What Are Moving Company Keywords?
What does it mean when someone says they want to rank for keywords? It makes you wonder at first, what is a “keyword” after all? You aren’t the only one that gets confused. It gets even more confusing because when you think of a keyword you think of just one word, like “movers”.
Yet, in the context of search engine optimization (SEO), a keyword is more commonly used to describe a word or phrase that people enter into the search engine. For us movers, that could be “Boston moving companies” or “cost of living in Boston” or even just “movers”. All of these are referred to as keywords. In fact, you may have heard about “long-tail keywords” and wondered what these are. They are just longer phrases, typically over 6 words long.
By the way, when we think of search engines, it is fine if you focus only on Google. As of 2019 Google accounts for almost 90% of all online search volume. Bing, in 2nd place, is only 6% of search volume.
When a user types a keyword into the search engine, they are taken to the search results that Google deems best. Thus, you must optimize your content and your entire website for keywords, and as a moving company, that means keywords for movers specifically.
Search Intent for Moving Company Keywords
Whenever someone enters a keyword into Google, they are looking for something, they want something – they have a particular “intent” with their search. Each keyword has a search intent tied to it so let’s discuss each of them. There are 4 types of keyword search intent. It’s important to comprehend them so you can understand them in relation to the particular keyword but also when you go to write content, if you don’t match the content to provide the intent of the keyword search, it will never rank high in Google and will have no value.
Transactional Intent/Commercial Investigation – Buy Something
We love this intent, of course, the searcher is looking to buy something, or in our case, hire a moving company, get packers, reserve storage, etc. This would include keywords like “movers near me” and “Boston moving company”, “best Boston movers”. They may still be comparing companies, but they are ready to buy. These are the more obvious keywords that we all want and most people focus on solely. They are also by far the most competitive for the same reasons.
Informational Intent – Research & Questions
Here the searcher is looking for information. This information could be an answer to a question, or something that requires a more in-depth answer that can only be properly handled in an article. Many skip over keywords in this intent category, but they would be making a huge mistake and here is why. As movers, we know that people have to do many things in advance of moving, in some cases months in advance. Think about it, don’t people start to research the new place they might move to, how to prepare for a move, look at homes, sign leases, look for a new church, etc. Yes, they do!
Thus if you can rank high in search for keywords with informational intent, where the “intent” is a move in the future, you have a potential moving customer on your website!
Navigational Intent – Take Me Somewhere
This is a search where the user has a thing, or destination in mind and wants to go there, typically a particular website or brand. This means the search could be branded, or have the name of the company/website in the search.
Search Intent for Moving Company Keywords Sample
In terms of what we just discussed, please take a look at the image from a presentation I regularly give to moving companies and let’s discuss them one at a time. For our sample, we are optimizing for a moving company in San Francisco, CA. We will discuss these in weakest to strongest for a moving company.
San Francisco 49ers – Navigational Intent or Informational Intent?
If someone types in this keyword, are they looking for the official website of the 49er, Or are they looking for information on the football team? You can’t really tell from the keyword so this keyword could either have navigational intent or informational intent.
However, this keyword even if we could rank for it isn’t going to help us very much. Indeed it is about the city that we are trying to serve but the search intent of the keyword has nothing to do with moving now or into the future. It does have a very high search volume, so if we did ring for it we would have a lot of users but they would not turn into potential moving customers.
Things to do in San Francisco/Cost of Living – Informational Intent
Someone typing this keyword has informational intent, they are looking for answers. Inside of this keyword search, you really can’t say that they’re looking for a moving company, in fact, you might say that they aren’t at this time. But think about this, isn’t it feasible to say that a decent percent of people researching what there is to do in a city or how much it costs to live there are considering moving to that City at some time in the future? We know for a fact content that ranks for these types of keywords does produce real moving customers.
How to find an apartment in San Francisco – Informational Intent
This keyword also has informational intent as they are looking for answers. It is also feasible to assume that this person is going to move since they are searching for a new home. In addition, they’re probably going to move relatively soon. This would be an excellent keyword to optimize for and is slightly stronger than the previous keyword because it has a higher chance of producing a moving customer in the future and frankly, in the near future.
Moving to San Francisco/Living in San Francisco – Informational Intent
This is another keyword phrase that has informational intent. These are high-volume keywords and people using them are clearly going to be moving. You want to rank high in search for these types of keywords.
San Francisco movers/San Francisco long distance movers – Commercial Intent
Everyone recognizes these keywords as extremely desirable for their website. They are the most difficult keywords to rank for by far, And also the most expensive if you are doing paid search.
Search Volume in Moving Company Keywords
Search volume is the number of searches performed for any keyword, per month. We always prefer a higher search volume but….
