#Also feel free to elaborate on whatever in the tags as per always

[babacontainsmultitudes]

Yay! Demographics polls!

Reblogs for a larger sample size are appreciated!

[demetriandelibinaryboyfriends]

AIGHT Y’ALL I wasn’t tagged but I’m doing this anyways because f u c k  i t

It's the year 2021 and you're obsessed with The Karate Kid. How are you feeling?

Deadasss weird as fuck, my dude. Like...out of all the things I could’ve predicted happening in our lord’s year 2021, it definitely was NOT getting hyperfixated on a hammy gay ship with a punk and a nerd from a goddamn karate soap opera. And yet...here we are??? I will never understand hyperfixations, my guy. But I’ve met a lot of really cool people in this fandom, so I can’t really complain.

Did you grow up with TKK or are you new to the series?

I have never seen a single Karate Kid movie in my entire life. When I was a kid, it looked kinda dumb so I never got into it XD But then I saw my roommate watching Cobra Kai on Youtube Red one day (he has every streaming service known to man) and I was hooked. And...here I am!

We gotta do the basics. Favorite character:  

Literally EVERYONE except for Kreese, Yasmine, Kyler, and Tory, sorry stans

Okay but if we gotta pick, Johnny Lawrence is my Problematic Fave. Also I love my boy Daniel, he’s trying his best!!! And Amanda LaRusso, we stan a queen!!!

Among the kids, definitely Miguel, with Demetri as a close second. I also love Sam, Aisha, Moon, and Hawk (pre- and post-Bastardization Arc, anyways XD)!

Favorite ship:  

Take a look at my username and take a WILD FUCKING GUESS lmao Yes it’s Eli/Demetri because DUH, every interaction they have is so fucking gay and Eli fucking saved him!!! And came back to him!!! And betrayed the world’s most terrifying dojo with a WAR CRIMINAL SENSEI all for Demetri!!! And how Demetri was willing to forgive him for everything at the drop of a hat because he always had faith there was still good in his best friend??? That’s TRUE LOVE motherfuckers. Please let them kiss in Season 4. I will sell you all of my limbs. Sam/Miguel is a close second because they’re cute as shit and it’s just so lovely to see two people so unapologetically smitten with each other. They are in LOVE, and I will RIOT if they break up again!!! Keep Sam and Miguel together 2k21!!!

Underrated character:

SAMANTHA LARUSSO!!! The amount of hate my girl gets for acting like a normal teenager and fucking up occasionally JUST like the rest of the cast makes me want to start punching things. She cares SO MUCH about her friends!!! And she loves the shit out of Miguel!!! She hasn’t always been the best friend but you know what??? Neither has Hawk, and we still forgave his ass!!! Also LET HER BE FEMININE but also kick utter ass, my god!!! Femininity should not be synonymous with being weak, y’all! ALSO DEMETRI, like yes, he likes to complain and occasionally run his mouth, but guess what else he likes to do??? Never give up on the love of his life his best friend Eli Moskowitz and refuse to lose faith in him no matter how much of a little shit he’s become, and I for one think that’s very badass of him. Also the way he takes care of Eli pre-Cobra Kai in his own snarky bastard way makes me absolutely Weak and needs more appreciation. Like the dude has charisma and COULD have probably made other friends and left Eli behind if he wanted, but did he??? No, he wants the weepy loser with the lip scar in the polo shirts and dorky sweaters and will protect him as much as his wimpy ass is able!!!

Underrated ship (don’t say therapy, lol):  

Among the adults, Daniel/Amanda!!! Like maybe I just don’t watch that much tv, but it seems kinda rare to me to see a happily married hetero couple, and it’s just nice to see a married couple who genuinely love each other and where there’s not like...lingering resentment or some shit. I feel like this ship gets overshadowed by Lawrusso a lot (which like--okay, fair!!! Daniel and Johnny do have a ridiculous amount of chemistry, and the gay undertones are undeniable, so I get it), and it makes me kinda sad. I do love Lawrusso, but I don’t like when Amanda has to get her heart broke for it to happen, you feel? Among the kids, honestly YasMoon. Like I really love the idea of Yasmine trying to better herself because of Moon’s influence on her and because Moon like...inspires her to be a better person, I guess? With their pretty strong friendship, it just makes more sense to me for Yasmine to get a redemption arc through Moon than through Demetri. ALSO girls DO often pull the whole “mean girl” shtick to cover up being closeted lesbians, and Moon IS canonically bi, so it could work!!! I just think this one could be a really interesting Friends to Lovers take, and could make a really nice coming-out arc for Yas. And MoonPiper too, honestly!!! Like they only got 5 seconds of screentime so I understand WHY it’s underrated, but I still love what we DID get and loved that there was a canon gay ship (even if only for 1 scene lmao). I’m really excited to potentially see more of them in Season 4!!! Please, I’m begging!!!

Wax On, Wax Off or Sweep the Leg?

Sweep the Leg because it will always be deeply hilarious to me how Demetri took note of the first move Eli ever used on him and spent presumably weeks perfecting it OUT OF SPITE just to get him back with it at the soccer game MONTHS later. Just goes to show how OBSESSED Demetri is with Eli and their little karate rivalry which is just NOT straight, I’m sorry

Which of Daniel’s dumb little outfits is your favorite?

There’s something so funny about this pretentious little fuck walking around in fancy suits once he becomes a #SuccessfulBusinessman, and still occasionally trying to do karate in a full-ass suit (take THAT, Tom Cole’s boba!!!) I’m also a big fan of how he looks in his gi with his little headband. Still killing that look as a 40-50-something!!!

Character from the films you most want to return, who’s not Terry Silver:

Tbh I have still never seen a single Karate Kid movie (they took them off of Netflix, RIP), so...I don’t really care if they bring anyone else back??? I’m invested in the characters we already have in the show, I don’t need some rando from the movies to make a cameo to have a good time XD The only character I really wanted them to bring back was Ali, and they already did, so like...I’m good??? That’s all I really needed, I can die in peace now XD

Scene that lives in your head rent-free:

Basically any fluffy Elimetri scene, but 5 in particular: ~Miguel first meeting Eli and Demetri at the lunch table, and Eli looking at Demetri like he hung every goddamn star in the sky ~Demetri going off at a terrifying, “unhinged” karate sensei on the first day of Cobra Kai because he made fun of Eli’s lip and Demetri is not about that shit ~ELI STEALING DEMETRI’S NACHO AND SMIRKING AT HIM, LIKE EXCUSE ME SIR PLEASE BE A LITTLE LESS HOMOSEXUAL IN FRONT OF YOUR GIRLFRIEND ~Eli yanking Demetri onstage during Valley Fest to hold a board, and Demetri being visibly like...extremely turned on when Eli breaks said board ~ELI SAVING DEMETRI DURING THE CHRISTMAS FIGHT, ELI APOLOGIZING, DEMETRI AND ELI KICKING COBRA ASS TOGETHER AKSBDCUWYVCBU

Will Anthony LaRusso ever be relevant?

I hope not! He’s kind of a funny meme character to pop up now and again but I don’t think he deserves a serious plotline when there are so many more interesting characters to follow.

You live in The Valley and are forced into the karate gang war. Which dojo do you join?

Miyagi-Do because Cobra Kai would eat me alive. Also I’d probably straight up get stuck and die in that cement mixer, if I even made it that far XD Besides, being salty that your friend who you have a crush on likes martial arts better than you and starting martial arts to impress them but also being too lazy to join anything TOO intense is a Big Mood and I am certainly not speaking from personal experience here, no sirree

What’s your training montage song?

"Shut Up and Drive” by Rihanna for a weight-training and bicep-flexing montage, “Whatever It Takes” by Imagine Dragons for a more intense punching-and-kicking-shit montage. I don’t know why this is, I just feel it in my heart.

It’s the crossover event of the century! Which TV show are you combining with Cobra Kai for an hour-long Saturday night special?

*Briefly panics because I don’t actually watch that much TV and most of the stuff I do watch is fantasy/sci fi shit that absolutely would not work for a CK crossover*

Hmmmm okay but ACTUALLY

You know what would be fucking funny as hell would be an It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia crossover. Allow me to elaborate: ~The Gang goes to LA on vacation during the height of the Karate Dojo Wars. They literally can get barely anything done without all these goddamn karate-fighting teenagers getting in the way. ~They are all very annoyed by this. Even the most obscure of tourist attractions is eventually intercepted by karate fights. ~Mac tries to join Cobra Kai because he sees all this karate fighting on, and wants to unquestionably prove both his badassery and masculinity. Both Johnny and Kreese are like “Wtf are you doing here? Aren’t you like 30?” ~Mac gets a planet-sized crush on Johnny after all of 5 minutes and endlessly gushes to the gang about him. The gang mercilessly roast him about this and about how much of a pathetic loser with his life together in no way whatsoever Johnny sounds like. They proceed to have exactly 0 self awareness about this. ~The Waitress is in town visiting family or something, and Charlie is stalking her, as per usual. However, every time he’s about to go up and talk to her, a pack of battling Miyagi-Dos and Cobra Kais throwing punches and kicks everywhere blocks his path. One times, Mac is among one of these packs and Charlie is like “???? He didn’t get kicked out of that teen karate dojo yet???” ~Seeing how much the Kids These Days seem to like fighting, Charlie drops by a local high school to try and sell Fight Milk to the kids doing karate. Only Kyler and Brucks buy into it, and subsequently get the entire West Valley High wrestling team sick. Charlie is inevitably arrested, as Counselor Blatt thinks he’s selling the kids drugs. ~Dennis makes a plan to have sex with every hot chick he can in Los Angeles. He meets Ali on a dating app post-divorce, and inevitably tries to bang her. It doesn’t work. ~Frank crashes the rental car, and inevitably the gang ends up at one of Daniel’s dealerships. Dee quickly takes a liking to Daniel and is like “Watch, assholes--Imma homewreck this guy’s marriage.” She starts frequenting the dealerships to attempt to flirt with Daniel, until one day she walks in on him having sex with Johnny in a back room and she’s like “Is that the guy from Mac’s goddamn dojo?!?!” ~Dennis, of course, tries to sleep with Amanda. Amanda is not having it, and rebukes him in the most snarky, Amanda-esque way possible. Dennis is just like “Oh not AGAIN--the women in this goddamn diva city have too high of standards!” ~Later on, the gang is at the beach and Dennis spots the blonde lady he went out on an ill-fate date with, and decides to give it another shot--that is, until he sees her go up and kiss another woman and he’s like “IS THAT THE LADY FROM THE CAR DEALERSHIP??? STUPID-KARATE-KICK-COMMERCIAL’S WIFE?!? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.” ~Dee complains to Dennis about her lack of luck getting laid, and Dennis is just like “Oh come ON, is everyone in Los Angeles gay???” Smash cut to Hawk and Demetri having sex, Moon and Piper making out, Bert and Nate holding hands, Chris and Mitch doing oral, and Amanda, Ali, and Carmen having a threesome. ~Frank tries to scam Kreese into buying cheaply-made karate equipment for his dojo. The gang ends up having to leave LA because Kreese is quite literally plotting all of their murders.

For tagging, uuuuhhhhhh @jackonthelongwalk @soe-leo @max-eagle-fang @cc-tinslebee @backawayfromthegay @asphodel-storm do the thing, if y’all haven’t yet!

[zevraholics]

ZevWarden Week 2020

What is it? A week (July 1st - July 7th) of creating new content, sharing it and celebrating the wonderful ship of ZevWarden!

