A

PROJECT REPORT
ON

“IMPACT OF SEO ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE”

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

PROF. VASUDHA AGNIHOTRI

SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF 2 YEAR FULL-TIME COURSE
POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN MANAGEMENT (PGDM)

SUBMITTED BY
(BHAVESH WARANG)
ROLL NO - 29
(BATCH 2021 – 2022)

(GARWARE INSTITUTE OF CAREER EDUCATION AND

DEVELOPMENT)

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Declaration:

I, the undersigned, hereby declare that the Project Report entitled “Impact of SEO on
Business Performance” written and submitted by me to the University Of Mumbai, in partial
fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the degree of Master Business Administration
under the guidance of “Vasudha Agnihotri” is my original work and the conclusions drawn
therein are based on the material collected by myself.

Place:
Bhavesh Warang
Date: Student Name & Signature

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 THE IMPACT OF SEO ON BUSINESS

Digital marketing has been radically growing and changing dynamically over the years, and only a handful of
companies are left who are not aware of this strategy, which makes the market very competitive for companies
to push their product/services towards their prospectus customers again some traction and increase conversion.
Hence, search engine optimizations have been a trending aspect of marketing strategy for the majority of
companies and it is observed that companies inappropriately incorporate the strategy to excel in terms of
profitability and marketing visibility.

The thesis deals with search engine optimization (SEO), a crucial strategy to enhance the visibility of
marketing efforts in a business. It is research-based and primarily aims to analyze serious factors, and search
engine optimization and its implication on a successful business. It encompasses how SEO has been changing
over the sociometrists to the trending factors that might still be effective for at least a year from the published
date of the thesis.

The thesis is a case study, it contains materials from various reading companies in online and digital marketing
streams this proceeds with extensive details of trending SEO techniques and analyzes some disclosed relevant
cases of companies that support the thesis’s objective to conclude that SEO is an integral part of the business.

In conclusion, SEO is a dynamic process that exists with the web and requires continuous improvement for the
business’s survival and growth, which puts the visibility on companies to be consistently aware of search
engine updates, and competitors and take actions accordingly.

Keywords: Search Engine Optimization, Digital Marketing, Online Marketing

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INDEX

Sr. No Topic Page No

Importance of SEO for business, Benefits and , Why SEO
1 Introduction
1.1 Literature Review
1.2 Limitation
1.3 Data
2 Research & Methodology
2.1 Research Question and Hypothesis
2.2 Data Collection
2.3 Website Research
2.4 SEO Strategy Implemented
3 Search Engine & Search Engine Result Page (SERP)
4 Search Engine Algorithm & Ranking
5 Search Engine Optimization
5.1 SEO Strategy
5.2 Keywords Research
5.3 Building A Search Engine-Friendly Website
5.4 Content Development
5.5 On-Page Optimization
5.5.1 Meta Tags
5.5.2 File name, Title, And Alt Tags
5.5.3 Optimize Content
5.6 Off-Page Optimization
5.7 Social Media
5.8 Optimization For local search
5.9 Optimization For mobile devices
5.9.1 Responsive Web Design
5.9.2 Adaptive Web Design
5.9.3 Separate URL Paths
5.9.4 AMP (Accelerated Mobile Page)
6 Monitoring With Google Webmaster Tools And Analytics
7 SEO Case Studies
7.1 IBU International Burch University
7.2 Nike Golf (6Dglobal, no date)
7.3 UAV Coach (Richards, 2015)
7.4 Your Foot Doc (Blazonco, no date)
7.5 Talkpoint (Lambrecht, 2016)
8 Discussion and conclusion
9 References

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A SHORT OVERVIEW OF SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In the simplest of terms, good SEO optimizes your visibility
online. This means that the more people see your website, the more your online traffic increases, and the
better your chances to provide your product or service to a greater number of people. Let’s break down why
SEO is so important.

There are only 10 spots—that’s right, just 10—on a Google search page. So ask yourself, when you type in
a Google search, how often do you venture off the first page onto the second, third, or twentieth page of the
search results? Chances are, you rarely have to because the first few options on that very first Google page
contain the information you requested in your search query.

If a prospective customer types in a topic relevant to what your business can provide, don’t you want to be
on that first search results page alongside your competitors? If you aren’t in one of those top ten search
spots, another business just gained a new customer—or, you just lost one.

This is the importance of SEO for your business: SEO gives you the power to be the answer to potential
customers’ questions. In addition to visibility and traffic increase, SEO contributes to your authoritative
voice in your field. Authority then leads to brand trust, which ultimately leads to brand loyalty.

When asking the question why is SEO good for business, the answer is that SEO not only attracts new
customers but over time it also allows you to deepen your business’s relationship with those customers
because of the trust you have established with them.

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HOW SEO WORKS

SEO has everything to do with quantity and quality. The better your website is on both the back and front
ends, the better traffic you will get, and the more search engines will increase your search rankings.
Building SEO works by combining SEO elements using a data-driven approach. These factors include:

 Keyword analysis

 Backlink building

 Content creation
Let’s take a look at how each of these strengthens your SEO for your digital marketing.

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 KEYWORD ANALYSIS

Words are powerful, and certain words have the power to control your rankings online. Keywords can be
single words or phrases that people frequently use to find what they are looking for. Keywords need to be
researched and strategically placed in your content so that the quality of your content is high while still
utilizing frequently searched words.

Keywords are one of the reasons why you need SEO for your business. Prospective customers will use
certain words or phrases to search for a product or service. If your content contains those words and phrases
used by customers, you will increase your visibility because you are providing the answers by specifically
utilizing the appropriate keywords. The most effective SEO keywords will be those that are carefully
researched and analyzed.

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 BACKLINK BUILDING

Backlinks are elements on your website that link back to other credible, high-quality websites. Building
backlinks improve your credibility because you are citing sources that are relevant to your area of expertise.
For example, including current, trending events straight from their source can increase your credibility.

Backlink building should be done strategically so that your content does not get lost in a sea of other
sources, which can be problematic. For example, plagiarism is taken very seriously and you do not want to
present other people’s content as your own. Metric Marketing performs backlink cleanup if that is necessary
for your site. Backlink building can absolutely enhance your SEO but it needs to be done carefully and
ethically.

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 CONTENT CREATION

Content is where your SEO really comes to fruition. Your content allows you to communicate directly with
your audience of existing and prospective customers. This is where your keywords help you build authority,
trust, consistency, and engagement. Strong content can balance the human side of your customer-driven
business with the data-driven analytics necessary to optimize your digital presence.

Content is anything that your audience views or hears, including:

 Blogs

 Webpage text

 Infographics

 Videos

 Social media posts

 Podcasts

 Newsletters
Your content drives SEO by directly engaging with current and potential customers, thus driving traffic.
Your content tells your audience who you are and what you offer.

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What SEO Can Do for Your Business

BUILD TRUST WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS

SEO and user experience (UX) work hand in hand with each other. Building trust organically is how SEO
helps your business. User experience is how your audience interacts with your website. When your
customers have a positive experience with your business, you get more web clicks, increasing traffic and
ultimately increasing your SEO. As this happens organically over time, your rank on a search engine results
page (SERP) will get closer and closer to those top 10 spots.

User experience includes how well your customers can navigate through your site. Your website’s
foundation must be solid and sturdy. UX is a mix of how web design, tone, and branding come together to
make the user’s experience the best it can be.

Good SEO and UX mean that your business will build trust organically. Organic searches are the search
results that appear on the SERP strictly via a user’s search. This means that you did not pay to be at the top
of the SERP. Building trust organically builds SEO, and over time you will continue to grow and optimize
your digital marketing and your business as a whole.

If you deliver what the customers are looking for, you become a trusted source they can depend on. Users
know what they want. So if you do not meet user standards, your SEO will suffer. If your platform provides
what your users are looking for—whether that be in the form of information, answers to questions, products,

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or services—then you begin to establish trust with your customers. The more trust gained, the better the
SEO and UX of your digital marketing.

VISIBILITY ATTRACTS CLIENTELE

Attracting visibility in an organic way means that your website is appearing because of what your customers
searched. Customers can seek you out based on their needs, which is where keywords really come into play.
When customers see you as someone who can meet their needs, you spur engagement. Engagement cannot
begin, though, until they are aware of you. The importance of SEO is that it allows potential leads to see
you, meaning that process of engagement can begin.

SEO is a pathway for visibility, which, depending on your purpose, can impact the buying cycle. Knowing
what people are looking for by conducting thorough SEO research is key. This is where Local SEO
becomes crucial in knowing your audience and their needs and wants. So, what is SEO in business when it
comes to Local SEO?

Local SEO uses the geographical location of your business in search results. Your location can contribute to
your online visibility. When a potential customer searches for a question followed by “near me” or within
your geographical proximity, you want to be the business that comes up first. Increasing Local SEO  will
increase your online visibility, leading to growth in your customer base.

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 IMPORTANCE OF SEO: KNOWING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PAID AND
ORGANIC SEARCHES

A large part of digital marketing is search engine marketing (SEM). SEM is paid search marketing. This is
not a bad thing; pay-per-click marketing campaigns use strategic research to help increase your return on
investment (ROI). You just need to be aware that most people recognize which SERP results are ads and
which are organic. And gaining organic traffic is the ultimate goal.

Organic traffic can be improved using tools like paid search campaigns to bring more visibility. Yet, as a
consumer yourself, you may find yourself wanting the results that don’t have the word “ad” next to it in
your Google search. Your customers most likely feel the same way.

Again, paid search campaigns can be used to your advantage if done well and can intentionally market your
business to your target audience. Organic search will utilize more SEO tactics such as keyword searches,
which ultimately means that your content shows up for a wider range of potential viewers who want a
particular need met.

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 SHARING IS CARING: HOW ORGANIC SEARCHES LEAD TO CLICK SHARE

To understand the benefits of SEO for your business, you first need to understand click share. Click share is
an estimate of all of the clicks your business receives. You will only be able to see this for search and
shopping campaigns. It is a tool to expand your business, as it has the potential for you to reach
even more clicks. The better your SEO, the larger amount of click share you will have because organic
results receive a large click share.

Click-share data can be used for search and shopping campaigns on various levels, including keyword
search campaigns, ad groups, product groups, and shopping attributes. The key to click shares is that they
require impressions in order to even receive clicks.

What does increasing impressions entail? You got it, SEO! Click share is, of course, an estimate, but it is an
estimate based on your past digital footprint and how much visibility your advertisements and other content

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receive. The quality, relevance, and quantity of your business’s digital presence will all contribute to
visibility, which is driven by your SEO.

THE ROLE OF SEO IN DIGITAL MARKETING

Metric Marketing’s digital marketing experts understand that SEO can be a bit overwhelming. It’s obvious
that SEO is important, but where do you start? And, after you start, how do you know that what you’re
doing is even making a positive impact on your business? The good news is that we are here to help.

We are leading experts in the field of digital marketing for a reason. We take a data-driven approach to the
role of SEO in digital marketing, focusing our time and effort on creating content and websites that
we know will produce results. Data is always honest, and we know how to utilize researched data to best
benefit your individual needs.

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Along with a data-driven approach, our SEO team uses a White Hat SEO approach to optimization. White
Hat SEO is the alternative to unethical Black Hat SEO tactics. While Black Hat SEO shows quick results,
search engines have new techniques for finding which companies are using sketchy techniques like keyword
stuffing and cloaking.

Search engine intelligence is constantly being updated, so trying to trick them to benefit yourself will only
lead to harm and penalization. Our SEO team lives by the mantra of growth over time. We trust that our
patience with creating ethical means of building SEO pays off in the long run. The purpose of SEO is to
build credibility with search engines. Let us help you cultivate a positive relationship with engines like
Google, YouTube, and others by taking the time to analyze the facts and data.

15 REASONS WHY YOUR BUSINESS ABSOLUTELY NEEDS SEO

The need for SEO rose to an all-time high. As consumers shifted en masse to online, even the most traditional
business realized that they need to accelerate the shift to digital.SEO is the most viable and cost-effective way
to both understand and reach customers in key moments that matter.Many brands and businesses know (or
think they know) that they need SEO for their digital properties, and the benefits they will get from the SEO
work being implemented on their behalf.

