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Binod K C

Search Engine Optimization in


Digital Marketing
How SEO can be improved in order to gain visibility

Metropolia University of Applied Sciences


Bachelor of Business Administration
International Business and Logistic
Bachelor's Thesis
Date: 28 April 2023
Abstract

Author(s): Binod Kc
Title: Search Engine Optimization in Digital marketing
Number of Pages: 48 pages + 12 appendices
Date: 28 April 2023

Degree: Bachelor in Business Administration


Degree Programme: International Business and Logistic
Specialisation option: Marketing
Instructor(s): John Greene, Senior Lecturer

This research studies the importance of search engine visibility and how search
engine optimization (SEO) may be improved in order to achieve it. This study
included literature covering marketing, digital marketing, SEO, search engine
visibility, practices of SEO, and measuring and tracking SEO.

In this study, qualitative research methods were used. The qualitative study involved
three in-depth interviews with SEO experts from diverse organizations.

According to research, SEO is extremely effective at increasing website visibility,


driving organic traffic to a website, and eventually increasing conversion rates and
sales. SEO is cost-effective and provides excellent Return on investment (ROI).
Search engine visibility is optimized by implementing both On-page and Off-page
SEO factors and strategies. A successful search engine optimization campaign
begins with choosing the right keywords or key phrases.

After combining the findings of the research, the author concluded that SEO is a
process rather than a project that takes a long time. The Google algorithm
modifications are the primary cause of this. Due to the fact that Google uses both on-
page SEO and off-page SEO in its ranking process, both are equally important.
Using these factors wisely would help you rank higher in the search engine result
page (SERP).

Keywords: SEO, Off-page SEO, On-page SEO, Organic traffic


Contents

Glossary

1 Introduction 1

2 Literature Review 3

2.1 Marketing 3
2.2 Customer decision making process 4
2.3 Digital Marketing 6
2.4 Evolution of Digital marketing 7
2.5 Basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 8
2.5.1 Search 8
2.5.2 Search engine 8
2.5.3 Search engine visibility 9
2.5.4 Search engine marketing 10
2.5.5 Search Engine Advertising (SEA) 10
2.5.6 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 11
2.6 Search engine visibility 12
2.6.1 Why does search engine visibility matter? 12
2.6.2 How do search engines rank websites? 13
2.6.3 Benefits of SEO 14
2.7 SEO in practice 15
2.7.1 Keyword 16
2.7.2 Content SEO 17
2.7.3 Technical SEO 19
2.7.4 Link building 20
2.8 Measuring and tracking SEO 20
2.8.1 Most Important SEO KPIs 22
2.8.2 Organic Traffic 22
2.8.3 Keyword Rankings 22
2.8.4 Conversion Rate 22
2.8.5 Bounce Rate 23
2.8.6 Page Load Time 23
2.8.7 Click Through Rate (CTR) 24

3 Methodology 25

3.1 Types of research methodology 25


3.2 Qualitative Research 27
3.3 Validity and Reliability 28
3.4 Limitations of the study 28

4 Result 30

4.1 Marketing 30
4.2 Consumer Behaviour 30
4.3 Digital Marketing 31
4.4 Search engine Optimization (SEO) 31
4.5 Benefit of SEO 33
4.6 How SEO can be improved ? 34
4.7 Measuring SEO 37

5 Conclusion 40

References 43

Appendices 49

The transcript of interview 1# 49


The transcript of interview 2 # 52
The transcript of interview 3# 58
Glossary

CPC Cost Per Click. You pay per click on your ads with cost-per-
click bidding (CPC).

CTR Click Through Rate.

High Qualified Traffic The visitors who are most likely to convert into leads or
customers

High Quality Traffic The number of visitors to your website with a higher
conversion and sales ratio

KPI Key Performance Indicator.

Organic Optimization The techniques used to achieve a high placement (or


position) on a search engine results page in unpaid,
algorithm-driven results on a specific search engine

ROI Return on investment. It is used to assess an investment's


effectiveness or profitability or to compare the effectiveness
of several distinct investments.

SEA Search Engine Advertisement

SERP Search Angine Result Page

SEM Search Engine Marketing

SEO Search engine optimization. It is the method of increasing


both the quantity and quality of search engine traffic to a
website or web page.
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1 Introduction

The importance of the World Wide Web for businesses and consumers has
increased. Visibility of the website on the internet has become very important for
delivering information to potential customers. Millions of internet users around
the world search for relevant information on goods and services every day. This
results in half of the internet traffic going through search engines. To sort
through billions of documents and web pages, the search engine gives an easy
and popular interface between publisher and customer (Enge, Spencer,
Stricchiola, Mazzanti, Matteuzzi and Bisai, 2019). Millions of users daily rely on
search engines to conduct their daily searches. Google held 91.9% of the
market share on January 2022. Bing had a 2.88%, and Yahoo! had
1.51%. YANDEX follows it at 1.27% and Baidu at 1.16%. Google performs over
8.5 billion searches every day. That figure is consistently increasing, with 70%
of clicks going to the top 5 results on search engine result pages. An in-store
sale is generated by 78% of local smartphone searches. Almost half of the
product searches begins on Google. The appropriate SEO approach can
enhance sales and conversion rates (Mohsin, 2023).

Obtaining free, high-quality traffic, highly qualified traffic is one of the main roles
and objectives of a successful digital marketing strategy. The process of
obtaining free traffic is not easy. An effective marketing programme will benefit
from free traffic in many ways, especially if paid or media strategies are
implemented. Organic optimization through SEO can increase traffic and sales
conversions. Various search engines are available today where users can find
information about different products and services and make quick decisions.
The secret to being found by the right people at the right time is through search
engines (Papagiannis, 2020). The use of effective SEO techniques can enable
small businesses to appear before larger companies on the search result page.
Due to this, search engine optimization (SEO) now plays a more important role
in increasing a website's ranking (Tomasi & Li, 2015).

The objective of the research is to focuses on SEO and how businesses can
improve their search positions through SEO. In the study, a literature review is
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conducted on marketing, the consumer decision-making process, and digital


marketing. Furthermore, the research takes a deep dive into search engine
marketing (SEM), search engine advertisement (SEA), and how to use SEO in
practice, its value for businesses, how to measure and track SEO, and the most
important SEO key performance indicators (KPIs). Based on the research
applying the techniques on the website and interviewing SEO masters the
author tried to understand how SEO can be improved to gain visibility.
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2 Literature Review

To understand the importance of SEO it is first important to understand the


basic theories of marketing and how SEO is applied by marketing professionals.

2.1 Marketing

Marketing is the process of providing products, services, and experiences to


customers to meet their needs, wants and, demands in exchange for financial
benefits and building relationships. Therefore, marketing today is not just about
selling products but also about satisfying the needs of customers. All companies
and organizations must integrate marketing into their growth strategies
today. Businesses today rely heavily on modern marketing technology
(Drummond and Ensor, 2012).

The marketing process is broken down into five steps. Companies strive to
comprehend the consumer and establish a solid customer relationship in the
first four steps. They acquire value from the consumer in the form of profit,
sales, and long-term client equity at the last stage.

Figure 1 : 5 Steps of Marketing Process (Marketing10, 2020)

Marketing mix refers to the combination of techniques, tools, and activities a


marketer uses to reach their target audience at the right time, place, and price.
The marketing mix consists of 4ps that is Product, Place, Price, and Promotion.
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Figure 2: Marketing mix- 4P`s (Indiafreenotes, 2020)

A product represents the goods and services that a company provides to its
customers in the marketplace. A product or service's price refers to the amount
clients or customers will have to pay. The place is where the product or service
can be accessed and purchased. Promotion is basically when a company uses
messages and media to persuade its potential customers to buy a product. A
successful marketing programme integrates marketing mix elements to deliver
value to consumers while engaging them and achieving the company's
marketing objectives (Kotler & Armstrong, 2021).

2.2 Customer decision making process

Every day, consumers make a variety of purchasing decisions, and marketers


concentrate their efforts on these choices. Most big businesses conduct
extensive research into consumer purchasing patterns in order to provide
answers to queries regarding what consumers buy, where they buy it, how
much they spend, when they buy it, and why. Marketers can research actual
consumer purchases to learn what, where, and how much consumers spend.
However, it might be challenging to understand the motivations underlying
consumers' purchasing decisions because the solutions are frequently buried
deep inside the minds of the buyers. Consumers frequently are unaware of the
specific factors affecting their purchases. Consumer characteristics include
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cultural, social, personal, and psychological aspects, as well as their decision-


making process, influence their behaviour. The decision-making process starts
with the identification of a need, followed by a search for information and an
alternative assessment to the purchasing decision (Kotler & Armstrong, 2017).

Figure 3: The five step decision making process (Marek Sotak 2016)

Over time, consumer behavior trends also evolve. People want things to do in
today's fast-paced world that include all their senses as well as a variety of fresh
touchpoints and completely unique experiences. People are rejecting the idea
of passively on-looking and believe that it is no longer sufficient to fully immerse
an observer in an experience. They now want to take an active role.

Figure 4: The consumer decision journey (Court, Elzinga, Mulder and Vetvik,
2009)

Consumers begin with a few prospective brands in mind (left side of the funnel),
then marketing prompts them to narrow that selection as they proceed through
the funnel, arriving at the end with the one brand they have decided to buy (right
end of the funnel). Today, however, the concept of the funnel fails to capture all
the touch points and important purchasing considerations brought on by the
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expansion of product options and digital channels, as well as the development


of a more sophisticated consumer.

