The Importance Of Search Engines

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Searching for particular information is a vital aspect of the Internet and is carried out by millions of users daily. More than half of all website visitors arrive there from a search engine, rather than actually typing in the sites URL (Introna and Nissenbaum 2000; Teland et al. 2004). As searching increases, so does the importance for effective search engines. It is essential for search engines to act as critical links between firms that use the Internet to build awareness, brand perceptions, positive images, and to target their customers (Wu et al. 2005). Since there is such importance placed on the effectiveness of search engines, there is also high importance placed on the number of clicks generated, a performance metric tool (Kitts and LeBlanc 2004). There are many unanswered questions about how and why search engine results contribute to firms online promotions in the e-commerce setting (O’Connell 2007).
Two types of marketing activities can be conducted via search engines. In search engine advertising, companies have to pay to have their links displayed on the websites in the “sponsored section” of the search engines’ results page. Also, in search engine optimization, companies strive to push the rankings of their websites higher in the organic search results through numerous techniques or by hiring external consultants to develop unique techniques that will cause search engines to index their sites in higher positions (Delaney 2006). Search engine results offer a natural way for Internet users to gather information about brands which allows web designers to recognize that search results can have branding implications (Wasserman 2006). It is believed that even if Internet users that are searching the web via a search en...

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...s. Analytics are tools that analyze and compare customer activity in order to make business decisions and increase sales. Analytics tools can report the number of conversions, the keywords that brought conversions, the sites that sent converting traffic, or numerous other explanations for conversions (Ramos and Cota 2009). Analytics allows researchers to determine how visitors got to the site, where they went within site, and other useful information. Analytics uses data for actionable business decisions. By seeing what visitors are doing on their website, companies can manage the visitors experience and create brand awareness for their products and/or services (Ramos and Cota 2009). By using KPIs and analytics, companies that use online websites to promote their business can build brand awareness and develop brand positioning for their products and/or services.

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