Competitors are renting units that should be yours. It’s a frustrating reality: potential renters searching for storage nearby are unable to find your facility easily online.
Most people start their search with Google, and if your facility isn't near the top, those clicks, calls, and crucial move-ins are captured by the operator down the street, simply because Google showed them first.
For self-storage owners and managers, this lack of visibility carries a real and painful financial impact.
That lost occupancy isn't just an empty unit for a month; it's recurring revenue that disappears before you ever get a chance to earn it. And when Google consistently favors other facilities in your area, those competitors begin to look more trustworthy, even if the only difference is how well they rank.
There’s good news. Winning back those renters is simpler than you think. With a few focused SEO strategies, you can start winning in search results, strengthen your digital presence, and capture the local renters who are already looking for you.
Many storage operators are trying to improve their online visibility, but still wonder why their facility just isn't showing up in local search results. Here’s the simple answer: Google is confused.
It doesn't have enough clear information to confidently match your facility to the renters searching for storage right in your neighborhood. Several common issues contribute to this problem:
Google’s primary goal is to provide relevant, reliable information for every search query. It’s looking for indicators that make businesses and websites trustworthy.
If you have only a handful of reviews or inconsistent customer feedback, Google has limited proof that real people choose your service. New facilities or locations with a slow review flow and outdated Google Business Profile information look like a digital dead end, weakening your credibility and making Google hesitant to recommend you.
Your website is your virtual leasing office. If unit availability is hidden, pricing is missing, or your content is too generic, Google can't understand what your business is offering.
When your site doesn't reference the specific neighborhoods or unique storage needs your community has, such as RV parking, climate-controlled units, or commercial inventory storage, Google cannot connect you to the highly specific local searches renters are actually typing.
Large brands expand monthly, which raises the bar for local visibility. Even small differences in relevance or keyword targeting determine who wins the top spot. This constant competition makes it difficult to tell if a ranking drop is a normal traffic fluctuation or a competitive issue you need to address.
To consistently appear in local search results, a facility must prove to Google that it serves real people nearby. For storage facilities, “nearby” typically means a three to five-mile radius. When Google sees strong, consistent signals of relevance and trust, the path to better rankings becomes much clearer.
Improving local visibility starts with understanding one thing: what renters nearby actually need. Most people want fast answers, clear pricing, and a sense of trust before they pick up the phone or book online.
These six strategies help your facility give Google and renters the high-value information they are looking for:
The foundation of local SEO is understanding your audience. Renters search with specific goals: “Do they have a 10x15 unit?” or “Is this near my job?” Your content must reflect these high-intent searches.
Keywords are essential here. This includes referencing nearby neighborhoods, specific local landmarks, common storage needs, and unit types that people in the community care about. Utilize them in prominent places on your site, like section headers (we call these H1s in SEO). Google will crawl your site in search for these keywords to determine if your business is relevant to local queries for self storage.
Your Google Business Profile serves as the facility’s digital storefront. For local SEO, an optimized GBP in the Local Pack is often more valuable than ranking #1 organically.
The Local Pack is the cluster of three business results that appears at the very top of the search results page, specifically when someone searches locally (e.g., "storage units near me").
This high-visibility placement makes it critical for driving local self-storage clicks. The local pack pulls information directly from your Google Business Profile, so optimizing your GBP is the surest way to rank above your competition.
Here’s how to keep your profile pristine and grab the top spot:
Ensure name, address, and phone number (NAP) are accurate
They may seem simple like data points, but these are the three most important pieces of information about your facility on the internet. Google searches high and low to find all the instances of your business name, email address, and phone number across the web, so you need to make sure they all match.
If the data is inconsistent, Google will penalize your site and rank you below your competition. SEO tools like SEMRush are the easiest way to ensure your NAP is listed correctly across all locations.
Use high-quality images of your facility
Add high-quality photos of your property. These visuals are essential for establishing trust with potential renters and demonstrating the facility's current condition right on your profile.
