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How to Use Meta Tags to Increase Website Traffic

Christina Crowe — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:25:36 +0000

The degree of impact that meta tags have on your website is discussed by many entrepreneurs and is often disagreed on. However, it has been proven that meta tags do have some effect on search engine results. The effect they have vary depending on the search engine. According to Michael Fleischner, author of the book SEO Made Simple: Strategies For Dominating The World’s Largest Search Engine, the MSN search engine especially loves on-page optimization, including meta tags.

Meta tags are just HTML codes that tell search engine bots what your website is about. Visitors browsing your website won’t be able to see the metadata at all, unless they looked at your source code. Search engines basically use your meta tags to label your website and decide where to put your website in search results. Since meta tags aren’t seen by website visitors, they are perfectly harmless and can help increase search engine traffic to some degree, as long as you aren’t keyword stuffing your meta tags.

The three main meta tags that webmasters use are the title, description and keywords meta tags. The title meta tag tells search engines the main subject of the page, and this meta tag gets displayed on search results as the title of your article. The description meta tag describes your content in a sentence or two and is also displayed in search results. The keyword meta tag should include only the main keywords that can be found on your website or in the content of website pages. However, you should include your main keywords in the other two tags as well, not just the keywords meta tag. Another meta tag that is helpful is the robots meta tag, which tells search engine spiders to crawl through the entire website. These meta tags should be used on your website home page and every new post you publish.

Webmasters who have WordPress installed on their websites should use the All in One SEO plugin to help them with meta tag placement. This plugin allows you to just type out the meta title, description and keywords of each new post before you publish it, making entering in metadata incredibly easy.

Like most websites, this website uses meta tags as well. The following is an example of how to format your meta tags, and they are the meta tags we currently use on our home page.

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Of course, with the All in One SEO plugin, you don’t need to type everything in code form. The plugin automatically does that for you. So, you would only need to enter in your meta keywords for the keywords meta tag and that’s it.

To add the robots meta tag, simply log on to your WordPress account and go to Appearance > Editor > Header.php. Place the code in between the two head tags () after the title tags ().

Post Your Input

Have you noticed an increase in search engine traffic since adding meta tags on your website?

*This post has some affiliate links distributed in the content. Read more about them on the Disclosure page.

A Second Look at Luxury

Christina Crowe — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:49:24 +0000

A new Mercedes-Benz… Riding first class on Jet Blue… Countless martinis on the beach…

If I were to ask you, “What does luxury mean to you?” How would you respond? What would be the first thing that would come to mind? A never ending sea of wealth? A mansion over flooding with maids that come running at your every beck and call?

Think about it for a moment. What does luxury mean to you?

Now think about this: Luxury is often mistaken for having money. You needn’t own a single penny. Fancy clothes and expensive meals are examples of comforts, not luxury. To do what you want, how you want, and when you want without the restraints of fear is luxury.

Photo by Allan Chatto (flickr)

Is that what you pictured luxury to be? Jean Cocteau, French poet and novelist, advocates this when he states, “You have comfort. You don’t have luxury. And don’t tell me that money plays a part. The luxury I advocate has nothing to do with money. It cannot be bought. It is the reward of those who have no fear of discomfort.”

Sure, luxury may include all those material wants and desires you have. But it also involves freedom. Freedom to escape fear so that you can live a luxurious life. Does this life have to involve material things? No. Luxury is whatever excites you. Fills you to the core. Luxury is your ideal life. A family-oriented mother living in a medium-sized house who works from home just so that she can be near her kids every day lives a luxurious life. Why? Because being near her children so often fills her with joy. It’s what she wants to do. Therefore, she has luxury.

Luxury is the life you want to live. If you live in a mansion and absolutely cherish the life you live, fine. You have a luxurious life. But if you live in a mansion, with everything you could ever wish for, but absolutely hate everything about it for whatever reason, then your life is not luxurious. Something is holding you back from enjoying your life. After all, what are material things if you can’t enjoy them?

