Westwood, KS – The Watson & Taylor name is synonymous with self storage in Texas and Tennessee, but Google says it does not distinguish between brands in its search results. With that in mind, Watson & Taylor Self Storage teamed with WebWorks for Self Storage to build a new, search-friendly website. The optimized site launched in the end of March.
WebWorks is a new self storage marketing service and a subsidiary of Red Nova Labs, the company that created StorageFront and Self Storage Marketing Ahead. Watson & Taylor’s 34 facilities are featured on the self storage search engine. Tom Maxfield, Watson & Taylor’s Regional Operations Manager, said the executive team started to recognize the capability of the WebWorks’ team based on the design and optimization excellence of the StorageFront platform.
“The tipping point came with the realization that the WebWorks’ team would be fully transparent in the development and implementation of our site,” Maxfield said. “WebWorks worked with Watson & Taylor as a partner, not just a vendor. The resulting great relationship convinced us we had made the right decision.”
Over the last few months, WebWorks has redesigned the Watson & Taylor website (www.watsontaylorselfstorage.com), rebuilt the site’s front end and back end, and also made several renter-centric additions to content. Those additions include Red Nova Labs’ popular storage calculator, storage tips for renters, and Google maps showing the Watson & Taylor facility locations.
“Aesthetically-speaking, viewers have already commented on the ‘friendly, warm, and clean’ look of the new site. Functionally, the features flow quickly and easily with minimum effort of the user,” Maxfield said. “From a Management perspective, the Content Management System represents a breakthrough for us—to involve our property management team in posting new and relevant information. The Lead Tracking Analytics in the Dashboard will produce meaningful and accurate information to measure cost effectiveness of our new business.”
WebWorks provides search engine optimization (SEO) and web marketing consulting on an ongoing basis, and will continue to try to improve the Watson & Taylor site. The WebWorks’ team is currently working on integrating the same application programming interface (API) that was built for StorageFront onto the Watson & Taylor site.
Watson & Taylor further plans to incorporate micro-videos, refine its mobile application, and create an interactive customer review.
“A major benefit of the WebWorks product is our ongoing improvements to the system,” said Tom Cox, WebWorks’ Web Visibility Manager. “We don't build a site and walk away; we add features and tools on a monthly basis that all clients get access to for free. A lot of those ideas for improvements come from the clients. Watson & Taylor has been great about giving feedback to improve their sites usability for renters, which will benefit the entire WebWorks product as well.”
Watson & Taylor was one of StorageFront’s first customers, which helped the self storage search engine gain credibility in the self storage industry. Watson & Taylor is also one of the first four self storage operators to sign on with WebWorks. The Watson & Taylor team believes they will experience similar results that StorageFront has produced.
“Watson & Taylor believes WebWorks has ‘cutting edge’ capability relative to search engine optimization, especially on a localized basis, which will propel our web presence, ranking and relevance,” Maxfield said. “As a result, the organic search results of the new site will allow Watson & Taylor to not only compete effectively with larger self storage operators for qualified new customer leads, but also provide outstanding service to our existing customers on a real time basis. We are also expecting a high level of security on our site, which we believe is an increasingly important element of excellent management in today’s environment.”
