Search results

The purpose of this paper is to analyse if citizens’ searches on the internet coincide with the services that municipal websites offer. In addition, the authors examine municipal webpage rankings in search engines and the factors explaining them.

The empirical study, conducted through a sample of Spanish city councils, contrasted if the information that can be found on a municipal website fits with citizens’ demands. This has been done by comparing the most-searched keywords with the contents of municipal websites.

A positive relationship between the supply and demand of municipal information on the internet has been found, but much can still be improved. Analysed administrations rank the basic data of the organisation, as well as some of the fundamental competences thereof, at the top in search engines, but the results are not entirely effective with some keywords still highly demanded by citizens, such as those related to employment or tourism. Factors explaining internet ranking include the number of pages of the municipal website, its presence in social networks and an indicator designed to measure the difficulty of ranking the municipal place-name.

The results obtained from this study provide valuable information for municipal managers. Municipal websites should not only include information in which citizens are interested, but achieve accessibility standards, have a responsive web design, and follow the rules of web usability. Additionally, they should be findable, which also requires improvement in terms of the design of the municipal website thinking in search engines, particularly in terms of certain technical characteristics that improve findability. A municipal website that wants to have a good positioning should increase its contents and attain the maximum degree possible of visibility in social networks.

Search engine optimization (SEO) has long been a key topic in marketing research, but there are very few studies addressing SEO success and brand equity (BE). Thus, this study aims to investigate the interdependence of SEO success and BE, with a specific focus on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The study involved conducting interviews with SEO and digital marketing experts, followed by a comprehensive analysis of their responses to investigate the mutual association between BE and SEO. The analysis of the interview data was conducted using the grounded theory approach.

The placement of a brand on top of search engine results is perceived as an indication of its credibility by searchers. Well-established brands tend to have superior SEO performance due to the impact of search algorithms and their powerful brand recognition. Lesser-known brands should improve their SEO performance to enhance their BE.

This study makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the interdependence between SEO and BE. Specifically, this study provides SMEs with effective SEO strategies to enhance their BE in the future.

This study presents unprecedented findings on the reciprocal relationship between SEO success and BE. The study also highlights the potential risk for SMEs of falling into a negative spiral due to poor SEO performance and offers practical business solutions to address this issue.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the common issues affecting the cultural institutions’ websites in terms of organic search visibility and to detect if there are some category specifics for the national libraries, archives and museums.

In the first phase, an online survey was conducted involving the cultural institutions of national importance, aiming to map the current state of their websites in organizational and functional terms, to collect the information about the used domains, their social media activity and the use of analytical tools to monitor the visitor behavior and online traffic. In the second phase, the cultural institutions’ websites were analyzed using the “White Hat SEO” technics of optimization on Google.

From the category perspective, the historical archives have the best Technical search engine optimization (SEO) position due to the low coding errors and fair site speed, the libraries are leading in content generation and the museums have a very good total SEO index due to their strong social media activities. Common issues are detected in the description of web images, non-existence of sitemaps and low website mobile friendliness.

The data were collected from the personnel of the national cultural institutions based on their pre-assumed knowledge and understanding of website management.

The research methodology can be used to analyze the organic visibility of any national culture on search engines.

A research gap in addressing the cultural institutions’ websites from the search engine perspective was identified and addressed within the paper.

The journalism profession has radically changed due to the digitisation and the development of new media. As content is moving online, rapidly evolving Internet technologies have affected basic journalistic work processes. In this context, changes in technology as well as audience engagement have greatly expanded the skills required to be a professional journalist nowadays. A number of studies have shown that search engines constitute an important source of the traffic to online news outlets around the world, identifying the significance of top rankings in search results. Concurrently, in the digital age, the interest in monitoring online activities as well as the significance of studying the traffic data has intensified. This chapter summarises the major findings of two studies regarding the use and impact of SEO and web analytics on news websites and journalism profession in Greece. Through examination of a sample of Greek journalists and several Greek news websites, it aims to provide new insights in the field of digital journalism.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the most popular techniques used to rank a web page highly in Google.

The paper presents the results of a study into 50 highly optimized web pages that were created as part of a Search Engine Optimization competition. The study focuses on the most popular techniques that were used to rank highest in this competition, and includes an analysis on the use of PageRank, number of pages, number of in‐links, domain age and the use of third party sites such as directories and social bookmarking sites. A separate study was made into 50 non‐optimized web pages for comparison.

The paper provides insight into the techniques that successful Search Engine Optimizers use to ensure a page ranks highly in Google. Recognizes the importance of PageRank and links as well as directories and social bookmarking sites.

Only the top 50 web sites for a specific query were analyzed. Analysing more web sites and comparing with similar studies in different competition would provide more concrete results.

The paper offers a revealing insight into the techniques used by industry experts to rank highly in Google, and the success or otherwise of those techniques.

