Internet marketing via search engines with an emphasis on platforms and pay-per-view portals

Table Of Content's

List of Tables and Figures

List of Abbreviations

1 On-topic
1.1 Objective and Scope
1.2 Method

2 The Main Characteristics of Internet Marketing
2.1 From Push- to Pull-Marketing
2.2 Customer Empowerment, Global Range and Multimedia
2.3 The Basic Steps of Internet Marketing

3 Efficient Internet Marketing via Search Engines
3.1 Important Technical Background
3.1.1 Algorithms of Search Engines
3.1.2 Clicks and Statistics
3.1.3 The Network Behind
3.2 Search Engine Optimisation
3.2.1 Domain Names
3.2.2 The Keyword Analysis
3.2.3 Content and Design
3.2.4 Linking Strategies
3.2.5 Manipulation of Search Engines

4 Internet Marketing on Platforms and Pay-per-View Portals
4.1 Banner Advertisement
4.2 Paid Placements and Paid Inclusions
4.3 Edited Registers
4.4 Platforms: Boards and Portals
4.4.1 The Usefulness of Portals for Marketing Strategies
4.4.2 Virtual Communities
4.5 Affiliate Marketing and Viral Marketing via Platforms
4.6 The Problem of Budgeting

5 The Most Important Pay-per-View Portals
5.1 Google AdWords
5.1.1 What is AdWords?
5.1.2 Organizing AdWords
5.1.3 Strategies of Optimisation
5.1.4 The Return on Investment
5.2 Overture
5.2.1 How Overture’s Tools Work
5.2.2 Overture’s Guidelines of Relevance
5.2.3 Optimisation of Overture

6 The Control of Success
6.1 Ranking Check and Control of Appearance of Paid Listings
6.2 Measurement of Conversion
6.3 Quality of Promotion and Website
6.4 Quality of Tracked Data

7 Summary and Outlook

List of References

Appendix A

Appendix B

Affirmation

List of Tables and Figures

Figure 1-1 Internet Users Worldwide, September 2002

Figure 1-2 Development of Users in Germany

Figure 3-1 The Network of the Most Important Search Engines

Figure 4-1 ROI of Different Forms of Online Advertisement

Figure 5-1 Market Share of Search Engines, 05/2005

Figure 5-2 Google Ranking with Sponsored Links on the Right

Figure 5-3 Example of AdWords Campaign Management

Table 5-1 Example of Overture DirectMatch

Table 5-2 Example for Advanced Match

Table 5-3 Do’s and Don’ts of Advertisement Campaigns via Overture

Table 6-1 Example of Conversion Tracking in Paid Listings

List of Abbreviations

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1 On-topic

For more than ten years, the Internet, a global data network, has been an open medium for public use, leading to a closer relationship between producers and customers^[1]. This relationship is the result of two characteristics of the Internet. On the one hand it offers new ways of communicating, while also developing new channels of distribution^[2]. The Internet has changed our behaviour of communication: the medium not only facilitates the transportation of information, but also offers a more diverse communication channel. Its interactivity is mainly due to the space it provides for discussions and the exchange of information. Worldwide, the Internet is used by 605.5m users with over 32m users in Germany^[3].

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Figure 1-1 Internet Users Worldwide, September 2002^[4]

This shows the important role this medium has taken in society, not only by the attractiveness of speedy communication but also the ability to find information with relative ease. In particular, the use of the Internet as a medium of knowledge and information underlines the importance of every company being represented in the World Wide Web^[5]. As more or less all companies and a large number of private households have access to the Internet^[6], the field of Marketing has expanded – and the so-called “Internet Marketing” has become more important than ever before.

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Figure 1-2 Development of Users in Germany^[7]

Everyday radio- and TV-spots mention links in the Internet inviting the customer to visit their owner’s website. These websites are used either to introduce the companies themselves or to present the companies’ products and to sell or distribute them online^[8]. Here the question comes up: which measures can be taken to ensure potential customers are attracted to a particular website?

