Online Visibility and Knowledge-Intensive Business Services Performance: The Scope of Interrelatedness

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to gain a deeper insight into the interrelatedness between online visibility indicators (which are the spheres of digital marketing) and business services performance parameters. A conceptual framework was developed to analyse the online visibility of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) using data triangulation on the service industries. The data were analyzed using both netnographic and correlation analysis, and a classification and regression tree. The research adopted an analytic approach on the business services (industry) level. The results reveal that services with the highest level of competition on search engines and strong growth in requests were also those KIBS with the highest profits per employee. Business services with a high monthly search volume range also had the highest salaries per employee in the industry, while those with a low average search volume and stable or rising average monthly search volume dynamics also had low employment levels. This study provides insight into the interrelatedness of the business and digital marketing spheres of the contemporary service economy. We proved that business services that are most competitive on search engines and have the highest level of online visibility indicators are among those who achieve the highest profits.

Keywords

• digital marketing
• search engine optimization
• online visibility indicators
• knowledge-intensive business services