FuelNet presents a case study on how one growing business improved its visibility on the search engines to boost the ROI of its Internet advertising.

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PROBLEM: Uncle Bob’s Self Storage was concerned about the dwindling number of customers who found the company on the Internet and showed up to drop off boxes, bikes, clothing, and other unused items. Even though Uncle Bob’s is a nationwide chain, doing business in 24 states, it relies on a local presence in the area around each of its 375 facilities to draw the traffic that translates to move-ins. It was clear that the company’s focus on target advertising techniques — including pay-per-click and Internet Yellow Pages — was losing its effectiveness as the business grew and the sources feeding the search expanded, making it harder to manage all the local listings. “Keeping up with local search engine listings is a full-time job,” says Chris Laczi, online advertising director for Sovran Self Storage, the Buffalo, N.Y.–based real estate investment trust that owns and operates Uncle Bob’s.

SOLUTION: To stay on top of its facilities listings and maintain accuracy and keyword effectiveness when advertising online, Uncle Bob’s started working with Localeze, of Vienna, Va., an online content manager for local businesses. Localeze tackled the job by creating comprehensive listing profiles for each Uncle Bob’s location. The next step was to apply a proprietary category classification system and keyword matching logic to tag and organize the data for local search engines. The data was then distributed to the Localeze network of more than 85 local search engine publishers, which Localeze says is the largest distribution network of its kind in the country.

Laczi reports that the effort has resulted in measurable improvements in Uncle Bob’s visibility. “We’re able to present our store information more completely and efficiently than ever before,” he says. “And that translates to sales.” Since initiating the program, Sovran attributes more than 6,000 click-throughs to the listings that Localeze manages and distributes, clicks that have resulted in nearly 200 new loads stashed in Uncle Bob’s storage units.

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