ArticlePDF Available

Influences of Search Engine Optimization on Performance of SMEs:

Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations

January 2015
13(1):27-49

DOI:10.4018/jeco.2015010103

Authors:

Stella Tomasi

Towson University

Xiaolin Li

Towson University

Search engines have become an important channel for increasing SMEs' global reach as well as competing with larger companies. Therefore, SMEs are enhancing their business visibility through search engine optimization (SEO). With effective SEO techniques, small companies can appear ahead of large, well-known companies on search results. However, in addition increasing the ranking on a search engine results page (SERP), there may be other benefts that SMEs may enjoy while engaging in an SEO campaign. This study uses multiple frms as cases to illustrate how SEO initiatives can impact performance for SMEs. The authors found that in addition to increasing the rankings on SERPs, SMEs saw an increase in number of visitors to the site, the average time duration of users visiting the site, more user engagement and an increase of annual sales revenue.

PL: Organic results for number of visits to website (per year)

…

EC: Organic results for average duration of users visiting website

…

Figures - uploaded by Stella Tomasi

Content may be subject to copyright.

Content uploaded by Stella Tomasi

Content may be subject to copyright.

Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(1), 27-49, January-March 2015 27

ABSTRACT

Search engines have become an important channel for increasing SMEs’ global reach as well as competing with

larger companies. Therefore, SMEs are enhancing their business visibility through search engine optimization

(SEO). With effective SEO techniques, small companies can appear ahead of large, well-known companies

on search results. However, in addition increasing the ranking on a search engine results page (SERP), there

may be other benets that SMEs may enjoy while engaging in an SEO campaign. This study uses multiple

rms as cases to illustrate how SEO initiatives can impact performance for SMEs. The authors found that

in addition to increasing the rankings on SERPs, SMEs saw an increase in number of visitors to the site, the

average time duration of users visiting the site, more user engagement and an increase of annual sales revenue.

Inuences of Search

Engine Optimization on

Performance of SMEs:

A Qualitative Perceptive

Stella Tomasi, Department of e-Business and Technology Management, Towson University,

Towson, MD, USA

Xiaolin Li, Department of e-Business and Technology Management, Towson University,

Towson, MD, USA

Keywords: Brand Management, Case Studies, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Small Medium

Enterprises (SMEs), Websites

1. INTRODUCTION

A small and medium-sized enterprise (SME),

which refers to a business with fewer than 500

employees, independently owned and operated,

and not dominant in its field of operation, plays

a significant role in the growth and change of

economies (Trumbach et al., 2006; Ramdani

et al., 2009; Obafemi, 2009) in international

markets. Although many believe that firm size

is a key dimension in labeling SMEs, Pett and

Wolff (2012) state that this is not an ideal mea-

sure and is viewed as benign by SME managers

and owners. Nevertheless, we follow Wolff and

Pett (2000) by defining SME by identifying

three categories of firm size: micro-firms (un-

der 25 employees), small-sized firms (26-100

employees) and medium sized firms (101-500

employees). Factors that distinguish SMEs from

larger firms is the available resources within

DOI: 10.4018/jeco.2015010103

28 Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(1), 27-49, January-March 2015

the firm, the level of innovativeness and ability

to take risks (Westerberg and Wincent, 2008).

Furthermore, SMEs contribute to job creation

(Clark III and Moutray 2004) and can be the

basis to become future large companies (Monk

2000). Therefore, studying SMEs can enhance

our understanding of their growth and develop-

ment (Abouzeedan, 2011) and due to their sig-

nificance to local economies, it is also necessary

to study and evaluate their performance (Acs

1999). Saeed et al. (2005) found insights into

the drivers of performance for e-commerce or-

ganizations. Since organizations find it difficult

to build and sustain a competitive advantage

on the Internet, they were able to identify that

companies with high ecommerce competence

had higher levels of firm performance, which

was mediated by Web site functionality. This

is an important finding, since performance is

related to partially to how well the customer is

able to find information on the Website.

As Internet technologies have been chang-

ing the way business is conducted, SMEs are

investing in such technologies and taking ad-

vantage of e-commerce to access global markets

and to compete with larger companies in their

industries. e-Commerce sales grew from 72 bil-

lion US dollars in 2002 to 228 billion US dollars

in 2010 (www.statista.com). For SMEs, creating

a website that allows online transactions is the

easy part. The more daunting task lies in making

the website visible to potential customers when

they search for product information. Search

engines have become an important channel

for increasing SMEs’ global reach as well as

competing with larger companies.

Search engines are likely to have a signifi-

cant impact on business performances. They are

not only convenient information tools but also

powerful agents of a transformation that makes

the business environment more transparent and

more competitive (Rangaswamy et al., 2009).

The display of search results into meaningful

groups and sequence of items are important

characteristics on how information is viewed

(Kleinmuntz & Schkade, 1993). Furthermore,

the sequence of results significantly influences

the way users process the information on the

page (Hogarth & Einhorn, 1992).

Internet users expect the most relevant

results to be listed at the top of a SERP and

may have expectations that the ranking of

search results are relevant to their search terms

(Rowley 2004). Research shows that the higher

the website ranks on a SERP (search engine

results page), the greater the likelihood that

the website will be visited by a user (Enge et

al., 2012). Users also believe that companies

whose websites appear at the top of SERPs

are the top companies in that field of search

(iProspect, 2006). This kind of ranking schema

has also been verified in a study (Enquiro, 2007),

which investigated how car buyers perceived

the best fuel efficient car on a SERP. When

the brand name car, Honda, was placed in the

first position on the SERP, users perceived it

as more fuel efficient; however, when Honda

was not placed in the first page, users did not

perceive it to be important. Research has also

shown that users do not look past the first two

or three pages of the result set (Roussinov &

Chen, 2001). Therefore, the need to increase the

ranking of a website which is possible through

search engine optimization (SEO) has become

an increasingly important for many organiza-

tions, specifically for SMEs who could be left

behind in the global marketplace if they do not

engage in this marketing channel.

SEO is the process of improving the vis-

ibility of a website through organic searches on

a search engine results page through different

ranking algorithms. Industry observers argue

that companies should pursue organic search

rankings if their goal is to obtain a long-term,

sustainable branding impact (Noaman, 2006).

Moreno and Martinez (2013) state “In addition

to mere presence on the web, it is increasingly

important for businesses that their site be ranked

more highly than those of their competitors on

SERPs (pg. 564). In their study, they found

overlaps in SEO and web accessibility. There-

fore, there are other factors that can be gained

with SEO in addition to just improving the

rankings on SERPs.

Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(1), 27-49, January-March 2015 29

The primary benefit of SEO naturally lies

in the fact that the improvement of the website

through SEO contributes directly to new cus-

tomer acquisition. Hansell (2007) notes that

search engines are responsible for many visi-

tors to a company’s website, specifically new

customers who search for information regarding

products and services. Similarly, Purcell et al.

(2012) suggested that search engines play a

critical role in online search as more than half

of all visitors to websites tend to arrive there

from a search engine (Introna & Nissenbaum,

2000) and 91% of users report that they always

or most of the time find the information they

are seeking when they use search engines Small

companies that do not use SEO to increase their

website rankings tend to remain unnoticed and

limited in its geographical reach (Rangaswamy

et al., 2009).

Since many SMEs do not know what the

benefits of SEO are nor have the resources

within the firm to conduct SEO (Kritzinger and

Weideman, 2013), they will allocate funds to

outsource to SEO companies that will help them.

As stated earlier, it is necessary to study and

evaluate their performance of SMEs since they

are significant to local economies (Acs 1999).

However, to date, we have not found a study that

shows the impact of SEO on performance for

SMEs who have limited resources and require

the maximum amount of benefits. Based on the

recommendation of Serrano-Cinca et al. (2010)

who stated that qualitative research techniques

are needed to further advance research on the

relationship between search engine positioning

and performance, we have used a multi-case

study methodology to explore the impact of SEO

on three SMEs. SEO can level the playing field

for an SME, because well-known companies

do not necessarily reside in the top positions

on SERPs (Fusco, 2006). With effective search

engine optimization techniques, unknown small

companies can appear ahead of larger, well-

known companies. However, little research is

available to show the various tangible benefits

of SEOs for SMEs, specifically micro and small

firms. Furthermore, Moreno and Martinez

(2013) state that there are other benefits besides

higher ranking on SERPs to implementing SEO

that should be identified. Therefore we explore

additional impacts that can be gained from us-

ing SEO for SMEs, who have limited funds to

engage in marketing channels. Our study aims

to answer the following question:

In addition to increasing the ranking on SERPs,

How does the influence of SEO help SMEs

increase performance?

This study will prove to be an effective

reference for other SMEs looking to enhance

their website visibility and increase their efforts

to stay competitive.