How to participate: Feel free to follow the daily prompts as inspiration for whatever ZevWarden-related content your heart desires. Fics, art, meta discussions - everything goes! Remember to tag your works appropriately (ie. #nsfw) and most of all, have fun! 

There are TWO prompts per day so pick whichever one inspires you! Tag your content with #zevwarden week 2020 and it’ll be reblogged here. ***Any art found to be whitewashing Zevran will not be posted

Wednesday, July 1st: EYE OF THE BEHOLDER [identity][admiration]

Thursday, July 2nd: LA PETITE MORT [death][weak spots]

Friday, July 3rd: "OH MAKER" [faith][first times]

Saturday, July 4th: CANDLELIGHT WHISPERS [opening up][pillow talk]

Sunday, July 5th: ANTIVAN BAD BOY [tattoos][kink]

Monday, July 6th: BLOODSTAINED CLOTHES [injury][dressing up]

Tuesday, July 7th: #RELATIONSHIPGOALS [flirting][the future]

Descriptions of each prompt under the cut:

Wednesday, July 1st EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

Identity  “A Dalish whore, thank you very much. It was my sole distinction amongst the other elven boys in the whorehouse.” 

How does Zevran feel about his identity as a Dalish (or not, as the case may be)? Does he struggle with the diaspora? Does that change after meeting your warden? Do they ever try and find his family? Does your Warden also struggle with their identity, or belonging?

Admiration “We all have our reasons for doing what we do. Mine happen to come with a set of strong hands/lovely eyes.” 

What are the things that Zevran admire about the warden -- both appearance and personality? What first drew his attention? What about the contrary? What is it about Zevran that makes your warden’s heart swell and their undergarments wet?

Thursday, July 2nd  DAY 2: LA PETITE MORT

Death “Oh, I'm not going to die. It's always the Grey Wardens that die. Did you not read stories as a child? The hero always dies.” 

Does the warden sacrifice themselves, do they live to hear the Calling, or do they find the cure and reach old age along with Zev? Who dies first; how? How does the other deal with the grief? Do their friends and family (children?) help them heal?

Weak spots  “Hmm. Now that you mention it, I... I suddenly rather feel like a delicate mushroom…”

What do you HC are Zevran’s weaknesses in bed? What gets him “spilling liquid everywhere” like a delicate mushroom? How does the warden find out about it? What does Zev do that makes the warden weak? Do either of them have an innocuous ‘thing’ that just makes them melt?

Friday, July 3rd "OH MAKER"

Faith “And I ask forgiveness for my sins from the Maker every chance I get.” 

How do you HC Zevran’s relationship to faith, Andrastianism, etc? Does he believe, or is he cynical? Does he hold a grudge against the Maker? Fear Him? Pray to Him? How do his beliefs (or lack thereof) play out next to the Warden’s?

First times “I grew up amongst Antivan whores, men and women both. My introduction to the subject of sex was, shall we say, rather practical.” 

How did Zevran’s first time with the warden go? Were they a virgin, or an experienced lover? Do they stumble trying to find out what the other likes? And how do you HC Zevran’s introduction to sex actually went -- how did it affect him? What about the Warden’s, if Zev was not their first? Do they ever talk about it?

Saturday, July 4th CANDLELIGHT WHISPERS

Opening up  “It... feels good to speak of it to someone. I swore I never would.” 

How long does it take for your Warden and Zevran to trust each other enough to open up? When does Zevran tell them the truth about Rinna, about his pain? How freely does the Warden show him their deeper secrets, wishes and traumas? How do they comfort each other?

Pillow Talk  “You Fereldens are so finicky. How will you ever learn how to pleasure each other unless you talk about it?” 

Was your Warden used to talking about sex at all, or were they a “finicky” Fereldan? How does Zev ease them into it? What are the aspects of sex about which they talk? Are there any incompatibilities between them that they have to work out? Is there anything the Warden (or even Zev) is embarrassed of and takes time to talk about/bring into their sex life?

Sunday, July 5th ANTIVAN BAD BOY

Tattoos “Ohhh, yes, yes. But it is not so bad, in truth. If you like, I could give you one. I learned a bit of the art myself in Antiva.” 

Tattoo artist Zev -- is it canon in your canon, or was he just messing around with Alistair? Does he ever give your Warden a tattoo? What is it of? How does it go? Who brings it up first?

Kink “Now that I've mentioned tying me up in that context, do we have extra rope about?" 

Zev talks about getting tied up so often it’s hard to choose just one rope quote. Is he thirsty for rope-play/BDSM in your canon? What about your Warden? Do they get kinky in the bedroom? Do they tie Zev up, gag him and spank him, or vice versa? Does it ever end badly by accident? How do they deal with it when elaborate sex takes unwanted turns?

Monday, July 6th BLOODSTAINED CLOTHES

Injury “I haven't been this hurt in... well, ever!” 

Zevran’s Crow training was no cakewalk, but how do you HC Zevran handles injuries? How does the warden take it when Zev gets badly hurt? Or vice versa? Do Zev or the warden ever get poisoned, seriously ill or have a major brush with death? What of magical injuries? Do they use magic to heal -- if your warden is a mage, is this a comforting ritual for Zev?

Dressing Up (or down 😏 ) “I’ve always removed my clothes strictly on an amateur basis. A talented amateur, but an amateur nonetheless.”

Do you HC Zevran enjoys dressing up for a fancy party, an infiltration job, or even a tumble between the sheets? Has he ever done a strip-tease for the warden or vice versa? Do they roleplay in full costume in the bedroom? Do they enjoy shopping for clothes together? What is their fashion sense? Would they dress up for a Halloween party in an AU? What costumes?

Tuesday, July 7th #RELATIONSHIPGOALS

Flirting “Do you stare at everyone like that?” “Not everyone.” 

Zev is such a good flirt he can stare off a lass’ six layers of skirts. How does the warden feel at first, being the object of Zev’s flattery? How do they respond? In what ways does it change as they get closer? Do they get the habit of telling each other awful pick-up lines? Do they keep flirting like two idiots even years later?

The Future “How should I know? I cannot see the future. What if I liked it here? What if we became fond of each other, hmm? Stranger things have happened.” 

Does Zevran find a home with the campfire crew; with the warden and their family? Do they start a family? What strange things he’d never expected end up surprising him in their journey? What shocking twists does their future hold? What Post-Blight adventures do they have?

[argylemnwrites]

Fight or Flight - Chapter 10: Why

Pairing: Drake Walker x MC (Riley Liu)

Book: The Royal Heir (canon divergent from the end of book 2)

Word Count: ~4400

Rating: PG-13 (language only)

Summary: Five days since The Walker Absconding

Author’s Note: This series follows the Walkers, their friends, and Cordonia as a whole after they flee the country with their daughter during Barthelemy Beaumont’s attempted coup. To catch up on this series, check out it’s masterlist. (link can be found via my bio - sorry, Tumblr is once again not putting my posts with links in tag searches)

“I know the location of the former Duchess and Duke of Valtoria and the Queen-Regent of Cordonia.” Her tone was even and calm. Amalas wasn’t giving anything away.

“Is that so?” Olivia asked, her mind scrambling to let go of her irritation with Leo and figure out her best strategy here. “How did you happen to come across such information?”

“Oh, they don’t call me the ‘Spy Queen’ for nothing.”

“And why are you calling me? This would seem like the type of information that would be more useful to the acting monarch than me.” She tapped her nails against her desk, trying to come up with a way to get Amalas to reveal more. As helpful as it would be to hear how she had tracked Riley and Drake, finding out why she was following their whereabouts would be infinitely more invaluable.

“Interesting. I would have assumed that you had a vested interest in keeping them from being taken into custody.”

“Why would you think that? The Walkers are traitors who deserve whatever comes to them.” She and Hana had rehearsed variations of that sentiment with each other over the past few days. Hana had opted for a gentler stance, focusing on how sad the whole affair made her. Olivia knew that righteous anger was more believable from her, though.

Amalas was silent for a few seconds before she responded, “Very interesting indeed. Can you give me a way to get in touch with King-Regent Rashad, in that case? I’m sure he will find my intel quite valuable.”

She was trying to call her bluff here. There was no way Amalas had just decided to contact her out of the goodness of her heart. There had to be a reason why she came to her first. Olivia knew she had to keep pushing. “Of course, I would be happy to do so.”

Another pause followed. “Thank you; that would be so helpful.”

“You’re welcome, Your Majesty. You know, you might want to look at your staff’s performance, though. If they can’t keep track of the palace’s contact information, I worry about what other details might be slipping through the cracks.”

The silence lasted longer this time. Jackpot. Olivia knew she was on the right track. “Just some friendly advice,” she continued, “unless you don’t want to interact with Rashad for some reason.”

“Why would you possibly think that?”

“Because he’s just a placeholder. You want more influence. He has nothing of value to offer you. An agreement with him could very well fizzle into nothing after the Conclave in a couple of months. So that means I have more bargaining power here than you want to admit.”

“There’s no need to be so confrontational about this, Lady Olivia. As I see it, this can be mutually beneficial.”

“What are you hoping to gain here?”

“The same thing I’ve always wanted - an alliance between Monterisso and Cordonia. And I’m willing to help poor Mr. Rys regain his place on the throne to arrange that. You see, we can help each other.”

Olivia frowned. She didn’t trust Amalas, not one bit. Her being more tolerable than Bradshaw and Isabella wasn’t any sort of ringing endorsement. But it was possible that they weren’t going to have better options. She needed to tread carefully here. Not commit, but not close the door.

“I’m not sure how much help any outside power would be at this point, quite frankly. Why don’t you give us a taste of how useful you can be. It’ll be what I bring to Liam, so you might want to make it convincing.”

“Well, I’m not a fan of giving away my hard-earned information for free… but let’s just say that the Walkers might be doing a good job of not allowing their financials to be traced past Ioannina, but that if Cordonia had the surveillance and facial recognition technology of Monterisso, or if Greece actually cared about those warrants that have been issued, bringing them in would not be difficult. Have a nice day. I’m sure we’ll be in touch soon.” And with that, the line went dead.

Olivia massaged her temples. There were just too many moving parts, too many different parties with their own agendas here for her to try and do this solo, or even just with Hana’s help. It was time to end Leo’s lackluster efforts at support. She needed Liam back in the fray.

She marched through the keep to the quarters customarily given to the reigning monarch upon a visit, quarters that Liam had used for years and that she wasn’t going to prevent him from using now, even though both he and his brother were titleless at this point. She knocked on the door, waiting a few moments before Leo flung the door open, a glass of scotch clutched in his free hand.

“Liv! I knew you wouldn’t be able to stay away.”

“Yeah, not here for you. I need to talk to him.”

Leo stepped to the side, gesturing grandly as she passed. “Of course, Your Grace.”

She rolled her eyes and looked around the sitting room. There was Liam, wearing a green sweater, a pair of jeans, and a pair of plaid slippers. It was his equivalent of not getting out of his sleepwear. He was also holding a glass of scotch, a highlighted copy of what appeared to be a section of Cordonian National Law laying forgotten on the coffee table in front of him as he instead was intently focused on the television, which had some sort of football match playing.

“Really, Leo?” she hissed at him, “I thought you were joking about getting him drunk.”

“Relax, Olivia. He’s not drunk drunk. And it’s Cordonia vs. Barcelona, so he’s actually distracted. I thought you wanted me to improve his mood,” he said, under his breath, before raising his voice enough to carry across to his brother, “Hey, look who came to join us?”

Liam glanced over, and Olivia was pleased to notice a little more life behind his eyes. “Olivia? But you hate football.”

Leo clapped a hand on her shoulder and attempted to guide her to the couch, but she rolled it off, walking over to join Liam on her own. “I actually came because I think it’s time we talk about some details, start planning your next steps.”