Customers have also experienced super-personalization. With new technology,


it is possible to read customers and deliver what they want, sometimes without
even asking them. Modern technology is ingrained in people's daily lives and
being online continually has become the norm. As a result, people's purchasing
habits are changing, and marketers must take this into account (Stankevich,
2017).

2.3 Digital Marketing

Marketing efforts involving electronic devices, or the internet are considered


digital marketing. Digital channels are used by businesses to reach out to
customers through search engines, social media, email, and web pages. Online
marketing, internet marketing, and web marketing are also terms that can be
used to describe this. Using digital tactics and channels to reach customers
online, where they usually spend most of their time, is digital marketing (Chaffey
& Ellis-Chadwick, 2022). A wide variety of tactics fall under the umbrella of
"digital marketing," ranging from a website to a business's online branding
assets like email marketing and online brochures (Desai, 2019). Digital
marketing also helps to track data to achieve a positive Return on Investment
(ROI). You can improve your marketing plan by determining which campaigns
and channels are most effective. For example, you can find out how many
people clicked on a digital ad. You can find out which types of digital marketing
produce the best results, as well as whether your audience prefers
smartphones over desktops. Your campaigns can be adjusted in real-time to
improve results with digital marketing. There are countless tools available to
track and measure user behavior, engagement, and conversions (Chaffey &
Ellis-Chadwick, 2022).
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2.4 Evolution of Digital marketing

In 1990, the phrase "digital marketing" was first coined and utilized. The first
clickable web commercial banner then went live in 1993. HotWired bought a few
banner ads at that time for promotion and advertising. In 1994, new
technologies were created and introduced to the market with a new purpose
(the first online business transaction took place at this time). More search
engines and tools, including HotBot, LookSmart, and Alexa, were introduced in
1996. Launched in 1997, Sixdegrees.com was the first social media platform.
The launch of Google in 1998 made it the "golden year" for digital marketing.
Microsoft debuted MSN in the same year as Yahoo debuted Yahoo web search.
From 2001 to 2010, $10 billion in sales were generated with the launches of
LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, WhatsApp, Google Buzz, and Amazon.
The iPhone series was also introduced. Budgets for social media have
increased by 64% since 2010, Facebook has taken over WhatsApp, mobile
internet users have surpassed PCs, and Snapchat has introduced the explore
feature. This is a summary of the short evolution of digital marketing (Ryan,
2017). Email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, data-driven
marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), and search engine optimization
(SEO) are some of the modern digital marketing strategies that are becoming
more and more prominent (Desai, 2019). With digital marketing, companies can
reach, inform, engage, and offer products and services to customers digitally.
Thus, digital marketing will continue to lead the technological revolution for
many years to come. In order for businesses to implement their digital
marketing plan, SEO has been one of the key tools. (Kim, 2021)
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2.5 Basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

2.5.1 Search

The use of search has become extremely popular today, and society is
increasingly dependent on it. As consumers identify a need or a problem their
decision-making process begins with searching the information. People can get
whatever information they want anywhere anytime in a blink of an eye on their
smart devices, for which in earlier days they needed to visit the library or consult
some professional in a related field. Today there are many search engines
where we can get millions of pages of relevant information about what we are
looking for (Kritzinger and Weideman, 2013.). Modern search technology has
made it easier for people to shop online, but it has also made it more
challenging for businesses to rank high in search results. Google processes
roughly 63,000 searches per second, according to the website
"licreativetechnologies.com". As a result, Worldwide, 5.6 billion searches are
conducted per day, and approximately 2 trillion searches occur per year.
Approximately three to four searches are conducted by the average person per
day. The user can visit a website by typing an address in the address bar or
clicking on a bookmark. In contrast, the search box is used by users to find
specific information. Today, there is a significant demand for searches due to
the ease of accessing information that used to require a trip to the library 20
years ago (Enge et al., 2015). Today's people search for solutions to problems,
solutions to complete tasks, and ways to "do" things. They might be searching
to make a purchase, discover the newest John Mayer songs, look at dog
pictures, or book a flight (VIP CONTRIBUTOR Ryan Jones February 28, 2021).
Therefore, search traffic is more valuable to marketers.

2.5.2 Search engine

A search engine is a software program or service that enables users to search


and retrieve information from the World Wide Web or a specific database by
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using keywords or phrases. Search engines use web crawlers or spiders to


index web pages and other online content, creating a searchable index of the
information available on the internet. When a user enters a search query into a
search engine, the engine returns a list of relevant web pages or documents
that match the query. The most popular search engines include Google, Bing,
Yahoo!, and Baidu, among others. (Kritzinger & Weideman, 2013).

2.5.3 Search engine visibility

Search engine visibility refers to being visible on search engine result page
(SERP). The Google SERP is constantly changing, so it is important to keep an
eye on it. A SERP page generally consists of two hyperlinks. One is an organic
list that contains non-advertising links and the other is a sponsored list (Kent,
2020).

Figure 5: Search engine result page


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Figure 5 shows the paid ads first which are listed under Sponsored, followed by
organic results for social media package.

2.5.4 Search engine marketing

Search engine marketing (SEM) has become one of the most successful
strategies for increasing the visibility of a company's website. The purpose of
SEM is to improve a website's visibility in SERPs using SEO and SEA (Search
engine advertisement) practices. The return on investment (ROI) offered by
SEM is higher than that offered by traditional internet marketing. Internet
marketers have a flexible payment rate when it comes to search engine
marketing strategies like “cost per click” and “pay per click”. Payment is based
on the number of clicks achieved on paid advertisements (Sponsor links), which
determines the number of ads that are clicked (Sathitwitayakul &
Prasongsukarn, 2011).

2.5.5 Search Engine Advertising (SEA)

A search engine today is an important tool for finding information and making
decisions. High rankings on SERPs are crucial for businesses to drive traffic to
their websites and influence web users' actions. It is very challenging for
businesses to attain a high ranking on a SERP because there are thousands of
websites vying for the same position. One approach to addressing this issue is
search engine advertising (SEA). As a result of the fierce competition for top
search engine rankings, SEA was developed to allow advertisers to directly
purchase placement on the first page of search engines. (Jafarzadeh, Aurum,
Dambra & Ghapanchi, 2015).

Marketers can increase their website's visibility in search engine results pages
by using SEM strategies such as contextual advertising, placement, and paid
inclusion. A pay-per-click advertising campaign pays search engines only when
a sponsored link is clicked, such as Google AdWords. Bidding allows
advertisers to better target keywords relevant to their target audience when
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placing these types of ads. Essentially, cost per click (CPC) is what advertisers
and other Internet publishers pay search engines each time a user clicks on a
sponsored link to visit their website ( Sathitwitayakul & Prasongsukarn, 2011).

2.5.6 Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

An approach for increasing traffic through natural search engine rankings is


search engine optimization (SEO). By "organic," it is implied utilizing unpaid,
non-click-based techniques to increase website visibility. Numerous strategies
can be used to execute SEO, such as the usage of relevant keywords, high-
quality material, and multimedia content that has been optimized. It was once
common practice for people to gain website visibility by implementing
underhanded methods (black-hat SEO). The most popular tools for searching
the web are search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo!. It is essential to
boost your search engine presence utilizing ethical strategies because these
search engines are getting progressively smarter (Shenoy & Prabhu, 2016).

SEO is an investment that yields long-term benefits rather than being a cost.
The top of the results list takes weeks or even months to attain, so marketers
cannot expect a miracle to happen overnight. Marketers must pay attention to
many skills in SEO (search engine optimization) since they are used by search
engine managers as offenses and defenses. Users who want to find something
they want would be less likely to find it if everyone knew how to increase access
to high rankings. This would mean a large amount of spam would result. In that
sense, search engine managers must update their technology regularly, and
many rules are designed to penalize those who deceive search engines
intentionally (Shenoy & Prabhu, 2016).

SEO skills are developed methods that can be used in search engines.
Therefore, to get a good ranking for a website, one should pay attention to
SEO. The other side of this coin is that, to keep ranking high, one must always
pay attention to search engines. This is because their ranking might suffer if
they lose some updates. Today an increasing amount of time and resources is
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being devoted to improving the rankings of websites on Google and other


search engines (Enge et al., 2015).

2.6 Search engine visibility

This chapter answers the questions: Why does search engine visibility matter?
How do search engine rank websites? And what are the benefits of SEO?

2.6.1 Why does search engine visibility matter?

One of the most common tools used by people to find information online is a
search engine. Most visitors to websites are now coming from search engines
instead of direct links. Because of this, search engine exposure is becoming
more and more crucial (Enge et al., 2019). There are two ways in which
customers can find a business website: through paid search results or organic
search results (Kritzinger and Weideman, 2013). The benefit of
improving search engine visibility has a positive impact on social activism,
awareness of the brand, and sales. Regardless of the objective, businesses aim
to provide potential customers with relevant details information (Enge et al.,
2019). Marketers have flexible payment rates for SEA strategies, including pay
per click and cost per click, since since the number of clicks on the
advertisement determines payment. On the other hand, SEO's long-term search
engine visibility plan gives businesses the ability to raise the position of their
website in organic search result. Search engine visibility encourages a desire to
purchase or a sense of trust in a brand, which may eventually result in a
purchase (HubSpot, 2017). Numerous companies believe that providing users
with a superior branding experience is valuable, even if they do not click on the
website link on the search engine results page (SERP). This is because the
user may assume that a business is exceptional or trustworthy if it appears at
the top of major search engines like Google, thereby benefiting the company.
This effect may be particularly advantageous for results that are ranked at the
top of the list. There is a rapid growth in those companies who are spending on
search engine visibility compared to other online advertising (Ward, 2017).
Digital businesses frequently rely on their listings in SERPs to be successful.
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These SERPs are more than just a source of information; they frequently
increase brand strength and brand recognition. Sadly, modifications to the
search algorithms frequently have an impact on SERPs. Some firms face
immediate negative effects as a result of these modifications, while others see
stable traffic or even gain from them (Klatt, 2013).