The next time you start envying someone else who seems to have everything she could ever want, look again. She might not be living a luxurious life.

Homework Assignment

I have a homework assignment for you. Take a look at your life as it is now. Get out a piece of paper or notebook and jot down everything that truly excites you about your life in list format. What do you look forward to when you wake up each morning? What do you absolutely enjoy doing day after day? Jot it all down.

Then, jot down everything that you dislike in your life. Try listing things or events that you have to deal with on a regular basis. What’s holding you back? What would you change? Is there something you especially hate?

Now, look at both lists. Which list is longer? If it’s the second one, you aren’t living a luxurious life. Try thinking up ways you could make your life better. Could you maybe quit your job and find something more suitable for your needs? Work less so that you can spend more time with family or special hobbies that you like to do? Jot down everything that could be improved and the deadline for each improvement. Make sure you stick to that deadline, though, and start taking action immediately so that you can achieve the ultimate bliss, a luxurious life. Don’t wait until tomorrow. Hell, don’t wait until tonight.

Post Your Input

How can you improve your life?
What are some of things you desire?

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Keyword Stuffing: When Keyword Density Becomes a Problem

Christina Crowe — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:59:25 +0000

Keyword density, the percentage of keyword phrases in the web content of an article or website, can increase your position in search engines if you also take advantage of other optimization methods, like meta keywords and backlinking strategies. Though keyword density does have its benefits, it can’t be overused. Overusing keyword density is called keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing isn’t just harmful to your search engine rankings. It is also harmful to your readers.

Photo by NightRPStar (flickr)

Think about it. You’re browsing for information on how to combat bad acne. You visit a website from Google search results and the first sentence you read is “Treat adult acne with adult acne treatments.” The first thing that pops into your mind is, “Huh? This website must be spam.” Or maybe you don’t even stop and think. You just hit the “Back” button on your browser and move on to another website that will meet your needs.

Keyword stuffing is detrimental to your Google SERPs (search engine results pages) as well. Because Google frowns upon keyword stuffing, you risk the chance of getting banned from search engines. This prevents any search engine traffic from accessing your website, so your earning revenue gets a big hit.

Now, some websites do get away with keyword stuffing, but only because Google hasn’t found them yet. Don’t think that you’ll get away with it, because it’s only a matter of time until Google does ban you from the search engine. Many people take part in keyword stuffing because they just don’t know that it’s wrong or could harm them more than help. In fact, keyword density is a form of on-page optimization. According to SEO Made Simple by Michael H. Fleischner, off-page optimization has a bigger effect on Google SERPs than on-page optimization. So you should really be working on obtaining backlinks, a form of off-page optimization, than stuffing your website with keywords.

You want your readers to understand your content, subscribe to your RSS feed and keep coming back for more. After all, no one wants to read the same keyword phrase over and over, even if your article does provide useful information. Keyword stuffing makes your website repetitious and spammy. Would you visit such a website? I would think not.

How to Avoid Keyword Stuffing

Type without the barriers of keyword density. Don’t think about keyword density at all while you’re typing.
Maintain a keyword density of 1-4%.
Make sure the keywords that you use are the main focus and subject of your article.
Read your article out loud and see if it makes sense. If a sentence would make more sense without a particular keyword, don’t use that keyword.
Use a keyword density tool to check for keyword stuffing.

Post Your Input

Do you know additional ways to help avoid keyword stuffing?

*This post has some affiliate links distributed in the content. Read more about them on the Disclosure page.

Blog Carnivals Increase Blog Traffic – And Lifetime Readership Too!

Christina Crowe — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:07:14 +0000

I’ve been using blog carnivals for a few years now. Blog carnivals are really just a page or two of web addresses linking back to quality articles or content. These articles must be related to a certain niche, though. A finance blog won’t link back to a health article, for example. Any website can host a blog carnival, though hosting one isn’t easy. You’ll need to review many articles submitted to you and choose the best ones to display in your carnival. People host blog carnivals because it creates a buzz and encourages other bloggers or webmasters to talk about it if their article is featured. As a result, you receive more backlinks and blog traffic, which will ultimately help with search engine optimization.