“Of course,” said Liam, setting his glass down with a little more force than usual, but otherwise not showing any signs of any tipsiness or drunkenness. He moved to grab the papers he’d abandoned in front of him, but Leo interrupted him.

“Hey! I thought we were getting drunk and watching football? The one thing I suggested since I’ve been here that you actually showed enthusiasm for, and now she gets to just cancel the plans?”

“Leo, if Olivia needs-” Liam started, but she held a hand up, stopping him as she glared at Leo.

“Unlike you, I think he and I are capable of multitasking, but I will not drink that swill you two are having. If you go a fetch me a decent Merlot, I will stay and have a drink with you while we talk. And the game can stay on.”

Leo grinned and gave her a little nod before turning and heading out in search of her wine, likely aware he wasn’t going to get a better deal from her than that one. When the door closed, Liam started apologizing.

“Sorry, I wouldn’t have agreed to drink with him if I had known you wanted to meet. But he’s just been insistent, and with this match, I thought-”

“It’s fine, Liam. I wouldn’t have disturbed you two if I hadn’t just received a very interesting call from Amalas.”

Liam’s eyes widened at that. “She… called you?”

“Yes. She is apparently still looking for a formal alliance with Cordonia.”

His eyes dropped to his lap just briefly. “That’s not exactly our place to consider at this point, though.”

“Liam…” Olivia wasn’t quite sure what to say. She had never been good at the whole comforting, shoulder to cry on thing.

“It’s fine,” he said, shaking his head slightly. “Why did she want to speak to you and not Rashad?”

Olivia knew he was deflecting, but she didn’t know how to make him open up to her, particularly not when she actually needed to tell him about that phone call. “She’s thinking long term. She made it pretty clear she’s willing to help you with your bid to reclaim the throne in exchange for the promise of an alliance going forward.”

Liam sighed heavily, letting his head sag. “Alliance via betrothal? As per her original terms? After everything with Auvernal, I struggle to envision Drake and Riley…” he trailed off, “I guess that doesn’t matter at this point does it?”

He had a point. If they were able to regain his title through the Conclave, it was highly unlikely that Bridget was going to remain his appointed heir. But at this point, that felt so far off, like a concern that didn’t really warrant discussion until a much later date. “No, that’s not really worth worrying about right now. To answer your original question, she didn’t state her preferred terms.”

“Did she elaborate as to what she intended to offer in exchange?”

“Not much. The only thing I was able to get out of her is that she knows where Drake, Riley, and Bridget are.”

His head whipped around to face her fully at that, so she continued, “She’s not going to do anything with that info yet. It’s leverage when negotiating with us, but she gets nothing from telling it to Rashad.”

“How does she know, though?” His eyes were wide, the fear clear in them. “And what if she decides to contact Greek authorities?”

“Via facial recognition tech, apparently. But going to the Greek authorities costs her the best bargaining chip she has. She only wants to tell us, Liam. I’m sure of that.”

“I feel like we can’t be sure of anything at this point.”

Olivia took a breath before she spoke again. “Speaking of not being sure of anything, before your brother comes back, you need to know that he was asking me a lot of questions surrounding Drake and Riley.”

“Wait, he was?”

“Yes. I think it’s nothing, but just be aware.”

Liam shook his head. “Leo hates politics. Hates the monarchy, even. I can’t imagine him having any sort of agenda here.”

“Yeah… I know, but I think we need to be cautious here.”

“I’m finding myself being exceedingly cautious lately.” He frowned slightly, then picked up his glass and took another sip of his scotch. “Did he tell you why he was so interested in Drake and Riley?”

“It seemed like he had a possible interest in… reaching out to provide some assistance.”

“Ah,” Liam said, taking another drink. “That’s understandable, I suppose.” He stared at the match, but in a way that made Olivia think he wasn’t exactly watching. 

“Look, you know Hana and I are trying to help them in little ways where we can, but if you’d rather not hear the details, then-”

Liam shook his head. “No, I need to know what’s going on, don’t I? It’s not like I want any harm to come to them. It’s all just so… muddled at the moment.”

Yet again, she wasn’t sure how best to comfort him, so she just placed her hand gently on his knee and gave him a little nod. He seemed to understand her intent, as he forced a smile before reaching for all the papers scattered in front of him.

“Why don’t you warn Drake and Riley that Amalas is tracking them? Then we can go over what you’ve heard about staff in Portavira we might be able to buy off.”

Olivia gave him a little frown. “Are you sure you're ready to do this today? If you wanted to watch this match or-”

“I’m sure, Liv. Too many pieces are moving for me to sit still.”

“And you’re up for this?”

He nodded. “More or less. Enough to be productive at the very least.”

Olivia wasn’t sure about that. He was clearly still processing everything, but maybe having a goal to work towards would be good for him. She wasn’t sure if it was the healthiest coping mechanism she was providing him with, but at least it was a useful one. So she shot a quick text to Drake before settling in to discuss what she’d been working on. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Drake tried to shift in bed without disturbing Riley or Bridget. Usually, Riley was a heavy sleeper. At home, on nights where he couldn’t sleep, he could move about, sometimes even turn on a light and read, without waking her. But since they’d fled Cordonia, she’d been waking up much more easily, and he figured it wouldn’t do any good for both of them to be sleep deprived.

He knew it was a bad idea, but he grabbed his phone to check the time anyway. 2:04 am. Great. Another night where he would be lucky to get four hours of sleep. He resisted the urge to look for more news stories out of Cordonia on his phone, instead shifting onto his back and staring at the ceiling, a rickety old fan clicking as it spun above them.

Not only was he finding it difficult to relax enough to sleep these days, but he’d been having strange dreams too. Some of them didn’t take much effort to see their meaning. He’d had several nightmares where Bridget was wailing and he couldn’t find her, often with Riley sobbing somewhere out of sight, crying out for him to fucking find their child. In others, some combination of Bridget, Riley, and Liam were missing, and he couldn’t move his legs to go find them. It didn’t take a professional to figure out why he was having those dreams.

The dreams that featured his dad were a bit more unsettling. These dreams were more varied, but they all featured his father, now a giant, looking down at him as an adult and expressing his disappointment in him. Once it was for breaking the motor on the boat and lying about it. Once it was for running out of Mom’s line of sight at the store. Most of the time, Drake couldn’t even remember what he’d done wrong in his dream when he woke up, only recalling Dad shaking his head in shame repeatedly.

He hadn’t really dreamed about his father much over the past decade. For the first few years after his death, it had been a somewhat common occurrence, but eventually, those dreams faded. But now Dad was back, judging him for his actions over and over again. He supposed those dreams didn’t need to be analyzed by a therapist either. The message was pretty damn clear.

So often, he wondered if his dad would have been proud of the man he grew into. This was the first time in his life he didn’t need to wonder at all - he knew his father would have been disappointed in him. He’d fled, acted without honor or regard for his duty towards his country. And he just didn’t think all his reasons would be good enough for Dad. The man had put king and country first time and time again, even when it meant letting down Mom or him and Savannah. He’d given his life for his cause.

But Drake hadn’t been able to do that. When Riley had stood there, crumbling to pieces on the palace drive, a panicked mess of terror, he’d just held her tight and done what she needed from him. When Olivia and Liam had asked him to return, he’d denied their request. He’d done what his wife and daughter had needed each and every time. And he couldn’t even bring himself to regret about that choice. Hell, it hadn’t even really been a choice, not when it came down to it.

But that fact that he’d been so able to ignore his other obligations, ignore Dad’s lessons, weighed on him. He both felt like he did the wrong thing and that he’d made the absolute right choice all at the same time, and that conflict had settled into his gut as a massive pit of guilt. And with everything going on, he’d been reluctant to share these thoughts with Riley. She was just now seeming to trust him to be there for her and Bridget. Today, when she’d come back to find him in the park, he couldn’t even be irritated that she would have been wasting precious time if that woman had been a threat. He was just so relieved that she hadn’t wanted to leave without him, so different than her instinct back at the palace.

He knew he should probably talk to her about how he was feeling, that these feelings weren’t going to get better the longer they stayed on the run. And she’d always been good at listening to him in a way that made him feel understood, not stupid or dumb. She got what he meant when he stumbled over describing things or when he couldn’t quite put things in words. But she was still frayed and on edge herself. Today’s trip to the park proved that.

Besides, there were more pressing matters to discuss. Like what they were going to do about aliases. Or the fact that Amalas had apparently located them. Olivia had told him she had it under control, but Drake was still unsure. He hadn’t brought that up with Riley yet. She was already kicking herself after the trip out, and he hadn’t wanted to pile on, but he knew he would have to let her know in the morning. She wasn’t like his mom, who had adopted a clear “ignorance is bliss” policy when it came to obvious dangers his dad had faced at work. Riley was tougher than that, and she really was his partner in this. He would have to let her know so they could decide what they wanted to do next.

Letting out a sigh, Drake rolled to face Riley, sprawled on her stomach with Bridget curled up next to her on the far side. He inched closer to her, but the fact that her hair no longer smelled like peaches was just one more unsettling change in their lives. But that couldn’t really be helped. All he could do was watch his wife and daughter sleep and hope that seeing them safe would calm him enough to get some rest of his own.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Hana shifted in her seat slightly, uncrossing and recrossing her ankles as she smoothed out the wrinkles in her skirt. She glanced around the little cafe, but she didn’t see any members of the press. She usually wasn’t deemed interesting enough to be followed, but given everything that had transpired in the past week, that could have changed. Thankfully, it just seemed to be other patrons, absorbed in their own meals, phones, and conversations.

She’d decided to extend this invite to a public venue in the capital because that felt like neutral ground. Although the estate at Valtoria would have provided privacy, she couldn’t be bringing outsiders in there. Not until she was sure that no information could be gleaned from a visit.

Of course, the investigators hadn’t left much anyway. The office had been emptied essentially, as had the bedroom, the private lounge, and the library. Thankfully, they had only done a cursory check through her personal belongings, and they hadn’t checked under the floorboards she’d pried up in her quarters, now filled with Drake, Riley, and Bridget’s passports, some of their favorite pieces of clothing, Riley’s glasses and spare contacts, a few of Bridget’s toys, and a handful of framed photos.

It was strange, still living there without Riley, but Hana knew she had to stay as long as she was allowed. She wasn’t even sure if she technically could be there now that Riley had been stripped of her title, but no one had told her she needed to vacate the premises just yet. The staff all gave her a wide berth, clearly unsure what to make of the whole situation. Hana knew gossip must be running rampant, and she wondered who was sympathetic to their former employers and who saw them as selfish and reckless.

The little bell over the door rang as the woman Hana was waiting for entered, large sunglasses covering her eyes. She gave a little nod of acknowledgement from the doorway, then joined Hana, sitting down across from her, a slight tremor visible in her hand as she pulled out her chair.

“Hello, Hana.”

“Hello, Kiara.”

She pulled off her sunglasses and placed them gently in front of her. “I’m surprised Olivia approved you meeting with me one on one.”

Hana shook her head. “Olivia doesn’t have much interest in speaking to you directly, I’m afraid.”

“So she sent you to do her dirty work?”

“No, she has no idea I asked you to meet for coffee.”

Kiara stared at Hana for just a moment, her eyes wide and her eyebrows raised. “Vraiment?” she finally asked, “That’s not what I expected.”

