Expert Roundup: SEO Tips for Moving Companies

We asked the experts: What SEO tips do you have for moving companies? We received a lot of high-quality responses. Here’s what they had to say.

1. Shane Barker, Digital Marketing Consultant

seo tipsTo attract more customers as a moving company, you need to find your way to the first few positions in the search engine results pages (SERPs). I strongly recommend that you leverage the following SEO tips to rank higher in search results:

  • You should leverage your Google My Business Page listing to get your company in front of more customers. Make sure that it includes accurate details about your business.
  • You should have a well-optimized business website in terms of design, navigation, page speed, and mobile responsiveness. Websites that offer a good user experience are more likely to rank higher in the search results.
  • You should conduct thorough keyword research. Using the right keywords will help people find your business more easily. I recommend that you use more specific, location-based keywords such as “moving company in Sacramento, CA.” There’s no substitute for great content.
  • You should focus on providing valuable information to your target audience. You can create content around helpful tips for movers or other how-to guides. Also make sure that you create a variety of content types including blog posts, videos, and infographics, and promote them through multiple platforms.

Following the SEO tips mentioned above can help you get to the top of the search engine results and attract more customers.

Shane Barker is a digital marketing consultant who specializes in influencer marketing, product launches, sales funnels, targeted traffic, and website conversions. His vast wheelhouse includes business development, marketing blueprints, SEO, and social media marketing. He has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, influencers with digital products, and a number of A-List celebrities. 

2. Mark Aselstine, Founder of Uncorked Ventures

Create content. Lots of content. Anybody selling anything online should be familiar with content marketing by now. I’m always exasperated that moving companies don’t create more content.

Tricky move-ins? A picture or two and some words should go up on the blog. In more urban areas, like where I used to live in downtown San Diego, they could have had an entry for each of the 100 or so major condo complexes and how move-ins could be handled, parking etc.

That type of content should bring both direct visitors to their site, but also links which will help other, more sales-oriented pages rank higher.

Mark Aselstine owns Uncorked Ventures, an online wine club based just outside of San Francisco. A dad of 2, husband and frustrated Padres fan. You’ll find him on Twitter talking about all things, even wine on occasion.

3. Alan LaFrance, SEO Strategy Manager for Lawnstarter.com

Have an iPad or Android tablet on-site that allows customers to leave a review on Google.

Good reviews are a big part of local search and have a lot of value in the future of SEO and marketing in general.

Alan LaFrance is the SEO Strategy Manager for Lawnstarter.com in Austin, TX and has 8 years of SEO experience in a wide range of industries.

4. Natalie Athanasiadis, Owner of Ormi Media

Research the keywords that have the strongest buying and research intent. This will frame your content creation so that you can attract people who are in various stages of the buying process.

Get your name, address, and phone number into credible citation sources to boost local visibility along with reviews which act as great social proof but will boost your visibility as well.

Finally, make sure your website functions and flows well. You can gauge customer behavior in Google Analytics but don’t be afraid to ask for customer feedback too, as it’s really valuable. The fewer people bouncing due to a poor experience the better, as this is a bad SEO signal to Google and will slow down your progress to that coveted first position.

Natalie Athanasiadis is the owner and Head of Growth at Ormi Media and a digital marketing specialist with nearly a decade of experience in the digital marketing, PR and SEO. She works with everyone from small local businesses to enterprise level clients around the world.

5. Bob Clary, Director of Marketing, DeveloperAcademy

Moving companies should definitely get listed on popular directories like Google My Business, Yelp, Merchant Circle, YP.com, etc.

When claiming or creating these listings, make sure the information you provide is accurate and consistent across all directories. Getting listed on these directories is important for local SEO.

Bob Clary is a brand strategist, blogger, and social media guru with specialties that also include search engine optimization, search engine marketing, re-marketing, digital public relations, and marketing engagement. Clary has over 15 years of experience in the marketing space and is currently Director of Marketing at DevelopIntelligence.

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6. Dr. Ty Belknap, CEO, Port Bell, Inc.

Search engine optimization is difficult to master, but there are some things that can help your moving company get above the competition. One of the best things you can do is to start (or be consistent with) a blog. Provide moving tips, but add in city names. Rather than say “if you are moving from one city to another,” say something like “if you are moving from Los Angeles to Seattle.” Using local keywords will improve your search engine ranking faster than trying to compete nationally.

Dr. Ty Belknap is the CEO of Port Bell SEO and author of several books, including Timeless SEO Secrets the Search Engines Don’t Want You To Know About.

7. Stacy Caprio, Founder, Growth Marketing

A moving company is based on location, so it should set up a verified Google Business page for each of its locations.

This will allow it to show on the first page of local search results for relevant keywords and is the #1 SEO tip I give to all local businesses.

Stacy Caprio is the Founder of Growth Marketing. “What do I do for fun? Grow my 1,000,000+ pageview/mo portfolio of websites, run, read, play with dogs.”

