When it comes to SEO for movers, is your company losing potential customers to your competitors when they search for these popular moving search terms?
"moving companies near me"
"professional moving services"
"residential moving companies"
"commercial moving services"
"long distance movers"
"moving and storage companies"
"packing and moving services"
"local movers"
"reliable moving companies"
"affordable moving services"
These mover SEO terms are being searched thousands of times a day by potential customers looking for moving services that you provide. This has resulted in the moving industry being estimated to bring in over $100 Billion next year. Great time to be a mover!
We talked with some of our most successful movers about how effective SEO has been for their moving company and what they did to move the needle.
The feedback was nothing short of amazing. Almost every single mover associated their accelerated growth with how they ranked in the search engines. They also mentioned it's 'need it now' action item that cutomer is taking in real time.
Think about it, potential customers are taking physical action in real time to search Google for long distance movers, moving and storage companies, mover [your city], or other moving services that you provide- and if your website is not listed on the 1st page of the search results, you are basically handing customers to your competitors every single day- 24/7, 365.
On the other hand, if you are in the tops spots when potential customers search for those moving keywords, you are primed to dominate- and your competitors are giving you customers every, single, day.
Good news though, we here to make sure your moving company shows up, big time. In this ultimate guide to SEO for movers, we're going to get you pointed in the right direction, so your customers start to find your moving services, and not your competitors. In this article, we'll go over the key strategies that you can implement right away to get your moving website moving in the right direction- immediately.
Search engine optimization (SEO) for moving companies is a marketing strategy to improve your moving business’s visibility on search engines and help you get found online. Appearing at the top of the search results page helps to generate free traffic to your website and allows you to connect with customers actively looking for your services.
This online marketing strategy - Moving SEO - is extremely effective because customers are looking for moving services in real time. Similar to these customers walking into your office at the exact time they need your service- priceless!
There are 4 types of SEO for a moving company. Throughout this article, we'll highlight each section as to what type it falls into.
Local SEO: Local SEO for moving companies is the practice of optimizing your online presence to rank higher in local search results. This is especially important for moving contractors because most of their customers are likely to be located in close proximity.
Technical SEO: Technical mover SEO focuses on the backend improvements and refers to the method of optimizing the technical aspects of your website to improve its visibility in search engine results. This can include things like optimizing your website's code, improving the loading speed of your website, and ensuring that your website is mobile-friendly.
On-Page SEO: On-page moving SEO targets individual web pages of your site and refers to the process of optimizing each one to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic. Some important on-page SEO factors for movers to consider include the use of relevant and high-quality content, the inclusion of keywords in headings and page titles, and the use of alt text to describe images.
Off-Page SEO: Off-page SEO services for movers (the most difficult type) refers to the practice of building authority and backlinks to your website in order to improve its visibility in search engine results. Building high-quality inbound links grows your sites authority which is what Google analyzes when determining where moving sites should rank in their search engine.
Now that we are all on the same page, get out your pen and paper and let's get into the key SEO strategies for moving companies.
Pro Tip: Just starting your moving company? Check out the industry's leading article on how to start a moving company.
(On-page SEO and Technical SEO)
When it comes to SEO for moving contractors, we start with optimizing for user experience (UX) because it's vitally important that your website is providing a good user experience to your moving customers.
Happy Google, Happy Rankings
If your site is not providing a good user experience, all the best mover SEO in the world isn't going to make a difference. It would be like putting weights on your site as you try to move it up search engine rankings.
Why? Simple answer: When it comes to search engine optimization for a moving company website, this is one direct measure that Google has insight to. Google starts tracking the UX of a user from the moment they first appear on their search engine.
For instance, a user starts on Google's servers to type in a search term like packing and moving services, affordable moving services or some other moving service that you provide. Next, the user clicks on a search result to visit the listed moving company that was on the 1st page. Now comes to crucial step, this is where Google sits and waits to see what this user does next. The dreaded 'back button' is at play here!
