Frequently asked questions about Website design, Website development, Online Advertising and Search Marketing.

What is online advertising?

What do we mean by integrated advertising?

What is new media?

What is Social Media?

What is Digital?

What will a website cost?

What is a mobisite?

What is Web 2.0?

?What is SEO – Search Engine Optimisation

Why invest in SEO?

Can I SEO my website myself?

How much Does SEO cost?

What are Content Management Solutions (CMS)?

What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?

What is online advertising?

There are many ways to advertise online but we will just distinguish between display, search & social:

Display ads are the adverts you see on online publishers sites such as news24.com – these are usually moving images with a creative message. Rich media banners allow interaction within the ad that includes video, animation, sound and can act as a mini website.

Search Advertising are text ads (usually) that are displayed when a certain phrase is searched. The text ad is very relevant to the search so the advert is targeted to the exact audience required. This is usually Google advertising or PPC.
Social Media advertising refers predominantly to Facebook advertising – a text ad with a static image is run on targeted Facebook pages.

See more on Social media marketing below.

What do we mean by integrated advertising?

With constantly changing communication channels it is important to make sure that you develop and implement strategies that integrate traditional forms of marketing and advertising with online, digital and mobile channels. Read more about our integrated advertising services.

What is new media?

Online, digital and mobile channels are often referred to as New Media as opposed to the traditional media (broadcast – radio & TV, outdoor, press & magazine, instore, cinema) “New media is a term meant to encompass the emergence of digital, computerized, or networked information and communication technologies in the later part of the 20th century. ...” Wikipedia.

What is Social Media?

Advertising online includes advertising on social networks such as Facebook this is often termed Social Media. Social Networks are also effective ways to market your business online without buying actual media from the network.
Creating profiles, interacting with your fans and followers and creating long term, engaging relationships through social networks is becoming an essential channel for brands to interact with consumers.

Read More about Social Media Marketing

Interact with us on Facebook

How do I advertise on Facebook?

Facebook currently offers a self service, pay per click model (much the same as Google PPC) You only pay when someone clicks through to your profile, business page or website – hence “pay per click”. Facebook also offers a more structured online advertising package that can only be placed through Facebook via a local media sales agency. Facebook PPC advertising is effective as it can be very targeted. You can target women over 35 living in Gauteng for example, or even by interests.

How do I advertise on Google?

Google offers one form of online advertising - Pay per click advertising – also known as cost per click, adwords and sponsored listings. Pay-per click means you only pay Google when someone clicks through to your landing page. See more about PPC

What is Digital?

Often used as another term to describe internet or online marketing, digital actually covers a span of marketing activities that are non-internet related …

“Whilst digital marketing does include many of the techniques and practices contained within the category of Internet Marketing, it extends beyond this by including other channels with which to reach people that do not require the use of The Internet. As a result of this non-reliance on the Internet, the field of digital marketing includes a whole host of elements such as mobile phones, sms/mms, display / banner ads and digital outdoor.” Wikipedia

What will a website cost?

Between 10K and 20K for a basic website professionally designed including basic optimisation for Search Engines. If development is required (forms, database management, cms, crm, e-commerce, video sharing etc) this is quoted on finalization of the brief. We don’t recommend a website is done in isolation – it needs to be integrated with all other online marketing activities and achieve a specific objective within the mix.

What is a mobisite?

A mobisite is a website created specifically for viewing on your mobile phone. With a huge mobile penetration in SA and more and more with online and website access, mobile web traffic is increasing and mobisites and mobile media is a growing market.

What is Web 2.0?

It is a “buzz-phrase that refers to the “new web” – not so new anymore – that is being used in a totally different way by visitors. Online transparency, authenticity, engagement, interaction, consumer generated content, creating relationships, social networks are all terms relating to this new way of using the internet.

”Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis, and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users. The term gained currency following the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use webs.” Wikipedia

According to Tim O'Reilly, "Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."

What is SEO – Search Engine Optimisation?

SEO or Search engine optimization refers to the optimization of your website for search engines.

There are two ways to make sure you appear:
1) Buy advertising on Google (PPC advertising is covered in more detail here)

2) SEO your website (SEO is covered in more detail here)

Why invest in SEO?

Google’s job is to give “Searchers” the most relevant search results – otherwise they will go out of business. The websites they display in their Search Engine Results Page (SERP) therefore have to be the most relevant to the phrase that was searched.

If you search “stationery” online and you get sites selling cars you will not be impressed.

So we SEO websites to make them as relevant as possible to the keywords that are important to us.

More on Search Engine Optimisation

Can I SEO my website myself?

An SEO specialist understands all of the different processes and how these need to work together to achieve a specific SEO target and if you have an online business or are in a highly competitive industry there is no other way to go.
However, less competitive or niche businesses there are a few things you can do (with & without your web developer) to ensure you have basic SEO on your website

Read more on some basic SEO tips

How much Does SEO cost?

The cost of SEO is unfortunately based on each individual case – looking at the website you have, your current rankings, the competitiveness of your keyword and other factors but to give a completely ballpark estimate you could invest in the basics for R10 000 start up and R5000 a month recommended for a minimum of 3 months to see some results.

You need to work out what being on the first page of a Search engine result page will mean for your business – in money terms. If it is a lot – then invest a lot in it.

Find out more about Search Engine optimisation

What are Content Management Solutions (CMS)?

This is a software application that makes it possible for non-technical users to publish content to a website. A CMS can be reasonably simple or very complex. There is a wide range of CMS products available, developed by providers such as Microsoft, the open source community and small development companies. Choosing the right CMS can be an important decision for your organisation.

What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?

Set of methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help a company manage customer relationships in an organized way. It includes all business processes in sales, marketing, and service that touch the customer. For example, a company might build a database about its customers that describes relationships in sufficient detail so that management, salespeople, people providing service, and even the customer can access information.