SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

BY

Abtar Singh Dandsena

Registration No. 2161020004

Department of Computer Application

Institute of Technical Education and Research
SIKSHA O ANUSANDHAN
(DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY)
2022

1
 SEMINAR REPORT
ON

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR AWARD OF

DEGREE
IN
MASTER OF COMPUTER APPLICATION
(BATCH 2021-2023)

BY
ABTAR SINGH DANDSENA
REGD. NO. 2161020004

UNDER THE ABLE GUIDANCE OF

Prof. (Dr.) Kaberi Das
Head Of Department(HOD)

Department of Computer Application

Institute of Technical Education and Research
SIKSHA O ANUSANDHAN
(DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY)
2022

2
 Declaration

I hereby declare that the Seminar entitled “Search Engine Optimization” submitted to the Department of
Computer Application, Institute of Technical Education & Research, Siksha O Anusandhan Deemed to
be University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree of Master of
Computer Application in the year 2022 is an authentic record of my own work carried out under the guidance
of Prof. (Dr.) Kaberi Das and that the report has not been previously formed the basis for the award of any
other degree. The report has been prepared in compliance to the guidelines specified by the University.

Place: ITER,Bhubaneswar
Date:18/01/2023 Abtar Singh Dandsena
2161020004
3rd Semester MCA

3
 Certificate

This is to certify that this seminar entitled “Search Engine Optimization” submitted to the Department of
Computer Application, Institute of Technical Education & Research, Siksha O Anusandhan Deemed to be
University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, done by Mr..Abtar Singh Dandsena, Registration No. 2161020004 of 3rd Sem
MCA, 2022 is an authentic work carried out by him/her is worthy of acceptance for award of the degree. The
report fulfills the entire requirement as per the regulation of the University and it has reached the standard
needed for submission.

Guide: Prof. (Dr.) Kaberi Das

Head Of Department (HOD)
Department of CA
ITER, SOADU

4
 Acknowledgement

I am very grateful my guide and the esteemed teachers for giving their valuable time and constructive
guidance in preparing the seminar report. It would not have been possible to complete this report in
short period of time without their kind encouragement and valuable guidance.

Abtar Singh Dandsena

2161020004

MCA”C” 3rd Semester

5
 Table of Contents

1 Cover page 2

2 Declaration 3

3 Certificate 4

4 Acknowledgement 5

5 Abstract 7

6 Introduction 8

7 SEO IN THE CURRICULUM 8-9

8 SEARCH ENGINES, SEO TECHNIQUES, AND SEO CONTESTS

9 METHODOLOGY 11-12

10 ASSESSMENT OF SEO LEARNIN 12-14

11 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE 15

12 References 15-16

6
 Abstract:
Present time is the best time for internet marketing and search engine optimization, search engine optimization
is a mechanism with the aid of which we can take our website in the search results. The use of search engine
optimization brings a better rank to the website in the search engine and it is a strong web marketing
mechanism. It helps to enhance the website’s rank as well as traffic from the search engines and we do not need
to pay anything that is related to the search engine optimization . The search engines became popular because
whenever an ordinary person needs some information at first he/she will do is searching the required data on the
search engine to get the URL of it and this happens every time whenever we want or need any information or
data. Now, coming to the webmasters, they also need the data or information at the time of preparing their sites
for the web and for that they use the search engine.