Photo by Stuart Seeger (flickr)

However, submitting your articles to blog carnivals is easy. The idea is to submit a link of your best article to various webmasters who are hosting blog carnivals, in hopes that your link (as well as a short description of the content linked) will be selected to be displayed in a blog carnival on the webmaster’s website. In other words, you post an article on your website. You then copy the web address of that article, find someone hosting a blog carnival and submit the web address to the webmaster, also providing a short description of what was linked. The webmaster reviews the article and emails you saying whether or not your link will be in the blog carnival. You can then promote the blog carnival by posting an article about it or linking back to it on your website’s sidebar.

Participating in blog carnivals this way increases backlinks and blog traffic, depending on how many blog carnivals you submit your article to and whether the webmaster likes your article. For this reason, only submit articles that are unique, have a higher number of comments than usual or are your best work to insure acceptance. You can find a variety of blog carnivals by visiting Blog Carnival, a network of websites hosting blog carnivals. Start by going to the archives at the top of the page, clicking the “Browse All Carnivals” link on the top left and choosing several carnivals to submit your article to that are related to your blog’s niche or article subject. Some blog carnivals in the list have already hosted a carnival on a previous date and may not be hosting another one, so make sure there’s a “Next Edition” date.

If you’re an active contributor to blog carnivals and link back to other articles you like that were featured in the same carnival you were featured in, you may increase your blog traffic and readership. You may even be sought out by other webmasters and receive a few backlinks that way. On another blog I write for, I like to make a new post every time an article gets featured in a blog carnival. This post lists the other articles that I liked, while also linking back to the carnival page and each article. I then send the author of the article a message saying that I thought the article was wonderfully written and, as a result, I linked back to the article on my own website. This method encourages other webmasters to link back to your blog as well, though it doesn’t work 100% of the time. The main reason why I take part in this method is because I’m able to then network with other bloggers in the same niche, increase my long term readership and make some friends in the process. The backlinks that come from it is a plus and motivates me further to increase my promotional efforts.

Post Your Input

What do you think about blog carnivals?
Were you able to increase blog traffic by submitting to blog carnivals?

Going on Vacation for Two Weeks

Christina Crowe — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 23:55:59 +0000

For the next two weeks from July 1st to the 15th, be in California visiting a close friend of mine and won’t be able to update the blog much. I’ll still be checking my email to answer any questions, so don’t hesitate to contact me. I’ll also be able to read and approve comments while I’m away. I figured I’d give myself much needed time off from work, so I’m funding my trip with Demand Studios earnings, believe it or not. It should be a fun experience overall. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Some of the things I’ll be doing:

Going to the Napa Valley County Fair and watching the Calistoga Fourth of July Parade
Walking along the shores of the Russian Gulch beach in Mendocino, California
Touring the Golden Gate bridge
Spending a whole day in Discovery Kingdom, watching animal shows and going on theme park rides
Going hiking and spending the night outdoors

I’m sure we’ll be doing much more than that, but, at the moment, my mind isn’t functioning properly as I’ve been cleaning/packing all day. I’ll describe in detail the trip once I come back though, rest assured!

No related posts.

Demand Studios Work Challenge: June 21, 2010

Christina Crowe — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:44:19 +0000

I’ve gotten some work done for Demand Studios and my overall Demand Studios score is rising at an incredible speed. It seems that the Secrets to Making Money with Demand Studios eBook by Kent Ninomiya paid for itself. Rereading the Why Your Overview Matters (And How to Make it Good) article on the Demand Studios blog has also definitely helped to boost my grammar score, especially for this month. However, I’m still working to get my article limit increased, so I can’t rest yet.

Since the last post in the Demand Studios Work Challenge, I received 2 rewrites out of 10 published articles. I still need to rewrite the 2 articles, however, so they haven’t been re-submitted yet. Compared to the last scorecard copy, I gained 0.02 points in grammar and 0.01 in research. Looking at the bars, I managed to publish at least one article that was rated 5 stars in research, since the green bar is over the 4 point line. My grammar bar for this month is almost at the 4 point line, so as long as I do so well, I should receive a score of 4 on both grammar and research soon!

