By David Lucas
Many self-storage operators have developed their own websites and perhaps established Facebook and Twitter accounts, however, maintaining effective marketing channels and Internet visibility is becoming more challenging at the current speed of business.
Managers simply don’t have the time and energy to create consistent content and visuals across these platforms because they are busy running their facilities.
It can be cost-prohibitive for some companies to hire a full-time marketing person to keep up with the demands of producing website blogs, social media content, and other creative efforts designed to attract consumers searching for storage on the Internet.
To help owner/operators take advantage of the most relevant marketing channels, MiniCo has created two search engine optimization (SEO) products that address multiple media. A variety of plans within the SEO products make the choice effective and affordable for operators of all sizes.
MiniCo-powered SEO can increase the quality and quantity of website traffic through local search engine results.
MiniCo employs professional journalists, public relations specialists, and communications experts to produce creative and consistent content for websites and social media. Not only do these writers understand the requirements and parameters of Google’s platforms, they also have extensive knowledge about the self-storage industry and utilize the most effective marketing strategies.
“MiniCo is leveraging our four decades of self-storage experience and marketing expertise to help solve facility operators’ biggest challenges of maintaining market relevance in the quickly changing online world,” says Poppy Behrens, publisher of Mini-Storage Messenger. “We do all the heavy lifting to relieve owners and managers from the burden of producing meaningful content designed to drive their listings up the first page of Google and other search engines.”
Introducing MiniCo Local SEO
Google has provided businesses with a new platform to boost their visibility on the Internet. With Google My Business (GMB), facilities can list their brand name, address, phone number, and hours of operation. Plus, companies can now include posts, reviews, promotions, events, photos, and videos.
The more operators use these features to promote their business, the more likely potential customers will engage online, and ultimately the company’s information will appear in search rankings.
GMB/Google Maps is a largely untapped resource that most companies may not fully understand and utilize. MiniCo has launched a new product that allows owner/operators to take advantage of this online platform by optimizing and ranking a facility’s GMB listing.
MiniCo Local SEO engages its social media and GMB expertsto post high quality content on Google My Business and manage reviews on more than 30 online sites.
Google now displays only three companies at the top of its search results to better serve mobile users, so it’s critical to get your GMB listing to show up in the 3-pack display. Google considers numerous factors in the make-up of the display, and MiniCo Local SEO’s communications professionals understand these components and work tirelessly to drive your listing to the top of the search results.
Since proximity and relevance to the user are important to Google, Local SEO assures the completeness and accuracy of your GMB listing along with the quality and quantity of reviews and Google Posts.
Local SEO also manages a company’s identity and reputation on Google. MiniCo oversees your GMB listing information for accuracy not only on Google, but also on Apple Maps, Bing, Yelp, Facebook, and other Internet sites.
Google Posts show up in your company’s Knowledge Panel on the right side of the Google page. MiniCo creates professionally written posts with a high quality image and call-to-action every week for the GMB listing.
Local SEO responds to reviews on Internet sites—both positive and negative. “Many companies ignore negative reviews, but more and more consumers look to see how businesses resolve complaints,” says Claudia Martinez, MiniCo’s circulation and advertising sales executive. “By ignoring negative reviews, companies leave the impression they don’t care.”
Google launched a feature called Questions and Answers allowing potential customers to post questions for a business. While this feature is a great way to engage with consumers, there is a caveat: Anyone can ask a question and others outside the company can provide an answer.
That means if a business is not monitoring Questions and Answers, they can’t control the conversation. Local SEO monitors and responds to Questions and Answers, ensuring that any incorrect information is flagged.
More and more consumers seek information in the answer boxes of GMB listings and frequently bypass the company’s website altogether. MiniCo Local SEO ensures that your listing is accurate and all reviews are addressed properly.
Social Advantage Offers 3 Affordable Packages
SEO Social Advantage from MiniCo can energize your social presence on Google Plus, Facebook, and Twitter.
Google is able to make connections between a company’s social page, website, and followers using content created on Google Plus (Google+). MiniCo’s team creates high-quality content that’s sorted into relevant collections, and then posted to be validated by users. This process allows Social Advantage to “teach” Google more about a company.
The more social interactions these Google+ posts receive on content relevant to users’ searches, the more likely the facility is to rank higher in Google search results.
MiniCo SEO Social Advantage:
- Optimizes your Google+ profile to best shape social users’ perception of your business.
- Creates long-form posts with a high-quality image on a posting schedule of one or more times per week, depending on the plan selected.
- Sorts posts into relevant collections on Google+ and syndicates the posts to Facebook and Twitter.
- Follows people on your behalf who already engage with posts containing your keywords and hashtags.
- Sends managers monthly reports on social media and search ranking progress.
“Social Advantage actively engages with these followers online through posts and researching for likes and relevant users, and links directly to the client’s website,” says Martinez. “This function works across the board with desktops, Google Maps, Google Plus, and Facebook, and we can move the content to all social platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter.”
SEO Social Advantage offers three packages, depending on the size and needs of facility owners:
• Gold: This package is designed to fit medium to large clients and comes with monthly SEO ranking reports. Gold includes 12 custom posts per month, five relevant hashtags and targeted keywords, follows relevant users, syndication to Facebook and Twitter, plus additional features.
• Silver: This package fits small clients and includes eight custom posts per month, along with similar features to the Gold product.
• Bronze: This fits small clients and includes four custom posts per month and allows special events and a call-to-action to be highlighted on Google’s Knowledge Panel, along with other features.
The same content placed on Google+ can be copied to Facebook, Twitter, and client website blogs to maximize effectiveness.
Based on experience with other self-storage clients, MiniCo’s SEO offerings have shown to produce significant increases in followers, shares, comments, posts, views, clicks, and visits to generate new business within 45-90 days.
MiniCo-powered SEO products help owner/operators maximize their online presence for bottom-line growth.
Company: MiniCo
Products: Local SEO / SEO Social Advantage
E-mail: Claudia.Martinez@minico.com
Telephone: 800.528.1056 / 602.678.3526
Web: www.ministoragemessenger.com