LotusJump Blog

Search Engine Optimization is a significant way to measure and improve a webpage’s performance. By now, you are probably familiar with basic SEO techniques such as posting quality content, writing full-length articles, adding meta tags, title tags, etc. In reality, there are many different techniques that help users position their web pages ahead of other websites in search engines. During the initial stages of posting articles, quality and relevant content can draw traffic to one’s website; however, using advanced SEO techniques can help users drive traffic consistently for a long-lasting campaign. This article enumerates some of the advanced SEO tricks that would help bloggers to showcase their web pages to a broad spectrum of internet users.

Utilize Internal Linking

Providing internal links is one the easiest ways to rank higher in the search engines. In fact, internal
links help to popularize the other pages in your website which might have poor visibility through search
engines directly. Linking internally will also help you to list several links from your website in the search
pages, thereby increasing the chances for viewers to visit your contents. In addition, the use of anchor
tags in internal links boosts the search engine rankings as well.

Optimize Your Images

As images visually represent the content of a blog post, they too need proper keywords and tags. In fact,
about one-fifth of the daily users search for images related to their needs. You might have noticed the
name of certain images represented as image 1, image 2, DSC002, etc., which are the default names
assigned by the tools used to photograph them. Such default text should be renamed with words
relevant to your content. Only then, these images will be listed in the top pages of the search engines
when users search with keywords related to the content in your webpage.

Another common mistake that most bloggers commit is the use of blank spaces while naming their
images. A blank space in an image will be displayed as “%20″ which looks awkward, especially in the
address bar. Instead, use special characters like hyphens or plus signs for keyword spacing. If you are using
blogger to post your content, add ‘alt’ and ‘title’ attributes to the image tag through its HTML source
code.

Translate Feature

If you think that majority of the internet users make their searches in the international language, then
you are wrong. In fact, certain sources predict that more than 60 percent of the total users perform
their searches using languages other than English. Translating your content to other languages will open
up your web pages to a broad spectrum of visitors, not to mention there is less competition in foreign
search engines when compared to the conventional ones, thereby making it easier for your webpage to
climb higher in the search list.

Optimize keyword phrases

If you are familiar with the basics of SEO techniques, you should know the significance of keywords and where to include them on your site and in content. However, keyword phrases are mutually important as well.

The use of generalized keywords would drive a lot of traffic; but, as several blogs and web pages use
similar keywords, chances for your page to rise amidst the others are less likely. That’s when keyword
phrases help users to boost their content’s visibility and proceed forward in the ranking system as well.
Most content creators target users who make their searches with one or two words. But, you would be
much more successful if you target users who type 3 to 4 words to make their searches that are very
specific to their needs.

Utilize Free Resources

There are several analyzing programs available over the internet. In fact, some of the best tools are
available for free. To mention a few, Google Analytics & GoogSpy are some of the dedicated online services that collects information
about the popular keywords which are used in a popular search engine. Typing the words related
to a website would bring a list of keywords that the particular website bids on. In fact, users can get
information about the best keywords and keyword phrases that have high conversion rates. There are
several other free applications that would help you learn the practical keywords in use.

Examine Log Files

A casual glance at your server’s log files could provide you useful information about the keywords that are being used to find your website through search engines. If you find unfamiliar keywords in these files, optimizing them in your website will boost traffic further. This process should be done periodically to increase traffic consistently.

The above tips have the potential to help you boost your webpage’s ranking and traffic in search engines. However, don’t expect changes to happen overnight. Keep an eye out for potential areas to optimize your website and improve accordingly. After all, learning and implementing SEO techniques requires time and dedication for successful results.

About the author: Alia Haley is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology, health and parenting. Beside this she is fond of games and gadgets. These days she is busy in writing articles on nokia lumia 800 specifications and Andrew Lauren.

LotusJump user Greg Witt recently asked a great question about optimizing his Swiss Alps tours website:

“As I’ve been doing my Lotusjump SEO, I’ve noticed Google’s SearchWiki that allows me to customize search results and make my SearchWiki notes available to other users.

Is there a way to use this feature as an SEO tool? Could I conceivably boost my site’s ranking by my responses?”

