Aim: The aim of this study is to analyze the usage of Search Engine Optimization and Knowledge Graphs and the connection between them to achieve profitable business visibility and reach. Methods: Following a qualitative method together with an inductive approach, ten marketing professionals were interviewed via an online questionnaire. To conduct this study both primary and secondary data was utilized. Scientific theory together with empirical findings were linked and discussed in the analysis chapter. Findings: This study establishes current Search Engine Optimization utilization by businesses regarding common techniques and methods. We demonstrate their effectiveness on the Google Knowledge Graph, Google My Business and resulting positive business impact for increased visibility and reach. Difficulties remain in accurate tracking procedures to analyze quantifiable results. Contribution of the thesis: This study contributes to the literature of both Search Engine Optimization and Knowledge Graphs by providing a new perspective on how these subjects have been utilized in modern marketing. In addition, this study provides an understanding of the benefits of SEO utilization on Knowledge Graphs. Suggestions for further research: We suggest more extensive investigation on the elements and utilization of Knowledge Graphs; how the structure can be affected; which techniques are most effective on a bigger scale and how effectively the benefits can be measured. Key Words: Search Engine, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Knowledge Graphs, Google My Business, Google Search Engine, Online Marketing.

The purpose of this survey has been to investigate whether there are contradictions between user experience (UX) and search engine optimization (SEO), also called Google versus users. Professionals, in UX and SEO, have been asked to respond to a questionnaire regarding text and images within these two aspects. In addition to the professionals, users have also been asked to answer questionnaires and taken part in two different websites to investigate how text and images related to the previously mentioned aspects. The content on the sites has been the same but the design itself has been different, one has focused on UX - user experience and the other has been towards SEO - search engine optimization. The results of the study have not been distinctwhether there are contradictions between Google and users among professionals. Even in the relationship with users, how they experienced the different sites, there were contradictions between these two aspects. The conclusion is thus that it depends a lot on who views the website and his or her personal preferences. / Syftet med denna undersökning har varit att undersöka om det finns motsättningar mellan användarupplevelse (UX) och sökmotoroptimering (SEO), även kallat Google mot användare. Yrkesverksamma, inom UX och SEO, har fått svara på en enkät angående text och bild inom dessa två aspekter. Förutom yrkesverksamma har även användare fått svara på enkätfrågor och tagit del av två olika sajter för att undersöka hur text och bild förhåller sig mot tidigare nämnda aspekter. Innehållet på sajterna har varit detsamma men själva utförande har varit olika, den ena har fokuserat på UX –användarupplevelse och den andra har varit mot SEO – sökmotoroptimering. Resultatet av studien har inte varit entydigt om det finns motsättningar mellan Google och användare hos yrkesverksamma. Även i förhållandet med användare hur de upplevde de olika sajterna fanns det motsättningar mellan dessa två aspekter. Slutsatsen blir således att det beror mycket på vem som betraktar webbplatsen och dennes personliga preferenser

The thesis deals with the optimization of website of thai massage studio. This work includes evaluation of the initial state, a proposed amendment, keyword analysis, optimization of texts and support through building backlinks. Evaluation of success is done through the analysis of traffic and tracking the position of the primary keywords on major search engines in the Czech Republic - Google.cz and Seznam.cz.

