FAQ How Can We Help You?

Q: How best can I market my product?

This depends on what your product is, its availability and distribution channels and your budget. Start by creating awareness of your product within your target market by selecting the best media channels (Social, Google, Outdoor, TV, Radio, Word-of-mouth, Activations) and advertising on them; then create demand and drive sales.

Q: How effective is social media marketing?

Social media marketing can increase a business’s exposure, grow the brand and drive sales. Social media posts drive targeted traffic and having access to all those customers helps boost the brand. Social media posts provide an opportunity for the public to find the new web content and click through the brand’s website. These posts will help to bring in the type of visitors you want to attract. Social media can increase the brand’s reach via quoted experts. With the increase of social media influencers, many accessible individuals have a huge following that brands can benefit from. Further, social media is the best tool to connect with and learn from consumers and industry leaders. It also helps brands understand their audience by reading tweets and status updates. Subsequently, an active social media presence builds relationships with audiences. Consumers view Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as social networks, not marketing tools. This gives businesses a chance for authentic engagement.

Q: What is SEO?

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “orgc,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines. Search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo have search results pages, where web pages and other content are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users.

Question 1

What is the best way for South African businesses to appear in AI chat search results?

Answer

To appear in AI chat responses (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity), your business needs to optimise more than just keywords. AI engines prioritise helpful, structured, expert content with strong local context.

Key actions include:

Publishing service pages targeting city-level queries (e.g., “digital marketing agency Johannesburg”)
Adding FAQ-style content answering how, why, cost, comparison, and location questions
Using Local Business, FAQ, and Service schema markup
Including South African pricing, suburbs, provinces, and compliance context (e.g., POPIA)
Maintaining consistent business information across Google Business Profiles, directories, and social platforms

AI models reward expertise, helpfulness, and clarity.

Need help? IMS helps brands structure their site and content specifically for generative AI visibility through a service approach called AI-SEO (Generative Engine Optimisation).

Question 2

How does AI search change local SEO in South Africa?

Answer

AI search reduces the number of clicks from traditional listings because answers appear above organic results in conversational summaries. For South African businesses, this means:

Fewer organic site visits
Higher-intent visits from users who do click
Stronger emphasis on brand reputation and reviews
More conversational search phrases (“Who is the best retail analytics partner in Gauteng?”)
More location-specific queries (“Delivery app fraud in Fourways”)

Google’s SGE also highlights:

Star ratings
Local trust signals
POPIA-compliant data practices
Regional expertise

Businesses should create helpful, specific content or risk disappearing entirely.

Need assistance with you AI SEO efforts? IMS guides clients through restructuring their online presence to qualify for AI search recommendations and rich responses.

Question 3

What is Generative Engine Optimisation and do companies in South Africa need it?

Answer

Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the process of improving visibility within AI-powered search experiences such as SGE, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. Unlike traditional SEO, GEO focuses on:

Answering intent-based questions conversationally
Providing structured comparisons and pricing data
Publishing location-specific insights
Demonstrating industry expertise (entities)
Using schema for machine readability
Creating content that AI can quote, summarise, and trust

South African companies absolutely need GEO now because AI search adoption is rising in:

Retail shopping decisions
Service provider selection
B2B vendor comparison
Regional store searches

IMS provides GEO frameworks built specifically for the South African landscape, where local context, geography, and behaviour trends matter.

Question 4

How do I rank in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot for local searches?

Answer

To rank inside AI chat answers, your website must:

Show local authority
Include township names, suburbs, provinces, delivery zones, store catchment areas.

Provide structured comparison content

AI loves tables like:

WooCommerce vs Shopify SA pricing
SPAR2U vs Sixty60 delivery differences

Publish pain-point FAQs

“Why are my delivery cancellations increasing in Johannesburg?”

Use schema

FAQPage
LocalBusiness
Product/Service

Answer pricing queries like: How much does it cost to develop a ecommerce website?

Companies that don’t answer these types of questions are ignored.

IMS helps configure content clusters, FAQs, schema, dashboards and analytics to signal credible expertise to AI engines.

Question 5

What structured data do South African websites need for AI search visibility?

Answer

Structured data (schema) helps AI engines understand your business. For local visibility, the most impactful schema types are:

Local Business: This includes location, phone, hours, service area, pricing.

Service: Clarify what you offer (e.g., retail analytics, data modelling, website development).

FAQ Page: AI frequently pulls answers from these into chat responses.

Reviews: They signal trust — critical in competitive industries.

How To’s: Useful for step-by-step content (e.g., “how to accept a Google Ads agency request”).

Breadcrumb List: This improves site structure comprehension.

South African businesses should also include:

POPIA/Privacy compliance info
VAT transparency
Where possible use target market specific terms-specific terminology (Gen Z may say ‘This weekend was mad’ where Boomers may say ‘The weekend was very busy; I didn’t stop once’)

IMS implements schema at scale to help retailers and service businesses feed AI engines clean, contextual data that improves ranking in conversational search.