For those that aren’t familiar with Google’s SearchWiki, here’s a summary of the feature from the NY Times,

[Google] is introducing a new feature called SearchWiki that will allow people to modify and save their results for specific Google searches. They can move the sites that appear in rankings up or down, take them out altogether, leave notes next to specific sites and suggest new sites that are not already in the results (or are buried too far down in the results to see). Users must be logged in to Google to use SearchWiki and can revisit their annotations when they perform the same search later.

So back to Greg’s question…can you leverage SearchWiki to boost rankings? Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search product and user experience said, “At this time we aren’t using SearchWiki to influence ranking but it is easy to see how that could happen in the future.”

The fact that she even hinted at the possibility of SearchWiki influencing ranking leaves me with no doubt that it someday will. If you think about it, Google is aggregating some really valuable data with SearchWiki–actual human opinion. If their goal is to return the most relevant results for a given search term, why wouldn’t they take the average Google user’s opinion into consideration? This is the “human touch” that the mathmatic algorithm has always lacked. So I have no doubt this data will make it into the algorithm at some point–how soon, and to what degree, only Google knows.

So what now? I wouldn’t go overboard, but I’d give my honest opinion of search results in my niche, and encourage friends and clients to do so also. Be responsible and consider Karma.

But if this data someday becomes a factor, it will be nice to know that you have contributed your 2 cents.

When creating a website, adding new pages, or redesigning a current site, LotusJump recommends the following on-page optimization practices.

Step 1: Choosing targeted keywords

Picking the right set of keywords helps create a solid foundation for your SEO efforts. You should consider building pages around related groups of keyword phrases (i.e. a page for product terms, another for benefits-related terms, etc.)

Step 2: Optimizing the URL structure

As new pages are created, important keywords should be used within the URL structure. The closer the keywords are to the “.com/” the better. Since Google reads URL’s from left to right it places the highest value on words that appear closest to the beginning of the URL string.

Step 3: Optimizing title tags

Creating unique, optimized title tags is essential, as search engines weigh them heavily. The keywords in your title tags should reflect the content of the page. If it’s a page about discount laptops, make sure that discount laptop keywords come first. We recommend keeping the title tag between 6-12 words.

Step 4: Optimizing meta descriptions

Create unique meta descriptions that feature keywords found within the title tag and copy on the page. Meta descriptions should read comfortably, and not be a keyword list. Keep meta descriptions between 12-20 words.

Step 5: Optimizing meta keywords

Meta keywords are weighed less heavily by the search engines these days, but probably still worthwhile to include. Instead of adding every single keyword you can think of, add keywords that are relevant to the theme and copy of the specific page you’re addressing. Include anywhere between 1-10 keywords.

Step 6: Optimizing header tags

Header tags are used in HTML code to define paragraph headers. Search engines weigh the words found in headers more heavily than average copy, so it’s valuable (where possible) to include targeted keywords in the <h1> and <h2>, etc. tags.

Step 7: Optimizing website copy

If you want your website to rank well on certain keywords, they need to be found within the copy of your site. Instead of trying to get one page to rank on multiple keywords, try creating an optimized page for each major keyword or group of related keywords.

Step 8: Optimizing alt tags

An alt tag is used to describe an image should it ever become “broken” to a website viewer for any reason. You can utilize the alt tag for SEO purposes by including your keywords within the tag. For example, if the picture is of a dell laptop on your discount laptop website, you could give the image the following alt tag: “discount Dell XPS 1530 laptop” It’s both descriptive and keyword rich.

Step 9: Optimizing with emphasis tags

In some instances it might be appropriate to bold and italicize within the copy of your website. Search engines place more weight on words that are given emphasis with the HTML <b> and <i> tags. Use this tactic judiciously however; too much use of emphasis makes for an unpleasant user experience.

Step 10: Optimizing a site with a blog

Adding a blog to a site is a convenient way to add new, keyword rich content to the domain on a regular basis (which search engines value). Blogs allow you to reach out to your consumers and build brand recognition and trust. Blog posts can also be easily disseminated to various social media outlets to reach a broader audience and solicit more traffic.<-->