What is Woza Online? Google’s Business Sitebuilder in SA

Posted in google announcement | Author:
20
Jan

Google announced Woza Online recently and Luke McKend (CEO of Google South Africa) appeared on the popular 702 Talk Radio to explain this new Google service in South Africa that allows anyone, with or without any IT skills or web design knowledge to create a business website in minutes. Woza uses Google’s Business Sitebuilder which has been around for some time to help company owners to create a website and promote their products and services online.

How Does Woza Online Work?

As I mentioned, the process is simple, go to http://www.wozaonline.co.za and follow the very easy instructions. Woza makes the process very user friendly, that even a 8 year old would be able to make a website to sell their Barbie collection. You will first need to sign up for a Google Account, if you have a Gmail account then simply use those details to log in to Woza (You also get to choose a descriptive Woza URL eg whatis.wozaonline.co.za). You will then need to fill in some simple details about your company. There are limits to the amount of characters you can use, I do suggest that you fill the boxes with as much descriptive content explaining your company as possible.

At the bottom of the page you will be asked if you want to add your details to Google Places. If you do not already have a Google Places page then I highly suggest that you check this box. Google Places can greatly increase the chances of being found in Google for local based searches.

After reading the Term & Conditions (take note: these pages are only available to businesses and it is required that you promote your products and services) you will be taken through to the dashboard where you choose a template/design, add additional products and services and add content to your website.

Once you are happy with your content and products then you will be able to put your new site live. Be sure that all your links work and that you have added some nice quality content. In a few weeks you will then receive a notification from Woza for a free co.za domain (FREE custom .co.za domain name for the first 10 000 participants for one year). If you need help SEOing your Woza website then take a look at my Woza page I created just for this topic: http://whatis.wozaonline.co.za

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  • 3gwatersolutions

    Hi. I followed all the prompts and was told my site design was successful and online. I cannot find it anywhere and worse still, my google and gmail are not responding. Help please.

  • http://seocowboy.co.za Bryan Casson

    When you first started the sign up process you were asked what domain name you wanted eg. (yourname).wozaonline.co.za . Whatever you chose as your name will appear in your URL, so if you chose “whatis” as your name then your URL will be http://whatis.wozaonline.co.za

  • 3gwatersolutions

    Thanks for the response Bryan. My Google and Gmail are working fine now and I can locate the webpage by typing the full URL. My question is still, how will anyone looking for the services that I offer, be able to find me on the internet because they do not know my full URL? I have tried several search options to locate my business including the full name and have not had any success. Regards, Dhanas

  • http://seocowboy.co.za Bryan Casson

    That will all depend on how quickly Google finds your new page. It is most likely not yet in Google’s index as this takes a little time. You will need your page to be SEO’d if you want to accelerate this process. I do suggest that you take the option of the free co.za domain once Google gives you this option as it will greatly increase the chances of your domain being found in the search results. Give me a call (011 023 0197) and I will explain in detail how Google’s indexing works.

  • Anton

    I see that the site needs to be verified by Google?  Would have thought this is easy as it’s a Google application, however, cannot get it done…do you have a “verification for idiots” document that you can post?

  • http://seocowboy.co.za Bryan Casson

    So long as you are using their domain (yoursite).wozaonline.co.za you cannot verify with Webmaster Tools. If you get one of your own free .co.za domains from them then you will be able to verify. It is a flaw on their side.