IM Applied has become a well respected Internet Marketing and SEO Agency in Cape Town because of our ability to produce ongoing results. We offer tailored SEO services, Email Marketing, Reputation Marketing and Customer Conversion strategies with a focus on ROI.
We have been offering web design and web development for some time now, but have only just got around to adding some of our work to our portfolio. Feel free to visit our page and click on the images to see the websites firsthand.
The Google 3 pack, also referred to as the Snack pack is simply the Google Maps Listings. An example of this can be seen in this image.
There was a stage that Google showed up to 7 of these local maps listings on page 1 of Google, but in a recent update they reduced these results to 3 listings across the board.
There is a lot of speculation around why Google has reduced these listings from 7 to 3. Perhaps one clue is found in the fact that Google has been testing Sponsored ads for Maps Listings in certain industries in San Francisco recently. It would make good sense to reduce the listings down to 3 to make space for these new ads listings sometime in the future. The benefit of this is that companies can opt to bid for a local placement. The obvious disadvantage is that some companies that were featuring in the 7 Pack map listings previously may need to spend extra money on Google Ads in order to be found in the search results.
Who Could Benefit From an Optimized Google Maps Listing?
The 3 Pack Listing is beneficial to any local business. This includes businesses that operate from a single location as well as businesses with multiple locations like corporations with local branches or franchises with franchisees that are located in different areas around the country.
Is It Important to Show Up in the 3 Pack if My Business Already Ranks Organically?
Even if your company has invested in local SEO services and enjoys an organic listing on page 1 of the search results currently, it would still be very beneficial for your company to show up in the 3 Pack listings.
One of the main reasons for this is that in today’s age where the majority of people have access to a smart phone or mobile device, more than half the searches for local business services or products are from a mobile device. Google displays the 3 Pack above all other results and also have a ‘Call’ button right next to the listing. With more than 84% of all smartphone owners regularly making use of Maps applications, being listed in the maps listings can result in increased traffic to your website or have your phone ringing more frequently.
How do I get My Business Listed in The 3 Pack?
As you can imagine, with many local businesses and only 3 maps listings that show up on page 1 of Google, getting your business into the 3 pack is by no means guaranteed. However, here are some steps you can follow to get a local Google My Business listing which is an important starting point. After all, you will need a business listing if you want to compete in this space.
Setting Up Your Local Business Listing
If you do not have one yet, start by setting up a Gmail email account. Once you have this, you will be given the option of setting up a G+ profile. Go ahead and do this. Log into your G+ profile. From the left margin you can select pages. When setting up your page, be sure to choose ‘Location’ and not ‘Brand’. ‘Brand’ pages do not display locations and are better suited for companies that require National SEO, where local footprints are not relevant. Complete as much of the information as possible, taking care to include a description that will entice your prospect. Be sure to include a few photos too. Once you have completed your address field, Google will send you a postcard to verify that your address is correct. This should take no longer than 2 weeks to reach you according to Google, but it really depends on our local postal service.
When you receive the postcard, follow the instructions to verify your local listing. Only once you have completed this verification process, will Google index your business page.
Just like organic listings, Maps listings consist of many pages of results. Your listing may take a little while to show up. If you have a well optimized maps listing, this will already help to move it up the search results, but it is going to take a good bit of ongoing SEO activities to get it into one of the top 3 results.
You can either go about these activities yourself or, if you prefer, you can have us do the activities that will get you to the Top 3. As an Internet Marketing company, we understand exactly what is required and how to go about implementing it without risking any penalties from Google. Simply call us or complete our form in the sidebar and we will be happy to meet with you for a discussion around this.
The world as a global marketplace has become more accessible now than ever before. With ever increasing breakthroughs in modern technology, we are living in an era where a brand new technology is developed every 30 days. The ability to engage in high video conferences makes it easy for your business to undertake negotiations with a company in another country from the comfort of your office. Reputable courier services offer reliable delivery of goods globally with the added peace of mind that comes with both you and your client being able to track the whereabouts of these goods at all times. There has never been a better time to build a worldwide brand or, at the very least, to promote your products and services to a global audience.