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Organic Search is Most Often the Primary Source of Website Traffic

Organic search is a massive part of most businesses’ website performance and a critical component of the
buyer funnel and ultimately getting users to complete a conversion or engagement.
As marketers know, Google owns a significantly larger portion of the search market than competitors like
Yahoo, Bing, Baidu, Yandex, DuckDuckGo, and many, many others.
That’s not to say that all search engines don’t contribute to a brand’s visibility – they do. It’s just that
Google owns a considerable portion of the overall search market.
Nevertheless, it’s a clear-cut leader, and thus its guidelines are important to follow.
But the remaining part of the market owned by other engines is valuable to brands, too. This is especially
true for brands in niche verticals where voice, visual and vertical search engines play an essential role.
Google, being the most visited website in the world (and specifically in the United States), also happens to be
the most popular email provider globally with more than 1 billion users.
YouTube is the second biggest search engine and over 2 billion people access it at least once a month.
We know that a clear majority of the world with access to the internet is visiting Google at least once a day
to get information.
Being highly visible as a trusted resource by Google and other search engines will always work in a brand’s
favor. Quality SEO and a high-quality website take brands there.

SEO Builds Trust & Credibility

The goal of any experienced SEO is to establish a strong foundation for a beautiful website with a clean,
effective user experience that is easily discoverable in search, thanks to the trust and credibility of the brand and
its digital properties.
Many elements go into establishing authority regarding search engines like Google.

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In addition to the factors mentioned above, authority is accrued over time as a result of aspects like:
Natural links.
Positive user behavior.
Machine-learning signals.
Optimized on-page elements and content.
But establishing that authority will do more for a brand than most, if not all, other digital optimizations.
The problem is, it’s impossible to build trust and credibility overnight – just like in real life. Authority is earned
and built over time.
Following Google’s E-A-T guidelines is critical to ensure successful results.
Establishing a brand as an authority takes patience, effort, and commitment and relies on offering a valuable,
quality product or service that allows customers to trust a brand.

SEO is the Best Way to Understand the Voice of the Consumer

From understanding macro market shifts to understanding consumer intent in granular detail, SEO tells us what

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customers want and need.
SEO data and formats – spoken or word – gives us clear signals of intent and user behavior.
It does this in many ways:
 Search query data.
 SERP analysis.
 Analytics data and AI insights.

Good SEO Also Means a Better User Experience

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User experience has become every marketer’s number one priority. Everyone wants better organic rankings and
maximum visibility. However, few realize that optimal user experience is a big part of getting there.
Google has learned how to interpret a good or unfavorable user experience, and a positive user experience has
become a pivotal element to a website’s success.
Google’s Page Experience Update is something that marketers in all industries will need to adhere to and is part
of their longstanding focus on the customer experience.

Customers know what they want. If they can’t find it, there’s going to be a problem. And performance will
suffer.
A clear example of building a solid user experience is how Google has become more and more of an answer
engine offering the sought-after data directly on the SERPs (search engine results pages).
The intention is to offer users the information they are looking for in fewer clicks, quickly and easily.
Quality SEO incorporates a positive user experience, leveraging it to work in a brand’s favor.

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Local SEO Means Increased Engagement, Traffic & Conversions

With the rise and growing domination of mobile traffic, local search has become a fundamental part of small-
and medium-sized businesses’ success.

Local SEO aims at optimizing your digital properties for a specific vicinity, so people can find you quickly and
easily, putting them one step closer to a transaction.

Local optimizations focus on specific neighborhoods, towns, cities, regions, and even states to establish a viable
medium for a brand’s messaging on a local level.

SEO pros do this by optimizing the brand’s website and its content, including local citations and backlinks, as
well as regional listings relevant to the location and business sector a brand belongs to.

To promote engagement locally, SEO pros should optimize a brand’s Knowledge Graph panel, its Google My
Business listing, and its social media profiles as a start.

There should also be a strong emphasis on user reviews on Google, as well as other reviews sites like Yelp,
Home Advisor, and Angie’s List (among others), depending on the industry.

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SEO Impacts the Buying Cycle

Research is becoming a critical element of SEO, and the importance of real-time research is growing.

Using SEO tactics to relay your messaging for good deals, ground-breaking products and services, and the
importance and dependability of what you offer customers will be a game-changer.

It will also undoubtedly positively impact the buying cycle when done right.

Brands must be visible in the places people need them for a worthy connection to be made. Local SEO
enhances that visibility and lets potential customers find the answers and the businesses providing those
answers.

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SEO is Constantly Improving and Best Practices are Always Being Updated

It’s great to have SEO tactics implemented on a brand’s website and across its digital properties. Still, if it’s a
short-term engagement (budget constraints, etc.) and the site isn’t re-evaluated consistently over time, it will
reach a threshold where it can no longer improve because of other hindrances.
The way the search world evolves (basically at the discretion of Google) requires constant monitoring for
changes to stay ahead of the competition and, hopefully, on Page 1.
Being proactive and monitoring for significant algorithm changes is always going to benefit the brands doing
so.
We know Google makes thousands of algorithm changes a year. Fall too far behind, and it will be tough to
come back.

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Understanding SEO Helps You Understand the Environment of the Web

With the always-changing environment that is the World Wide Web, it can be a challenge to stay on top of the
changes as they take place.

But staying on top of SEO includes being in the loop for the major changes taking place for search.

Knowing the environment of the web, including tactics being used by other local, comparable businesses and
competitors, will always be beneficial for those brands.

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SEO is Relatively Cheap and Very Cost-Effective

Sure, it costs money. But all the best things do, right?
SEO is relatively inexpensive in the grand scheme of things, and the payoff will most likely be considerable in
terms of a brand’s benefit to the bottom line.
This isn’t a marketing cost; this is an actual business investment.
Exemplary SEO implementation will hold water for years to come. And, like most things in life, it will only be
better with the more attention (and investment) it gets.

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SEO Brings New Opportunities to Light

High-quality SEO will always find a means of discovering and leveraging new opportunities for brands not just
to be discovered but to shine.
Offering quality SEO to brands means submersing an SEO team in everything that is that brand. It’s the only
way to truly market a brand with the passion and understanding that its stakeholders have for it: becoming a
stakeholder.
The better a brand is understood, the more opportunities will arise to help it thrive. The same can be said about
SEO.
New opportunities with SEO today can come in many ways – from giving content, digital and social
opportunities to helping with sales, product, and customer service strategies.

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If You’re Not on Page One, You’re Not Winning the Click – Especially With Zero-Click
Results

SEO is becoming a zero-sum game as zero-click SERP show the answer directly at the top of a Google search
result.
The search intent of the user is satisfied without having to click any actual search result links.
It’s no secret in the world of SEO that if you’re not on Page 1, you’re likely not killing the organic search
game.
A recent study shows that the first three organic search ranking positions result in over 50% of all click-
throughs, while up to 30% of all results on Page 1 and 2 don’t get clicked at all.
What’s this mean?
Three things:
 Zero-click results win.
 If you’re not on Page 1, you need to be.
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  There are still too many instances when a user types a search query and can’t find exactly what it’s
looking for.

SEO is Always Going to Be Here

Consumers will always want products and services online, and brands will always look for the most cost-
effective way to do that.
While the role of SEO may change and strategies change, new avenues are constantly opening up through
different entry points such as voice, apps, wearables, and the Internet of Things (IoT).
According to Comserve.Inc, next-generation search engines powered by deep neural networks and machine
learning are set to explode in market value, from $14.9 billion in 2019 to $55.7 billion in 2025.
New, organic search opportunities will always arise.

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1. INTRODUCTION

Search engine marketing platforms are unique to each search engine. From there, you can create campaigns
and advertisements for searches. Google processes over 3.5 billion searches every day. And that equals a
market share of more than 75 percent. Therefore, marketers strive to have their businesses appear at the top
of Google search results. Putting it simply, that makes sense. Businesses should be where their customer
bases are. Search Engine Results Pages also abbreviated as SERP are the results users see after submitting a
search into a search engine. And there are two ways to show up on the top of the search engine results page,
Search Engine Optimization, SEO, and Search Engine Marketing, SEM. Despite the high ROI of SEO, it is
a long-term investment.
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SEO refers to the technique of optimizing websites for search engines. It has been a focus of research in
many digital marketing journals and individual researchers due to its considerable influence on the
organizational structures of internet-based enterprises during the last three decades. The importance of SEO
in company optimization is negligible, and when looking for other papers of a similar kind, it is evident that
there are many unexplored topics. The absence of several research on the effect of SEO on business
demonstrates the significance of this study. The fact that only domain owners have access to the SEO data
further complicates the research process. The purpose of this study is to determine and analyze the
significance and impact of SEO on company performance; if SEO does not boost business, why should
anybody spend money on SEO specialists?
An in-depth review of the previous condition of the IBU website, which had a high bounce rate enhanced
the demand for an optimized web source. Ability to associate the existence of an unoptimized website based
on a WordPress theme with its impact on company performance led to a strong inclination to create a new,
optimized, and quick website.
Not only was the website inadequately optimized, but it also lacked specified keywords, resulting in a
terrible SERP rank for the IBU website. The issue of SEO's impact on company is incredibly essential,
particularly when we consider that one of the primary ways companies attract clients is via their websites,
and how would they entice the customer to the website if the website is scarcely visible? SEO is essential
since it increases the website's visibility, resulting in more traffic and conversion potential.
The challenge of optimizing a website for search engine optimization (SEO) is not straightforward, as it
necessitates a substantial investment and the collaboration of many different professional fields, such as
SEO specialists, developers, UX/UI designers, marketing specialists, etc. Combining on-page and off-page
SEO approaches is the answer to many of the listed issues, as well as its maintenance over the months and
years.

The capacity of a business to adopt optimum organization with the objective of delivering a product or
service that fulfills consumer and customer expectations influences business success, which is highly
correlated with commercial effectiveness. According to studies, innovation promotes corporate performance
since the output of innovation increases company competitiveness (Budur and Poturak, 2021) and the
process of innovation transforms a company's internal capacity, making it more adaptive to change (Neely
& Hii, 1998; Budur et al., 2019)
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Internet and its subdivisions are one of the technical business advancements with which we are constantly
confronted (Budur, 2018). World wide web or just web is one of its principal subsets, consisting of sites and
programs that can be accessed using a web browser, employed by unified resource locators (URLs), and
linked by hyperlinks. Without a search engine, which is essentially a software system for doing internet
searches, it would be difficult to navigate the immensity of the World Wide Web (Sirovich & Darie, 2007)
The data processed by the search engine is so huge that it would be difficult to discover anything without
appropriate classification and optimization; thus, we begin SEO, or search engine optimization, at this point.
SEO is the art and science of modifying a website's components to get the greatest possible search engine
ranking. (Ochoa, 2012)
Numerous modern organizations use their websites as their main or secondary lead-generating platforms for
prospective consumers. According to studies, a website is more likely to be accessed by a user if it ranks
higher on a SERP (search engine results page). (Enge et al., 2009) 36 percent of consumers say that having
a firm featured among the top results on a SERP creates the sense that the company is a leader in its
industry. (Iprospect, 2006).
There are several objectives that we have an intention of achieving: (i) Keyword research: We will discuss
how to find and choose potential keywords for use in a successful SEO campaign on a website, (ii) Website
development and SEO implementation: The scope of this study includes the following phases: the
conception phase of the website, development, launch, and implementation of SEO, (iii) Metrics analyzed:
This study will concentrate on the following research factors in order to verify and assess the efficiency of
the chosen SEO approaches; in addition, a definition of each of these variables is provided: Number of
visits, meaning the number of times a visitor has visited your site is referred to as the number of visits
(unique sessions initiated by all your visitors). Pageviews, which displays the total number of pageviews
received by your site when the given time period is taken into consideration.

In the following section, this paper will provide a comprehensive literature review consisting of relevant
papers and studies that contribute to SEO as a field of study in digital marketing. The data collection
process and in-depth interview structure is explained in the methodology section while main findings and
hypothesis testing results are presented ithe n results analysis and data discussion section. In the final part of
the paper conclusion and s,tudy implications are provided.

