SEO for moving companies

Google ranks the map mainly on relevance, distance and prominence (Google Business Profile help). For relevance, choose the primary category that fits, such as Moving company, and list every service: local moves, long distance moves, packing, loading help, storage, office moves and piano or specialty moves, whichever you do. If customers come to your office, show the address; if you only go to them, set a service area instead. You can list up to 20 service areas, and Google asks that the whole area stay within about 2 hours' drive of your base (Google Business Profile help).

On your website, give each kind of move its own page. Local and long distance moves are different searches with different questions, and one page trying to answer both usually answers neither well.

People hiring a mover worry about damage, surprise charges and companies that disappear, and they look for proof before they call.

If you move households between states, you must be registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and your USDOT number has to appear in your advertising (FMCSA, 49 CFR 375.207). Customers can look you up on FMCSA's website, so make the number easy to find on every page. Federal rules also require interstate movers to give customers FMCSA's guide to their rights and responsibilities (FMCSA). For moves within one state, the rules vary from state to state, so check with the agency that licenses movers where you work, and show any state permit number too. Then add what a number can't show: photos of your own trucks and crew in uniform, how you protect furniture and floors, and what your valuation coverage includes.

A short form on every page, a phone number that gets answered, and a reply within minutes win more moves than a long form answered the next day.

Ask only what you need for a first price: moving from where to where, the date, the size of the home and anything heavy or unusual. An instant quote on your website can give a local move a firm price or a price range from your own prices while the customer is still comparing. For interstate moves, federal rules cover estimates, including binding and non-binding estimates and when you must do a physical survey (FMCSA, 49 CFR part 375), so there it books the walk-through or video survey instead. When a call comes in while your crew is on a job, a text back right away keeps the customer from calling the next mover on the list.

They aren't offered for every business type in every area, so check yours first.

Google screens your business before the ads run, and the checks depend on your business type and location (Local Services Ads help). Once they run, Google ranks them partly on your rating, your number of reviews and how quickly you respond (Local Services Ads help), so a quote request left waiting costs you a move and your place in the ads. Google also reviews leads and credits back the ones it finds invalid, like spam or a wrong number (Local Services Ads help). Google Ads can sit alongside them for the moves you want more of, such as long distance, with ads that land on your long distance page. We set up the accounts in your name, and you pay Google directly.

Explain how a move with you works, from the estimate to the last box, and what the customer should do to get ready. Say how you charge, by the hour or by the job, without listing prices you can't keep. Show your own trucks, crew and packing materials instead of stock photos, because customers compare those pictures with what shows up at their door. If you offer storage, packing supplies or junk removal, give each one a page. Most people search for movers on a phone, and Google mainly uses the phone version of a site for ranking (Google Search Central, mobile-first indexing), so make the quote form easy to fill in with a thumb. If many of your customers speak Spanish, offer the site in Spanish too.

For many movers, late spring and summer bring the most calls, and the end of the month is often busier than the middle. When calls pile up, the mover who answers wins, so have every call answered and every quote request returned the same day. In the slower months, ask past customers for reviews, add the pages you didn't have time for, and stay in touch with a short note now and then: people who moved with you once may move again, and they get asked for a mover they trust. Ask for reviews right after each move, by text, with a direct link to your Google review form, and never pay for them or ask only happy customers (Google's policy on reviews).