“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” – Shakespeare
The enemy is always at our gates. Becoming number one is difficult, but remaining the top moving industry in your city is even more challenging, if you don’t know the proper mindset and the number one thing you must focus on, which we go over in great detail in this blog post.
Want to know how to rank #1 in Google and Bing? Follow This step by step organic SEO for Movers guide. Once you are number one, you’ll want to reread this blog post to understand the mindset and specific tactics to stay there.
Related guides with examples:
Rank #1 in Google Maps for Movers
Rank #1 in Bing Maps for Movers
Why is it so difficult to remain #1? Instead of having a handful of moving companies to beat, everyone wants to surpass you. How then, can we not only rank #1 in Google (and Microsoft: Bing, Duckduckgo, Yahoo), but stay there for the long term?
Search Engines are value algorithms. Simply put, the search engine will deliver a result, which it deems to be the most relevant, helpful, and authoritative on the topic based on data (numbers).
Website Traffic: You Die Very Quickly or You Become an Entrenched King
It’s extremely difficult to gain traction without website traffic, because Google will simply not have enough statistics to understand if your website sucks, or if it’s good, or perhaps great. The more time people spend on your webpages and website, the more positive signals this sends to Google. Ever walk into a restaurant that smelled terrible, and looked awful? You probably left right away. Google is heavily reliant on user metrics. Through Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Tags Manager, Google Chrome, and other partnerships, Google is able to track and view 93% of the internet’s entire website traffic.
With #1 rankings, comes more traffic (and responsibility). Google will quickly discern whether your website has inferior time on site, compared to the number 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, etc competitors. You are the new benchmark once you hit #1, but if number 7 has people spending twice as long on their webpages, you are in for some trouble fast. The scary thing is if number 20 has a 3x better experience than you, you will soon be flip flopped and replaced. You won’t remain number 1 for long if you don’t peak the users interest. Here are some actionable ways to Decrease your bounce rate, increase time on site, and increase your conversion rate.
- Video, video, video! Everyone loves video. It stimulates our visual and auditory senses, much more than plain text or imagery alone can accomplish. If you have a video series on your website, or a video on every single webpage, you will be able to convince the human on the other end of the screen (our prospect) to spend more time on the website, getting to know your brand, and eventually taking an action to call or fill out a form.
How to leverage video for your moving company website:
Youtube shorts, TikTok, Youtube long form videos are great combinations. This way you get their attention quickly with a short video, then as the webpage progresses they can see other videos. Your website and webpages should truly become an extension of a Youtube channel. It wasn’t always this way, but with so much competition, you need to engage on the deepest level quickly. In a few short years you will see live streams of customer service reps on most websites. Humans are valuable, and website owners will no longer treat website traffic as a second class citizen. Amazon now has Amazon Live, for people who want to see other people using and talking about products. You will most likely have to stream moves in the future to keep up with the content arms race happening in the moving industry (we aren’t there yet).
- Stuff to Click on: People like shiny objects. If there is nothing to tap, scroll, or click on, the person may decide to leave. Attention spans are lowered every day, and if you can’t keep someone’s attention, you’ll have a terrible bounce rate, which will tank your rankings very quickly.
How to get people to click, tap or scroll:
Specials, Coupons, Reviews, and other Graphics can catch the eyes of people who know they want a service, and curiosity just got the better of them. Even if you hate coupons (I know I do), it’s still a solid tactic, because we are B2C at the end of the day. Lowest common denominator marketing wins.
- Trust the webpage: Nothing screams “Back out!” more than stock photos. I would rather put a picture of myself in my birthday suit than rely completely on fake stock photos. We need to establish trust and rapport during conversations in real life, and our websites are the same way. You wouldn’t run up to someone and start saying “Defense wins championships”. You would lean in with something relevant to the day, time, year, and situation. Stock photos do almost none of these things.
How to build more trust on your website:
The best webpages have multiple pictures, step by step showcasing exactly what type of move they just searched. Local, Piano, Gun Safe, Furniture, Packing, Long distance, Junk Removal, etc. By having YOUR own branded photos match up with what they searched, you will subconsciously let them know they are in the right place. Imagine two scenarios. One where you searched for a mover in NYC, and one moving company website has picture of the trucks, and crew throughout the city, near landmarks having fun, while another has random smiling people in a room holding a 4 pound box. Transparency isn’t just a word. If you are open on your website about who you are, and what you do, it can only lead to positive results.
- Clickbait: If people aren’t click on your webpages in the search results it’s a negative signal to Google. If you searched steak restaurants, and a Chinese restaurant showed, you would most likely disregard it. This is the logic search engines use to decide if a search and webpage are a good fit for one another
How to get more clicks in search results (SERPS):
If you don’t get the click, then they don’t visit your website. If they don’t visit your website, they can’t spend time on it. If they can’t spend time on it, they don’t request a quote. You get where this is going. This is why Youtube thumbnails are becoming increasingly more ridiculous to get someone to click. If you can add some personality to your SEO titles and meta descriptions, you have a greater chance of earning the click. At a minimum your Onpage SEO needs to be precise, and at best, it needs to entice curiosity and induce a click.