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1.1 LITERATURE REVIEW

This study focuses mostly addresses on SEO's critical and direct effect on company success. Stella Tomasi
and Xiaolin Li (2015) provided the first study on SEO's impact on SMEs in their paper Influences of Search
Engine Optimization on Performance of SMEs.
The findings of the iProspects Search Engine User Behavior Study provide specific data conclusions at
various periods. (Iprospect, 2006) Bishnu conducted extensive research on SEO's impact, including several
case study analyses of organizations like Nike Golf, UAV Coach, Your Foot Doc, and Talkpoint. Rana
(2016) derived a conclusion that keyword selection, content with optimized keywords, and the use of
various link-building tactics have all been shown to have a major influence on growing traffic and getting
high rankings in SERPs.
Websites are strongly related to business performance, particularly if a company requires brand recognition
tactics. Enaceanu (2010) states that 80 to 90 percent of internet users, utilize search engines like Google to
get relevant information; consequently, marketing strategies should reflect the significance of search
engines. According to Pohjanen (2019), traditional search engines put a premium on the frequency with
which a phrase appears on a website. Google uses PageRank to evaluate the whole Web's link structure and
find the most important sites. It then does an examination of hypertext matching to determine which pages
are relevant to the current search. Google is able to highlight the most relevant and trustworthy search results
by combining query-specific relevance with broad importance.
SEO, as a tool of digital marketing strategy, has permeated all types of business sectors, including small
scale enterprises, multinational corporations, domestic corporations, education sectors, bank sectors,
manufacturing sectors, and so on; as a result, many industries prefer to begin the process of implementing
digital marketing strategies due to their cost-effectiveness and quick customer reach. (Thoti & Vyshnavi,
2019)
In his research, Binter (2019) found that the majority of his sample respondents strongly believe that digital
marketing has a good impact on the performance of B2B enterprises. It has been observed that, in terms of
business performance, business quality leads to productivity, and productivity increases business
performance. (Prakash et al., 2017) It has also been shown that providing products that meet consumer
needs may help a company gain a competitive advantage.

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This will ultimately lead to the production of high- quality goods, which will improve the company's profits.
(Forker et al., 1996) Moreover, not only will quality help to a company's increased success, but all
competitive quality dimensions are strongly correlated with several performance measures. (Curkovic et al.,
1999; Rashid et al., 2020). Regarding the impact that SEO has on the visibility of universities on search
engine results pages, Vallez & Ventura (2020) found that the findings of their study indicate that higher
education institutions need to employ SEO techniques in order to boost their visibility in an efficient
manner. This study has a direct link to our hypothesis since it demonstrates the significance of SEO for the
visibility of university websites on SERP, which in turn affects the overall performance of businesses.
It is necessary to be aware that search engine optimization (SEO) should be planned on a long-term
connection rather than on a short- term relationship, notwithstanding the significance of SEO
implementation. According to research conducted by Erdman et al., (2022), it is possible to make long-term
conclusions from projected cost per click, which serves as the economic cost of organic keywords.
Small firms are more likely to be successful if they apply a variety of marketing methods, invest in high-
quality equipment, and depend on grants as opposed to family and friends for funding (Budur, 2020).
Investments in marketing strategy, market research, and training are unlikely to improve performance in the
medium term. (Wood, 2006) When assessing marketing's effect on corporate performance, we may consider
two marketing capacity categories (outside-in and inside-out capabilities) (Budur et al., 2018). Researchers
in European engineering nations observed that when SEM analysis is done, correlations between market
orientation and outside-in capabilities and company performance are surprisingly small, in contrast to the
large effect of innovation orientation and inside-out talents. (Jaakkola et al., 2010)
Additional writers that have studied diverse aspects and issues pertaining to SEO as a digital marketing
strategy for company performance and search ranking algorithm include (but are not limited to): Norrgard
(2018), Ochoa (2012), Hidayanto et al., (2012), Kivist (2016), Sharaf (2013).

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1.2 LIMITATIONS

The majority of the information used in the study is highly dependent on electronic sources obtained from
reputed organizations of digital marketing stream nevertheless, may not be abideable. The availability of a
limited number of cases with reluctance to disclose full data might limit the quantitative aspects of the
analysis. In addition, due to the dynamic nature of search engines, the search engine optimization technique
is also in a continuous process of change therefore, the study can be valid up to a certain extent and period.

The theoretical background for modern SEO techniques has been borrowed from the latest version of SEO
books and relevant electronic sources. The data for investigation were retrieved from various online sources
published by the marketing firms. The name of the company involved in the case studies is Nike Golf, UAV
Coach, Your Foot Doc, and Talkpoint.

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1.3 DATA

The theoretical background for modern SEO techniques has been borrowed from the latest version of SEO
books and relevant electronic sources. The data for investigation were retrieved from various online sources
published by the marketing firms. The name of the company involved in the case studies is Nike Golf, UAV
Coach,,YourFootDoc,and,Talkpoint.

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2. RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY

Sorting through billions of pages is time-consuming and hard. If websites are less visible online, it will
impact the company's client-acquisition success. Each search engine does something different. Search
engines index web pages based on keyword relevance. SERPs list indexed pages for the user's query.
Adopting this method may increase a company's internet-based client acquisition.

The study analyzes data from four company case studies individually where business performances before
and after SEO implementation are compared while also simultaneously taking account of SEO changes to
detect the association of SEO implementation on business growth.

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2.1 RESEARCH QUESTION AND HYPOTHESIS

This paper discusses Google's search engine and company performance. It uses the author’s own experience
designing and building an actual website to test SEO techniques. Using a sound keyword strategy and
methodology, as well as particular SEO tactics, the effectiveness of SEO on Google search engine rankings
will be assessed and discussed. The paper's central research question is formulated: „How does the
implementation of SEO influence the performance of the business? “The data may show that SEO may boost
corporate performance. The business will compare all outcomes to prior data (website visits, average
engagement time, keyword etc.). The hypothesis that we would have to defend would be presented as
follows:

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2.2 DATA COLLECTION

The research method is to process primary data from a case study developed after a brief talk with the Head
of IBU Marketing and PR team, Engin Obučić. A case study explores a phenomenon in its natural settings
utilizing many data collection techniques (people, groups, or organizations). No experimental control or
manipulation is used to establish the phenomenon's bounds at the start of the investigation. (Benbasat et al.,
1987).
Data analysis will also employ raw Google Analytics data. Why Google Analytics? As Plaza (Plaza, 2011)
states, Google Analytics tracks time-series data. It is utilized since it's a free, user-friendly application that
Google provides to track website traffic. This tracking program, which is not part of the website, gathers
data by embedding HTML code onto each page. Google Analytics tells website owners how users discover
and use their sites Data will be chosen in accordance with the analytics timetable. Qualitative and
quantitative methodologies can be employed in primary data gathering, since qualitative results may be used
to interpret or explain quantitative findings in a largely quantitative analysis.
With the support of Google Analytics, we will have access to data visualization and monitoring capabilities.
These tools include dashboards, scorecards, and motion charts, which illustrate the evolution of data across
time; We will integrate data filtering, manipulation, and funnel analysis; predictive analytics, intelligence,
and anomaly detection; segmentation for the investigation of subsets such as conversions; and customized
reports for advertising, audience behavior, acquisition, and conversion.
Because it evaluates the whole of the website by crawling all of the related pages, Seobility was the tool that
we utilized for the SEO in-deep study. Each project is continuously inspected and examined by Seobility
crawlers so that a sustainable and ongoing examination of the website can be maintained. This also allows
the crawlers to follow the progress of optimizing the website.
The important element to remember is that the data obtained is unique to this study, and no one else has
access to it until it is published. It is critical to know what questions to ask and what subjects to cover before
they are 'imposed.' After all of the necessary data has been given, the procedures of SEO analysis may be
followed. It's crucial to identify the gaps in the literature as a result of the examination of previous studies
on the same topic. Furthermore, the study may underline the notion of improving business performance in
terms of SEO, through the collecting of data.

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2.3 WEBSITE RESEARCH

Following much discussion, the Marketing and Public Relations team at IBU decided on a custom-built
website as the major basis for the new site's functionality. The technology that will be utilized in the project
has been identified as React.js The second technology that was introduced while building the IBU website is
Next.js, a React production framework. The backend for the IBU website is KeystoneJS. It is an open-
source, API-driven headless CMS. GraphQL is what our developers have opted to use for the application
programming interface (API) aspect.

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2.4 SEO STRATEGIES IMPLEMENTED

Before moving on to off-page SEO tactics, which will be discussed in the next section, ensure that on-page
SEO has been conducted appropriately. Meta tags are HTML labels that are put on web pages; we began
with their optimization. The objective is to have a distinct set of meta tags for each page. When entered the
page where the results of a search engine are shown and click on the result that is ranked number one, we
are sent to a website that was designed with the "International Burch University" keyword in mind. As can
be seen in Figure 4, the title tag is entered into the HTML code of the website.

Title tag optimization for “International Burch University” in HTML code

We created title tags in conjunction with the webpage address for use on our website, which is affiliated
with International Burch University. For instance, if we go to the page titled "Tuition and fees," the title tag
will read: "Tuition and fees | IBU". When visitors click on a search result and are sent to the destination
page, the description meta tag should provide them with an accurate and captivating explanation of what
they will find when they are there. Website search engine URLs should be easy to comprehend for
individuals who may desire to link to your sites; long and cryptic URLs will make it difficult for customers
to understand your website.
Heading tags are used to emphasize important page content and structure. They also inform search engines
what your website is about; the h1> tag determines the most important heading and the h6> tag defines the
least important heading, thus it's crucial to include your target phrase in the headers, particularly the h1>
tag.
In SEO optimization, it is an obligation to utilize the image alt property in order to offer a correct
description of the image. If not, the website may not be accessible to certain users. It is recommended that
an HTML sitemap is created for users and an XML sitemap for search engines. This type of sitemap is the
sort of sitemap that makes it easy for search engines to identify the pages that are located on your website.

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3. SEARCH ENGINE AND SEARCH ENGINE RESULT PAGE (SERP)

The search engine is an automatic indexing and query service tool which search information by using
keywords on the Internet (Moran & Hunt, 2008). BaTheearch engines operate by crawling the internet to
build an index of web pages and rank them based on the relevance of certain keywords. When users make
Search engines, the search engine provides them with search engine result pages consisting of the ranked
list of indexed websites for that specific keyword (Fishkin, 2015).

Google
Bing
Baidu
Yahoo
Ask
AOL
Excite
Others

Figure 1: Global search engine market share (Net market share, no date)

From Figure 1, it can be received that the search engine market is very competitive with many search
engines vying for shares (Net market share, no date). Some of the popular search engines are Google, Bing,
Baidu, Yahoo, Ask, AOL, Excite, and Yandex. Currently, Google
stands as the market leader dominating globally with an enormous market share of 71.11Whereas, Baidu,
Yandex, Seznam, and Naver are popular as country-specific search engines controlling China, Russia, the
Czech Republic, and Korea respectively. Based on the recent real-time online data of major search
engines’dex size, Google has the largest number of 46.5 billion pages followed by Yahoo with 14.5
approximately (Worldwidewebsize, 2016).
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Search engine result pages should not be overlooked as it helps to provide information about how a
particular website is displayed and evaluated by the search engine. Figure 2 shows the SERPs layout for the
keywords “good hotel” however, sometimes it may slightly vary depending upon the nature of searched
terms and results.

Figure 2: Google search result page

The different sections highlighted on the Google search result page are discussed further:

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  SEARCH QUERY BOX
It is the input section of the search engine where users can query for their desired phrase. A user can also
make their search using speech or images using a microphone or camera option available in the right corner
of the search input dialog box. A search box is a graphical element present in many desktop applications
and websites. It acts as the field for a query input or search term from the user to search and retrieve related
information from the database. A search box typically appears as a single-line text box and is usually
accompanied by a search button that initiates the search command. Search boxes have become a staple of
many Web applications, websites as well as mobile apps, and desktop applications such as file explorers.
They can be presented in various styles and formats.

A search box is a controlled element present in many GUI-based applications that are used to carry out
search operations by the user.

Search boxes offer a convenient way to conduct searches. The search term or query is entered into the
search box and then the search button is clicked. Some applications also allow the user to press the Enter
key to initiate the search. The application acquires the text from the search box and matches it with the
items in its database and returns the search results.