Remember we just discussed search intent above. So now you will understand that initially what is more important is search intent. Who cares what the volume is if the search intent doesn’t lead now or in the future to needing a moving company?
So let’s assume you are looking at keywords and you have identified ones that lead to the need for a mover at some point. Then, yes, the volume becomes important. To determine the volume you are going to need an SEO tool like Ahrefs or SEMrush. We use both regularly.
Take a look at New York City, using some of what you have learned so far.
There is a monthly search volume for “new york moving companies” of almost 3,000. That is huge! But also notice that the KD or keyword difficulty to rank for that phrase is 62, which means it is extremely difficult. If you look at some of the other high intent keywords, “cost of living in New York”, “moving to New York” and “living in New York”, all of which implies the need for a mover now or soon, the volume is 7,000 per month and all of them have much lower keyword difficulty.
What we want you to take from this is that you can have a strategy where you grow your business by figuring out a list of high search intent keywords mixed with lower keyword difficulty. There are literally hundreds of high intent moving company keywords that most people simply ignore or aren’t aware of. (Don’t worry, we ARE aware of them!)
Sample Common Moving Company Keywords List
Just to give you an idea of volumes and keyword difficulties for some common keywords for movers, here you go. Keep in mind these are just samples and you need to put together a list that is specific for the city/areas you serve. In this table, the CPC is the “cost per click” or how much you would pay if you want to appear for that keyword in paid search, as opposed to the free, organic SEO search.
Keyword | Search Volume | Keyword Difficulty Index | CPC | Competition |
---|---|---|---|---|
moving companies | 110,000 | 66.90 | 21.62 | 0.90 |
moving company | 18,100 | 63.89 | 21.48 | 0.89 |
long distance moving companies | 9,900 | 61.44 | 24.38 | 0.88 |
moving and storage companies | 9,900 | 61.81 | 16.56 | 0.71 |
moving services | 9900 | 66.42 | 15.10 | 0.79 |
moving companies atlanta | 8,100 | 61.16 | 18.46 | 0.81 |
moving companies near me | 6,600 | 68.71 | 20.97 | 0.92 |
local moving companies | 4,400 | 62.75 | 20.09 | 0.88 |
cross country moving companies | 4,400 | 69.21 | 26.05 | 0.79 |
moving and storage service | 4400 | 58.55 | 14.88 | 0.12 |
cheap moving companies | 3,600 | 63.09 | 15.81 | 0.93 |
moving services near me | 3600 | 0.00 | 13.76 | 0.84 |
moving companies nj | 2,900 | 62.16 | 18.03 | 0.58 |
moving companies chicago | 2,900 | 58.45 | 17.26 | 0.79 |
moving companies nyc | 2,900 | 63.89 | 24.60 | 0.87 |
best moving companies | 2,900 | 79.42 | 19.01 | 0.85 |
interstate moving companies | 2,400 | 63.53 | 22.70 | 0.80 |
national moving companies | 2,400 | 69.50 | 19.47 | 0.84 |
best long distance moving companies | 2,400 | 73.92 | 24.40 | 0.88 |
moving companies denver | 1,900 | 59.19 | 19.49 | 0.79 |
commercial moving company | 1,900 | 46.23 | 27.91 | 0.22 |
international moving companies | 1,900 | 59.94 | 17.64 | 0.75 |
moving companies prices | 1,600 | 67.23 | 17.63 | 0.91 |
moving truck companies | 1,600 | 72.44 | 8.91 | 0.84 |
moving company reviews | 1,600 | 77.23 | 9.54 | 0.82 |
moving companies dallas | 1,600 | 60.28 | 20.73 | 0.78 |
moving companies charlotte nc | 1,600 | 61.16 | 18.86 | 0.80 |
moving company quotes | 1,600 | 66.86 | 19.21 | 0.84 |
moving companies austin | 1,300 | 56.35 | 21.93 | 0.79 |
moving companies san diego | 1,300 | 59.10 | 17.36 | 0.76 |
nyc moving companies | 1,300 | 63.89 | 26.45 | 0.67 |
moving companies houston | 1,300 | 73.94 | 17.18 | 0.84 |
moving companies los angeles | 1,300 | 60.36 | 24.86 | 0.83 |