8. Elizabeth Bradshaw, Owner, Canvas Art Boutique

I would recommend that moving companies have a separate service page for every location that they do business in. This is because people are oftentimes searching with location modifiers, such as “moving company Toronto” or “Boston movers.”

If you have separate service pages for each location, you can rank for those terms. If you have a single service page that’s dedicated for all locations, you’ll likely never rank for anything.

Another thing I would recommend is to figure out the popular queries that the target demographic is searching for, and answer those questions in the form of blog posts. For example, people looking to move might be searching for “where to get boxes for moving”, or “what do I need for moving day.” If you can address those questions, you’ll get an increase in organic traffic and rankings.

Elizabeth Bradshaw is the Owner of an online store called Canvas Art Boutique. She used to be an SEO specialist until she decided to start her own business.

9. Matthew Woodley, Founder of MoverFocus.com

SEO is more important than ever. Whilst SEO has evolved and has become extremely competitive, the vast majority of search traffic is still going to organic listings. Working on improving your website’s visibility should be a top priority for any moving company. As long as search engines exist, businesses will compete for top rankings. You must learn to adapt and evolve with the new trends, though.

There are three fundamental areas which movers should be focusing on when it comes to improving their online visibility.

  • Create high-quality, engaging content for your readers. Your content should answer users’ search queries and should include the keywords you’re optimizing for. Running a blog is a must for any moving company competing in a competitive market. You should create a blog and keep it updated with useful moving tips and advice. As you create more relevant and engaging content, your website will start to become the ultimate resource on moving in your location. You want to aim for quality over quantity here. You’re better off creating a few high-quality in-depth blog posts rather than just churning out filler content.
  • Make sure your website is technically sound. Your website should be designed with user-friendliness in mind to maximize conversions (leads). You want a fast loading, mobile-responsive website which looks great on desktop and mobile devices.
  • Focus on obtaining quality links from other related sites. When it comes to link acquisition the golden rule to follow is ‘would I want a link from this website if Google did not exist?’. You really want to focus on obtaining links from where your potential clients hang out. This would include obtaining links from local realtors, migration services, self-storage facilities, and other relevant high authority sites like the Better Business Bureau and local newspapers. These links will provide you with quality referral traffic and are exactly what Google loves – a win-win. Ironically the best way to move up in Google’s rankings is to act if Google didn’t exist!

Although Google uses over 200 ranking factors, focusing on these three will take you a long way.

Matthew Woodley is the founder of MoverFocus.com. With a removals and relocations background Matthew is well versed in the niche market of worldwide relocation and moving services.

10. Jonathan Jeffery, SEO Consultant, Nordimark.com

The biggest SEO tip would be to create long-form articles (3000-5000 words long) around a local keyword such as ‘Moving Companies in Boston.’ Google is moving towards favoring local SEO results, which moving companies can leverage. Create it as a value-packed guide on ‘everything you need to know’ when it comes to moving.

Publish that and then write a couple of shorter articles (800-1000 words) that summarize a topic and is a little more digestible – such as ’10 moving horror stories’ – these articles would be sent around to local media publications as guest-articles. Make sure you place a link in the article back to the long-form article. That way, you’re establishing some valuable backlinks to the article, showing Google it has local SEO authority.

That’s the most effective way I’d suggest a local moving company approach SEO.

Jonathan Jeffery, SEO Consultant for Nordimark.com, has launched a number of industry-recognized SEO campaigns for clients all over the world, utilizing strong knowledge of SEO and Content Marketing.

11. Filip Silobod, SEO Specialist

The Google My Business listing is your bread and butter. Take good care of it how you are presented there. Get reviews, ask customers to leave you a review on Google. That will help you rank when people search for moving companies in the area.

For your website SEO, invest in good keyword research. Obviously “moving companies in ‘city'” is your most important phrase. Use SEMrush to analyze the site that shows first for moving companies in your city and discover which keywords they rank on. Use these keywords to change your meta title, description, and content on your site.

A very smart step would be to think of moving related topics people would search for, like  ‘cardboard boxes for moving.’ If you can write a blog post or page that will rank, it will be another way to promote your business to someone looking to move.

Filip Silobod, SEO Specialist at Honest Marketing, predominantly works with clients in the luxury UK and Irish hotel industries. He’s passionate about SEO, user experience, marketing, tourism, hospitality, management, and brand creation.

12. Marcus Miller, Head of SEO & Digital Marketing at Bowler Hat

Moving companies will typically focus on a specific geographic area. So, from a high level, it is important to focus on Local SEO tactics.

Assuming you have the SEO basics in place, A specific tip would include creating location pages for the areas targeted. These would be optimized for the relevant keywords + location.

These pages should then be built to build credibility and drive lead generation.

Marcus Miller is head of SEO & Digital Marketing at the UK Agency Bowler Hat. He has worked in the SEO industry since 1999 and has a monthly column on Search Engine Land.