Great user experience: Google user searches for 'local movers', finds your company, clicks to visit your website, and then, never returns to Google's servers. Yay! They found what they were looking for, liked it a lot and Google is happy! Great mover SEO and your website stays where it is or travels up the rankings.
Good user experience: Google user searches for 'residential moving companies', finds your site, clicks to visit and then, returns to Google's servers after a couple minutes or more. Ok, that's good. They obviously liked your site but still might need to look more and Google is still happy. Good SEO for your moving services and your site stays where it is or moves up the rankings.
'OK' user experience: Google user searches for 'professional moving services', finds your site, clicks to visit your website and then, returns to Google's servers around 30 seconds to around a minute. Eh, ok. They stuck around for a little bit but not a definitive signal. Most likely stays the same or moves down/up compared to other sites UX signals to Google.
Bad user experience: Google user searches for 'SEO for Movers', finds your moving company, clicks to visit your website and then, returns to Google's servers after a couple minutes or more. Almost 100% they didn't like what they found and are looking immediately for another search result. Not good and this site will most likely move down the rankings- no matter how good the movers SEO is.
When it comes to search engine optimization for movers, Google has been using UX signals more and more to determine which moving company is deserving of their top spots. However, you still have to get there because if you're not on the 1st page, users won't find you and therefore, Google won't know about the UX of your site.
On GROW plans and higher, Servgrow will build you a custom website built with laser focused mover SEO. Go here to try Servgrow for free.
Action item: Optimize your site using the below tips and strategy.
Here are a several things to get you started with the correct UX optimization:
Successful SEO for moving contractors and making sure you site is relevant to the users search term relies heaving on keyword research.
When it comes to targeting effective search terms for the moving industry, the focus should be on keywords that consumers are actually searching for, not what you think they are searching for.
We want to eliminate 'assuming' when it comes to keyword research for moving SEO and go straight to the hard facts. Using tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush can show you exactly what your customers are searching for.
"We wasted 6 months targeting the wrong keywords for our local area. Ranking #1 for moving keywords nobody is searching for doesn't make the phone ring." - Tim (C.A.T)
Oftentimes, after doing keyword research with a trusted tool, you will find that what you thought people were searching for, actually doesn't get searched at all.
Could you imagine spending significant effort and resources on targeting keywords that nobody was searching for? Yes, you might get to #1, but you'll go crazy wondering why your phone isn't ringing. This is why hiring a quality SEO company for moving services is vital.
Once you have identified the top keywords or search terms for your moving business, you'll want to dedicate a page for each different one.
For example: If your keyword research shows that users are searching for 'long distance movers', then you will want to have a page dedicated solely to 'long distance movers'. With this search term, you will want to:
Include "long distance movers" in the title and headlines of your website.
Including the search term 'long distance movers' in the meta tags and descriptions, as well as in the alt text for images.
Use the 'long distance movers' prominently and naturally throughout your website or content. Avoid stuffing the term excessively, as this can hurt the quality of your content.
Use variations of 'long distance movers' and related terms throughout your website or content. This can help your content rank for a broader range of search queries.
Get your site loading fast. Then, make it faster. Research shows that users that leave your site increase by 32% when your site increases load time from 1 to 3 seconds.
Around 64% of users search for mover services from a mobile device. If your site doesn't display correctly for a mobile user searching for moving services, they are gone faster than cake in our lounge room. Mover search engine optimization depends heavily on mobile optimization.
Make sure your site has a great call-to-action when it first loads and is visible without having to scroll down. Our moving companies say having a nice headline with a 'Quick Quote' or 'Free Estimate' button has increased their leads.
Example >
Headline: Moving Specialists in [Your Location]
Button: Get a Free Moving Estimate
Successful moving SEO will consist of a lot of testing and analyzing. Test all of your links and buttons to make sure they are working. One mover learned the hard way after launching a site without working links.
"It wasn't until after a full week of low moving lead generation that they realized nobody could get to the form." - Mike (Moving Co.)