Question 6

What is The Role of an Ad Agency?

Answer

An advertising agency may be known or referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency. There are also niche agencies such as digital agencies, activation agencies and media buying agencies that focus on specific areas.

Among the advertising, marketing, promotional, and communication elements, agencies focus on the strategy, conceptualisation and execution of ideas, the use of media planning, as well as the enhancement, reporting, and optimisation of their work to better serve their clients’ needs.

Advertising agencies can do many things, from helping you grow your business, to running specific campaigns targeting a unique audience to get your name, brand, and businesses in front of the right people at the right time.

Question 7

How best can I market my product?

Answer

This depends on what your product is, its availability, distribution channels and your budget. Start by creating awareness of your product within your target market by selecting the best media channels (Social, Google, Outdoor, TV, Radio, Word-of-mouth, Activations) and advertising on them; then create demand and drive sales.

Question 8

What is social media marketing?

Answer

Social media marketing involves the use of social media platforms to connect with audiences and build brands, increase sales, and drive website traffic. This includes publishing excellent content on social profiles, listening to and engaging with followers, analysing results, and running social media advertisements. The major social media platforms consist of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

Social media allows advertisers to employ a range of strategies to promote content and have people engage with it. Many social networks provide detailed geographical and demographic information which enables marketers to tailor their messages to users’ needs. Social media marketing campaigns can appeal to a broad audience at once. A major strategy used in social media marketing is to develop messages and content that individual users will share themselves thereby further increasing the reach.

Question 9

How effective is social media marketing?

Answer

Social media marketing can increase a business’ exposure, grow the brand, and drive sales. Social media posts drive targeted traffic and having access to all those customers help boost the brand.

Social media posts provide an opportunity for the public to find the new web content and click through the brand’s website. These posts will help bring in the type of visitors you want to attract.

Social media can increase the brand’s reach via quoted experts, and with the increase of social media influencers, many accessible individuals have a huge following that brands can benefit from. It is the best tool to connect with and learn from consumers and industry leaders and helps brands understand their audience by reading tweets and status updates. Subsequently, an active social media presence builds relationships with audiences. Consumers view Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram as social networks, not marketing tools, which gives your business a chance for authentic engagement.

Question 10

What is SEO?

Answer

SEO stands for “search engine optimisation.” This is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo which all have search results pages, where web pages and other content is shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users.

Question 11

Does https affect SEO?

Answer

Yes, having an HTTPS URL does help your SEO efforts. The HTTPS prefix on a URL denotes that it is secure to use and that no unauthorised third party is capturing your data on that website. Search engines see websites with HTTPS as more trustworthy than regular HTTP websites.

Question 12

Can you do SEO on Shopify websites?

Answer

Yes, SEO can be done on a Shopify website. Shopify can be optimised for search engines by adding the usual On-Page SEO methods. This includes adding meta descriptions, structured data, correct H1 tags, content, keywords, etc.

Question 13

What is HTTPS?

Answer

HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. HTTPS is encrypted and is used for secure communication over a network. Data sent using HTTPS is secured via Transport Layer Security protocol (TLS), which provides three layers of protection: data encryption, data integrity, and authentication.

Question 14

What is SSL?

Answer

SSL is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browser remain private. An SSL certificate on a website gives that site a secure URL, which can be identified by the HTTPS prefix.

Question 15

What is WordPress?

Answer

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that started as a blogging tool. It runs on PHP and a MySQL database. It is now widely adopted as a great platform to build websites on, due to its versatility and ease of use.

Question 16

Why should I use Wordpress?

Answer

Design elements in Wordpress are packaged as “themes”; since content and design are separate, one need only install a new theme to get a whole new design without affecting the content. This makes it a great platform for the development of websites, as making changes is easier in the future.

Question 17

Is outdoor advertising viable?

Answer

Yes, it is; however it depends on what you are selling and who you want to reach. Outdoor advertising has a massive and often, high frequency reach (the same person sees the same ad many times over). So, if you want to create awareness to a broad market in a specific location, outdoor is a great choice.

Question 18

How best can I market my service?

Answer

When marketing your service, select your target market and what media channels are the best to reach them. Run ads, show content, or tell your potential market about your services and give them a compelling reason to use you. One media channel will be the most effective, and if you can try a few you will quickly identify what delivers the best customers at the lowest rate.

Question 19

Why is my Google Ad being rejected?

Answer

There are 10 common reasons why your Google Ad will be disapproved:

Spelling and grammatical errors
Capitalisation issues
Punctuation and symbols
“Click here” text
Destination mismatch
Non-standard spacing
Copyright/Trademark infringement
Unnecessary repetition
Unsuitable content
Issues with the destination landing page

Question 20

What is a CMS?

Answer

A CMS is a content management system used for creating, managing, and optimising your customers’ digital experience.

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