LotusJump Blog

Some LotusJump users have asked questions such as “Are certain task types are more important than others?” or “Should I focus my efforts on any single task?”. While such a questions are hard to answer with precision,  generally it’s best to mix things up and do a little bit of everything, that way you can monitor your incoming traffic (with Google Analytics) and see which techniques are bringing in greater amounts of traffic. [However, as a side note, this does not mean that because a certain link on a page is not bringing in traffic that it does not serve a purpose. Some links do not directly bring in traffic, but they can still help boost website visitors indirectly by helping to improve your keyword rankings in search engines]. So, with that being said, here are some reasons as to why you should balance your SEO tasks and put in time for each of the following tasks:

1) Content/Article Tasks - As the popular search marketing saying goes - “Content is king!” - so it’s extremely important that you dedicate time to creating new content that appeals to readers. The article/content generation tasks generally provide greater benefit (than other task types) to your search engine rankings, assuming that you can write a quality article that is unique and grammatically correct. Search engines love fresh content and since most article submission sites give writers the ability to choose customized anchor text (with a link back to your website), it makes this a win/win situation. Yes, articles can be painful to write and do take some time, but the value they provide for your website and search engine rankings is far too great to pass over.

2) Buzz Tasks - Buzz tasks are great tasks to work on because they direct you to blogs that are talking about your products/services in real time (almost). Aside from leaving a relevant comment with a link to your site on these blogs, you also have the opportunity to interact with the blog owner and potentially develop a relationship that could lead to bigger and better things, such as a guest post or even sidebar link. You’d be surprised as to how many bloggers out there that are willing to help people out, granted you show them some respect/praise and add value to their site.

3) Q&A Tasks - The Q&A tasks are probably one of the best tasks that can lead to conversions. People have questions about certain products & services and if you can point them in the right direction and offer them some useful advice, they are usually more inclined to make a purchase or, at the very least, investigate what your company has to offer. Since most Q&A tasks are time-sensitive, be sure to stay on top of these and answer them as soon as you can, especially if it’s to prevent other competitors from stealing potential clients.

4) Social Profile Tasks - Social media tasks are very important in these latter time since this is the new direction taken by modern day communication. More and more people are getting involved on sites like Facebook, Linked-In, etc. and there are just too many eyeballs to pass up by not creating things such as a company Facebook page. Social profile tasks may not provide the best SEO juice, but they do help promote branding and can even go viral, particularly with comical material or generous giveaways.

5) Directories - Directory tasks are nice because they hardly take any time to complete and some of the more prominent directories (such as Yahoo’s & BotW) can help boost search engine rankings. Even though there aren’t a lot of people who use directories nowadays, they are still worth spending a few minutes to knock them out and help increase your online visibility.

When using LotusJump you’ll find that there are a myriad of content building sites suggested as outlets for the original content you create.  While we have a handful of favorites, a useful and easy to use content building site is Knol.  Knol is a Google project that launched a few years ago and consists of user-written articles on a range of topics.   It’s almost like Google’s version of Wikipedia, but with an option for contributors to allow, or not allow, the public to edit their page.

Knols can be on just about anything - create a company profile, an article about your services, a topic relevant to your industry… the sky is the limit.  You can work off a previously created template, or get creative and start from scratch.  Once you’ve written your Knol make sure to add pictures, links and charts to make it even more enjoyable for your readers and then publish your page for all to view.

Writing your own Knol entry is easy and can be fun- especially when you’re writing about something that you enjoy!  So, what are you waiting for? Write your own Knol today!

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.<-->

The following 5 Steps explain how to create your own optimized subpage for a keyword of your choice.

Step 1: Choose your keyword phrase
Determine a keyword phrase that your target audience would consistently search to find the products/services offered on your website.

Step 2: Create a page for your selected keyword phrase
Have your webmaster create a new page with your existing website theme. Make sure it has any necessary calls-to-action.

Step 3: Make sure that it’s optimized for your keyword phrase
To do this, you’ll want to make sure that your keyword phrase is found in most, or all, of the following places:

• In the URL String (i.e. www.yoursite.com/your-keyword-phrase)
• In the Title Tag of the page
• In the Meta Description of the page
• In the Meta Keywords of the page
• In the Copy on the page, multiple times where appropriate
• In Bold, where appropriate
• In the Alt Tag of relevant images on the page

(A more in-depth look at these factors will be treated in next week’s post, “on-page optimization tips“.)

Step 4: Link to the optimized page from your homepage
This will pass some of the existing authority of your homepage to your newly-created, optimized page.

Step 5: Build links to the optimized page
This step is crucial to get maximum results from your efforts. It also happens to be the most difficult. Luckily, this is where the LotusJump SEO Software provides its most significant value. LotusJump simplifies the off-page optimization process by aggregating customized linkbuilding tasks and dropping them directly into your personalized account, complete with tips and instructions. No software makes linkbuilding more effective or efficient than LotusJump.

Want your website to become a top online resource for a certain keyword phrase?

Try building a page on your website specifically for it!

An optimized landing page is a tried and true PPC principle, but not many people have recognized its value for organic SEO as well. If you know that a certain keyword will drive traffic to your site, why not give that keyword its very own page? To illustrate the point, let’s imagine you’re a search engine trying to return the most relevant result for the search term “safe baby crib,” which would you pick–Result A, B or C?

Result A:

URL: www.cribs-r-us.com
Title Tag: Cribs R Us, Online Baby Crib Store, Largest Baby Crib Selection
Meta Description: “Your online resource for the largest selection of baby cribs!”
Opening sentence: “Welcome to Cribs R Us - Browse our huge inventory of different kinds of baby cribs”

Result B:

URL: www.crib-factory.com/baby-cribs
Title Tag: Browse our Cribs - Cute Baby Cribs, Safe Baby Cribs, Sturdy Baby Cribs
Meta Description: “We offer many kinds of cribs–cute baby cribs, safe baby cribs, etc”
Opening sentence: “View the images below to learn about our many types of baby cribs.”

Result C:

URL: www.cribs-r-us.com/safe-baby-crib
Title Tag: Safe Baby Crib, Safety Crib | Cribs R Us
Meta Description: “Consider our safe baby crib product line for your infant’s needs”
Opening sentence: “Sleep well knowing you’ve purchased one of the following safe baby cribs from Cribs-R-Us.com”

If you were picking the result based on on-page SEO factors alone, Option C would be chosen as the most relevant result due to the prominence (not density, mind you) of the keyword phrase on the page. Check back for next week’s post on how to create your own optimized subpage.

Now that you’ve analyzed search volume, check out the competition for your search terms first hand. Type each of your search phrases into Google and look at the first ten results. The following characteristics make your competitors more difficult to unseat:

1) The age of their domain

In other words, how long ago the domain was registered. Find out by typing their domain into a WhoIs search. Older domains are generally more authoritative

2) The number of backlinks they have

Sign up for a Yahoo account and use their Site Explorer tool to check the number of inlinks to the site (inlinks=backlinks). The more inlinks the more competitive.

3) The quality of backlinks they have

When you examine their inlinks in Yahoo’s site explorer tool, look at some of the top ones—are they from authoritative .gov or .edu sites? Are they from other authoritative .com sites? Authoritative backlinks make your competitors more authoritative as well.

4) Their Google PageRank

Download the Google toolbar to see each website’s PageRank. PageRank is a score of 1-10 assigned to each website that has been indexed by Google (1 being the least authoritative, 10 being the most). Higher PageRank = a more competitive site.