1.1 Objective and Scope

One of the main activities of users is the so-called “browsing”^[9] – the search for information in the World Wide Web. The specific search for this information can be done through the use of search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Lycos. These search engines and portals have developed into the most used web applications of recent times and millions of users depend on their results. In 2002 the daily search processes had risen to 200 million per day^[10]. The Internet users search for nearly everything, while hardly anything can be found due to the owners of websites and the webmasters not having sufficiently prepared their websites to be easily found by robots.

Meanwhile different forms of platforms like portals, boards or communities are the new online marketplaces of our time. Internet Marketing via search engines and keyword advertising in combination with other marketing measures for platforms and portals offer efficient possibilities for the development of new marketing strategies. The continuous development of the Internet itself, the changes within the algorithms of search engines and the new inventions of our time need a regular and constant update of strategies and measures to ensure appropriate and successful forms of Direct Marketing. The current situation concerning marketing strategies and also technical developments will be the theme of this thesis.

1.2 Method

This thesis will explain and work out how to use different types of search engines, platforms and pay-per-view-portals to optimise a company’s exposure to its target audience. The thesis is divided into two main parts, the first one mainly dealing with the work of search engines as a medium of cost-free Internet Marketing measures and the optimisation of ranking positions, while the second concentrates on those measures via search engines or platforms which have to be paid for.

The second chapter explains the main characteristics of Internet Marketing and how this differs from the classical one. By explaining the development from Push- to Pull-Marketing and how this has an influence on the marketing strategies and the communication between companies and customers, the chapter works out the prerequisites for successful marketing strategies via search engines.

The third chapter gives an introduction to the basics of search engines and how they work. Here I will present some well-known search engines and their importance for getting in contact with customers. The chapter concentrates on the technical basics of search engines and the optimisation of websites for marketing communication. It gives a brief overview of the technical components of websites and how this has to be used to reach the most acceptable position in search engine’s rankings by the company itself or by services offering optimisation of websites. Following on I will explain the preparations and the running processes needed to run for a successful web-based marketing strategy.

Chapter four focuses on the different types of platforms by giving an overview of portals, boards and communities. The thesis will explain how to use these online marketplaces for a company’s successful marketing strategy and how to combine these measures of marketing with those via search engines by introducing the methods of Affiliate Marketing and Viral Marketing.

To underline the importance of a combination of the campaigns via platforms and search engine optimisation, the fifth chapter explains the two dominating search portals, Google, AdWords and Overture by giving an overview about the way they work and how they should be correctly used to intensify all running measures.

The sixth chapter gives a brief overview about the control of success of all these marketing measures by working out the importance of regular feedback and the problems of missing experiences of this part of Internet Marketing.

Finally I will work out a compact catalogue of measures for companies to take to enable them to plan and manage an Internet Marketing campaign, involving the optimisation of ranking listings in search engines and strategies of using platforms and pay-per-view portals as virtual market places (within the current parameters of technical development).

2 The Main Characteristics of Internet Marketing

In the following thesis, the term “Internet Marketing” will be used to describe the systematical use of Internet services in a given marketing strategy. As already mentioned, the Internet offers a channel of distribution and communication, resulting in different possibilities of interactivity for both sides, companies and users^[11]. This interactivity marks the main difference between Internet Marketing and Classical Marketing: the appearance of new conditions expanding the variety of communication possibilities leading to a new challenge for the industries, which produce content^[12]. The company’s information can be reached by a user without the limitation of time, anywhere in the world and can be changed by the company itself immediately. Time and space no longer limit a company or individual’s chance of performing selling and buying functions. As globalisation gathers pace, it is much easier for customers to do business with companies all over the world – it also becomes more difficult to make use of the Internet as a medium of marketing^[13].

