Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

important note: no copy and paste, use your own words
TWO full pages of double-spaced text in the Body of the Text section for the following topic:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

The paper should have a title page, introduction, abstract, body, conclusion, and references.
Project submissions should provide details regarding how the departments in your organization could benefit from the implementation of the Information Technologies that you are studying in this course.
Consider: Human Resources, Information Technology, Maintenance, Marketing, Operations, Reservations, and Sales
Distinguishing how the IT systems will benefit your company:
• Provide details and examples of applications and solutions offered by retail vendors
• Describe the framework for each solution that the internal staff of your company might develop and implement.
• Present an account of the strengths, weaknesses and cost considerations for those solutions.
• Finally, identify and describe how a solution can provide a competitive advantage, influence strategy, affect organizational performance, and increase operational efficiency.

A minimum of FIVE primary reference sources outside of the course textbook are required to be cited and referenced in the document submission.

Warning
You cannot use Wikipedia as a primary research source. You should however use ProQuest and other databases that are available for you to use via the reference search tools within the library. Unless you are a subject matter expert on the topic, based on your degrees, certifications, or on-the-job training, do not submit data obtained only from personal experience.

APA Style Requirements
For this Research Project paper, remember to utilize only primary reference sources outside of the course textbook. They can show you how to perform the proper searches for articles, journals, and other primary reference sources as well as utilizing APA Style formatting and composition throughout the project.
Also, be sure to use the Course Specific APA Style Instructions and Guidance for the APA 6 style requirements in this course.
The basic writing style for your research project should follow the recommendations of the current APA Manual. The text throughout the document should be:
• Double spaced
• Typeface 12 point size
• Times New Roman font
• 1 inch margins
Be sure to use current APA style for in text citations and references. You are required to cite and reference any data that you have borrowed from a reference source. This requirement pertains to both direct quotes and data that you may have paraphrased. Use the academic resources and course-specific APA style instructions and guidance pages in our course for specific tips on how to correctly format citations and reference data in APA style.

Writing Mechanics
Your composition needs to be grammatically sound and free of spelling errors. Using terminology from the reference sources will enhance your grade. Use a grammar spell-check tool to check your document before you submit it. Remember that grammar spell check tools do not always provide the proper data so carefully check the suggested modifications.

ANSWER

Search Engine Optimization

Abstract

Search engine optimization is considered as a method used to increase the position of the website on the search engine the result pages of different sites such as Yahoo, Google, and Bing The SEO strategy for a business will go long way for the business as long as there is proper maintenance. Clients can find the business on the internet easily when trying to gather relevant information that relates to the business. The SEO framework consists of off-page and on-page optimization, HTML, website traffic analysis as well as mentoring and monitoring.

Application and Benefits

Getting a business website placed on the first page of a google search does not happen overnight. The strategy needs to be a process that defines how the website is being ranked on the internet. Search Engine Optimization increases the quality and quantity of traffic to the business’ website through the use of search engine results (Cui and Hu, 2011). The search engines have various programs and algorithms that are used to display and rank consumer searches. Within a business, departments such as sales, marketing and IT benefit from the IT-related solutions from SEO.

SEO has played a significant role in the inbound marketing approach as compared to the traditional outbound advertising approaches, the inbound marketing strategies have centered on making it easy for the audience the business when they want any details or information (Zilincan, 2015). The IT department has been able to focus on the SEO software and tools to streamline the operations of the business website. They can compare themselves with the highly ranked business and understand how they rely on the optimization of the SEO to influence the consumer actions, methods as well as keywords that would boost the position of the website to the top of the list. The IT experts have relied on Google analytics to examine and keep track of all the content that gains share and views. Therefore, they can focus on a better web experience for the consumers through improving access and accurate pinpoint on what customers are looking for.

The sales and Reservation department will experience an increase in terms of revenue due to the high traffic that will be directed to the website. Ideally, an increase in search engine traffic, in turn, increases the number of visitors to the website. This directly relates to an increase in sales since the number of relevant and potential clients visiting the website have increased. Relatively, customers will be willing to return for services from the company through the website due to increased convenience.

SEO Framework

The SEO framework consists of off-page and on-page optimization, HTML, website traffic analysis as well as mentoring and monitoring. On-page optimization focus on the website such as keywords, tags, and word count (Cui and Hu, 2011). These have been used to boost the relevance of content and consumer searches thus boosting the rank of the website. Off-page, optimization focuses on the external activities of the website. These include backlinks which are very important to search engines. The quality and number of backlinks determine the effectiveness of off-page optimization.  Website traffic analysis ensures that the website drives traffic in terms of interface and design. Continuous improvement is essential to running SEO on a business website. Reporting and monitoring is an essential component in examining the web traffic and ranking in searches.

Strengths and Weaknesses

SEO ensures that the site is easily discoverable by the users searching for a term that is significant and related to the website. SEO has enabled businesses to promote their brands as well as find new customers. The importance of boosting the ranking of the organization’s website is that is displayed on the first pages of the search engine will translate to more traffic which leads to more potential customers.

The major weaknesses of SEO include lack of guarantee and time consumption. Ideally, the results of SEO strategies do not work in magic since they take time. For instance, it may take time for search engines to index content. Thus it will take a long time to attain a good return on investment. SEO has no guarantee for the results such as landing on the first page.

Competitive Advantage

The ranking of the website is a key driver of the business’ site traffic. This is a vital part of the site’s competitive strategy since the majority of the product purchases are conducted through search. The right keywords in the SEO can lead to more qualified traffic, securing more leads, and converting more customers thus generating a competitive advantage for the business.

Conclusion

In summation, SEO has offered IT related solutions since it boosts client visits into a business’ website which translates into increase in sales and driving high traffic. Being at the top of the list offers business authenticity, builds the brand image, and lowers the marketing costs since the SEO is conducting marketing activities to the potential customers.

References

Cui, M., & Hu, S. (2011, September). Search engine optimization research for website promotion. In 2011 International Conference of Information Technology, Computer Engineering and Management Sciences (Vol. 4, pp. 100-103). IEEE.

Zilincan, J. (2015, September). Search engine optimization. In CBU International Conference Proceedings (Vol. 3, pp. 506-510).