If you’ve found this article, you’re probably in one of two common situations.
- You’re building a self storage facility, or have just completed construction, and you’re trying to create a free Google My Business Listing.
- You have an established self storage facility, and have recently been made aware that you have no Google My Business Listing.
GMB Listings are an excellent opportunity to promote your self storage facility and are a critical part of managing your search engine optimization. If you can use Gmail, you have all the skills necessary to effectively use the GMB Listings service.
The best part of the service is it’s free.
Getting Started
You’ll want to go to https://www.google.com/business and clicking Manage Now as seen pictured in this screenshot.
Enter Your Facility’s Name
Once you log in or create a Google account, you will be asked to enter the storage facility’s name into a form like this one. Even if the facility hasn’t moved beyond the planning phase, you can still enter the name you’ve chosen. Google will search its records and attempt to find a matching business listing. Has the business changed names at any point in the past? You may have to enter a previous name or the street address to claim an existing listing.
Creating a New GMB Listing for a Self Storage Facility
If you’re attempting to create an altogether new listing, once you enter the storage facility’s name, you will see an option to “Create a business with this name” click on that option to proceed.
Adding a Location
Google will next ask you whether or not you want to add a physical location where customers may visit.
Adding a Street Address
You will need to enter a street address to verify your listing. This can be tricky for facilities in the planning or construction phase. In the past, we’ve seen self storage owners confirm their street address with their municipality, and request that any mail for that address be held at the post office until they can receive it on-site.
Critical Note:
The location section is not always straight-forward in self storage. Many of our customers have an office in one location and units at one or more other addresses. Do you list the office location or the units in this form? Generally speaking, we recommend using the address for the unit location, not the office. Here’s why.
When a self storage searcher is looking for storage units, the location of the units is usually the primary factor, not the location of the facility’s office. Accurately describing where the units are located will result in more
If you list the office as the location, and your units happen to be closer to them than the office, Google may conclude that your business is too far away. In this instance, a competitor who accurately listed where the units are located is chosen by Google to display to the searcher. Conversely, if your office is closer to a searcher and Google does display your listing, they will call or visit your website, realize your actual units are across town and move on to a competitor.
Checking for Duplicate Listings
Google will likely try to recommend a local business with a similar name and nearby address. This is where you can catch a listing a previous owner made or one that was added by a good Samaritan who noticed you didn’t have a listing. If the recommendations are definitely not your facility, select “This doesn’t match” and click “Next.”
Serving Customers Outside of This Location
Valet Storage is still very much in the niche startup phase in our industry, but portable storage unit rentals will benefit from this feature. The overwhelming majority of self storage facilities can just select the option “No, I don’t” and click “Next.” This can always be changed down the road.
Choosing Your Business Category
You will need to enter Self Storage as “Self-Storage” with the hyphen to find the appropriate category in this screen. Once you’ve selected that, click “Next” to move on.
Enter Contact Information
Enter the contact information for your facility. If you don’t have a website yet, now is the time to set one up. Websites work with your GMB Listing to promote your facility, generate leads, and contribute to your digital curb appeal. Syrasoft builds high-quality self storage websites and offers search engine optimization services. We also assist our website customers with their GMB Listing setup. If this sounds like a tedious task, feel free to give us a call and see how we can help your digital curb appeal.
If you don’t have a website now, but plan to get one, just click “I don’t need a website,” you can always add one later.
Almost Done
You’re almost there! This screen is simply explaining the benefits of going through the Google My Business verification process. In short, verifying your GMB Listing means you can update the listing quickly and easily.
Verifying Your Listing
The final step in this process is proving to Google that you’re a real business. More often than not, the first method of verification allowed is a postcard with a pin-code sent to the facility. This can take up to two weeks for the postcard to arrive but typically requires about five business days. This helps Google verify that you are in fact a representative of the self storage facility itself and not a competitor up to no good
Enter your Contact’s name and click Mail on the form to complete the verification process.
Congratulations!
In about a week you will receive a postcard with a pin-code on the back. Return to https://www.google.com/business to enter the code and begin managing your Google My Business Listing!