The Importance of SEO and SEM in improving brand visibility in E-commerce industry; A study of Decathlon, Amazon and ASOS.

Ologunebi, John and Taiwo, Ebenezer (2023): The Importance of SEO and SEM in improving brand visibility in E-commerce industry; A study of Decathlon, Amazon and ASOS. Forthcoming in:

Abstract

The research study explores the significance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in enhancing brand visibility within the context of the E-commerce industry. In today's competitive digital landscape, having a strong online presence is imperative for E-commerce businesses to succeed and thrive. This study sheds light on the role of SEO and SEM in improving brand visibility for E-commerce companies. SEO refers to the process of optimizing a website's content, structure, and technical aspects to improve its visibility on search engine result pages (SERPs) organically. On the other hand, SEM involves paid advertising strategies, such as pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, to drive visibility and traffic to a website. Both SEO and SEM play complementary roles in increasing brand visibility, but they differ in terms of their approach and execution. Brand visibility is crucial for E-commerce businesses as it directly impacts their chances of attracting and retaining customers. When a brand is easily discoverable on search engines, it gains credibility and authority within its industry, leading to increased visibility and higher organic traffic. Higher visibility also translates into more potential customers being exposed to the brand, resulting in greater opportunities for sales and revenue generation. The study considers the E-commerce industry as its primary focus due to the unique challenges it faces in terms of brand visibility and selected a few case studies to explore. The online retail sector is highly competitive, with numerous players vying for the attention of potential customers. Therefore, a solid SEO and SEM strategy becomes essential for E-commerce businesses to stand out from the crowd and gain a competitive edge. The research employed secondary data collection methods to gather data and insights. The findings of this research will contribute to the existing body of knowledge on the importance of SEO and SEM in improving brand visibility within the E-commerce industry.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Search engine optimization (SEO), earch engine marketing (SEM), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, email marketing campaigns, social media marketing, KPI, modern marketing
• Subjects: M - Business Administration and Business Economics ; Marketing ; Accounting ; Personnel Economics > M0 - General; M - Business Administration and Business Economics ; Marketing ; Accounting ; Personnel Economics > M2 - Business Economics > M21 - Business Economics; M - Business Administration and Business Economics ; Marketing ; Accounting ; Personnel Economics > M3 - Marketing and Advertising; M - Business Administration and Business Economics ; Marketing ; Accounting ; Personnel Economics > M3 - Marketing and Advertising > M30 - General; M - Business Administration and Business Economics ; Marketing ; Accounting ; Personnel Economics > M3 - Marketing and Advertising > M31 - Marketing; M - Business Administration and Business Economics ; Marketing ; Accounting ; Personnel Economics > M3 - Marketing and Advertising > M37 - Advertising; M - Business Administration and Business Economics ; Marketing ; Accounting ; Personnel Economics > M3 - Marketing and Advertising > M38 - Government Policy and Regulation; M - Business Administration and Business Economics ; Marketing ; Accounting ; Personnel Economics > M3 - Marketing and Advertising > M39 - Other

References

Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson uk. Retrieved from; https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=-1yGDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT17&dq=Chaffey,+D.+(2019).+SEO+tactics+for+SMEs.+Smart+Insights&ots=XiYr6YiP02&sig=L4bUV6iY9ViTNHXzMx9wjuBW9gg

Tsang, M.M., Ho, S.C. and Liang, T.P., 2004. Consumer attitudes toward mobile advertising: An empirical study. International journal of electronic commerce, 8(3), pp.65-78. Available online at; https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10864415.2004.11044301

Odden, L., 2012. Optimize: How to attract and engage more customers by integrating SEO, social media, and content marketing. John Wiley & Sons. Available online at; https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=HRw0ctmgnrAC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=The+Impact+of+SEO+Content+Writing+on+Brand+Marketing.&ots=G7mPwtnfku&sig=-iu6eJ5o4thoT8_cwCTzXtOuuu0

Yoo, B., Donthu, N. and Lee, S., 2000. An examination of selected marketing mix elements and brand equity. Journal of the academy of marketing science, 28, pp.195-211. Available online at; https://link.springer.com/article/10.1177/0092070300282002

Chen, J.C. and Sénéchal, S., 2023. The reciprocal relationship between search engine optimization (SEO) success and brand equity (BE): an analysis of SMEs. European Business Review, 35(5), pp.860-873. Available online at; https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EBR-02-2023-0045/full/html