7
 INTRODUCTION
The process of promoting a Web site so that it becomes easily discoverable by search engines is known as
Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Because a higher placement within search results is more likely to drive
traffic to a Web site, companies, bloggers, and individuals go to great lengths to have their names or products
found within the first page of a search engine's results. The process of SEO is part art and part science. Two
popular techniques for improving a site's ranking among search engines include modifying its HTML code to
contain relevant keywords, and promoting the site on other Web sites via external links known as back links. As
the amount of content on the Web grows, it becomes increasingly important to include appropriate metadata
that will enable search engines to find it.
This paper describes a competitive exercise in which students create a Web site to promote a fictitious product
online, and vie for top positions within search results on three popular search engines. Their goal is to
implement a variety of SEO techniques in order to determine those which are the most effective. Students at
two
One group was enrolled in CS 299, an experimental, multi-disciplinary elective course entitled Web 2.0:
Technology, Strategy, Community, offered at a business university in Massachusetts. CS 299 introduces
students to Web 2.0 technologies, concepts, and applications, and their impact on business and society. The
second group of students was enrolled in MIS 342, an e-commerce and emarketing elective course offered at a
small, private liberal-arts university in Pennsylvania. MIS 342 introduces students to the technological
infrastructures, corporate strategies, and use of computer networks for Internet retailing. Because SEO is
increasingly becoming a necessary skill in the work place, understanding search engine optimization methods
and techniques will benefit students' future careers in advertising, Web development, multimedia, marketing,
and business. (Spradling, Strauch & Warner, 2008; Middleton, 2009)

SEO IN THE CURRICULUM

While other Web 2.0 topics such as social networking, creating digital media, and online publishing and
collaboration tools are making their way into Information Technology classrooms (Saulnier, 2007; Frydenberg
& Press, 2010; Sendall, Ceccucci, & Peslak, 2008), and while Web systems and technologies are key
knowledge areas in the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM)'s IT 2008 curriculum guidelines
(Association for Computing Machinery, 2008), Search Engine Optimization is "the last key web systems topic
that is missing from IT 2008". (Connolly, 2009).
The IS 2010 curriculum includes Web 2.0 topics in IS 2010.1 (Foundations of Information Systems) and the IS
Innovation and New
Technologies elective. The latter elective course suggests a unit on strategic importance of search, how search
works, and how search is monetized. While “the topics [in this course] are a means to delivering an
understanding of how IS shapes and enables organizations for competitive advantage by leading industries in
IT-enabled innovations”, SEO is specifically not mentioned. (Topi, Valacich, Wright, Kaiser, Nunamaker,
Sipior, & deVreede, 2010, p. 411).
"Search engines in general (and Goaogle in particular) act now as the main portal into most public Web sites.
As such, it is increasingly important that students learn how search engines work, how to design web sites for
optimal search engine results, and how sponsored links systems such as Google’s AdSense work." (Connolly,
2009, p. 76). He proposes a fourth year optional course that expands on client-server and database topics to
include JavaScript application development, AJAX, using Web APIs, web deployment, hosting, and analytics,
and search engine optimization.
As undergraduate IT curricula evolve from Computer Science toward Web Science (Berners-Lee, Hall,
Hendler, Shadbolt, & Weitzner, 2006; Hendler, 2008; White, 2010) the need for understanding how search
engines work will become an integral part of teaching about Web information and retrieval. "Our everyday use
8
of the Web depends on fundamental developments in CS that took place long before the Web was invented.
Today’s search engines are based on, for example, developments in information retrieval with a legacy going
back to the 1960s." (Hendler, 2008, p. 62)
SEO has found its place into some college computing and IT courses. (Sabin, Higgs, Riabov & Mereira, 2005;
McCown, 2010). McCown (2010) describes an innovative undergraduate course on Search Engine
Development, in which students who have software development experience write code to develop or enhance
open source search engine application. They also learn how search engines and crawlers work to gather and
organize online information to provide relevant results. Students find the topic relevant since a search engine is
often one's entry point to the Web.
SEO is taking its place outside of the computing classroom as well. Students enrolled in Ecommerce and e-
business courses cover SEO at several universities. As the Web has evolved over the past decade, e-commerce
courses have evolved from "'softer' skills such as project management, E-business concepts, and teamwork...to
include more server-side programming and database skills" as well as more "technical and e-commerce
concepts such as e-marketing, security, SSL, web services, search engine optimization, server configuration,
user tracking, [and] advanced database concepts." (Sandvig, 2007, p. 215).
Marketing students learn SEO techniques so they can promote future businesses online. (Charlesworth, 2009;
Xing & Zhangxi, 2006) Spradling et al. (2008) introduced an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Science Degree in
Interactive Digital Media. Their new media concentration curriculum "includes instruction in writing, design,
audio and video for the web, site organization, and search engine optimization." (p. 390). Hanson, Thackeray,
Barnes, Neiger, and McIntyre (2008) claim an awareness of Web 2.0 concepts can be beneficial to health
educators. "Ultimately, if health educators are going to use new Internet communication channels, they must
learn how to increase traffic or visits to websites using Web 2.0 tools.... SEO and pay-per-click advertising ...
have important implications for health educators wishing to reach target audiences more effectively through the
internet." (p. 163).
Selcher (2005) discusses the need for SEO in order to perform research. Students of library and information
science learn to use search engines and basic SEO principles: such as the popularity of the source of hyperlinks
to a given web page. "Critical examinations of Google search results are imperative for understanding how
information is organized and retrieved. By introducing ideas of relevance, proximity and ranking, students can
transfer learned skills to other information resources." (Atwater-Singer, 2006, p. 3).
While the literature points to examples of courses that include SEO in their content, little has been written about
teaching methods and ways to engage students in learning about SEO techniques. Sabin et al. (2005) describe
an exercise in which students must refine search queries to find an effective combination of search terms that
will result in a particular site rising to the top of the Google search results. This paper describes a competitive
SEO exercise that models a real world environment in which companies vie for top positions in search engine
results on three popular search engines.
Given the importance of SEO as a valuable future career skill, and the variety of technical skills and techniques
that one might try in order to improve a site's ranking, these research questions emerged:
• What do students understand about SEO as part of an organization's online strategy?
• What SEO techniques will students try, and find most effective to promote a product or company online?
• How does participating in a competitive SEO exercise impact student learning about SEO?