2.1 From Push- to Pull-Marketing

A fundamental demand of the Internet Marketing is a change from Push-Marketing, which is controlled by the companies, to Pull-Marketing. While the main characteristic of conventional Push-Marketing is a customer being influenced by mass-advertisement, the Pull-Marketing turns around the channel of communication: customers can decide in a click, which information they want to see on their screen^[14]. They can select the sites they want to visit and decide to stop when a certain level of tolerance has been reached. This pull-concept has two meanings for an Internet Marketing strategy: the importance of individual incentives and added values^[15]. A realized individualization of products and services (Customized Marketing) in combination with more intensive relations to customers replaces the anonymous Mass-Marketing^[16]. Giving individual incentives presupposes an effective content management^[17], because flooding a large group of users with advertisements does not lead to any success^[18]. A website’s owner has to offer up-to-date information which fits the requirements of the customer and which can easily be perceived or reached^[19]. This content is also part of the added value of a website^[20]: All Internet users visit websites because of their content, which they expect to be important and reliable^[21]. Due to this, each user has to be offered a certain added value to prevent him or her from leaving the site or switching to a competitor’s one^[22]. There are different possibilities for companies to influence this pull-concept: while Microsoft’s well-known Internet Explorer offers the possibility to make websites available offline, other ways of advertising like banners or links try to “guide or channel” customers to highly frequented places in the web^[23]. As all these measures need the acceptance of the user, they cannot be used as Push-Marketing’s measures^[24]. There is at least one method to undermine the Internet’s concept of Pull-Marketing: e-mail-spamming^[25]. E-mails can be a cheap way to “push” information or advertisements to potential customers without requiring a visit to the company’s website and can be used as a reminder or just to get in contact^[26]. Here the problem is that many bulk e-mailers use this possibility to transmit large numbers of e-mails to users without their permission.

2.2 Customer Empowerment, Global Range and Multimedia

The principle of Pull-Marketing already implies a change in the customer’s power of position – supported by heavily increased transparency of the market by information from the Internet; the customer can make use of an immense variety of goods^[27]. While different systems of navigation help the user not to be overtaxed, this new situation can lead to a movement of the traditional imbalance between supplier and enquirer to a new one in favour of the enquirer^[28]. Another important fact is that the Internet provides information independently from time and place and so offers the possibility of a global presence for each company^[29]. For smaller companies this offers chances to join markets that might have been unreachable by conventional ways^[30]. Concerning a concept of marketing, this means that Internet Marketing can be conceptualised and realized as International or Global Marketing^[31]. The interactivity of the Internet means a variety of possible tools to realize Internet Marketing’s measures: any information, services or goods can be presented to the customer by audio, video, text or graphic^[32]. While Classical Marketing focuses on successful business by generating customers and building up a loyal group of customers, Internet Marketing obviously needs creativity and individual strategies to show the potential customers that one understands their aims, even when the customer itself does not^[33]. The new interaction also helps to build up a durable relationship with the customers and so build an advantage in competition, as these relationships become more and more intelligent. This learning relationship intensifies the barriers for the customers to leave or to change the company they are working with^[34].

2.3 The Basic Steps of Internet Marketing

An important prerequisite for planning an Internet Marketing concept is the acquisition of information about the target groups. This means that market research has to work out the chances of goods and services, which have to be sold in the Internet and so to exactly define the target groups^[35]. In addition to the classical measures of Marketing research, the Internet can be used as a new supporting instrument of research^[36], with its interactivity enabling dialogues with and between the potential customers and affiliate partners to receive direct information from the virtual markets and as a second source of information by online surveys via e-mails or platforms with communities and newsgroups^[37]. This new form of Internet market research has three main targets: observing as many competitors as possible while performing a general market analysis to retrieve data about new segments in the market, changes in customers’ needs and the development of new trends and finally learning about the own target group^[38].

Different institutes regularly launch online questionnaires to give an insight into the most important socio-demographic structures concerning the behaviour of Internet users^[39]. The best-known German research institute is “w3b”^[40] with nearly 120,000 users completing their questionnaires^[41]. There are different advantages concerning online data retrievals: while thousands of users can answer all questions simultaneously, there are nearly no costs for interviewers. Due to adaptive questioning and to the fact that the order of questions can be easily changed online, there are also improvements in method^[42]: there are no effects from one question on the others due to a constant rotation of the order.

The aims, strategies and measures of marketing are the most important parts of the concept of Internet Marketing^[43]. While the aims can be divided in economical (turnover, profit, market share) and non-economical aims (image, competence, know-how)^[44], most companies still follow the non-economical ones, which shows that Internet Marketing still does not completely fit the rules of electronic commerce^[45].