Jansen, B.J., Zhang, M. and Schultz, C.D., 2009. Brand and its effect on user perception of search engine performance. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60(8), pp.1572-1595. Available online at; https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/asi.21081

Krrabaj, S., Baxhaku, F. and Sadrijaj, D., 2017, June. Investigating search engine optimization techniques for effective ranking: A case study of an educational site. In 2017 6th Mediterranean conference on embedded computing (MECO) (pp. 1-4). IEEE. Available online at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7977137/

Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson uk. Available online at: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=-1yGDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT17&dq=Chaffey,+D.,+%26+Ellis-Chadwick,+F.+(2019).+Digital+marketing:+Strategy,+implementation+and+practice.+Pearson+UK.&ots=XiYt8TlR67&sig=GlsKJeTCkRkdGBNrHp-MMbPQoYU

Granka, L.A., Joachims, T. and Gay, G., 2004, July. Eye-tracking analysis of user behavior in WWW search. In Proceedings of the 27th annual international ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in information retrieval (pp. 478-479). Available online at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/1008992.1009079

Xinghai, W., 2023. Reimagining Website Usability: A Conceptual Exploration of SEO and UX Design Integration. Journal of Digitainability, Realism & Mastery (DREAM), 2(03), pp.60-66. Available online at: https://dreamjournal.my/index.php/DREAM/article/view/99

Nguyen, L., 2020. Building a SEO Plan for a Content-Based Business Case Company: Engaio Digital. Available online at: https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/352348/Nguyen_Linh.pdf?sequence=2

Chaffey, D., Ellis-Chadwick, F., Mayer, R. and Johnston, K., 2009. Internet marketing: strategy, implementation and practice. Pearson education.

Shih, B.Y., Chen, C.Y. and Chen, Z.S., 2013. Retracted: an empirical study of an internet marketing strategy for search engine optimization. Human factors and ergonomics in manufacturing & service industries, 23(6), pp.528-540. Available online at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/hfm.20348

Dinner, I.M., Heerde Van, H.J. and Neslin, S.A., 2014. Driving online and offline sales: The cross-channel effects of traditional, online display, and paid search advertising. Journal of marketing research, 51(5), pp.527-545. Available online at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1509/jmr.11.0466

Evans, D.S., 2009. The online advertising industry: Economics, evolution, and privacy. Journal of economic perspectives, 23(3), pp.37-60. Available online at: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.23.3.37

Joachimsthaler, E. and Aaker, D.A., 2009. Brand leadership: Building assets in an information economy. Simon and Schuster. Available online at: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=lfuL2aefJSsC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=Aaker,+D.+A.,+%26+Joachimsthaler,+E.+(2017).+Brand+Leadership:+Building+assets+in+an+information+economy.+Simon+and+Schuster&ots=GtvMnj4XBU&sig=PNWej0pZWgjcfmFdZAulaDmvVcI

Kapferer, J.N., 2012. The new strategic brand management: Advanced insights and strategic thinking. Kogan page publishers. Available online at: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=JnK8pRjSGZUC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=Kapferer,+J.+N.+(2018).+The+new+strategic+brand+management:+Advanced+insights+and+strategic+thinking.+Kogan+Page+Publishers.&ots=BYciF8edK1&sig=tOdHJPysgBiP2IHAQYksaiB5lJM

Keller, K.L., 2013. Building strong brands in a modern marketing communications environment. In The evolution of integrated marketing communications (pp. 65-81). Routledge. Available online at: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315872728-5/building-strong-brands-modern-marketing-communications-environment-kevin-lane-keller

Keller, K.L. and Lehmann, D.R., 2006. Brands and branding: Research findings and future priorities. Marketing science, 25(6), pp.740-759. Available online at: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mksc.1050.0153

Capitello, R., Agnoli, L., Begalli, D. and Codurri, S., 2014. Social media strategies and corporate brand visibility in the wine industry: Lessons from an Italian case study. EuroMed Journal of Business, 9(2), pp.129-148. Available online at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EMJB-10-2013-0046/full/html

Sullivan, Y.W. and Kim, D.J., 2018. Assessing the effects of consumers’ product evaluations and trust on repurchase intention in e-commerce environments. International Journal of Information Management, 39, pp.199-219. Available online at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401217305352

Swaid, S.I. and Wigand, R.T., 2007. Key dimensions of e-commerce service quality and its relationships to satisfaction and loyalty. BLED 2007 proceedings, p.29. Available online at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1030&context=bled2007

Laudon, K.C., 2008. E-commerce: Business, technology. Pearson India.