2.6.2 How do search engines rank websites?

Search engines typically operate using three components: crawling, indexing,


and ranking. Crawling is a computer code which is called a spider that moves
around the internet looking for a new content. As they discover something new,
the spiders "Read" it as they move from one link to the next in search of newly
additional material. indexing can be defined as the act of search engine spiders
storing newly discovered data for later use by users in a database. The last and
most crucial component of search engines' operation is ranking. This stage
deals with how search engines decide which results are relevant and how they
present them to the user. No one has a complete understanding of how search
engines choose whether result should appear first or not when a specific
keyword is searched, unless you work for a company like Google or Bing
(Wilson, 2017).

Figure 6: Indexing (Greyling, 2022)

Modern search engines send spiders or robots to crawl over websites that are
registered with them in order to construct an index of words on those pages.
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The index is estimated by the search engine algorithm based on several


characteristics, and it is subsequently stored on a web server as a database. As
potential buyers enter keywords in a search engine's search bar, this index is
checked. (Gregurec & Grd, 2012). Although the precise algorithms used by
different search engines vary, dominant market players like Google and Yahoo
rank and show search results by taking into consideration how closely a
website's content matches the users' query as well as the site's authority (Enge
et al., 2019). Due to Google's secrecy regarding the criteria and the SERP
ranking algorithm, it is difficult to confirm their significance or perform any
reverse engineering of the Google algorithm. They are the most important
elements for the SEO sector since, as Google itself acknowledges, the
algorithm might be beaten if it were known (Marszałkowski et al., 2015). Search
engines regularly update their search algorithms as well as making significant
changes. Due to Google's frequent algorithm updates (at least 500 times per
year), different SERP ranks may result from entering the same query at various
times. (Killoran, 2013).

Today a website's ranking is influenced by a number of quality signals, such as


responsive website design, user experience,deletion of page, social presence
and strong links. User experience is a priority for Google's ranking algorithm,
which considers Google's "click-through rate" (CTR) and site bounce rate (BR)
when ranking websites. A website's CTR measures how many times searchers
click on its link on Google's search engine results page. If the CTR is high,
people entering that query are likely to believe the landing page is relevant to
them. Therefore, the website will be favored by Google's algorithm going
forward (Killoran, 2013).

2.6.3 Benefits of SEO

High-quality websites receive better rankings from search engine which leads to
more clicks from customers who have a propensity to click on links in more
advantageous places. In order to attract organic traffic from those with higher
incomes, websites need to be of high quality. Consumers frequently click the
link of the company with the strongest brand equity when presented with a list of
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potentially "relevant" search results. Customers usually choose companies that


have a greater reputation for providing value and services (such as those with a
well-designed website, a return policy, secure payment options, etc.) (Baye, De
los Santos & Wildenbeest, 2015).

Numerous studies demonstrate improved search engine exposure on a variety


of global markets. The positioning of the website in the search engine results is
essential for driving visitors and making purchases (Enge et al., 2015). The
SEO initiative is also substantially more cost-effective than a SEA campaign,
according to a cost-benefit analysis. According to Zhang and Cabage's (2016)
research, SEO link building increased ad revenue while also driving the highest
traffic, domain authority, and SERP ranking. After the links had been
established, the growth was both steady and exponential.

2.7 SEO in practice

This section discusses what can be done practically to improve the ranking of
the website to attain the top spot-on SEO.

In search engine optimization, many factors are involved. It is impossible for any
site to utilize all of the factors of search engine optimization at the same time.
There are basically two types of SEO factors: On-page SEO (or on-site SEO)
and Off-page SEO (or off-site SEO) both are equally important. On-page SEO is
influenced by a number of variables, all of which are under SEO experts’
control. Some of them are headings, metatags, meta-descriptions, title tags,
internal site links, page load speed, site maps, semantics, and navigation ease.
There are several factors that influence off-page SEO that are not dependent on
code or that you cannot control. Among these are posting on forums, social
bookmarking, social media marketing, RSS feeds, and blogs (Shenoy &
Prabhu, 2016).

There is much less impact on search rankings today from black hat SEO tactics
(In order to manipulate SERPs (search engine results pages) for better
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rankings, black hat SEO involves acting against search engine policies).
Choosing the right keywords is the first step in SEO.SEO will be useless if
irrelevant keywords are selected. Keyword analysis should lead to effective
landing pages (The pages a visitor will land on after clicking the company's
result at the top of the search engine results page). To achieve SEO success, a
website structure that is effective and landing pages that contain relevant
content must be developed. Search engine criteria must be followed when
coding a website, and both internal and external links must be created. Social
media optimization, quality score optimization, and local search optimization
can further improve the website's status (Jones 2013). As Figure 7 illustrates,
search engine optimization is a continuous process rather than a singular
project.

Figure 7: Process of SEO

2.7.1 Keyword

Choosing the right keywords or key phrases to optimize your site for search
engines is the key to a successful search engine optimization campaign. No
matter how elegantly designed a website is, it is worthless if it is hard to find
(Gregurec & Grd, 2012). The keyword research process typically begins with a
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keyword brainstorming session. HTML tags make use of keywords (titles, meta
descriptions, and headings). There are both free and paid tools available,
including Microsoft adCenter Labs, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Google
AdWords Keyword Tool. Since no single tool is flawless, it is necessary to
become familiar with a variety of tools to make better keyword judgments (Enge
et al., 2015).

According to Baye, De los Santos & Wildenbeest (2015), older and wealthier
customers are more likely to click on organic links when they use short queries
or mention a brand name. Less than 30% of all web searches are conducted
using popular search terms. There is a type of searcher known as the Fat Head
who makes up 18.5% of searchers. The middle 11.5% of searches are referred
to as Chunky Middles, and the rightmost 70% are referred to as Long Tails and
consist of hundreds of millions of unique searches per day. More than a few
short general terms, and longer and more precise keyword phrases can boost
qualified traffic and conversion rates (Kritzinger and Weideman, 2013.).

Types of Sample Keyword Simple Definition


Keywords
1 Fat Head Animation It covers a broad category

2 Chunky Middles Best Animation They start to add descriptor to it


Software

3 Long Tail Best Animation It adds even more descriptor


Software that runs on
mac

Figure 8 : Types of Keyword

2.7.2 Content SEO

Finding common terms and phrases that people frequently use in searches to
find the content, goods, or services your site offers is the first stage in the
keyword targeting process (Enge et al., 2015). Great quality content plays a
crucial role in Google rankings and has nothing to do with technical SEO. The
meta description should incorporate keywords into the text so that they make up
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between 3 and 9 percent of the website's source code. It is also highly


recommended that Meta tags be included; these cover title names, keywords,
and descriptions. One of the most important SEO elements is the title tag. It
describes the website's content (Dick, 2011). There are three key places where
the title tag appears. It appears at the top of the browser and in the relevant tab.
Additionally, the anchor text appears in SERPs and on external websites
(especially social media sites), where it will be used as a link anchor.

Figure 9: Search engine result page

The title of a website will also be used as a link anchor text by external websites
(especially social media sites). Search results display a maximum of 70
characters (Gregurec & Grd, 2012). In Killoran's (2010) view, Meta-tag
descriptions have become less relevant to search engines in recent years.
Thus, sellers need to create product titles that appeal to consumers by
providing them with features that interest them. Consumers' first impressions of
products and companies can be improved by these kinds of titles (Zhang et al.,
2015). The content of a website also has specific elements that should be taken
into account during SEO. Using the header tags <h1> and <h1> text sizes
should vary depending on the importance of the information (Sathitwitayakul &
Prasongsukarn, 2011).