The remainder of paper is organized as fol-

lows: In Section 2, we review related literature

in search engine optimization, its usage among

SMEs, and its potential performance impact. In

Section 3, we offer a report and analysis of three

cases of SMEs that have used SEO, which high-

light the business context and tangible impact of

SEO on the firms; In Section 4, we synthesize

the three cases into a series of important fac-

tors of SEO influence. Finally, in Section 5, we

discuss implications of the findings, limitations,

and avenues for future research.

2. LITERATURE BACKGROUND

There are certain traits that distinguish SMEs

from large corporations (Spence and Ruther-

foord, 2003). For example, SMEs are in gen-

eral actively managed by their owners, highly

personalized, local in their area of operation,

and dependent on internal sources to finance

any business growth (Vyakarnam et al., 1997).

Robinson (2014) states that smaller firms

seeking to compete with the larger firms or

even other firms will do so on the basis of suc-

cessfully leveraging technology. He continues

to state that “Failing to utilize technology as a

competitive weapon will likely not produce the

desired advantage given the changes in technol-

ogy” (pg 92). He also states that smaller firms

need to be innovative to compete with firms

that have more resources. In his study, he found

30 Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(1), 27-49, January-March 2015

that innovation and competitive advantage are

significantly related. Therefore, smaller firms

who don’t have many resources available to

them need to develop capabilities or find ser-

vices that enable them to yield an advantage.

Gunasekaran et al. (2011) state that SMEs

need to be ready to accept new advance in tech-

nology and use it to their advantage to meet the

demanding and challenging market needs to stay

competitive. Search engines are an important

promotional method for e-Commerce websites

and they represent an effective way for new

e-Commerce sites to market themselves. For a

company that sells products or services on the

Internet, conversions occur when a customer

transitions from visiting a website to responding

to the website by either signing up for informa-

tion, purchasing something or some other type

of engagement activity with the company. For

small businesses, conversion rates are critical

and can be different based on the needs of the

company. The conversions may be an online

purchase, or a catalog or consultation request,

a phone call, or whatever the “call to action”

of the website is. A conversion rate or cost per

acquisition (CPA) is based on the amount of

money that a company uses to become visible

to a customer. If the customer purchases a

product due to the money spent on becoming

visible to the customer, this would be defined

as conversion to a sale.

2.1. Advertisements over Internet

Paid search has enormous economic impact

and has become a part of the primary business

model for search engine companies (Jansen,

2006). eMarketer estimated that online adver-

tisers spent more than $1.3 billion in targeted

advertising in 2011, and that amount is expected

to increase to more than $2.6 billion in 2014

(Hallerman 2010).

2.2. Pay per Click (PPC)

or Sponsored Links

Companies pay the search engine to place their

ads on the top, right or bottom of a SERP, which

are called pay per click (PPC) advertisements

or sponsored results. Companies purchase bids

on one or more keywords to ensure that their

ads will be displayed when results are displayed

(Jansen, 2006; Jansen, 2007). Once a company

bids on a keyword to appear on the sponsored

results, if a customer clicks on that website

during a search, the customer will be directed

to the company’s website and the company is

charged based on the bid by the search engine.

The charge to the company only occurs once a

customer clicks on the website in the sponsored

section. This can be very expensive for small

companies.

2.3. Organic Listings

Organic results are created by search engine’s

algorithms, which rank the pages of websites

based on various factors, such as content rel-

evance, number and rank of incoming links, and

link structure. The organic listing is generated

at no cost to the company. The search engine

generates a ranked listing of sites based on the

relevant keywords used by the user in a query.

The sites listed first are those that are identified

most relevant by the search engine’s algorithms.

2.4. SEO

SEO is the process of improving the visibility of

a website through organic searches on a search

engine results page through different ranking

algorithms. SEO can be broken into four major

categories: key word/key phrase research and

selection, getting the search engines to index

the site, on-page optimization, and offpage

optimization (Refer to Killoran, 2013 on SEO

techniques). In addition to these techniques,

companies optimize their website to ensure that

once a website is visible, the user will want to

stay on the page to eventually make a sale or

to find information about product or service.

As we stated earlier, many SMEs do not know

the benefits of SEO (Kritzinger and Weideman,

2013), however, those SMEs that are able to

utilize SEO may find benefits that will allow

them to have an advantage over other firms.

With SEO, there is no guarantee that the

conversion to a sale will happen. Businesses do

Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(1), 27-49, January-March 2015 31

not know that customers will actually purchase

an item just because they clicked on the website

through the sponsored section. With SEO, busi-

nesses may hire SEO experts to help identify

the best keywords to optimize their website

to increase their ranking in organic results on

search engines. Although SMEs are usually

more cost-conscious, it can be disastrous if they

attempt to optimize their website themselves,

since SMEs could possibly ruin their sites

beyond repair.

Leveraging search engine optimization

to improve organic search ranking is believed

to be more effective than other search engine

related marketing initiatives, such as search

engine advertising via sponsored links. Hotch-

kiss et al. (2004) found that more than 77% of

the 425 respondents surveyed favored organic

results rather than sponsored links. Even in an

e-commerce scenario as provided in Hotch-

kiss et al.’s study, survey respondents would

still choose organic over sponsored links. In a

follow-up study, Hotchkiss (2004) found that

participants rated the sponsored listings as lower

quality. In their study, the results also indicated

that many users ignored or did not notice the

sponsored results, mainly due to their location

on the right side of the page. Greenspan (2004)

also found that users preferred organic listings

compared to sponsored links and that users

would eventually select sponsored listings when

they were not identified as such on the SERP.

It seems that users felt that sponsored listings

were another form on advertisements pushed

to them by the companies; whereas, organic

results were based on how relevant the results

were to the query. Brooks (2004a) found that the

likelihood of a searcher selecting a sponsored

listing is a curvilinear function of its placement

on the page (i.e., based on rank). The higher the

link’s placement in the results listing, the more

likely a searcher is to select it. The study found

similar results with organic listings. The differ-

ence between the 1st and the 10th positions is a

20 to 30% drop in click through for the listing.

In a related study, Brooks (2004b) reported that

the conversion rate (i.e., customers who interact

with the company through purchasing an item

or filling out a contact form) drops nearly 90%

between the 1st and 10th positions.

Although there are many practitioner

articles regarding SEO, there are only a few

published academic articles in this area (Zing

& Lin, 2006).

Other studies have identified steps to in-

crease a company’s website ranking in organic

results (Raisinghani, 2005; Zhang & Dimitroff,

2005; Curran, 2004). Dou et al. (2010) used

rankings on SERPs to differentiate lower level

brands from their competitors. They conducted

two experiments to establish that when users’

schema regarding the display orders on SERPs

along with priming, they were able to recall

lower brand items over well-known brands.

They found that users were able to use their

belief on display order (schema) to influence

users’ processing of inconsistent information

in SERPs.

There are even further limited studies on the

use of SEO by SMEs, and the benefits of such

use are thus unclear. The need for research in

the impact of SEO, particularly among SMEs,

therefore, is warranted. Among the few prior

studies that examined the benefits of SEO

includes an action research by Malaga (2007),

who found the benefit of an SEO project is

more cost-effective than a Pay Per Click (PPC)

campaign. However, this study only used one

website and one type of product, findings of

the study on the benefits of SEO may not be

generalizable to other websites or products. In

addition, the cost of the SEO project for the

organization might be significantly lower since

the author conducted it himself. Whereas, in

reality, SMEs would often hire SEO consulting

companies to engage in SEO, which could have

skewed the ROI in Malaga’s study.

Kritzinger and Weideman (2013) found that

the few companies that invest in PPC campaigns

do not have organic listings within the top 100

results on SERPs. They state that although the

benefits of SEO are more important, website

marketers do not include SEO in their market-

ing plan. This is due to the fact that companies

do not have the skill to implement SEO on

their own; whereas PPC campaigns are easily

32 Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(1), 27-49, January-March 2015

adopted because business owners can easily

manage such campaigns. They state that “some

website owners have heard of SEO before, but

do not know what it is or what benefits it could

have for their websites” (pg. 284). The authors

state that these companies should outsource to

SEO companies that will help them to imple-

ment SEO.

In another study, Moreno and Martinez

(2013) found a clear relationship between web

accessibility guidelines based on WCAG 2.0 and

SEO on-page factors. They found that based

on as a result of this relationship, barriers to

website accessibility has a negative influence

on the rankings on the SERPs, similar to the use

of SEO techniques that may improve website

accessibility. They state that bad navigation and

presence of certain web scripts can be blamed

for a webpage’s low rankings by a search en-

gine since it a barrier to user accessibility and

interaction with the website. The authors state

that previously that SEO and web accessibility

were conducted by experts in different fields.

