Google is notoriously tight-lipped about its algorithm, so when Google’s Search Liaison (Danny Sullivan) gives a presentation on using search, people pay attention.
We pay even more attention when he says the SEO industry has been misunderstanding Google’s guidance for years.
Now that StoragePug’s marketing and content team has devoured the information, here’s what you need to know:
There is no magic SEO formula.
In fact, Danny had a slide that spelled out specifically “Don’t do things for Google.”
The presentation called out specific pieces of SEO advice - such as “Having an author page will help you rank higher!” - and said that this simply isn’t true.
Sites with an author page might do better than those without, but it has nothing to do with the author page itself. And he went on to say that this same principle goes for a lot of different SEO practices!
Instead, Google wants websites and content that focus on what readers, searchers, and customers want.
If you only take one thing from the Google Liaison’s presentation, take his final slide:
Should we abandon SEO and just do whatever we want? Are there no rules anymore?
Not exactly.
Certain parts of self storage SEO are focused on ensuring Google and other search engines can understand your website. This is called technical SEO and involves schema markups, appropriate character lengths, proper HTML, load times, etc.
Google has been pretty direct about these qualities though. We already knew these were direct ranking factors because Google told us so.
The Liaison presentation was about things that “SEO gurus” say that Google hasn’t said.
The example used was Author Pages. There’s a lot of advice online saying that you need author pages on your blog so Google will rank you higher - this advice might be getting updated as we speak.
Google says that having an author page is not a ranking factor, but that an author page could help you rank higher.
How can both be true?
The author page is only helpful to your rankings if the author page is helpful to your visitors.
Some websites will benefit from having an author page if that author page can convey the expertise of its writers and encourage readers to trust what is written.
Other websites won’t see any benefit because their setup doesn’t require an author page to build that trust.
Does that mean adding an author page to your self storage website will hurt your rankings?
No! But it likely won’t help either, because it’s not what your visitors care about. It’s simply wasted effort.
If the prime search engine says not to optimize for it, does that mean SEO is useless now?
No! You still need to play by Google’s rules, keep up with changes, and figure out what Google thinks is best for your visitors.
But it does mean that you shouldn’t waste time, energy, or money trying to bring up your ranking with new SEO tricks.
Danny called out “one weird trick” marketing - promises that if you just do this one SEO tweak, you’ll immediately start to rank higher.
We’ve seen that a good bit in self storage. Some marketing teams will offer to improve an operator’s web performance through “ongoing SEO updates” or something similar.
This is commonplace enough that Google felt the need to warn people against it specifically.
It’s easy to see why self storage operators would be vulnerable to these claims - Google doesn’t want people gaming their system, so they conceal a lot about what their algorithm values. Looking back, it’s easy to see how Google’s algorithm has been abused.
SEOs would build websites just to add backlinks to the main site. They would build websites that abused keyword algorithms to grab search traffic. And these custom-built-to-abuse-the-algorithm websites were not good results for searchers.
By abusing Google’s algorithm, websites that weren’t helpful could jump ahead of those that were helpful. If this was allowed to continue, Google itself would stop being useful, and it would stop making money as people used other search engines that weren’t giving unhelpful results.
So Google has a vested interest in ensuring that one weird trick doesn’t work.
Even if you somehow managed to find one weird trick that does work, Google’s engineers are constantly working to fix it. You might gain a few places for a month, only to be knocked back down (and potentially penalized) when Google updates again
If the one weird trick doesn’t work, and Google doesn’t want us to optimize for it, what should you do if you’re not ranking where you want to be?
Seeing your site languishing on the second page of a search result is depressing, especially when you know your site is better than those above you. This is why so many people try to read between the lines of what Google says - maybe if I add zip codes to my content, Google will rank me higher!
But we’ve just seen, explicitly, that this won’t work.
Google has also told us what will work.
To rank higher with Google, you have to align your interests with Google’s interests.
Google wants to give searchers the best results for their queries. That’s how Google makes money - giving people good answers, which gets people to use Google, which makes advertisers want to spend money to get on Google.
Some of the best computer scientists in the world work at Google, perfecting the algorithms to give people exactly what they’re looking for.
Rather than try to figure out how to game the algorithm (which is always changing), you can try to meet Google where you’re both headed - by being the best result for searchers.
Your website needs to be built for people, not for algorithms.
Focus on highlighting the amenities your customers care most about. Showcase your best discounts. Put up attractive pictures of your facility, your managers, and yourself - the sort of stuff you’d want to see before giving a place your money!
Google tracks metrics that indicate how well a site caters to its visitors. Do people find what they’re looking for when they click into your site? Do they rent a storage unit? Do other websites in your area direct traffic to yours through links?
There are lots of specific pieces of advice you can follow - check out our Ultimate Guide to Self Storage SEO if you’re interested - but your primary goal is always to be the best option for anyone searching for self storage.
A website built for customers, rather than for Google, will eventually rise to the top. And on the way, you’ll get more conversions and make more money this way, too!
Looking to learn more? Check these out!
At StoragePug, we build self storage websites that make it easy for new customers to find you and easy for them to rent from you.
