The Internet

Physics

World Wide Web

Search analytics

Economics

Common value auction

Web search query

Online search

Microeconomics

Search engine optimization

Information retrieval

Convergence (economics)

Computer science

Economic growth

Online advertising

Term (time)

Quantum mechanics

Search engine

Journal of Business Research

In digital marketing planning, keyword choice for search engine positioning is crucial for customer attraction, and the associated investment is an increasingly relevant part of the marketing budget. To what extent is it possible to optimize over time the resources allocated to positioning a brand on search engines? Often keyword costs are understood as monetary costs and the literature on keyword auctions suggests convergence towards a long-run equilibrium expenditure path. However, search engine optimization techniques, associated with implicit costs, have mainly focused on the short run. This paper suggests drawing long-term inferences from estimated cost per click, as the economic cost of organic keywords. Web analytics software is used to gather these data for leading fashion e-commerce. A time series test of transition dynamics identifies convergence of economic keyword costs between branded and generic keywords or catch-up, as an early state of convergence, for almost all considered e-commerce.

Search engine optimization: The long-term strategy of keyword choice