However, they provide evidence of a clear

relationship between SEO factors and web

accessibility guidelines. The authors believe

the barriers to accessibility can negatively

influence search rankings and believe that ac-

cess to web content is the link between SEO

and web accessibility. Moreno and Martinez’s

study was the first to date that started to show

additional benefits of using SEO. However,

they did not shown any relationship between

SEO and performance of SMEs, which is the

aim of this study.

The importance of increasing web traffic

stems from the fact that traffic reflects users’

interest in the website and potential sales on

the website (Pan et al., 2002). Increased web

traffic are also predictors of sales at a retailer

level (Brynjolfsson & Smith, 2000); since

customers may first investigate offerings on

the website before going to the actual store.

Furthermore, web traffic is also a measure of

success for Internet websites, since higher traf-

fic can generate higher advertisement revenues

that are placed on the site.

We believe that visit duration is another

indication of web accessibility and relevant

web content which increases through SEO.

Visit duration is defined as the amount of time a

user is on a website and has become a standard

measure that is reported by Internet measure

agencies, such as ComScore Media Metrix,

Hitwise, and Nielsen/NetRatings. There are

many advantages to measure visit duration.

First, it is directly tied to a website’s revenue

and promotional benefits (Bhat et al., 2002;

Briggs & Hollis, 1997; Bucklin & Sismeiro,

2003; Danaher & Mullarky, 2003; Danaher et

al., 2006; Dreze & Zufryden, 1997). Second,

longer visit duration helps maintain the users

interest in a site (Bucklin & Sismeiro, 2003;

Hanson, 2000) and gives user more time to

make decisions and complete purchase transac-

tions (Bucklin & Sismeiro, 2003). User interest

also helps generate repeat visits, which have

shown to lead to long-term sales (Moe & Fader,

2004). Some investors use website durations

as an indicator of future earnings and studies

have shown that longer visit duration leads to

higher monthly stock returns (Demers & Lev,

2001). In another study, Zhenhui et al. (2010),

found an increase in website involvement by

users also leads to higher purchase intention.

Visit duration is sometimes referred to as

“stickiness” (Bhat et al., 2002). As a result of

repeat traffic and more time spent on the website,

customers become much stickier to the websites

and the transaction volumes increase (Zott et al.,

2000). Likewise, a web user’s intention to stay

longer on a website is believed to be influenced

by their perception of how valuable the website

is. Therefore, a user’s perception of the website

value will influence their intention to stick (Lip-

pert & Wilder, 2001). If the website design is

poor and information content is minimal and

disorganized, customers tend to leave a website

to find another website with useful information.

This results in loss of potential sales.

Based on organic results, Serrano-Cinca

et al. (2010) conducted a study with 138 US

web-based business and to analyze their website

visibility, their rankings on search engines, their

Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(1), 27-49, January-March 2015 33

reputation and popularity. The authors found that

companies achieve a high position because they

are popular with consumers in areas of blogs

or online media. Other companies were able to

attain a high position on search engines because

of the large number of websites that linked

to their virtual shops. However, the authors

conclude that since the data was from publi-

cally available sources, they were not able to

provide information regarding internal aspects

of the company. They state “Other qualitative

research techniques would be useful to advance

research into the relationship between Internet

positioning and performance” (p. 247).

Gandour and Regolini (2011) conducted

a case study, where the authors performed an

SEO campaign on the company, Fragfomet,

and reviewed the effects of the campaign on the

website. The authors go into detail on the SEO

techniques they conducted: adding appropriate

keywords, in page optimization, updating tags,

URLs and title attributes. The found that the

SEO campaign was successful for the company

but that continuous evaluation of the website

was needed to ensure that rankings on search

engines remain high. However, since one firm

was used for this study and the SEO experts

were the authors, we believe using a multi-case

methodology using SEO experts (unfamiliar to

the research study) will provide further insight

into the additional influences of SEO.

3. RESEARCH METHOD

This research aims to study the additional influ-

ences of SEO on performance of SMEs. To date,

most of the research on SEO has been focused

on the development of different algorithms

for SEO and how consumers review ranked

results to find relevant information. Little is

done to evaluate how SEO impacts websites

and eventually business performance for SMEs;

empirical evidence in that regard to an SME

context is even scarcer. A qualitative method-

ology is utilized when the area of research is

mainly exploratory and appropriate in areas

such as SEO where there is a deficiency in

the body of knowledge and the factors are not

yet fully defined. Furthermore, Serrano-Cinca

et al. (2010) state “Other qualitative research

techniques would be useful to advance research

into the relationship between Internet position-

ing and performance” (p. 247).

A case study is an “empirical inquiry that

investigates a contemporary phenomenon

within its real-life context, especially where

the boundaries between the phenomenon and

context are not clearly evidenced” (Yin, 1994).

A methodology consisting of a case study pro-

vides rich and relative data, and it is the most

used qualitative method in information systems

research (Benbasat et al., 1987; Orlikowski &

Baroudi, 1991; Galliers, 1992; Myers, 1997;

Yin, 1994). It is appropriate to use a case study

when theoretical knowledge on the phenomenon

which is being studied is limited and there is not

sufficient knowledge on the topic (Benbasat et

al., 1987). The benefits of the multi-case study

have been discussed by other information sys-

tems researchers (Yin, 1994; Benbasat et al.,

1987). According to Yin (1994), a case study

can involve single or multiple cases and various

levels of analysis. Benbasat et al. (1987) argue

that multiple case studies enable the researcher

to relate to differences in process and outcomes.

Miles and Huberman (1984) added that multiple

cases enable the researcher to verify that find-

ings are not merely the result of idiosyncrasies

of the research setting.

To gather information about the companies

in our case study, we first administered a brief

structured survey to the twenty-two SMEs that

had a business relationship with an external

SEO consulting firm. The survey collected

data on the firms and their investment and

use of SEO as well as the impact of such use.

Three of the twenty-two firms were willing to

participate in the further in-depth case study.

For the three companies, we contacted the firms

and requested for an opportunity for in-depth

interview with upper management and further

collection of archival information related to

their use of SEO. The interview procedure

was semi-structured: while all interviewees

34 Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(1), 27-49, January-March 2015

were requested to respond to a list of structured

questions related to their use of SEO, they were

encouraged to freely share any information

on SEO. During the interview, we carefully

recorded all comments from the interviewees.

We also interviewed SEO experts to identify

what types of SEO techniques were conducted

for each company (see Table 1).

To enhance the rigor of the study, we have

strictly followed the principles for case study

data collection proposed by Yin (1994):

• Use multiple sources of evidence: Mul-

tiple data sources can contribute to a high

degree of validity. In our study, we inter-

viewed companies that utilized SEO as well

as consultants that engaged in SEO services

for many companies. Prior to that, we also

collected data on the firms via structured

surveys. Furthermore, from our contacts

at the SEO consulting firm, we obtained

various documents collected from Google

Analytics on the three companies that we

interviewed. Those documents provide

us with rich data which show patterns

of traffic and website usage prior to, and

after, SEO. Those include performance

indicators for the SME’s website, such

as organic results of their websites prior

to and after SEO, number of visits to the

website and the average of duration on the

website. In addition, we obtained financial

reports and other useful information about

the companies from some secondary data

sources, such as the companies’ websites;

• Creating a case study database: A case

study database helps to increase the reli-

ability of the case study (Yin, 1994). In

our study, we create a database for each of

the three case companies to host a variety

of data and information pertaining to the

company, which includes detailed notes

from our interviews with the company, data

from the structured surveys archival data

and data regarding website performance

from Google Analytics on the company.

Structured, organized storage of all data

and information from diverse sources on

a particular case enables us to examine

and analyze those data in a holistic and

integrative fashion.

4. THE CASES

The SEO techniques conducted on all three

cases in this study were similar. As a prereq-

uisite to SEO, the websites were updated to

ensure content was relevant and user friendly.

This step is critical as stated by Moreno and

Martinez (2013) who found that proper rede-

sign of web content is needed to ensure quality

information is indexed by search engines. SEO

experts then identified keywords and phrases

that pertain to the business. They look to see

the competitiveness of the keywords to ensure

that users will find the business using those

terms in the search engine. SEO experts will

ensure that these keywords are utilized within

the website. The SEO expert will then manipu-

Table 1. Interviews

Company Title Date

EC President August 7, 2013

PL President August 15, 2013

CR Co-President August 17, 2013

SEO Consulting Group SEO Expert #1 April 5, 2013

SEO Consulting Group SEO Expert #2 April 5, 2013

Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(1), 27-49, January-March 2015 35

late on-page factors and off-page links to make

the website more attractive to search engines.

Killoran (2013) describes the SEO techniques

in detail that SEO experts practice to ensure a

website’s rankings are increased.