SEARCH ENGINES, SEO TECHNIQUES, AND SEO CONTESTS

As the World Wide Web has matured, the role of search engines has become more prominent. "Search engines
have gained an increasingly powerful position by channeling the attention of millions of users." (Evans, 2007,
p. 21.) At its simplest, a search engine is “comprised of three main components: a database of web pages (called
an index), a method for finding web pages and indexing them, and a way to search the database.” (Malaga,
2007, p. 69). While there are dozens of search engines, according to recent report released by marketing
9
research firm Experian Hitwise (May, 2010), only three, Google (71.4%), Yahoo! (15%), and Bing (9.5%)
account for approximately 95% of all searches. Search engines display results based on a page's relevance to the
desired search terms. In addition to content on the page itself, Google's PageRank algorithm assumes that
hyperlinks from one page to another serve as "a sort of endorsement of the 'authority' of the page being linked
to." (Hendler, 64) There are over 200 different factors used by Google to determine a page's ranking. (Evans,
2007, p. 21)
Online businesses rely on search engines to generate traffic to their Web sites through the use of both organic
and sponsored search results.
While sponsored results appear in search listings for key words purchased by an advertiser using an online
advertising program such as Google AdWords, organic search results are based on a Web page's relevancy for a
key word or phrase as determined by the search engine's ranking algorithms. The "enormous success [of search
engines] ... has inevitably yielded techniques to ... improve search rank, leading, in turn, to the development of
better search technologies."
(Hendler, p. 64)
SEO requires an understanding of how search engines work in order to find information. Search engines rely on
applications called spiders or bots that "crawl" the Web looking for new pages to index. Spiders often examine
the structure of a Web page in order determine relevance of its content. For example, some spiders give certain
elements of a Web page, such as its title and its major heading, special emphasis (Morochove, 2008, p. 47).
Manually submitting a Web page's URL to a search engine may cause its content to be indexed as well.
The location of an item in a search engine's results is critical for many organizations. According to Jansen and
Spink (2006), 73 percent of search engine users never look beyond the first page of returned results. For this
reason, companies aggressively compete to be ranked among the top listings. "Because of the importance of
high search engine rankings and the profits involved, search engine optimizers look for tools, methods, and
techniques that will help them achieve their goals." Malaga 2010, p.3. This is evidenced by the fact that
organizations spent over $1.4 billion on SEO in 2008 and this figure is expected to grow. (SEMPO, p. 4). It is
possible to modify the content of a Web page in order improve its ranking or position within a search engine's
results. "The ranking of Web pages based on their keywords can be improved with design, [and] as a result,
these improvements in search engine position are correlated with increased hits." (Turns & Wagner, 2001, p. 9).
There are several commonly used techniques to influence or improve a page's position within search results.
These include indexing (registering a site and its pages with a search engine and creating an XML site map), on-
site optimization techniques (modifications made to the HTML code for the site itself) and off-site optimization
(activities that take place on other sites to draw traffic to a particular site) (Curran, 2004; Jones, 2008; Malaga,
2010).
On-Site Optimization techniques include placing key words in the page title or meta-tags, including key words
in HTML file names, and placing key words in headings and page content. Off-Site optimization techniques
include encouraging and providing back links (links from other sites to yours), promoting a site using social
media tools such as Facebook or Twitter, and selecting a relevant domain name.
Marketing organizations often hold SEO Contests in order to gain data on the effectiveness of various SEO
techniques. An SEO contest is an online event in which participants must create a Web site that is optimized
such that their site achieves the highest position or ranking in search results for a specified phrase. The winners
generally receive a cash prize. (Evans, 2007)