Strategies, which can be realized within a concept of Internet Marketing, sometimes differ from those in Classical Marketing – an individualization of communication or performance is much easier to realize, which is an advantage for smaller companies^[46]. Meanwhile, the Internet is ubiquitous, which means it can be reached from everywhere on the world^[47]. Currently, a new strategy of Marketing is the development of the so-called “virtual communities”, interactive communities of users and organizations in cyberspace. These virtual communities are effective options for increasing customer’s’ loyalty and are an excellent platform for One-to-One-Marketing, where the wishes of customers can be optimally fulfilled and smaller financial budgets can be used optimally^[48]. It might also be possible that new Internet-based strategies of co-operation between companies develop into wider relationships creating business-webs, small networks between companies that work together for a temporary period of time and dealing with a customer’s special problem^[49]. Most measures of Internet Marketing primarily concentrate on the field of communication (advertisement, public relations) while customer service, sales, product and price policy are becoming more and more important^[50]. These programs concerning communities and online platforms will be discussed later (see chapter 4.4.2).

A successful concept of Internet Marketing has not yet been implemented sufficiently. There are different existing weak points in the implementation: missing possibilities of interaction on websites, no match between the Internet presence and the company’s marketing concept, not enough budget or missing connections between the Internet Marketing and all the other processes within the company^[51].

The success of Internet Marketing should be controlled by interviews addressed to competent people due to the fact that it is mainly dealing with non-economical aims that cannot be controlled just with numbers from the accounting^[52]. If the products are ordered and sold online, measures targeting economical aims could be controlled^[53]. Here it becomes clear that traditional instruments of controlling do not fit the needs of Internet Marketing, because special reference numbers have to be worked out to represent the interactive character of the Internet^[54]. The budget should be controlled by comparing the existing budgets with those that specialists recommend. New studies have shown that most companies are planning to increase their budgets for online Marketing in 2005^[55]. Companies such as Amazon and eBay have budgets of over millions of Euros; so years without success could be easily managed. Most of the time, the high importance of search engine optimisation is not realized or managed and so many companies miss chances to reach new customers and build up new relationships^[56].

3 Efficient Internet Marketing via Search Engines

As the Internet is characterized by its global structure, a large variety of websites and their content are already available, leading to the problem that there is no complete listed stock of all websites. If a user wants to find specific information, all the data within the Internet has to be filtered by special search programs, the so-called search engines. These engines list all existing websites that are related to a keyword, sorted by relevance, which implies that most companies want their websites to be listed as high as possible to attract as much users as possible^[57].

3.1 Important Technical Background

Methods of search engine optimisation try^[58] to improve a website’s ranking position in search engines when users look up these engines for special keywords. Meanwhile, methods that improve rankings of websites that are not relevant to the searched keyword are called “Search Engine Spamming”^[59]. As Search Engine Optimisation includes many possible activities like e.g. changing and improving the source code of websites or buying hundreds of domains and linking them, much creativity is needed^[60] - but also some knowledge about the technical background.

3.1.1 Algorithms of Search Engines

The algorithms of search engines are not for open use as they are of a very high worth^[61] and the owners of search engines regularly change these algorithms to defend themselves against those who try to find them out^[62]. Due to the disadvantage that the actual technical development does not really allow possibilities of understanding linguistic factors, search engines always have to work fast and efficiently^[63]. There are different reasons for a website’s position in a ranking, which can be divided into two main categories. The first one contains the criteria inside a website or homepage. This means e.g. the frequency of a keyword, implying that the frequent use of a word gives greater relevance to the text on the website. Furthermore, it is the formatting like the size or type of font, which marks important words within the texts. This importance of words can also be defined by their position, as those at the beginning or the end of a text are of more importance. Finally, the name of the domain should already include the most important keywords^[64].

There are different criteria outside a website or homepage which also influence the ranking positions: The more often links from other websites refer to their own one, the more relevance is shown and when those links already include the keyword, the site is more important. Furthermore the frequency of words on the website that refers to their own one has an influence on the ranking, while finally accurate content and even the semantics of a website show the importance or relevance of a keyword^[65].

While most search engines more or less use the above criteria, the biggest problem is to synchronize them with the arrangements of websites. These arrangements should be improved by regular observation of the user’s behaviour when he or she visits the website of a company, because the continuous gathering of information about the user’s habits allows an individually designed blueprint of the target group^[66].

