Moving company landing page: where quotes stop

A person moving next month searches for movers on a phone, types two addresses in the same metro area, and picks a date three weeks out. The page asks whether the move is local or long distance, using a cut-off the visitor cannot check from memory. If they choose the wrong side, the form says it cannot quote their move and links to a page with only a phone number. Others meet the inventory first, a room-by-room list with boxes for a piano, a treadmill and a garage shelf.

• Does the page say which moves are local and which are long distance, in miles or in a plain example?
• Does a local move reach a quote form, or does it land on a page with no form?
• Can a visitor describe belongings by room and by big item, without a box for every object?
• Does the date picker say why a date is unavailable, such as a fully booked week?

Many moving pages ask whether a move is local or long distance before they show a form. The question sounds simple, but the cut-off is the company's own rule, and a visitor rarely knows it. A move a few miles across a city line can be local under one company's rule and long distance under another's. If the page does not say where the line falls, a visitor picks by guess, and a wrong guess sends them to a page that cannot quote them.

You cannot see this from inside, because you know where the line sits. Test it from both sides. Enter a pair of addresses you know are close together, and a pair you know are far apart, and note the page each one reaches. If a close pair lands on a page without a form, the cause is the routing rule, not the visitor.

The inventory step is the second place a mover stops. Many forms ask the visitor to tick each room and each big item from a list, such as a piano, a treadmill or a garage shelf. A visitor who has not walked through the apartment yet cannot know whether the list covers a bookcase, a chest freezer or a bike.

Look at the step the way a visitor does. Count how many boxes you ask them to tick before the form shows a price range or a next step. Then check whether an unusual item, such as a hot tub or a grand piano, has a line to type into. If the visitor can finish the step with a rough description, the quote can still happen.

Send one simulated visitor from your homepage with this task: get a quote for a two-bedroom move across town next month. The visitor is a person on a phone with two addresses in the same metro area and a date three weeks away. Put the rough size of the apartment in the visitor profile, not the task, so the inventory meets the visitor the way a real mover would. Leave the addresses out of the task and let the visitor type made-up ones.

The run follows the visitor through the address step, the local or long-distance question, the inventory and the date picker. It stops at a text code, a card payment or a Google sign-in, and the report names the step. If the run stops on the local or long-distance question, reword it with a mileage example, then run the same pair of addresses again.

Why visitors leave a page

Adding a route, a new service area or a seasonal rate can move the local and long-distance split, and a busy month can close the date picker for every visitor. Rerun the same pair of addresses after each routing change, and check the date picker again at the start of each busy season.