Our Global SEO Services
Global search engine optimization (SEO) is, in all simplicity, the marketing of a website to a global audience for terms (or keywords) that this audience would search for online. While National SEO focuses on ranking keywords in google.co.za (local), Global SEO focuses on ranking keywords in google.com (international) for the most part. Global SEO can be broken down into 2 segments:
1. Global SEO Footprint
The global SEO footprint is for companies that would like to appeal to a worldwide audience on a global scale. Thus, the optimization is focused on positioning a site for a global reach. Great examples of global sites include Amazon.com, Adobe.com and Apple.com This does not mean that if your site is not up to standard with these sites that you cannot rank in the global market. However, while ranking in the global market will attract visitors from around the world, the content of your site should be both appealing and compelling if it is going to convert online visitors to customers.
2. Worldwide Local SEO Footprint
Where the Global SEO Footprint aims at engaging a global audience, the Worldwide Local SEO Footprint focuses on drivingLocal SEO in different countries. So as opposed to optimizing a keyword for google.com (international), it seeks to optimize keywords for local search engines around the world like google.co.uk (UK), google.co.nz (New Zealand), etc. This is best achieved by either optimizing multiples local websites targeting associated countries or a ‘multisite’ website where each ‘sub-site’ targets a different country. The latter is generally easier to manage and maintain. The former could make sense if you plan to sell off locations in the future and plan to include the local website in the sale.
National SEO is the correct choice for your company if you are looking to either promote to national audience or to clusters of local audiences throughout the country.
A good example of a national SEO Footprint opportunity would be that of an online florist that delivers country-wide. One of the main keywords for this this company would be ‘online florist’.
SEO for Corporate Branches
On the other hand, if this florist was a company with branches in major cities and wanted to rank locally in all the major cities where they were located, they would want to include the city names as a modifier at the end of their main keyword. So, the main keywords in this case would be, ‘florist Cape Town’, ‘florist Johannesburg’, ‘florist Pretoria’, etc.
This is not to say that this company could not choose to rank for a term like ‘online florist’ as well and then send enquiries to the relevant branches. Just understand that this would be appealing to a different audience and would not automatically cover enquiries from local prospects.
Feel free to contact us to discuss the best possible marketing campaign for your company. We will tailor our corporate SEO services to ensure the best ROI blueprint for you.
Franchise SEO
SEO for franchises is very much the same as for branches. The key differences lie more in the type of agreement than the processes that we follow to achieve results. Depending on the internal agreements between franchisor and franchisees, this could impact on whether or not all franchised areas will be optimized, if the billing will be centralised or each franchisee will be billed separately, etc. We cater for all needs. Naturally, pricing is influenced by the model that is chosen. Simply contact us for a chat where we can consider your requirements and look at how we can best package a Franchise SEO solution to meet your specific needs.
Local SEO aims to optimize a website for a brand, products, and/or services for the local area that the business operates in. The format of local optimization thus includes the keyword plus location. If we were looking to promote SEO services in Cape Town for instance, then our choice of keywords would be SEO Cape Town or SEO services Cape Town, for instance.
We offer local search engine optimization services for all areas and can help you to identify which area or areas will be profitable for your company. This could range from a single suburb to multiple suburbs or even cities.
Additional Ranking services with a local Focus
1. Maps Listings Optimization
Maps Listings SEO focuses on ranking your Google Business Listing on the first page of Google. There are typically 3 maps listings that appear on the first page of Google, so to appear here, your listing needs to be one of the top 3 in the maps listings. Having a well optimized Maps Listing not only places you at the top of the SERPS, but can also serve as a second property on page 1 of Google, thus increasing the chances of someone landing on your business site. This has grown in popularity over the past few years and is a great way to get to the top of Google over a relatively short space of time, even if you don’t have a website.
You can find out more about this service at our Maps Listing Optimization page.
