Analyzing the role of search engine optimization (SEO)‎ as an e-marketing supportive tool: tourism companies' websites

Abstract EN

E-marketing has become one of the most effective marketing tools due to the internet and new technologies, which have a great effect on customers’ decisions.

in fact, if companies aim to gain brand awareness and attract more customers to increase their sales volume, they ought to consider the beneficial role of e-marketing to their business.

furthermore, search engines are the only mean for browsing information on the web.

search engines marketing became essential tool to meet customers’ inquiries, since they provide all the information required in a few seconds through displaying pages containing information that the users look for in an orderly way according to the search results.

the present study aims to evaluate the role of search engine optimization (SEO), as an e-marketing supportive tool, for tourism companies' websites and their effect on their sales volume and their brand awareness.

it also aims to examine the extent to which Egyptian tourism companies are promoting their services via search engines.

finally, it explores the mechanism of successful SEO and its algorithm.

this study adopts a quantitative research approach by deploying a survey method to collect and analyze the pertinent primary data.

it also analyzes data collected about tourism companies’ websites afterwards applying a google query of “Egypt tours” to explore SEO mechanism to fulfill the study objectives.

the results proved the significant effect of using search engine-marketing on increasing website traffic, brand awareness and sales volumes.

it is also highlighted that, within Egyptian tourism companies, search engine marketing can play a key role as an effective marketing tool.