On a side note, I’m going to lower my overall goal of maintaining a score of 4.5, since that would be too difficult to achieve at this moment.

Ultimate Demand Studios Work Goals

Maintain a score of 4.0 or higher in Grammar and Research on the Scorecard (now at 3.4 – 3.7).
Reach an assignment limit of 35 or greater (now at an assignment limit of 10).
Finish articles on topics of expertise in less than 30 minutes without doing rewrites.
Receive my first special assignment.

Demand Studios Work Goals for the Month

Maintain a score of 3.7 or higher on the Scorecard (now at 3.4 – 3.7).
Receive less than 10 rewrites from copy editors (3 rewrites this month).
Write at least 1 articles a day, minus weekends.

Progress

Demand Studios Work Challenge – Introduction
Demand Studios Work Challenge – May 28, 2010
Demand Studios Work Challenge – May 30, 2010
Demand Studios Work Challenge – June 9, 2010
Demand Studios Work Challenge – June 21, 2010

Demand Studios Work Challenge – June 9, 2010

Christina Crowe — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:24:34 +0000

I haven’t updated you all on the Demand Studios Work Challenge for a while, since I’ve been busily going through books and planning out my copywriting career. The books I’m mainly referring to are The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency as a Commercial Freelancer in Six Months or Less by Peter Bowerman, Start & Run a Copywriting Business by Steve Slaunwhite, Secrets of a Freelance Writer, Third Edition: How to Make $100,000 a Year or More by Robert Bly, and The Wealthy Freelancer: 12 Secrets to a Great Income and an Enviable Lifestyle by Steve Slaunwhite, Pete Savage, and Ed Gandia. I’ll be talking more about these books later on as I get started in my copywriting business. As I’m just getting started, I’ve been devoting most of my time to books and my portfolio.

Since the days have become a little less hectic, I’m able to continue blogging. However, I’ve been writing less frequently for Demand Studios because I’ve made my copywriting business my first priority. From here on I’m only going to write one or two articles a day as I continue the Demand Studios Work Challenge.

Since I last updated this blog on my Demand Studios progress, my scores haven’t changed much. I received 10 approved rewrites and 14 approved no rewrites last month, with no additional rejections. This month I only wrote 3 articles so far, with one approved without a rewrite, another approved with a rewrite, and another article abandoned because the copy editor asked to rewrite the entire article due to a disagreement (and I wasn’t about to do that again and risk a rejection).

As far as my scorecard is concerned, I noticed that I’m receiving a constant score of 3 for grammar and a score ranging from 3 to 4 for research. Since I’m trying to raise that grammar score to 4, I did a lot of analyzing and reading about what could be preventing my score from increasing. I like to compare my revisions in the “Published Work” section to see what copy editors took out or edited. I think the main thing that’s killing my score is my complex sentences. I’m going to try to write more simple sentences to see if that does the trick. My overviews might also be lacking, since I often have trouble creating compelling ones. Though I read this article before, I decided to give Why Your Overview Matters (And How to Make it Good) another look. Once that was done, I realized my overviews didn’t exactly start with catchy phrases or follow catchy phrases with interesting facts. I’ll spend more time on my overviews to see if it makes a difference in my grammar score.

I noticed that, as long as I cite at least 2 or 3 sources in my article body, I maintain a steady 4 as my research score. Going through the Content Rating Checklist in the Training Camp section of the Resource Center, I might be able to increase that 4 to a 5 on my scorecard just by working on creating a compelling overview and making each step as informative as I can, while continuing to cite sources. I’ll do a few tests to see how it goes.

Ultimate Demand Studios Work Goals

Maintain a score of 4.5 or higher in Grammar and Research on the Scorecard (now at 3.2 – 3.6).
Reach an assignment limit of 35 or greater (now at an assignment limit of 10).
Finish articles on topics of expertise in less than 30 minutes without doing rewrites.
Receive my first special assignment.