13. Ela Iliesi, Digital Marketing Trainer, London Marketing Academy

One of the websites I optimized in my first years of SEO was a moving company. Two things worked best so I recommend them as tips for other companies as well:

1) Have your own blog

One SEO factor that can make a big difference is the number of visitors and how much time they spend on your website. That’s why having a blog with useful information, like how to take care of furniture when moving, or how to choose the best moving company, can help your website position better and earn the trust of potential clients.

2) Have a contest among bloggers

Invite the bloggers in your area to participate in a contest where they have to share their moving experience in an article on their blog, and link to your website. Offer an attractive prize and you will win a lot of great links that can help you jump to the top organic position on Google.

Ela Iliesi is a Digital Marketing Trainer at London Marketing Academy. Digital Marketing Specialist, Trainer, and Speaker. Huge Agatha Christie fan.

14. Ian Wright, Founder of MoverDB.com

Having worked with the moving industry over the past few years, I can honestly say it is one of the most backward when it comes to digital marketing.

If I had to offer one tip it would be the following: work with online review and comparison sites, not against them. I’ve been contacted by many companies wanting their profiles removed, even when they had positive reviews because they felt it hurt their own website. Don’t do this, people want reviews, and a lack of reviews is one of the worst signs of a moving company.

Ian Wright is the founder of MoverDB.com,  an international moving comparison site.

15. Sam Martin-Ross, Founder of Digital Uncut

My most important tip for moving companies trying to get to the top of search engine results is to really understand what content is needed to rank for your target keywords and then make sure you have that on your website.

To do this you’ll first need to know what your target keywords are (most likely variations on “moving companies” e.g. “new york moving companies”), and then dissect the websites currently ranking in the top 5 positions.

Look at what content they include (exactly what it talks about), what areas they serve, and what pages currently rank for those terms (is it their homepage for example). This will give you a good example of what content is needed, and then you want your content to be better than it.

Beyond that, you’ll need to look for industry-specific, high-quality websites to get links from. Look for home-related blogs or publications, see what they generally write about and if you can offer unique content in exchange for a link or mention. Look for high-quality business directories e.g. Yelp, Local.com, and Foursquare and submit your business to the right section (perhaps there’s a moving companies section) to be featured with a link.

Sam Martin-Ross enjoys creating and delivering innovative digital marketing services that improve results and enable others to grow faster. His team at Digital Uncut deliver commercially successful SEO & PPC by combining creativity, automation & transparency.

16. Ayesha Ambreen, Social Media Strategist and Writer

Here’s what I recommend for moving companies:

Focus on local search. Identify the target audience and area and make a strategic plan accordingly, filter a list of local keywords, search competitors (people who are ranking on those keywords), identify link/content gaps and address them.

Also, aim to get into Google’s “3-pack” listing.

In addition, ask clients/customers to rate and review the service on Google My Business. And use schema markup to show rating and reviews in the search. Since moving companies are into critical work, trust is important.

Ayesha Ambreen is a devoted social media strategist and writer. She keeps a birds-eye view of all the trending news on content marketing, search engine optimization, and startups. Her hobbies are intertwined with her profession, which allows her to comes up with creative and strategic marketing plans for businesses.

17. Dan Rawley, SEO Account Manager at The SEO Works

Local SEO is crucial for moving companies, as people looking for your services are likely to search using terms such as ‘moving companies near me’ or ‘moving companies in ____’.

With that in mind, clearly establishing the area in which your moving company operates is highly important. Make sure your company is listed accurately in local business directories and has a strong presence on Google My Business and Bing Places. Avoid having listings with different contact details – this is likely to confuse search engines and users alike.

The goal is to build authority and trust for your company by curating an online presence that shows you are a reputable service provider. You don’t want to undermine this with a simple mistake such as an incorrect or outdated phone number.

For your site, it’s important to make it clear where your company operates through your content, but avoid keyword stuffing. Include as much detail about your services as possible.

Reviews

Incorporating reviews into your company’s various online profiles – Google My Business, social media and perhaps also on your own website – will help to give you the edge over other businesses as customers are likely to choose a business with a wealth of reviews over one with few or none.

Dan Rawley is an Account Manager at The SEO Works, an award-winning search marketing agency based in the UK. In this capacity, he has worked with companies of various sizes and from a wide range of industries to develop and implement bespoke SEO strategies.

18. Steve James, Marketing for SME Businesses

Most small businesses make the mistake of presenting what they do via their SEO (If they take any time at all on this subject). I have always educated my clientele on fixating on what prospects are looking for, rather on how good you are at what you do.

If someone is shopping for your services, they are more concerned about how you can solve their problems, not how wonderful you are.

Drill down to what your history shows you are best at, what your prospects want, then concentrate on that within your prospect/customer community. People will give you a testimonial if their first experience with you is positive. It’s up to you to get them back with your service level, but at first concentrate on what your people want, not what you can do.

Steve James does Marketing for SME Businesses and blogs at smallbizbigbiz.

19. David Ambrogio, SEO & Content Strategist at Online Optimism

Do competitor research. Do a quick Google search of both other moving companies in your local area and the top-ranked national companies. Take a look at their backlinks using a tool like Ahrefs, and see where they’re getting links from and what content is getting the most links. After you find this, copy all of their actions so you can quickly give yourself a headstart in at least matching (and eventually beating) your competition.

