Search Engine Marketing


What is Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing or SEM for short encompasses many facets including local business results or local search, organic or natural search results, paid search or pay-per-click, reputation management, 3rd party marketing, and others. But for the self storage industry (our specialty) we focus on what we call the ‘Big-3′: Local Search, Organic Search, and Paid Search.

 

What is Local Search

Local Search is the name we give the local listings and map search engines offer at the top of many search engine searches. When the search engine thinks you may be looking for a local service such as a local bike repair shop, local restaurant, or in our case a local storage facility it will produce the local listing complete with a map. Below is a screencapture of what a local search for storage in Sacramento, CA looks like:

Local Search has become one of the most, if not the most, important search marketing opportunities presented to a self storage facility.

To learn more about local search visit our Local Search for Self Storage page here on Marketing 4 Storage.

 

What is Organic Search

Organic Search, sometimes called Natural Listings or Classic Search, is what we’ve come to associate Google with over the years. Before Paid Search and before Local Search Google and others have utilized Organic Search. This is the area below the Local Listings and to the left of the Paid Search. The Organic Search for storage in Sacramento, CA looks like this:

Getting listed within the Organic Search is important for a variety of reasons many of which we cover on our Organic Search for Self Storage page here on Marketing 4 Storage.

 

What is Pay-Per-Click or Paid Search

Paid Search is often know as PPC or Pay-Per-Click however Google does offer another model other than Pay Per Click so we refer to the Paid Listings as Paid Search. Here the model is simple, you bid for keywords to drive traffic to your site, create ads, setup a budget and go. That’s the theory anyways, in practice it’s far more complicated. There are many benefits of Paid Search including the immediate impact it can have to drive calls to your facility. However, the ROI (Return on Investment) is so heavily dependent on how the campaign is managed that all facilities should have a PPC expert manage their campaigns. Visit our Paid Search for Storage page to learn more about Paid Search and our Services.