Almost everybody turns to the internet to gather valuable personal, social and economic information. These days, as long as you have a computer or smartphone along with a stable internet connection, your access to instant information is just a few clicks away. So it comes as no surprise that, according to a recent survey, 83.3% of North Americans use the internet every day and 79% goes online to shop.
The internet also plays a major role on the success of a business. It allows business owners to tap a wider and more diverse market instantly and costs much lower compared to the traditional way of advertising. Aside from these, the success of online marketing campaigns are easier to measure. Search Engine Optimization (SEO), social networking and online advertisements are considered the basic elements of an effective and legitimate marketing strategy. This applies to all businesses especially those that are located on local communities – like self-storage.
Data shows that 50% of the consumers who does a local search visit the store within a day. The growing number of those who rely on the internet has prompted popular search engines like Google and Bing as well as Yellow Pages in improving their local search platforms. Google Places has Instant search that shows pertinent local search results in no time.
Before the existence of local searches, self-storage owners were not too concerned about expanding their online exposure. This perception has changed as many of these self-storage marketers became proficient in local search strategies that brought more organic traffic both online and offline. Self-storage marketers nowadays find the Internet as a reliable source for customers as it is more cost effective compared to the traditional way of marketing and it is much easier to target self-storage leads. So the need to be an expert local search marketer is critical to have an optimized web presence.
There are two options in becoming an effective local search marketer:
One is through Paid Search Engine Marketing. This means that you have pay for advertisements that are on the sponsored listings or partner sites every time the ad is clicked (PPC or Pay-Per-Click) or when you ads are displayed (CPI or Cost per Impression). Some find this option complicated as well as costly.
The second one is the popular SEO or Search Engine Optimization. Most marketers prefer this unpaid strategy as this results to better organic traffic compared to the paid one (SEM). This applies various techniques such as the use of rich keywords, metadata, content etc. on the website or webpage to increase online visibility thereby having a top rank on the search results.
Local search optimization requires a lot of time, focus, effort and it is really a never ending process but you will never be sorry once you see radical increase in your ROI as well as your customers.
Since SEO is the trend now, a lot of web and SEO marketing businesses have sprouted on the internet offering their services; highlighting their ability to adapt and respond to the ever changing search engine ranking. Self-storage owners are now faced with the challenge of finding the best SEO or Web Marketing company that will be the perfect fit for their facility.
Let me share with you the 4 attributes that you should look for in choosing the best SEO provider:
Experience – The SEO firm must have a portfolio showcasing their expertise by the quantity of their relevant successes.
Standards – The SEO firm should not apply Black-hat SEO techniques which are unacceptable and manipulative SEO practices just to provide quicker results. Storage owners must be vigilant in making sure that the SEO provider that they hire are not using this method as this can get them blacklisted.
Transparency – A good SEO company will give value for your money. They employ a number of people to do web design, content writing and link builders which is impossible to be accomplished just by one person.
Honesty – Watch out for providers that offer instant success on your search ranking because there really is not guaranteed result since SEO is an ongoing process.
Maximize the use of the Internet in exploring the best SEO provider for your storage business. Throwing the right set of questions together with the attributes that I mentioned earlier will help you find a firm that fit your requirements.