Hana gave a little shrug, signalling a waiter and ordering their drinks before she responded. With as much as Olivia had on her plate, she’d decided that she could handle this conversation herself. Additionally, Olivia’s one size fits all, rather aggressive approach didn’t feel right here. She and Kiara had been friends, or so she had thought. They were certainly closer than Kiara had been with Riley or had even been with Olivia herself. She wanted to see if she could reopen a line of communication here, handling things far more gently than Olivia would ever support.

“Look, I always considered us friends, Kiara, but what happened last week…”

“I know. I didn’t want to do that. I don’t know if you can believe that, but it’s the truth. I even tried to warn Riley ahead of the vote.”

“What happened, Kiara? I’m just trying to understand how this all came to pass.”

Kiara glanced around, likely scanning for any obvious eavesdroppers, before she answered, “I can’t get into it all here. If he found out we were talking…”

“Barthelemy?”

“Or my father. Look, Barthelemy has foreign support for his bid for control.”

“Kiara, what do you mean?” Hana was trying to put together these little scraps of information, but she just did not have anywhere near enough to go on at this point.

“I can’t give you more details than that, at least not in public.”

“Then where do you propose we meet next?”

“The Social Season is currently delayed, but it will have to resume again soon, oui? So we will have to talk then. Step away from curious ears discuss things without arousing suspicion.”

All Hana could do was nod. As helpful as it would be to gain more information today, she needed to tread cautiously. She was relatively new to this degree of political maneuvering, and she didn’t want to damage the connection she had here by pushing too aggressively too quickly.

A few moments later, their waiter returned with their drinks. “Will you ladies be ordering lunch as well?” he asked, reaching for his pad of paper.

“No, thank you,” Hana said, turning to Kiara to explain, “I’m meeting with Rashad at the palace in less than an hour.”

Kiara pursed her lips at that, glancing around once more before saying, “If that’s the case, I would recommend trying to persuade him to delay the Social Season for at least two weeks.”

Surprised by that statement, Hana returned her coffee to the table and looked Kiara dead in the eye. “Why might you suggest that?”

“Old bylaws are pretty strict about both the minimum length of a Social Season and that it must conclude prior to the apple harvest.”

“Yes, I’m aware. It’s only happened twice in Cordonian history, if I recall correctly, that the Social Season had not technically concluded by the first harvest.”

“Correct. And both those times the Social Season was merely suspended until the next calendar year, picking up for its conclusion in early January.”

Hana knew there was some important detail here that Kiara was dancing around. If the Social Season got pushed into the next year, so would the Conclave. But that wouldn’t benefit Liam unless…

“Kiara, has your father set a date to formally transfer his head of house status to you yet?”

Kiara widened her eyes significantly as she nodded. “Oui, I will claim the title officially on New Year’s Day.”

“Congratulations! So you will represent House Theron in all matters after that point?”

“Indeed, and while I look to my father as an inspiration for how to lead, I think you will find I am interested in striking my own path as well.”

Hana opened her mouth to try and clarify things a little further, but Kiara shook her head.

“Enough of these matters. I went wedding dress shopping with Penelope the other day, and she was hoping to get your opinion on some options. Shall we look at some photos I took?”

It was a clear redirection of the conversation. Hana knew she was unlikely to get anymore information from Kiara today, so she nodded and gave her a smile, scooting her chair over to look at her phone screen. But instead of photos of Penelope in white gowns, she was surprised to see a blank message thread, an unsent text typed at the bottom of the screen.

You will want me voting at the Conclave, not my father. His vote is decided. Mine is not.

Hana looked at her, but Kiara just nodded, not taking her eyes off the screen as she pulled open her gallery and scrolled to a series of photos taken a few days earlier. As Hana oohed and ahhed over dress after dress, millions of questions swirled through her mind. And even though she didn’t have most of the answers, at least she felt like she was making progress. That had to count for something.

Permatag:  @walkerswhiskeygirl   @riley--walker  @bebepac @ravenpuff02 @oofchoices @octobereighth @drakewalker04 @kimmiedoo5  @mfackenthal  @thequeenofcronuts  

The Royal Romance/The Royal Heir: @iaminlovewithtrr @ao719 @mskaneko @katedrakeohd @jovialyouthmusic @marshmallowsandfire @axwalker @kingliam2019 @sirbeepsalot @texaskitten30 @princessleac1 @ladyangel70 @dcbbw @yaushie

Drake x MC: @no-one-u-know @drakeandcamilleofvaltoria  @iplaydrake @gibbles82 @drakewalkerisreal @notoriouscs  @drakesensworld @drake-colt-lover-99

Fight or Flight: @masterofbluff @burnsoslow @bobasheebaby @shz256​

[deathchasing]

romance headcanons

name:          octavio silva.

nickname:          octane! he’s been called oct and ‘tav for short, but in general he doesn’t appreciate these nicknames unless you know him super well (though that doesn’t stop people from using them).

gender:           male. he/him.

romantic orientation:          he’s never really given it much thought-- gender doesn’t really play a role in who he’s attracted to, but he does tend to lean more towards other men. personality, demeanor, and dynamic matter far more to him. in a word, he’s ... dangersexual? oof.

preferred pet names:           none that he would admit to liking. whether they’re ‘pet’ names is debatable. they’re certainly not terms of endearment for the average person.

relationship status:           he’s definitely got something significant though ill-defined going on with @corrodent, whatever that might be - otherwise a couple of unhealthy flings as per the usual.

favorite canon/fandom ship:         fandom tends to put him in fluffy ships with mirage mainly, but I personally don’t see octane really fitting into that  framework (sorry miroctane fans). He’s a disaster dedicated to chasing a high no matter the cost; he doesn’t have the leftover commitment to spare for a healthy, stable relationship, nevermind that in canon he clearly lacks the emotional maturity for one, friendship or otherwise. caustane is my fav ship for obvious reasons, the dynamic is a really interesting one from a storytelling standpoint, and there’s potential on both sides for various conflict and growth. i think the age gap bothers some people which is valid but octane doesn’t strike me as the kind of character who would care at all.

cryptane is also really growing on me! lots of potential there too, especially re: crypto having no choice but to be in the games and octane being there purely by choice. i’m excited to explore it.

favorite crossover ship:           up until really recently the only ships I had aside from caustane were crossover ships! it’s too hard to choose! i of course love my crossover buddies @incnspcuous, @zweiherzen, @programregulator <3

opinion on true love:         the concept of love confuses him. he’s not really sure what it is? he grew up learning that in order to be loved he had to be good enough to deserve it, whatever that might entail. old man silva didn’t much care for a son that had no interest in carrying on with his work, and so octavio went a long time believing it was his own fault he wasn’t loved. nowadays he’s fiercely defensive of his self-worth, always the first to step up and prove himself, but on the downside it means he doesn’t really accept love anymore - it would meaning opening himself to the potential of losing that love, too, and that’s something he can’t handle, not after what he went through when he was younger, constantly vying for love he knew deep down he would never receive.

people he cares enough about still can get under his skin without much trouble, unfortunately, and dredge up this younger self that’s so terrified of being alone. he’s easily taken advantage of in this manner.

opinion on love at first sight:         perhaps not necessarily ‘love,’ despite what he may think, but he’s certainly looked at a certain someone before and been riveted on the spot.

how ‘romantic’ are they?:           hardly, if at all. octane can barely sit still long enough to have a single quiet, intimate exchange (though he has his moments), and prefers fun and games and banter more than anything affectionate or soft.

ideal physical traits:           not hugely important, but being bigger than him and/or capable of snapping him over a table like dry pasta is a bonus.

ideal personality traits:         given his track record, octane primarily finds himself magnetized to dark, cold, intelligent individuals, often capable of doing him great mental and physical harm. the more terrifying, the more octane finds himself attracted. flirting with death is almost a point of pride for him; he likes to see how far he can get before he’s outsmarted, and it’s his pursuit of greater thrills through this outlet that feeds his desire for validation. of course, there’s also the misery that comes of these qualities, but it’s so normalized for him he doesn’t pay much mind to the stress it puts on his psyche.

unattractive physical traits:           nothing of note, really.

unattractive personality traits:         there’s not much he finds outstandingly unattractive. he definitely doesn’t like people who aren’t true to themselves, who lie about who they are for approval or because they fear rejection. he finds it doesn’t do anyone any favors to water down who you are for the sake of societal or cultural mores. be unabashedly yourself or forfeit the claim you have on your place in the universe. he wouldn’t say he’s a hypocrite in respect to this belief either, because while he does wear a mask, octane is more of a persona meant to celebrate the qualities about himself he cherishes - it’s freeing to him, not a prison like it might otherwise be to someone afraid of who they are.

ideal date:           honestly he’s down for anything. he loves trying new things and going to new places. of course, he’s less inclined to go to fancier places-- it’s hard for him to behave, much less stick to using his inside voice-- but really he’ll always be excited and revved up to do whatever his partner wants to do, unless it’s exceedingly boring.

do they have a type?:        haha. pretty obvious at this point that he does.

average relationship length:         as mentioned, he doesn’t really do committed relationships. he doesn’t have the patience or willingness to dedicate himself to someone in that matter. he tends to spend a lot of his time around one or two primary people but prefers to keep these relationships open. he’s selfish, basically - and beneath the surface, feeling caged or limited is quite frightening to him.

preferred non-sexual intimacy:      he’s not a big fan of non-sexual intimacy, actually, feels about it much the same way he feels about love. affection makes him intensely aware of himself and his feelings and all the squishy, vulnerable parts of himself he guards so staunchly. he would rather be beaten within an inch of his life than lovingly caressed. it hurts so much more to bear his heart.

commitment level:           i think this is a good area to elaborate that while octane doesn’t exactly do committed relationships, he is extremely loyal and dedicated to those he cares deeply for. despite his selfishness, he is willing to make sacrifices if it means doing right by someone important in his life - he would love nothing more than to make them proud of him. occasionally this does become more important than whatever his needs may be. at the end of the day, he’s a sweet boy and does care about other people, it just pains him to do so, and it’s an inconvenience he doesn’t enjoy humoring.

opinion of public affection:        he’s shameless. you could slap his ass in front of the entire syndicate and he probably wouldn’t blink an eye.

past relationships?:           he’s had one-night stands in the past-- not as many as people might suspect with that attitude-- but nothing significant. caustic is really the first relationship he’s had that’s lasted longer than a month or two.

tagged by: @incnspcuous <3 tagging:  @enccrypted, @corrodent, @programregulator, @driftyr, @zweiherzen, @ajayslullaby, @psycchout and whoever else wants to take a shot!

[hexiest]

Art Request FAQ for Mobile Users

***This post is under construction! Old information has been striked through, I will no longer be doing free art requests outside of maybe one slot a month once the current requests are finished. See this post for more information about why. I will be updating this page once I have finished current projects and I am ready to start taking commissions; I will be making visual examples for all my pricing and I won't be charging much at first. Thank you for your support!***

Hello! I am a learning digital artist and I take custom art requests through both my main blog @hexiest and my sideblog @gloomy-babygirl. You can see examples of my art by clicking this link, it will take you to my current up-to-date DeviantArt gallery. If you have a question that isn’t answered here, please don’t hesitate to message me. :)

Now, onto the FAQ:

How will I know if you are currently taking requests? You can see if my requests are open in my blog description or right here on this page. 

You can check at the bottom of this post, where I list the 5 slots and who has filled them. If there are “AVAILABLE” ones then I am most likely taking requests! :)

If you get confused or aren’t sure, simply send me a message and ask! I won’t ever be upset with anyone asking questions.

What things will you draw? I will draw almost anything your heart desires! I enjoy taking on new artistic challenges and learning new things. The only rules I have are:

If you are underage (18 or below in the USA), please make the request through this blog - I will not draw anything PG13+ for you.