Verhoef, P.C., Kannan, P.K. and Inman, J.J., 2015. From multi-channel retailing to omni-channel retailing: introduction to the special issue on multi-channel retailing. Journal of retailing, 91(2), pp.174-181. Available online at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022435915000214

Zhang, K.Z. and Benyoucef, M., 2016. Consumer behavior in social commerce: A literature review. Decision support systems, 86, pp.95-108. Available online at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167923616300458

Goswami, A., Bharathi, V., Raman, R., Kulkarni, A., Joseph, S. and Kelkar, B., 2013. Synergies between social media features and user engagement to enhance online brand visibility-A conceptual model. International Journal of Engineering and Technology, 5(3), pp.2705-2718. Available online at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2294323

Beuckels, E. and Hudders, L., 2016. An experimental study to investigate the impact of image interactivity on the perception of luxury in an online shopping context. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 33, pp.135-142. Available online at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698916302697

Nguyen, D., 2019. Influences of multi-channel distribution related to consumer buying behavior and profits growth rate. Available online at: https://www.theseus.fi/handle/10024/167398

Wells, J.D., Valacich, J.S. and Hess, T.J., 2011. What signal are you sending? How website quality influences perceptions of product quality and purchase intentions. MIS quarterly, pp.373-396. Available online at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23044048

Yang, X., Zhang, X., Goh, S. and Anderson, C., 2017. Curvilinear effects of e-loyalty in China’s online tourism industry. Nankai Business Review International, 8(2), pp.174-189. Available online at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/NBRI-12-2016-0044/full/html?utm_campaign=Emerald_Strategy_PPV_November22_RoN

Cardoso, Â., Daolio, F. and Vargas, S., 2018, July. Product characterisation towards personalisation: learning attributes from unstructured data to recommend fashion products. In Proceedings of the 24th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery & Data Mining (pp. 80-89). Available online at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3219819.3219888

Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson uk. Available online at: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=-1yGDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT17&dq=ASOS+invests+in+PPC+advertising+campaigns+to+gain+immediate+visibility+and+drive+targeted+traffic+to+its+website&ots=XiYt8UgK6_&sig=jA8BlmLi6MGX41yE5Pu1wiHgnos

Chaffey, D. and Smith, P.R., 2013. eMarketing eXcellence: Planning and optimizing your digital marketing. Routledge. Availabl;e online at: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=uBJb1xsGXqgC&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=Amazon+integrates+customer+reviews+and+ratings+into+their+listings.+This+not+only+improves+SEO+but+also+builds+trust+among+consumers&ots=_tgrVKMw7Z&sig=oNyg57h1bpl9VDUF1sOiu4bgteY

Chaters, B., 2011. Mastering search analytics: measuring SEO, SEM and site search. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.". Available online at: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9Gq2x-tXU4cC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=Amazon+has+certainly+leveraged+both+SEO+(Search+Engine+Optimization)+and+SEM+(Search+Engine+Marketing)+strategies+to+enhance+their+brand+visibility&ots=BOlFZfZgTE&sig=R6fpZVaTMnPnnBCGM0eDd0Zu-tA

Decathlon website (2023). Assessed 14th/09/2023

Moz analytics: https://analytics.moz.com/

Google. (n.d.). How to do local SEO. Retrieved from https://developers.google.com/search/docs/beginner/seo-starter-guide

HubSpot. (n.d.). Understanding SEO: A guide for marketers. Retrieved from https://www.hubspot.com/resources/guide/seo

Moz. (n.d.). The beginner's guide to SEO keyword research. Retrieved from https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/keyword-research

Moz. (n.d.). The beginner's guide to SEO: On-page optimization. Retrieved from https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/on-page-optimization

Moz. (n.d.). How to monitor SEO performance: 3 steps to success. Retrieved from https://moz.com/learn/seo/monitoring-seo-performance

Patel, N. (2019). Link building strategies that actually work: A complete guide. Retrieved from https://neilpatel.com/blog/link-building-strategies-that-work/

