An impression is anytime a storage seeker searches in your area and your facility appeared as an option in their search. This is the first step in the conversion funnel. If a customer doesn’t see your facility as an option, they aren’t going to be able to place a reservation and potentially becoming a paying customer at your facility.

Ranking highly in search results is an important factor in receiving impressions and increases the likelihood that a customer will see your facility listing. The chance that a customer will view a listing decreases with each position in search results and even more so if the listing is on the second page. Check out this article about ranking for more information.

Here are some ways you can influence the number of impressions that your facility receives:

Integrate your software with SpareFoot - Integrated facilities not only have the most accurate and up-to-date inventory out of all facilities on the network, they also tend to have a higher move-in rate than manual listings. On average, integrated facilities see about a 20% higher Move-In Rate than those who are not. Since move-in rate is one of the factors in our ranking algorithm, improving your move-in rate helps push your facility to the top of the list and increase the chance that a customer will see your listing!  If you would like to learn more about integrating with SpareFoot, just let us know by emailing support@sparefoot.com. 

Advertise all available inventory – Unit availability is one of the factors in our ranking algorithm and so limited available inventory can lower your facility’s rank in default search results and make it less likely that a customer will see it as an option. Customers also have the option to filter results by size and unit type. Advertising all of your available units of varying sizes and amenities will maximize the potential that your facility will show up in these results.

Set a 30 day reservation window - Your facility listing won’t show up in search results if the customer enters a move-in date outside of your available reservation window. Our recommended reservation window is 30 days in order to capture about 99% of storage seekers.

Aim for at least 3 reviews with an average rating of 3.5 or higher - If a customer is filtering search results by reviews, a higher average review rating will make it more likely that they will see your listing. SpareFoot has got a really great Request Reviews tool, if you need to seek out new reviews from previous or current tenants at your facility.

Maintain competitive pricing – Customers have the option to filter search results by price, which is often the biggest deciding factor in a customer's choice of facility. If a customer is specifically looking for the lowest priced unit, facilities with higher pricing compared to competitors may not appear in a viewed search results page.

Indicate that units are available for vehicle storage - Customers have the option to search specifically for vehicle storage. If units at your facility are available for vehicle storage but aren’t marked as such, your facility won’t show up in those filtered search results.

Now that you know more about impressions, check out the next step in the conversion funnel: Clicks