4.1. Case 1: PL

PL is located in Linthicum, Maryland and is

operating in the transportation sector. It was

started in 1988, employing four fulltime and

three part-time people. PL is a broker that

provides personalized solutions to ground

transportation to business travelers. Clients

range from individuals to Fortune 500 compa-

nies. To date, they service approximately 350

clients. Their estimated annual revenue is $2

million. PL operates a call center in Linthicum

with no direct sales and all services orders are

placed through phone calls, email or through

their online form on their website.

When PL had its website created, the

company participated in Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

campaign with an SEO consulting firm. How-

ever, they did not find the appropriate conver-

sion rates based on the cost of participating in

the PPC campaign similar to results found in

Kritzinger and Weideman (2013). The president

of the company stated, “I believe being on the

Internet is a necessity. It is the ‘new’ phone

book. Organically appearing in the search list-

ings was a way to own our little corner of the

Internet world.”

PL was not aware of the actual ranking of

their website on any search engine. However,

the president would often search for his website

to see where his company would appear on the

list. After unsuccessful attempts at various PPC

campaigns with different consulting firms, the

president realized that these campaigns were not

useful and wanted to try another consulting firm.

He learned that it was easier to cut their losses

rather than continue with campaigns that were

not successful. Through other business contacts,

the president learned about SEO. He realized

that “building [their] rankings organically was

much more attractive” than a PPC campaign.

The rationale for starting an SEO cam-

paign was to have an Internet presence so that

clients (small and large) could find them when

searching for specific services. In addition,

the president thought he could tap into a non-

business market since the Internet reaches so

many people. Since starting an SEO campaign,

the president has stopped all other advertising

channels. He continues to add money to the

budget for SEO since he wants to stay innovative

in his marketing strategy by adding different

geographical areas. The president stated that

his website had about 100 visits a month before

and now after SEO, he says he gets about 1000

visits a month to his website (actual numbers

are provided in Figures 1 through 6). Accord-

ing to the president, “SEO has increased our

visibility and call volume, ultimately resulting

in increased sales. SEO has supplemented our

marketing and referral business by bringing in

new customers.”

Since the company does not have an ex-

pert in IT, the SEO consulting company also

redesigned the website since keeping the user

on the webpage was just as important as get-

ting the user to see the webpage on the search

engine. The president was very involved with

the SEO campaign and continues to meet and

brainstorm with the consultants regarding

keywords and targeted geographic areas. This

involvement is much different than the other

cases in this study and what the president

contributes to the success of the SEO efforts.

He receives monthly reports and has a few

meetings each quarter to discuss strategies. The

president feels that an SEO expert contributes

substantially in keeping an SME in step with

changes associated with the website and SEO

efforts. Due to some advice from his network,

the president has started to track where new

customers are hearing about his company. In

this way, he believes he will see the benefits

of SEO further and be able to identify the ROI

for such marketing campaigns. He feels that

greater visibility and increased sales is the

best benefits that PL has gained from SEO.

36 Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(1), 27-49, January-March 2015

Figure 1. PL: Organic results for number of visits to website (per year)

Figure 2. PL: Organic results for average duration of users visiting website

Figure 3. EC: Organic results for number of visits to website (per year)

Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(1), 27-49, January-March 2015 37

Figure 4. EC: Organic results for average duration of users visiting website

Figure 5. CR: Organic results for number of visits to website (per year)

Figure 6. CR: Organic results for average duration of users visiting website

38 Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(1), 27-49, January-March 2015

4.2. Case 2: EC

Started in 2004, EC is located in Hanover, Mary-

land and focuses on countertop fabrication and

installation in homes. Their estimated revenue is

3 million dollars. Although they do not sell any

of their products online, EC uses the Internet

as a lead generation tool. The president of the

company states “SEO is an extremely important

part of our online strategy.” He has always used

SEO since the start of the company’s website.

However, he had used other forms of advertising

such as TV, radio and print ads, however, he

felt that the ROI was better with SEO. In addi-

tion, the president would talk to other business

owners in his network to identify what type of

marketing strategy worked for them. Many of

them agreed that SEO was a better strategy in

this technology world.

For EC, SEO impacted their sales and prof-

its plus diversified their revenue. The first year

they started the SEO campaign, their revenue

increased by $500k a year with a profit improve-

ment of 15% on that amount. EC did have to

change consulting companies when rankings

and revenue were declining. This decision to

leave consulting firms and switch to another

firm initially was a financial burden however,

since the change to the new consulting firm,

EC started to see profits and revenue increase

again. EC found that many consulting firms

will promise success; however, if a small firm

is not able to see the results, then they should

be willing to walk away. With SEO, EC states

that their client base has grown but they only

attribute 25% of the sales to the SEO campaign.

The president states that SEO was utilized to help

as part of their retail strategy, which is slightly

more profitable for them by 15%.

Unlike PL, EC did not participate heavily in

the SEO campaign. Besides selecting the SEO

consulting company, the company places all the

direction of the campaign in the hands of the

SEO experts to complete the job. He states that

companies will not pay for Google rankings,

however companies will pay for increased sales

and to achieve brand awareness and recogni-

tion. Therefore, SEO consultants should try to

understand what goals their customers are trying

to achieve as well as the cost a company incurs

for each sale they make. Since this is his second

business, the president is an experienced busi-

ness owner, who requested certain measures to

be set to quantify the budget for SEO services.

He meets with the SEO consulting company

quarterly to ensure that results are being met. In

Figure 2, we notice a significant increase in the

number of visits to the website after SEO. Just

as the other companies in our study, the SEO

consulting company also improved the com-

pany’s website so that customers were able to

easily navigate the website to find information,

to see photos and to view comments. Therefore,

we see a 10-second increase in the amount of

time that a visitor stays on the EC website. This

is a positive sign because the longer a customer

stays on a website, the higher the likelihood

the customer will make a sale (Bhatnagar &

Ghose, 2004).

The president suggests the major and

critical costs of an SEO campaign are the ongo-

ing cost of the project. In order to justify the

budget, he recommends creating measures and

checking them regularly to ensure that results

are being met. When asked to identify whether

the benefits outweigh the overall costs of the

SEO campaign, he stated, “It’s hard to say the

advantage of online marketing is to be able to

clearly understand the cost as a percentage of

sales. We try to keep marketing/advertising at

10% of sales, including PPC. …We are close

to those numbers.”

4.3. Case 3: CR

CR was started in 1929 and is an automotive

customization facility that specializes in car

audio, keyless systems, interiors, radio and

speedometer cluster repair. The company sells

its products in house at its facility in Catons-

ville, Maryland. It has about 4300 clients per

year and estimates 1.1 million average annual

sales. Like many small businesses, CR had a

website but it was not aesthetically appealing

Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(1), 27-49, January-March 2015 39

nor did the website help with driving business

into the facility. CR’s co-president, stated that

they heard about SEO from their social network

and was referred to their current SEO consulting

company through business contacts. Although

one of managing members needed time to

think about such an investment in SEO, the co-

president states that their desire to eventually

start the SEO project was partially influenced

by the need to beat their competitors. However,

the major reason why they eventually moved

forward with the SEO project was “to help the

world find us here in Catonsville.”

CR was actively involved in the SEO

project with the SEO consulting company and

the co-president provided inputs himself and

reviewed the website redesign before it was

re-launched. Since this was a new area for the

members of CR, they relied on the expertise

of the SEO consulting company but wanted to

still be involved in the optimization.

The company pointed out that they were

not aware of their rankings prior to the SEO

campaign. However, now after being involved

in the SEO campaign, they are very knowl-

edgeable about the rankings of their website

on various search engines and is aware that

their website is ranked higher now with “…

the increased call volume and foot traffic since

the re-launch of the website and SEO.” The

co-president commented, “SEO did not directly

affect profitability but did increase revenue by

increasing overall sales.”

Now that they have finally seen the benefits

of SEO, CR is pleased with the investment to

start the project. He said that “without a doubt”

the overall benefits outweigh the overall costs

of the SEO campaign. “There was virtually no

risk involved”, said the co-president:

Sure the process takes a small investment but the

investment will be returned and profited upon

in the long run. Be open-minded to this method

of advertising. As someone who grew up in the

paper and TV advertising world it is sometimes

hard to wrap your head around the idea of pay-

ing a company to ‘optimize a website.’ When

you think about it next to nobody reads paper

advertisements, and less and less people have

time to watch TV ads (which are only effective

long term and require a lot of money). Everyone

has a smartphone now and at a minimum a

computer. When the newspapers of the world

are printing less and less and now offering their

newspapers online, I think it’s obvious that the

world has turned to the Internet. With that be-

ing said I couldn’t afford to keep my company

hidden. By having an effective website that has

been Search Engine Optimized I have now taken

my 10,000 square foot store in Catonsville and

exposed it not just to the people of the Baltimore

area, but rather the world.

