Abstract
This chapter discusses search engine marketing (SEM) techniques that companies should implement in order to stimulate digital traffic. Those techniques include the attraction of organic traffic by search engine optimization (SEO) as well as search engine advertising (SEA). The authors used SEM techniques to a specific case of a company with the purpose of attracting international traffic and develop external marketing. The research discusses the effectiveness of SEM techniques in the case developed through an experimental method. New insights emerged from the experiment and are presented with contributions for international managers who want to de develop international digital traffic.
TopBackground
Considering that users who perform their search on a search engine rarely look beyond the first page of results, developing a search engine marketing strategy will therefore boost the success of your business (Gudivada & Rao, 2015). Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is remarkable in terms of the density of search as well as shopping, even offline, and the search engine is used as a means to gather information and thus be included in the consumer buying journey (Brooks, 2004). In its definition, Search Engine Optimization is an internet marketing strategy that thrives the volume and also the quality of consumer traffic to the company's website through the use of search engines - designates fundamentally by drawing, writing and coding a website, giving it a digital presence (Khraim, 2015). Considering that a digital presence will, in the current conjuncture, be a growing necessity of all those wishing to sell goods or services, there is a greater effort to obtain higher rankings, to superior its presence in the first results of a search and to make frequently, as a website with greater visibility will bring more visits (Enge et al., 2015).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Search Engine Marketing: Marketing efforts made through the optimization of search engines, highlighting and promoting a product or service ( Aswani et al., 2017 ).
Click Through Rate: Ratio between the number of clicks and impressions of an organic or inorganic search result ( Wang et al., 2011 ).
Search Engine Advertising: An inorganic (paid) search engine marketing strategy characterized by sponsoring searches to be displayed alongside organic (non-sponsored) web search results ( Ghose & Yang, 2009 ).
Keyword Stuffing: The misuse of keywords for the purpose of getting more prominence when searched, using code only viewed by the search engine and hidden from the average user to jam target keywords, related or sometimes unrelated to page content (Janani et al., 2013 AU73: The in-text citation "Janani et al., 2013" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
Search Engine Optimization: An organic search engine marketing strategy characterized as a set of techniques, namely on-page website optimization where it lays, for example, content marketing, and off page optimization, such as link building and social sharing techniques ( Zhang & Cabage, 2017 ).
Consumer Journey: The buyer's journey is a framework divided in steps that acknowledges a consumer’s progression through recognition, consideration and research ultimately culminating in a purchase decision ( Lemon & Verhoef, 2016 ).
Content Marketing: Strategy based on text, rich media, audio and video content aimed at engaging customers and meet business goals ( Chaffey & Smith, 2013 ).
Digital Personas: Fabricated representation of the target customer based on previous data about existing customers and market research ( Lemon & Verhoef, 2016 ).