This paper fulfils an identified need for web sites and e‐commerce sites keen to attract a wider web audience.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss Google visibility of five large STM publishers (Elsevier, Emerald Publishing, Springer, Taylor & Francis and John Wiley & Sons) with the aim to focus on and investigate various upcoming current issues and challenges of the publishing industry regarding discoverability, promotion strategies, competition, information-seeking behavior and the impact of new information technologies on scholarly information.

The study is based on data retrieved through two commercial online tools specialized in retrieving and saving the data of the domain's visibility in search engines: SEMrush (“SEMrush – Online Visibility Management Platform”) and Ahrefs (“Ahrefs – SEO Tools & Resources To Grow Your Search Traffic”). All data gathering took place between April 15 and the May 29, 2019.

The study exhibits the significance of Google visibility in the STM publishing industry taking into consideration current issues and challenges of the publishing activity.

This is a “new” trend, certainly of great significance in the publishing industry. The research is conducted in this paper and the theoretical background will be offered to the study of this issue.

Google commands approximately 70 per cent of search market share worldwide, resulting in businesses investing heavily in search engine advertising on Google to target potential customers. Recently, Google changed the way in which content and ads were displayed on the search engine results page. This reshuffling of content and ads is expected to affect the advertisers who advertise on Google and/or use it to drive traffic to their websites. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of these changes on various stakeholders.

Data have been collected from various sources on the internet including blogs and discussion forums. Netnography has been used as it allows a detailed evaluation of the consumers’ needs, wants and choices in a virtual space.

The average cost-per-click for ads on the top positions is expected to increase. Advertisers whose ads usually occupy the lower positions would be adversely affected. To counter this, more emphasis should be placed on ad extensions and on product listing ads. In addition, organizations would benefit from increased efforts on search engine optimization.

A variety of coping strategies have been developed that can help marketers to successfully navigate through the change, including the use of ad extensions and the use of product listing ads.

This practice-focused paper offers guidelines for digital marketers to use sponsored search more effectively as part of their arsenal in light of some important changes recently made by Google. The potential of netnography as a research methodology has also been expanded by using it in a novel setting and in drawing up actionable insights.

For companies that intend to respond to the modern conscious consumers' needs, a great competitive advantage is played on the ability to incorporate sustainability messages in marketing communications. The aim of this paper is to address this important priority in the web context, building a semantic algorithm that allows content managers to evaluate the quality of sustainability web contents for search engines, considering the current semantic web development.

Following the Design Science (DS) methodological approach, the study develops the algorithm as an artefact capable of solving a practical problem and improving the operation of content managerial process.

The algorithm considers multiple factors of evaluation, grouped in three parameters: completeness, clarity and consistency. An applicability test of the algorithm was conducted on a sample of web pages of the Google blog on sustainability to highlight the correspondence between the established evaluation factors and those actually used by Google.

Studying content marketing for sustainability communication constitutes a new field of research that offers exciting opportunities. Writing sustainability contents in an effective way is a fundamental step to trigger stakeholder engagement mechanisms online. It could be a positive social engineering technique in the hands of marketers to make web users able to pursue sustainable development in their choices.

This is the first study that creates a theoretical connection between digital content marketing and sustainability communication focussing, especially, on the aspects of search engine optimization (SEO). The algorithm of “Sustainability-contents SEO” is the first operational software tool, with a regulatory nature, that is able to analyse the web contents, detecting the terms of the sustainability language and measuring the compliance to SEO requirements.

The purpose of this paper is to provide useful insights underlying the popularity of search engine technologies within a social media-intensive environment.

The degree of social interaction for social media platforms that integrate search engine technologies as part of the homepage and related experience is very mixed on part of its users. Through Barnard’ theory of authority acceptance, social media and its popularity may be examined by the ability of its users to create effective messages that can be broadcasted to many, yet controlled by individual. The hypotheses tested the interaction of social media and search engine with gender and technological ease-of-use factors.

The statistical evidence suggested that significant technological and ease-of-use aspects of search engines are not meaningful, based on gender alone. Males may slightly be prone to take advantage of such technologies, but their search and use patterns are not much varied from their female counterparts. Social media, generally more fully captured authority in individual search patterns, and a number of interactions among gender status, search engine characteristics, and social media were found to be significant and profound. The testing of these hypotheses directly reflect the complexities of unique needs among users of search engines within a social media environment.

Search engine technologies with a social media context has allowed for the development of a modern, user-driven internet experience that has been powered by users’ imagination and is designed to at least partially satisfy users’ need for self-directed engagement. Organizations are well advised to provide a mindful, less controlled, and more interactive presence of potential users, especially through an increasingly mobile presence.

Individuals as well as organizations are rapidly discovering that it is becoming easier to share and distribute their content, especially for more creative and innovative content, among all of its users. As businesses continue to focus on the quality of one’s own content, individuals are increasingly taking advantage of some tools to exert more control over their experiences and what they are willing to share, resulting in more user-based partnerships will formulate. As the transition of traditional forms of marketing to newer forms of integrated marketing, the future for search engines as marketing tools by social media users appears to be very promising in adding contextual content within users’ homepage.