The most common applications that use search boxes are search engines. The search box is the most
important graphical element in popular search engines like Google and Yahoo.

Websites like Amazon, eBay, and other e-commerce sites or inventory management sites have a prominent
placement of search boxes to enable easy navigation and to find the right items. Most websites and blogs
have a search box for letting users find the content they want more easily and quickly.

Desktop applications like Windows Explorer also make extensive use of the search box to let users
conveniently search for files and folders. Windows OS also provides a search box facility to reflect the
benefits of the Run command and easily locate apps and files stored on the computer. Mobile apps also
make use of the search box element to enable users to search for the content they are looking for.

The format, font, and style of search boxes can be varied by altering their properties. Sometimes the search
box may also be accompanied by a drop-down list that lists previous search terms or search suggestions.
Search boxes may also have additional features like a spell checker, autocomplete, and other controls that
could restrict the user from inputting invalid queries or search terms.

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  VERTICAL NAVIGATION
Users canister and narrow down their search results based on the nature/format of content by selecting
specific tabs present in the vertical navigation section. All the content is visible Vertical menus allow you to
list all of your website's pages along the side of the page, while in a horizontal menu, many of the website's
pages are hidden from view in drop-down menus. This makes vertical menus easier for website navigation
and a great option for long, single-page websites.
Vertical search is the term people sometimes use for specialty or niche search engines that focus on a
limited data set (as already mentioned, Google calls them one-box results). Examples of vertical search
solutions provided by the major search engines are image, video, news, and blog searches.

 RESULTS INFORMATION
The results information section displays the information of total number of results relevant to the specific
search phrase.

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  PPC (PAY-PER-CLICK) ADVERTISING

Also known as paid search, are purchased by companies from the search engine. It is an advertisement
section and the results are displayed based on factors like click-through relevancy, and the bid amount. It is
often seen in more than one section of SERPs.
PPC or pay-per-click is a type of internet marketing that involves advertisers paying a fee each time one of
their ads is clicked. Simply, you only pay for advertising if your ad is actually clicked on. It’s essentially a
method of ‘buying’ visits to your site, in addition to driving website visits organically.

One of the most popular forms of PPC is search engine advertising, which allows advertisers to pay for ad
placement in a search engine’s sponsored links. This works when someone searches for a keyword related
to their business offering. For example, if we bid on the keyword ‘Google Shopping Management’ our ad
might show up at the top of the Google results page.

Google Shopping, what we do best, is an example of how PPC advertising can be used to boost both
visibility and profitability.

PPC has many advantages that will benefit your business, including the following:

 Optimised PPC is cost-effective

 Your ad will be displayed on the first results page when someone searches for a related term

 More exposure and brand visibility as targeted traffic is directed to your site

 You can run multiple ad campaigns for each keyword

 It results in higher click-through rates (CTR), more conversions, and increased sales revenue

 Provides instant traffic

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If PPC is working as it should, the return on ad spend (ROAS) should be high, as a visit to your site is
worth more than what you pay for it. However, it’s not as simple as just paying for the clicks and gaining
traffic, a lot goes into putting together a strong PPC campaign. It consists of choosing the right keywords,
arranging those keywords into well-organized campaigns and ad groups, and setting up PPC landing pages
that are optimized for conversions.

It’s important to learn the best ways to conduct a PPC campaign, as the more relevant, well-targeted PPC
campaigns will be rewarded by search engines with lower-costing ad clicks. Google will reduce your cost
per click if your ads are satisfying and useful to users, ultimately, earning you a higher profit.

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  ORGANIC RESULTS
It is also called natural or algorithmic results. The results appearing in this section are solely based on their
relevancy and quality, making them more valuable compared to PPC results. It is the core subject of this
study and will be discussed in detail in later sections.

The unpaid entries in a search engine results page were derived based on their content’s relevance to the
keyword query versus all the other indexed content on the web.

You will commonly see search traffic broken down into organic and paid. Anyone trying to increase search
traffic for their business must understand the difference between these: where each set of results are located,
the philosophy behind how the rankings for each of them are calculated, etc.

Problems arise when business people, particularly small business owners, buy vague search engine
marketing services. A salesperson might say, “get the #1 listing in search engines X, Y, and Z” and an
unsophisticated buyer might not seek clarification. If the seller is simply buying paid traffic, the buyer is
missing out on all the benefits that come from organic traffic, such as access to searchers who don’t click on
ads and expenses that don’t increase with each new visitor.

With the introduction of features like Google OneBox & Universal Search, the organic search results are not
as simple as ten-ordered text listings. Now the free side includes things like videos, images, and product
listings, giving site owners multiple opportunities to get more “organic” exposure.

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  VERTICAL RESULTS
These are often seen for various queries Unlike results with just a link to their website, it answers users’
queries directly within the SERPs by providing broader information for the search term.
Picture vertical search results as a deep dive — a vertical plunge into a single topic. A vertical search
engine, like Google News or Google Books, offers only niche (or vertical) search results.

For example, if you search for ‘Wild’ on Google Books, all the results narrow in on the book itself, like
where to buy it and reviews.

The opposite type of search is horizontal, which gives you an ocean’s worth of results. A standard Google
search is a horizontal search. If you search for ‘Wild’ there, you would see results about the movie
adaptation, the author, The Minnesota Wild (the hockey team), and more.

Google Images, Videos, Flights, and Shopping are other examples of Google’s vertical search engines.
Google crawls the web to find these vertical search results.

 Expedia for travel
 Amazon for products
 Redfin for homes
 LinkedIn for professional connections
Many of these external vertical search engines need users to manually input information, like a product or
home listing.

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4. SEARCH ENGINE ALGORITHM AND RANKING

Google states that the search engine crawls through web pages following links, sorts the pages based on the
content and other factors, and keeps track of it in the index. As presented in Figure 3, when the users search
the search algorithms analyze the query and pull the relevant documents from the index, rank them based on
over 200 ranking factors and deliver them as results in SERPs. Google claims to have over 60 trillion pages
which are handled by algorithms. Algorithms are the heart of search engines consisting of computer
processes and logistics that users query and convert it into results. (Google, no date.)

Crawling and Algorithms Search

Results
Indexing Index and Rank

Figure 3: Google Search Engine Working Process

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It is certain that algorithms entirely depend on ranking factors for evaluating websites. But the ambiguous
nature of the ranking factor makes SEO challenging. To understand the ranking factors as shown in Figure
4, a survey was conducted involving over 150 SEO experts that show the different possible ranking factors
and their intensity (scaled between 1 to 10) to influence Google ranking algorithms (Moz, no date). The
survey showed that link metrics had the highest influence followed by content and keyword metrics. The
inclusion of social metrics as a ranking factor was very interesting since Google claims to ignore social
signals for ranking (Google, 2014).

Figure 4: Influential ranking factors in Google ranking algorithms 2015

Therefore, focusing on identifying and understanding the ranking factors can help to perform effective SEO,
place products/services in a higher rank, and reach the targeted potential customer.

In addition, an SEO practitioner should also be well aware of algorithms such as panda, penguin, and
similar other algorithms to prevent penalties and negative impacts on page ranking. Using Google analytic,
and Google webmaster tools and keeping eye on major algorithm updates (Moz, no date) consistently can
be very beneficial to track and resolve algorithms and penalty issues (Enge, et al., 2015

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5. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

As aforementioned, the sophisticated nature of search engines and ranking factors creates difficulties for
SEO professionals to rank or achieve visibility in front of potential customers. Thus, many tasks are
undertaken to establish a better connection with the search engines and get higher quality traffic from search
engines, a continuous process known as search engine optimization. SEO is a subset of search engine
marketing that doesn’t in- evolve any sort of paid activities for example: buying keywords, and entirely
focuses on getting organic traffic by optimizing various factors which will be discussed further (Grappone
& Co u z I n, 2006).

There are different factors to be taken into account to achieve successful SEO and essentially can be done
by using the SEO pyramid as the core foundation of the overall SEO strategy. Figure 5 is an SEO pyramid
by Rand Fishkin shows that a strong base determines the effectiveness of SEO and higher importance
should be given to content followed by keywords, links, and social media channels (Willoughby, 2008).

Figure 5: The SEO pyramid by Rand Fishkin (Willough by, 2008)

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To understand the significance of ranking, there has been an online discussion of a case on eye tracking
performed by research firms Enquiro, Eye tools, and Digit, it shows the heat map on how search engine
users scan search result pages (Safari books online, 2006). As observed in Figure 6, the users tend to have
an F-shaped pattern which demonstrates that greater attention is paid to organic results ranking higher on
the page.

Figure 6: Enquire eye tracking results (Safari books online, 2006)

In today the performance of search results in SERPs, there has been researching on Google’s organic click-
through rate (CTR) that shows the quantitative metrics for the performance of search results in Google
organic SERPs in about the position across mobile and desktop devices as illustrated in Figure 7 (Advanced
web ranking, no date). The data shows that the bulk of the CTR is shared by the top-ranking results on the
google first page barely leaving some for the rest.

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 Figure 7: Organic CTR vs position on the page (Advanced web ranking, no date

5.1 SEO STRATEGY

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The majority of marketers understand that SEO strategy should be developed development. It is the crucial
element that dictates the effectiveness of SEO implementation and bonds websites to their business goals.
An organization’s ultimate goal is sales, however, other metrics, for example, the number of new visitors,
the number of subscribers, social shares, newsletters, form signup downloads, follows, social metrics, etc.
should be used for measuring the effectiveness. A basic representation of the relationship between SEO
goal, strategy, and metrics are shown below in Table 1.

SEO Goals Strategy Metrics to measure

Create high-quality contents that target a broad range Traffic volume from
of keywords such as high-volume and long-tail various search terms.
Traffic keywords.
On-page optimization
Emphasis on long-tail keywords Traffic volume from
Branding On-page optimization specific search terms.
Target searches that represent the customers close to Conversion, value, etc
Revenue the end of buying journey and optimize product page
for conversion.

Table 1: Goal setting for SEO

The primary goal of SEO is increasing visibility for branding keywords or non-branding keywords that
are specific to their core business, capturing organic traffic by listening to the audience and using potential
phrases, and measuring the traffic conversion to determine if the objectives are met. It is very important to
understand the brand, the products they offer, the prospective customers, website structure, website content,
content management system (CMS) flexibility, and competitors to tailor SEO strategy. Focusing on
customer searching behavior and finding a niche can be beneficial to generate more personalized keywords
for content creation and reaching quality potential customers. In addition, setting SEO goals using the
SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely) principle and including SWOT analysis
can assist in the evaluation of the SEO plan to minimize possible risks and implement SEO strategy
effectively. (Enge, et al., 2015.)

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To understand the value of SEO strategy, research conducted on 400 companies by a Consultancy on the
integration of SEO strategy across their various marketing activities, shows high integration among a
majority of the companies as illustrated in Figure 8 (Patel, 2014).

Figure 8: SEO integration in companies (Patel, 2014)

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5.2 KEYWORD RESEARCH

The keyword is one of the utmost important factors that influence both search engine marketing and SEO.
Understanding the trend of how people search very crucial for identifying the demand for certain content
and developing it. Keyword research helps to get a clear insight into what people are looking for and then
keyword choices to help in designing targeted content with SEO. Identifying the right keywords requires a
lot of research and can be done in various ways.
Google search engine displays autocomplete suggestions simultaneously as the user types in the search
input box and also displays a list of related searches at the bottom of the SERPs which can help to get a
general insight about trending keywords. Using Google tools like Google keyword planner and Google
trend can be very helpful to obtain quality data. In addition, there are plenty of third-party platforms such as
SEM rush, Word tracker, Keyword discovery, Moz, SEO audits, and Submission complete that provide
keyword research tools. With the help of keyword research tools and proper evaluation based on various
metrics such as competition, search volume, time, and location, it is possible to identify very effective
trophy keywords.
It is also essential to consider long-tail keywords because it is often not possible to rank for a single query
due to very high competition. Keywords with 2 or more descriptive words are termed long-tail keywords.
Long-term keywords are also equally valuable, and are specifically customer-focused, with low
competition, and tend to attract quality customers. According to an online article on the keyword demand
curve, more than 70% of overall searches performed on the internet are long-tail searches (Fishkin, 2008).
The demand curve in Figure 9 demonstrates the significance of long-tail keyword-targeted content pages
with information not directed at any particular single keyword.