Create unique content by thinking of questions you’d like the answer to (or search Quora) and write some blog posts or articles about it. For example, “What happens when a moving company breaks my furniture?” or “How do moving companies ensure that your stuff is safe?”

Get business citations from websites in your niche, like moversdirectory.com, moving.com, or movingcompanies.us. This is usually as simple as going to their website and filling out your company info to add to their directory.

Optimize your Google My Business page. This is an easy way for companies to quickly get to the top of Google. First, claim your page. Next, fill out all the information you can, including hours, address, website, pictures, and any video you have. After this, list your company on as many local citation sites (like Yelp and Yellowpages) as you can. Then, try to get as many reviews from customers as you can. You’ll quickly rise to the top of the pack and will see the calls start coming in!

David Ambrogio is an SEO & content strategist at Online Optimism, a digital marketing agency in New Orleans. He has been involved with SEO since 2005, always growing and learning in an unending effort to keep up with Google. He is always available to help anyone needing advice on improving their website’s rankings online.

20. Andrew Wheller, SEO Executive, The Pen Warehouse

It is vital for moving companies to keep all of your local listings up to date. The most important local listings are; Google My Business, Bing, Yelp & More.

Here is my advice to moving businesses regarding SEO:

  • Target long-tail keywords or local SEO.
  • Local SEO keyword examples; (‘target keyword’ in ‘location’) & (‘location’ ‘keyword’).
  • Google My Business is vital for small businesses with an online presence.
  • Create the best content. If you’re deciding to target competitive keywords that many big players are already ranking for, the first step is to search the keyword and review each of the top 10 natural results. With the review of the top results, we can learn what content Google likes to return for this query. By compiling the best aspects from each of the top 10 results into your own content, you should have created something better than all the other available resources. This will help rankings.
Andrew Wheller is the SEO Executive from The Pen Warehouse. The Pen Warehouse are trade-only suppliers of promotional pens and stationery products.

21. Kate Windleton, Marketing & Digital Content Manager at Strong Move

Some things that many people overlook are content and site navigation. So my advice is to make them a priority.

1. Help people solve moving-related problems. Moving is a specific task and many things can go wrong, and they usually do. Help people solve various moving-related problems and they will be thankful to you.

2. Have an easy-to-navigate website. User experience is getting more and more important: if your site doesn’t work well, if it’s too slow or if it’s not mobile-friendly, users will bounce like crazy.

Kate Windleton is the Marketing & Digital Content Manager at Strong Move, a removals company based in London. In her free time, she likes to read articles about marketing and psychology.

22. Jim Milan, SEO Manager, Auto Accessories Garage

One mistake that I see moving companies make quite frequently is that they have more than one page targeting their primary keyword.

Moving companies that have multiple locations or serve multiple areas often optimize their homepage toward their primary keyword, which tends to be the keyword focused on their most important market, say “Chicago movers.” This is a good thing because the homepage tends to be the most authoritative page on the site and has the best chance of ranking for a given keyword. However, since the company has multiple locations, say, Rockford and Springfield in addition to Chicago, then the site will often include “Location” pages with each optimized toward these individual locations. This often means there will be a Chicago location page that targets the same keyword as the homepage, “Chicago movers.”

This doubling up of pages targeting the same keyword, also known as keyword cannibalization, hinders the site’s ability to rank for the keyword because it splits the ranking power up amongst two pages.

One solution to this conundrum is to allow the homepage to be indexed but to place a “noindex” tag on the Chicago location page. Search engines will index and rank the homepage for the keyword, “Chicago movers,” but not the separate location page. It also avoids confusion for users who are able to clearly see that the company has the three locations by keeping the Chicago location page intact.

Jim Milan is the Communications & SEO Manager for Auto Accessories Garage, a fast-growing online retailer of auto accessories and parts.

23. Tyler Brooks, Founder, Analytive

For moving companies, they should put this type of strategy together:

  • First, they need to know what people are searching for. Start with keyword research. For example, if the company provides “cross-country moving” they may want to target that keyword. They may also want to target “storage facility” if that’s part of the service they offer. We’d want to map out what people are searching for and how their services overlap.
  • From there, they’d build out SEO-targeted landing pages. These would also have a huge geographic component in them. For example “storage facility in Phoenix” might be a good page to create if that’s their market. This content build is often the heaviest lift.
  • While doing this, they’d also want to look at the internal linking structure. Do their landing pages get enough link juice from the homepage or other important pages? They’d want to make sure these pages were orphaned.
  • They’d also want to do a deep technical audit. Does their site load fast? Is it secure? Is it crawlable?
  • Finally, we’d then look at content to create and promote. Moving checklists, city guides, and other resources used could all be great content pieces that they could use to drive links, traffic, and brand exposure.

That’s the roadmap I suggest they use to actually build out a full SEO campaign. Most of the “use proper keywords” tips are incomplete and will leave the company frustrated. Instead, it’s best to focus on developing a whole strategy that they can implement over time to get results.

