Web site optimization for search engines: An empirical study

The positioning of a website in the first places of the rankings produced by the search engines makes it more visible to the eyes of Internet users, which is a clear competitive advantage over competing websites. In order to be able to achieve this competitive advantage it´s important to perform a web site optimization towards being easily located and highly rated by search engines. This article identifies some of the main optimization techniques, and is based on the action research method to provide evidence that the positive evolution of some indicators, namely, the number of visits, internet traffic and better web site placement in SERP (Search Engine Results Page) resulted, in part, from the application of these optimization techniques to a vehicle auction website in Portugal.