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Figure 9: Search engine query demand (Fishkin, 2008)

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5.3 BUILDING A SEARCH ENGINE-FRIENDLY WEBSITE

Websites should be built and optimized to help search engine crawlers collect relevant information from the
website and index them properly with ease. It is a crucial stage and the planning should be done before
designing website architecture. The various set of tasks to be performed to make the website SEO friendly
are as follows.

 WEBSITE DESIGN

The web pages should use appropriate URL paths relevant to the content and well-structured navigation and
content layouts, this makes the website user-friendly to both the customers and search engines.
Web design refers to the design of websites that are displayed on the internet. It usually refers to the user
experience aspects of website development rather than software development. Web design used to be
focused on designing websites for desktop browsers; however, since the mid-2010s, design for mobile and
tablet browsers has become ever-increasingly important.

A web designer works on the appearance, layout, and, in some cases, content of a website. Appearance, for
instance, relates to the colors, font, and images used. Layout refers to how information is structured and
categorized. A good web design is easy to use, aesthetically pleasing and suits the user group and brand of
the website. Many web pages are designed with a focus on simplicity so that no extraneous information and
functionality that might distract or confuse users appears. As the keystone of a web designer’s output is a
site that wins and fosters the trust of the target audience, removing as many potential points of user
frustration as possible is a critical consideration.

Two of the most common methods for designing websites that work well both on desktop and mobile
are responsive and adaptive design. In responsive design, content moves dynamically depending on screen
size; in adaptive design, the website content is fixed in layout sizes that match common screen sizes.
Preserving a layout that is as consistent as possible between devices is crucial to maintaining user trust and
engagement. As responsive design can present difficulties in this regard, designers must be careful in
relinquishing control of how their work will appear. If they are responsible for the content as well, while
they may need to broaden their skill set, they will enjoy having the advantage of full control of the finished
product.

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  SITEMAP
It is an XML file created to help search engines to crawl and index contents properly. This file is created
manually, however, can also be generated using online sitemap generators.

A sitemap is a file where you provide information about the pages, videos, and other files on your site, and
the relationships between them. Search engines like Google read this file to crawl your site more efficiently.
A sitemap tells Google which pages and files you think are important in your site, and also provides
valuable information about these files. For example, when the page was last updated and any alternate
language versions of the page.

You can use a sitemap to provide information about specific types of content on your pages,
including video, image, and news content. For example:

 A sitemap video entry can specify the video running time, rating, and age-appropriateness rating.

 A sitemap image entry can include the location of the images included in a page.

 A sitemap news entry can include the article title and publication date.

A sitemap’s job is to help Google understand and be able to find your content on your website. Sitemaps are
literally what the words entail, a map of your website.

A sitemap is a list of pages, images, or files that are on your website. For example, your website should
have a sitemap for all your pages, a sitemap for all your images, and a sitemap for all your posts. As
mentioned above, these lists are created and exist to make it easy to find all the different content on your
website in one place. 

There are two types of website sitemaps; XML sitemaps and HTML sitemaps. XML stands for Extensible
Markup Language, and HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. XML sitemaps are used for
Google’s search engine and help Google (crawlers, spiders, or however you’d like to call them) find all the
various content on your website. Thus, XML sitemaps are not for everyone’s eyes; they’re hidden to all but
Google bots. 

HTML sitemaps are different. An HTML sitemap is a page that lives on your website and lists all the
content of your website in a hierarchy form. Nowadays, people don’t use HTML sitemaps as they used to
back in the day, as websites today are very modern and easy to navigate. When HTML sitemaps were
needed, websites did not have menus and navigation bars as they do today; going to the HTML sitemap was
the quickest way to find a page on a website. 

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As mentioned previously, an XML sitemap is a list of pages, images, posts, etc., on your website in XML
language. An XML sitemap is like an instructional manual telling Google bots to crawl and index all the
pages you want and not index those pages you don’t want. The list contains URLs on your website and
some additional information. 

An XML sitemap example would look something like this:

https://thenameofyourwebsite/sitemap.xml/

If you click on this link in your XML sitemap, it’ll take you to a list of all the URLs pages on your website. 

The additional information that’s included alongside the URLs is how many images are included on each
page and when the page was last edited. The information on when your page was last updated is crucial for
a Googlebot. This is because when a Googlebot crawls your website and notices that a page has been
updated since they last were here, it’ll know that they need to crawl and index that page once again. 

Your XML sitemap might also have a frequency tag included in the additional information. A frequency tag
is there to state how many times that particular page is modified. Frequency tags are good for Google bots
in order to know how often they should revisit that page and index it. 

You might also have a priority tag that signifies, primarily to Google bots how significant that particular
page is. 

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  ROBOT.TXT FILE
It is a text file that provides crawlers the permission to crawl or index various contents of the website.
Irrelevant content can be prevented from being indexed by the search engine by using this file.
A robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers which URLs the crawler can access on your site. This is used
mainly to avoid overloading your site with requests; it is not a mechanism for keeping a web page out of
Google. To keep a web page out of Google, no index or password-protect the page.
Robots.txt is a text file webmasters create to instruct web robots (typically search engine robots) how to
crawl pages on their websites. The robots.txt file is part of the robots exclusion protocol (REP), a group of
web standards that regulate how robots crawl the web, access, and index content, and serve that content up
to users. The REP also includes directives like meta robots, as well as a page-, subdirectory-, or site-wide
instructions for how search engines should treat links (such as “follow” or “nofollow”).

In practice, robots.txt files indicate whether certain user agents (web-crawling software) can or cannot crawl
parts of a website. These crawl instructions are specified by “disallowing” or “allowing” the behavior of
certain (or all) user agents.

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  .HTACCESS FILE
It is a file used to control server behavior. Functions like access to certain files in the server and banning
unwanted traffic from certain sources are possible with its use. In addition, it can also prevent image
hotlinking practices which can impact ranking factors.
The .htaccess file is a powerful website file that controls the high-level configuration of your website. On
servers that run Apache (a web server software), the .htaccess file allows you to make changes to your
website’s configuration without having to edit server configuration files.
htaccess files (or "distributed configuration files") provide a way to make configuration changes on a
per-directory basis. A file, containing one or more configuration directives, is placed in a particular
document directory, and the directives apply to that directory and all subdirectories thereof.

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  WORKING WITH REDIRECTS
A redirect happens when someone asks for a specific page but gets sent to a different page. Often, the site
owner deleted the page and set up a redirect to send visitors and search engine crawlers to a relevant page.
A much better approach than serving them an annoying, user-experience-breaking 404 message.
Factors like website updates, adoption of new CMS, change in file location, broken links, and domain
change can affect the URL paths and cause errors in the search page. Thus, using these files to apply 301
redirects for permanent change or 302 redirects for temporary change helps search engines direct traffic to
the desired web page and prevent a negative impact on ranking.

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  COMPLY W3C STANDARDS
It is necessary to ensure the website meets web standards to ease the search engine crawling and indexing
process. Using the structured data format provided by schema.org as markup in the code is very important
to maintain the standard and generate search results with rich snippets in SERPs. Passing the website
through the W3C markup validation website (http://validator.w3.org) can help in measuring the standard
and detecting errors in the website.

W3C standards define an Open Web Platform for application development that has the unprecedented
potential to enable developers to build rich interactive experiences, powered by vast data stores, that are
available on any device. Although the boundaries of the platform continue to evolve, industry leaders speak
nearly in unison about how HTML5 will be the cornerstone of this platform. But the full strength of the
platform relies on many more technologies that W3C and its partners are creating, including CSS, SVG,
WOFF, the Semantic Web stack, XML, and a variety of APIs.
W3C develops these technical specifications and guidelines through a process designed to maximize
consensus about the content of a technical report, to ensure the high technical and editorial quality, and to
earn endorsement by W3C and the broader community.

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5.4 CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

After the keywords have been identified, the next phase is to develop powerful content around them.
Content is the main factor that search engine relies on for ranking web pages in search results hence, often
called content is king in the world of marketing. It is also the heart of content marketing.

Avoiding spelling and grammatical errors, typos, and duplicate content is a very crucial part while creating
content. Using appropriate titles, headings, and an adequate number of keywords based on the size of the
content helps search engines to determine relevancy, however, overstuffing it unnaturally can degrade
ranking. Google also uses latent semantic indexing (LSI) to moderate keyword stuffing; therefore, the use of
keyword variations or synonyms are very effective technique as a substitute for repetitively using the same
keyword in the content (Nastic, 2010). Below listed is the technique of using keywords in content
recommended by Moz (Fishkin, 2015).

Once in the URL separated by hyphens (-) for example https://www.mysite.com/how- to-use-keywords-in-
URL.
Use at least one in the Meta description tag and title tag.
One at the top of the page.
Around 2 to 3 times in the contents body section or even some more if the content size is big.
Once in the alt attribute of image contents.

Besides, using headings, titles, images, and videos containing emotional triggers make content significantly
attractive and engaging. According to an online article on the study of over 4 million tweets, the use of
images has been shown to increase retweets by 2 times on average. In addition, quality contents play a
crucial role to reduce bounce rate which is considered a positive signal for ranking factor.

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5.5 ON-PAGE OPTIMIZATION

As shown in Figure 10, it is the technique performed on codes in web pages, file names, and contents, and
requires a basic understanding of HTML.

Figure 10: HTML file structure

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  META TAGS

Meta tags are the tags used in HTML code created for feeding search engines with various information.
These tags are displayed as descriptive texts in the search result and used in analyzing content relevancy by
the search engine.

Page title Meta tags provide information about the title of a web page and using lengths under 70 characters
is recommended.

Page Description Meta tag includes further detailed descriptive information about the page and is
limited to 155 characters.

Page keyword Meta tags contain the main keywords that represent and are separated by commas. Using 2 to
5 percent of the content keywords recommended.

Author and Copyright Meta tags provide information such as the creator of the web page, ownership,
brand name, and company name.

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  FILE NAME, TITLE, AND ALT TAGS

Images should be named appropriately and should be titled with the title tag and described using alt tags.
Title and alt tags are attributes given to images that help search engines recognize the image and the
function it serves on the page. In addition, it also helps a user to know about the image in situations where
the browsers fail to display the images due to errors.

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  OPTIMIZE CONTENT

Errors in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript codes can significantly affect the web page and its content loading
speed. Online tools like google page speed insight or w3c validator are helpful to improve web page
performance. It is also equally important to consider keyword density within the different sections of
content which is around 2 to 5 percent of the overall content size. In addition, internal links, which are the
use of links between relevant content within the same web page can help in ranking.

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5.6 OFF-PAGE OPTIMIZATION

The process primarily deals with links to increase a website’s popularity, traffic, and ranking. Use of
content marketing strategy for example blogging, infographic, guest posting, etc is the best way to get
quality natural backlinks. Getting backlinks from websites that have good domain history, and authority and
fall in similar categories, are considered quality links and have a powerful role in ranking whereas, low-
quality links can bring a negative impact. Therefore, it is essential to study other websites based on factors
such as competition, business area, traffic, brand reputation, etc. to weigh the quality of links. The use of the
Mozbar tool can be very insightful for knowing information such as domain authority, page authority,
keywords, links, social engagement, etc. of a competitor’s website to build a better link-building strategy.
Submitting a website to a couple of reputed relevant web directories can also help to gain traffic and
ranking. Buying links, swapping links, and using link farm networks are techniques where marketers have
varying opinions. Therefore, such techniques should be only implemented carefully considering Google’s
webmaster guidelines to keep up with the best practices and pre- vent from getting penalized. (Enge, et al.,
2015.)