If you are not underage (18+), you may make the request through @gloomy-babygirl, butI will NOT draw:

loli/shota

underage characters (unless they are drawn in a context where they are 18 or above)

beastiality with real animals (fantasy creatures & furries are fine though)

and I reserve the right to say no to anything that makes me feel uncomfortable, but it’s not often that happens.

Outside of this, feel free to get as specific and elaborate as you would like, and don’t feel ashamed asking me for art including kinks that you struggle to find content for. If you feel like what you want drawn might make me uncomfortable, don’t worry about it. Ask anyway! You can always contact me on anon first, I leave my ask box open at all times. :)

How do I make a request? You can make a request by contacting me through the messaging system on here via either one of my blogs, but I do ask that if your request has PG13+ content involved that you make the request specifically to @gloomy-babygirl, but outside of that either blog is fine. I usually respond within 24 hours.

In order for me to create the most accurate image possible, when you make your request please include the following things:

A detailed description of what you would like to see, including any specific characters, animals, creatures, actions, objects, clothing, poses, colors, surroundings, or other specific details.

Any reference images you have, including current depictions of any characters or selfies/pictures you want made into a portrait, color palettes if they are very specific, pose references if you want an exact replica of that pose, details of the surroundings within the image (like images of scenery that you feel suits the character or story), etc. …

When describing the characters involved in the image, please be specific! Go into detail regarding their appearance & personality, I want to get to know them so that I can draw them knowledgeably and as accurate to your vision as possible.

If you are requesting a comic,please include a very detailed description of the plot line you would like as well as any specific details you want made visible within it. If you have one, a script or list of specific things you want said within the comic so that I can accurately match your vision.

If you are requesting your art be made into a gif, please see the section below regarding gif animations, and keep that in mind when you request it. :D

Can I make my request anonymously? I prefer if you make requests via the messaging system, so no, you can’t make requests on anon, but feel free to ask me about the piece via anonymous ask before you message if you’re unsure I will want to do it.

However, I will keep your username private if you do not want the art piece associated with you publicly, but I will still post the art with my credit on it, and it will say “requested by a Tumblr user” in place of where your username would go. If the art includes OCs that belong to you, then I will simply add “characters depicted belong to the user that requested the piece” to avoid others using the characters or assuming they are my own. Then, I will message you with a link to the post where you can privately save the art created for you.

In addition, if the piece is a gift for another Tumblr user and you don’t want them to see it before you show them, I will hold off on posting it myself and provide you with a Deviant Art or Imgur link to the image so that you can show it off first. Once they have seen it, I will post the art myself and tag you unless specified otherwise.

I saw a gif that you made! What sort of things can you do with gif animation? I can make almost any image into a gif in some way. The things I’m good at doing are solid flashing/changing colors, blinking words, and blinking/looking around eye animations. I can also probably do simple movement animations but only with flat color images at this time.

Currently, my skills are still pretty limited when it comes to making gifs, and it can take me a long time to get a gif working smoothly and properly, so please be patient with me if you request this.

When will my request be finished? I work on requests on a first come-first serve basis for each blog, and I work on the first slot request for each blog a little each day Monday-Thursday.

I take my time on these art pieces. I want you to be happy with the final result, so I take the time to talk with you and get the details down within a sketch before I get into working on detail.

Keeping all of this in mind, it is safe for you to assume that it may take quite a while, and I can’t make any guarantees on the time spent on each drawing, though I will give you an estimate to the best of my ability.

I have a deadline that I need this art completed by. Is there a way to rush my request? Yes, I can rush your request and meet your deadline (as long as it is 2+ days away, or 3+ days for animated gifs)** if you pay for the art.** I accept payment via paypal. I treat rushed orders as though they are commissions, with half of the full amount due as down payment before the art is made, and the rest when the art is finished.

(Please note: If you do not have a deadline but still desire to pay something for your art piece, you may make a donation of any amount to me, but unless the donation matches the following Rush Prices or above then your request will stay in whatever slot it falls in at the time of request.)

Rush prices:

1. Portraits (flat color):

Single portraits:$1

Couples portraits: $2

Group portraits: $1 per person

Detailed Color (no gif): +$2

Add a detailed background: +$2

Turn it into a simple gif:+$3

Turn it into a complicated gif:+$5

2. Comics:

Black and White Lineart:$1 per frame

Flat Color: $1.50 per frame

Detailed Color (no gif): $2 per frame

Add detailed backgrounds: +$1 per frame

Add an animated frame (converts to gif): +$3

3. Anything that doesn’t fit specifically within these categories I will create a fair price for based upon the prices above.

Current request list for @hexiest:

1. @blare-wolf-project - TBD

2. @happyclip - D&D character portrait

3. @xx2392 - Fursona portrait

Current request list for @gloomy-babygirl:

1.@princeasimdiya12 - kinky comic request (estimated 3 weeks to completion) 2.@nebula-nymph - animated self portrait 3.@xx2392 - NSFW Fursona Portrait

[samiaedithg]

Create a website with SEO in mind: Content optimization

If you make a website from scratch, you need to take a few SEO related things into account. It’s incredibly important to do this right from the start, as that will prevent a vast number of future headaches. Things like speed optimization and the right use of heading tags help to improve your website for both your visitors and Google. Now, I am sure you have covered the technical basics we described in the first part of this article. Just be aware of what you are doing, add focus and you’ll be fine. The greatest challenge begins when you start adding content to your website.

In this article, we’ll go over a number of steps everyone who makes a website should take when optimizing content.

Learn how to write awesome and SEO friendly articles in our SEO Copywriting training »

$199 - Buy now »

Info Filling the website with content

You can optimize the entire technical side of your site and still find it lost on page two or more in Google. SEO isn’t a trick. It isn’t something your web developer can do for you. It’s something you can get guidance in, for instance with our SEO courses, or in our Yoast SEO (Premium) plugin. But first and foremost, SEO is Seriously Effortful Optimization. A continuous process, and something you, as a website owner, should make a strategy for. If you make a website, be prepared to write valuable content about the topic/purpose of your website. And that process starts with a bit of research.

Keyword research

Speaking from experience, I have often seen product manufacturers describe a product from their point of view. Let me give you an example: our Yoast SEO Premium plugin has an internal linking feature, which analyzes what posts on your website best match the content you are writing in your new post. You can copy that link from the WordPress sidebar and paste it into your post, to optimize your site structure. How awesome is that? Well, it might not sound so awesome to the user. They’re probably wondering what exactly they’re gaining with this feature. From a developer point of view, the description matches the feature. But for the user, the description should be:

Our internal linking tool allows you to create valuable links to all pages of your website, which will help these pages to rank in Google.

And even that might be a bit technical. In your keyword research you should focus on customer lingo first: how do people call your product? Find the right keywords and start writing. Want to learn more about keyword research? Take our SEO copywriting course for more insights.

Setting up the menu and site structure

In that same SEO copywriting training, we continue the SEO process for your website with the next step: site structure. You can even take our site structure course for more on this subject. Don’t underestimate the importance of a good structure. It’s the foundation of you visible site. If you set up a proper site structure right when you start a website, you’ll make optimizing your content so much easier.

As Marieke put it:

Your users need the structure to navigate through your site, to click from one page to the other. And Google uses the structure of your site in order to determine what content is important and what content is less important.

That’s a quote from our ultimate guide to site structure. It’s as simple as that. Optimizing the site structure influences SEO, UX, crawling of your pages and, let’s not forget, the right structure makes maintenance so much easier.

Good site structure will also help highlight the most important pages for your users. Include these pages in your (main, sub or footer) menu. As with customer lingo, use the data collected from Google Analytics to find the pages your visitors like most, and use these in your menu. Read more about optimizing your menu here.

Learn how to write engaging copy and how to organize it well on your site: Combine our SEO copywriting and Site structure training. »

$249 - Buy now »

Info One page per topic

Keyword research is done, the structure is set up, so now we can start writing. And we’ll create one page per topic. Need more pages to elaborate on a topic? Then feel free to do so, but use a new, long tail keyword for every new page.

Using one focus keyword per page, you force yourself to make a hierarchy in your collection of keywords, something you already started when doing your keyword research.

Small step back to keyword research

Now I see you thinking about this focus keyword and the analyses in our plugin during your writing process. You know that feeling when you check keyword density and wonder what to do with synonyms? The first thing to do here is to check Google Trends. Let’s say we optimize for (just an example!) “create a website”. A synonym is “start a website”. Google Trends tells us the main keyword should be “create a website”, see graph here:

But we use “start a website” a lot ourselves and want to include that phrase in our post as well. In the Yoast SEO Premium plugin, I can simply insert a second focus keyword. Overall keyword density should be right in that case (check both keyword tabs), as we know Google treats them as the same keyword: If I do a search for “start a website”, “create a website” is also a highlighted (bold) keyphrase in the results. “Make a website” is also a valid synonym. Just a small peek into the way I approach this myself.

Title tags

Using the focus keyword we mentioned earlier, creating a great title for your page is easy. Google still values that title highly, so put some effort in improving it. We usually use the title as the main article heading (or the H1 we mentioned in part 1 of this post). Besides that, it’s used as the most important part of the actual <title> tag, the tag that also defines your title in Google’s search result pages. This tag is not only visible when someone shares your post on Facebook or Twitter, it’s also used when someone bookmarks your site.

Optimize the title page according to these guidelines » 

Optimize your content

Learn how to write engaging copy and how to organize it well on your site: Combine our SEO copywriting and Site structure training. »

$249 - Buy now »

InfoHere we go: use Yoast SEO to optimize your page’s content. I’m just going to tell you that again. And if you don’t use WordPress, that’s not even an excuse anymore. We have Yoast SEO for Magento 2 and Yoast SEO for TYPO3 these days (created with our partner MaxServ).

Our SEO analysis will tell you, every time you write a post or page, what can be improved on your content:

Read our SEO blog, as there’s a ton of free information about content optimization in there. And subscribe to our newsletter to keep your knowledge up to date.

How about meta descriptions?

I felt the need to at least mention meta descriptions here. Most SEO plugins, plans or whatever, mention meta descriptions as a must-do. I agree to a certain level. If you can write a nice, optimized ‘invitation’ to your website, you should most definitely add a meta description to your product pages. Usually, there is so much unrelated content on a product page (dimensions, manufacturer info, terms of service, etc.) that there’s always a risk that Google creates a meta description for that product page that doesn’t give the right information. So it makes sense to serve your own.

On regular pages and posts, Google will most probably grab a piece of related content, including the keyword used in the search query. That makes a lot of sense for news sites, for example. Still, I recommend adding a meta description to all your important pages. Facebook will use it as a description as well. And usually, when you are setting up a page on your website, it’s not that much work to add it, right?

Go make a website!

So, with this second part about content optimization, we have covered the very basics of SEO related things you should take into account when you make a website. I am sure you can come up with more insights, more tools or any other help for people that want to create a new website. Please feel free to add these in the comment section below this post, our readers (and I) will appreciate that!

Now go start that website!

Read on: ‘The ultimate guide to SEO copywriting’ »

http://ift.tt/2yWevi6

[lindasharonbn]

Create a website with SEO in mind: Content optimization

If you make a website from scratch, you need to take a few SEO related things into account. It’s incredibly important to do this right from the start, as that will prevent a vast number of future headaches. Things like speed optimization and the right use of heading tags help to improve your website for both your visitors and Google. Now, I am sure you have covered the technical basics we described in the first part of this article. Just be aware of what you are doing, add focus and you’ll be fine. The greatest challenge begins when you start adding content to your website.

In this article, we’ll go over a number of steps everyone who makes a website should take when optimizing content.

