Background 

A packing and moving service partnered with The HOTH in 2025 for our specialized link-building expertise. 

They operate in a cutthroat local SEO landscape where authority signals often decide rankings, so a strong backlink profile is an absolute necessity. 

While the campaign is still in its early stages, we delivered 210 high-quality backlinks from 39 credible, niche-adjacent domains. 

This led to a 39% increase in traffic value, 21 new high-intent keywords in the top 3, and 36 AI citations across multiple AI search platforms. 

What tactics did we use?

Our link-building campaign focused on quality over quantity, and we were careful not to over-optimize core location pages, which can be an unexpected pitfall. 

This case demonstrates the importance of link-building for local SEO, which is often overlooked in favor of GBP management and generating reviews. 

Read on to learn how we accelerated our client’s authority in just a few months without risking penalties.  

The Challenge

Local moving companies don’t exactly have it easy when marketing their services through search engines. 

Regardless of location, they face immense competition from local competitors and national chains that often have DR scores of 50 and above. 

This makes it extremely challenging for moving services to rank for crucial local keywords like ‘moving companies Kansas City.’ 

Authority gaps are often the biggest hurdle moving companies have to clear in order to gain top 3 organic visibility and AI citations. 

Without a strong backlink profile, it can be nearly impossible to outrank established competitors. 

At the same time, link-building is a specialized skill that takes expertise and infrastructure to pull off, which is something most moving companies don’t have (understandably so). 

Other challenges included:

• Relevance struggles

  Links from generic directories and forum comments don’t move the needle. Moving companies need niche-adjacent links from credible real estate blogs, home service hubs, and local lifestyle sites to signal true expertise. This is what modern search engines and AI systems want to see.

• Velocity lag

  Accruing links organically without any outside help can take literal years. This doesn’t cut it when you need to gain authority quickly so that your business can generate leads and sales online.

• Over-optimization traps

  Another challenge is overloading the homepage and core service pages with too many backlinks. This can trigger penalties, so the smart move is to diversify and build links to location-specific service pages as well.

We got to work developing a strategy that would highlight the client’s expertise as fast as possible while avoiding penalties.   

The Strategy 

To build the kind of authority the client needed, our team used a combination of:

• Earned natural links

  These are backlinks that appear within the body of an article and are not paid or self-promotional.

• Premium links

  Premium link placements appear on credible, niche-adjacent websites with high DR scores.

• Link insertions

  We carefully selected domains where it made sense to insert backlinks to our client’s moving service pages.

Originally, we focused on the client’s core location pages in Denver and Kansas City. 

To avoid over-optimization, we shifted to building links for their service-based moving pages, like piano moving and packing services. 

This ensured that we safely built cluster authority without risking any penalties or causing any unwanted attention. 

Ultimately, we were able to build 210 backlinks from 39 unique referring domains. 

The Results 

The backlinks did their job and boosted the client’s authority, traffic, and keywords. 

Their organic traffic value shot up by 39% to $12.6k, providing a timely ROI for the client. 

They also started ranking for 21 new keywords in the top 3, many of which are in the #1 position. Overall, they have 97 top 3 keywords. 

Our efforts also paved the way for 39 new AI citations, which are crucial for capitalizing on zero-click searches and raising brand awareness. 

All-in-all, the client received the timely authority boost they desperately needed, and acquired some AI visibility as a bonus. 

The campaign is still early, so the client’s performance is bound to continue to improve in the coming months. 

Want to Improve Your Authority on Google and AI Search Tools?

If you need expert help with your SEO, book a free call with our team to develop a winning strategy that addresses every one of your needs.  

Also, don’t wait to try out HOTH X to experience the type of hands-free SEO results the client in this case study enjoyed.   

Book a Call Now 

The Proof 

Here’s the client’s backlink profile after they began seeing results:

The improvement to the client’s organic traffic value:

Crucial keywords ranking in the #1 position:

The AI citations earned during the campaign: