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Mindset – Why SEO matters for Moving Companies
SEO for movers is a zero sum game, the winner takes all. You either get the moving lead or you don’t. Worse, if you do not get the chance to move the prospect (starts as a click from search engines), they will end up going with your competition. Not only did you lose the chance to serve them, but your competition grew stronger. It’s a negative feedback loop where you keep losing, and your competition keeps winning moving jobs. Of course, this could work in your favor as well. If you are receiving hundreds of organic leads each month from search engines, your competition is going to eventually shrink, or overpay for leads from other sources and fail out of business.
Even if you are growing without SEO, or at least advanced tactics, you are forced to defensively invest in search engine optimization. If you don’t, your competition will eventually grow and squeeze you out of your own market. It’s a game we all have to play, whether we like to or not, so if we must play, let’s play to win!
Local SEO – Google My Business
Most moving businesses are local. Unless you’re a giant Van line, the bulk of your leads and business will come from a 50 to 150 mile radius, and sometimes even tighter. Sure, you can transport interstate (if you provide long distance), but most of your business will still start and derive from local marketing.
Google Maps (Google My Business) is the hub of all local SEO for movers.
This guide for Local SEO for Movers goes over verification, reviews, categories, posts, photos, videos, service areas, products, services, basic and advanced tactics inside maps to win.
Reviews (Social Proof) Your Reputation
You are entering someone’s home or office. If you do not have a review follow up process in place you are going to lose to someone with a 5 star reputation. Reviews are votes of confidence that your moving company can be trusted. This guide, reputation management for movers breaks down exactly when to ask for the review, how, and the results. This is based on hundreds of clients, some receiving dozens of 5 star reviews each month, without adding much time at all to their checklist.
Team Photos (no stock photos)
Do you prefer fake smiles to real people? Some people assume people like the bs smiling woman or man holding a 2lb box. Human nature is not that complicated. Think of what you would want to see from a moving company, and go from there. Authentic, real photos of the team. I don’t care if they are smiling, as long as they aren’t miserable. I don’t need to see a brain surgeon with a giant smile while he’s cutting open someone’s head. I just want to know he’s done it before, and he’s a real person. Same is true with movers. Here is a guide on Brand Marketing for Movers which explains exactly why real photos always win out. Brokerages use fake photos….play to your advantages.
Videos: Increase Engagement and Conversions
Video is the quickest shortcut to attention, branding, leads and conversion of more moving jobs. Text is important, but it pales in comparison to video. Think of how much Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Youtube, etc you watch compared to reading. Not everyone can write as well as myself, which makes this gap even more significant. This is the time where you either go all in on yourself and your moving company, or you continue to dabble and sort of grow. Put yourself out there. This guide on Youtube Video Marketing for Movers shows the power to increase time on website, conversion, and lower cost per lead.
Social Media Profiles (create and optimize)
Social Media is an excellent way to increase social proof, show you care, be an authentic brand, and reach new people. It can be a time sync when you focus on too many platforms, rather than the most popular. This guide shows which Social media profiles for movers you should create, optimize and post to to maximize your organic and paid advertising reach.
Website: Domain + Hosting + Email
Your website is the hub of your brand identity online. Yes, you can use free websites or profiles, but it’s much more professional having a branded domain, reliable hosting, and email. This guide goes over the super basic steps to registering a domain for your moving company, setting up hosting, a built in website Editor, and branded email.
512 Website Design & Templates for Moving Companies
Templates help reduce the time it takes to get a respectable website online. The items inside a house make it a home. Your website is very similar. While some designs and templates have low glass ceilings, they can be customized to become truly your own over time. Chances are many who used the theme will either change themes or go out of business, so I wouldn’t worry about having “duplicate” websites from someone else who lives in a different state. This guide shows you 512 Website Templates and Designs for Movers including Godaddy, Wix, Squarespace, plain HTML and WordPress themes.
Webpages: Services + Service Area (LOCATIONS)
Moving is a bigger niche than people realize with many subsets within it. There are heavy equipment movers, piano movers, pool table movers, gun safe movers, etc. The lazy approach is to simply state “we offer the following moving services to XYZ starting service areas”. Every single service you offer should be paired with every single city, town and small neighborhood so you blanket the area and give your moving company the most chances to receive organic traffic. More chances = more search impressions. More search impressions, equals more clicks. More clicks = more leads, and more leads = more booked jobs. This guide shows Webpage SEO for movers combining services and locations.
Google Search Console Setup
Google Search Console is our direct line of communication with Google bot and its search engine in regards to our moving company website. Verifying your domain gives webmasters the ability to track top performing keywords, webpages (entrances), and is considered a strong signal to Google the website is most likely not spam. Here is a step by step guide to Google Search Console for Moving Websites.
Google Analytics Setup
Google Analytics gives the most detailed information in regards to website traffic coming into your moving company website. Whether you want to view top sources, such as Organic, Paid ads, Social Media, Direct/Brand traffic, referrals, it’s all there. You can see top performing webpages and focus on them, and update subpar bounce rate and trafficked webpages. Here is a guide to setup Google Analytics on your Moving Website.