Studier visar att kunskapen och erfarenheten av marknadsföring inom små och medelstora företags (SME) till stor utsträckning är ganska dålig. Det finns inga riktlinjer för hur SME inom byggbranschen bör arbeta med marknadsföring och hur företagen bör överväga att digitalisera marknadsföringen för att kunna nå ut till en större potentiell kundgrupp. Dessutom nämns att fler människor börjar använda sig av internet och i takt med detta så blir det allt viktigare för SME att följa med i den digitala utvecklingen. Därför är det viktigt att undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkar SMEs inställning till användandet av sökmotoroptimering (SEO).    Tidigare studier visar att det finns ett flertal faktorer som påverkar inställningen hos SME att använda SEO. Ett antal av studierna är skrivna tidigare än år 2015 och efter litteratursökningen, så finner vi inga senare studier inom det berörda området om vad som påverkar processen för införandet av SEO hos SME inom byggbranschen som en kontext.  Data har samlats in genom sju utförda intervjuer med lika många företag. Insamling av data har skett via digitala intervjuer tillsammans med personal som har god insikt i företagets strategier för digital konsumentpåverkan. Data har sedan analyserats genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys tillsammans med tidigare studier inom området.   Studiens resultat identifierade tre teman vilka var ekonomi där faktorer såsom finansiella resurser och branschens inställning innefattas. Det tekniska temat med faktorerna, andra digitala marknadskanaler och snabbare etablering samt temat kunskap där faktorn inställning hos medarbetare belyses. Flertalet av de identifierade faktorerna bekräftas av vad tidigare forskning bidragit till samtidigt som nya fynd har gjorts. Efter en analys av faktorerna så kom vi fram till att varje enskild faktor kan ha en direkt inverkan för valet hos SME att införa SEO som ett verktyg för digital konsumentpåverkan. Resultatet visade på att faktorerna ofta samspelar med varandra och verkar växelvis i processen att införa SEO i verksamheten. / Studies show that the knowledge and experience of marketing in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is to a large extent quite poor. There are no guidelines for how SMEs in the construction industry should work with marketing and how companies should consider digitizing marketing in order to reach a larger potential customer group. In addition, it is mentioned that more people are starting to use the internet and in step with this, it is becoming increasingly important for SMEs to keep up with digital developments. Therefore, it is important to examine the factors that influence SME's attitude towards the use of search engine optimization (SEO). Previous studies show that there are a number of factors that affect the attitude of SMEs to use SEO. A few of the studies were written earlier than in 2015 and after the literature search, we find no later studies in the relevant area on what influences the process for the introduction of SEO at SME in the construction industry as a context. Data have been collected through seven interviews with as many companies. Data collection has taken place via digital interviews together with staff who have good insight into the company's strategies for digital consumer impact. Data have then been analyzed through a qualitative content analysis together with previous studies in the field. The results of the study identified three themes which were economics where factors such as financial resources and the attitude of the industry are included. The technical theme with the factors, other digital market channels and faster establishment as well as the theme knowledge where the factor attitude of employees is highlighted. Most of the identified factors are confirmed by what previous research has contributed to while new findings have been made. After an analysis of the factors, we came up to the conclusion that each individual factor can have a direct impact on the choice of SME to introduce SEO as a tool for digital consumer influence. The results also showed that the factors often interact with each other and act alternately in the process of introducing SEO into the business.

Purpose – The purpose of this thesis is contributing to the research on the efficacy of backlinks originating from Web 2.0 blogs by designing a costless method for creating controllable backlinks to a website, solely with Web 2.0 blogs as a source of backlinks. The objective is to find out if such links can provide an effect on a website’s positions in the Google SERPs in 2020 and to hopefully contribute with a controllable link strategy that is available for any SEO practitioner regardless of their economic circumstances. The thesis provides answers to the two research questions: 1. What positions in the SERPs can an already existing website claim as a result of creating and implementing a link strategy that utilizes Web 2.0 blogs? 2. In context of implementing a link strategy, what practices must be considered for it to remain unpunished by Google in 2020? Method – The choice of research method, due to the nature of the project is Design Science Research (DSR), in which the designed artefact is observationally evaluated by conducting a field study. The artefact consists of four unique Web 2.0 blogs that each sent a backlink to the target website through qualitative blog posts following Google’s guidelines. Quantitative data was collected using SERPWatcher by Mangools, which tracked 29 keywords for 52 days, and was qualitatively analysed. Conclusions – There is a distinct relation between the improvement in keyword positions and the implementation of the artefact, leaving us with the conclusion that it is reasonable to believe that Web 2.0 blog backlinks can affect a website’s positions in the SERPs in the modern Google Search. More research experimenting with Web 2.0 blogs as the origin of backlinks must be conducted in order to truly affirm or deny this claim, as an evaluation on solely one website is insufficient. It can be concluded that the target website was not punished by Google after implementation. While their search algorithm may be complex and intelligent, it was not intelligent enough to punish our intentions of manipulating another website’s keyword positions via a link scheme. Passing through as legitimate may have been due to following E-A-T practices and acting natural, but this is mere speculation without comparisons with similar strategies that disregard these practices. Limitations – Rigorous testing and evaluation of the designed artefact and its components is very important when conducting research that employs DSR as a method. Due to time constraints, the lack of data points in form of websites the artefact has been tested on, as well as the absence of iterative design, partially denies the validity of the artefact since it does not meet the criteria of being rigorously tested. The data collected would be more impactful if keyword data were gathered many days before executing the artefact, as a pre-implementation period larger than 7 days would act as a reference point when evaluating the effect. It would also be ideal to track the effects post-implementation for a longer time period due to the slow nature of SEO. Keywords – SEO, search engine optimization, off-page optimization, Google Search, Web 2.0, backlinks.