Learn how to write awesome and SEO friendly articles in our SEO Copywriting training »

$199 - Buy now »

Info Filling the website with content

You can optimize the entire technical side of your site and still find it lost on page two or more in Google. SEO isn’t a trick. It isn’t something your web developer can do for you. It’s something you can get guidance in, for instance with our SEO courses, or in our Yoast SEO (Premium) plugin. But first and foremost, SEO is Seriously Effortful Optimization. A continuous process, and something you, as a website owner, should make a strategy for. If you make a website, be prepared to write valuable content about the topic/purpose of your website. And that process starts with a bit of research.

Keyword research

Speaking from experience, I have often seen product manufacturers describe a product from their point of view. Let me give you an example: our Yoast SEO Premium plugin has an internal linking feature, which analyzes what posts on your website best match the content you are writing in your new post. You can copy that link from the WordPress sidebar and paste it into your post, to optimize your site structure. How awesome is that? Well, it might not sound so awesome to the user. They’re probably wondering what exactly they’re gaining with this feature. From a developer point of view, the description matches the feature. But for the user, the description should be:

Our internal linking tool allows you to create valuable links to all pages of your website, which will help these pages to rank in Google.

And even that might be a bit technical. In your keyword research you should focus on customer lingo first: how do people call your product? Find the right keywords and start writing. Want to learn more about keyword research? Take our SEO copywriting course for more insights.

Setting up the menu and site structure

In that same SEO copywriting training, we continue the SEO process for your website with the next step: site structure. You can even take our site structure course for more on this subject. Don’t underestimate the importance of a good structure. It’s the foundation of you visible site. If you set up a proper site structure right when you start a website, you’ll make optimizing your content so much easier.

As Marieke put it:

Your users need the structure to navigate through your site, to click from one page to the other. And Google uses the structure of your site in order to determine what content is important and what content is less important.

That’s a quote from our ultimate guide to site structure. It’s as simple as that. Optimizing the site structure influences SEO, UX, crawling of your pages and, let’s not forget, the right structure makes maintenance so much easier.

Good site structure will also help highlight the most important pages for your users. Include these pages in your (main, sub or footer) menu. As with customer lingo, use the data collected from Google Analytics to find the pages your visitors like most, and use these in your menu. Read more about optimizing your menu here.

Learn how to write engaging copy and how to organize it well on your site: Combine our SEO copywriting and Site structure training. »

$249 - Buy now »

Info One page per topic

Keyword research is done, the structure is set up, so now we can start writing. And we’ll create one page per topic. Need more pages to elaborate on a topic? Then feel free to do so, but use a new, long tail keyword for every new page.

Using one focus keyword per page, you force yourself to make a hierarchy in your collection of keywords, something you already started when doing your keyword research.

Small step back to keyword research

Now I see you thinking about this focus keyword and the analyses in our plugin during your writing process. You know that feeling when you check keyword density and wonder what to do with synonyms? The first thing to do here is to check Google Trends. Let’s say we optimize for (just an example!) “create a website”. A synonym is “start a website”. Google Trends tells us the main keyword should be “create a website”, see graph here:

But we use “start a website” a lot ourselves and want to include that phrase in our post as well. In the Yoast SEO Premium plugin, I can simply insert a second focus keyword. Overall keyword density should be right in that case (check both keyword tabs), as we know Google treats them as the same keyword: If I do a search for “start a website”, “create a website” is also a highlighted (bold) keyphrase in the results. “Make a website” is also a valid synonym. Just a small peek into the way I approach this myself.

Title tags

Using the focus keyword we mentioned earlier, creating a great title for your page is easy. Google still values that title highly, so put some effort in improving it. We usually use the title as the main article heading (or the H1 we mentioned in part 1 of this post). Besides that, it’s used as the most important part of the actual <title> tag, the tag that also defines your title in Google’s search result pages. This tag is not only visible when someone shares your post on Facebook or Twitter, it’s also used when someone bookmarks your site.

Optimize the title page according to these guidelines » 

Optimize your content

Learn how to write engaging copy and how to organize it well on your site: Combine our SEO copywriting and Site structure training. »

$249 - Buy now »

InfoHere we go: use Yoast SEO to optimize your page’s content. I’m just going to tell you that again. And if you don’t use WordPress, that’s not even an excuse anymore. We have Yoast SEO for Magento 2 and Yoast SEO for TYPO3 these days (created with our partner MaxServ).

Our SEO analysis will tell you, every time you write a post or page, what can be improved on your content:

Read our SEO blog, as there’s a ton of free information about content optimization in there. And subscribe to our newsletter to keep your knowledge up to date.

How about meta descriptions?

I felt the need to at least mention meta descriptions here. Most SEO plugins, plans or whatever, mention meta descriptions as a must-do. I agree to a certain level. If you can write a nice, optimized ‘invitation’ to your website, you should most definitely add a meta description to your product pages. Usually, there is so much unrelated content on a product page (dimensions, manufacturer info, terms of service, etc.) that there’s always a risk that Google creates a meta description for that product page that doesn’t give the right information. So it makes sense to serve your own.

On regular pages and posts, Google will most probably grab a piece of related content, including the keyword used in the search query. That makes a lot of sense for news sites, for example. Still, I recommend adding a meta description to all your important pages. Facebook will use it as a description as well. And usually, when you are setting up a page on your website, it’s not that much work to add it, right?

Go make a website!

So, with this second part about content optimization, we have covered the very basics of SEO related things you should take into account when you make a website. I am sure you can come up with more insights, more tools or any other help for people that want to create a new website. Please feel free to add these in the comment section below this post, our readers (and I) will appreciate that!

Now go start that website!

Read on: ‘The ultimate guide to SEO copywriting’ »

http://ift.tt/2yWevi6

[mariaajamesol]

Create a website with SEO in mind: Content optimization

If you make a website from scratch, you need to take a few SEO related things into account. It’s incredibly important to do this right from the start, as that will prevent a vast number of future headaches. Things like speed optimization and the right use of heading tags help to improve your website for both your visitors and Google. Now, I am sure you have covered the technical basics we described in the first part of this article. Just be aware of what you are doing, add focus and you’ll be fine. The greatest challenge begins when you start adding content to your website.

In this article, we’ll go over a number of steps everyone who makes a website should take when optimizing content.

Learn how to write awesome and SEO friendly articles in our SEO Copywriting training »

$199 - Buy now »

Info Filling the website with content

You can optimize the entire technical side of your site and still find it lost on page two or more in Google. SEO isn’t a trick. It isn’t something your web developer can do for you. It’s something you can get guidance in, for instance with our SEO courses, or in our Yoast SEO (Premium) plugin. But first and foremost, SEO is Seriously Effortful Optimization. A continuous process, and something you, as a website owner, should make a strategy for. If you make a website, be prepared to write valuable content about the topic/purpose of your website. And that process starts with a bit of research.

Keyword research

Speaking from experience, I have often seen product manufacturers describe a product from their point of view. Let me give you an example: our Yoast SEO Premium plugin has an internal linking feature, which analyzes what posts on your website best match the content you are writing in your new post. You can copy that link from the WordPress sidebar and paste it into your post, to optimize your site structure. How awesome is that? Well, it might not sound so awesome to the user. They’re probably wondering what exactly they’re gaining with this feature. From a developer point of view, the description matches the feature. But for the user, the description should be:

Our internal linking tool allows you to create valuable links to all pages of your website, which will help these pages to rank in Google.

And even that might be a bit technical. In your keyword research you should focus on customer lingo first: how do people call your product? Find the right keywords and start writing. Want to learn more about keyword research? Take our SEO copywriting course for more insights.

Setting up the menu and site structure

In that same SEO copywriting training, we continue the SEO process for your website with the next step: site structure. You can even take our site structure course for more on this subject. Don’t underestimate the importance of a good structure. It’s the foundation of you visible site. If you set up a proper site structure right when you start a website, you’ll make optimizing your content so much easier.

As Marieke put it:

Your users need the structure to navigate through your site, to click from one page to the other. And Google uses the structure of your site in order to determine what content is important and what content is less important.

That’s a quote from our ultimate guide to site structure. It’s as simple as that. Optimizing the site structure influences SEO, UX, crawling of your pages and, let’s not forget, the right structure makes maintenance so much easier.

Good site structure will also help highlight the most important pages for your users. Include these pages in your (main, sub or footer) menu. As with customer lingo, use the data collected from Google Analytics to find the pages your visitors like most, and use these in your menu. Read more about optimizing your menu here.

Learn how to write engaging copy and how to organize it well on your site: Combine our SEO copywriting and Site structure training. »

$249 - Buy now »

Info One page per topic

Keyword research is done, the structure is set up, so now we can start writing. And we’ll create one page per topic. Need more pages to elaborate on a topic? Then feel free to do so, but use a new, long tail keyword for every new page.

Using one focus keyword per page, you force yourself to make a hierarchy in your collection of keywords, something you already started when doing your keyword research.

Small step back to keyword research

Now I see you thinking about this focus keyword and the analyses in our plugin during your writing process. You know that feeling when you check keyword density and wonder what to do with synonyms? The first thing to do here is to check Google Trends. Let’s say we optimize for (just an example!) “create a website”. A synonym is “start a website”. Google Trends tells us the main keyword should be “create a website”, see graph here:

But we use “start a website” a lot ourselves and want to include that phrase in our post as well. In the Yoast SEO Premium plugin, I can simply insert a second focus keyword. Overall keyword density should be right in that case (check both keyword tabs), as we know Google treats them as the same keyword: If I do a search for “start a website”, “create a website” is also a highlighted (bold) keyphrase in the results. “Make a website” is also a valid synonym. Just a small peek into the way I approach this myself.

Title tags

Using the focus keyword we mentioned earlier, creating a great title for your page is easy. Google still values that title highly, so put some effort in improving it. We usually use the title as the main article heading (or the H1 we mentioned in part 1 of this post). Besides that, it’s used as the most important part of the actual <title> tag, the tag that also defines your title in Google’s search result pages. This tag is not only visible when someone shares your post on Facebook or Twitter, it’s also used when someone bookmarks your site.

Optimize the title page according to these guidelines » 

Optimize your content

Learn how to write engaging copy and how to organize it well on your site: Combine our SEO copywriting and Site structure training. »

$249 - Buy now »

InfoHere we go: use Yoast SEO to optimize your page’s content. I’m just going to tell you that again. And if you don’t use WordPress, that’s not even an excuse anymore. We have Yoast SEO for Magento 2 and Yoast SEO for TYPO3 these days (created with our partner MaxServ).

Our SEO analysis will tell you, every time you write a post or page, what can be improved on your content:

Read our SEO blog, as there’s a ton of free information about content optimization in there. And subscribe to our newsletter to keep your knowledge up to date.

How about meta descriptions?

I felt the need to at least mention meta descriptions here. Most SEO plugins, plans or whatever, mention meta descriptions as a must-do. I agree to a certain level. If you can write a nice, optimized ‘invitation’ to your website, you should most definitely add a meta description to your product pages. Usually, there is so much unrelated content on a product page (dimensions, manufacturer info, terms of service, etc.) that there’s always a risk that Google creates a meta description for that product page that doesn’t give the right information. So it makes sense to serve your own.

On regular pages and posts, Google will most probably grab a piece of related content, including the keyword used in the search query. That makes a lot of sense for news sites, for example. Still, I recommend adding a meta description to all your important pages. Facebook will use it as a description as well. And usually, when you are setting up a page on your website, it’s not that much work to add it, right?

Go make a website!