Microsoft (Bing) Webmaster Setup
Microsoft has made great improvements and investment into its search engine and its alliances with others. Their ad network is served on Duckduckgo, Yahoo, MSN and other platforms. It’s not as insignificant as it was just a few short years ago. Basic verification and setup will help your website not only get indexed in these search engines, but also rank higher. Get Verified in Microsoft Bing Search Engine for Movers.
Microsoft (Bing Places) Maps
Bing Places is Bing Maps, similar to Google My Business. This is important to show up in local searches inside Bing, Duckduckgo, Yahoo, MSN and their partner networks. Verification is very similar to Google My Business. You fill out categories, descriptions, photos, website, social, and you must verify the listing with a physical mailer, or you can import the verified listing from Google My Business. Here is a guide on Bing Places setup for Movers.
Apple Maps
Over half of your mobile leads will come from Iphone or Mac users. It’s important to get verified inside Apple Maps. As the internet and search engine wars continue to heat up, you’ll want your moving company business listed in as many powerful platforms as possible. This is a step by step visual guide for getting your moving company listed and ranking in Apple Maps.
KEYWORDS: Most Popular and highest converting
Keywords are the core focus on SEO. Search Engine Optimization is the science of explicitly telling google bot, bing, yahoo and other search engines exactly what your website is all about, and what your webpages should rank for (ideally). This list of 8,395 top SEO keywords for Movers is a useful guide based on hundreds of clients, thousands of keyword analysis across Google Analytics, Google My Business, and 3rd party software tools. Remember, if you don’t rank, you won’t get the click. If you don’t get the click, you won’t get the lead, or the booked job. They are searching for someone. If they don’t find you, they found a competitor.
Content: Compelling storytelling
Content is an overused word in the digital marketing world. The reality is your reviews are your best content possible. It doesn’t matter how many webpages you have, images, videos, or well-written stories if you have a 3.0 rating across your digital platforms. However, content marketing is the secret to success for large moving companies. They post regularly for images, videos, webpages, blogs. Consistent content creation leads to staying top of mind on prospects minds. This means they call you first when they need to move, or if they have no idea who you are, they can more easily trust you based on your sincere efforts of putting yourself out there. This guide goes over practical ways to content market for movers.
On Page SEO: Meta Data
Onpage SEO is completely within our control, because it’s coding and content we can add to our moving company website. If a webpage starts as an empty blank canvas, it’s up to us to paint a picture to allow robots to understand what it’s about. Does the word local appear in the content, does the title, headings, backend code, images, and words on the page align with what the user just searched? Is it a location specific search such as Movers in New York? Here is a comprehensive list of Onpage SEO elements on a moving company website you should have to rank in Google and Bing.
Image SEO: Rename and ALT Text
An image is worth a thousand words…or at least a few keyword phrases we want to rank for in Google and Microsoft (Bing, Duckduckgo, Yahoo). If you aren’t taking photos you are missing out on branding, and worse, you lose out on the medium to show search engines more content to prove you are the most relevant mover in your area. Whether renaming images, adding alt text or best practices, it’s critical to diversify your content marketing strategy. This guide shows you how to optimize Images for SEO on your moving website.
Technical SEO: Backend Code – Structured Data
Advanced SEO Technical Code communicates very clearly to search engines exactly what your website is about. They don’t know whether it’s for basketball, science, or moving, so we must do our best to help them discern exactly who we are, what we do, and the areas we serve. It’s also a great way to create consistency across your channels, known as NAP (Name Address Phone Number), but it’s done on a much more specific level, even getting down into latitude and longitude coordinates. This technical SEO guide with templates for Movers will help elevate you in the search engines through best practices.
Internal Links to funnel power
When people hear of links they think of external backlinks, but internal linking is the best way to truly optimize and maximize the content already on your website. This Internal Linking SEO guide for Moving websites shows exactly where and how to get the most out of your domain, existing content and your authority in search engines.
Transparency: FAQ, Licenses, Rates
Marketing isn’t about gimmicks. It’s about being open and honest with your prospects, clearly displaying your value proposition. Clowns get attention, but when it comes to picking a moving company to move one’s valuable assets and family, the moving company which is more organized will have an edge against their competition. Also if you find yourself answering the same mundane questions over and over again, your website can be a knowledgebase you reference to help people move towards booking with you. Your website can also protect you legally. There is only upside to being open, honest and transparent. This guide goes over Transparency marketing for movers in detail.
Link Building for Movers
Backlinks separate major moving companies from the mom and pop small-time movers. Obtaining these links can be done in various ways, some requiring more time than money, others requiring payments, and some requiring a bit of ingenuity. A major ranking factor in Google is real websites, bloggers and social media (other peoples’) talking about your moving company brand online. This link building for movers guide goes over best practices and what’s working right now in the industry.
