Abstract

Search engine optimization (SEO) is widely presented in the digital marketing literature as a cost-effective route to visibility for resource-constrained firms, yet empirical evidence on its effects among medium-sized enterprises in Central African urban economies remains scarce. This exploratory study examines the association between three SEO dimensions — on-page optimization, technical SEO, and user experience — and the internet marketing strategy of medium-sized companies in Bamenda, Cameroon. Following a data-quality review that identified and removed duplicate entries from the original survey file, the final analytic sample comprised 15 unique medium-sized company respondents. Descriptive statistics indicate that respondents rate their firms' practice of all three SEO dimensions favorably. However, a multiple regression analysis found no statistically significant relationship between any of the three predictors and internet marketing strategy outcomes (R² = .088, F(3,11) = 0.355, p = .787), and none of the three hypothesized effects were supported. All three standardized coefficients were positive in direction — user experience showed the largest, if still non-significant, association (β = .218) — consistent with the direction predicted by prior literature even though statistical significance was not reached. Given the small sample size relative to the number of predictors, these findings should be read as inconclusive rather than as evidence against an SEO–marketing strategy relationship, and the study concludes with a concrete recommendation for an adequately powered follow-up study.

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