So, with this second part about content optimization, we have covered the very basics of SEO related things you should take into account when you make a website. I am sure you can come up with more insights, more tools or any other help for people that want to create a new website. Please feel free to add these in the comment section below this post, our readers (and I) will appreciate that!

Now go start that website!

Read on: ‘The ultimate guide to SEO copywriting’ »

http://ift.tt/2yWevi6

[janiceclaudetteo]

Create a website with SEO in mind: Content optimization

If you make a website from scratch, you need to take a few SEO related things into account. It’s incredibly important to do this right from the start, as that will prevent a vast number of future headaches. Things like speed optimization and the right use of heading tags help to improve your website for both your visitors and Google. Now, I am sure you have covered the technical basics we described in the first part of this article. Just be aware of what you are doing, add focus and you’ll be fine. The greatest challenge begins when you start adding content to your website.

In this article, we’ll go over a number of steps everyone who makes a website should take when optimizing content.

Learn how to write awesome and SEO friendly articles in our SEO Copywriting training »

$199 - Buy now »

Info Filling the website with content

You can optimize the entire technical side of your site and still find it lost on page two or more in Google. SEO isn’t a trick. It isn’t something your web developer can do for you. It’s something you can get guidance in, for instance with our SEO courses, or in our Yoast SEO (Premium) plugin. But first and foremost, SEO is Seriously Effortful Optimization. A continuous process, and something you, as a website owner, should make a strategy for. If you make a website, be prepared to write valuable content about the topic/purpose of your website. And that process starts with a bit of research.

Keyword research

Speaking from experience, I have often seen product manufacturers describe a product from their point of view. Let me give you an example: our Yoast SEO Premium plugin has an internal linking feature, which analyzes what posts on your website best match the content you are writing in your new post. You can copy that link from the WordPress sidebar and paste it into your post, to optimize your site structure. How awesome is that? Well, it might not sound so awesome to the user. They’re probably wondering what exactly they’re gaining with this feature. From a developer point of view, the description matches the feature. But for the user, the description should be:

Our internal linking tool allows you to create valuable links to all pages of your website, which will help these pages to rank in Google.

And even that might be a bit technical. In your keyword research you should focus on customer lingo first: how do people call your product? Find the right keywords and start writing. Want to learn more about keyword research? Take our SEO copywriting course for more insights.

Setting up the menu and site structure

In that same SEO copywriting training, we continue the SEO process for your website with the next step: site structure. You can even take our site structure course for more on this subject. Don’t underestimate the importance of a good structure. It’s the foundation of you visible site. If you set up a proper site structure right when you start a website, you’ll make optimizing your content so much easier.

As Marieke put it:

Your users need the structure to navigate through your site, to click from one page to the other. And Google uses the structure of your site in order to determine what content is important and what content is less important.

That’s a quote from our ultimate guide to site structure. It’s as simple as that. Optimizing the site structure influences SEO, UX, crawling of your pages and, let’s not forget, the right structure makes maintenance so much easier.

Good site structure will also help highlight the most important pages for your users. Include these pages in your (main, sub or footer) menu. As with customer lingo, use the data collected from Google Analytics to find the pages your visitors like most, and use these in your menu. Read more about optimizing your menu here.

Learn how to write engaging copy and how to organize it well on your site: Combine our SEO copywriting and Site structure training. »

$249 - Buy now »

Info One page per topic

Keyword research is done, the structure is set up, so now we can start writing. And we’ll create one page per topic. Need more pages to elaborate on a topic? Then feel free to do so, but use a new, long tail keyword for every new page.

Using one focus keyword per page, you force yourself to make a hierarchy in your collection of keywords, something you already started when doing your keyword research.

Small step back to keyword research

Now I see you thinking about this focus keyword and the analyses in our plugin during your writing process. You know that feeling when you check keyword density and wonder what to do with synonyms? The first thing to do here is to check Google Trends. Let’s say we optimize for (just an example!) “create a website”. A synonym is “start a website”. Google Trends tells us the main keyword should be “create a website”, see graph here:

But we use “start a website” a lot ourselves and want to include that phrase in our post as well. In the Yoast SEO Premium plugin, I can simply insert a second focus keyword. Overall keyword density should be right in that case (check both keyword tabs), as we know Google treats them as the same keyword: If I do a search for “start a website”, “create a website” is also a highlighted (bold) keyphrase in the results. “Make a website” is also a valid synonym. Just a small peek into the way I approach this myself.

Title tags

Using the focus keyword we mentioned earlier, creating a great title for your page is easy. Google still values that title highly, so put some effort in improving it. We usually use the title as the main article heading (or the H1 we mentioned in part 1 of this post). Besides that, it’s used as the most important part of the actual <title> tag, the tag that also defines your title in Google’s search result pages. This tag is not only visible when someone shares your post on Facebook or Twitter, it’s also used when someone bookmarks your site.

Optimize the title page according to these guidelines » 

Optimize your content

Learn how to write engaging copy and how to organize it well on your site: Combine our SEO copywriting and Site structure training. »

$249 - Buy now »

InfoHere we go: use Yoast SEO to optimize your page’s content. I’m just going to tell you that again. And if you don’t use WordPress, that’s not even an excuse anymore. We have Yoast SEO for Magento 2 and Yoast SEO for TYPO3 these days (created with our partner MaxServ).

Our SEO analysis will tell you, every time you write a post or page, what can be improved on your content:

Read our SEO blog, as there’s a ton of free information about content optimization in there. And subscribe to our newsletter to keep your knowledge up to date.

How about meta descriptions?

I felt the need to at least mention meta descriptions here. Most SEO plugins, plans or whatever, mention meta descriptions as a must-do. I agree to a certain level. If you can write a nice, optimized ‘invitation’ to your website, you should most definitely add a meta description to your product pages. Usually, there is so much unrelated content on a product page (dimensions, manufacturer info, terms of service, etc.) that there’s always a risk that Google creates a meta description for that product page that doesn’t give the right information. So it makes sense to serve your own.

On regular pages and posts, Google will most probably grab a piece of related content, including the keyword used in the search query. That makes a lot of sense for news sites, for example. Still, I recommend adding a meta description to all your important pages. Facebook will use it as a description as well. And usually, when you are setting up a page on your website, it’s not that much work to add it, right?

Go make a website!

So, with this second part about content optimization, we have covered the very basics of SEO related things you should take into account when you make a website. I am sure you can come up with more insights, more tools or any other help for people that want to create a new website. Please feel free to add these in the comment section below this post, our readers (and I) will appreciate that!

Now go start that website!

Read on: ‘The ultimate guide to SEO copywriting’ »

http://ift.tt/2yWevi6

[rodrigueztha]

Create a website with SEO in mind: Content optimization

If you make a website from scratch, you need to take a few SEO related things into account. It’s incredibly important to do this right from the start, as that will prevent a vast number of future headaches. Things like speed optimization and the right use of heading tags help to improve your website for both your visitors and Google. Now, I am sure you have covered the technical basics we described in the first part of this article. Just be aware of what you are doing, add focus and you’ll be fine. The greatest challenge begins when you start adding content to your website.

In this article, we’ll go over a number of steps everyone who makes a website should take when optimizing content.

Learn how to write awesome and SEO friendly articles in our SEO Copywriting training »

$199 - Buy now »

Info Filling the website with content

You can optimize the entire technical side of your site and still find it lost on page two or more in Google. SEO isn’t a trick. It isn’t something your web developer can do for you. It’s something you can get guidance in, for instance with our SEO courses, or in our Yoast SEO (Premium) plugin. But first and foremost, SEO is Seriously Effortful Optimization. A continuous process, and something you, as a website owner, should make a strategy for. If you make a website, be prepared to write valuable content about the topic/purpose of your website. And that process starts with a bit of research.

Keyword research

Speaking from experience, I have often seen product manufacturers describe a product from their point of view. Let me give you an example: our Yoast SEO Premium plugin has an internal linking feature, which analyzes what posts on your website best match the content you are writing in your new post. You can copy that link from the WordPress sidebar and paste it into your post, to optimize your site structure. How awesome is that? Well, it might not sound so awesome to the user. They’re probably wondering what exactly they’re gaining with this feature. From a developer point of view, the description matches the feature. But for the user, the description should be:

Our internal linking tool allows you to create valuable links to all pages of your website, which will help these pages to rank in Google.

And even that might be a bit technical. In your keyword research you should focus on customer lingo first: how do people call your product? Find the right keywords and start writing. Want to learn more about keyword research? Take our SEO copywriting course for more insights.

Setting up the menu and site structure

In that same SEO copywriting training, we continue the SEO process for your website with the next step: site structure. You can even take our site structure course for more on this subject. Don’t underestimate the importance of a good structure. It’s the foundation of you visible site. If you set up a proper site structure right when you start a website, you’ll make optimizing your content so much easier.

As Marieke put it:

Your users need the structure to navigate through your site, to click from one page to the other. And Google uses the structure of your site in order to determine what content is important and what content is less important.

That’s a quote from our ultimate guide to site structure. It’s as simple as that. Optimizing the site structure influences SEO, UX, crawling of your pages and, let’s not forget, the right structure makes maintenance so much easier.

Good site structure will also help highlight the most important pages for your users. Include these pages in your (main, sub or footer) menu. As with customer lingo, use the data collected from Google Analytics to find the pages your visitors like most, and use these in your menu. Read more about optimizing your menu here.

Learn how to write engaging copy and how to organize it well on your site: Combine our SEO copywriting and Site structure training. »

$249 - Buy now »

Info One page per topic

Keyword research is done, the structure is set up, so now we can start writing. And we’ll create one page per topic. Need more pages to elaborate on a topic? Then feel free to do so, but use a new, long tail keyword for every new page.

Using one focus keyword per page, you force yourself to make a hierarchy in your collection of keywords, something you already started when doing your keyword research.

Small step back to keyword research

Now I see you thinking about this focus keyword and the analyses in our plugin during your writing process. You know that feeling when you check keyword density and wonder what to do with synonyms? The first thing to do here is to check Google Trends. Let’s say we optimize for (just an example!) “create a website”. A synonym is “start a website”. Google Trends tells us the main keyword should be “create a website”, see graph here:

But we use “start a website” a lot ourselves and want to include that phrase in our post as well. In the Yoast SEO Premium plugin, I can simply insert a second focus keyword. Overall keyword density should be right in that case (check both keyword tabs), as we know Google treats them as the same keyword: If I do a search for “start a website”, “create a website” is also a highlighted (bold) keyphrase in the results. “Make a website” is also a valid synonym. Just a small peek into the way I approach this myself.

Title tags

Using the focus keyword we mentioned earlier, creating a great title for your page is easy. Google still values that title highly, so put some effort in improving it. We usually use the title as the main article heading (or the H1 we mentioned in part 1 of this post). Besides that, it’s used as the most important part of the actual <title> tag, the tag that also defines your title in Google’s search result pages. This tag is not only visible when someone shares your post on Facebook or Twitter, it’s also used when someone bookmarks your site.

Optimize the title page according to these guidelines » 

Optimize your content

Learn how to write engaging copy and how to organize it well on your site: Combine our SEO copywriting and Site structure training. »

$249 - Buy now »

InfoHere we go: use Yoast SEO to optimize your page’s content. I’m just going to tell you that again. And if you don’t use WordPress, that’s not even an excuse anymore. We have Yoast SEO for Magento 2 and Yoast SEO for TYPO3 these days (created with our partner MaxServ).

Our SEO analysis will tell you, every time you write a post or page, what can be improved on your content:

Read our SEO blog, as there’s a ton of free information about content optimization in there. And subscribe to our newsletter to keep your knowledge up to date.

How about meta descriptions?

