You may well have wondered what exactly SEO is and why is it important for a self-storage website. Search engine optimization is the digital marketing practice focused on making your company more visible to users who search for self storage units near them. There are many different ways to improve or optimize parts of your website that will improve how it ranks in search engine results, therefore making it more likely to be seen by potential customers in your area.
Your website’s content, user experience, and a variety of technical factors affect how Google and other search engines decide to view and rank it. Optimizing everything you can is the best way to increase the quality of your website. This includes doing what you can to make your self storage site faster, more user-friendly, and as easy as possible to navigate.
Luckily for you, there are many factors that can directly be controlled on your website and that also directly impact how Google ranks your content. This is possible even for those of us who aren’t digital experts, and it can certainly help self storage companies!
In order to help potential prospects find your self storage services, you have to make sure that your website is easily found by those who need you. This is where SEO comes in! Here are four tips for growing the SEO of your self storage website from inMotion Real Estate Media.
1. Optimize for local search
Using local keywords on your website will help search engines like Google know to associate your self storage website with a certain geographical location. This will help your future customers find your services in their area. For example, if you run a self storage service in Nashville, Tennessee, you’ll need to incorporate the words “self storage in Nashville, Tennessee” onto your website – in a natural and useful way, of course.
2. Optimize meta descriptions and page titles for search engines
This sounds more complicated than it is! Simply put, a meta description is the text that appears on the search engine results page when a user searches for one of your locations. This is completely editable.
Every page of your website should include an optimized page title and meta description. The meta description is what users see when they find a page of your site in Google search listings, and this really affects who clicks through your link and onto your webpage.
Your meta description should be clear and easy to read, with details about what the user will find if they click through to your page. Try to use the allotted 160 characters, and don’t forget to use your chosen keywords again here as well. Finally, your page title should clearly describe what the page is about, and again, it should use your relevant keywords (i.e. “Nashville Tennessee self storage facility”) at least once within the characters that you are allowed. By the time you incorporate the storage facility location and your brand name, you’ll probably be pretty close to your limit.
3. Manage your online reputation
One of the greatest qualities of the current online life we lead is the ability to look up reviews for basically everything, from restaurants and local gyms to website designers and self-storage facilities. Potential customers to your self storage service will want to know what type of experiences your previous customers have had. And while one bad review isn’t necessarily going to turn them away, negative reviews can have a cumulative impact on your online presence and reputation. This means that managing your reputation in real-life and online is incredibly important when it comes to attracting new local customers. Do this by staying up to date on all local listings and keeping up with your reviews, wherever they may be – social media, Yelp, Google reviews, etc.
4. Level up on social media
Social media isn’t dead, and business owners must recognize the utility of the various platforms when it comes to boosting their online presence. Managing a page on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, et al. can be a time-consuming task, without a doubt. However, social media provides another channel for search engines and customers to find you. It allows you to engage on a personal level with current and future customers, while also building credibility and local visibility. Aim for a consistent presence, particularly in local groups, but don’t spread yourself too thin.