Tyler Brooks is the Founder of AnalytivePassionate about technology, finance, entertainment, and the meeting of the three. Analytive helps companies build, measure, and improve their digital presence.

24. Scott Benson, SEO Consultant

Great topic! We actually work with a local moving company in the Washington, DC area, and have successfully implemented a Local SEO strategy to help them win visibility on Google, even against some larger organizations. While this is a broad subject matter with many tactics to implement, a few that stand out are:

Own your NAP

Your company Name Address and Phone number need to be consistent on your own web properties and social profiles, but also on external websites. All these references matter to Google, and consistency is key. A service like Moz Local can help.

Structured Data Markup

This works well with the NAP consistency. Structured Data Markup allows you to clearly define things like your business name, address, phone number, hours of operation, and even services can be “spoon fed” to the search engines with this custom coding. Search engines can then use these verified datasets to populate things like map listings that display the business hours, and other useful information searchers are seeking, like customer reviews.

Pain Point Marketing

In order to compete online, companies of all sizes need to create content that matches what their audience is searching for. Pain point marketing content is all about answering customer questions with content. People go to Google to solve a problem, that’s why searches are called queries; people are directly seeking help. Answering those questions with quality resources can help any business win in SEO.

Scott Benson has 15 years of experience in digital marketing, advertising, web analytics, and technical SEO. Prior to launching his consulting business full-time, he was the lead SEO for Vocus (now Cision), PRWeb and HARO.

25. John Sammon, Founder and CEO of Sixth City Marketing

In a highly competitive market such as the moving industry, SEO can be vital to the success of your business. If you have a website, you should be doing SEO.

One of the first things we recommend for any company wishing to do SEO is to do your research. Know your customers and the search terms they are using to find you. This will help you optimize the content on your site for the terms potential customers are searching for. Another thing you should do is make sure your local listings are up-to-date. These are the local map listings on Google or Bing that help customers find moving companies nearby. Making sure your website and contact information is accurate on these listings is a quick win that can help bring in leads.

John Sammon is the founder and CEO of Sixth City Marketing, a digital marketing agency located in Cleveland, Ohio, that specializes in SEO, PPC, and website design and development.

26. Alex Membrillo, CEO, Cardinal Digital Marketing

Ranking in the top of the search engine results for moving companies can be extremely competitive, especially if you’re a smaller company going up against large national brands.

The first trick is to approach SEO from a local level. Start with optimizing and developing landing pages for your local area and markets. This should include pages for any of your offices. Don’t just focus on large cities, but the entire metro area. For example, in Atlanta, suburban areas like Alpharetta and Marietta both generate significant search traffic for related keywords, while being less competitive than the Atlanta terms. Additionally, structure your site to include sections that cover your various service areas, such as Residential Moving, Office Move, Moving Logistics, and Storage Moves.

Next, focus on quality link building. Look for guest blog opportunities, join local and industry associations, and ask to be included on partner resource pages.

Keep content on your website fresh by actively maintaining a blog. Use keyword and location-based topics, such as “Moving to Austin”, for markets that you cover. “Things to Do” topics can also rank well in the search engine results and help to generate site traffic.

Alex Membrillo is the founder and CEO of Cardinal Digital Marketing, an award-winning digital marketing agency based in Atlanta, GA. Named “SmallBusiness Person of the Year, Rising Star” by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, as well as the “Digital Marketer of the Year” by Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), Alex is an accomplished industry expert.

27. Jim Lastinger, Founder and CEO of Deep Field, Inc.

Collect customer reviews! Customer reviews on your Google Business listing are a major ranking factor for the local pack of Google Maps results. After each job, if the customer seems genuinely pleased with the work, then give them a printed handout, business card, etc. with instructions on how they can leave a review.

Jim Lastinger is a veteran digital marketer of over 16 years. He’s the founder and CEO of Deep Field, Inc., a digital marketing firm based in Waycross, GA.

28. Bob Herman, IT Tropolis

My tip: Add videos to your Google Maps/Google My Business listing. Google recently added the ability to upload videos and research indicates that uploading videos to your listing can improve your SEO rankings.

IT Tropolis specializes in digital marketing, including search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising (PPC) and marketing automation. They have over 20 years of experience leveraging the power of the Internet to help clients win new business.

29. Aerin Ogden, Digital Marketing Specialist, Big Leap

Here are some SEO tips that could help moving companies:

1) Local terms are especially important for moving companies. Ensure that you use keywords that reference both moving terms as well as location terms (ie: the city or state that you reside). Setting up a Google My Business account and syncing your moving business to it can also help Google and searchers identify your business. Having customers fill out reviews will also prove to be beneficial.

2) Some moving companies may think that content marketing is a waste of time. However, with good brainstorming and strategy, you can create content that engages your customers. For example, maybe people are looking for packing tips, advice for how to move across the country, proper ways to load a bed, how to take furniture apart, etc. Providing keyword-optimized blog posts and content that provide these answers could attract organic traffic. There are countless benefits to content marketing.

