You just learned about a new opportunity for your career in a new city. You decided today you are going to accept it. Now what? You have never been to your newly chosen home and have no friends already there to give you moving company recommendations. If you have ever been stuck figuring out “Where are movers near me that are good and affordable?” Then you are reading the right article. Knowing how to find a good moving company begins with finding the right questions to ask. Start with these 4 steps to create and chip away until you have the best fit for your move. Find out whether your next moving company is reliable when you need them to be before you sign your name on the contract.H2: 1. Look at your Local Search Pack for “Movers Near Me.”You might be very familiar with search inquiries on Google or equivalent search engines. Despite how simple and obvious it may seem typing in a simple inquiry like “moving companies near me” provides oodles of information. First, you learn what businesses are in proximity to your location. When you look at your search results a small map will appear with 3 different businesses labeled A, B and C respectively. This is called the “Local Search Pack.” When you click on “More Places” below to the three horizontal lines you will be taken to a larger map with a list of businesses on the left-hand column. These are the local businesses that appeared for your inquiry based around your current location. This is called a proximity marketing search. That means the only inquiries that are shown to you a higher relevancy placed on location compared to other factors Google normally places higher value on for their organic keyword searches. So, if you know your location or your address you can physically see the moving companies near your actual location. 2. Expand your search on Customer review sites (Yelp, BBB, Facebook?) Google isn’t the only place you can look for businesses in your local areas. Business review websites like Yelp and BBB.org (Better Business Bureau) also have a lot of insight into a great selection for a local moving company in your new home. Business Listing Sites usually are created by the business owners and feature an assortment of reviews and frequently asked questions that customers have for the business owners.Just type in the industry category for the product or service you need (i.e. movers) and add a city to base the search around. Like Google, BBB.org and Yelp can also perform proximity searches by using your “Current Location” when they ask for your city. (Note: BBB.org and Yelp.com will request you to allow them to “Know your location” before proceeding.) Hit search and you might see some different results from those you found on Google.It is important to add companies to your list that have good ratings (above 4 stars), quantity of reviews (more than 10) and complete information (store hours, location, phone number etc.) If all of these are applicable to the moving companies on your list you have a great starting point for quality local moving companies near you. 3. “What’s the service area for local moving companies near me”? At this point you have probably looked through a few moving company websites and have found some contenders for the moving company you want to give your business to. Since we only need one moving company to perform the moving job it looks like we must remove a few names from the list. The best way to begin this process is by confirming the business locations of your prospective business. Some businesses purposefully set up a “location” on GMB and hence on Google Maps that isn’t there. The best way to verify this (besides physically going to their business) is by confirming their locations on their website.Make sure to verify the movers you are considering reside at the location they do by checking the bottom footer for an address. Additionally service-based industries like moving companies have a list of cities they perform work for called a Service Areas (Link: https://www.myguysmovingrva.com/areas-served/) page. Confirming that their service area is inside of your new office or business may sound simple, but it saves a lot of time and effort down the road since it reveals two important pieces of information. It is outside of their normal service area so the delivery of materials and response time will be delayed by distance. This moving company has incomplete online information and might have other claims on their website that might not hold true when you reach out to a company representative. 4. Specialty Movers Near Me Learning about service areas isn’t the only piece of information you will want to uncover about your prospect list of moving companies. One of the most crucial pieces of information you need for a moving company is what services they can perform. If your family or business has any furniture or possessions that require extra care to move like pool table slates or bulky and heavy like hot tubs than you will need to notify your moving company ahead of time. If you want to avoid going through multiple calls of asking movers if they can transport your jacuzzi to your new home then look at a Specialty Moves a FAQ or Services Available page. Another way to do this is by looking up the exact item that will cause the most grief to move and basing your search around that item. For example, if you were moving out of an apartment with a gun safe inside it you would need to note that item specifically instead of calling and asking multiple movers if they can move your gun safe search on Google “gun safe movers near me.” That way Google will handle the difficult work of sorting moving companies, near you that can actually move your gun safe from your third-floor apartment to your new home.Specialty searches that qualify for this kind of search would include: Shed movers near me Piano movers near me Gun safe movers near me Packers and movers near me So make sure to whittle down your list for services performed. Research certain services if you have specialty items. Look at your Local Search Pack for “Movers Near Me.” This function can even be performed for specific searches of how you want to be moved. Tight budget look up “cheap movers near me” or “affordable movers near me.” Try adding different adjectives and descriptive phrases to “movers near me” to find the exact moving company that fits your budget, needs and location.