10
 METHODOLOGY

This section describes a project given to students in two sections of CS 299 and one section of MIS 342 to
engage them in learning about SEO techniques. This project is modeled after standard SEO Contests (Evans,
2007). This project required students to create a Web site for a fictitious iPhone application. Students in the two
sections of CS 299 promoted fictitious iPhone applications for Norwegian Tourism or Burmese recipes, while
students in MIS 342 promoted an iPhone application for Tuvaluan recipes. These topics were chosen because
they contained words and phrases that were commonly searched on Google individually, and in some
combination, but a check on Google prior to the start of the project showed no search results for pages
containing all of the relevant keywords.
After four weeks, the students whose pages ranked the highest in the results of the three most popular search
engines, Google, Bing, and Yahoo! received a bonus.
Students were permitted to choose any Web platform or application with which they were familiar in order to
create their Web sites. Each site had to have at least two pages: the home or landing page must contain sample
content about the fictitious product, and a second page had to contain a description and log of the steps that
students completed in to optimize the site for search engines to find. Students were asked to record the date and
the position/ranking of their site within search results on Google, Bing, and Yahoo! every day for the duration
of the project in order to try to determine those actions which produced higher positions in search results. Each
Web site had to display a disclaimer informing the reader that this site was created for an academic exercise,
and that the product represented was not a real product.
There were some small differences in implementation of the assignment between the
CS 299 and MIS 342 classes. Due to class sizes, CS 299 students worked in groups of three or four; MIS 342
students completed the project individually. CS 299 students had an incentive of 5% extra credit on the final
exam to those who made the first page of search results. The two MIS 342 who made the top of the search
results received gift cards to a regional convenience store.
All MIS 342 students had previously purchased their own domain names and hosted their Web sites on the
college server, while CS 299 students were not required to purchase a domain name. Most MIS 342 students
coded the HTML for their sites manually, while most CS 299 students used free Web applications such as
WordPress, Yola, Blogger, or Google Sites to create their Web sites.
The instructors of CS 299 and MIS 342 provided a similar lecture and reading materials to their respective
students regarding Search Engine Optimization prior to the start of this exercise, including the techniques
mentioned above. Students in both courses were surveyed at the end of the four-week exercise regarding their
attitudes toward the exercise, their understanding of SEO techniques and concepts prior to starting and after
completing the exercise, and the SEO techniques they implemented that they found to be most effective.
Figure 1 in Appendix I shows Google’s search results for the phrase "norwegian tourism iPhone application."
Note that the highest ranking result is from a purchased domain name, norwegianiphoneapp.net, and another
from norwegiantourism.net, trails it slightly. One group created a page for its site on Facebook, and another
student used digg.com to vote or endorse his group's site. Both of these activities, which mentioned and
contained back links to their respective sites, appeared closer to the top of the Google search results. Tweets
from students who promoted their site on Twitter also appeared in the first page of Google’s search results.
Two other Web sites, created and hosted with Yola and WordPress, as identified by the subdomains
norwegianiphone.yolasite.com and norwegiantourismiphoneapp.wordpress.com, respectively, also appear lower
in the first page of the Google search rankings.
Figure 2 (a) in Appendix I shows the home page for the top-ranking site on Google, norwegianiphoneapp.com.
It is a blog created with WordPress, which students updated regularly during the contest. The blog’s sidebar
also contains a Twitter Feed (Figure 2(c)) for the application.
Figure 2(b) in Appendix I shows some of the steps taken by the winning team. They purchased some domain
names and immediately installed Google Analytics, a software tool for providing statistics on site usage, at
11
the start of the project. While this did not necessarily impact their site’s position in the search results, it gave
the students experience with using such a tool, and a sense of the popularity of their site as they promoted it
by asking friends to click on or place back links to their site. Figures 2(c) and (d) in Appendix I show the
site’s ranking and an analysis of the ranking data gathered, and Figure 2(e) shows a Facebook fan page that
the students created for their fictitious iPhone application. Figure 2(f) shows some of the statistics from
Google
Analytics.