3) This past summer, Google began to implement mobile-first indexing. This means that Google’s algorithms are now using the mobile version, rather than the desktop version, of a website to determine ranking. Moving companies should make sure that they have a working mobile site that has a responsive design. Images should be correctly sized, buttons and menus should function, and the site should load fairly fast. As your mobile site improves, so will your SEO. Additionally, most people will look up moving companies on their phones which is another reason why moving companies should have a working mobile site.

Aerin Ogden is a Digital Marketing Specialist for Big Leap, a straightforward-thinking digital agency providing four core services: SEO, Content Marketing, Social Media, and Marketing Automation.

30.Bryan Pattman, SEO Analyst at 9Sail

The most important SEO tip for moving companies is to get the locations that you operate in on your website and make it known that you are an established business in that area.

Your Google My Business listing should have organic reviews from previous customers that trust you. As long as you have a strong location reach and positive feedback you should see an increase in organic traffic and leads.

Bryan Pattman is a Junior SEO Analyst at 9Sail, a full-service search firm based out of Fairfield, New Jersey. They focus on search engine optimization, pay-per-click ads, and conversion optimization. They specialize in professional services, such as lawyers, doctors, dentists, architects, and accountants.

31. Craig Murphy, Founder, ALT Agency

SEO is an ever-changing beast. With the latest so-called “medic update” a few months back, it’s key to focus on metrics these days.

Page speed is very important and one very simple thing that you can do is get your Google Page insight metrics as high as possible. Whilst this can at times seem difficult to do, there is an incredible plugin called WP Rocket that is ideal for small WordPress websites. With this plugin, we are seeing Google Page Insight scores jump 20-30% with the click of a few buttons, which can mean the difference between a 65 and 80-page speed score.

User metrics are key, as they tell Google a lot about your site. This simple plugin can massively improve your metrics and give you a boost up the rankings.

Craig Murphy runs ALT Agency,  A Birmingham based web design agency that specializes in creating websites that rank at the top of Google and generate a measurable return on investment. With over 18 years experience Craig & the team of 9 at ALT Agency know what it takes to get a website working.

32. Kate Hart, Domestic and Office Relocation Manager at Fantastic Removals

Since we’ve started doing SEO for our website, I’m the one who’s communicating with the digital marketing agency we work with.

In time, I had the opportunity to make adequate conclusions what SEO techniques work best for our industry and I will gladly share my top 3 tips with you that will certainly bring positive results to anyone who implements them correctly.

1. Carefully Plan the Keywords You’ll be Targeting Based on Your Domain’s Rating

It’s simple — Google uses trust factors to establish your website’s domain authority. There over 200 ranking signals and plenty of them influence how trustworthy your domain is from Google’s perspective.

This is very important in terms of the domain’s ability to outrank competitors with its pages. If you’re a newly emerging removals company that just launched its website, then you are at the starting point of gaining trust. This means you should target less competitive keywords until you grow a little bit.

Trying to compete with well-established companies in the industry with websites that have been around for more than 5 years is a hard task. It’s doable if you start by targeting low competition keywords.

Going for keywords with high volume and competition rating will leave your ranking on the 5th page of Google results, which no one gets to. This means zero targeted, organic traffic to the website.

2. Work Hard On Your Google My Business Listing

You don’t have to aim only for the top 10 organic results on the SERP’s first page. Instead, you can play smart and position your Google My Business listing on the SERP’s section for local results (local pack).

This will help you get targeted organic traffic, based on your hyper-relevance for a particular region without having to compete with large brands and moving companies who are targeting a larger and more competitive market.

Regularly maintain your listing’s details and update them whenever necessary. When you start receiving reviews, answer to everyone, including unsatisfied ones.

3. Grow a High-Quality Backlink Profile

Backlinks affect a website’s organic rankings a lot. You will certainly need them for your website. The important thing to know is that Google hates low-quality links.

The world’s top search engine rewards websites that have an organic backlink profile with links from referring domains with great quality and relevancy. These are hard to obtain but are definitely more precious than other types of links you can acquire faster by utilizing shady techniques.

Don’t waste your time and effort in making links that will later give zero benefits to your organic rankings. After all, Google has perfectly polished its algorithm for evaluating the value of your backlink profile and is able to detect and take action against spammy backlinks algorithmically or through a manual action – something you certainly want to avoid for your website.

Kate Hart works as an office relocation and house removals manager at Fantastic Removals – one of the UK’s largest moving companies.

33. Nicolas Straut, SEO Associate at Fundera

My top tip for moving companies interested in reaching the top of the search results is to target local keywords when creating content and optimizing their website for search engines. These local keywords like ‘movers Princeton NJ’ will be less competitive than ‘movers’ in general or even ‘movers NJ.’

To find ideal keywords to target, use a free SEO tool like Ubersuggest. Through this tool, you can enter keywords you’d like to target and see search volume, the difficulty to rank for these keywords, other keyword ideas to target, and the current top search results.