Based on actual results from organic

searches, there was a large increase in number

of website visits and the average duration

of users on the CR’s website (See Figures

3 and 6) after SEO was conducted. This is

important for CR, since they were compet-

ing with many other companies in the area

for business. The company has established

its web presence, but if it didn’t increase its

visibility, it was not going to be successful.

After the SEO campaign, CR experienced

large volume of phone calls foot traffic which

in turn increased their overall sales. The in-

crease in web traffic was a gradual increase

over a few months that was tracked after the

launch of the SEO campaign.

5. CASE SYNTHESIS

While the three companies we study operate in

different industries and start SEO for different

reasons, they converge quite well in the results

of SEOs, which reveal important business as

well as performance impacts of SEOs. We,

therefore, synthesize the three cases and based

on our understanding, have identified four per-

formance impacts of SEO for SMEs in addition

to an increase to the rankings on SERPs.

40 Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(1), 27-49, January-March 2015

5.1. Influence of SEO

on Performance

5.1.1. The Use of SEO by an

SME Impacts the Number of Visits

to the Company’s Website

This impact is strong based on the data from the

three cases. “I believe being on the Internet is a

necessity. It is the ‘new’ phone book. Organi-

cally appearing in the search listings was a way

to own our little corner of the Internet world,”

says PL. The three companies in this study all

realized the potential of using the Internet and

increasing web traffic. Websites are an important

form of advertising, which is competing with

TV marketing and the print industry (Rubinson,

2009; Kanso & Nelson, 2004; Gallagher et

al., 2001). The president from CR stated, “As

someone who grew up in the Paper and TV

advertising world it is sometimes hard to wrap

your head around the idea of paying a company

to “create a website and optimize a website”. He

and the other CEOs have to “be open-minded

to this method of advertising.” Companies are

seeking new ways to reach customers and have

shifted media budgets away from traditional

media, such as television or print to new media

such as the Internet, where customers can be

targeted more precisely (Hample et al., 2012).

Therefore, creating a website is not enough.

Companies need to draw customers to the web-

site. SEO enables small businesses to reach more

customers through higher ranking on search

engines. In order to increase website traffic, a

company’s website’s visibility needs to increase.

Following Dreze & Zufryden (2004), we define

visibility as the extent to which a user is likely

to come across a reference to a company’s

website in his or her online environment. It is

important to have your website visible since

there is a growing number of websites online

as well as the increased competition that com-

panies engage in to attract customers to their

websites (Adamic & Huberman, 1999). Previ-

ously, website visibility was often completed

by advertising, publicity, or word of mouth

through blogs and reviews. Studies show that

online ads influence customer loyalty scores

and website visits (Briggs & Hollis, 1997; Ilfeld

& Winer, 2002). However, Dreze & Zufryden

(2004) found these type of advertising spent by

companies is uncorrelated to website traffic.

Furthermore, SMEs do not have the resources

to increase website traffic without thinking

outside the box and incorporating techniques

such as SEO. Through higher rankings, SEO

techniques can help SMEs make their website

more visible to customers and compete with

larger companies. SEO techniques can provide

SMEs with targeting customers within specific

zip codes, where the SME is located. As more

users click on the website and increase website

traffic, the ranking of the website continues to

remain on the top of the SERP.

5.1.2. The Use of SEO by an

SME Impacts the Average

Time Duration of Users Visiting

the Company’s Website

This is a strong impact based on the data from

the case studies. Internet users can easily move

from one website to another. Furthermore, the

nature of the Internet has enabled users to search

for information and compare prices and services

with little costs. Therefore, the challenge for

businesses is how to attract the attention of the

customers. When utilizing SEO techniques, a

company’s website is ranked higher so that it can

be easily accessed by Internet users. However,

if the user does not stay on the website to learn

more about the products or services, ranking

higher on the search results page becomes use-

less. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the

company to keep the website visitor as long as

it can, since the probability of making a sale

increase as the customer stays there longer

(Bhatnagar & Ghose, 2004).

All three of our SMEs had their websites

improved and redesigned to ensure that users

are able to easily navigate the website and

want to stay longer on the website. Therefore,

an equally important performance measure to

determine SEO success is the visit duration.

Based on a study by Moreno and Martinez

Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(1), 27-49, January-March 2015 41

(2013), web content is the link between SEO

and web accessibility. If the web content is not

relevant, then the user will not want to interact

with page. The appropriate design of websites

is of utmost importance in increasing the likeli-

hood that the website will be used effectively to

fulfill desired functions as well as visit duration.

Website design, attitude, and trust have been

identified as key factors affecting customer’s

visits and purchase intention (Liang & Lai,

2007). Therefore, website design features can

influence positive attitudes (Stevenson et al.,

2000) towards the company, which can lead to

longer visit duration. Websites have a number

of other important characteristics besides con-

tent; they include organization of information,

the ease with which the website can be used

and technical characteristics. The organiza-

tion of the information (Kumar, et al., 2004)

describes aspects related to how the information

is arranged on the website. These include the

general layout, the number and effectiveness of

hyperlinks (Abels, 1997; Shneiderman, 1998).

The SMEs in our case studies stated that their

website’s design was optimized through the

SEO campaign. Content on the website was

made relevant and hyperlinks were made ef-

fective for longer visit duration, easy decision

making and purchasing. This is identified as

on-page categorization of SEO.

In this study, all three cases showed an

increase in average visit duration after SEO. PL

had a 13 second increase EC had a 10 second

increase and CR had an increase of 18 seconds

(See Figures 2, 4, 6). These results empirically

demonstrate that SEOs positively impacts the

average time duration of users visiting an

SME’s website.

5.1.3. The Use of SEO by an SME

Impacts Its Annual Sales Revenue

By utilizing SEO, the three companies in this

study all saw an increase in web traffic to the

site and visit duration, which offer a potential

for the company to increase their overall sales

revenue. Therefore, this is a strong impact.

After careful study of the companies’ financial

performance, we find that the increase of web

traffic and visit duration have indeed materi-

alized and turned into sales revenue increase.

This is similar to Saeed et al.’s study (2005),

who found that firms with high e-commerce

competence exhibit superior firm performance,

which was mediated by web site functionality.

Two of the companies were actively

measuring their successes with goals and see-

ing their sales increase due to the volume of

calls and foot traffic entering the retail store

after initiating an SEO campaign to increase

their website’s ranking. EC further tracks the

acquired sales based on how the customers

found their services. For example, if someone

requested countertops to be installed in their

kitchen, they tracked whether the customer was

referred to them by a friend or if the customer

found them on the Internet through the checkout

process. Most of the time, customers found the

EC through the Internet, which identifies that

SEO helped the company increase traffic. In this

way, EC says they are able to justify the budget

for SEO by tracking the web traffic results. CR

states the ROI in SEO can be verified through

higher foot traffic and the volume of calls per

day. After SEO, the number of customers that

were interested in their products substantially

increased. CR states that the company has seen

an increase in sales since he started using SEO

for his website. Therefore, he recommends SEO

to increase a website’s ranking as better market-

ing approach than TV or print ads.

In the first year EC started the SEO

campaign, their revenue increased by 500k

a year with a profit improvement of 15% on

that amount. The company attributes 25% of

the sales to the SEO campaign. Furthermore,

EC’s client base has grown substantially, which

provides a solid foundation for future sales

revenues. The president feels the major and

critical costs of an SEO campaign is the ongo-

ing cost of the project. In order to justify the

budget, he recommends creating measures and

checking them regularly to ensure that results

are being met. The other two companies, PL

and CR, are not creating measures to check

42 Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(1), 27-49, January-March 2015

the results from SEO. Since there is no way to

identify whether the website visits converted

into a sale, CR says they value SEO success

through the large volumes of calls and foot traffic

which in turn increased their overall sales. Kay

states “SEO did not directly affect profitability

but did increase revenue by increasing overall

sales.” According to Corcoran from PL, “SEO

has increased our visibility and call volume,

ultimately resulting in increased sales. SEO

has supplemented our marketing and referral

business by bringing in new customers.”

5.1.4. The Use of SEO

by an SME Impacts User

Engagement on the Website

Based on the case material, we found that this

is a strong impact. SEO can influence the user

engagement or user interaction on the website.

User engagement has been found to increase

performance (Lee et al., 2011). EC has a con-

tact form which was appropriately created and

placed on the website through optimization

and, during a one-month span, it received 36

requests for estimates compared to none the

previous year. This form’s conversion rate can

be measured through “Goals” within Google

Analytics. The more “Goals” that are estab-

lished on a website provides more measures

that companies can use to track the benefits

of SEO. Goals are able to measure how well

your website is meeting its target objectives.

The common “goals” companies focus on are

duration and pages per session. However, the

firms in our study found that creating other

goals specifically event based goals, lead to

more interaction with the user which shows a

greater amount of participation on the webpage.

