How does search engine optimisation affect company sales, website visits, duration spent on a website?

Course Business Management Project title: The importance of search Engines in e-commerce Start and end dates of research:
Proposed activity – aims, objectives, research question(s), and state how it is novel This study will aim to explore the importance of search engines and the impact it has on e-commerce. Specific research questions are:
To explore and offer an overview of the elements, growth, and benefits of search engine optimisation and the impact it has on e-commerce firms.
To examine the effect of search engine optimisation on different areas of online advertisement and the overall effects it has on the performance of e-commerce firms.
To explore and recommend strategies that firms can benefit from the use of search engines in online advertisement and e-commerce.
Research Questions
Three research questions will be answered:
How does search engine optimisation affect company sales, website visits, duration spent on a website?
What is the relationship between search engine optimisation practices and the overall performance of e-commerce firms?
What aspects hinder or enable the effectiveness of search engine strategies of firms?
The research questions are novel since the concepts of e-commerce and search engine optimisation are new and are changing rapidly with the advancement in modern technology. In addition, only a few studies have investigated how firms can improve their e-commerce practices through effective practices in search engine optimisation. Methodology – rationale, data selection and collection, recruitment, participant demographics, analytical process This study will be conducted as secondary research. Conducting the secondary research is justified by the fact that data and evidence about the relationship between search engine optimisation and e-commerce performance are available on various platforms, including electronic databases. In addition, companies have data repositories about their financial and non-financial performances and other areas of productivity which will be used in the current study. Secondly, as Largan and Morris (2019) indicate, secondary research can be justified by practical considerations, including that it requires within a limited cost and timeframe. In addition, using secondary data will make it possible for the researcher to consider several real-life examples of how search engines have impacted e-commerce.
A mixed-methods with a case study approach will be followed in conducting the secondary research. The major reasons for selecting the mixed-methods research are that it will offer the researcher the freedom to flexibly use qualitative and quantitative techniques and theoretical inclinations in the various stages of the research, including data collection and data analysis (Cook and Kamalodeen 47). The adoption of mixed methods research will enable the investigator to collect an adequate amount of data needed for answering the research questions.
The research will use the case study of the world’s top e-commerce companies that have been successful in leveraging search engine and e-commerce concepts such as Amazon, JD. Com, Alibaba, and ASOS.Com. The use of a case study will have the benefit of enabling the researcher to investigate a range of perspectives on the topic of research (Onghena et al. 461). In addition, the adoption of the case study approach helps in limiting research bias while allowing the researcher to have a greater understanding of a given topic (Harrison et al. 11). In the present study, the researcher will use real-world experiences in e-commerce among the best e-commerce firms stated above to explain the role of search engine use. References Cook, Loraine D., and K. J. Kamalodeen. “Combining mixed methods and case study research (MM+ CSR) to give mixed-methods case study designs.” Caribbean Journal of Mixed Methods Research 1.1 (2020): 47-76.
Harrison, Helena, et al. “Case study research: Foundations and methodological orientations.” Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research. Vol. 18. No. 1. 2017.
Onghena, Patrick, Bea Maes, and Mieke Heyvaert. “Mixed methods single case research: State of the art and future directions.” Journal of mixed methods research 13.4 (2019): 461-480.
Largan, C. and Morris, T., 2019. Qualitative secondary research: A step-by-step guide. Sage. Project management Table: Project timeline and key outputs
Month
Activity

December 2021
Start data search and collection. Search for key company data related to e-commerce, search engine optimisation, and potential impacts on performance.

January 2022
Start the data analysis process. Data organisation and identification of best software and tools such as MaxQDA, Microsoft Excel and SPSS to determine their applicability in helping analyse the data.

February 2022
Continue and finalise data analysis.

March 2022
Continue with data analysis and start writing the report and dissertation.

April 2022
Complete the dissertation writing based on the research findings and review the process to determine that all the submission and publication requirements are met.

May 2022
Submit the dissertation for review and publication.

Supervision Meetings
Research Data Management Plan (Describe the data you expect to acquire or generate during this research project, how you will manage, describe, analyse, and store the data and what mechanisms you will use to share and preserve your data.) The first strategy for data collection will be consulting the company’s websites and examination of annual reports of the case study companies. In this case, the focus will be on the specific strategies in search engine use and the potential effects it has had on the performance of the firm. Secondly, a literature search will be conducted on electronic databases, including Google Scholar, Business Insights: Essentials, ProQuest, and ABI/Inform Collection. In this case, data will be collected from previously published primary research about the importance of search engine use and specific strategies such as SEO on e-commerce and overall firm performance. Both quantitative and qualitative data to be analysed using statistical analysis and thematic synthesis. The raw and synthesised data will be stored on computers, hard disks, and the cloud but following secondary data use policies.
Planned outputs/publications/research datasets/impact/dissemination The main output will be a research publication dissertation. Publishing of the research findings as project findings on state-wide publications, journals and presenting findings to specific target groups will be the main forms of research findings dissemination.
If successful, I undertake to carry out the research according to the University’s Ethics code of Practice and will be required to complete an Ethics checklist – see relevant forms detailed under Primary Research