Wang, D., Wang, G., Lu, P., Wang, Y., Chen, Z. and Hu, B., 2011, March. Is pay-per-click efficient? an empirical analysis of click values. In Proceedings of the 20th international conference companion on World wide web (pp. 141-142). Available online at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/1963192.1963264

Wolk, A. and Theysohn, S., 2007. Factors influencing website traffic in the paid content market. Journal of Marketing management, 23(7-8), pp.769-796. Available online at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1362/026725707X230036

Nagpal, M. and Petersen, J.A., 2021. Keyword selection strategies in search engine optimization: how relevant is relevance?. Journal of retailing, 97(4), pp.746-763. Available online at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022435920300944

Khraim, H.S., 2015. The impact of search engine optimization on online advertisement: The case of companies using E-Marketing in Jordan. American Journal of Business and Management, 4(2), pp.76-84. Available online at: http://worldscholars.org/index.php/ajbm/article/view/676

Tiago, M.T.P.M.B. and Veríssimo, J.M.C., 2014. Digital marketing and social media: Why bother?. Business horizons, 57(6), pp.703-708. Available online at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681314000949

Chotikitpat, K., Nilsook, P. and Sodsee, S., 2015. Techniques for improving website rankings with search engine optimization (SEO). Advanced science letters, 21(10), pp.3219-3224. Available online at: https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/asp/asl/2015/00000021/00000010/art00060

Obar, J.A. and Wildman, S.S., 2015. Social media definition and the governance challenge-an introduction to the special issue. Obar, JA and Wildman, S.(2015). Social media definition and the governance challenge: An introduction to the special issue. Telecommunications policy, 39(9), pp.745-750. Available online at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2663153

Ward, E. and French, G., 2013. Ultimate guide to link building: How to build backlinks, authority and Credibility for Your Website, and Increase Click Traffic and Search Ranking. Entrepreneur Press. Available online at: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=gloAAwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR13&dq=Building+high-quality+backlinks+from+reputable+websites+enhances+website+authority+and+improves+search+rankings&ots=BcQeUxdBmY&sig=1UvnAWf_2XBg_RccI4DK08cE1MM

Pan, F., Li, S., Ao, X., Tang, P. and He, Q., 2019, July. Warm up cold-start advertisements: Improving ctr predictions via learning to learn id embeddings. In Proceedings of the 42nd International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval (pp. 695-704). Available online at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3331184.3331268

Cui, M. and Hu, S., 2011, September. Search engine optimization research for website promotion. In 2011 International Conference of Information Technology, Computer Engineering and Management Sciences (Vol. 4, pp. 100-103). IEEE. Available online at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6113701/

Ayanso, A. and Mokaya, B., 2013. Efficiency evaluation in search advertising. Decision Sciences, 44(5), pp.877-913. Available online at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/deci.12038

Simarro Sanchís, E., 2013. Search Engine Ranking: A SEO Strategy. In Strategies in E-business: Positioning and social networking in online markets (pp. 91-103). Boston, MA: Springer US. Available online at: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4614-8184-3_8

Chaters, B., 2011. Mastering search analytics: measuring SEO, SEM and site search. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.". Available online at: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9Gq2x-tXU4cC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=Analyzing+web+traffic+data+for+effective+SEO+and+SEM+strategies.&ots=BPcwTi2dSD&sig=zwzWarpiynqkiFtaZ3hXPFjMG5k

Hidayanto, A.N., Adha, M.S., Jiwanggi, M.A. and Melia, T., 2012. A study of impact of search engine optimisation to internet marketing strategy. International Journal of Services, Economics and Management, 4(4), pp.298-316. Available online at: https://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJSEM.2012.050950

Berman, R. and Katona, Z., 2013. The role of search engine optimization in search marketing. Marketing Science, 32(4), pp.644-651. Available online at: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mksc.2013.0783

Jansen, B.J., Zhang, M. and Zhang, Y., 2007, April. The effect of brand awareness on the evaluation of search engine results. In CHI'07 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 2471-2476). Available online at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/1240866.1241026

Erdmann, A., Arilla, R. and Ponzoa, J.M., 2022. Search engine optimization: The long-term strategy of keyword choice. Journal of Business Research, 144, pp.650-662. Available online at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296322000777

Bhandari, D., 2017. Improving online visibility of the web pages with Search Engine Optimization: Laurea University of Applied Sciences. Available online at: https://www.theseus.fi/handle/10024/130683