When someone asks ChatGPT or Google’s AI “where’s the best self storage near me?”, the AI names specific facilities in its answer. Whether yours is one of them depends on how clearly your website answers the questions AI looks for, and right now very few storage operators have done that work.
What has actually changed
For twenty years, being found online meant one thing: ranking in the list of blue links on Google. That world is shifting under our feet. Google now answers many searches itself with an AI Overview at the top of the page, and a growing number of people skip search altogether and simply ask ChatGPT or another AI assistant.
The important part is how AI answers. It does not show a list of ten links and let the customer choose. It recommends. It names two or three facilities and says why. If you are named, you get the enquiry. If you are not, your competitor does, and the customer never even saw a page where you could compete.
How AI decides who to recommend
AI engines are not magic and they are not random. They recommend businesses whose information they can find, read and trust. In practice that comes down to a few things:
Clear, factual answers on your website
Unit sizes, prices or price guides, opening hours, security, access, what can and cannot be stored. If a person could not answer their question from your site in thirty seconds, an AI cannot either.
Structure that machines can read
Behind the scenes, well-built pages carry labels (called schema, or structured data) that tell AI exactly what you are: a self storage facility, at this address, with these opening hours and these reviews. Sites without those labels make the AI guess, and it usually will not.
A strong, consistent presence beyond your site
Your Google Business Profile, your reviews, and having your name, address and details consistent everywhere they appear. AI cross-checks. Inconsistency reads as unreliability.
This overlaps almost completely with good SEO. Done properly, the same work that gets you found on Google gets you recommended by AI. That is why I deliver SEO and AEO as one combined service, never separately.
Why moving early matters
Hardly any UK storage operators are doing this yet. That means the AI engines are forming their picture of your local market right now, from whatever information happens to exist. The facilities that put clear, structured, trustworthy answers out first become the default recommendation, and defaults are sticky. Catching up later is possible, but harder.
This is the same window that existed in the early days of Google Ads, when the operators who moved first got customers at a fraction of what latecomers paid. I watched that happen from the inside. This window looks the same.
Want to know if AI recommends you yet? A free visibility check will tell you.
Frequently asked questions
What is AEO?
AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation: making your business visible and recommendable inside AI-generated answers, such as Google’s AI Overviews and ChatGPT, rather than just in traditional search listings.
Do I still need normal SEO?
Yes. Traditional search still drives most enquiries today, and the two disciplines share the same foundations. The right approach builds every piece of SEO work AEO-ready, so you are covered in both worlds without paying twice.
How do I find out if AI recommends my facility?
Ask the tools what someone in your town would ask, for example “best self storage near [your town]”, and see who gets named. Part of my SEO | AEO service is a proper visibility check showing exactly where you appear now and what to fix.
Want to know what AI says about your facility right now?
I offer a free AI visibility check as part of my audit: where you appear, where your competitors appear, and what it would take to be the one recommended.
Kerry Archer is the founder of StorageBox Marketing and has specialised in self storage marketing since 2014, managing over £4.2 million in ad spend across more than 400 clients and projects.