3 Search Engine Optimization Challenges

The previous chapter summarized marketing tasks and introduced some new concepts in the field of online marketing. It was indicated that high visibility for certain search terms is a major challenge for marketing. Therefore, this chapter elaborates further on the the discipline of search engine optimization in order to discuss the challenges of voice-controlled search in the later course of the work. The following pages first explain the importance of high search engine placements for online marketing. Then, the methods of search engine optimization are presented while emphasizing on the on-page and off-page optimization options. Furthermore, new developments are discussed which may change search behavior again in the future. In the next chapter, the findings from the field of search engine optimization should help to work out marketing measures for voice-controlled search.

3.1 Search engine optimization at the core of online marketing

As previously illustrated in the target pyramid, the ultimate goal of commercially operating companies is usually an increase in sales and profits. In order to generate strong sales, a company needs to attract a large number of visitors, convert the greatest possible number of those visitors into customers, and then retain as many customers as possible for a long period of time.[72]

One of the most important factors to win a customer for a business is the company's location. In traditional retail, questions of location are primerily expressed in terms of the geographical distance between the customer and the store.[73] Bernardo Trujillo, one of the world's leading management consultants, emphasized the importance of the location since the 1950s and explained in his MMM seminars in Dayton, Ohio: "It is where traffic is that you can do commerce".[74] At the time, he was referring to road traffic to indicate that the location of a store is key to its sales success.[75] His words inspired some of the most famous entrepreneurs of his time and founders of today's global retailers such as Carrefour.[76] Today you can apply his statement to the Internet and online data traffic. One might even guess that it indirectly inspired some of the biggest online retailers like Amazon.

In the digital network, location problems are expressed primarily in relation to visibility in a now highly competitive environment. Website operators want their digital location to be where a large number of Internet users are (e.g., search engines). The website should therefore be located in the vicinity of natural traffic flows, especially on websites or portals with high data traffic volumes.[77] Because more and more website operators exist, the competition for the most visible positions on much-visited websites increases. Increased visibility on the internet means that users looking for a specific product first encounter the retailer website so that the user can take note of the site and its services. The visibility of the website is thus probably the most critical factor in explaining the Internet traffic volume.[78] Visibility in the digital network is particularly important in cases where the potential customer is actively looking for information. Consequently, the visibility of a website is measured based on its general presence on the Internet: search engines, partner websites, blogs, price comparison portals, social networks, etc.

Search engines like Google or Bing are known to have a very wide reach. With over 3.5 billion searches per day, Google is the global market leader (72% market share in desktop search and 90% market share in mobile and tablet search), followed by Baidu, Bing and Yahoo.[79] Due to this high reach, it has become particularly important for companies to also be present in search engines and to appear as the first result for certain search terms. Most important is the first search results page that a user sees after entering the search term and especially the search results that are visible without scrolling ('above the fold'), as they get the highest attention of users.[80] More than 90% of all clicks happen on page 1 of the search results pages.[81] Only a small proportion of searchers also look at the second or even third search results page.

This can be clearly seen in eye tracking studies in which the movements of the searcher's eyes are observed.[82] Some studies from 2005 to 2009 found that the vast majority of eye tracking activity during a search is in the top left corner of the results pages, called the 'golden triangle' (see Fig. 4).[83]

Source: Hotchkiss/Lee (2005): www.prweb.com (As of 21 July 2018).

Fig. 4: The golden triangle of the Google search results pages

However, the latest eye tracking studies show that user behavior has changed in recent years. The majority of users nowadays are aware that the first hits on the search result list are often paid ads and therefore direct their attention specifically to organic search results.[84] With the organic hits, however, a well-known pattern can be recognized: the intensity of the user's attention decreases as he scrolls down (see Fig. 5).[85] Companies that want to remain visible on search engines must therefore increasingly deal with the optimization of their organic visibility. The topic of SEO is therefore within the core of online marketing activities.

Source: usability.de GmbH & Co. KG (2016), p. 7.

Fig. 5: How users perceive the new Google results page

Search engine optimization is about the implementation of measures that help to achieve the best possible position in the organic, that is, the unpaid results of the search engines.[86] With the increasing number of websites and seemingly limitless options for search terms making it impossible to be in the first place for every search query, SEO has become a strategic activity that requires continuous effort. It is the job of the marketing manager or SEO manager to achieve this optimal positioning by influencing various factors accordingly. At Google, for example, the relevance of a website for a specific search result is determined using more than 200 factors.[87] Despite the required human resources, SEO is considered a very cost-effective channel compared to other online marketing activities, as you can drive a large number of visitors to your own website in the long term without regular campaign budgets.[88] The basic factors for determining the relevance of a website are similar with most search engines, so that with most optimization measures one can be found equally better across all search engine providers.[89] This also applies to specialized search engines, such as the product search on Amazon. In the following, some basic principles and SEO methods for better search engine placement are presented.

3.2 Search engine optimization methods

The challenge is SEO is that there are many different ranking factors which keep evolving as search engine providers are constantly striving to improve the quality of search results.[90] However, there are four general factors that influence search engine rankings and that can be managed as part of an SEO strategy in order to improve natural positioning and thus increase visibility.[91] Generally in SEO a distinction is made between on-page and off-page factors and their respective optimization.[92] Everything that can be influenced on your own website falls into on-page optimization. This includes texts, images or the source code.[93] There are essentially three aspects to take into account when looking at on-page-optimization: technical, structural and content-related aspects.[94]

Technical SEO addresses specific issues that prevent a web page from being indexed by search engines. Indexing problems can be caused by several factors: the structure of the website, the code of the underlying platform, excessive use of JavaScript, Ajax programming that prevents search bots to follow the navigation links, slow server responses, slow website loading times and even excessively large graphics that affect the loading speed of individual pages.[95] Accordingly, the technical optimizations include, for example, a correct page code and an attractive loading speed of the pages. These are difficult for marketing managers to influence, unless the company invests in a complete redesign of the website for further strategic reasons.

The structural optimizations include some specific elements of the HTML code, called 'metadata'. HTML is an abbreviation for Hypertext Markup Language and is used to describe a website structure. In HTML, metadata provides search engines...