Search Engine Optimization

Website navigation helps visitors find information efficiently, because visitors do not want to spend time figuring out how to get to the website. A simple navigational aid is a navigation bar. The navigation bar provides visitors with the opportunity to link to frequently visited destinations (e.g., home page, “about us”) and major sections of the website (e.g., product catalog, customer support), see Figure 3.3.

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Figure 3.3. Navigation bar on website

Performance : Performance or speed is a key factor in successful design. If visitors have to wait more than a few seconds for a website to load, they may leave the site. Some of the factors that affect page load speed are beyond the web designer’s control (e.g., the visitor’s modem speed). Factors that are within the web designer’s control relate to the content and design of the page. For example, videos and large images should be minimized.

Colors and Graphics: Multimedia including colors, images, sounds, and videos can enhance the appeal of websites. Therefore, designers try to find out what visitors like and provide it to them. For example, dashboards need to use a lot of colors, as do maps and videos.

Website Usability: Usability measures the quality of the user experience when interacting with a product or system, including: websites, software applications, mobile technology, any device operated by the user. Usefulness is a combination of many factors:

- Intuitive design: The website's architecture and navigation are easy to understand.

- Easy to learn: How quickly can users who have never seen a user interface before complete basic tasks?

- Usability: How quickly an experienced user can complete a task.

- Memorability: After visiting a website, users can remember enough to use it effectively in subsequent visits.

- Error frequency and severity: How often users make errors while using the system, how severe the errors are, and how users fix them.

- Subjective satisfaction: If the user enjoys using the system.

Software to help e-retail website designers : Some companies provide software to facilitate website design, some of which are free, for example Google Web Designer (free). Designers who want to design a website can search for information on ideas, templates, tips for success, images, etc.

One approach to good website design is to eliminate things that annoy visitors, such as: slow loading times, pop-up ads, the need to install additional software, complicated mandatory registration requirements, confusing navigation, outdated content, and poor search engine optimization.

Additionally, in e-retail website content management, adding customer support and customer service tools is really important these days.

3.2.1.5. Check e-retail website

Businesses must also decide whether to design and build their own website, hire a web design company, or a combination of both. Once business owners are satisfied with the website, it is

Move to website hosting. At this point, the website is ready for business, but it needs a final test to make sure all the links work and the processes work as expected (e.g. accepting credit cards).

3.2.2. Promote e-retail websites

In this stage, the business promotes the position of the website, both online and offline to the public. Offline advertising media are television, print, magazines and radio. Online advertising media include email, SEO, display advertising, etc. A business can use any advertising strategy such as banner exchange, email, chat, viral marketing, etc. This course covers some forms of online advertising for e-retail websites. Other forms of online advertising are studied in the E-commerce Marketing module.

3.2.2.1. Internal advertising

Internal website promotion begins with content to attract customers so that they will return and refer others to the website. To do this, the website needs attractive content, useful links to other websites, and features that will make customers want to return (e.g., entertainment, sweepstakes, etc.). Results from web analytics are used in website promotion planning. Some popular web analytics tools are Google Analytics, Kiss Metrics, CrazyEgg.

3.2.2.2. Search Engine Optimization - SEO

How customers find a particular website in cyberspace. When tracking a computer on the Internet, it is difficult to know exactly who is actually using it. Many computers are shared; therefore, the data collected may not be accurate about a particular person. Alexander Pons (2006) proposed a study called biometric marketing . Advertisers are using targeting methods

individuals without their knowledge. An example is search engine-based methods, such as Adwords used by Google.

Search engines are a good mechanism for most people to find information, and therefore a good platform for general online advertising and business website promotion. Placing online ads on websites that display results from search engine queries is called search advertising. If the search results include your business and products, then it is free advertising for you. The problem is that search results can include thousands of items and your products may not be on the first page of results. The two main forms of search engine advertising are URL indexing and keyword advertising.

A URL is a path or address used to refer to resources on the Internet. Every resource stored on the Internet has its own address. These addresses are called URLs. A URL is a human-readable text that replaces an IP address that a computer uses to contact a server. URLs enable hyperlinks to websites.

Most search engines allow businesses to submit their Internet addresses, (called URLs) for free so that these URLs can be searched. Search engine spiders crawl through each web page, indexing its content and links. The web page is then included as an object for future searches. Since there are many search engines, advertisers using this method should register their URLs with as many relevant search engines as possible. In some cases, URLs may be searchable even if they are not submitted to search engines.

Advantages of URL listing:

- The listing can be very relevant to the search topic. This is the key to Google's success. The website owner does not need to do anything but

content creation. This method is suitable when the website is simple and does not need the content to appear quickly in search results.

