will enable your mall to start building visibility in Google Maps and Google Search in your local community . This is where you can upload photos of your location ( mall ), your mall logo , see and respond to reviews from visitors to your mall , your phone numbers , your opening days and hours , your physical location , directions and a link to your website . Think of what Yellow Pages Business Directory was for businesses a few years back , and you ' ll have an idea of why and how important this is for your mall .
Google Maps : You are a destination , and with more and more Users on Google directly searching for a company on Google Maps instead of its address , if your mall appears on Google Maps , you will gain more visits . Think about it , users are looking for malls that are close to their location . For a more Kenyan scenario think like a tourist or a Kenyan about to take an Uber , they will be searching for a Map location , not your address so the harder it is for them to find and select your location the less traffic you get . How do you get to appear on Google Maps ? Your Google My Business listing is all you need .
Google Reviews : Search engines love online reviews , so much so that Online reviews make up 10 % of how search engines rank your website ( source : moz . com ). So , this means , the more regular and more recent your reviews , the more they will impact your results in search engines , and push you up towards the top . Also , the sentiment type whether positive or negative plays a significant impact on the probability for a recommendation of your business to searchers by Google . How do you get to moderate your Google Reviews ? Your Google My Business account is all you need .
Google +: Pronounced “ Google Plus ” is a social media network like Facebook . The more you are keen to publish your mall ' s content on it , perhaps shared from your website . It will improve your SEO , by moving you up the ranks in every other Google product . It essentially helps your organic search ranking on Google .
Keywords : The first priority is to invest in branded keywords for the shops you have in your mall and the products they sell . You can also attract users in the researching / planning stage of the funnel using non-brand searches , search terms like ' concert ', ' arts centre ', ' spa ', ' fitness
Experiential offerings are what highly digital and largely young people want to see on social media or when they search about your mall . Otherwise posting a mall ’ s opening hours or a map of retail locations doesn ’ t exactly encourage liking , commenting , and sharing .
club ', ' Maasai market ', ' skate ', ' go-kart ', a movie title . Invest more budget here primarily to drive more searches and ultimately more visitors for your brand - what we call “ brand lift .” This you can do by running paid search advertising campaigns on Google targeting those keywords .
When it comes to the online travel industry , one company stands above all others and receives more traffic than any of its competitors in the OTA travel space . This website is Booking . com who have had over 4 billion visits over the last 12 months . Kenya ' s malls should borrow a line from Booking . com ' s playbook . The company is widely acknowledged as the largest spender of advertising on Google as a result of its investment in Paid Search Traffic by bidding on both branded and non-branded keywords while advertising on Google .
Content : Search engines love consistent fresh content creators but more importantly they love to see traffic to this content . However , more people are spending more time on apps like Facebook , Twitter , WeChat , Pinterest , Line , and Snapchat - and these people aren ’ t easily reached by Google . Therefore you need to think about the consistent creation of content on your website and / or blog which is then indexed by search engines . Distribute it to your different social media channels to ensure there is high traffic and engagement with your content .
Facebook is the most attractive - as well as other products it owns , such as Instagram and WhatsApp - courtesy of its scale . It is great at re-messaging and re-targeting ads , make use of these . Boost your content once you post it here , with a link back to your mall website / blog .
Photos : Tap into young Kenyans new found photography addiction . For example , have a Mall photo-booth near Fashion Stores , let your visitors ask their friends online to help them pick new outfits by voting on their photos online . Give the persons with the highest engagement on their outfit photos a discount .
Video : Lest you forget , YouTube is the second biggest search engine and is part of Google itself , you need to be thinking about using video marketing . Incorporate Influencers who are natural storytellers , have a more intimate relationship with their fans and make sure the influencers are in a better position to package the stories about your mall to their audience .
Articles : What makes your destination attractive and unique ? What makes you stand apart from hundreds of other similar malls ? As a mall your website / blog should be buzzing with content around these as well as content covering past , current and upcoming events , influencer activations , visitor experiences for major activities at the mall , offers and much more . Remember to pack in the photos and videos into these articles too . It ' ll leave your readers whetted enough to visit the mall and share in the experience .
Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ): All the above activities are part of and should be done guided by a proper search engine optimization strategy to ensure that maximum impact is derived from all the search marketing initiatives at play . It is prudent to seek expert help for this .
Mungai Charles is a digital native , speaker , consultant and a thought leader . You can commune with him on this or related matters via email at : Charlogig @ gmail . com .