Quick Read
The goal of any business is to be search result number one on Google when someone is searching for what they offer. Achieving this goal is much easier said than done though. If you don’t have the keywords potential customers are searching for on your site, you won’t rank high.
If you want to rank higher in Google search results you have to understand what they are looking for. This is where learning search intent can help.
Understanding the search intent of your target audience can help you to determine what keywords will be best to optimize your site with. Once you have optimized your website with the best keywords, you will increase your chances of bringing in leads and potential customers.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is crucial in making sure that your moving business is showing up at the top of Google’s search results. Optimizing your website pages and content with the right keywords can help to get you there.
In the beginning, choosing the right keywords for your website can be difficult to decide. Focusing on just “moving companies near me” can only get you so far. Understanding the search intent of your potential customers and selecting your best keywords based off your services can help you to boost your ranking in the search.
What are Keywords?
To put it simply, keywords are the words or phrases that someone is putting into Google when they are looking for something. When someone puts a keyword into Google, it provides results based on what their algorithm deems relevant.
What this means for you and your business is that, in order to rank higher up on Google, you need to optimize every page on your website for keywords that someone looking for a moving company would use.
Keywords & Search Intent
Search intent and keywords go hand-in-hand. When you are choosing what keywords will be best to use on your website, you first need to take a look at the search intent. Search intent is the intention that someone has when searching a particular keyword.
There are four types of search intent that you will see people are using:
Transactional Intent: If someone were to be searching “local movers” or “moving companies near me”, they are most likely looking to use the service in the near future, this is a transactional intent. This is what is most sought after by any company since the person is looking to buy now and is their best chance at gaining a new customer immediately.
Commercial Intent: This is very similar to transactional in that they are also looking to buy, but not yet. These are people who may be searching with the same keywords as someone who is looking for a moving company right now. People searching with commercial intent though, are taking more time in choosing which moving company to go with and doing more extensive research on each one.
Informational Intent: Informational intent is exactly how it sounds, the intent to find out information about something. You may want to overlook this type of intent, but it is important to take this one into consideration as well. So why should you care about this one? This category of intent can be a gateway to finding potential customers. Say someone searched for “how to get ready for a move”, they may not be looking for a moving company just yet, but you can provide them with the information they need while letting that person know they can use your services when the time comes to move. This allows them to be aware of your company and creates a potential customer when they do decide it is time to move. If they have your company in mind, they may be more inclined to choose you for their move. You can appeal to and influence this type of customer through blog posts meant to help answer questions they may have.
Navigational Intent: The person who is searching with this intent in mind already knows the place they are looking to go. This could be a specific website or thing that they are looking for. A good way to use keywords with this type of search intent is focusing in on specific locations like “moving to…” or “relocating to…”.
Looking at what the intent is behind what people are searching for is the best way to start picking out what keywords stand out in those areas for moving companies and what moving services you offer.
How to Choose the Best Keywords
With the search intent of your target audience in mind, you can take that information to decide what keywords for your moving company are best. You want to start by taking a look at your website. Look at the services you offer and what your ideal potential customer is going to be looking for.
Simply put, you want to land on the top of the search results for someone looking to hire a moving company. From there you can narrow down on target keywords for all of your pages on your website.
From local moving and long-distance moving to specialized services that you offer these all have potential for keyword optimization. Some basic keywords to start with could include:
- [Your City] Movers
- [Your City] Moving Company
- [Your City] Local Movers
- [Your City] Long-Distance Movers
- Moving Companies
- Movers
- Moving and Storage Services
These keywords are great for your main pages like your homepage, local movers page, and long-distance movers page. You will also want to have individual pages for each of your services and optimize those similarly to your main pages.
Keywords for specialized service pages could include:
- Specialty Movers
- Office Movers
- Packing Services
To figure out the best keywords and do more in-depth research, it is best to use a keyword research tool to help you better understand what keywords you should be using on your website, such as SEMrush or Ahrefs.
The digital marketing world is always changing when it comes to best practices. How you rank in Google search results though, will always make a difference in getting moving leads for your moving company. That is why SEO for moving companies is key to put you above your competitors in the moving industries.