User Search Satisfaction In Search Engine Optimization – An Empirical Analysis | Ramaraj Palanisamy & Yifan Liu

Today, searching is one of the primary ways to navigate the web; and it is one of the most used mechanisms to find information a user is looking for. Search engine as a search tool, brings more convenience to the users in web searching to uncover information. Meanwhile, it also leads to several problems and confuses the users. Search engine optimization has become a popular technology for optimizing website contents , to enhance the user experience. The purpose of this study is, to identify the best practices and guidelines for designing an effective and meaningful e-commerce website; so that the given site appears at the top in a search engine’s search results. A research model for user search satisfaction is evolved from literature. The model is empirically tested and validated by obtaining survey inputs from 101 students from a Canadian University. The factors affecting users search satisfaction are, user characteristics, search characteristics, search engine characteristics, and the clicking behavior of advertisements. The analysis validates the impact of website features, search engine contents and search problems on the user’s search satisfaction. The users search behavior includes the frequency of different data inputs, navigational search and the usage of different devices, all having a positive effect on their search satisfaction. Although, thehe advertisement’s clicking has a direct negative impact on the user’s satisfaction. The implications for the theory and practice are given, especially the best practices for search engine optimization and guidelines for website design.