moving companies austin tx | 1,000 | 60.24 | 24.84 | 0.83 |
chicago moving companies | 1,000 | 58.34 | 25.68 | 0.83 |
moving companies miami | 1,000 | 59.18 | 23.10 | 0.89 |
moving companies phoenix | 1,000 | 57.88 | 19.69 | 0.73 |
moving company nyc | 1,000 | 62.41 | 24.46 | 0.86 |
long distance moving company | 1,000 | 61.87 | 25.43 | 0.84 |
moving companies reviews | 1,000 | 70.54 | 15.44 | 0.83 |
united moving company | 1,000 | 63.42 | 8.59 | 0.87 |
moving companies boston | 1,000 | 60.88 | 30.65 | 0.89 |
mayflower moving company | 1,000 | 75.08 | 9.38 | 0.87 |
professional moving service | 880 | 54.30 | 22.48 | 0.55 |
corporate moving service | 880 | 50.64 | 18.22 | 0.06 |
petes moving services | 880 | 75.41 | 12.62 | 0.71 |
moving service cost | 880 | 73.32 | 10.95 | 0.82 |
moving services bay area | 880 | 55.57 | 10.71 | 0.70 |
rv moving service | 880 | 50.62 | 8.92 | 0.94 |
move at&t service | 880 | 85.88 | 8.17 | 0.26 |
pool table moving service | 880 | 53.76 | 7.65 | 0.88 |
little rock moving companies | 880 | 58.86 | 17.28 | 0.37 |
richmond moving companies | 880 | 62.09 | 24.67 | 0.45 |
long distance moving companies prices | 880 | 70.36 | 24.74 | 0.97 |
packing companies for moving | 880 | 61.82 | 9.96 | 0.95 |
moving company logo | 880 | 67.58 | 15.72 | 0.46 |
car moving companies | 880 | 67.56 | 10.39 | 0.88 |
moving companies in houston tx | 880 | 71.49 | 23.40 | 0.67 |
how much do moving companies cost | 880 | 74.77 | 10.08 | 0.93 |
moving company new york | 880 | 63.41 | 17.68 | 0.43 |
long distance moving companies reviews | 880 | 81.22 | 17.79 | 0.81 |
local moving company | 880 | 59.61 | 18.73 | 0.61 |
moving companies tulsa | 880 | 57.13 | 21.42 | 0.79 |
moving storage company | 880 | 58.46 | 19.26 | 0.32 |
moving companies virginia beach va | 880 | 54.37 | 15.75 | 0.58 |
consumer reports moving companies | 880 | 80.29 | 17.17 | 0.90 |
moving companies cheap | 880 | 70.63 | 15.86 | 0.90 |
ny moving companies | 880 | 64.94 | 21.52 | 0.43 |
moving company los angeles | 880 | 59.80 | 23.49 | 0.80 |
american moving company | 880 | 46.36 | 11.24 | 0.83 |
van lines moving company | 880 | 55.72 | 14.87 | 0.58 |
global moving company | 880 | 60.79 | 21.19 | 0.93 |
arizona moving companies | 880 | 63.48 | 17.66 | 0.80 |
moving companies winston salem nc | 880 | 59.40 | 17.40 | 0.52 |
cross country moving companies reviews | 880 | 80.48 | 13.02 | 0.99 |
small moving companies | 880 | 58.16 | 18.22 | 0.80 |
local moving and storage companies | 880 | 54.86 | 19.39 | 0.85 |
moving companies in the bronx | 880 | 62.91 | 20.72 | 0.82 |
safe moving company | 880 | 44.71 | 14.53 | 0.87 |
charleston moving companies | 880 | 62.17 | 18.32 | 0.46 |
moving company prices | 880 | 70.35 | 17.37 | 0.91 |
moving companies milwaukee | 880 | 61.25 | 9.96 | 0.75 |
indianapolis moving companies | 880 | 59.86 | 10.53 | 0.45 |
ct moving companies | 880 | 57.51 | 19.47 | 0.91 |
moving companies in ct | 880 | 58.73 | 21.08 | 0.86 |
king moving company | 880 | 67.85 | 16.03 | 0.73 |
moving companies lafayette la | 880 | 58.35 | 10.75 | 0.68 |
lucas brothers moving company | 880 | 86.25 | 0.00 | 0.06 |
moving companies columbia sc | 880 | 60.53 | 17.39 | 0.55 |
kansas city moving companies | 880 | 60.17 | 17.22 | 0.58 |
moving companies tampa fl | 880 | 61.80 | 15.28 | 0.59 |
moving companies in orange county | 880 | 51.82 | 20.73 | 0.86 |
moving truck rental companies | 880 | 75.86 | 6.48 | 0.87 |
moving companies va | 880 | 57.02 | 16.21 | 0.76 |
moving companies ct | 880 | 59.28 | 18.63 | 0.84 |
new orleans moving companies | 880 | 54.16 | 8.72 | 0.41 |
san francisco moving company | 880 | 58.68 | 17.78 | 0.69 |
moving companies redding ca | 880 | 55.17 | 14.49 | 0.80 |
chapel hill moving company | 880 | 64.01 | 10.86 | 0.67 |
moving companies tampa | 880 | 65.52 | 20.94 | 0.88 |