3.1.2 Clicks and Statistics

As Internet Marketing mainly works with statements based on success, it is very important to understand how the Internet makes use of its possibilities to record any data about its users. So statistics are necessary for all models of statement in Internet Marketing if one wants to compare the different parts within the Marketing mix^[67].

The Internet was developed in 1969 at the ARPA research centre (Advanced Research Projects Agency) in the United States. Due to the fact that the development of the Internet was characterized by technological and military aims^[68], statistics were never of much interest for the providers. They can easily be influenced by third parties, even search engines like AltaVista made use of this possibility to get better statistics concerning the access to their website^[69].

The so-called “data mining” is the collection of data about any access on servers, chronologically saved in log files^[70]. As a typical website, most of the time consists of a source code (HTML or XML) and also of a certain number of graphical elements, any graph of a website in a browser needs a complete download of all elements so that looking up a website consists of many accesses on a server. Another problem is that not all accesses are made by humans: search engines and other software in the Internet access those servers and have to be sorted out – if one does not try to feign accesses by users^[71]. Meanwhile, the counting of access is influenced by the fact that first accesses on websites are being saved in the memory and are not counted any more.

The most important information that is being saved during an access is^[72]:

- User-agent: the name of the software accessing the website, defined by the software itself
- Remotehost: the name of the personal computer the access comes from
- IP address
- Referrer: the Internet address shown before the access
- Date and time

It is very easy to build software that can feign thousands of accesses per day while a simulation of typical browsers prevents them from being caught. This shows that web statistics provide many possibilities to be faked and that it is very difficult to retrieve correct information. Due to this, Affiliate Marketing makes no more use of the so called “pay per click”-system but of the systems “pay per sale”, based on the sales or “pay per view”, based on direct contact^[73].

3.1.3 The Network Behind

As the Internet offers different possibilities of searching for special keywords, the problem begins with defining a search engine. Currently there are search engines, registers and portals; all of them are called search engines by the users. Google, for example, cannot be called a search engine, because this would ignore its hybrid character due to the fact that Google also offers keyword advertising^[74]. The same with Yahoo!: once it has been a simple register, today it has developed into a complete search engine. The main difference between a search engine and a register is that registers only list homepages (for example www.upb.de) and no sub-pages (here: www.upb.de/wiwi.htm). Before 2004, when Yahoo! launched its own search engine, Yahoo! also listed sub-pages, although just being a register: Yahoo! and Google had a contract that Yahoo! would list results from Google when no own results could be found. A third party is more confusing: the company Inktomi, which is part of Yahoo! today, collects information about content with the help of software, the same way as Google does. So it should be called a search engine, but the problem is that on www.inktomi.com no search engine can be found due to the fact that they sell their information to third parties^[75].

A well-known web portal is Overture, also a part of Yahoo!, which sells keyword advertising inside a network: to Lycos, Yahoo! itself and even Microsoft’s MSN. Now it is much more confusing, that a search with Overture lists results from Inktomi. This chaos leads to this definition of Lukas Stuber:

“Search engines are web-offers that collect contents of websites with the help of a software or manually, either by being paid for it or for free and that offer the collected information on an own or a third website in sorted rankings referring to a user’s search.”^[76]

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Figure 3-1 The Network of the Most Important Search Engines

3.2 Search Engine Optimisation

Current studies show that over 80 – 85% of all Internet users are searching for keywords by using the most well-known search engines^[77]. Many owners of websites do not realize that the step into the World Wide Web does not automatically attract potential customers. It is important to know that different decisions have to be made to reach Internet users: the name of the domain, the advertising, the optimisation of the website to be found in search engine’s listings, the so called organic listings, and different other measures of promotion have influence on the success. This chapter will list up the most important steps and explain them.

3.2.1 Domain Names

All computers that are connected to the Internet are identified by a combination of numbers, the so-called Internet protocol. Only a clear identification of the computer allows a transfer of data between the Internet and the pc. The addresses of the computers, identified by the combinations of numbers, are assigned to combinations of letters: the domain names^[78].