To target these keywords, ensure the keyword and its synonyms are used on your website and that web page titles are optimized for search. In addition, consider creating blog posts on common questions that searchers in your local area would ask as they move or plan to hire moving companies.

Nicolas Straut is an SEO Associate at Fundera, a marketplace for small business financial solutions, who has a background in content creation and optimization.

34. Ryan Scollon, SEO & PPC Freelance Consultant

My #1 SEO tip for moving companies is to create ‘areas covered’ pages. We often find with moving companies that there is not enough work in the town that they are located in. So the next best step is to cover the surrounding areas.

By making pages for each location, it will allow you to rank organically and drive more traffic and inquiries to your site.

My name is Ryan Scollon & I am an SEO & PPC freelance consultant at ryanscollon.com. I have worked in the industry for over 5 years now, and have been featured on the likes of Search Engine Land, Moz & Business News Daily.

35. Rahul Saini, Content Marketer at Grazitti Interactive

Switch to AMP

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) are at the forefront of top stories in Google News section. By using AMP, Google’s open-source program you can increase the speed at which your web pages open for mobile users. It will improve user experience and help you rank higher in the search results.

Responsive and Mobile-friendly Websites

It is one of the most important factors in improving your website’s ranking. Having a responsive and mobile-friendly website allows visitors to spend more time on your website and has a significant impact on SERPs.

Work on Your Local Presence

Optimize for ‘near me’ search queries. Start by optimizing your Google My Business page and have the following details in it: a unique description of your brand, well-defined categories, open and close timings, image content, contact information, and regular updates. While you are at it, make sure you showcase customer reviews.

Paid Advertising

PPC has always been a good option. You can pay your way to the top but in order to sustain yourself there, you need high-quality ads, links to relevant landing pages and high rate products.

Rahul Saini is a Content Marketer at Grazitti Interactive, a technology-driven marketing agency, offering a unique blend of creativity, innovation & digital marketing expertise.

36. Ketan Kapoor, CEO and Co-founder of Mettl

For your moving business to have a successful SEO strategy, your content should be powerful enough that it aims to address the real-world problems and needs of your ideal customers. If you can answer their most pressing concerns in a clear and concise manner, you are already a step ahead of the game. Then, you must have a rock-solid dissemination strategy to promote the content across channels, capture mindshare to make the content viral, and continue to build authority on the side.

To start with, you must zero in on areas such as audience pain points, needs, and aspirations to create a strong buyer persona to use to validate content ideas. Then, you can start creating highly relevant, targeted and engaging content to give them solutions to their burning problems while positioning yourself as an authority in the moving space.

You Can Also:

  • Create a business blog where you share industry insights, tips, and tricks to ace moving-related problems
  • Use topic clusters and create a series of informative posts to better address their pressing concerns to position your moving company as an expert and to build authority
  • Connect with other sites catering to the domain and build backlinks to your site via guest posting and outreach
  • Reach out to influencers in the moving space who offer valuable insights. They can help you disseminate the content in their circle and popularize it
  • Target magazines that are popular with your audience and showcase your expertise via featured articles, interviews, and expert advice.
Ketan Kapoor is the CEO and Co-founder of Mettl, an HR technology company and leading talent measurement firm that enables businesses to make precise people decisions in Talent Recruitment, management, and training across industry verticals.

37. Vincent DeCastro, CEO of SEO My Business

Leveraging their GMB (Google My Business) listing is probably the most effective ranking tool a moving company could utilize to reach the top of Google’s organic search results. It doesn’t require any special understanding of coding or any website updates.

Simply by fully completing the company information, adding images, video, company description, and posting to the listing regularly, as well as getting more reviews on the listing, a moving company can certainly attain the top of the SERPs in their service territory.

Vincent DeCastro is a digital marketing and SEO professional with over 20 years of experience teaching and managing Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per-Click Advertising campaigns. He has managed over 100 small and mid-sized business’ internet marketing campaigns involving a mix of SEO and PPC. DeCastro is currently the CEO of SEO MyBusiness in Atlanta.

38. Valèr Zamulin Founder and CEO of SeoLogist

1. Online Reputation Matters a Lot!

Create your company’s listings on top review websites such as BBB, mymovingreviews.com, trustedpros.ca, homestars.com, trustpilot.com, and others and ask your customers to leave reviews.

Not only will this help you get almost real-time feedback from customers and constantly improve your services, but also give the online authority boost to your brand, which is a key to ranking high in Google now ( this factor will be gaining more and more power in the future). You will definitely want to create a simple guide for your customers on how to leave a review on each of the platforms.

2. Focus on your Local Rankings

Use Google Maps to the max. Make sure your site is present in all industry-specific directories. Submit your listings to good proven high-authority general directories. The latest Brightlocal report suggests that on average, moving companies ranking 1-3 in Google Maps have 5 live citations. To get 15-20 steps ahead of your competitors, focus on generating more engagement on your listing. For example, upload your team’s “at work” photos to provide visitors with an insight into your moving process. Make sure the images you upload are high quality. Of course, encourage customer reviews and respond to them with individual messages. Promptly answer questions in the Q&A section.