This is similar to the findings in Zhenhui et al.’s

study (2010), where they found an increase in

website involvement by users leads to higher

purchase intention.

Just like in the case of EC, prior to SEO,

CR’s website provided no form to contact

potential customers. After the update to the

website and SEO, CR’s website now offers a

contact form where customers can place their

information to receive a phone call. Since the

launch of this form on the website in 2011,

there have been 86 users that have filled out

this form. . With the SEO campaign, the form

was filled out more since the website’s ranking

increase causing more visibility and traffic to

the website. SMEs can measure various kinds

of goals to ensure that they are benefitting from

a well-designed website as well as the SEO

campaign. As stated earlier, the more goals that

an SME has to measure, the more ways that it

can estimate how well the SEO campaign is

being conducted. The number of customers that

fill out the contact request forms is now one

of the ways, in addition to an increase of sales

and web traffic, that CR converts the costs of

SEO into benefits.

5.1.5. SMEs should become

Knowledgeable of SEO Techniques

to ensure that SEO Experts are

using only White Hat Techniques

There are two types of SEO techniques: white

hat and black hat. Since many SMEs are not

aware of the benefits of SEO, they may not also

be aware of the different techniques involved

with ensure a successful campaign. White hat

techniques are ethical measures that are appro-

priate for search engines rankings (Jones, 2013;

Grappone and Couzin, 2010). These techniques

include appropriate additions of keywords, easy

navigation of websites, providing quality con-

tent, using blogs, social media and videos to link

back to the website. However, these techniques

have to be done appropriately otherwise, they

can lend themselves to black hat techniques.

Black hat techniques involve unethical measures

to increase rankings on a search engines. These

techniques are not approved by search engines

and when identified being utilized, search

engines will remove these websites from their

rankings completely. Factors such as keyword

stuffing, invisible text, doorway pages, illegal

linking should be avoided (Dye, 2008; Magna,

2008). Since algorithms that rank listings on

Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(1), 27-49, January-March 2015 43

search engines are not known, SEO experts

are able to understand patterns and behaviors

to ensure how to increase rankings within the

acceptable limits of search engines. Su et al.

(2014) provide evidence that there are many

SEO methodologies that have created myths and

fallacies associated with the different algorithms

of search engines. Therefore, it is important to

ensure that experts are used when engaging

in SEO or being knowledgeable in white hat

techniques so that websites are not penalized or

removed from a search engine rankings.

6. CONCLUSION

6.1. Unique Contribution

This study investigates the performance im-

pacts of SEOs on SMEs through the process

of conducting an SEO campaign from SEO

experts. The unique contribution of this study

is through in-depth studies of three SMEs in

Maryland that have conducted SEOs, we find

that SEOs have substantial positive impacts on

number of user visits to SME websites, average

duration of user visits, as well as the company’s

overall sales revenues. This study can help be

reference for other SMEs looking to engage in

SEO campaigns. Based on our study, we found

SMEs were not aware of all the benefits of SEO.

Therefore, we recognized that factors for SMEs

to successful in SEO would be to identify an

SEO expert to help with the campaign. Next,

SMEs should identify if customers are coming

to their business based on search engine results.

This provide evidence whether SEO is effec-

tively being conducted, since the goal of SEO

is to increase the business’s organic rankings.

Finally, SMEs should be involved with the

SEO campaign regardless of the initial lack of

knowledge. It is important for SMEs to become

educated on the different techniques that are

involved in SEO. In this study, we focused on

white hat techniques; however, there are other

techniques that are not ethical to conduct, which

would cause search engines to remove the list-

ing completely from their database.

6.2. Managerial Contributions

This study has important managerial contribu-

tions. The findings of this research illustrate

that, with appropriate managerial support and

tracking of measures from the SEO campaign,

SMEs can achieve website performance en-

hancement and revenue growth while using

the Internet as the backbone to compete with

larger organizations. The findings may help

raise awareness of, and confidence in, business

impacts of SEOs, and stimulate the adoption and

diffusion of SEOs among SMEs. Given scarcer

resources and limited access to other traditional

marketing mechanisms, small and medium-

sized enterprises often desire an affordable

Internet marketing campaign channel to enhance

market reach and competitiveness. SEOs are

demonstrated in this study to be an affordable,

feasible, and effective approach to enhancing

business exposure, building customer base,

increasing website traffic and traffic interest,

and ultimately increasing business revenue and

profitability. Because little empirical evidence

exists on the SEO business impacts to SMEs, the

findings of this study are especially important

in building confidence and triggering interests

in SEOs among SMEs. Furthermore, there

was heavy involvement of upper management

throughout the SEO process with SEO experts

with all three cases. Although SMEs may not

understand SEO, they should ask questions and

be involved with the campaign to ensure suc-

cess. This study should help SMEs understand

what type of performance measures to identify

as an indicator of success.

6.3. Limitations

While highlighting the important contributions

of the study, we point out limitations of this

study and some opportunities for future re-

search. As the cases we analyze in this research

are all from a convenient sample, caution is

warranted while applying them to other firms,

including SMEs. However, it is not the goal of

an interpretive study to make generalizations

from the examined SMEs, but rather to offer

44 Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(1), 27-49, January-March 2015

insight about the impact of SEO for SMEs. A

rich, thick description of the case allows read-

ers to make decisions regarding transferability

of the research (Merriam, 1988). Large-scale

empirical studies are encouraged in the future

to test the propositions statistically in other

contexts.

Another limitation in this study is that

we did not examine the impact of different

investment level in SEOs on performance

impacts. But in reality, investment level may

make significant difference: while lower level

investment marked with simple modification

of website and keywords may yield relatively

less impact on performance, sophisticated SEOs

are expected to achieve higher impacts. The

SMEs were hesitate to provide any financial

statements.

6.4. Future Research Directions

In this study, we focused on SEO experts that uti-

lized white hat techniques to improve websites.

However, there are SEO experts that engage in

black hat techniques, which are unethical and

will cause search engines to ban company’s

website from their rankings. Future studies may

investigate additional issues related to critical

failures of using SEO by SMEs. Empirical

studies may consider quantifying investment

level and performance impacts and examining

their correlations. The study also offers impor-

tant theoretical implications for future studies.

Building upon three cases, we formulated four

performance influences of SEOs which were

number of visits, duration of visits, number of

engagement goals and overall sales revenues.

These factors can form theoretical propositions

for an important theoretical foundation for fu-

ture empirical research on the impact of SEOs,

particularly among SMEs. Other studies may

choose to focus on the end user and investigate

where they find their information to complete

e-commerce tasks on non-SEO websites versus

SEO websites. This will provide insight into

whether users are able to find content easier

on websites that were optimized versus not

optimized.

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Stella D. Tomasi is an Assistant Professor of e-Business and Technology Management with the

College of Business and Economics of Towson University. She earned her Ph.D. in Manage-

ment Information Systems at Temple University. Dr. Tomasi’s research interests include project

management, information visualization, search engine optimization, supply chain, and teach-

ing pedagogy. Her work has appeared in the International Journal of Project Organisation and

Management, International Journal of Data Analysis and Information Systems, and Journal of

Systems and Information Technology.

Xiaolin Li is an Associate Professor of e-Business and Technology Management with the College

of Business and Economics of Towson University. He received his Ph.D. in Management Systems

from Kent State University. Dr. Li’s current research emphases are the adoption, continuation, and

valuation of technological innovations and buyer-supplier relationships. His research has been

published in Information Systems Research, Journal of the Association for Information Systems,

Decision Sciences, International Journal of Production Economics, Journal of Organizational

Computing and Electronic Commerce, Journal of Computer Information Systems, Journal of

Information Systems Education, among others. His research has also won the “Distinguished

Research Paper Award” (in innovative education track) from the Decision Science Institute

40th Annual Conference (2009) and “Honorable Mention Award” from Midwest DSI Annual

Conference (2006). In 2012, Dr. Li won Towson University College of Business and Economics

Outstanding Scholarship Award.