Update your products and services
Use the "Products" or "Services" sections to list the specific unit sizes and types you offer (e.g., 5x5 Climate Controlled, 10x20 Drive-Up). Also, actively monitor the Q&A section and answer questions to manage your listing like a pro.
Reviews play a massive role in both local rankings and renter decision-making. They appear directly on your GBP, and Google uses them as a ranking factor. Plus, a collection positive reviews proves that your facility is trustworthy and delivers high-quality service.
Be proactive: ask for reviews often and respond to all feedback (good and bad) to strengthen your credibility and look more reliable than the competition.
At White Label Storage, we prioritize reviews whenever we start managing a facility. We utilize a few different methods to drive reviews:
1. Run a review campaign that incentives tenants to leave a review within a specific period of time. By creating a timeframe, you're creating urgency, which makes it more likely for tenants to actually leave a review.
2. Use a review automation platform that integrates with your facility management software (FMS). These systems take the work off your plate but still deliver quality reviews. There are a few different options on the market, but we partner with StorageReach.
Once a renter lands on your site, the goal is to help them make a confident choice, not create more questions. Clear photos, detailed location pages, transparent pricing, and simple ways to contact or book online are non-negotiable. If your website makes it difficult to rent or reach the facility, people will leave.
Website performance also plays a critical role in local SEO. Search engines not only want to deliver results that are relevant but also websites that will load quickly and deliver an intuitive user experience. Google refers to website performance as "Core Vitals" which it measures in three major categories:
This metric measures the largest visual element on the page to load so the user can see it. On self storage websites, this often means a big image in the hero section of your website or the unit selector function if it includes images of each unit type.
This Core Vital measures the time it takes for your website to respond to an action taken by a user, e.g., clicking a button, unfurling a dropdown, etc. In essence, this metric indicates how quickly your website responds to what users are asking it to do.
Constantly changes are bad for the user experience, and this metric analyzes any kind of unexpected movement or changes during the loading experience.
These metrics are relatively technical, so we recommend partnering with a self storage marketing firm to optimize how your website runs. Overall, optimizing for these metrics (and improving your local SEO) comes down to minimizing image sizes and reducing the amount of extraneous code on your site. You can check your Core Vitals for free at any time using Google's PageSpeed Insights.
Don't underestimate the power of FAQs. Not only does a good FAQ section on your website provide clarity for your potential renters, but it also encourages readers to spend more time on your page.
While Google has never officially admitted it, SEO experts believe the search engine uses time on page (known as dwell time) as a ranking factor. So if your site isn’t keeping people engaged, Google will be less likely to send traffic there.
Instead of only relying on staff phone calls to answer questions, create a robust, well-structured Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section on your site. By using the exact questions renters ask (like, "Do you offer climate control?" or "What size unit do I need?"), you create valuable content that Google recognizes as high-value and helpful, and boost dwell time from renters on your page.
Search behavior changes over time, and facilities benefit when they pay attention to those trends. Keeping an eye on these evolving trends and features is key to maintaining local visibility:
Self-storage SEO is an ongoing, competitive process. Partnering with a self storage management company, like White Label Storage, allows you to offload the consistent, time-consuming work required to maintain visibility (listing optimization, availability updates, competitive tracking, gathering reviews, etc.) so you can focus on managing your facility.
And you’ll see results faster. We’ve helped hundreds of facilities improve their SEO rankings and drive more rentals from Google. Here’s an example of how we improved Packer Storage’s Ashland, WI facility.
The truth is, small, consistent improvements in self-storage SEO create real momentum. That momentum helps your facility become highly visible to people already searching for storage in your area. As visibility grows, so does occupancy, and those steady gains secure long-term revenue and stronger performance.
The most important step is simply getting started. Each improvement makes it easier for renters to discover the facility and easier for Google to recognize it as a reliable option. With time, those small actions add up to meaningful results.
If you're ready to start earning more rentals from Google search, schedule a free demo with our team to learn how we can take your SEO to the next level.
