The Q2 2024 benchmarking report for UK storage providers has just been published. Learn how the top 9 UK storage providers perform across the digital space.
The latest Q2 2024 benchmarking report for UK storage providers has just been published. It covers the largest 9 national storage providers, including Safestore, Big Yellow, Access, Shurgard, Lok’nStore, Storage King, Ready Steady Store, Sentry, and easyStorage.
The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online, and quantifies the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for other storage providers to win brand exposure locally, yield online enquiries, and ultimately let out units through digital performance. The report highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from your online strategy and identifies the barriers that may be reducing your site’s ability to optimise digital performance.
To see a preview and contents page of the Q2 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call. 
Q2 2024 WINNERS LEADERBOARD
For a glance into just 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 9 Storage providers on, check out our quick-look table below; 
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's top and poorest-performing care home providers, or request a copy of the report for the full review.
What The Industry Research Report Covers
The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each retailer based on 50+ metrics and indicators of successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.
Driving Optimal ROAS from Paid Media Channels
Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing & Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will underperform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from 30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing. Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long-term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.
Technical Website Compliance
Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. Storage providers have the benefit of not needing to host ever-changing product pages that must be maintained, which is where we see brands in e-commerce sectors struggle. However, this can mean even a small amount of errors can hold a provider back from their competition.
Site Speed & Conversion Rate Performance
When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load makes a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. Storage providers will want to come across as reliable and trustworthy at every touchpoint, so a fast, easy to use site is key for not turning customers away at one of the first hurdles.
For Q2 2024, the mobile site speed ranged between 66 and 28, with 5 out of 9 providers scoring below the recommended 50% for site speed. However, Access reported the slowest site speed, and it should ensure that all images are optimised to help increase its site speed.
Building Competitive Advantage with Domain Authority
Domain authority is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. Working with a digital PR specialist would help storage providers identify promising backlink opportunities which, in turn, will grow their DA and increase referral traffic.
A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however, it’s generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. The DA range for this quarter was between 68 and 13, with Sentry reporting the lowest score. This self-storage provider should include lazy loading onto its website to increase its site speed. Otherwise, customers might become frustrated and choose to exit the website.
Organic Performance – Mobile & Desktop
A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. With consumer behaviour changing in line with the cost of living crisis, we'd expect storage providers to be hit by a reduction in interest for their services, with potential customers choosing to either sell items they're no longer using, or store them at home if possible.
All brands, except Ready Steady Store, saw more organic traffic on desktop compared to mobile. With this data in mind, the 8 providers should optimise their website to make it more mobile-friendly. For example, they should consider a mobile-friendly theme and strip back on content.
Universal Search Opportunity
Google Universal Search Results is an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Universal search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a retailer can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. 'Local pack' results and 'reviews' could prove to be particularly useful to storage providers, who can share information about local sites, along with reviews of their services, directly from the SERP.
Safestore saw the most Universal Search results again, seeing 4,900 appearances in ‘reviews’. Three of the self-storage providers reported zero appearances for ‘reviews’ and should reach out to past customers for a competitive edge.
The Longtail Keyword Opportunity
Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for retailer new search terms as they enter Google’s index. For storage providers, they should consider targeting location-based, or size-based long tail keywords, that tie into their availability.
Big Yellow saw the most longtail keyword appearances for positions 3 (1,894) and positions 4 (1,415). On the other hand, Sentry reported the fewest longtail keyword appearances (18 in positions 3), and it should assess its keywords to ensure it’s using phrases that customers type into a search engine.
Facebook Adverts
With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) hitting over 44 million users in 2023, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019.
We’ve included three examples of Access’ sponsored Facebook posts. Each post included 1 line of text, which was short and snappy for their Facebook followers to see as they were scrolling.
Top Social Shares & Content
When it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'Evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for longer. It's great for your brand engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Content is relevant for brands in any industry, and storage providers should be looking to create informational pieces to educate about the value of using storage facilities.
The majority of self-storage providers favoured Facebook, and Big Yellow has the most Facebook Likes (20,800). Meanwhile, Storage King has the largest Instagram account (4,900 followers).
Website Readability & Accessibility
20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. When websites are not designed to meet these needs, retailers lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere. As storage facilities are a reasonably universal product that could be required of anyone, ensuring website accessibility is important in order to not alienate potential customers.
In our last audit, easyStorage flagged 93 contrast errors, which it’s slightly reduced to 83 in Q2 2024. In the previous quarter, Ready Steady Store reported 79 accessibility alerts, which it’s increased to 93. All providers should aim for zero contrast errors and alerts to ensure they’re not affecting readability for those with colour deficiencies and those using a screen reader.
GET THE FULL 70-PAGE Q2 2024 REPORT
To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Mike Movassaghi.
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