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5.7 SOCIAL MEDIA

Social Media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest are very popular with a massive
number of users and can be used as channels to deliver content. Taking websites to such platforms helps to
gain popularity, develop customer trust, and opportunities to acquire links from many sources. Social
platforms also can be used as one of the link-building strategies for SEO. According to a video released
online (Google, 2014), Matt Cutt has claimed that social media are not a part of the algorithm for ranking
while there has been a discussion on the case (Chloe, no date), showing a majority of companies
incorporating social media into their SEO strategy and presents a different perspective on the possibility of
social media influencing ranking indirectly.
In this modern era, information technology develops rapidly and influences the behavior of many people.
Everyone is dependent on the internet to connect with other people and to find the information quickly. This
makes smartphones a necessity in their daily activities. Several applications such as online shopping, online
transportation, and social media can be downloaded by smartphone users. Among many applications, social
media is the most downloaded application. Based on survey data regarding the most widely-used social-
media platforms in Indonesia until early 2021, 93.8% of the population used Youtube, 87.7% of the
population used Whatsapp and 86.6% of the population used Instagram... Other data also shows that based
on mobile-application market-research data, the Top-3 applications downloaded via Android and iOS
platforms during January-March 2021 were Tiktok, Facebook, and then Instagram . Social media becomes
increasingly popular and attractive to be adapted by many business actors due to its low costs and minimum
technical requirements. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the use of internet and social media has
become a part of business strategy. The result of an online survey reported that about 60% of consumers
discover a product or brand through social media . Social media makes it easier for consumers to find more
detailed information and to communicate with companies that sell the products they need. Social media
constitutes a pool of consumers.
Many business people have taken advantage of socialmedia platforms that support their activities. For
business owners, social is a mean of two-way communication with consumers, to listen to consumer
responses and to find out what they want. Companies use social media to gain benefits such as
outperforming competitors, lowering costs, managing the operations more effectively, improving
relationships with consumers, and improving company image. The use of social media has a significant
impact on the operations and success of a business. Therefore, it is not surprising that many business actors
in Indonesia currently are relying on social media to market their products. Moreover, in the “new normal”
period of the Covid 19 Pandemic, many business actors have to adapt to this condition. A survey conducted
by Sea Insights with 2,200 business actors as respondents showed that 54% of MSME entrepreneurs were
more adaptive in using social media to improve their performance.

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Around 70% of respondents admitted that they would continue to use digital media through e-commerce to
sell their goods on social media. Social media is often used by companies to market their products, because
social media is far-reaching. Marketing activities on social media can build brand awareness in order to
attract new customers and maintain customer loyalty, which will ultimately have an impact on increasing
sales volume and the number of customers. Although often regarded merely as a marketing medium by
companies, social media also plays other roles that are not less important.
Through social media, companies can seek more information about their market, competitors, and key
consumers. The access to this information is important for improving future performance. The company
acquires information to explore the needs of its consumers and then strive to respond to these needs through
product innovation. In addition, social media can also help improve relationships and serve consumers
better without requiring customer-service fees. The use of social media can be a mean of developing
company performance and innovation, resource management, a tool for external communication, and
relationships with consumers, suppliers, and partners. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that
encourage business owners to adopt social media in their business in addition to finding out what benefits
are expected to be obtained from social media and explore further the benefits and perceived risks of using
social media in their business.

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5.8 OPTIMIZATION FOR LOCAL SEARCH

Local search has become very popular over the year. Based on research conducted on consumer’s local
search behavior, it is observed 4 out of 5 consumer use search engines to find local information and 50% of
consumers who conducted a local search on their smartphone visited a store within a day, and 34% who
searched on computer/tablet did the same (Google, 2014). The optimization for local is executed by creating
business profiles on the google my business (GMB) page by providing information on a business name,
location, contact details, opening hours, website address, images, and categories. This information helps the
search engine to determine to rank and boost the result for local searches.
As part of search engine optimization (SEO), local search optimization is a strategy that focuses on
improving visibility in search engines for locally-driven results. These are the results that appear after a
searcher enters a query with a “near me” intent. This can be explicit with the searcher actively typing “near
me” or “in [city]” into the results, or it can be something search engines understand to have geographic
constraints. In short, it’s what makes your business show up for searchers who are looking for
local products or services in your area.

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5.9 OPTIMIZATION FOR MOBILE DEVICES

Mobile devices are very popular and hold a massive volume of users. Further to understand the growing
popularity of mobile devices, Figure 11 shows the statistical data showing global mobile phone sales over
the years whereas, Figure 12 is the data published online by Chaffey (2016) from research done on mobile
user volume over the years by Morgan Stanley. There also has been a discussion on Google’s official
statement saying over 50 percent of the search performed are from mobile (Sterling, 2016). In addition,
there has been official disclosure of a mobile-friendly algorithm that affects ranking only on mobile pages,
applies to an individual page, and affects globally in all languages (Google, 2015). Thus, these statistical
facts demonstrate the growing trend of user preference towards mobile devices and the potential need for
mobile optimization to drive mobile traffic and improve ranking.

Figure 11: Global smartphone sales to end users (Statista, 201)

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 Figure 12: Number of global users (Million) (Chaffey, 2016)

A website should be finger-friendly, able to load within a second, and properly display contents on various
mobile devices screen without errors to be considered mobile-friendly using Google’s webmaster, page
speed insight and mobile-friendly test tools help to measure and tweak the mobile optimization process.

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The techniques involved in setting optimization for mobile are as follows:

 RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN

This is currently a widely used technique and Google’s recommended design (Google, 2016), which use a
single same URL and is purely CSS-dependent for rendering a page. The HTML and CSS files served from
the server are the same but are displayed/rendered differently on various devices with the help of CSS.

Responsive web design (RWD) is a web development approach that creates dynamic changes to the
appearance of a website, depending on the screen size and orientation of the device being used to view it.
RWD is one approach to the problem of designing for the multitude of devices available to customers,
ranging from tiny phones to huge desktop monitors.

RWD uses so-called breakpoints to determine how the layout of a site will appear: one design is used above
a breakpoint and another design is applied below that breakpoint. The breakpoints are commonly based on
the width of the browser.

The same HTML is served to all devices, using CSS (which determines the layout of the webpage) to
change the appearance of the page. Rather than creating a separate site and corresponding codebase for
wide-screen monitors, desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones of all sizes, a single codebase can support users
with differently-sized viewports.

In responsive design, page elements reshuffle as the viewport grows or shrinks. A three-column desktop
design may reshuffle to two columns for a tablet and a single column for a smartphone. Responsive design
relies on proportion-based grids to rearrange content and design elements.

While responsive design emerged as a way to provide equal access to information regardless of device, it is
also possible to hide certain items — such as background images, as in the Transport for London example
above, secondary content or supplementary navigation — on smaller screens. Decisions about hiding
content and functionality or altering appearance for different device types should be based on knowledge
about your users and their needs.

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RWD has potential advantages over developing separate sites for different device types. The use of a single
codebase can make development faster, compared to developing 3 or 4 distinct sites, and
makes maintenance easier over time, as one set of code and content needs to be updated rather than 3 or 4.
RWD is also relatively “future-proof” in that it can support new breakpoints needed at any time. If a 5-inch
device or 15-inch device takes off in the market, the code can support the new devices. RWD doesn’t tie
design to a particular device.

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  ADAPTIVE WEB DESIGN

This technique is also very similar to responsive with the same URL except the server serves with different
HTML and CSS files based on the user agent (mobile or desktop browser) requesting the page.

Desktop, mobiles, tablets, laptops, etc., all are important nowadays. But at present, people generally use
mobile phones more than anything. To view websites, people mostly use mobile phones rather than
laptops or desktops. Therefore, it’s very important for any business to build a website that should be easy
to view on a mobile device and also looks great. If a website does not open properly and easily on a small
device, then there are chances that you might lose your customer and this will reduce the number of
audiences to the website.  Adaptive websites are generally designed to adapt to only specific screen size.
It uses two or more versions of websites such as mobile version, desktop version, etc. to fit best on
different screens. In an adaptive web design, one designs multiple layouts of the same website to fit best
on specific screen size. These multiple layouts are designed for multiple screen sizes. Whenever a visitor
or user or customer opens the adaptive website, an adaptive website firstly determines the dimensions of
the visitor’s screen, then depending upon screen size chooses the most appropriate layout that will fit the
best on-screen size. Though, this website is more complex, difficult, and expensive, but is considered the
best way to reach more audiences.  
The adaptive website simply detects the type of device it is viewed on and then provides a pre-set layout
for the device to fit best on screen. It is the best way to make the website mobile-friendly. It ensures the
best user experience according to whatever device the user is using to view the website. These websites
are easy to create. The adaptive layout is not decided by the client or browser, in fact, it is determined on
the back end where the server determines the type of device and operating system and then corrects the
layout. It also loads faster than responsive websites. This is because adaptive design transfers only
essential assets particular to each device type. It not only increases user experience but also provides
cross-browser and cross-device compatibility. 

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  SEPARATE URL PATHS

It uses different paths or subdomains for example www.site.com and www.m.site.com or

www.site.com/mobile/, with each path serving with device-specific optimized files.

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AMP (ACCELERATED MOBILE PAGE)

AMP is a very new trend that recently started to gain popularity in mobile optimization. It is mobile device-
specific pages designed for increasing loading speed and optimizing content for mobile users. The technique
uses two pages, one is a basic standard web page or non-AMP version, and the other AMP version of that
page. Based on an article on the effect of AMP on ranking, Google has stated AMP does not have any effect
on the ranking algorithm but prioritizes the amp version on mobile over the standard non-amp version of
that page (Sterling, 2016). However, it holds great potential to drive mobile traffic considering the
immeasurably growing number of mobile device users and mobile searches.

The mobile-first mindset is here to stay – the statement holds true from both the business and
consumer sides.

To say, users, consult their mobiles before making a purchase would be a gross understatement.
Mobile internet usage has surpassed desktop mobile users all over the globe. Even countries such as
India, Mexico, and Indonesia have more than 4 times higher smartphone vs. desktop usage

There are 30 billion mobile moments  (the moment a customer consults their phone and expects an
immediate answer) every day in the US alone. This means every day your brand has 30 billion mobile
opportunities to offer something to users that they want.
There is a reason why users spend more time browsing on mobile instead of buying – users  crave
instant gratification  more when on their mobile devices.

Answer this question – how long do you wait for a mobile webpage to load?

According to data collected by Google and SOASTA  40% of consumers leave a page that takes longer
than three seconds to load.
That’s all the time you have to keep the attention of a user who liked your ad and clicked it. And if
your webpage fails to load in the aforementioned time, you created the ad, regardless of how
compelling it was, in vain. The bad news is the fact that according to data , most retail mobile sites take
around 6.9 seconds to load, that’s more than double the amount of time 40% of users wait before
abandoning the page.

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6. MONITORING WITH GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOL AND ANALYTICS

Google webmaster tools and analytics are very powerful tools provided by Google that help through the
SEO process and measure the results.
Webmaster tool plays a great role while building and implementing SEO. The health of the site shows how
the search engine sees the web pages. Sitemaps can be uploaded for indexing and crawl errors can be
checked with the webmaster tool. It offers a mobile-friendly test to evaluate the website performance on
mobile devices. In addition, the disavow function can be used to tell search engines to ignore the links
coming from irrelevant or low-quality sites that might deteriorate the ranking of the website.

Google Analytics is another crucial tool for measuring and reporting the performance of the website. It is
leashed with a powerful ability to measure the traffic flow across various metrics and dimensions such as
demographic, device type, location, source, operating system, etc. Tracking and measuring the performance
of specific content is possible with it. Besides, it also provides insight into the keywords to help in creating
better content.
Thus, Google webmaster tools and analytics play a vital role in building effective SEO techniques and,
quantitatively and qualitatively measuring the performance to meet targeted SEO goals.