On-page SEO factors such as header tags are very important. Rankings are
significantly improved for sites with quality H1. To determine the relevance of a
page, search engine crawlers look at the H1 description (Gregurec & Grd,
2012). The core of any company's website, in addition to headers, is its content.
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Websites with more, higher quality content will beat weaker websites on
Google. The ranking of a website is enhanced by keyword and synonym
content carried over from the title into the body. It is crucial to use keywords in
file names and other sections, such as photo descriptions. In SEO, images and
videos can be included if their "alt" attributes are used to describe them (Enge
et al., 2015). Website content should be structured and written for people, not
for search engines, according to Jones (2013). The latent semantic indexing
method is used by search engines to determine the relevance of a site to a
given search query. By utilizing terms with a similar theme, a content writer can
determine the relevance of a website. Writing that is elegant and accessible is
also valued by search engines. A search engine spider understands language
and is aware of users' dissatisfaction with poor content and clumsy sentences.
A user's attention will be captured by useful and informative content. In recent
years, search engines have become more adept at finding duplicate content.
Search engines punish website owners who provide content that is almost
exactly duplicated on the internet (Jones, 2013)

2.7.3 Technical SEO

Getting the website into a search engine's index is another important step of
SEO (Kritzinger and Weideman, 2013). It is possible to do this manually by
submitting URLs and sitemaps to search engines. A sitemap is a map of a
website. Sitemaps make it easier to navigate websites (Gregurec & Grd, 2012).
The domain name plays a significant role in Google's ranking algorithm. Moz
SEO survey found that many SEO professionals believe domain names are
becoming less important. A domain name should be chosen based on either a
brandable name or a keyword that will be optimized for your website (Killoran,
2013.). A Robots.txt file can be used to disable indexing of certain pages or
content. The size of the page is another strong indicator. Most search engines
will not fully index pages over 150 kilobytes, according to their estimate. It is
difficult for users to effectively navigate a website if pages load slowly (Google
says over three seconds) (Gregurec & Grd, 2012). Google declared that site
speed was a new ranking criterion in April 2010 (Marszakowski et al, 2015).
20

Additionally, concise query strings are preferred by search engines for URLs.
Search engines can index http://www.test.com/keyword far more easily than
http://www.test.com/product/keyword, which can confuse them and result in
important information being missed by them. When a URL has a simple, clean
format, it makes it easier for search engines to distinguish folder names
(Gregurec and Grd, 2012.). Additionally, the URL needs to have keywords
associated with it or be translated into the website's language. (Sathitwitayakul
and Prasongsukarn, 2011.) A broken link or 404-status link should be fixed,
according to Wang, Li, and Zhang (2015). An error 404 occurs when the
requested page cannot be found by the server. According to Google, all we
should do is centered on user satisfaction. (Eswarawaka, Kudikala, Kuchi &
Verma, 2017)

2.7.4 Link building

According to Google's SEO Starting Guide, "Link building is an art. Usually the
hardest work, but also the most vital to success, is an SEO's task (Zhang and
Cabage, 2016). Creating links to pages on your website is a process known as
link building. Its goal is to increase your pages' "authority" in Google's eyes so
that they rank higher and receive more search traffic.

2.8 Measuring and tracking SEO

What we cannot measure, cannot be improved or in Peter Drucker's words,


"what gets measured gets managed,". The definition and mapping of the road
toward a specific goal are essential components of the SEO
process.Stakeholders always have their expectations of seeing success in SEO.
Measuring the SEO performance helps to identify how well the SEO strategy is
progressing as they add. Value to the stakeholders. Furthermore, it also
identifies the things that need to improve which is critical for SEO success. To
determine the SEO success, stakeholders need to define common goals, then
only additional metrics can be identified which can be tracked to whether the
21

defined goals are achieved or not. For instance, increasing the sales on a
website, generating revenue from ads, or getting more audience can be some
of the goals that the stakeholder defines. After the goal is defined, additional
metrics need to be defined for achieving it. Total site traffic or in specific pages,
keywords driving the traffic and conversions etc. can be some of the underlying
metrics which helps to collect the data about people's engagement on the
website. Data can be tracked and gathered using web analytics tools such as
Google Analytics, which remains the most popular free one till date and
provides us with valuable SEO data above the mentioned metrics.

Subsequently, there will be a baseline and new data which can be compared to
determine the SEO success and ultimately tracked and refined if the SEO
project deviates from its defined goal. For example, your observed changes are
measurably negative - no change in the traffic or the conversion rate within a
week, then there is a need to examine the data and figure out what has been
overlooked and try to refine it. Instead, your positive change - increase in traffic
then you are on the right track and try it on the other pages on the site.

Furthermore, measuring the search traffic needs a web analytics solution which
gathers different SEO data. Some of the well-known options are Google
Analytics, Woopra, Clicky, Piwik, SiteCatalyst and so on. One should always
select the web analytics tools that assist in achieving the goals. This analytics
dashboard helps to provide an eagle eye view of all the vital metrics on a single-
page view (Enge et al., 2015).

In addition, action tracking will also help to narrow down the group of visitors
based on their action on site. It is quite a complex approach as it requires
attaching the code to different components of sites which then gather the data
accordingly. For instance, in an ecommerce site action tracking can be
implemented to determine, how many users add the product to cart, how many
of them completed the checkout, how many users save or share the product to
wishlist or to others. This type of data allows the organic search to be compared
against email marketing, social media campaigns and so on (Enge et al., 2015).
22

2.8.1 Most Important SEO KPIs

“What you measure, you move” makes it crystal clear that it is necessary to
keep on monitoring the SEO performance for better SEO strategy. However,
there are thousands of metrics that helps to track the performance. Among
them only the most important ones are mentioned below that are quite critical
for any business and need to be tracked regularly (5 Top KPIs for Measuring
SEO Performance in 2018, 2022).

2.8.2 Organic Traffic

Marketers want organic search traffic because it is targeted for their website. If
marketers can give customers the particular thing they are seeking for, they will
get a new subscriber or customer. It also indicated the overall progress of your
SEO strategy, as increase in organic search results means website's visibility
has increased through keyword ranking (5 Top KPIs for Measuring SEO
Performance in 2018, 2022).

2.8.3 Keyword Rankings

Keyword means a single word or a phrase with which different search results
are produced in any search engine. Keyword Ranking helps us to determine
how high the target keyword generates the results in search engines, or it is
dropped from the previous standing. Marketers must have a mix of Generic
keywords, Global keywords and Broad keywords in a site for getting the best
result in a search. The goal of keyword ranking is get listed on the first page and
as close as to top of the result in any search engine (5 Top KPIs for Measuring
SEO Performance in 2018, 2022).

2.8.4 Conversion Rate

It is the ratio of conversions (for one specific desired action or goal) to unique
visits. Anything can have a conversion rate, including email signups, purchases,
and account creations. Marketers may estimate the return on investment (ROI)
23

that their website visitors may provide by knowing their conversion rate (5 Top
KPIs for Measuring SEO Performance in 2018, 2022).

2.8.5 Bounce Rate

Searchers who "bounced" off the site after viewing a page do so without
continuing to browse it. This will help to monitor the effectiveness of the website
and determine how engaging the site is. A low bounce rate signifies that users
have found what they were looking for. Google Analytics can help to track these
metrics (5 Top KPIs for Measuring SEO Performance in 2018, 2022). Figure 11
below shows the example of good bounce rate.

Figure 10: Google analytics dashboard (Kortis, 2023)

2.8.6 Page Load Time

The load time of the website is quite important as it directly impacts the other
metrics such as bounce rate, conversion. More load time means a higher
chance of leaving the site. Google’s page speed insights help to determine
one’s load time as 90% or above is considered as good while those who have
below it needs improvement (5 Top KPIs for Measuring SEO Performance in
2018, 2022).
24

2.8.7 Click Through Rate (CTR)

The organic click-through rate is a statistic that quantifies how many people
clicked through out of all the viewers. In organic SEO this refers to how many
searchers viewed your result and how many of them clicked through to the
page. The click through rate has an impact on organic rankings. If the CTR is as
anticipated, then it is doing well. Expect the rating to drop if you are not (CXL,
2020).

CTR = Clicks / Impressions * 100

Figure 11: Google analytics dashboard (The SEO impact 2020)


25

3 Methodology

The purpose of this chapter is to describe the existing research methodologies


and justify the selection of the research method which has been selected. To
understand how the results were influenced, limitations are also listed. Finally,
the results of the selected research methodology are described in the data
analysis.

3.1 Types of research methodology

In everyday speech, the term "research" refers to the pursuit of knowledge.


Another way to describe research is as a methodical and scientific search for
relevant data regarding a particular subject. It is a journey of discovery. We all
have the instinct to be curious, which is essential because it drives us to dig and
gain a more in-depth understanding of the unknown when it confronts us. The
word "research" describes a methodical approach that includes articulating a
problem, developing a hypothesis, gathering data, analyzing it, and coming to a
definite conclusion, either as a solution to the specific problem at hand or as a
generalization for a theoretical formulation (Kothari, 2004).

The basic types of research are exploratory, descriptive, and causal.


Descriptive research is a type of research that seeks to describe the
characteristics, behaviors, attitudes, and experiences of a particular group,
population, or phenomenon. The goal of descriptive research is to provide a
comprehensive picture of a subject or topic of interest, without trying to
manipulate or control any variables. Exploratory research is a type of research
that is conducted when a researcher is attempting to explore a new or
unfamiliar area of study. The purpose of exploratory research is to gain a
preliminary understanding of a phenomenon, problem, or situation. Exploratory
research is typically qualitative in nature and involves the collection of data
through methods such as interviews, observations, and focus groups. This data
is often unstructured and open-ended, allowing the researcher to gain insignt on
all the opinions on a topic they are not familiar with. Descriptive research
26

methods include observations, surveys, case studies, and correlational studies.


These methods collect data through the use of questionnaires, interviews, or
direct observations of people, events, or objects. The collected data is then
analyzed to identify patterns, trends, and relationships. Causal research
typically involves the manipulation of one or more independent variables to see
if they have an effect on a dependent variable. Causal research is often
conducted in experimental settings, where researchers can control the variables
being studied and manipulate them to see how they affect the dependent
variable (Creswell, 2012).

The quantitative approach and the qualitative approach are two other important
research methods. Research that uses numerical data and statistical analysis is
known as quantitative research. Quantitative research typically involves
collecting data through structured methods such as surveys, experiments, or
observation. Qualitative research, on the other hand, deals with qualitative
phenomena. Phenomena relating to or affecting quality or disposition.
Interviews, focus groups, observations, case studies, and content analysis are
examples of qualitative research methodologies. Quantitative and qualitative
research are combined in mixed-method research. This approach is utilized
when the results from both methods are equally significant (Creswell, 2012).