ASSESSMENT OF SEO LEARNING

Sixteen MIS 342 students and 38 CS 299 students participated in this exercise during the spring2010 semester.
Prior to the start of the project 40 of the 54 students (74.1%), indicated that they either "strongly disagreed" or
"disagreed" with the statement that they were familiar with SEO techniques prior to the project. This
suggested that while they may have been familiar with the importance or objectives of SEO, most students
have not taken the steps to actually optimize a site. As shown in Figure 1, 49 of the 54 students (90.7%),
reported having a better understandingof SEO techniques after the completion of the project.

Figure 1. Familiarity with SEO at the start and endof the contest.

Students who completed this project had an increased understanding and familiarity with SEOtechniques. The
exercise provided "just in time" learning about SEO through hands-on experience.One student remarked:

I learned a lot about SEO because I didn't know anything about it before. I'm not an MIS major so a lot of
this was new to me like optimizing websites. I now know how to do this and feel more positive about the
subject matter. I would love to learn more about thistopic because I want to diversify my understanding of
the subject matter so I can apply it to my future job, if needed.

Figure 2 shows the most popular techniques that students used to promote their sites. The most popular that
they used were keywords in meta tags, title tags, and content of a Web page.

12
 Figure 2. Techniques used and their perceived effectiveness.

These results align closely with an experimental research study conducted by Evans (2007) that concluded that
high quality content (p. 27) and the number of backlinks into a web page (p. 30) are two of the primary factors
in determining a web page's placement among search results. Further, all 5 of these techniques are among those
highly recommended by leading search engine practitioners (Jones, 2008).

Students also realized that it takes dedication to achieve results.

I learned that it's not easy to optimize your website. It takes a lot of time along with patience for it to work.
You need to constantlybe up-to-date with it, so that your website shows up on search engines. One minute
it may be there, while the other it may lose its [higher] ranking.

It is interesting to note that while fewer than half of the students purchased a relevant domainname (they were
not required to do so for the project), 30% felt that purchasing a domain nameis not an effective technique for
SEO. Only a few CS 299 students purchased relevant domain names for their Web sites, while all MIS
342 students made use of the personal domain names that they had previously purchased as part of their course.
Several CS 299 students commented on the fact that purchasing a relevant domain name gave some groups an
unfair advantage. One student said:

I learned that if you actually spent money-- you won the competition. I think the assignment should've
excluded ways in which you pay to get to the top. We all know that if you pay enough for something-- you
can be on top. Using alternative resources and capabilities that we were supplied with should've been
enough.

Another student said that "Winners ultimatelyinvested their own money into the project makingthem win. By
purchasing several domain names, prime opportunity was given to them." Said a third, "Those who purchased
domain names seemed to have better results than those who used 'free' website domains," referring to names
chosen as subdomains of popular Web creation tools, such as norwegiantourism.wordpress.com .