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 7. SEO CASE STUDIES

7.1 IBU INTERNATIONAL BURCH UNIVERSITY

International Burch University (IBU) is in Sarajevo, BiH. It's owned by Stirling Education, a London-
based provider of first-class education worldwide. International Burch University, which contains
faculties in Engineering and Natural Sciences, Economics and Social Science, and Education and
Humanities, is well recognized and follows to the 'entrepreneurial university model,' which fosters soft
skills and an entrepreneurial attitude among its students.
It was founded in 2008 and employs full- and part-timers. Serving bachelor's, master's, and PhD students.
The company's expected yearly income is 5 million Bosnian marks. It runs a call center at its
headquarters, where direct sales are conducted and all services are arranged by phone calls, email or
through an online form on their website, according to the company. It was in the year 2021 that IBU's
websites evolved on the WordPress format, and the company's internal marketing staff ran a Pay-Per-
Click campaign. They created several different landing pages through this platform. In spite of this, they
were unable to discover the required website conversion rates depending on their investment in the PPC
campaign and in the creation of new landing pages. It became obvious after a comprehensive study of
their website data that one of the concerns originated from poor optimization of their main website, which
had a negative impact on the overall SEO of the IBU website, which may have had an impact on the IBU
business performance.
IBU had an issue with a very high bounce rate, which may reach as high as 90 percent or even higher in
certain cases. The Google Insights page has a dismal performance rating of 18 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Problems such as the time it took for the homepage to be completely interactive (20 seconds), the speed
index of 14.7 seconds, and the 6.7 seconds required for the first text or picture to be painted were also
mentioned.
This prompted the need for quick action. IBU formed a team composed of web developers, UX/UI
designers, graphic designers, marketing and communications managers, communication managers, and
social media managers to create a new page from the ground up with the specific goal of improving the
website's search engine optimization, bounce rates, and overall performance. We used this page to
demonstrate our expertise in the field of web development and Search Engine Optimization. (E. Obucic,
personal communication, May 2022). Based on Google analytics, the IBU Head of Marketing and PR,
Engin Obucic, suggested that this website received approximately 8.000 visitors per month before the
SEO analysis, and that it now receives approximately 8.500 visits per month as a result of the SEO
(actual numbers provided in the results and data analysis section). He suggested that the "SEO has
increased our exposure to SERP (Search Engine Results Page).

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New students were brought in as a result of the SEO, which has complemented our marketing and referral
efforts. Redesigning the website was necessary since it was just as crucial to retain the user on the
webpage as it was to get the user to see the webpage on the search engine. The IBU marketing and PR
team was heavily engaged in the SEO campaign and continues to meet and discuss with the consultants
about keywords and geographic regions that should be targeted in future campaigns. Following some
recommendations from their internal web development network, the IBU Marketing and PR Team has
begun tracking the sources through which prospective consumers are learning about the IBU. The IBU
Head of Marketing and PR feels that by doing so, they would be able to observe the advantages of the
SEO even more clearly and determine the return on investment for such marketing activities. He believes
that improved SERP exposure and increased student enrolments are the most significant gains the IBU
has reaped from Search Engine Optimization.

 Influence of SEO on business performance

Using business performance measurements, a company's management may monitor and analyze a
business, project, or process. Business performance metrics are connected to an organization's KPIs,
sometimes called organizational performance, outcomes, or key success indicators. These concepts are
synonymous with (KPI) (Business Performance Measures)

 Connection between innovation and performance

It seems, based on hearsay, that there is a direct connection between innovation and the performance of
businesses. But how exactly can innovative thinking lead to improved performance? Geroski (1995)
proposes two perspectives. First, a firm may strengthen its competitive position by developing new items
or processes. Earnings and growth will be transient as long as the creative firm can fend off competition
(Poturak et al., 2020). The second perspective says innovation improves a company's internal capabilities
(Demir et al., 2020). Innovative firms are better equipped to face market problems than non-innovative
organizations. SEO has the potential to positively affect the business performance of SMEs, despite the
fact that it may sometimes seem to be much more difficult than it really is. In our particular circumstance,
we determine the level of company performance based on the SEO methodology that has been
implemented into the International Burch University website. In general, small and medium-sized
enterprises do not have the resources necessary to boost website traffic without engaging in creative
problem-solving and implementing strategies such as search engine optimization (SEO). The use of
search engine optimization (SEO) tactics may assist small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in
increasing the visibility of their websites to potential consumers and in competing with bigger businesses

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Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) may target clients within certain zip codes by using search
engine optimization (SEO) tactics. The rating of the website maintains its position at the top of the SERP
even when the number of people who access the website and the amount of website traffic increase.

 Relation between SEO and business performance

SEO has had a significant impact on the likelihood of recognition as one of the important criteria
indicating the legitimacy of the website, which directly may affect the customer's opinion of the degree of
professionalism with a particular firm or, as in our case, educational institution. The client experience will
be further influenced by all of the parts that have been described so far, such as the SEO strategy or the
average website engagement rate.

 Analysis and Findings

This section provides a discussion and analysis of the consequences of the implemented SEO tactics and
methods, as well as data correlation analysis with other similar scientific papers. This website was
selected to serve as the experimental page for the deployment of certain SEO tactics, which were then
monitored using Google Analytics. Specifically, data for this study was gathered between the first of
April 2021 and the last day of April 2021, and it was compared to the data set with exact values obtained
between the first of April 2022 and the last day of April 2022, and Google Analytics is utilized in this
process since it is a data collection and analysis tool for gathering, monitoring, and analyzing data. It is a
Google-provided service. In the following sections, we will assess the key performance indicators (KPIs)
as well as the efficacy of the SEO tactics employed on this website.

 Number of visitors
Total website visits may be calculated to measure how successfully SEO was executed. We choose to
utilize the number of visits as a statistic (to monitor and measure) since it reveals whether or not the
optimized website is being located on the internet. This information can be gleaned by comparing the
results that we obtained before optimizing SEO with the results that we obtained after optimizing SEO.
At the time, the IBU website was based on Wordpress theme, and it suffered from a large number of
technical flaws that needed to be fixed before the new version of the website could be launched. When
we looked at the data sets from Google Analytics in March of 2022, we saw that there had been a
decrease in the total number of IBU official website visits. As a result, we attempted to determine the
cause of the issue. After gaining a deeper understanding of the number of visits to our website and
carefully examining all of the potential causes of the decline of organic visits to our website in opposite to
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the same period of the previous year, we decided to resolve the issues that caused this. There were many
unreliable backlinks, which lowered our SERP ranking.

We removed all of them, and we also deleted previous sitemaps and

deployed a new XML sitemap.

Figure 2: Website sessions before and after SEO implementation

 SEO impact on the number of visits

The Use of SEO by IBU Impacts the Number of Visits to the Company’s Website. An increase in a
company's website's exposure is required in order to accomplish a rise in website traffic. The use of SEO
methods help small and medium-sized businesses target specific clients. The website's SERP ranking
remains high even as its popularity and visitors increase. When the results from the official IBU website
are taken into account, we found that there were a total of 8713 organic search sessions to the
International Burch University website in April 2022. We see an increase of 1.68% after the SEO
implementation.

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  Impact of SEO on the average length of a website visit
Using SEO tactics, the website of a business is rated higher so that it is more accessible to Internet
consumers. However, if the visitor does not remain on the website to learn more about the items or services,
better placement on the search engine results page is ineffective.

Figure 3: Average engagement time in both IBU websites, before and after SEO implementation

According to the SME in our case study, the SEO strategy optimized the website's design. The website's
content was made more relevant, and its linkages were made more effective, in order to increase visit
length, facilitate decision-making, and facilitate purchases. This is known as SEO on-page categorization.
After SEO implementation, the average engagement session on IBU websites is 2:48 minutes, while it was
2:43 minutes before SEO implementation. We see a modest increase in average engagement duration.

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  Keywords results

As was said before, "International Burch University" served as the objective of our long-tail keyword
research and was the primary concentration of our SEO efforts. It should come as no surprise that this
particular term was the one that was most responsible for attracting people to the page. The primary target
term, abbreviation of IBU, which stands for "International Burch University," and its derivatives with the
keyword Burch are receiving the most impressions. The "IBU" keyword received 3,593 impressions, which
is also responsible for generating a large number of clicks, which ultimately led to visitors to the site. In
addition, take note of the other search queries (variations on the target phrase), which, when added together,
are also accountable for driving a significant number of people to the website. The results for the search
phrase "lms burch," which translates to "Learning management system Burch", is receiving a huge amount
of search volume. The click-through rate (CTR) for this keyword is 93.46 percent, making it the second
highest in the list. This shouldn't be a surprise as the median of most of our keywords is 1. If we combine
"burch" with anything else, there's a good possibility International Burch University's website will come up
in our search results (SERP). Before SEO, the website's keywords were in a very bad situation. This is
because the keywords were not set, so when we try to access them, we get a message that says, "not
provided" or "not set." This prevented us, on the old IBU website, from conducting further research and
making the SEO better.
Before we implemented SEO, International Burch University averaged 390 monthly Google searches. After
implementing SEO, we witnessed a boost in monthly searches. "International Burch University" was
Googled 22% more in April 2022 than in the previous three months. YoY change has a 126% increase.
Year-on-year growth, or annual growth rates are rates of change stated over the same period (month or
quarter, depending on the frequency of the data) as the preceding year.(OECD Glossary of Statistical Terms
- Year-on-Year (YoY) Growth Rates Definition, n.d.) When we extend our search, we find an even larger
rise in the amount of people using the organic search term "International Burch University." In April 2021,
searches for International Burch University were conducted 950 times across all locations. The following
year, in April 2022, searches for International Burch University were conducted 1400 times across all
locations.

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  Impact of SEO on IBU student admission

By implementing SEO, the organization examined in this research found a modest improvement in website
traffic and visit length, which suggests an opportunity to boost total sales income. Consequently, this has a
significant influence. After a thorough analysis of the firms' financial performance, we've determined that
the increase in online traffic and visit length has actually translated into a rise in sales income, student
admission.
Multiple factors determine a company's commercial success, including management style, customer
relationship management, and service quality, as well as the efficiency of incentive pay systems and staff
motivation.(What Is Business Performance? n.d.) This examination will concentrate on the CRM system of
International Burch University. Student fees are the primary source of revenue for International Burch
University. Throughout the preceding years, our team of engineers created a CRM system that meets the
requirements of our admissions and marketing departments. Since we incorporated the query parameter on
the scholarship application form, we are able to trace the origin of application submissions (social media,
SERP website visits applications, PR articles, print materials through QR code etc.)
In this study, we examined the number of scholarship applications submitted via our website in April 2021
and compare it to the number of scholarship applications submitted in April 2022. In April 2021, 60 new
students directly applied to IBU using our website. Compared to the same month in the following year,
April 2022, we observe that 80 new students applied directly via our website after we adopted SEO strategy
on our website. This 33,3 percent increase in student admissions is sufficient evidence to establish that SEO
has an effect on company performance. The entire process of gathering results and analyzing them led us to
the conclusion that SEO does, in fact, have an effect on the performance of business. This came about as a
result of the fact that we observed an increase in every facet of the information that we requested, ranging
from the quantitative data to the practical results such as an increase in student enrollment. It is feasible,
with more research on the IBU website, to further enhance the organic reach of the IBU website, and
therefore, to even more significantly boost the exposure and performance of the IBU.

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  Implications

SMEs should know whether customers discover them via search engines. This shows whether SEO is being
handled appropriately, since SEO aims to improve the website's organic rankings. This study has
managerial implications. This is not the only study that has been done on the topic, as can be seen from the
sections that came before this one, yet moreover, many of the other studies are cited in this article. Tomasi
and Li (2015) came to the conclusion that search engine optimization (SEO) has a substantial positive
impact on the number of user visits to SME websites, the average duration of user visits, as well as the
company's overall sales revenues. Additionally, they came to the conclusion that factors for SMEs to be
successful in SEO would be to identify an SEO expert to help with the campaign and to identify if
customers are coming to their business based on search engine results or not. Ochoa (2012) concluded to a
number of findings after doing an in-depth investigation of the effect that SEO implementation had on
Google's search algorithm. It is mentioned in Ochoa piece of work that after the SEO implementation, the
experimental website had a rise in the number of visitors of 353% and an increase in the number of page
views of 234%. A high position on Google search results was not achieved by the experimental page of
Ochoa's website prior to the deployment of the SEO tactics. At the time that Ochoa thesis was being written,
the website had made it onto the top page of Google. The success of the SEO tactics for the target term that
Ochoa's study is focusing on is shown by the prior data findings.
The findings of our study are in line with the findings of all of the articles that have been discussed before;
this provides further validation for our findings and increases the likelihood that they can be replicated.
Moreover, it should be kept in mind that we received a smaller increase in KPIs, than other studies, which
may be the result of the time period of the investigation since the data sets are only several months young.