This report describes my work with a website for a company that helps other companies book conferences. Creating this website, I have worked from a Mobile First perspective to create an interface. The interface was then tested on potential users. I then used guidelines from Googles own documentation on search engine optimization. The purpose of this work is to create and deliver a website where users can turn to MH Konferens and let them handle booking and planning of their conferences. / Denna rapport beskriver arbetet med en webbplats för ett företag som jobbar med att boka konferenser åt andra företag. Jag har i framtagandet av webbplatsen utgått från Mobile First och skapat ett gränssnitt. Gränssnittet har sedan testats på användare och slutligen har jag utgått från Googles egen dokumentation för att optimera webbplatsen för sökmotorer. Syftet med arbetet är att skapa en webbplats som leder till att användare kan vända sig till MH konferens och låta dem ta hand om bokning och planering av deras konferenser.

This thesis deals with the audit of the board game e-commerce web sites. Nowa-days there is a great number of websites of varying quality, so it is necessary to choose between them. The development of the Internet shifted the emphasis from quantity to quality. With this fact comes the topic of auditing web sites. The first part of the thesis concerns with the theoretical bases of audit of web sites in various sections. The second part includes the representation of the mar-ket of board games and its target group. Based on the first theoretical part the evaluation criteria are created, which are used for the audit of seven selected web sides of board games. This audit is evaluated in the next chapter, which then leads into the conclusion of the work in the form of recommendations for changes in order to increase the competitiveness of each evaluated e-commerce.

Cette thèse se situe dans un axe novateur de recherches en ingénierie et en management des systèmes d’information, elle articule à la fois les aspects de quatre domaines de recherche issus de l’Informatique, des Sciences des Systèmes d’information et des Sciences Humaines et des aspects pratiques liées aux entreprises du Web 2.0. Le «Crowdsourcing», comme son nom l’indique, désigne l’approvisionnement par la foule; Les études et les recherches sur cette thèse se font rares mais celles qui existent confirment l’intérêt managérial des plateformes de Crowdsourcing, grâce à leur rôle incontestable dans la création de valeur. Néanmoins, la foule est composée de groupe d’amateurs hétérogènes, c’est pour cela qu’elle représente aussi une source d’incompétence. Dans ce cadre, notre hypothèse opérationnelle pose que l’apprentissage de la foule stimule la création de valeur dans les plateformes Crowdsourcing. Ainsi, notre travail est, principalement organisé autour de la conception et l’élaboration d’un outil pour l’apprentissage de la foule au sein des plateformes de Crowdsourcing. Ce travail est de nature complexe et relève à la fois d’un travail de recherche et d’une pratique d’ingénierie. C’est pour cela que nous optons pour une démarche constructiviste exploratoire de type qualitative moyennant la méthode de recherche ingénierique qui vise à définir et à concevoir une approche d’apprentissage adaptée aux plateformes de Crowdsourcing et à l’implémenter par la suite au sein d’une plateforme Crowdsourcing de test spécialisée dans les Backlinks. Des expérimentations basées sur des entretiens semi-directifs viendront, à la fin de ce travail, confirmer ou infirmer nos hypothèses. / This thesis is situated in an innovative line of research in engineering and management information systems, it articulates both the aspects of four disciplines of research in the Computer Science, Information Systems, Human Sciences and practical aspects related to Web 2.0 companies. The "Crowdsourcing" as its name suggests, refers to the sourcing by the crowd, studies and research on this topic are infrequent but those that exist confirm the managerial interest of Crowdsourcing platforms, thanks to their undeniable role in value creation. Nevertheless, the crowd is composed of heterogeneous group of amateurs that is why it is also a source of incompetence. Our operating hypothesis posits that learning the crowd stimulates the creation of value in the Crowdsourcing platforms. Thus, our work is mainly organized around the design and development of a tool for learning the crowd in Crowdsourcing platforms. This work is complex and involves both a research work and practical engineering. That is why we choose an exploratory qualitative constructivist approach and an ingénierique research method to define and develop a suitable approach of learning adapted to the Crowdsourcing platforms and implement it thereafter within our test Crowdsourcing platform specializes in Backlinking. Experiments based on semi-structured interviews will, confirm or deny our hypotheses.

