How customers buy insurance today
Today, a large share of insurance is bought online. According to a survey by Bitkom Research, the research arm of the German digital association Bitkom, from May 2026, 89% of Germans aged 16 and over have taken out insurance online at least once, up from 83% a year earlier. Of these, 57% used a comparison portal, 49% bought directly from the insurer and 35% online through a broker.
The insurer’s own website is also becoming more important for research. According to the study KUBUS Privatkunden 2026 by MSR Consulting, 45% of customers named the insurer’s homepage as a source of information before taking out a new policy, compared with 37% in 2022. Only 38% still named their personal adviser, down from 54%. 18% now use AI applications in connection with insurance.
What this means for you: if your site does not get customers to a premium and a sign-up within a few minutes online, you lose them to the comparison portal.
What an insurance website has to do
From search term to sign-up. At Dogcare24, the homepage already asks for the dog’s name. The calculator then gets to the premium in around two minutes, with four tariffs side by side. Anyone who has decided signs up directly online.
An answer for every search query. Customers do not search for “insurance” but for their situation: costs, benefits, puppies, older animals, pre-existing conditions, individual breeds. The Dogcare24 sitemap comprises 242 pages, including 43 pages on the insurance itself and 159 guides. Each one answers a question and leads to the calculator.
Trust where the decision is made. Test awards, reviews, real reimbursement cases and certificates belong next to the calculator and the sign-up, not on a separate page that nobody opens.
The journey after sign-up. Customers also judge an insurer by how easily they can report a claim or submit an invoice. At Dogcare24, customers upload up to five files under “Rechnung einreichen” (submit invoice), without an account and without an app, and immediately get a confirmation by email. At Unfallpro24, the claim report first asks who caused the accident and then records contact details, the accident location and three to five photos of the damage.
Visible in AI answers. Anyone who asks ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overviews about an insurance product gets sources cited. In January 2026, Dogcare24 was cited as a source in AI answers 126 times in total. How this works is explained under AI SEO.
Mandatory information planned in from the start. Insurance intermediaries must provide initial information under § 15 VersVermV (German Insurance Mediation Ordinance) at the first contact, covering status, register entry, remuneration and dispute resolution bodies, among other things. We plan space for this in the website and the enquiry flow; you agree the content with your legal adviser.
Website, calculator and backend from one team
We often see insurance websites made up of three separate parts: a website builder, an embedded calculator from a service provider and a form that sends emails. Each part works on its own, but the path between them loses customers and data.
We build these parts as one. Dogcare24 runs as its own Next.js application: calculator, online sign-up, invoice upload and the backend behind it, which passes new sign-ups and submitted invoices on to the team. More on this under Funnel development and Software development.
Four projects, four models
The projects in this industry show four different ways of doing business online:
- Direct sales to consumers: Dogcare24 sells dog health insurance via a calculator, guides and search engines. Result: almost 50 leads a day from organic search, as of October 2026.
- Local advice with online sign-up: Englert Finanzen advises clients in person in Alzenau and Groß-Umstadt. Customers buy simple insurance such as supplementary dental insurance directly online on the website.
- Brokering in the event of a claim: Unfallpro24 connects accident victims with vehicle assessors. Here we took on the website and SEO, with the claim report, hotline and guides.
- Platform for professionals: PolicenTransfer is aimed at brokers, insurers, broker pools and underwriting agencies. The website explains to each target group, on its own page, what it gets out of it.
What it costs
We work out which building blocks you need in the free intro call. If you first want to know where your website stands today: the initial analysis is free.