3. Moving Always Implies a Lot of Research

Help your potential customers find useful information about the area they are moving to. Optimize not only for commercial but for “research” queries as well. Update your blog with useful moving tips, as well as useful information on the area such as popular neighborhoods, schools, and other amenities. This will help you attract new customers through education and as an added bonus, improve your overall website’s SEO score. Websites that publish useful and relevant content will definitely be rewarded by Google.

Valèr Zamulin Founder and CEO of SEOlogist.  A major in Applied Linguistics, Val combined an understanding of search technology with language algorithmization to create a highly effective SEO formula in 2003. He then gathered a team of motivated IT-savvy pros to continue his work, which continues to evolve to this day.

39. Jason Scott Freelance Digital Marketing Specialist

My number one SEO tip for moving companies would be to focus heavily on local search. Whilst ranking well nationwide will certainly generate large amounts of traffic to your site, it may not convert that well due to the fact that people are searching for companies local to them.

Focusing on the local search results will help to generate traffic that converts. Not only that, but it will be much less competitive than trying to rank against some of the larger companies that operate nationwide. There are several things you can do to improve your rankings in the local search results.

Firstly, make sure you’ve created your own Google My Business page. Ensure that all contact and address details are consistent with what’s on your website. Next, make sure you’re listed on the major online industry directories – each mention of your business is known as a ‘citation’ which is a ranking factor in local search.

Finally, you need to generate genuine, positive reviews for your companies profile page. These will help to build trust and in turn improve your rankings.

Jason Scott is a Freelance Digital Marketing Specialist based in Norwich, UK specializing in SEO and PPC.

40. Donna Duncan, SEO/Content Marketing Consultant,  Owner of B-SeenOnTop

What SEO tips do you have for moving companies to help them get to the top of the search engine results?

Focus on the local market.

The big guys – Atlas Van Lines, Two Men and a Truck, Gentle Giant – are going to be hard to catch up to without a large investment of time and money. You’d be far better off focusing your limited resources on trying to gain more visibility with prospects and customers who work and reside close to your place of business.

Optimize for local. Publish helpful content for your local audience. Hang out on the online venues your audience is likely to hang out on. Build relationships with other local merchants and media representatives. Get noticed.

Donna Duncan is an SEO/Content Marketing Consultant and the Owner of B-SeenOnTop.

41. Steven van Vessum, VP of Community at ContentKing

Moving companies are playing the local SEO game. In order to succeed at local SEO, they need to focus on:
  • Local authority: building up authority in their area by putting out great content, and getting links from local sites (including newspapers). One quick win to get links from local sites is to browse for local business directories.
  • Reviews: gather reviews from your customers. Not only do these help them continuously improve, but great reviews also generate more business. At the end of the day, moving companies are handling your precious stuff. It’s all about trust, and reviews help build that trust.
  • Implementing Schema: explain to search engines what type of business they have, where people can find them, what reviews they left, what special offers they have, their social media accounts etcetera. Schema helps them give search engines context. Be sure to verify the Schema implementation, and keep an eye on Google Search Console for any feedback.
  • Google My Business: Google My Business needs to be 100% aligned with the context you provide via Schema. When it aligns, it strengthens the signal it gives search engines.
Steven van Vessum is VP of Community at ContentKing, a real-time SEO application that continuously audits your website for issues and changes. Steven has been doing SEO for over a decade and has been on all sides of the table: client-side, agency-side and now at a product company supplying SEOs with tooling which makes their lives a lot easier.

42. Rintu Biswas, Founder of Digital SEO Land

Moving business is in demand. This is a good thing. However, it’s also challenging because there is lots of competition on Google (from an SEO point of view).

Don’t worry, there are a few awesome ways you can dominate Google’s first page.

Here are a few SEO tips I recommend:

(1) Keyword research: Do some keyword research and choose the right keywords for your moving company. Find your competitor’s best-ranking keywords in SEMrush (Organic Research). That way you can target the valuable keywords for your moving company. 

(2) Competitor analysis: You have to analyze why your competitors are ranking on Google? What are they doing (in terms of SEO).

 Analyze the top ranking website’s weaknesses and take note of their strong factors.

(3) List your company in Google my business and other reputable local business listing websites.

(4) Make an SEO audit report of your website and solve all the issues highlighted in the audit report.

(5) Create awesome content around your target audience’s problems. You can use Answer The Public, People also ask box and Quora for finding topics. 

(6) Lastly, you have to build backlinks: If you want to rank on Google, quality link building is a MUST. Promote your informational content (blog posts) to build backlinks. And put internal links from your blog posts to your money pages. That way the authority of your money pages will increase, which should help to rank them on Google.
 

Rintu Biswas is the founder of Digital SEO Land. He has worked in the SEO industry since 2011. He is currently providing SEO training in Kolkata along with white hat SEO services globally.

Software for Moving Companies

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