In addition to the techniques listed above, students hypothesized on other success strategies for SEO. One
group discovered that "having a dynamic website with blog capabilities is was much easier to get recognized
by the search engines than having a static website." Others commented on the perceived need to frequently
update their sites in order to maintain their searchrankings. Said one student: "I learned that in order to achieve
a good result your page must be continuously updated. Also, even if you buy a domain name which includes
the keywords of thesearch, you may not come first in the search results. SEO is not always a precise science."

As previously stated, this project was modeled after a popular SEO Contest. Figure 3 conveys that 31 of the 54
students (57.4%) “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that the competitive nature of the project was an incentive for
them to work more regularly at completing this project.

13
Figure 3. Impact of competition on student effort.Said one student:

I learned the most efficient and effective means of SEO. Not only did the competitive atmosphere
contribute to this, but the overall goal to see your site first on Google. Going forward I recommend this
project for future classes as it is an effective means to learningto key concepts of SEO.

Figure 4. Measure of student enjoyment.

Figure 4 shows that overall, 39 of the 54 students (72.2%) “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that the SEO project
was enjoyable. Several remarked, as did this student, that the exercise gave them experience in SEO that will
be beneficial in their future careers:

I learned how to promote a Web site and how to drive traffic towards that website. I also learned
several techniques on how to improve your standing in a Google search. The SEO project will be
useful for the future especially since more and more businesses are using the internet to reach potential
customers.

14
 CONCLUSION

Search Engine Optimization is a relevant topic to introduce to students of computing, marketing, business,
health educators, and other disciplines. Students see the value for companies, bloggers, and individuals to
have the top position in search engine results in order to promote their products, services, or brands. The SEO
contest described here provides students with a controlled environment to implement the SEO techniques
they learn about in the classroom in order to determine their effectiveness. In the process they learn that
effective SEO is part art, part science, and part luck, and that positive results cannot be accomplished in a
short time. This exercise provides valuable skills that will be helpful in theirfuture careers.