Demand Studios Work Goals for the Month

Maintain a score of 3.7 or higher on the Scorecard (now at 3.2 – 3.6).
Receive less than 10 rewrites from copy editors (1 rewrite this month).
Write at least 1 articles a day, minus weekends.

Progress

Demand Studios Work Challenge – Introduction
Demand Studios Work Challenge – May 28, 2010
Demand Studios Work Challenge – May 30, 2010
Demand Studios Work Challenge – June 9, 2010
Demand Studios Work Challenge – June 21, 2010

*This post has some affiliate links distributed in the content. Read more about them on the Disclosure page.

eHow Experiment – May 31, 2010

Christina Crowe — Mon, 31 May 2010 11:23:24 +0000

My earnings on eHow for this month is now a little bit over $10 more than I made last month. Not too shabby. I might make the $100 mark in a few months.

Most of the articles I’ve been editing on eHow have a nice keyword density. The main thing I need to work on for the next few weeks are backlinking strategies and increasing the number of websites pointing to my articles. So far, I’ve backlinked articles on this blog, though haven’t really ventured anywhere else. Therefore, today I’m going to backlink articles on Yahoo Answers, as I answer questions users have that relate to my articles.

eHow Article Results

Over the weekend, I worked on How to Practice Effective Time Management Skills in College, How to Avoid Arguments With Your Children, How to Get More Blog Readers by Using Blog Carnivals, How to Avoid Arguments With Parents, How to Prevent Drowning Children, How to Stop That Mosquito Bite Itch, How to Benefit from Keeping Pet Fish, and How to Know If You Should Cut Your Fingernails.

Sadly, I’m not on the first page of Google for any of these titles. I definitely need to backlink them. I’ll keep you updated on their progress!

Progress

Post Your Input

What have you been doing to increase eHow earnings?
What are the backlinking strategies you use?

Demand Studios Work Challenge – May 30, 2010

Christina Crowe — Sun, 30 May 2010 23:59:22 +0000

Today has been a very good week for me, considering how much work I’ve gotten done for Demand Studios and the improvement I’ve made with my Demand Studios performance. While my grammar score has remained the same (even though the bar for this month has been increasing slightly), my research score is increasing rapidly. In fact, I passed my goal of 3.5 with my research score by hitting the 3.6 mark. Pretty soon, I should have a score of 4.0. Hopefully my grammar score soon follows suit.

Moreover, the number of rewrites I’m receiving has decreased a great deal since my last Demand Studios Work Challenge update. Since then, I only had to do 2 rewrites. On the last two days, 7 articles went through without having to be rewritten. This is definitely a huge improvement for me and one I hope to keep up.

Ultimate Demand Studios Work Goals

Maintain a score of 4.5 or higher in Grammar and Research on the Scorecard (now at 3.2 – 3.6).
Reach an assignment limit of 35 or greater (now at an assignment limit of 10).
Finish articles on topics of expertise in less than 30 minutes without doing rewrites.
Receive my first special assignment.

Demand Studios Work Goals for the Rest of this Month

Maintain a score of 3.5 or higher on the Scorecard (now at 3.2 – 3.6).
Receive less than 10 rewrites from copy editors (8 rewrites this month).
Write 7 articles a day, minus weekends.

Progress

Demand Studios Work Challenge – Introduction
Demand Studios Work Challenge – May 28, 2010
Demand Studios Work Challenge – May 30, 2010
Demand Studios Work Challenge – June 9, 2010
Demand Studios Work Challenge – June 21, 2010

Demand Studios Holiday Club

Christina Crowe — Sat, 29 May 2010 21:52:46 +0000

Demand Studios is apparently hosting a Holiday Club event! They’re giving away $500 to one copy editor and one writer Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. For specifics, here’s a copy of the email:

Each article written is worth an entry in the event, so my goal is to write 7 articles Saturday (today), 10 articles Sunday, and 10 articles Monday. Let’s see how things go!