Dive deep into your visitor's behaviors by analyzing analytics and heat maps. A particular mover increased their mover services lead generation by simply changing the color of a button. What color? Test and you'll find out what works best for your brand.
Get started with these UX optimization tips and you'll be on your way with a great foundation of SEO for your mover services.
(Local SEO and Off-page SEO)
Local moving search engine optimization is vital for movers that targets a local area. It is a subset of SEO focused on local search and can make a company stand out organically for searches in a specific geographical market.
Local SEO for moving contractors involves many variables, but we'll focus on the critical ones that your company needs to get right:
NAP Consistancy: An important ranking factor, NAP information consists of your moving company name, address and phone number. Your NAP needs to be consistent across all of your mover business listings and citations that you show up on. If Google sees any inconsistencies with your NAP, then they'll be confused and Google doesn't like to be confused.
Local Moving Business Listings and Citations: List your business on local business listing websites to obtain citations. This usually requires adding your NAP (see above) to the sites and also include an website link back to your site. Keep in mind that your NAP needs to be consistant on each website profile. Business listings sites include, Yellowpages, Foursquare, Hotfrog, CitySearch, Angie's List, Yelp, CityVoter and hundreds more.
Google My Business Listing: This is similar to the local business listings but we singled it out as it's far more important because it's a Google owned property. Having a full Google optimized business listing is critical for local moving SEO. Having an active company presence, combined with positive moving reviews is a big advantage over your competitors when it comes to local SEO.
Positive Moving Business Reviews: If you're not getting positive reviews, then your moving SEO is going to struggle. Cultivate positive reviews on as many business listings as you can. Positive reviews give your business credibility and play a huge role when converting the visitor to a customer when they search for your "Company Name" + reviews.
On GROW plans and higher, Servgrow will build and managed your local business listings and citations. Go here to try Servgrow for free.
Action item: Get to work building out those citations!
(Local SEO and On-page SEO)
Creating location/city pages for your moving website is an important step for successful moving SEO strategies, especially if you operate in multiple locations.
Mover location page structure should look like this:
Home Page: General moving terms that are do not target a specific city or local area. Usually this is targeted for the State or country (if multiple states). but can target the entire state.
Home page title example: [Your State(s)] Premier Moving Company
Home page should talk about your general moving services and the state in general (no city or location pages). Include overall state information like landmarks, population, sports teams, etc. This will provide more relevancy to the page.
URL Example: https://www.awesomemovingcompany.com/
Location Pages (Inner pages): Moving terms targeting a specific city or location.
Inner city page example: Premier Movers in [Your City]
Inner city pages should talk about the moving services offered in that location as well as information about that particular location. Include items like location specific landmarks, population, sports teams, etc. This will provide more relevancy to the location page.
URL Example: https://www.awesomemovingcompany.com/locations/cityname
Action Item: You'll want to create as many inner city pages you are able to service and link to them all from the home page. In addition, add a 'locations' page to your site and add all the inner city pages to that main locations page.
(On-page SEO and Off-page SEO)
Ok, so you're asking what are moving featured snippets, how are they related to SEO for movers and how the heck do you 'win' them?
Featured snippets for the moving industry are what you see at the top of the search results that are relevant topics related to the industry, often known as position 0.
They usually appear when a question that is relevant to the mover is searched for by a Google user. Google will show an answer box with a snippet of the high quality article that answers the moving question.
Google loves showing them and users love seeing them.
Quality moving content that targets featured snippet topics is what Google wants. When you rank for featured snippets, you're giving Google what the want and they'll reward you with higher rankings overall.
A few of Servgrow movers reported that that when they ranked for more featured snippets, they ranked better for their service pages too.
So what we're saying here is, 'win' the featured snippets relevant to moving questions and Google will reward you with higher ranking service pages.
So what we're saying here is, 'win' the featured snippets relevant to moving questions and Google will reward you with higher ranking service pages.