The qualitative approach is used in this work because it corresponds with the
study's goal. Given the scope of this study, in-depth interviews and observations
were deemed to be the most effective methods for gathering data because they
enable one to gather the most useful data for analysis. The feature of qualitative
research is that it looks at how people interpret their own concrete, real-world
experiences in their own minds and words before analyzing these perceptions
using the theories of a behavioural science, for instance psychology, sociology,
anthropology, politics, education, health sciences, or, in modern times, business
and management, decision-making, or innovation (Cropley, 2022). Due to
numerous limitations and privacy concerns, it has been decided against using
the quantitative method that assumed a corresponding survey.
27

3.2 Qualitative Research

A few SEO professionals who work full-time for different organizations were
used for in-depth interviews as part of the qualitative research. One of the most
typical methods for gathering qualitative data is through one-on-one in-depth
conversations, which is how the data for this study was obtained. Interviewing is
one of the most popular ways to gather data for study in qualitative research.
For this particular research Qualitative research methods provided an
opportunity to collect opinions and motivations from people who are familiar with
Google and SEO. In addition to their constant use of Google, these very same
people are also Google's customers. It is for this reason that their feelings and
opinions are so important. In a quantitative study, feelings would not have been
expressed in the same way as they were in this qualitative study (Kaplan and
Duchon, 1988). The other advantage of this approach is that the interviewer can
observe the individual's behaviour (Creswell, 2012). The goal of this study is to
gain a deeper understanding of how seriously businesses take SEO to expand
their operations and how SEO may be enhanced to achieve greater visibility.

To gain a deeper understanding of the subjects, the author prepared well-


structured questions and allowed adequate time for the interviewees. Questions
were based on the following topics:

 Marketing: The objective of the questions about marketing was to gain an


understanding of the interviewee's knowledge and gain an understanding
of how marketing has changed over their careers.

 Customer journey: The objective of the question about the customer


journey was to gain an understanding of the interviewee's knowledge
and gain an understanding of how the customer journey is impacted by
SEO.

 Digital Marketing: The objective of the questions about Digital Marketing


was to gain an understanding of the interviewee's knowledge and gain
an understanding of what Digital marketing is, how Digital marketing has
evolved over the decades and how important is SEO in Digital marketing.
28

 SEO: The objective of the questions about SEO was to gain a deeper
understanding of the interviewee's knowledge and gain an understanding
of the importance of SEO, how SEO can be improved to increase
visibility, important techniques of SEO, and the importance of search
engine visibility.

3.3 Validity and Reliability

A total of 3 interviews were conducted out of which one was carried out online
as the company was located in another city (Turku) and it was not so
convenient to visit. All the interviews were recorded and later the recording was
transcribed. In order to ensure the validity and reliability of the results,
interviews were conducted with highly skilled and experienced SEO
optimization professionals. Furthermore, the companies with different business
modules were chosen e.g., Software companies, event management
companies, and gaming companies to see what techniques and methods they
use to improve search engine optimization in their company.

To evaluate the interviewee's level of understanding about how SEO may be


enhanced to increase search engine exposure, all questions were carefully
crafted and asked in a specific order. The interview's structure also ensured that
the subject knew about the topic of the study. When analyzing the findings,
personal biases and opinions were taken into account. With the consent of the
interview subjects, every session was taped and then converted into text.

3.4 Limitations of the study

It is essential to identify several limitations and problems that surfaced while this
thesis was being written. The first limitation is that the criteria specified in the
Search Engine Optimization plan are mutable and makeup just a small
percentage of the complexity of SEO, as stated by Google themselves, that
there are hundreds of factors they observe to rank a page or website in their
29

results and that they frequently update algorithms connected to search engine
ranking. Google is used as the study's search engine of choice. If other search
engine platforms had been taken into account, the results might have been
richer. Yandex from Russia and Baidu from China are two examples. Despite
having knowledge of SEO skills, the author was only allowed a limited amount
of access to make changes due to various security reasons by his senior
officials at his company. Because of this, he was not able to make any big SEO
modifications by himself.
30

4 Result

The analysis of the information gathered during one-on-one interviews is


provided in this part. Appendix 1 contains the transcripts of the conversations.

4.1 Marketing

According to the study by Drummond and Ensor (2012), business today relies
heavily on modern technology to satisfy the needs of their customers. All the
respondents noted that Marketing has changed significantly in the past decade
due to technology and consumer behavior. With the increasing use of social
media, brands are able to engage with customers in new ways. A highly
personalized advertisement can be tailored to specific groups. Since mobile
devices are becoming increasingly popular, brands use mobile-friendly apps to
reach consumers. Additionally, there is content marketing, such as reels,
videos, small infographics, and influencer marketing. Influencers with large
followers can promote products and services. Through their recommendations,
they can earn trust easily, and their followers can also use their products and
services.

4.2 Consumer Behaviour

In modern era of eCommerce, customer's journey comprises every digital


touchpoint they have with their brand, claimed Stankevich (2017). All the
respondents agreed that nowadays, every step of buying process usually
involves consumer doing some sort of online or digital activity. Regardless of
whether that consumer came from online—a Google search, a Slack forum, or a
Facebook advertisement—everyone wants them to end up on their website in
the vast majority of cases. Top priority must be given to the website's SEO and
technical health to give it the best chance of getting spotted and even to shorten
the time it takes for customers to find the site
31

4.3 Digital Marketing

Businesses use various digital channels and digital tactics to reach customers
online, where they usually spend most of their time, is digital marketing (Chaffey
& Ellis-Chadwick, 2022). It was mentioned by all the interviewees that Digital
marketing offers brands a means to promote their products or services and
connect with their target audience. While traditional marketing campaigns also
strive to achieve these goals, digital marketing allows companies to concentrate
on a more distinct or specialized market. Interacting with customers online can
help gain trust of a greater audience at a lower cost.

Additionally, they mentioned that Artificial intelligence can be used in digital


marketing to meet customer needs. The demand for digital marketing also
skyrocketed when the Covid-19 outbreak struck. Customers were compelled to
work from home online, which increased their exposure to digital marketing. To
stay ahead of the competition, businesses had to suddenly develop distinctive
and novel kinds of digital marketing. In those difficult times, digital marketing
was essential for keeping businesses and customers connected.

4.4 Search engine Optimization (SEO)

Accourding to Enge et al. (2019) the benefits of improving search engine


visibility include increased sales, brand awareness, consumer education, and
social activism. Everyone who participated in the interview also mentioned how
search engine visibility boosts company credibility and customer loyalty, and
increases traffic, interaction, and conversations. One of the interviewees
remarked:

"Search engine visibility is important as it increases organic website traffic.


Therefore, the website is more likely to generate clicks from users if it appears
at the top of the search result page. When we search, we always click on the
first result that appears. We assume that a website is genuine and trustworthy if
32

it appears on the first page of the search results. Furthermore, it enhances


brand visibility and automatically increases sales”.

Figure 12: SERP (Search engine result page)

Companies that spend money on search engine visibility are growing faster
than those that spend money on other online advertising methods (Ward, 2017).
The interviewees talked mostly about finding new customers when discussing
SEO. They were looking for new, more affordable methods to contact potential
customers after realizing that their traditional newspaper advertisements would
not work any longer. The primary reason they chose to concentrate on Google
was based on common sense; since they all used Google themselves, they
reasoned that their potential customers would do the same. Additionally, they
stated that modern brands could improve their chances of showing up at the top
of the search results page with SEO and the leads generated by search engines
are warmer than leads generated, for instance, by banner advertising. There
33

are billions of searches for information and products conducted every day on
Google.

SEO's long-term search engine visibility plan gives businesses the ability to
raise the position of their website in organic search results (Hubspot,2017). The
interviewees also notice that it comes as no surprise that one of the main
sources of traffic to websites is typically search engines. One must rank among
the top search results for the target keywords in order to fully utilize the potential
of this traffic source. It is very simple: the higher you are ranking, the more
visitors you will get. Most of the interviewees chose to keep using SEO because
they had seen positive outcomes.

4.5 Benefit of SEO

According to Baye, De los Santos & Wildenbeest (2015), high-quality websites


receive better rankings from search engine and leads to more clicks. Website's
position in search engine results is crucial to driving visitors and converting
them into customers and based on a cost-benefit analysis, the SEO initiative is
also far more affordable than a SEA campaign (Enge et al.2015). When asked
about SEO's benefits all respondents had similar notion. All of them
mentioned SEO is organic and that as the site rises in the ranks, traffic
increases. Websites that appear on the first few pages of search engine results
have been found to obtain greater amounts of traffic than those that do not.
SEO includes several aspects (link building, user-engaging content, etc.). When
using a pay-per-click technique, websites will show up at the top of the SERP;
however, the site will vanish as soon as they stop purchasing advertise.
However, SEO outcomes are not reliant on advertisements, and if we keep our
website up to date, it will rank high even without advertising. Achieving the top
spot on the SERP does not require payment to Google or advertising vendors.

Additionally, they mentioned that advertising products was traditionally done


through brochures, advertisements, and television. There was a huge amount of
34

money spent on advertising. It is no longer expensive to create and host a


website today. Digital marketing experts or professional SEO companies can be
a viable option, depending on the industry.