15
 REFERENCES

 Association for Computing Machinery. (2008). Information 2008: Curriculum guidelines for
undergraduate degree programs ininformation technology. Retrieved May 15, 2010
from
 http://www.acm.org//education/curricula/IT2008%20Curriculum.pdf.
 Atwater-Singer, M. (2006). Google whacking:Exploiting Google in an instructional classroom. Indiana
Libraries, 25(4).
 Retrieved from
 https://scholarworks.iupui.edu/handle/1805/1499.
 Berners-Lee, T., Hall, W., Hendler, J., Shadbolt, N., & Weitzner, D. (2006). Creating a science of the
web. Science, 313(5788), 769-771.
 Charlesworth, A. (2009). Internet Marketing: A practical approach. Oxford, UK:
ButterworthHeinemann.
 Connolly, R. W. (2009). No longer partying like its 1999: Designing a modern web stream using the
IT2008 curriculum guidelines. Proceedings from The 10th ACM conference on SIG- information
technology education. York: Association of Computing Machinery, 74-79. Retrieved May 15, 2010
fromhttp://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1631728.1631752.
 Curran, K. (2004). Tips for achieving high positioning in the results pages of the major search engines.
Information Technology Journal, 3(2), 202-205.
 Evans, M. P. (2007). Analyzing Google rankings through search engine optimization data. Internet
Research, 17(1), 21-37.
 Experian Hitwise. (2010, May). Google share of search at 71 percent for April 2010.
 Retrieved May 19, 2010 from http://www.hitwise.com/us/presscenter/pres s-releases/google-searches-
apr10/.
 Frydenberg, M. & Press, L. (2010). From computer literacy to Web 2.0 literacy: Teaching and learning
information technology conceptsusing Web 2.0. Information Systems Education Journal, 8(10).
 Hanson, C., Thackeray, R., Barnes, M., Neiger,
 B. & McIntyre, E. (2008). Integrating Web
 2.0 in health education preparation and practice. American Journal of Health Education, 39(3) 157.
 Hendler, J., Shadbolt, N., Hall, W., Berners-Lee,
 T. &l Weitzner, D. (2008). Web science: an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the web.
Communications of the ACM, 51 (7),60-69. Retrieved May 20, 2010 from
http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1364782.13647 98.
 Jones, K. B. (2008). Search Engine Optimization.
 Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing.
 Malaga, R. A. (2007). The value of search engine optimization: An action research project at a new e-
commerce site. Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 5(3), 68-82.
 Malaga, R. A. (2010). Search engine optimization
16
 - black and white hat approaches. Advances inComputers, 78, 2-
 41
 McCown, F. (2010). Teaching web informationretrieval to undergraduates. Proceedings fromThe 41st
ACM technical symposium on computer science education. Retrieved May 15,
2010 from http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1734263.17342 94.
Middleton, D. (2009, December 28). Landing a job of the future takes a two track mind, Wall Street
Journal. Retrieved May 20, 2010 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405
2748703278604574624392641425278.html.
 Morochove, R. (2008). Search engine optimization: Advertising 101. PC World, 26(7), 47.
 Sabin, M., Higgs, B., Riabov, V, & Mereira, A. (2005). Designing and running a pre-college
computing course. Journal of Computing Sciences in College, 20(5), 176-187.
 Sandvig, J. (2007). Selection of server-side technologies for an e-business curriculum. Journal of
Information Systems Education,18(2), 215.
 Saulnier. (2007). Child is father to man: Social software in the IS 2007 curriculum. Information
Systems Education Journal, 5 (37), 1-10.
 Selcher, W. (2005). Use of Internet sources in international studies teaching and research.
International Studies Perspectives, 6,174189.
 Sendall, P., Ceccucci, W., & Peslak, A. (2008). Web 2.0 matters: An analysis of implementing Web 2.0
in the classroom. InformationSystems Education Journal, 6(64), 3-14.
 Spradling, C., Strauch, J., & Warner, C. (2008).An interdisciplinary major emphasizing
multimedia. Proceedings of the 39th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
(SIGCSE '08). ACM, New York, NY, 388-391. Retrieved May 14, 2010 from
http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1352135.13522 70.
 Topi, H., Valacich, J. S., Wright, R., Kaiser, K.,Nunamaker, J., Sipior, J., & deVreede, G. (2010). IS
2010: Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate DegreePrograms in Information Systems.
Communications of theAssociation for Information Systems 26 (18).
 360-427. Retrieved May 20, 2010 fromhttp://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol26/iss1/18/

 Editor’s Note:
 Turns, J. & Wagner, T. (2001). Continuing medical education: Observations of a CME course. Technical
Report PETTT-01-PT-01. Program for Educational Transformation Through Technology,
University of
 Washington, Seattle, Washington. RetrievedMay 20, 2010 from
http://depts.washington.edu/pettt/papers/ar thritis/cme.pdf.

 White, B. (2010). The emergence of web science. [Video file]. Retrieved May 14, 2010 from
http://video.filestube.com/watch,215cac7d5f 8347ce03ea/Bebo-White-Emergence-ofWeb- Science-
%C4%8Das%C5%A5-1. Xing, B. & Zhangxi, L. (2006).The impact of search
engine optimization on online advertising marketing. Proceedings from The 8th
International Conference on ElectronicCommerce. ACM, New York, NY, 519-529.Retrieved May 14 ,
2010 from http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1151454.11515 31.
 This paper was selected for inclusion in the journal as an ISECON 2010 Distinguished Paper. The
acceptance rate is typically 7% for this category of paper based on blind reviews from six or more
peers including three or more former best papers authors who did not submit a paper in 2010.

17
18
Figure 1. Google search results for “norwegian tourism iphone application.”

19
Figure 2 (a). Home page for norwegianiphoneapp.com implemented in Wordpress.

20
Figure 2(b). Steps taken to complete the SEO contest include creating a blog, purchasing a domain name,
signing up fot twitter, and submitting the site to various search engines.

21
22
23
Figure 2(c). Ranking Observations at the start and end of the contest, and the site’s Twitter feed

24
Figure 2(d). Placement in search results fluctuates the most on Google.

25
Figure 2(e). A Facebook Fan page to promote the Norwegian Tourism iPhone App Web site has48 fan.

26
27