<p>Examensarbetet har gått ut på att genom kvalitativa undersökningar ta reda på hur grafisk form ochinformationsstruktur samverkar för att skapa användarcentrerade webbplatser. Målet var att ta fram en grund för huranvändarcentrerade webbplatser bör byggas. Denna grund är tänkt att fungera som riktlinjer för formgivare som villskapa användarcentrerad webbdesign.</p><p>Studien visar att det viktigaste för att skapa användarcentrerad webbdesign är att involvera användarna kontinuerligti utvecklingsprocessen. Detta sker genom användartester och intervjuer med representanter för målgruppen. Vi harkommit fram till att graden av användbarhet spelar stor roll för hur målgruppen uppfattar webbplatsen som sådan,men också vilken uppfattning de får om företaget bakom.</p> / <p>This thesis considers a qualitative study in how info structure and graphical design collaborate to form a usercentredweb site. The aim was to produce guidelines for how to build user-centred web sites. The results from thestudy are built on qualitative interviews, user tests with the target group and expert evaluation.</p><p>The study has shown that the most important thing for creating user-centred web sites is to continuously involve thetarget group in the development process. This should be done through interviews and user tests. The level ofusability determines how the target group experience both the company and their web site.</p>

<p>I all teori om sökmotorsoptimering finns det många olika tankar om hur man ska sökmotorsoptimera. De flesta berättar mest om den tekniska biten och har endast som en kort punkt förklarat att innehållet på en webbplats också är viktigt. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka webbföretags förhållningssätt till både hur de arbetar och resonerar kring sökmotorsoptimering och webbstatistik, men även gå djupare in på hur förhållandet mellan kund och företag påverkar vart marknaden är på väg. Genom att utföra kvalitativa intervjuer med webbföretag där främst marknaden för sökmotorsoptimering, sponsrade länkar och webbstatistik diskuterats har ett resultat utformats.</p><p>Baserat på de senaste artiklarna, respondenternas svar och mina egna personliga reflektioner av situationen, visar det att det blivit en förskjutning i vad definitionen av sökmotorsoptimering är. Den tekniska biten är kvar men inte alls lika viktig längre då sökmotorerna hela tiden ändrar sina algoritmer och blir smartare, utan fokus läggs istället mer på innehållet. Ett rikt innehåll med bra skriven text samt ett intressant video- eller bildmaterial är mycket viktigare än att ändra på småsaker i strukturen av webbplatsen. Sökmarknaden idag ser annorlunda ut mot bara några år sedan. Det innebär att sökmotorsoptimering inte enbart handlar om att förbättra den egna hemsidan, utan även innefattar all marknadsföring på webben.</p> / <p>In all theory about Search Engine Optimization there are lots of different ideas on how to optimize search engines. Much of the theory concerns the technical aspects and only offers a short explanation on the importance of the actual content of the website. In this essay I will examine how web companies think and act around search engine optimization and web statistics, but also go deeper into how the relationship between customer and company affects where the market is heading. By doing qualitative interviews with web companies where the subject search engine optimization, paid ads and web statistics were discussed, a result has been formed.</p><p>Based on the latest articles, the answers from the respondents and my own personal reflections of the situation, there are clear signs that the definition of Search Engine Optimization has changed. The technical aspect is still there, but with less importance since the search engines keeps changing the algorithms in order to become smarter. Instead the focus is on the content. Rich content, good written text, interesting videos and images has a larger impact than changing the little things in the structure of a website.</p><p>The search market looks different today than it did a few years ago. The term Search Engine Optimization has changed its meaning into something more than just improving your own homepage. Now it also includes all the marketing your company does outside of the web.</p>