Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: This study has two objectives. The first objective is to investigate firm exploitation of \nsearch engine optimisation (SEO) techniques with respect to website traffic. The second \nobjective is to report on the searching habits of Internet users. This study uses a \nqualitative descriptive approach that analyses 15 different case studies of business to \nbusiness (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) companies. These companies include \nnine banks, four telecommunication companies and two automotive companies. The indepth, semi-structured interviews were administered by telephone and/or personal \ninterviews. Additionally, a questionnaire-based survey was administered to Internet users \nto determine their web use and searching habits. The results demonstrate that firms are \ncurrently exploiting SEO at a limited level, that the use of social media is rare and that \nfirms do not consider users' searching habits. This study also reveals that 84% of web \nusers spend up to two hours daily searching the Internet. The dominant search engine \n(i.e., the engine used by 90% of users) is Google. The use of social sites such as \nFacebook, Twitter, MySpace and Orkut is high among users (i.e., 85%). This study \nhighlights the opportunities that SEO provides to companies with respect to the use of \ntheir corporate website as a strategic marketing tool.
Authors: Irfan Ahmed, Rana Khurram Shahzad
Language: English
Subfield: Marketing
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2186760741