If Google still monopolizes over 92.62% of the search engine market, then why aren’t more facility owners using it to advertise their facilities and obtain full occupancy? From Google My Business to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and PPC (Pay-Per-Click), your facility digital landscape in today's world matters, and it could be the reason why your occupancy rates have lowered or why revenue growth has stagnated.
According to Clutch, more than one-third (36%) of small businesses have an SEO strategy and Small Business Trends states that only 43% of small business use Pay-Per-Click advertising. With such a large platform at the disposal of facility owners, and over 72% of the self storage industry still belonging to smaller facility owners, why is such a large platform being underutilized? Is your facility tapping into the business benefits of the digital age? Read on to see what digital marketing strategies your facility may be missing out on.
According to Internet Live Stats, Google now processes over 40,000 search queries every second, which translates to over 3.5 billion searches per day, and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide. Gone are the days when a potential tenant opens the Yellow Pages for something they need. Nowadays all inquiries go through search engines and if your facility is not searchable, it will be extremely difficult to be found online.
Not having an online presence can result in lower occupancy, discounted rental rates and loss of revenue over time. One of the ways to excel on Google is to create a Google My Business account. Creating a Google My Business account not only helps tenants find your facility with ease, but it also helps give your facility the online presence you need to be successful.
According to Google, Google My Business is a tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. By verifying and editing your business information, you can both help customers find you and tell them the story of your business. Giving potential tenants a healthy online experience is key to success and Google My Business can help facilitate that. The Storage Group’s Google My Business Elite package is a great way to get started with GMB.
When it comes to vital parts of a facility owners digital landscape, SEO is a service we highly recommend. Before we get into why SEO is so important, let's discuss what it is and what it can do for your business. According to Yoast, Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing a website for the search engines such as Google in such a way it'll appear in a high position in search engine results pages.
A part of the SEO process is using keywords, which are words and phrases that best describe what your content is about. For example, if you are searching for big data in the self storage industry and Google “big data takes over self storage” items will show up on the page that are related to your search as accurately as possible, seen in the example below.
Optimizing your content for SEO makes it easy for tenants to find your facility. According to Optinmonster, Google uses the information in the content to determine what content is relevant to a particular search query, and how the page should rank in searches for a particular term. Although SEO may seem intimidating, it doesn’t have to be. Hiring a professional SEO expert to increase the organic search engine rankings for your website can make the process easy and fun. When choosing an SEO company, be sure to select a company with an in-house SEO team, and a company that is specific to your industry for best results.
PPC stands for pay-per-click, according to Wordstream, pay-per-click is a model of internet marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked on. Essentially, it's a way of buying visits to your site, rather than attempting to “earn” those visits organically (unpaid search). Search engine advertising is one of the most popular forms of PPC. PPC ads are a cost-effective way to drive traffic to your website, no matter what your budget is. Creating a customized PPC strategy can maximize the success of your facility and accelerate brand awareness, creating a springboard for your facility to have full occupancy on a consistent basis. When you’re searching for a company to work with be sure you work with a company that is a Google Partner, being a Google Partner means that we deliver quality customer service, offer a competitive advantage to clients, and have received training to help grow businesses online.
In 2019, Statista reported that 77% of the United States had a social networking profile. There are over 5.6 billion searches on Google per day, making an online presence crucial to the success of small facilities. Finding success online will lead to greater occupancy and revenue for facility owners. Start small, reach out to your industry’s leading digital marketing provider and discuss the different options that may be able to help your business thrive. Always be sure to search for a company that does not outsource their SEO and ensure that they keep you up to date with your success. 