When the name of a domain has to be chosen, there are different important rules. The name should be as short as possible, so that everyone can remember it easily, but there should not be any problem in understanding the sense e.g. www.onlineMarketing.com would be much better than www.oMarketing.com. Due to the fact, that users will search the net for different keywords, it could be useful to register different domains including the most important keywords. In this case e.g. www.onlineMarketing.com, www.online-Marketing.com, or www.webMarketing.com. One should not only register the name of the company, but also the name of the products that are to be sold^[79]. Many users just type in the name of a company without knowing whether this really exists as a domain^[80]. As many good domain names are already sold, it can happen that one is influenced to use what is left over. A good place to check the variations of possible international domain names is the Whois Database at www.000domains.com or www.norid.no/domreg.html^[81]. Meanwhile it could also make sense to register domains that are not spelled correctly, so if the name of the company is “Johnson Water” one should register for www.johnsonwater.com as well as for www.jonsonwater.com. As search engines often offer the possibility to search for keywords within single countries, a registration for a variety of country designations is recommended^[82].

Over the last few years a new trend has appeared in the United States: companies have changed their names so that users would associate them with interesting domains. So the “Mining Co. Inc.” has become “about.com”, the “Goodnoise Corp.” changed its name to “Emusic.com Inc.” Or the Computer Literacy Corp. is now called “Fatbrain.com Inc.”^[83]. These new developments show, that the name of a company as a part of a domain or as the domain itself is very important for the e-business concept.

3.2.2 The Keyword Analysis

While more or less everything is being searched via the most well known search engines, only a few results are listed due to the fact that the content of websites are not really prepared enough to be found by the search robots or other software. Another problem is that users often do not look further than the first 20 results, making the results from the second or third pages almost useless. This means that websites, which cannot be found, have nearly no chance to gain any success in the Internet. The combination of keyword advertising and optimisation of search engines form the discipline of Internet Marketing.

Those who want to use the advantages of Internet Marketing via search engines have to ask themselves in which search engines they have to be represented, which keywords they need to reach this presence and when to use which method – search engine optimisation or keyword advertising^[84]. Many marketers think that they do not need a keyword analysis because of their log files, which seem to show all the important data about the users. The reason for this is a simple mistake: the log files do not show by which keyword the website has been searched, only by which keyword it has been found^[85]. Due to the fact, that the Internet does not offer a typical salesman who explains the products, there might be many differences concerning their explanation. A user, for example, might use the keyword “screen” for his search, while the company always uses the word “monitor” on its website.

As correct wording plays an important role for the success^[86], the search for the right keywords should follow some questions^[87]:

[...]

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^[1] Cp. Werner, A. (2000), p. 1.

^[2] Cp. Albers, S. (2000), p. 11.

^[3] Cp. NUA (2005a).

^[4] Cp. Ibid.

^[5] Cp. Ruff, Andreas (2002), p. 5.

^[6] Cp. Preißner, A. (2001), prefix.

^[7] Cp. NUA (2005a).

^[8] Cp. Albers, S. (2000), p. 11

^[9] Cp. Werner, A. (2000), p. 122.

^[10] Cp. Stuber, L. (2004), p. 7.

^[11] Cp. Albers, S. (2000), p. 10 .

^[12] Cp. Manschwetus, U./ Rumler, A. (2002), p. 61.

^[13] Cp. Stolpmann, M. (2000), p. 27.

^[14] Cp. Fritz, W. (1999), p. 6.

^[15] Cp. Stolpmann, M. (2000), p. 31.

^[16] Cp. Muther, A. (2001), p. 55.

^[17] Cp. Preißner, A. (2001), p. 307.

^[18] Cp. Stolpmann, M. (2000), p. 31.

^[19] Cp. Preißner, A. (2001), p. 314.

^[20] Cp. Stolpmann, M. (2000), p. 31.

^[21] Cp. Preißner, A. (2001), p. 313.

^[22] Cp. Freenet (2005a)

^[23] Cp. Stolpmann, M. (2000), p. 32.

^[24] Cp. Digitaleasy.de (2005a)

^[25] Cp. Stolpmann, M. (2000), p. 32.

^[26] Cp. Allen, C. et al. (1998), p. 52.

