EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Keyword Selection Strategies in Search Engine Optimization: How Relevant is Relevance?

Mayank Nagpal and J. Andrew Petersen

Journal of Retailing, 2021, vol. 97, issue 4, 746-763

Abstract: We build an empirical framework using search queries and organic click data which provides model-based guidance to SEO practitioners for keyword selection and web content creation. Specifically, we study how search characteristics (search query popularity, search query competition, search query specificity, and search intent) and website characteristics (content relevance and online authority) interact to affect the expected organic clicks as well as the organic rank a website receives from the search engine result page (SERP). It is often thought that content relevance is a key factor to improve the effectiveness of SEO. We find, however, that content relevance is an important factor in driving organic clicks only when the consumer is farther along in the customer journey and searching for ways to purchase a product. Whereas, when the customer is at the awareness stage and looking for product information, online authority is the key driver of organic clicks.

Keywords: Search engine optimization; Tobit Model; Latent Semantic Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022435920300944
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jouret:v:97:y:2021:i:4:p:746-763

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretai.2020.12.002

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Retailing is currently edited by A. Roggeveen

More articles in Journal of Retailing from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:eee:jouret:v:97:y:2021:i:4:p:746-763