A high click through rate (CTR) suggests that people entering that query are
likely to find the landing page relevant. As a result, Google's algorithm is going
to favor the website going forward (Killoran 2013). Many interviewees also
mentioned that when they rank among the top Google search results, the
search engine considers them to be a relevant source of useful
information/content that is better than the competition. As a result, the credibility
and reliability of their brand will increase.

4.6 How SEO can be improved ?

To improve SEO, there are many SEO techniques that can be optimized. While
some businesses concentrate on using only the most fundamental SEO
techniques, others are going above and beyond. According to the studies
conducted by Weideman et al. (2013), the visibility goal can be attained through
a variety of techniques, many of which come through the functioning of search
engine algorithms. The SEO expert will first create a list of keywords and/or
phrases. As was mentioned by all respondents: “content optimization and
keyword research are both part of basic SEO”. However, in more complex
environments, technical SEO techniques are also necessary, along with both
building internal and external links. Although it is asserted that anyone can
perform SEO, it does take more skill when the competition for the chosen
keywords is high. Many interviewees noted that they optimize the existing
content by doing keyword research, figuring out which are highly relevant
keywords, and comparing the results with the content that is already present. To
create more effective content, they focus on targeting long-tail keywords (A
long-tail keyword is a phrase that is longer and more specific than a short-tail
keyword) that have less competition and offer more valuable information than
what is currently available.
35

The primary goal of any content marketing effort should be enhancing the
reputation of businesses (Enge et al., 2015). Many interviewees hold similar
opinions about the importance of creating high-quality content and adding
engaging multimedia. Adding videos, such as explainer videos, product
demonstrations, and client endorsements, can also help draw more users to the
website, increase dwell time, and reduce bounce rate. Furthermore, it can be
done by adding infographics that simplify the complicity and give the text a
visual component. When visitors to the website find the content engaging, they
are more likely to remain on the site for longer periods. In turn, Google's
machine learning algorithms will take into account elements such as dwell time
and bounce rate, which indicate that the content is relevant and meets the
needs of searchers

According to Killoran (2010), meta-tag descriptions have become less relevant


to search engines in recent years, and instead, sellers need to create product
titles that appeal to consumers. However, interviewees had a different opinion
on this matter, stating that composing better meta tags is a crucial element for
enhancing SEO. They claimed that meta tags are the detailed text that draws
the attention of search engines, and continuously improves and optimizes them
- including the meta title and meta description - can increase visibility. The meta
description, which appears immediately below the title in search results, can
entice users to click through to the website for additional details and solutions to
their questions. Once optimized, these meta tags can increase engagement and
boost the click-through rate (CTR)

The off-page optimization procedure, particularly link building, is crucial to the


process of search engine optimization. Organizing a link-building campaign will
boost website traffic, increase link popularity, and ultimately improve search
engine positioning (Enge et al., 2015). This is how the interviewees perceived
these notions. In off-page SEO, one of the most crucial factors to boost SEO is
to think about developing a backlinking plan and adding more internal links to
increase the number of connections from authoritative, pertinent websites. This
36

will notify Google that website is providing readers with authoritative


information. There are several methods to do this, including Guest posting on
other reputable websites, establishing connections with influential people, and
increasing business initiatives on social media. The secret to a successful
backlinking plan is to establish connections with other reputable, authoritative
websites.

Additional findings from interviewees regarding SEO improvements include


reviewing the keyword approach to see if other pages on the website are also
optimizing for the same keywords. This will increase competition between the
pages and could negatively impact the SERP rankings. The website needs to
be mobile-friendly as a large number of consumers use their phones to search
for information today. Google's emphasis on mobile-first indexing, will enhance
both the user experience and the website visibility. The page load time can be
examined to make sure the website visitors have a positive experience as they
can enhance user engagement, dwell time, and conversion potential with the
right website loading speeds.

Search engines regularly update their search algorithms as well as making


significant changes. As Google's algorithms are updated frequently the same
query may appear differently in different SERPs (Killoran, 2013). Two
interviewees noted that Google updates its search engine algorithms
approximately 500 to 600 times per year, with most updates being minor and
having little impact on SEO visibility. However, there are 1-2 core updates per
year that can significantly affect website rankings on SERPs. Therefore, it is
essential to stay informed about all search engine algorithm updates to improve
or maintain SEO. If there is a drop in organic traffic to the website and a decline
in rankings on SERPs, it is important to figure out why and take appropriate
action

Killoran (2013) study, a website's ranking is influenced by several factors, and


the interviewees perceived a similar notion. Technical problems such as server
downtime when a Google bot tries to crawl the website, URL structure issues,
deletion of pages, alteration of internal linkages, and more, must be fixed
37

promptly to avoid a drop in SEO visibility. Even if everything is done correctly on


the website, competitors may have increased their optimization efforts to
improve their SEO exposure. Therefore, it is important to constantly monitor and
learn what rivals are doing. Losing backlinks can also result in a decline in
search engine visibility. It is advisable to check if any of your backlinks from
influencers or high-quality websites have been deleted. If so, reach out to those
websites or influencers to inquire about the backlinks. You can learn important
information about why you lost the backlink and whether it was given to a rival
for a specific reason. Restart building those connections and producing
valuable, high-quality content for your readers.

Both on-page SEO (or on-site SEO) and off-page SEO (or off-site SEO) are
equally important in search engine optimization (Shenoy & Prabhu, 2016).
When asked about the importance of off-page and on-page SEO, the
interviewees stated that both are equally crucial and refer to the same thing. To
be effective, SEO practices must include both internal and external factors, as
Google uses both factors in its ranking process. In some cases, we may need to
focus more on one of these SEO types than the other. However, we should not
exclusively focus on one of them at all times, as off-page SEO and on-page
SEO target different SEO factors

4.7 Measuring SEO

What we cannot measure, cannot be improved or in Peter Drucker's words,


"what gets measured gets managed,". The definition and mapping of the road
toward a specific goal are essential components of the SEO process (Enge et
al., 2015). This is how the interviewee perceives this notion: “There is no way to
determine whether your SEO KPIs are successful without defining, monitoring,
and evaluating the SEO KPIs that are important for your business”. In general,
all respondents stated that there are many tools for measuring and tracking
KPIs, but the most popular tool is Google analytics. Moz Keywork Explorer and
Google Keyword Planner were the most popular tools for keyword research
among the interviewees.
38

According to the interviewees they stated that depending on the business they
have their own set of KPIs but the most important KPIs are Conversions (sales
and leads), Organic visibility, Keyword ranking, Bounce rate, and CTR. Organic
conversions include sales, leads, subscriptions, and any other action that
generates revenue for the company. The simplest approach to show that the
SEO efforts were successful is to measure and track organic conversions. The
other crucial SEO KPI is “organic visibility” which directly affects the SEO
efforts, overall business growth, and brand awareness.

Keyword rankings are effective as SEO KPIs because they offer detailed
information on the phrases that are bringing in the most traffic and why.
Increases in keyword ranks typically result in increased visitors and revenue.
The higher you rank, the higher your CTR will be, which is a straightforward
indicator that displays the percentage of visitors who click on your website after
viewing it on the SERP. Bounce rate is another crucial KPI for determining
whether the visitors to your page are engaged by your content. It is also an
excellent technique to determine how pertinent your page is to the search terms
for which it is ranked.

Figure 13:Google analytics dashboard (Seo Kpis 2022)


39

The majority of the respondents appeared to understand that SEO is a process


rather than a project. The algorithm modifications are the primary cause of this.
Interviews with SEO experts revealed positive reactions to algorithm
adjustments. They believed that these adjustments helped Google distinguish
between trustworthy websites and those that employ unethical SEO practices.
Additionally, they raise user happiness with the Google search engine and
guarantee that users will continue to use Google in the future.
40

5 Conclusion

As a result of this research paper, it can be concluded that SEO is incredibly


beneficial as a strategy for increasing online visibility, expressing authority or
knowledge, building trust, increasing organic search traffic to websites, and
eventually increasing sales and conversion rates. Effective SEO takes a lot of
time and effort, but because of the enduring effects, it should be an integral
component of every website's marketing strategy, frequently acting as the base
upon which other marketing efforts or paid advertisements can be constructed.
The basics of SEO are easy to understand and may be performed without the
help of experts in many cases. Results can be tracked very precisely when
analytics and raw data are used, which is a big advantage in the fiercely
competitive internet market where marketers frequently compete for a portion of
the company budget. To rank highly on SERPs and draw organic traffic, the
majority of successful websites have put time and effort into SEO. However, it
may be advantageous for businesses of all sizes, with local search, in
particular, providing potential for smaller businesses. The benefits and value
that SEO offers make it one of the best marketing activities a company can
spend on. It takes constant work to stay on top of changes in search engine
algorithms and to be visible.

The primary goal of the study was to investigate why search engine visibility is
crucial for businesses. The advantages of having a successful organic search
strategy are numerous. Just a handful of the factors that make SEO crucial are:
It is affordable, it provides excellent ROI, It provides useful information, and
through the marketing funnel, it cultivates leads. It increases credibility and pulls
in targeted users. Both the articles and the interview subjects emphasized the
fact that if the site does not show up in SERP, it does not exist. Nowadays,
customers look for the products they wish to buy online, and only companies
with an online presence are included in the comparison regardless of whether
the transaction takes place online or offline. Because of this, most businesses
place a lot of importance on their search engine presence. Google was
frequently mentioned while considering which search engines should be taken
41

into account. According to the study, when people "Google," they often refer to
Google as a search engine. According to some respondents, SEO in Google
might also benefit other search engines.

