In the present day, there is tremendous growth in information technology where digital
marketing is becoming one of the critical segments highlighting
... [Show More] strategic tools for marketing
purposes. As a result, search engine optimization has gained a lot of attention over the past
decade. SEO has been applied and used as a powerful technique, that increases the web traffic
organically and for the website to boost rank in search engines primarily to enhance
visibility or brand awareness. Therefore, the research aim is to identify the factors affecting
SEO and analyze how SEO components relationship with brand awareness in the private
education institutes in Sri Lanka. There is a great demand has been emerged over the past
decade, which has shown in the literature that most locals have turned to higher education to
obtain international qualifications. As a result, fierce competition is being evoked as private
educational institutions are looking for various methods to establish their brands.
The critical analysis of the literature revealed that there is an existing research gap within the
Sri Lankan context, where the use of SEO in private higher education institutes is very limited.
Thus, the researcher is focused on filling the gap by using existing theories, models and
empirical studies on SEO and brand awareness, mainly the AIDA model, DIY, Awareness
pyramid, etc. As for the study, independent variables are taken as Keywords & site content,
Technical SEO, and Backlinks.
Primarily, the research is based on the positivism philosophy and uses a deductive approach as
applicability to conduct a quantitative study. The study is conducted using the survey strategy
as a single cross-sectional study. The Quantitative data has been gathered from 200 respondents
for the quantitative analysis using a questionnaire. As per the findings of the study, it is
discovered that there is a positive relationship between all three variables (Keywords & site
content, Technical SEO, and Backlinks) with brand awareness of private education institutes.
The findings of the study contribute to identifying variety of strategies as recommendations such
as Keyword brainstorming, content-based link strategies, designing a website in a mobile-friendly
manner, changing the static image to crawlable text, improving internal linking with flat architecture,
in order to improve brand awareness for private educational institutes in Sri Lanka [Show Less]