Month: November 2012

How to generate more traffic to website from YouTube videos

I am trying various methods to increase the traffic to my web sites.  One method is to put videos up on YouTube.  However, I found that my videos were not being viewed too frequently.  Then, I realized that you should update the ‘Basic Information’ about each video.  For example,

YouTube screen shot showing fields that can be optimized to generate more views and hence more traffic to your website
YouTube screen shot showing fields that you should optimize for each of your videos in order to increase views.

for my www.CustomTravelChecklist.com web site video, I  did the following:

  1. Updated the Category to ‘Travel and Events’.
  2. Added a ‘call to action’ at the end of the Description telling the user to ‘Go to’ my web site.
  3. Added Tags that seemed appropriate.  Just type in the word(s) that you want as Tags and press Tab.  Note that YouTube gives you suggested tags below the Tags field that you can just click on.

I’m hoping that these simple updates will generate more views of my videos and hopefully more views will generate more traffic to my web site.  I will report back later to let you know how well this worked!

 

How to get a second YouTube channel

One way that I use to generate traffic to my websites is to put up relevant videos on YouTube.  On my first website, I created a “channel” and added videos to this channel.  This channel linked to my gmail email.  For my second website, I wanted a new channel because I didn’t want to mix the videos of the two very different websites because the topics were very different.  I looked around in YouTube and realized that it didn’t allow you to have 2 channels for 1 user.  So, the workaround I found was to create a new 2nd gmail email account.  Then, using this gmail email, I was able to create a 2nd user and 2nd channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/customtravelchecklis) on YouTube.  Hopefully, one day YouTube will be changed to allow multiple channels for an email, otherwise I may end up with lots of gmail emails!

How to Add Google Analytics Tracking to a WordPress Blog

I use Google Analytics to track the activity of my websites.  I just created this blog and wasn’t sure how to set it up with Analytics.  I did research and it is pretty darn easy.  I went to http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/ which had instructions.  I downloaded the plug in from here to my computer.  After virus scanning it, I extracted the files.  It was actually a folder with a bunch of files in it.  I then went to my host, GoDaddy, and uploaded the entire folder to the wordpress plugins folder (as described in the instructions on the web page).  Then, I went into Google Analytics and added my website, www.LunaSystems.ca, to it.  Then, returning to my WordPress site,  I looked for the Plugin in ‘Plugins-Installed Plugins’ but the Google Analytics plug in wasn’t there.  I had to select ‘Plugins-Add New’, then Search for ‘Google Analytics’.  It brought back a list from which I selected the one that I had downloaded/uploaded earlier.  I selected it and installed/activated it.  It asked me for my tracking code.  I selected manual entry and had to enter the Tracking Id (not the code).  That was all it took and it seems to be working.  Adding Google Analytics to WordPress will let me track my blog activity along with the activity from my other websites.

Using Frames in your website hurts Search Engine Ranking

The biggest mistake that I made when developing some of my web sites was that I used frames in my html.  Using frames allowed my website (www.CustomTravelChecklist.com) to show multiple separate .html files on the screen at the same time.  I could easily switch the main .html file in the center to show different .html file.  Also, I was using javascript and stored session variables in a hidden .html file.  Technically, this worked well.  However, I came to realize that search engines did not properly index my website.  My ranking never seemed to go up.  I added a site map and submitted it to the search engines, but that didn’t seem to help too much either.  I then did some research on the internet to see if there was some specific SEO (Search Engine Optimization) that I could do for frames.  The general consensus was that there isn’t any SEO that would help.  I wish that I had known this before building the site.  I would have architected it differently.  So, if you develop a website, I recommend that you don’t use frames.

New Blog on Web Development, Social Media, and Domaining

As part of my ongoing professional development within Luna Systems Corporation, I have been dabbling in web development, social media, and domaining.  I will use this blog to share what I’ve learned, best practices, what work for me and especially what didn’t work!