The “Movers Near Me” Make or Break Search
When someone searches Google for “movers near me” they’re not shopping. They’ve decided that they’re relocating, but haven’t yet decided who will do it. And that’s the time that sets the difference between busy and empty moving trucks. The key to seo for moving companies is to be there, in the right place, at the right time. If you miss it, you miss out on actual potential revenue, not “theoretical” or “inflated” revenue, but real jobs that you didn’t win.
It’s really just three words. Three words. But how Google responds is anything but. It activates its local algorithm, checks distance, relevancy and authority at the same time, and returns what it thinks you’re looking for. The trick to getting found is to know how to deliver the right clues to that algorithm.
Intent Matters – Match or Match
“What’s the best place to get a moving quote near me?” is an example of a high-intent, geo-modified search that’s popular with SEO people. They aren’t researching. They need a price, a phone number, or an online form. Your website and Google Business Profile must respond to this. A homepage that starts with a hero image and three paragraphs of rich brand background before listing services is not meeting intent – it’s frustrating the heck out of someone with boxes to pack.
The first thing you should communicate is what you do and where you do it. Your H1, or “headline” on your homepage, should read “Local Moving Company in [City Name]” and not “Moving Made Simple”. Poetic? Sure. Helpful for ranking? Not really. Google looks for a match between the words on your page and the search, and a generic headline doesn’t help with the match.
Service pages are important, too. If you move long distance, move locally, move offices and do packing services, each of these should have their own page. Not a tab. Not a block on the homepage. A separate page with a separate URL, a separate title tag, separate content. This is how you target those looking for “office movers [city]” and “packing services [city]” who might not be targeted by the main “movers near me” search.
The Second Layer of Keywords
Most moving companies go after “movers near me” and “[city] moving company”. Those are correct. But that’s like fishing in the shallows instead of in the deep water. The keywords people are searching for that aren’t as direct and popular – the ones with a lower search volume and a higher conversion rate – are where the little guys can pick up the slack.
Consider the specific fears people may have when moving: “how much do movers cost in [city],” “movers that pack for you,” “same-day movers [city],” “movers for one bedroom apartment”. These are longer, more specific searches. These are long-tail keywords, which convert better because the searcher knows what they’re after. If you have a page or blog that answers “how much do movers cost in Chicago”, it’s not only going to rank, but it’s going to sell your service before they call you.
You can find out what people are searching for with tools like Google’s autocomplete. Open an incognito window and type “movers in [your city]” into Google’s search bar. These are all keywords you need to check out. You can use Ubersuggest and Google’s Keyword Planner to get the estimated search volumes, but the autocomplete hack is a free way to spy a bit.
Your website speed is costing you rankings
This isn’t as sexy as keyword research, but it could be hampering your traffic. Page speed is used as a ranking factor by Google, particularly mobile page speed. The majority of “movers near me” searches occur on mobile devices – someone in a half-packed living room, panicking, needs a moving company. If your web page loads in over three seconds on mobile, you’re losing a lot of people before they even read your phone number.
Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights. It’s free and tells you, in detail, what’s slowing you down. The most common offender is large images. Your 4MB image of your truck looks just as good to you as a 400KB image of your truck – but the smaller file loads ten times quicker. Use image compression. That’s a 20-second solution that will last forever.
Local Links: The Votes That Actually Count
Consider backlinks – links from other sites to your site – as votes. Google counts them as endorsements. But some votes are more important than others. A link from a reputable local newspaper is worth more than a hundred links from obscure local “business” directories. For movers, the most useful backlinks are local: chamber of commerce member pages, local blogs, real estate agents who recommend vendors to clients, pages of local events for whom you’ve been a vendor, and municipal websites that have guides to moving.
The real estate angle is especially ripe. Real estate agents are always looking for good movers. If you can establish a rapport with just a few active agents in your region, you may get a mention on their website, social media sites, or client resource pages. That’s a backlink from an active local website – and a referral source in the meantime.
Don’t Let the Metrics Overwhelm You
You don’t need a wall of numbers to tell if your local SEO is improving. Three will do: GBP impressions (how many times your GBP profile shows up in search), actions (how many users click through to your website or call your business), and website organic traffic (how much traffic your website is getting from Google search). Google Search Console has the data on your website. GBP Insights has the profile stats. Review these every month, watch the trends and optimise.
Local SEO for moving companies is not a one month job. The firms that consistently appear at the top of “movers near me” searches haven’t done it in a one-month burst, but by consistently appearing, keeping their profiles up-to-date, gathering reviews and producing useful content. That’s a level of work that adds up until you find your phone more in demand than the competition’s trucks.
