
Mistake #5: A confusing customer journey
A lot of insurance sites that I’ve seen throw useful information at customers, but then don’t actually guide them anywhere. People skim, scroll and leave because they haven’t been properly nudged towards the next step.
This next step could be making an enquiry, filling out a form or booking a call with a sales member to discuss their personal insurance needs.
If your analytics show lots of traffic but few engagements or achieved goals, this is often why. But how do you fix it?
You need to create strong conversion-focused copy that is there to build a clear path. The copy should allow the reader to understand your business and your products, remove any hesitations they may have about purchasing and then invite them to take action in a way that feels natural.
Mistake #6: The microcopy gets forgotten about
If you’ve never heard of microcopy, it’s basically all the bits of text that guide users, provide context, and enhance the user experience (UX) by being clear, concise, and on-brand. Microcopy includes quote forms, error messages, buttons, FAQs, pop-ups, etc.
And these things are always forgotten about. No one thinks they’re important, or that they make much of a difference. But in my experience, they absolutely do.
A generic “Error: Incorrect input” is maddening. What was the error? What needs to be changed to make it work? A simple “Please enter your postcode in the correct format. For example, CH4 9AA” is helpful, human and far more likely to keep someone on track.
Good microcopy removes friction. It’s the difference between a customer giving up halfway through your form or completing a quote in minutes.
Every insurance website slips into one or two of these habits over time. It’s easy to do.
The trick is to catch these mistakes before they start costing you leads. An insurance copy audit is one of the easiest ways to uncover gaps, tidy up confusing content and spot missed opportunities that quietly harm your conversions.
If you want your website to work harder, bring in more qualified customers and feel more trustworthy overall, improving your copy is a brilliant place to start. And if you ever fancy fresh eyes on your site, I’m always here with a brew and a red pen.
Don’t think your insurance business needs a copywriter? Find out why you may be wrong.
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