Sr0.3Ba0.7Nb2O6 (SBN) and La0.030Sr0.255Ba0.700Nb2O6 (L-SBN) ceramic compounds have been prepared using the traditional ceramic method at two different calcination temperatures (900 and 1000 degrees C) and later sintered both at 1400 degrees C. A study of the effects of the calcination temperatures and La substitution on the morphological, compositional, and structural properties of SBN and LSBN is presented using scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. From Rietveld refinement processes, the XRD patterns were interpreted to evaluate such effects in the structural parameters and the site occupation factors of the heavy metals and oxygen atoms. The effect of the incorporation of La resulted in a 0.25% cell contraction and turned out to be higher than the 0.08% dilation effect produced by the increase of calcination temperature. The La ion with similar effective ionic radius and higher electronegativity is incorporated into the structure occupying the A(1) site just like the Sr ions in the SBN compound. Differences in the site occupation factors between the SBN and LSBN samples lead to substantial changes in the physical properties such as temperature of relative dielectric constant maximum, relative dielectric constant, and dielectric loss, correlated with the distortion and the relative orientation of the oxygen octahedra. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.