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  Conclusions

After collecting and evaluating findings, we concluded that SEO affects company performance. We saw an
increase in every aspect of the sought information, from quantitative statistics to practical effects like
student enrolment. More research on the IBU website might increase its organic reach and strengthen its
exposure and performance. Our hypothesis that SEO positively influences International Burch University's
business performance is supported by the data showing that SEO increases the number of user visits to IBU
websites, the average duration of user visits, and the company's overall sales earnings. This, in turn, leads to
an increase in the number of student enrollments, which confirms that our hypothesis. The currency of the
findings that we acquired during the course of our research demonstrates that SEO data may differ based on
how they are implemented on the website. Since the gathered data is pertinent to the subject matter that we
discussed, it is possible to do further analyses on it in order to generate findings that are even more
intriguing. As a result of the fact that the data analytics tool that we employed was formed on a quantitative
artificial intelligence service, the dependability of the information is guaranteed.
Our study shows that SMEs may improve website performance and boost income utilizing the Internet to
compete with bigger companies. They only need administrative assistance and SEO marketing metrics. Due
to a paucity of empirical research on SEO's commercial effects on SMEs, this study's results are significant
for boosting SMEs' confidence and promoting their interest in SEO. Even if SMEs aren't acquainted with
SEO, they should ask questions and provide suggestions. This study should help small and medium-sized
firms understand which performance criteria indicate success.

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  Further research and SEO improvement

Based on our case, we identified numerous SEO performance influences: number of visitors, average
engagement time, IBU website SERP position, and total sales revenues. These criteria may create a
theoretical framework for future empirical SEO study, especially among educational institutions. Other
studies may concentrate on the end user and compare where they obtain e-commerce information on SEO
and non-SEO websites. This will show whether people can discover content on optimized vs non-optimized
websites. Future researchers would be advised to go even deeper into the website's Google statistics and
further explore the possibilities of long-tail keyword combinations in order to attract even more organic
visitors. On the on-page SEO aspect of improving the IBU website, the meta side might be enhanced by
eliminating duplicate page names and meta descriptions. Seobility indicates that more than 30 pages need
improvement in their title tags, and more than 40 pages have issues with their H1 headers; in addition, some
image alt attributes are missing. Multiple pages on the IBU website have similar anchor text, which might
be changed to enhance the site's structure. There are pages without H1 keywords in their page content and
duplicate material. Since we saw that LMS Burch is one of the most often searched IBU keywords, we
should develop a plan for using this keyword on our website in order to enhance the IBU website's ranking
even more. Backlinks are the component that requires extra care. This is a long-term approach that has to be
executed as soon as possible. On a monthly or weekly basis, a strategy of paid backlinks on reputable
websites and general free material that may bring traffic to the website must be developed. Off-page SEO
reflects the SEO's long-term connection with Google's search algorithm; therefore, it should not be taken
lightly.

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7.2 NIKE GOLF (6D GLOBAL, NO DATE)

 BACKGROUND

Nike is one of the most popular worldwide brands known for manufacturing quality sportswear, apparel,
and equipment. Nike Golf Nike started making golf shoes in 1986 and has been sponsoring popular athletes.
Currently, it is also well known in golf sports for producing the best high-performance shoes, clubs, balls,
and bags.

 CHALLENGES

Nike was struggling to rank for non-branded keywords which were limiting the potential to reach a wide
range of golf enthusiasts, build brand image, and product promotion. The website was built on a platform
that lacked flexibility in implementing technical techniques for improving the crawling and indexing
process, which presented a challenge in ranking for the brand athletic-focused used broad keywords.

 IMPLEMENTED SEO TECHNIQUES

Due to the technical limitation in performing on-page optimization, the SEO technique was concentrated on
achieving page authority for Nike Golf using social media and offline activities. Thus, highly popular sports
professionals and social signals wave created from public activities relevant to sports brands and equipment
were used in tailoring promotion strategy followed by activities such as releasing new balls, clubs, and
apparel, and use of that product in different professional events. In addition, the website was integrated with
new additional technology making it indexable to the search engine and ranking for the pre-existing content.

 OUTCOME

The website was able to increase organic search traffic by 348% and traffic for non-branded keywords by
250% between 2011 and 2012. In addition, considering platform flexibility, the new Nike Golf 360 was
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launched on HTML5 based platform.

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7.3 UAV COACH (RICHARDS, 2015)

 BACKGROUND

UAV Coach is a US-based company helping people to break into the drone industry and establish a
business.

 CHALLENGES
The company was in starting phase and with the presence of competition in the drone industry, it was a
challenging task to find ways to drive traffic. The potential key was to develop an evergreen content-
focused SEO strategy to achieve long-term visibility, establish a brand image, capture leads and convert
them to paying customers.

 IMPLEMENTED SEO TECHNIQUES

The first crucial task for the company was to identify high-quality keywords for the content. Keyword
research for the long tail keywords was performed using Google keyword planner and SEM rush. Since
keyword alone wasn’t enough to determine the ranking hence, competitor’s research was carried out to
check domain authority, page authority, and links of their web
page with the help of Mozbar to ensure the chosen keywords “How to fly a quadcopter” is not impossible to
rank for.
On-page SEO was performed by optimizing Meta description, title, URL, heading, image alt tags, keyword
density, keyword variation, and page load speed. For developing quality content, the top 10 competitor
contents for the keywords were analyzed to find an opportunity to outrank them. The use of fairly large
content combined with images and videos offered a high-ranking potential amongst other short content
which rarely had some media in it. Internal and external links to relevant content were created to reduce
bounce rate and increase relevancy.
For content promotion, various established social platforms were used such as Twitter, Facebook, Quora,
etc. Marketing automation apps like Buffer were used for scheduling content promotion across social media
platforms and forum marketing strategies were also performed. For generating backlinks, the techniques
used were blog commenting, directory submissions, fake forum account link building, link pages, and
weekly roundups which lead them to get high-quality backlinks from MIT with DA96. In addition, into
Catoe and convert leads, interesting content like free trials, eBooks, infographics, etc were delivered
through different kinds of pop-up forms.

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  OUTCOME

With the aforementioned SEO strategy implementation, in just 6 months UAC Coach was able to
organically rank 1st position in Google, increase traffic by 11,065% and acquire hundreds of new email
subscribers and potential business leads without investing any resources in paid advertising and link
building.

 IMPLEMENTED SEO TECHNIQUES

Proper site maps were developed and submitted to the major search engines for indexing. Keyword research
was performed to identify the top 20 keywords relevant to the industry and geographical location for
optimizing content to rank for specific keywords. The website was further submitted to reputed search
engines manually and local business profiles were created in Google, Bing, and Yahoo for optimizing for
local search. High-quality incoming links were obtained with the help of link building strategy. In addition,
proprietary custom SEO software was used for the optimization process.

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7.4 YOUR FOOT DOC (BLAZONCO, NO DATE)

 BACKGROUND

Your Foot Doc is a business in the medical industry offering wide-ranging podiatry care utilizing the most
innovative diagnostic and therapeutic methods to treat various feet, foot, and ankle disorders.

 CHALLENGES

The company’s website was having trouble being visible in major search engines and getting organic rank
for the keywords related to the service they provide. Thus, the business was failing to take advantage of its
website and acquire customers.

 BEFORE SEO IMPLEMENTATION

The website was ranked in the 99 th position and placed on the 9 th page in Google SERPs making it hardly
visible.

 OUTCOME

Within less than 7 months of SEO implementation, the company website’s organic traffic in- creased by
250% and was able to rank position 1st on Google’s 1st page for the majority of the targeted keywords.

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7.5 TALKPOINT (LAMBRECHT, 2016)

 BACKGROUND

Talkpoint is a company offering webcast software and services to companies to enhance business
communication.

 CHALLENGES

After the implementation of on-page and off-page SEO, Talkpoint was still unable to rank due to high
competition in the market. Thus, there was a need for further optimization to increase relevancy and
establish the authority of their site for improving visibility in the organic SERP

 IMPLEMENTED SEO TECHNIQUES

After running an extensive SEO audit on the website, all the crawl errors and broken links were rectified. To
enhance the relevancy of the content, the heading, titles, content text, and descriptions of all the existing
important web pages were modified using appropriate keywords. For getting quality backlinks and
increasing the authority of the site various link-building strategies were implemented.

 OUTCOME

The company website succeeds to rank on the first page of the Google search result page for 50% of
targeted keywords, out of which one landed in 1st position.

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8. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Every website is built upon a specific foundation with a special goal to meet and requires a different
approach in terms of SEO. It might hold both potential and limiting factors that bring challenges in
optimization. Thus, a specific website-tailored SEO strategy built on taking account of factors like website
platform, site architecture, competition, target customer, company size, brand image, and location, is
necessary to achieve performance-driven SEO.
Concerning the Golf case, even for a popular giant company like Nike with a strong brand image, it
wouldn’t be possible to reach a broad target customer for golf without SEO. On-page optimization was out
of the option to start with due to the platform’s inflexibility thus, using social channels and public activities
for content development and promotion as the primary element of SEO surprisingly seems to be the factor
that helped to drive traffic, boost rank and establish brand authority for non-branded search terms. As stated
earlier, social signals have no direct relation to ranking algorithms however, it can be assumed that high
traffic flow from social channels to the Nike Golf page for non-branded keywords was the major facing for
acquiring rank for Nike. In the case of UAV coach, as a new company in the drone industry without
establishing an authority page, content-focused SEO was a great preference. Besides keyword research,
including competitor domain authority, page authority, links, and contents in the analysis provided a strong
opportunity to develop high-quality content with a target customer-focused long tail keyword. Despite
having high-quality content, considering the value of backlinks on ranking, implementing various link-
building strategies was a very smart idea to ensure optimum optimization. In addition, the use of social
media channels for content promotion was also a great task to drive traffic. Thus, the perfect blend of
content-focused extensive on-page and off-page optimization were the possible factors that led UAV coach
to rank as 1st position authority page for the targeted keyword in Google SERPs.
Subject to Your Foot Doc, they had an issue with site structure which might lead to crawl errors and limit
indexing by the search engine. Fixing the site and new sitemap submission were the initial basic tasks for
making the site search engine friendly. Further, using relevant location-based keywords of their services and
obtaining quality backlinks were the primary task that performed interest relevancy for ranking. In addition,
creating a local business profile in the major search engines was a common technique performed but an
effective way to appear in location-based searches. The case study states that the page was ranked the in 99 th
position before the SEO implementation which implies that the web page was indexed, had no such major
crawling issues, and was more likely hood use a very competitive keyword. Thus, there is a high probability
that the improvement in ranking was due to keyword optimization in the content and quality backlinks from
relevant companies.

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On the other hand, Talkpoint was facing poor performance after previous SEO implementation and the
presence of broken links in the pages was a very critical issue in ranking. Therefore, remodifying websites’
important pages with new quality keywords and backlinks were the potential factors to work on for showing
web page relevancy to the search engines, which helped Talkpoint to land Google’s first page. In addition, a
long tail keyword was ranked in 1st position, this can be an indication of opportunity and a need to focus
more on long tail keywords in the future.

Based on the above-discussed case studies, keyword choice, content with optimized keywords and
implementation of different link-building strategies have been observed to make a significant impact on
increasing traffic and achieving great ranking in SERPs. In context to linking building strategy, natural links
are considered high quality nevertheless, the cases have not revealed detailed information about the nature
of backlinks obtained from various sites.

Comparing the four cases across time frames, it can be observed that content and links have been the major
factor determining the ranking despite the continuous algorithm updates. The case studies have shown
the important SEO techniques and extensive potential of SEO to drive organic traffic in business.

Analyzing for mentioned data of global search engine market share, organic CTR, SEO integration in
companies, and case studies results, it can be assumed that SEO has broad potential in digital marketing to
enhance business growth and should be integrated as a core element in every marketing task. Further, there
is a high obligation for businesses to consistently keep track of search engine changes, and marketing trends
and customize SEO strategy respectively in today in the market.

In addition, due to the limited disclosure of data on SEO cases by companies, the study was in- competent
to show the business performance in terms of financial numbers. Thus, it requires further study based on
comprehensive SEO data to analyze the conversion in terms of revenue generated by the organic traffic after
implementing SEO.

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