^[27] Cp. Fritz, W. (1999), p. 7.

^[28] Cp. Zerdick, A. et al. (1999), p. 152.

^[29] Cp. Fritz, W. (1999), p. 7.

^[30] Cp. Webangency.de (2005a)

^[31] Cp. Fritz, W. (1999), p. 7.

^[32] Cp. UpdateKMU (2005a)

^[33] Cp. Hartman, A./ Sifonis, J./ Kador, J. (2001), p. 215.

^[34] Cp. Rebstock, M./ Hildebrand, K. (1999), p. 107.

^[35] Cp. Fritz, W. „Internet-Marketing“, p. 9.

^[36] Cp. Werner, A. et al. (1999), p. 175.

^[37] Cp. Stolpmann, M. (2001), p. 263.

^[38] Cp. Ibid.

^[39] Cp. Fritz, W. (1999), p. 9.

^[40] Cp. Fittkau & Maaß (2005a)

^[41] Cp. Fittkau & Maaß (2005b)

^[42] Cp. Preißner, A. (2001), p. 121.

^[43] Cp. Fritz, W. (1999), p. 9.

^[44] Cp. Hünerberg, J./ Jaspersen, Th. (1996), p. 198.

^[45] Cp. Fritz, W. (1999), p. 10.

^[46] Cp. Fritz, W. (1999), p. 10.

^[47] Cp. Herrmann, Ch./ Sulzmaier, S. (2001), p. 24.

^[48] Cp. Albers, S./ Clement, M, (2000), p. 123.

^[49] Cp. Zerdick, A. et al. (1999), p. 16.

^[50] Cp. Unternehmerinfo.de (2005a)

^[51] Cp. Fritz, W. (1999), p. 11.

^[52] Cp. Ibid.

^[53] Cp. Hünerberg, J./ Jaspersen, Th. (1996), p. 199.

^[54] Cp. Silberer, G., (1997), p. 135.

^[55] Cp. EU-Marketingportal (2005)

^[56] Cp. Stolpmann, M., (2001), p. 273.

^[57] Cp. Ruff, A. (2002), p. 175.

^[58] The term „search engine optimisation“ itself is wrong, because we are not talking about the optimisation of the search engine but the optimisation of the website. As the term became naturalized, I will continue using it, although I dislike it.

^[59] Cp. Wikipedia.de (2005a)

^[60] Cp. Kaiser, Th. (2004), p. 23.

^[61] Cp. Ibid.

^[62] Cp. Wikipedia.de (2005a)

^[63] Cp. Kaiser, Th. (2004), p. 23.

^[64] Cp. Kaiser, Th. (2004), p. 24.

^[65] Cp. Ibid.

^[66] Cp. Ibid.

^[67] Cp. Kaiser, Th. (2004), p. 26.

^[68] Cp. Fritz, W. (1999), p. 6.

^[69] Cp. Süddeutsche Zeitung (2005)

^[70] Cp. Preißner, A. (2001), p. 187.

^[71] Cp. Kaiser, Th. (2004), p. 27.

^[72] Cp. Preißner, A. (2001), p. 188.

^[73] Cp. Kaiser, Th. (2004), p. 28.

^[74] Cp. Stuber, L. (2004), p. 24.

^[75] Cp. Stuber, L. (2004), p. 12.

^[76] Cp. Stuber, L. (2004), own translation, p. 14.

^[77] Cp. Gallego Rodriguez, M.J. (2004), p. 4.

^[78] Cp. Boehme-Neßler, V. (2001), p. 91.

^[79] Cp. Blatter-Constantin, M. (2004), p. 45.

^[80] Cp. Köhler, Th./ Best, R. (2000), p. 154.

^[81] Cp. Wilson, Ralph F. (2002), p. 116.

^[82] Cp. Blatter-Constantin, M. (2004), p. 45.

^[83] Cp. Stolpmann, M. (2001), p. 99

^[84] Cp. Stuber, L. (2004), p. 8.

^[85] Cp. Stuber, L. (2004), p. 39.

^[86] Cp. Stolpmann, M. (2001), p. 100.

^[87] Cp. Stuber, L. (2004), p. 39.