Google South Africa

Local Is Lekker When It Comes To Google South Africa

When the rumours began circulating back in 2006 that Google would be bringing their business to South Africa by heading up a Google South Africa office, everybody in the online community was waiting with anticipation. Yes for us it meant that there was the opportunity to have a close-knit relationship with this business mogul who has up to now been taking the world of everything online by storm. The idea Google had in mind was to expand on their advertising reach in South Africa’s emerging markets as the expansion of Google usage in South Africa was growing at rapid speed.  So with this in mind Stafford Masie was given the reigns to head up and run the local operation in South Africa, while at the same time Google opened offices in both Egypt and Kenya, showing their growing commitment to Africa.

On the 3rd of September 2007 Google South Africa was officially up and running with the offices located in the city of gold and economical hub of South Africa, Johannesburg. The SA office was given the responsibility to build Google’s advertising and applications business within sunny South Africa as well as expand on their strategic partnerships within the region. With this Google opened the doors for South Africans who wanted greater access to information. This also heightened the chance for local businesses to make the most of the opportunities that the internet has to offer. For us this is certainly true. iLead Online has had the privilege to work in close proximity with Google SA and as such they have provided us with quite a few leads and referrals for businesses who required an experienced online marketing company such ourselves to help them put their business on the search engine map. Moreover we are able to help people get into contact with Google should they have any queries or require assistance with any issues or problems they might have.

With regards to Google South Africa (www.google.co.za) it comes as no surprise that the rates of usage is increasing quicker than you can say “like a flash”.  Google SA has also added features such as options for some of the local South African languages that includes Afrikaans, Sesotho, IsiZulu and IsiXhosa, apart from English of course. Now say for instance that you choose Afrikaans as your preferred language, the Google home page would be translated into the language of your choice which in this case would be Afrikaans. It will also give you the option to search between the web, pages from South Africa as well as pages in Afrikaans only. Furthermore you will be able to choose whether you want your results to be given from the web pages, images or groups. Google SA also has a very nifty translator that you can use to translate text, webpage or even load a document which you would want to translate to and from the language/s of your choice.

One of the key benefits of Google SA is just how much of an influence it has on our local businesses with regards to their rankings. For the average user doing a search on Google South Africa will take them to the most relevant sites in their region, thus websites whose URLs end with a Dot.co.za.

— J. Nortje (Marketing Director)

One of the key benefits of Google SA is just how much of an influence it has on our local businesses with regards to their rankings. For the average user doing a search on Google South Africa will take them to the most relevant sites in their region, thus websites whose URLs end with a Dot.co.za. When it comes to the industries such as gambling or flowers which are of the most competitive online, the chance for our local websites to rank within the first 30 results on Google.com becomes quite the challenge, some might even say almost impossible. But in the same breath Google.co.za makes the way for our local sites to have a better chance at ranking and in the process of doing so to get into contact with their targeted potential clients.

Taking South African entrepreneurs from strength to strength with their online marketing opportunities Google South Africa once again provided us with much excitement when it was announced in May 2009 that Stephen Newton was to take over the reins from Stafford Masie who left Google SA at the end of April after running all the local operations for about two years. Newton of course was the former Google Head of Analytics & Commerce for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and took over the position of country manager of South Africa on the 1st of July 2009. When announcing his appointment Google exclaimed that Newton’s role as country manager would be helped further along by his extensive online experience. By brining these type of skills to the table Newton is sure to help increase the flow of information in South African by getting companies online and in the process helping South Africans benefit from Google’s free online services.

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