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Dec 2021

Pengiklanan dalam talian telah menjadi salah satu alat yang menggunakan internet sebagai medium pemasaran di seluruh dunia untuk menghantar mesej promosi kepada individu di seluruh dunia di dunia hari ini. Pengiklanan dalam talian digunakan oleh perniagaan dan organisasi untuk mempromosikan produk dan perkhidmatan mereka. Terdapat lebih empat bilion pengguna Internet di planet ini. Ini menyediakan iklan dalam talian dengan rangsangan yang besar. Idea bahawa peningkatan pesat dalam hasil pengiklanan dalam talian menunjukkan kebolehlaksanaan pengiklanan web global sebagai alternatif kepada media tradisional semakin berkembang disebabkan oleh peningkatan dalam pengiklanan Internet. Pengiklanan dalam talian boleh disesuaikan, menjadikannya lebih mudah untuk perniagaan mengubah produk dan perkhidmatan mereka. Tujuan utama kajian ini adalah untuk mengenal pasti hubungan antara kaedah pengiklanan dalam talian dan keberkesanannya. Tinjauan itu mengumpul maklum balas daripada 300 responden. Soal selidik dalam talian disebarkan dalam kumpulan Facebook usahawan kerana peserta kebanyakannya adalah usahawan. Data ini dianalisis secara deskriptif dan melalui analisis inferensi. Kajian mendapati bahawa semua strategi pengiklanan dalam talian, seperti SEO, PPC, dan media sosial, adalah alat pengiklanan yang berkesan. Hasil kajian adalah penting dalam mengembangkan metodologi kajian literatur untuk pengiklanan internet dan menjadikannya relevan kepada semua pemilik perniagaan. Online advertising has become one of the tools that use the internet as a worldwide marketing medium to send promotional messages to individuals all over the world in today's world. Online advertising is used by businesses and organisations to promote their products and services. There are over four billion Internet users on the planet. This provides online advertisements with a considerable boost. The idea that a rapid increase in online advertising revenues demonstrates the feasibility of global web advertising as an alternative to traditional media is growing due to the rise in Internet advertising. Online advertising is adaptable, making it easier for businesses to alter their products and services. This study's primary purpose is to identify the relationship between online advertisements method and their effectiveness. The survey collected responses from 300 respondents. The online questionnaires are disseminated in an entrepreneur Facebook group because the participants were primarily entrepreneurs. This data was analysed descriptively and through inferential analysis. The study found that all online advertising strategies, such as SEO, PPC, and social media, are effective advertising tools. The study outcomes are critical in expanding the literature review methodologies for internet advertising and making them relevant to all business owners.

Enhancing AHZ's Online Presence through SEO Strategies

Thesis

Full-text available

Jun 2024

Rifat Hasan

This research examines how advanced SEO strategies can boost AHZ's digital presence and help it stand out in the competitive educational consultancy industry. Conducted as part of my BBA internship program, it focuses on practical applications of the Five Pillars of SEO Framework - covering keyword research, on-page and off-page optimization, content creation, and technical SEO - to strengthen AHZ’s online visibility. Beyond technical SEO, the research also applies proven business tools like STP, SWOT, and Porter’s Five Forces to understand AHZ’s position in the market better and provide insights on connecting with its audience effectively. The study offers actionable recommendations to improve website content, build strong backlinks, leverage local SEO, and keep pace with evolving search engine trends. It highlights how data-driven strategies can help AHZ attract more international students and grow its network of university partners. At its core, this research is a practical guide for enhancing AHZ’s online presence, driving meaningful engagement, and paving the way for long-term success in today’s digital world. It’s about using the power of SEO to tell AHZ’s story and help it make a real impact in the lives of students and educational institutions alike.

The state of SEO of e-commerce websites that sell electronics in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the impact of SEO factors on traffic and revenue

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2024

Kenan Mahmutovic

Mahmutović, K.: The state of SEO of e-commerce websites that sell electronics in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the impact of SEO factors on traffic and revenue Abstract Purpose: The research aims to assess the SEO status of electronics e-commerce websites in Bosnia and Herzegovina and analyze the impact of certain SEO factors on website traffic and company revenue. Methodology: Empirical research was conducted on 47 out of 50 identified e-commerce websites that sell consumer electronics in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Descriptive statistical analysis was used to determine the share and structure of organic search visits, the current state of SEO factors, and their impact on user experience and visitor behavior. Path analysis was used to identify and quantify the relationship between SEO factors and website traffic as well as between website traffic and company revenue. Results: Organic search visits represent 23.6% of traffic, with branded visits comprising 48.9%. Mobile optimization needs attention, with 6.4% lacking mobile-friendly design and 75.4% exhibiting poor mobile performance. Desktop performance scores are generally low, with only 12.8% rated as good. An average number of pages per visit is 2.67, and the average bounce rate is 61.4%. The authority score, which measures the quantity and quality of backlinks, has a strong positive impact on the number of keywords. In turn, the number of keywords has a strong positive impact on the number of visits. Finally, visits have a strong positive impact on the revenue of e-commerce websites. Conclusion: Path analysis determined the link between SEO factors, traffic, and revenue. Recommendations of the most critical tactics for attracting web visitors and improving user experience and retention through SEO optimization are given.

E-marketing Strategy and its Effect on Revenue and Customer Loyalty

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2023

In the rapidly evolving digital era, businesses and organisations must adapt to technological changes and changing consumer behaviour. One important aspect in dealing with these changes is the use of e-marketing strategies. The purpose of this study is to analyse e-marketing strategies and their effect on revenue and customer loyalty. This research is a literature review that adopts a qualitative method approach, which means it will analyse and interpret data by relying on information and text from various sources. The study results show that electronic marketing, or e-marketing, is a key element in the marketing strategy of modern companies. It is supported by advances in information and communication technology that have changed the way businesses operate. E-marketing has a significant influence on a company's revenue by increasing visibility, attracting new customers, and retaining existing customers. In addition, this strategy can also strengthen customer loyalty and help companies make smarter decisions through data analysis.

Utilization of Digital Marketing Channels to Optimize Business Performance Among SMEs In Jakarta, Indonesia

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2023

Jakarta currently has at least one million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) engaged in various business fields. In Indonesia, SMEs have contributed around 62% of the gross domestic product (GDP). It, of course, makes the existence of SMEs very important for economic growth. Besides that, technological developments are a challenge for entrepreneurs today. Entrepreneurs are competing to make their products superior through various business strategy initiatives. However, without proper knowledge, it will undoubtedly reduce the strategy's effectiveness. Therefore, many social science studies on business performance have given rise to many solutions to current business problems. One of them is a digital marketing strategy which is currently referred to as marketing 4.0. Currently, many digital marketing channels are circulating on the internet, making it difficult for entrepreneurs to identify which strategy is suitable for their business. Therefore, in this study, researchers focused on using digital marketing channels among SMEs, which focused on search engine marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and affiliate marketing. The sample comprises 87 SME owners from the Jakarta region, with a survey method chosen to achieve the study's objective. According to the study, SMEs that have been operating for one year are more likely to choose social media as a channel that has more impact on their business performance and are followed by search engine marketing, social media marketing, and affiliate marketing. Aside from that, email marketing is an insignificant influence on business performance among SMEs in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Posicionamiento orgánico en motores de búsqueda, su relevancia científica y tendencias de investigación

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2023

Con el crecimiento del mercado digital en los últimos años y el impulso —generado por el confinamiento a causa de la pandemia— a las negociaciones en ecosistemas digitales, el posicionamiento orgánico en motores de búsqueda se convierte en un elemento relevante de estudio, tanto para la comunidad científica como para el sector empresarial mundial, pues ya no basta con tener un espacio en la red, sino que se note en el momento de búsqueda por parte de un usuario digital. El objetivo de esta investigación es reconocer la tendencia científica del posicionamiento orgánico en motores de búsqueda, en los últimosaños. Para ello, se realizó un análisis bibliométrico de 286 artículos científicos indexados en Scopus, identificando indicadores de producción académica, corrientes de investigación, palabras frecuentes y futuras líneas de investigación en este campo. Los hallazgos demuestran un crecimiento exponencial en la producción científica sobre el tema, identificando ocho corrientes de relevancia académica y seis futuras líneas de investigación, con grandes posibilidades de estudios contextuales en Latinoamérica, donde su estudio ha sido escaso. La mayoría de los documentos analizados indican la importancia de esta técnica en el posicionamiento de los sitios web y el rendimiento financiero de las organizaciones.