The main objective of the research was to gain insight into how to improve SEO
to increase visibility. Most frequently, on-site elements like keywords and
content SEO were separated from off-site aspects like technical SEO and link
development. It has been proven that SEO is a waste of time without through
keyword research, and the more resources SEO demands, the more
competitive industry must be. In the study, the SEO professionals suggested
starting with the simple jobs to see if they are sufficient before moving on to the
trickier ones. They said that if there is little rivalry for the keywords, anyone
should be able to perform SEO, but if there is a lot of competition, you should
turn to SEO professionals. One justification for this was the possibility of ruining
a website if you do not know what you are doing when making the more difficult
adjustments. SEO is a process, not a project, that takes time. Only over the
long term will you see the most benefits, and if you stop practicing SEO, your
visibility may also go. There are several strategies to enhance SEO to increase
website visibility, for example. Add more pertinent keywords to your existing text
to improve it. By changing the date of publishing or developing new titles, you
can keep your evergreen content valuable. Prioritizing long-tail keywords, more
high-quality content should be produced, improving the meta tags, examining
the page load time, looking for keyword overlap identifying more opportunities to
expand or capture Google SERF features, and ensuring that the website is
mobile-friendly.

According to the literature analysis and the interview, the key advantages of
SEO for a company were improved search engine visibility, more website traffic,
higher-quality website visitors, and more conversions. Additionally, it was
mentioned that over time, SEO is more cost-efficient than SEA. One of the
advantages was a greater understanding of website programming, business,
and search engine users, according to the interviewees. Everything in digital
42

marketing ought to be measurable. Both the literature review and the


interviewee mentioned ROI in addition to high SERP rankings.
Some suggestions were formed to add value to this research. One of the
greatest problems with SEO is that it is rarely taken into account when websites
are updated, which wastes resources. In those circumstances, the content and
website structure both need to be redone shortly after the new website is
released, which could be problematic. The suggestion was to incorporate SEO
into website renovation because this enables the creation of a website that is
search-engine friendly from the start.

A drop in website traffic and a decline in search engine ranks can be stressful
and upsetting for any business. The SEO visibility may have declined, which
may be the issue. One must examine the causes of this visibility loss and figure
out the best solutions to solve it to raise, improve, or restore it. The entire SEO
strategy will be crucial to your performance in terms of rankings, conversions,
and income growth, so regularly assessing it will be beneficial in a variety of
ways.
43

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49
Appendix 1

Appendices

The transcript of interview 1#

Can you please Introduce yourself?


I'm a digital marketer, An expert in digital marketing and search engine
optimization.

How has marketing changed


Over the past ten years, marketing has undergone significant change. Over the
past ten years, social media and smartphone development have altered how we
connect with brands and consume information. To stay up with changes in
technology and consumer behavior, the marketing sector is continually evolving.
Although businesses are continuously attempting to determine which marketing
strategies will be most effective, it is still unclear what the next big thing will be.
Specific groups can be targeted with a highly personalized advertisement.

Have you noticed any changes in customer behavior?


Consumer behavior has shifted significantly towards online and mobile platforms
over the past decade, leading to an increase in digital advertising. Today,
customers begin their buying process by searching for what they need and want
on their mobile devices through search engines; therefore, companies must also
improve their search engine visibility.

How had digital marketing taken over traditional marketing


Traditional marketing strategies are being replaced by digital marketing. To reach
a wider audience, digital marketing has proven more efficient and cost-effective
than traditional marketing. As well as offering greater flexibility than traditional
methods, it allows for more precise targeting of potential customers. There are
many ways to reach consumers through digital marketing, such as email
campaigns, social media ads, search engine optimization, and content marketing.
50
Appendix 1

By using these tools, businesses can deliver tailored messages to specific


demographics, resulting in higher conversion rates. Businesses can also
measure the success of their campaigns with the help of digital marketing. The
break-out of COVID had increased the use of digital marketing.

What is your view on SEO?

The purpose of SEO is to increase web traffic to a website and improve visibility
by optimizing it for Google search. By doing this, the company increases
credibility, customer loyalty, traffic, interactions, and conversations. A search
engine optimization process is an all-inclusive digital marketing technique that
improves search engine rankings for your website. There's no doubt that SEO is
an expansive and ever-evolving field and that's why it's hard to sum it up in a
few words. The majority of SEO experts choose to concentrate on Google
instead of other search engines since most of us use Google. There is no doubt
that search engines drive the majority of traffic to websites. In order to get more
traffic, we have to rank our site as high as we can.

How significant is Search engine visibility for Business Today ?

Search engine optimization (SEO) has a number of advantages for


organizations when applied wisely, including greater site traffic and more
qualified prospects entering the sales funnel. SEO is fundamentally free
because it has the potential to increase customer attention to your company
through organic means. When creating engaging and highly-ranked content to
reach your target audience and suit their needs, it can be helpful to understand
the fundamentals of SEO. We can observe greater business growth and higher
engagement by comprehending and applying SEO best practices. With SEO,
we don't need to pay for top placement on SERPs while with PPC advertising,
we need to pay to stay on top. Our brand can easily be recognized.
51
Appendix 1

What do you think about how search engine rank websites?

Search engines employ their own algorithms to rank websites. However, the
primary factor in search ranking is quality content.

In search engine marketing, what is more significant? Search engine


advertising or searching in optimization? What do you think?

For me, both SEO and paid search (SEA) ads can benefit businesses and provide
amazing returns on investment. When used correctly, they can be extremely
effective. Your choice of digital marketing channel and when to use it depends on
your goals. You should use paid search if you want to generate immediate sales.
Implementing SEO takes time and produces positive results over time. When you
rank high in SERPs, you'll get organic traffic and don't need to spend any money

Which factor on page SEO and off page SEO? What do you think is the most
significant factor of SEO?
They are both crucial parts of SEO for me, so I give them equal priority

What are the factors that you consider most while implementing SEO on
websites? Can you please break down in detail ?
The most crucial component of SEO is keyword research since it allows us to
pinpoint our target audience. Another fundamental of SEO is content
optimization. More advanced optimization requires technical SEO techniques.
When there is a lot of competition, long-tail keywords are beneficial. Engaging
content, such as podcasts and polls, will increase user engagement and reduce
bounce rates. Because clients will visit the site after reading an engaging meta
description and title in the SERP, creating better meta tags is also a crucial
component of SEO. Off-page SEO is similarly crucial for building backlinks that
will inform Google of its relevance.
52
Appendix 1

Do you have any KPI's that you track, what are the most important for your
business? Can you explain?
Yes we have , The most important KPIs for our business are Organic visibility,
Keyword ranking, Bounce rate, and CTR. Organic conversions include sales,
leads, subscriptions, and any other action that generates revenue for our
company. The other crucial SEO KPI is “organic visibility” which affects the SEO
efforts, overall business growth, and brand awareness. Keywords rankings are
useful as SEO KPIs since they provide specific information on the phrases that
are driving the most traffic and why. Increases in keyword rankings often translate
into more visits and money.

How do you measure and track SEO?


I use google analytics to mesure and track SEO

Do you have any specific tools for keyword research, technical SEO,
backline monitoring and analyzing?
I mostly use Ahrefs Keyword explorer and moz keyword explorer and for
monitoring and analyzing I use google analysis

Overall, how satisfied are you with the implementation of SEO to grow your
company's business?
Considering that I am giving good results, I am quite satisfied with everything

The transcript of interview 2 #

Can you please Introduce yourself?


Sure. first, thank you for invitation for this meeting. my name is Marcia and
Currently Iam working for on Gaming company as an SEO expert
53
Appendix 1

How has marketing changed in the past decades?


Since the advent of technology, marketing has undergone a radical
transformation. Today's internet-connected world makes marketing incredibly
social. Since the 1980s, it has grown rapidly. TV and print marketing are no longer
the only means of marketing today. Marketing has taken on many new forms
thanks to the internet, and new strategies have evolved as a result. In marketing,
the needs of the time will always be met. Due to the increasing popularity of
smartphones and tablets, brands will have to learn how to format their marketing
to look good on these devices.

Have you noticed any changes in customer behavior?


I think With consumers increasingly using online and mobile platforms, digital
advertising has increased dramatically over the past decade. Due to this, online
advertising techniques have undergone a number of changes, including a greater
emphasis on targeted advertising and personalisation, the use of social media
and influencer marketing, and the use of data and analytics to optimize ad
campaigns.

How has digital marketing taken over traditional marketing,

A business's ability to reach their target audience and grow their customer base
has been greatly enhanced by digital marketing. Businesses can reach a larger
audience with effective internet marketing campaigns for a fraction of the cost of
traditional methods. In digital marketing, we can also use a variety of tools. AI (
Artificial intelligence) can be used in digital marketing. Digital marketing became
more popular when COVID-19 broke out. Customers were forced to work from
home online, increasing the demand for it. Business and customers were
connected through digital marketing during those difficult times.
54
Appendix 1

What is your view on SEO?

The majority of Internet traffic today comes from organic search, which means if
your campaign does not incorporate SEO, your brand will not be exposed to the
majority of the crowd. SEO establishes credibility and increases brand authority.
An SEO brand's authority and credibility in its market will continue to pay
dividends for years to come by increasing traffic and eventually sales if it has
acquired substantial SEO brand authority. It is important to realize that building
brand authority takes time, effort, and commitment, along with providing
customers with value, quality products and services. Taking actions based on
SEO strategy takes time to reflect the results, as SEO is a long-term process.
Companies today spend more money on SEO, which leads to faster growth. With
an affordable cost, SEO is the most effective way to find a new customer as old
traditional marketing techniques are no longer effective.