- Another advantage of using search engines as an advertising tool is that it is free. Anyone can submit a URL to a search engine and get listed. People searching for a particular product of the business are more likely to get a list of websites that mention the products, search engine advertising has become the most popular method of online advertising.

However, URL listing has some disadvantages. The main problem is position - the chances that a particular website will be placed at the top of the search results list (10 websites) are very slim. Furthermore, even if a business's URL is at the top, others can quickly replace it. Secondly, different search engines index their listings differently, so it is very difficult to get to the top of the search list. Therefore, many businesses offer a service to help advertisers improve their search results ranking position, this service is called search engine optimization (SEO).

Google has created a new ad by linking ads to user keywords called Keyword Ads . Advertisers choose the keywords that their ads will be linked to. The ads appear on the screen along with search results when the selected keywords are searched. This can increase the likelihood that the ad will be viewed because it is highly relevant to the user's interests.

In fact, about 90% of Google’s revenue comes from this innovative technology. Furthermore, Google allows advertisers to bid on the order in which they appear. Advertisers who pay more will appear first in the list. There are two types of search results: organic search results and paid search results.

Natural search results : Are the results that search engines follow algorithms and return results according to the engine's algorithm and provide reasonable information of the displayed website.

Paid search results : These are search results that appear in priority order (usually the first results on the first search page) and these results have been paid by the advertiser to appear in priority order.

Search engine advertising works using an auction-based system, where advertisers bid on specific keywords that are relevant to their product or service. However, bids and clicks are different. Just because you might bid $10 for a keyword phrase, that doesn’t mean you’ll be charged $10 for every click on your ad.

Search engine advertising is one of the most popular forms of PPC. PPC stands for cost per click, where advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked. It is essentially a way of buying traffic to a website, rather than trying to earn it organically.

Advertisers bid for ad placement in search engine sponsored links when someone searches for a keyword related to their business services. For example, if a business bids on the keyword «PPC Ad», the business's ad may appear at the top of the search results page.

Each time an ad is clicked, sending a visitor to the seller's website, the seller pays a small fee. When PPC works correctly, the fee is negligible, because a visit to the website is worth more than the amount paid (for example, paying $0.30/click, but that click results in a $300 sale).

To build a good PPC campaign, you need to research and choose the right keywords, organize those keywords into campaigns, set up landing pages . PPC is optimized for conversions.

Search engine providers will reward advertisers who can create targeted pay-per-click campaigns.

Spend smart by charging less for ad clicks (if the ad and landing page are useful and satisfying to the user, Google will charge a lower CPC).

Google AdWords is the world's most popular PPC advertising system. The advertising platform allows businesses to create ads that appear on Google. Google AdWords works on a PPC model, where users bid on keywords and pay for each click on their ads. Each time a search is initiated, Google digs into the pool of advertisers and selects a group of winners to appear in valuable ad space on the search results page. Winners are selected based on a combination of factors: keyword quality and relevance, ad campaign, keyword bid, etc. The bid is the maximum amount an advertiser is willing to pay for each click on their ad. The position on the page is based on the advertiser's ad rank. The value that determines the ad's position on the search results page = CPC bid * Quality Score.

Quality Score : A score based on click-through rate (CTR), measured by the average CTR of the ad in that position, as well as keyword relevance, landing page quality, and past performance on the search engine results page (SERP).

Quality Score is about how relevant your Google ads are to the search queries people are asking. Google wants to make sure that when people type in search queries, only the most relevant ads are shown to them. Quality Score helps them determine how relevant your ads are.

Quality Score is also important to advertisers. The better the score, the higher the ad rank and the lower the keyword cost per click (CPC). If a keyword's Quality Score is too low, Google's ad will not be shown. If the score is low, the keyword costs more and less traffic will come to the website.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a business in the results displayed by a search engine. It is a set of methods to increase the ranking of a website in the search engine results page. Ideally, the results should appear on the first page. Businesses hire an optimization service provider or do it themselves. SEO can increase the number of visitors to a website, and therefore businesses are willing to pay for this service. SEO is performed on all online searches, from keyword searches, video, image searches, and even social media. The general process of SEO is illustrated in Figure 3.4.

Website maintenance, re-optimization

Content Creation

Traffic chat analysis

Decide on keywords

Optimize pages

Add keywords to content

Find rankings in search results

Submit to search engines

Figure 3.4. Search engine optimization process

The forms of SEO are off-page SEO, on-page SEO and technical SEO.