Website Speed Optimization (Performance)
Fast websites rank higher in search engines. There are numerous activities to improve website speed for both robots and humans. Many website builders are limited such as Wix, but there are ways to improve the speed of nearly any website, whether advanced coding or 3rd party software and tools. Here is a guide on website speed for moving company websites.
FAQ: Common Questions about SEO for Movers
Does SEO take months or years?
No. A tree doesn’t take years to start growing. It begins on day one, but it’s when you look up one day and it’s no longer a seedling do you realize what you’ve become – a Mighty Oak. The same is true with SEO and building your moving business in general. The best time to start was 10 years ago, the next best is today. If you plan on being successful in the moving industry, SEO is a necessity to not only grow quicker, but also keep your competitors from picking up the majority of new customers, turning them into a formidable foe.
SEO has become a catch all phrase, to encompass “online marketing”. It does not take months to see the benefits of improving your content. Adding videos, adding compelling content, photos, are things that will immediately positively impact your website traffic, and conversion rate into warm leads. Yes, the end game can take years to rank for extremely competitive keywords, but on the path there are plenty of wins to make the juice worth the squeeze. Do you want your website to be riddled with stock photos and nonsense and throw your hands up in the air, or do you want to do it the right way, and view your moving company the same way Fortune 500 companies do. With care, attention and an action plan.
Do I have to pay MoversBoost for SEO or can I do it myself?
You can 100% DIY your SEO and online marketing for your moving company. Like anything in life, if you have more time than money, learn and apply these strategies. If you are growing, have a positive cash flow, and simply want to grow faster, hiring a digital marketing agency that focuses exclusively on movers is a solid investment in the near and long term.
Is SEO a scam or a gimmick for Movers?
SEO is synonymous with Google and Microsoft. Unless these trillion dollar companies are merely a house of cards, search engine optimization and SEM, search engine marketing are proven effective ways your competition is using against your moving company.
Can I buy a bunch of links from freelancers to rank my Moving Company?
Yes, if you were United Van Lines. Smaller movers can’t get away with cutting corners, because Google and Microsoft have advanced algorithms taking into account User Experience, Brand Searches, Generic searches, anchor text link ratios, topical relevance of the linking source. In the past it would penalize websites (spam), but today it’s simply a waste of money and ignored by search engines. There are the occasions where a backlink profile can get so far out of whack it does hurt rankings in a negative way. Choose quality over quantity when it comes to backlinks for your moving website, however volume can be added once you start to become a major brand in your service area.
I see some websites using Stock Photos. Do I really need my pictures on the website?
There are exceptions to every rule. They aren’t doing well because they are using fake photos. People see right through it. MoversBoost has hundreds of moving clients, and the absolute best performing ones have real photos of the team, individuals, trucks, and happy customers. You are building a story when someone visits your website. If you don’t put yourself out there you won’t be as successful. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Can I use Godaddy, Wix, Squarespace or other website builders for my Moving Company and still rank well in Google with SEO?
Yes. While the platforms are severely limited, I’ve seen instances where people go the extra mile to add great content, photos, videos and strong calls to action. While it’s harder to mess up these platforms when creating a website, there’s also less upside. When you start creating custom websites, or websites built with HTML, PHP and WordPress, there is more freedom for the developer to add software for performance (both humans and robots).
I would not hesitate to start a website on these platforms though. Don’t put off today, for tomorrow, because it’s better to gain traction on a basic platform, and when you grow, you can upgrade, or simply stay on these platforms.
Will posting every day to social media and Google My Business (maps) help my moving company?
Possibly. It’s a low value activity though. Organic reach has severely been limited. These platforms only make $ from paid ads. I would post as often as you like, but I would shift my mindset to other activities which will get the phone ringing. As long as it hasn’t been months since your last post, people will understand it’s an active moving business. However, if your getting phenomenal organic reach (hundreds each post), I would continue this activity. Don’t do activities just for the sake of being busy though. As a moving company owner, or manager of a moving business you need to map out a strategy and delegate.
Will paid PPC (Pay Per Click) help my SEO Rankings?
Yes. Other mainstream SEO news outlets will say no, but the reality is, search engines are tracking all website traffic sources. If they see a website with little to no traffic, it’s a negative signal to Google and Microsoft that your website is worth ranking. It can be seen as the jet fuel to your moving company’s marketing. Once you have all the other pieces to the puzzle in place, paid ads allow you to grow faster with direct ROI, and the long term positive impact of improving your traffic profile, and increasing rankings across your webpages. Keep in mind if your landing pages aren’t test/optimized, paid traffic can actually send negative signals to Google and Microsoft if your bounce rate is too high and your dwell time is low.
Do I have to do SEO forever?
No. You don’t need to do pushups every day to be strong if you’ve done them for years, but eventually you will atrophy and fall off if you simply stop altogether. This is the same for SEO and anything else in life. If you are making money, and dedicated to your business, you’ll want to do SEO because it will be a vehicle for your growth to keep your guys busy and trucks running. Work done today will continue to help, and have a positive ROI for months and years to come, but it’s easier to compound the effort and continuously strive towards dominating the competition.