2. Corporate Multisite Optimization
If you are a corporate with branches in multiple locations, you may want to rank locally in each of the locations that you have a branch. Corporate Multisite Optimization focuses on achieving this for your company. This service can include both organic seo for your site as well as Maps Listings optimization that could see your company ranking in Maps for various locations. Discover more about our Multisite SEO for corporate branches.
3. Franchise Search Engine Optimization
Franchise SEO is similar to Corporate Multisite SEO in that it aims to rank franchises for their franchised area or area that they service.
More on this topic is available here: SEO for Franchises.
Feel free to contact us for a casual discussion to see what the right fit of SEO services will be for your company and what it would take to get you to the top of the search results.
– Inspired by a good friend with a plumbing business
His Story
Over 850 searches per month for plumbing services online, but no Website!
Thousands lost in potential revenue, because Professional Website Design is too expensive!
Don’t let this be your story!
For our Valentine’s ‘Labour of Love’ Special, we will build you a professional 5-page website that you can be proud to promote.
Our standard fee is R7,500, but if you take up our Valentine’s ‘Labour of Love’ Offer, we will do 80% of the work for free!
You only pay 20% or R1,500!
This is an incredibly low investment that you could easily make up for with a single new client and yourcompany website will continue to work for you day and night.
Important Note:
Our Valentine’s ‘Labour of Love’ Special is valid till the 19th February, but we only have the capacity to take on 40 new customers at this low investment, so take advantage and order now to lock in this special deal.
Simply complete the form in the sidebar on the right and ask for our special. We will contact you shortly!
Alternatively, you can call Karl directly at 083 357 3894 or mail us at admin@imapplied.co.za to book your website design or to request more details.
SEO Periodic Table, courtesy of SearchEngineLand.com
If the image above does not help you with the question of “What is SEO” or it seems confusing and reminds you why you didn’t enjoy science at school, don’t fret. What matters is that we understand it. SEO can be confusing to many, so today we are going to break it down into words, images and videos that can be easily understood.
The 5 Sentence Explanation of SEO – It’s All You Really Need
In layman’s terms, SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a combination of ongoing activities that cause a website to move up in the results of Search engines. It can be divided loosely into 2 sections, namely On-Site SEO and Off-Site SEO.
On-Site SEO refers to Optimization activities that is done on the website to make it appealing both to Google and people, while Off-Site SEO comprises of Optimization activities like backlinking from other sites back to your website, social shares (people sharing your content on Facebook, Twitter, etc) and social signals (people linking back to your website content from social sites) and other activities. These activities are not performed directly on your site, but rather drive authority, trust, and relevance back to your website to help it perform better in the search results.
Both On-Site and Off-Site SEO activities are important factors in getting your website to continuously move up in the search engine until it can be found in the top of the organic search results.
So that is the simple explanation. Below you will find 2 snippets from reputable resources that do well to further explain what SEO is. For those of you who prefer movies over books, you can just scroll down to the video.
What is SEO by MOZ
SEO is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of the traffic that you earn through the organic results in search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
Now a search engine’s results page very frequently looks something like this.
This is one of the most basic SERPs out there. We’ve searched here for “email open rates” in Google.
Ads vs Organic
At the top you’ll see ads – Google labels these – ads related to email open rates. These are search ads that you can buy through Google’s AdWords program. This is traditionally called PPC or pay per click search engine marketing.
Next we see what’s referred to as the organic or natural search results. SEO is all about influencing these natural, organic search results to earn more traffic from them. Remember that these are organized by Google’s search engine algorithm. The ranking elements that Google considers in their algorithm determine the order in which these pieces rank.
Wikipedia’s Definition of Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s unpaid results—often referred to as “natural,” “organic,” or “earned” results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search, news search and industry-specific vertical search engines.
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content, HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic. As of May 2015, mobile search has finally surpassed desktop search, Google is developing and pushing mobile search as the future in all of its products and many brands are beginning to take a different approach on their internet strategies.