How significant is Search engine visibility for Business Today ?

SEO is organic; thus traffic grows as the site moves up the rankings. It has been
discovered that websites that rank among the top few pages of search engine
results receive more traffic than those that do not. There are many components
to SEO, such as link building and user-engaging content. When using a pay-per-
click strategy, our site will be at the top of the SERP; however, as soon as we
stop buying ads, the site will disappear. However, SEO results are not dependent
on paid advertisments, and if we maintain our website, it will rank highly even
without advertising. Payment to Google or advertising providers is not necessary
to rank first on the SERP.
It is neither a one-step process nor a one-time technique. Being on the top of
SERP we can gain more awareness of our brand, our product, and our services
. Using SEO, we can raise brand recall by generating ongoing internet
55
Appendix 1

conversation about our company. We can develop a clear, distinctive brand voice
that will enable us to engage with our intended audience.

What do you think about how search engine rank websites?

Search engines use their own algorithms to rank webpages, ensuring that only
relevant results are returned based on the query entered by the user. In search
engine optimization, content is king, as the ranking of a website is directly
related to the content of the webpage. Therefore, all the Search Engines require
that the content of the webpage is unique and relevant to the website.
Approximately 500 or 600 times per year, Google updates its search engine
algorithms. Most of these updates are minor and have little impact on SEO
visibility. However, there are 1–2 core updates per year that can have a
significant impact. Therefore, we must stay informed about all search engine
algorithm updates to improve or maintain SEO. There might be a loss of search
engine visibility as a result of the changes in algorithms.

In search engine marketing, what is more significant? Search engine


advertising or searching in optimization? What do you think?

While both are equally important, search engine optimization is a long-term


strategy that delivers positive results once you rank well in the search engine
results pages. When you are looking for an immediate result, you should use
Search engine advertisement.
56
Appendix 1

Which factor on page SEO and off page SEO? What do you think is the most
significant factor of SEO?

Both are equally important in their own ways. When optimizing SEO, both must
be given equal priority.

What are the factors that you consider most while implementing SEO on
websites? Can you please break down in detail ?
I'll start with the first thing. A business can't find solutions to its problems if it
doesn't know what keywords its target market uses. You'll need to do some
research for this. Your product or service should be understood in-depth by
potential customers. In my opinion Content optimization and kewword search are
both the part of basic SEO. But for more advance level technical SEO tecniques
are also necessary. we can optimize the existing content by doing keyword
research, figuring out which are highly relevant keywords, and comparing the
results with the content that is already present. When there is a lot of competition
in your industry, a long-tail keyword approach might really assist you out.
Incorporating various forms of engaging content like quizzes, polls, calculators,
downloadable eBooks, podcasts, and other interactive content will increase dwell
time and decrease bounce rate

I would say A key component of improving SEO is creating better meta tags. To
increase visibility, we regularly have to enhance and optimize them, including the
meta title and meta description. Users may be encouraged to go through to the
website in search of more information and the answer to their query by the meta
description, which shows directly under the title in search results. These meta
tags can increase engagement and CTR after being optimized.

The off-page component of SEO is equally essential. One of the most important
aspects of off-page SEO is to think about creating a backlinking strategy and
increasing the number of internal links. to boost the quantity of links coming from
57
Appendix 1

reliable, important websites. This will let Google know that the website is giving
readers reliable information. This can be accomplished in several ways, such as
by guest posting on other reliable websites, developing relationships with
powerful individuals, and stepping up social media marketing efforts. The key to
creating an effective backlinking strategy is to network with other trustworthy,
authoritative websites.

I also would like to add that reviewing the keyword approach to see if other pages
on the website are also optimizing for the same keywords. Our website needs to
mobile friendly as large number of customers use their phone and google
emphasis on mobile -first indexing. We also must check the page load time to
make sure that all the users have the positive experience.

A decline in SEO visibility could occur as a result of a number of technical issues


(server down when a Google bot tries to crawl your website, URL structure,
deletion of pages, altered internal connections, and more).

How do you measure and track SEO?


Our marketing teams usually use different platforms like Semrush or Google
Analytics or something like this. We use both of them to track and measure SEO.

Do you have any KPI's that you track, what are the most important for your
business? Can you explain?
Organic visibility, Keyword ranking, Bounce rate, and CTR are some of our
important KPIs. All of them has its own importance like organic visibility effects
the brand awareness and business growth. Bounce rates determine whether the
visitors to the page are engaged by our content or not.
58
Appendix 1

Do you have any specific tools for keyword research, technical SEO,
backline monitoring and analyzing?
Google analytics, Ahrefs Keyword explorer and moz keyword explorer are some
of the tools we use.

Overall, how satisfied are you with the implementation of SEO to grow your
company's business?
When we optimize a website carefully, we will naturally achieve the top ranking,
and I am quite satisfied with the return on investment. SEO is a long-term
process, and we must keep a patient attitude. We were able to grow our business
as a result of it.

The transcript of interview 3#

Can you please Introduce yourself?


I'm freelance digital marketer. Right now, I am focusing mainly on SEO.

How has marketing changed in the past decades?


I would say marketing has changed significantly in the past decade due to
technology and changes in consumer behavior. for example, with the rise of
social media people use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram So brands can
connect with customers and engage with them through social media. They can
target specific groups with highly personalized ads. They can also, increase in
mobile usage. So, brands are focusing on creating mobile-friendly apps and using
SMS or to reach customers or e-mail to reach customers. And then also the
content marketing like reels,videos, small infographics and influencer marketing.
So influence by the large followers, they're using them to promote their product
and services. that they can get the trust with their recommendations and their
followers also use the products and services.
59
Appendix 1

Have you noticed any changes in customer consumer behavior?


The shopping habits, I would say in that sense like online shopping has become
more popular

How had digital marketing taken over traditional marketing?


The main thing is that digital marketing is lower cost, one can easily get in digital
format done, taking an advertisement, and put it on the TV commercial thing. And,
one can target the particular Demographic, people. You can target specific
audience based on their interest and behaviour.

what is your view on SEO?


it’s a crucial part of digital marketing and as it involves optimizing the content and
structure to improve the visibility and ranking of the website in the search engine
result page. So, in the background There's a big algorithm going on, like a Google
or Yahoo to determine the relevance and quality of the website but for us as a
user’s, we no need to know that algorithm. The brands can increase their chances
of appearing at the top of the search results when the user search for relevant
keywords. So that the website must have that keywords so that it comes on the
top of the result page. It involves various techniques like keyword research on-
page optimization, Off-page optimization, the technical SEO and content
creations.

How significant is search engine visibility for Business Today?


I think it's important. Because it increases website traffic. So, with the website
appears on the top of the search result page, it's more likely to receive clicks from
the users. we always click on the first whatever comes in the first page when we
search. It also improves brand visibility as well. we ourselves, we believe that if
something comes in the front page of the search then we feel like this is credible
and trustworthy website. So, it automatically increases the sales.

What do you think about how search engine rank website?


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Algorithms in the inside. But I would say the relevance, whatever the end users
search If that website has that keywords, then it comes on the front. Then the
authority, some of the website has many backlinks, many other websites also
referred this website all those things they need, it will gain that credibility and
authority and the user experience I would say Mobile friendly. They must look for
user experience, websites speed and then quality content for their giving. Then
some technical SEO parts.

In search engine marketing, what is more significant for you like Search
engine advertising or search engine optimization?
I would say that both are equally important or have their importance because
searching for ads involves placing ads on search engine results pages and paying
each time a user clicks on one. This can be used to drive that audience in the
short term. If the company wants to reach a wider audience in the short term, for
example, we can use search engine advertising. As I mentioned before, in the
long run, we can simply focus on SEO like content, building backlinks, and
improving the user experience. The long-term strategy would be search engine
optimization. In the short term, I would suggest search engine advertising to
increase instant visibility and generate leads.

What factor on-page SEO, or off-page SEO do you think is the most
significant factor of SEO?
Each has its importance and impacts on Website ranking in a different way, so I
would say they are equally important. An on-page SEO strategy focuses on the
content and structure of a website, user experience, and keyword research, such
as meta description and website speed. Off-page SEO is like building backlinks
for your website to make it more credible and authoritative.

what are the factors that you consider must while implementing SEO, you
know, on websites?
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To begin with, I would suggest performing a keyword search. Taking myself as


an example, I always think from the end user's perspective, OK, if I were the end
user, what would I search for? That entire content must be built based on keyword
research. We then focus on on-page optimizations, like website content structure,
and then on our technical aspects, like mobile friendliness, speed, and security,
which is our primary concern. Additionally, there are technical issues to consider,
such as website security. The quality of the content and the user experience must
also be considered.

How do you measure and track SEO?


Semrush or Google Analytics or something like this. I use both of them to track
and measure SEO.

Do you have any KPI's that you track, what are the most important for your
business? Can you explain?
Organic visibility, Keyword ranking, Bounce rate, and CTR are some of KPIs that
I use mostly to measure. Everyone has its own importance

Do you have any specific tools for keyword research, technical SEO,
backline monitoring and analyzing?
I mostly use tools like Google search console,Google analytics, Ahrefs Keyword
explorer and moz keyword

Overall, how satisfied are you with the implementation of SEO to grow your
company's business?
In my work, I always give 100%, but in SEO we need patience

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