Analiza komplementarnosti Google-ovih alata za digitalno oglašavanje / Analysis of Complementariy of Google Tools for Digital Advertising

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2023

Ekspanzija digitalnog marketinga uvjetovala je razvoj alata koji se koriste pri digitalnom oglašavanju u svrhu uvida u ponašanje potrošača, pri čemu se posebno ističu Googleovi alati. Istraživanje prednosti i nedostataka te komplementarnosti pojedinih digitalnih oglašivačkih alata iznimno je važna aktivnost marketinškog upravljanja, radi adekvatnog kreiranja medija plana i optimizacije marketinškog budžeta. Ovaj znanstveni rad analizira specifične karakteristike i obrađuje temu komplementarnosti Googleovih alata koji se koriste za digitalno oglašavanje - Google Ads, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) i Google Analytics. Analiza je imala za cilj utvrditi uvjete i modele korištenja kombinacije Googleovih alata u digitalnom oglašavanju kroz usporednu analizu i utvrđivanje komplementarnosti tih triju Googleovih alata. Temeljem izvršenog istraživanja autori u radu donose smjernice o tome u kojim je okolnostima pogodno koristiti Googleove alate pojedinačno, a u kojima je pak najučinkovitija opcija korištenje kombinacije tih alata. Kao najčešće preporučene optimalne kombinacije autori preporučuju sljedeće: korištenje Google Ads-a kao načina oglašavanja, korištenje usluga SEO-a koje nude vanjske tvrtke te korištenje Google Analytics alata da bi se prikupili i obradili analitički podaci o korisnicima web stranice. Dakle, postoji mogućnost kako pojedinačnog, tako i komplementarnog korištenja Google Ads, SEO i Google Analytics alata u cilju poboljšanja marketinške učinkovitosti. Ova analiza donosi korisne praktične implikacije za poboljšanje strategije digitalnog marketinga u malim i srednjim poduzećima ali i velikim kompanijama, a kao znanstveni doprinos rada ističe se prilog teoriji o poznavanju karakteristika Google-ovih oglašivačkih alata u kontekstu ponašanja potrošača i teorije nultog trenutka istine - ZMOT ili Zero Moment of Truth.

Search engine optimization poisoning: A cybersecurity threat analysis and mitigation strategies for small and medium-sized enterprises

Article

Feb 2024
Tech Soc

This study investigates the emerging cybersecurity threat of search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning and its impact on small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) digital marketing efforts. Through a comprehensive analysis of SEO poisoning techniques employed by attackers, the study reveals the significant risks and consequences for SMEs, including reputational damage, financial losses, and disrupted operations. To address these threats, the study proposes tailored mitigation strategies aligned with the principles of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework while considering the resource constraints facing SMEs. The mitigation recommendations encompass technical measures such as website security audits and employee training alongside non-technical initiatives to foster a culture of cybersecurity awareness. Additionally, the study offers several discussions that elucidate the multifaceted challenges posed by SEO poisoning in the SME context from both internal and external perspectives. These contributions will empower SMEs and digital marketers to implement proactive safeguards against SEO poisoning risks and preserve their online presence. The study underscores the need for continued vigilance and adaptive security to combat the evolving tactics of cyber adversaries in the digital marketing domain.

Strategies for Small Enterprises to Retain the Opportunities Created by COVID-19 for e-Marketing

Article

Sep 2023

Abeer Elsayed Fayed

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted commerce and industry globally. While this impact was mostly negative, some rare businesses, for example, e-marketing, benefited from it as well. This study aims to identify the strategies required to retain the opportunities presented by the pandemic by converting consumers to e-marketing. To collect data, the authors distributed an electronic questionnaire to the study sample in Saudi Arabia, which is one of the most promising markets in electronic commerce and digital transformation. The sample consisted of 69 respondents from small-scale companies who conducted marketing activities via the internet, as well as 400 online buyers. The study analysed the data using statistical methods included in the SPSS software package. The study concluded that the current situation at small businesses will not allow them to switch consumers to e-marketing; that is, they are not yet ready for it. The COVID-19 provided many opportunities to these companies, and the results suggest that they should employ strategies such as lead generation, website optimization for search engines, and creating customer-friendly content, efficient supply chains, websites that attract the target customers, online customer interaction and so on to exploit these opportunities.

The impact of digital presence and use of information technology on business performance of veterinary practices: a case study of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2023

Introduction The veterinary profession is facing various challenges in the 21st century, such as livestock production intensification, shifting distribution of infectious diseases, growing focus on food safety alongside growing demand for companion animals’ veterinary services. Information technologies and digitalization trends had driven changes in many business sectors, including providing veterinary services thus opening new avenues to overcome the existing challenges this profession is facing. Methods A study was conducted among 244 veterinary practices in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The gathered information related to subjects involving digital presence, the utilization of information technologies, and the business performance. To obtain this information, a personalized questionnaire was utilized as the means for collecting data. Results The study revealed that only 10.2% had a business-associated website, and 54.9% were present on at least one social media platform. The study suggests that a positive impact on annual profit can be achieved through the implementation of effective digital marketing strategies such as web presence, search engine optimization, Google business account existence, website Google advertisement, continuous administration of social media, and social media advertisement. The statistical analysis indicates that Google advertisements, website search engine optimization, and social media advertisements greatly affect annual profit. Discussion Improving digital presence of veterinary businesses with professionally managed websites, use of social media platforms, investment in online marketing strategies, and adopting telehealth services and online access to patient records positively affects business performance and better fits the growing needs of clients and society.

Search Engine Marketing: Does the Knowledge Discovery Process Help Online Retailers?

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2013

Tapan Kumar Panda

Knowledge discovery process is a term used for finding out relevant information from a large database. Majority of research is done on how enterprises can use data mining tools for discovering knowledge. However this research paper focuses on user-generated knowledge discovery process through search engine applications for decision making. Users on Internet are resorting to search engines like Google and Yahoo and finding out the desired information. Search engine companies are using web analytics to develop Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategies and develop sponsored page links on the first page of the search engine. SEM companies rank web pages of companies by using complex algorithms. This research paper focuses on an analysis of knowledge discovery process and customer preferences of page location of the search pages. The paper will help Indian online retailers to use SEM as an effective tool to successfully market themselves on the Internet world. Based on the analysis of data from online shoppers, this study recognizes the key factors in effectively marketing products online and questions the current attitude of online marketers. The authors establish that the positioning of advertisements in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) plays a key role in generating traffic for the site. This paper also compares Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) frameworks and finds that the latter method is more effective. This paper highlights behavioral targeting to be less effective than the current belief. This research has both theoretical and practical consequences in terms of appreciating the effectiveness of SEM as a self-search knowledge discovery process.

Exploring Marketing Strategies in Small Businesses

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2012

Julia Cronin-Gilmore

According to the Small Business Administration, there are approximately 23 million small businesses in the United States. Over 86% of businesses have no more than 20 employees, although the total number of people employed is approximately one-fourth of the entire United States workforce. Nearly 50% of all small businesses close within the first five years. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand the decisions and actions a small business owner takes when pursuing marketing strategy. Five findings emerged from the in-depth interviews: marketing, formulating strategy, strengths, values, and needs.

What's wrong with ethnography?: Methodological explorations

Book

Jan 2018

Martyn Hammersley

Originally published 1992 What’s Wrong With Ethnography? provides a fresh look at the rationale for and distinctiveness of ethnographic research in sociology, education and related fields. Relativism, critical theory, the uniqueness of the case study and the distinction between qualitative and quantitative research are all examined and found wanting as a basis for informed ethnography. The policy and political implications of ethnography are a particular focus of attention. The author compels the reader to re-examine some basic methodological assumptions in an exciting way.

Conclusion: Small and medium-sized enterprises in the global economy

Chapter

Jan 2010

Competitive Dynamics Research: Critique and Future Directions

Chapter

Feb 2008

A series of actions (moves) and reactions (countermoves) among firms in an industry create competitive dynamics. These action/reaction dynamics reflect the normal and innovative movement of firms in pursuit of profits. Firms act creatively (introduce a new product, a new promotion, or a new marketing agreement! to enhance or improve profits, competitive advantage, and industry position; successful actions (actions which generate new customers and profits) promote competitive reaction as rivals attempt to block or imitate the action. The study of competitive dynamics is thus the study of how firm action (moves) affects competitors, competitive advantage, and performance. Sometimes these actions and reactions can escalate among firms so that the industry performance is adversely affected; at other times, the pattern of behavior can be more gentlemanly and profitable.

The Determinants and Impact of Outsourcing on Small and Medium Enterprises - An Empirical Study

Article

Jan 2007

Jogendra Nayak

Why small businesses fail

Article

Jan 2000

R. Monk

The forms of capital

Article

Jan 1986

P. Bourdieu

A Model for E-Readiness Assessment of Iranian Small and Medium Enterprises

Article

Jan 2008

The current dynamic and turbulent business environment has forced companies that are competing in global markets to change their traditional methods of conducting business. Recent developments in applying Information Technology (IT) offer the most exciting business opportunities in the marketplace. Organizations must re-evaluate every aspect of their strategies and quickly move to a working mode where the electronic commerce is essential for their success. One of tools that can be used for measuring the diffusion rate of IT is e-readiness assessment. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are critical to the economies of all countries, including developing ones. They cannot be left behind and many are already demonstrating their entrepreneurship strength by grasping opportunities offered by IT. The concept of e-readiness assessment for SMEs has received limited attention in the literature. This paper first studies e-readiness assessment models proposed for countries and then tries to develop a model for measuring the e-readiness of SMEs (ESME) by an exploratory study. Finally, the proposed model is used for the assessment and comparison for e-readiness of three considered Iranian SMEs.

The Promise of Entrepreneurship as a Field of Research

Article

Jan 2000

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