Here are a several featured snippets relavent to the moving industry:
Question: Can movers handle long-distance and international moves?
Question: Are movers experienced in handling large and heavy items?
Question: Do movers provide a guarantee for their services?
A couple more...
Question: Do movers have experience with different types of moves such as commercial, residential, and storage?
Question: Are movers able to provide a detailed quote and inventory list?
This moving questions are being searched a lot by Google users, which means you get a big 'high five' from Google if you're 'winning' them.
The moving companies shown above are 'winning' these featured snippets and this plays a huge role in SEO for those movers. When Google shows an article from your moving company as the featured snippet, then Google is giving you the proverbial thumbs up- and we all know that a thumbs up from Google is always good for ranking on their search engine.
'Winning' the featured snippet means to have Google show your moving article as the featured snippet. Talking with Servgrow movers and a leading moving SEO company for them, Soderman mentioned 2 critical areas you need to focus on to be successful:
1. High quality moving article covering the featured snippet question. This is the 'easy' part. Take a look at the article that currently has the featured snippet and simply write a better one. More detail about the question, provide expert opinions, make the article longer, images with alt text, proper headings, meta dat, longer, etc.
2. Build Moving Authority (Backlinks) This is the not so easy part. According to a study, backlinks were the #1 contributing factor to high rankings in the moving industry. That goes for HVAC SEO and 'winning' featured snippets as well. With all things being equal, for Google to differentiate between two pieces of information, evaluating backlinks from other websites is the main way. Authority is built from backlinks.
So, how do you get backlinks to build mover authority in the industry?
According to Soderman SEO, two tactics can generate quite a bit of authority to outrank the competition.
1. Explore competitors' backlinks by leveraging tools like Ahrefs.com. These tools will allow you to see who is linking to your competitors and not you. Export that list, and reach out to those sites to try to gain a link from them.
2. Outreach and build relationships with website owners in the home services industry. Building relationships over time in the home service industry can generate high-quality backlinks that provide massive amounts of authority and great relavency to the moving industry- which is jsut as important.
Building backlinks and authority for successful moving SEO and can be done by anyone. It just takes time- a lot of time, which is why most businesses turn to moving SEO companies to handle their authority and backlink building.
Action item: Contact an SEO company, or get to work building those relationships!
(On-page SEO)
Mastering the EAT principle for the moving industry can help you with long term SEO success.
So what is EAT and how is it related to mover SEO?
EAT stands for expertise, authority and trustworthiness.
EAT has impacted SEO noticeably following a major 2018 algorithm update, known as the Medic Algorithm Update.
It was initially rolled out to medical and health related websites but has since moved on to encompass just about any business website. We'll break down EAT for the HVAC industry.
Expertise in Moving: Expertise is defined as having a high level of knowledge and skill in the moving industry. When it comes to demonstrating expertise on your HVAC website, make sure an expert is creating the content.
moving Authoritativeness Your reputation in the industry is what represents authoritativeness. Is your website a go to source for information about movers? Expertise is the foundation to building authoritativeness.
Mover Trustworthiness The third piece EAT is determined if Google and their users perceive your moving website as a trustworthy source. And you guessed it, reviews play a major role in this department. Online reviews can help or hurt your positioning on Google.
Prioritizing for EAT will set your website up for massive moving SEO success. Get started today to make improvements and you'll be rewarded.
(Off-page SEO)
We saved this particluar mover SEO component for last. Why? Because this is the hardest one to implement as it takes quite a bit of time and resources.
High level off-page SEO for moving companies consists of actions taken to build authority (backlinks) from relevant, quality and trusted 3rd party websites. This stage is similar to how we build authority in the 'featured snippet' section.
Think of mover links from other home service websites as votes for a popularity contest. The more quality votes your moving company gets, the higher you rank in the search engines.
If fact, it doesn't matter how good or high quality your website is, without votes or backlinks from other sites, your moving company will not rank at the top. Google needs to see relevant websites vouching/voting for your site, and backlinks are the #1 way to do this.
