Online research involves collecting information from the internet. It saves cost, is impactful and it offers ease of access. Online research is valuable for gathering information. Tools such as questionnaires, online surveys, polls and focus groups aid market research. You can conduct market research with little or no investment for e-commerce development.
Search Engine Optimization makes sure that your research is discoverable. If your research is highly ranked more people will find, read and cite your research.
Steps to improve the visibility of your research include:
- The title gives the reader a clear idea of what the research is about. The title is the first thing a reader sees. Make your research title relevant and consistent. Use a search engine friendly title. Make sure your title provides a solution.
- Keywords are key concepts in your research output. They index your article and make sure your research is found quickly. Use keywords that are relevant and common to your research field. Places to use relevant keywords include title, heading, description tags, abstract, graphics, main body text and file name of the document.
- Abstract convince readers to read an article. It aids return in a search.
- When others cite your research your visibility and reputation will increase. Citing your earlier works will also improve how search engines rank your research.
- External links from your research to blogs, personal webpage, and social networking sites will make your research more visible.
- The type of graphics you use affects your ranking. Use vectors such as .svg, .eps, .as and .ps. Vectors improve your research optimization.
- Make sure you are consistent with your name across all publications. Be distinguishable from others.
- Use social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to publicize your research. Inform everyone. Share your links everywhere.
- Make sure your research is on a platform indexed properly by search engines.
Online research is developing and can take place in email, chat rooms, instant messaging and web pages. Online research is done for customer satisfaction, product testing, audience targeting and database mining.
Ethical dilemmas in online research include:
- How to get informed consent from the participants being researched?
- What constitutes privacy in online research?
- How can researchers prove the real identity of participants?
- When is covert observation justifiable?
Knowing how to choose resources when doing online research can help you avoid wasted time.
WAYS TO MAKE ONLINE RESEARCH EASY AND EFFECTIVE
- Ask: Know the resources recommended for your research from knowledgeable people. You can get information on valuable online journals or websites from an expert or knowledgeable people.
- Fact from fiction: Know the sites that are the best for your research topic. Make sure the websites you have chosen are valuable and up to date. Sites with .edu and .gov are usually safe. If you use a .org website make sure it is proper, reliable and credible. If you use a .com site; check if the site advertises, bias is a possibility.
Social media sites, blogs, and personal websites will give you personal opinions and not facts.
- Search Smartly: Use established search engines. Use specific terms. Try alternative searches. Use search operators or advanced search. Know the best sites.
- Focus: Do not be distracted when conducting an online research. Stay focused and away from social media sites.
- Cite Properly: Cite the source properly. Do not just copy and paste for plagiarism can affect your work.
When conducting research use legitimate and trustworthy resources. sites to help you find articles and journals that are reliable include:
- BioMedCentral
- Artcyclopedia
- FindArticles.com
- Digital History
- Infomine
- Internet Public Library
- Internet History Sourcebooks
- Librarians Internet Index
- Intute
- Library of Congress
- Project Gutenberg
- Perseus Digital Library
- Research Guide for Students.
No matter what you are researching the internet is a valuable tool. Use sites wisely and you will get all the information you need.
ONLINE RESEARCH METHODS
- Online focus group: This is for business to business service research, consumer research and political research. Pre-selected participants who represent specific interest are invited as part of the focus group.
- Online interview: This is done using computer-mediated communication (CMC) such as SMS or Email. Online interview is synchronous or asynchronous. In synchronous interviews, responses are received in real-time for example online chat interviews. In asynchronous interviews, responses are not in real-time such as email interviews. Online interviews use feedbacks about topics to get insight into the participants, attitudes, experiences or ideas.
- Online qualitative research: This includes blogs, communities and mobile diaries. It saves cost, time and is convenient. Respondents for online qualitative research can be gotten from surveys, databases or panels.
- Social network analysis: This has gained acceptance. With social network analysis researchers can measure the relationship between people, groups, organization, URLs and so on.
Other methods of online research include cyber-ethnography, online content analysis, and Web-based experiments.
TYPES OF ONLINE RESEARCH
- Customer satisfaction research: This occurs through phone calls or emails. Customers are asked to give feedback on their experience with a product, service or an organization.
- New product research: This is carried out by testing a new product with a group of selected individuals and immediately collecting feedback.
- Brand loyalty: This research seeks to find out what attracts customers to a brand. The research is to maintain or improve a brand.
- Employee satisfaction research: With this research, you can know what employees think about working for your organization. The moral of your organization can contribute to its productivity.
When conducting an online research give open-ended questions and show urgency but be tolerant.
Written by Junaid Ali Qureshi he is a digital marketing specialist who has helped several businesses gain traffic, outperform the competition and generate profitable leads. His current ventures include Progostech, Magentodevelopers.online.eLabelz, Smart Leads.ae, Progos Tech and eCig.