Here are a couple ways of acquiring backlinks to build that mover authority:
Publish high-quality moving content on your website that other websites and bloggers will want to link to. This can include blog posts, articles, infographics, and other types of resources relavent to the moving industry that provide value to your audience.
Reach out to other websites and bloggers in the home services industry and ask them to link to your website. This can be done through email, social media, or by leaving comments on their blog posts or articles.
Use social media to promote your website and its content. Share links to your website and its content on your social media profiles, and engage with other users to build your online presence and attract new visitors to your website.
Pro Tip: It's extremely important that you use only white hat moving SEO strategies to gain backlinks. Over the years, Google has gotten stricter in what backlinks they reward and which ones they ignore.
The last thing you want to do is spend time and resources building moving SEO authority only to have Google ingore it because it wasn't quality. Below are a few things to consider when going after those votes of confidence:
The amount of referring domains: Each domain that is linking to your moving site is a vote. The more domains you have, the more votes of confidence you have.
Link Authority: Not all votes are created equal. Just because a website links to you, doesn't mean it's worth anything. You want votes from high authority websites.
mover relevancy: Acquiring a backlink from a high authority website that is relevant to movers will be worth much more than a backlink from a pet food website.
Anchor text: Anchor text is the text that is hyperlinked and points to your website. This text needs to be natural and relevant to your brand and the moving industry.
Off-site SEO for moving companies is the most powerful stage in the SEO process.
Action Item: Hire an SEO company to help build that authority, or start building the authority yourself.
Now, it's all about tracking your SEO results for your moving company. Similiar to the moving tools you leverage in the field, Google search console is a bit different as it's an online website tool. You'll want to set up Google Search Console and Google Analytics.
Google Search Console: (GSC) monitors how search engines like Google sees and ranks your moving website.
Google offers Google Search Console as a free tool offered by Google to help website owners in the moving industry monitor their SEO results and to maintain their website's presence in Google Search results.
Moving can use it to submit their website to Google for indexing, see how their website is performing in search results, and get alerts when there are issues with their website that need to be addressed.
Use GSC for:
Tracking what keywords your website shows up for the most and what keywords are sending the most visitors to your site. For example: Are customers coming to your moving website by searching for moving companies near me, long distance movers, reliable moving companies, or from affordable moving services and commercial moving services?
Tracking how high on the search results page your web page appears. For example: Where do you rank when someone types in the keywords; local movers, packing and moving services, moving and storage companies, residential moving companies, professional moving services and other moving services related keywords?
Over a period of time, see what web pages are receiving the most visitors. For example: Are your pages for long distance movers and commercial moving services revieving more visitors than your moving pages related to reliable moving companies and moving and storage companies?
Google Analytics: (GA) monitors how potential customers find and interact with your site.
Google Analytics is another free tool by Google that helps movers track and analyze how visitors interact with their website. movers can use it to gain insights into their website traffic, including where their visitors are coming from, how long they stay on the site, and which pages they view.
Google Analytics is vital in helping movers understand what aspects of their mover SEO is working well on their website and what might need improvement.
Use GA for:
To track how many visitors are coming to your website, how long do they stay on your site and how many web pages they view while they are there.
Tracking how potential customers are finding your moving business. This is the direct correlation of how well your moving SEO services are working.
If you're working with an mover SEO specialist, they'll use GSC, GA and other tools to track this vital information.
Action Item: Set up Google Search Console and Google Analytics for your website.
Combined with other marketing avenues, SEO services for movers is hands down the best way to grow your online visibility and comes with the industries best ROI.
You should know though, investing into moving SEO is a long-term strategy and will take some time to see results. However, if you focus on these key SEO strategies that are laid out in this article, your moving company see major long-term success.
Movers asked and we delivered! We don't often have a preferred business but we know how important SEO is to our moving customers.
Get a FREE audit below from our preferred SEO company for movers.