I felt the need to at least mention meta descriptions here. Most SEO plugins, plans or whatever, mention meta descriptions as a must-do. I agree to a certain level. If you can write a nice, optimized ‘invitation’ to your website, you should most definitely add a meta description to your product pages. Usually, there is so much unrelated content on a product page (dimensions, manufacturer info, terms of service, etc.) that there’s always a risk that Google creates a meta description for that product page that doesn’t give the right information. So it makes sense to serve your own.

On regular pages and posts, Google will most probably grab a piece of related content, including the keyword used in the search query. That makes a lot of sense for news sites, for example. Still, I recommend adding a meta description to all your important pages. Facebook will use it as a description as well. And usually, when you are setting up a page on your website, it’s not that much work to add it, right?

Go make a website!

So, with this second part about content optimization, we have covered the very basics of SEO related things you should take into account when you make a website. I am sure you can come up with more insights, more tools or any other help for people that want to create a new website. Please feel free to add these in the comment section below this post, our readers (and I) will appreciate that!

Now go start that website!

Read on: ‘The ultimate guide to SEO copywriting’ »

http://ift.tt/2yWevi6

[lindasharonbn1]

Create a website with SEO in mind: Content optimization

Create a website with SEO in mind: Content optimization

If you make a website from scratch, you need to take a few SEO related things into account. It’s incredibly important to do this right from the start, as that will prevent a vast number of future headaches. Things like speed optimization and the right use of heading tags help to improve your website for both your visitors and Google. Now, I am sure you have covered the technical basics we described in the first part of this article. Just be aware of what you are doing, add focus and you’ll be fine. The greatest challenge begins when you start adding content to your website.

In this article, we’ll go over a number of steps everyone who makes a website should take when optimizing content.

Learn how to write awesome and SEO friendly articles in our SEO Copywriting training »

$199 - Buy now »

Info Filling the website with content

You can optimize the entire technical side of your site and still find it lost on page two or more in Google. SEO isn’t a trick. It isn’t something your web developer can do for you. It’s something you can get guidance in, for instance with our SEO courses, or in our Yoast SEO (Premium) plugin. But first and foremost, SEO is Seriously Effortful Optimization. A continuous process, and something you, as a website owner, should make a strategy for. If you make a website, be prepared to write valuable content about the topic/purpose of your website. And that process starts with a bit of research.

Keyword research

Speaking from experience, I have often seen product manufacturers describe a product from their point of view. Let me give you an example: our Yoast SEO Premium plugin has an internal linking feature, which analyzes what posts on your website best match the content you are writing in your new post. You can copy that link from the WordPress sidebar and paste it into your post, to optimize your site structure. How awesome is that? Well, it might not sound so awesome to the user. They’re probably wondering what exactly they’re gaining with this feature. From a developer point of view, the description matches the feature. But for the user, the description should be:

Our internal linking tool allows you to create valuable links to all pages of your website, which will help these pages to rank in Google.

And even that might be a bit technical. In your keyword research you should focus on customer lingo first: how do people call your product? Find the right keywords and start writing. Want to learn more about keyword research? Take our SEO copywriting course for more insights.

Setting up the menu and site structure

In that same SEO copywriting training, we continue the SEO process for your website with the next step: site structure. You can even take our site structure course for more on this subject. Don’t underestimate the importance of a good structure. It’s the foundation of you visible site. If you set up a proper site structure right when you start a website, you’ll make optimizing your content so much easier.

As Marieke put it:

Your users need the structure to navigate through your site, to click from one page to the other. And Google uses the structure of your site in order to determine what content is important and what content is less important.

That’s a quote from our ultimate guide to site structure. It’s as simple as that. Optimizing the site structure influences SEO, UX, crawling of your pages and, let’s not forget, the right structure makes maintenance so much easier.

Good site structure will also help highlight the most important pages for your users. Include these pages in your (main, sub or footer) menu. As with customer lingo, use the data collected from Google Analytics to find the pages your visitors like most, and use these in your menu. Read more about optimizing your menu here.

Learn how to write engaging copy and how to organize it well on your site: Combine our SEO copywriting and Site structure training. »

$249 - Buy now »

Info One page per topic

Keyword research is done, the structure is set up, so now we can start writing. And we’ll create one page per topic. Need more pages to elaborate on a topic? Then feel free to do so, but use a new, long tail keyword for every new page.

Using one focus keyword per page, you force yourself to make a hierarchy in your collection of keywords, something you already started when doing your keyword research.

Small step back to keyword research

Now I see you thinking about this focus keyword and the analyses in our plugin during your writing process. You know that feeling when you check keyword density and wonder what to do with synonyms? The first thing to do here is to check Google Trends. Let’s say we optimize for (just an example!) “create a website”. A synonym is “start a website”. Google Trends tells us the main keyword should be “create a website”, see graph here:

But we use “start a website” a lot ourselves and want to include that phrase in our post as well. In the Yoast SEO Premium plugin, I can simply insert a second focus keyword. Overall keyword density should be right in that case (check both keyword tabs), as we know Google treats them as the same keyword: If I do a search for “start a website”, “create a website” is also a highlighted (bold) keyphrase in the results. “Make a website” is also a valid synonym. Just a small peek into the way I approach this myself.

Title tags

Using the focus keyword we mentioned earlier, creating a great title for your page is easy. Google still values that title highly, so put some effort in improving it. We usually use the title as the main article heading (or the H1 we mentioned in part 1 of this post). Besides that, it’s used as the most important part of the actual <title> tag, the tag that also defines your title in Google’s search result pages. This tag is not only visible when someone shares your post on Facebook or Twitter, it’s also used when someone bookmarks your site.

Optimize the title page according to these guidelines » 

Optimize your content

Learn how to write engaging copy and how to organize it well on your site: Combine our SEO copywriting and Site structure training. »

$249 - Buy now »

InfoHere we go: use Yoast SEO to optimize your page’s content. I’m just going to tell you that again. And if you don’t use WordPress, that’s not even an excuse anymore. We have Yoast SEO for Magento 2 and Yoast SEO for TYPO3 these days (created with our partner MaxServ).

Our SEO analysis will tell you, every time you write a post or page, what can be improved on your content:

Read our SEO blog, as there’s a ton of free information about content optimization in there. And subscribe to our newsletter to keep your knowledge up to date.

How about meta descriptions?

I felt the need to at least mention meta descriptions here. Most SEO plugins, plans or whatever, mention meta descriptions as a must-do. I agree to a certain level. If you can write a nice, optimized ‘invitation’ to your website, you should most definitely add a meta description to your product pages. Usually, there is so much unrelated content on a product page (dimensions, manufacturer info, terms of service, etc.) that there’s always a risk that Google creates a meta description for that product page that doesn’t give the right information. So it makes sense to serve your own.

On regular pages and posts, Google will most probably grab a piece of related content, including the keyword used in the search query. That makes a lot of sense for news sites, for example. Still, I recommend adding a meta description to all your important pages. Facebook will use it as a description as well. And usually, when you are setting up a page on your website, it’s not that much work to add it, right?

Go make a website!

So, with this second part about content optimization, we have covered the very basics of SEO related things you should take into account when you make a website. I am sure you can come up with more insights, more tools or any other help for people that want to create a new website. Please feel free to add these in the comment section below this post, our readers (and I) will appreciate that!

Now go start that website!

Read on: ‘The ultimate guide to SEO copywriting’ »

http://ift.tt/2yWevi6

[evanstheodoredqe]

Create a website with SEO in mind: Content optimization

If you make a website from scratch, you need to take a few SEO related things into account. It’s incredibly important to do this right from the start, as that will prevent a vast number of future headaches. Things like speed optimization and the right use of heading tags help to improve your website for both your visitors and Google. Now, I am sure you have covered the technical basics we described in the first part of this article. Just be aware of what you are doing, add focus and you’ll be fine. The greatest challenge begins when you start adding content to your website.

In this article, we’ll go over a number of steps everyone who makes a website should take when optimizing content.

Learn how to write awesome and SEO friendly articles in our SEO Copywriting training »

$199 - Buy now »

Info Filling the website with content

You can optimize the entire technical side of your site and still find it lost on page two or more in Google. SEO isn’t a trick. It isn’t something your web developer can do for you. It’s something you can get guidance in, for instance with our SEO courses, or in our Yoast SEO (Premium) plugin. But first and foremost, SEO is Seriously Effortful Optimization. A continuous process, and something you, as a website owner, should make a strategy for. If you make a website, be prepared to write valuable content about the topic/purpose of your website. And that process starts with a bit of research.

Keyword research

Speaking from experience, I have often seen product manufacturers describe a product from their point of view. Let me give you an example: our Yoast SEO Premium plugin has an internal linking feature, which analyzes what posts on your website best match the content you are writing in your new post. You can copy that link from the WordPress sidebar and paste it into your post, to optimize your site structure. How awesome is that? Well, it might not sound so awesome to the user. They’re probably wondering what exactly they’re gaining with this feature. From a developer point of view, the description matches the feature. But for the user, the description should be:

Our internal linking tool allows you to create valuable links to all pages of your website, which will help these pages to rank in Google.

And even that might be a bit technical. In your keyword research you should focus on customer lingo first: how do people call your product? Find the right keywords and start writing. Want to learn more about keyword research? Take our SEO copywriting course for more insights.

Setting up the menu and site structure

In that same SEO copywriting training, we continue the SEO process for your website with the next step: site structure. You can even take our site structure course for more on this subject. Don’t underestimate the importance of a good structure. It’s the foundation of you visible site. If you set up a proper site structure right when you start a website, you’ll make optimizing your content so much easier.

As Marieke put it:

Your users need the structure to navigate through your site, to click from one page to the other. And Google uses the structure of your site in order to determine what content is important and what content is less important.

That’s a quote from our ultimate guide to site structure. It’s as simple as that. Optimizing the site structure influences SEO, UX, crawling of your pages and, let’s not forget, the right structure makes maintenance so much easier.

Good site structure will also help highlight the most important pages for your users. Include these pages in your (main, sub or footer) menu. As with customer lingo, use the data collected from Google Analytics to find the pages your visitors like most, and use these in your menu. Read more about optimizing your menu here.

Learn how to write engaging copy and how to organize it well on your site: Combine our SEO copywriting and Site structure training. »

$249 - Buy now »

Info One page per topic

Keyword research is done, the structure is set up, so now we can start writing. And we’ll create one page per topic. Need more pages to elaborate on a topic? Then feel free to do so, but use a new, long tail keyword for every new page.

Using one focus keyword per page, you force yourself to make a hierarchy in your collection of keywords, something you already started when doing your keyword research.

Small step back to keyword research

Now I see you thinking about this focus keyword and the analyses in our plugin during your writing process. You know that feeling when you check keyword density and wonder what to do with synonyms? The first thing to do here is to check Google Trends. Let’s say we optimize for (just an example!) “create a website”. A synonym is “start a website”. Google Trends tells us the main keyword should be “create a website”, see graph here:

But we use “start a website” a lot ourselves and want to include that phrase in our post as well. In the Yoast SEO Premium plugin, I can simply insert a second focus keyword. Overall keyword density should be right in that case (check both keyword tabs), as we know Google treats them as the same keyword: If I do a search for “start a website”, “create a website” is also a highlighted (bold) keyphrase in the results. “Make a website” is also a valid synonym. Just a small peek into the way I approach this myself.

Title tags

Using the focus keyword we mentioned earlier, creating a great title for your page is easy. Google still values that title highly, so put some effort in improving it. We usually use the title as the main article heading (or the H1 we mentioned in part 1 of this post). Besides that, it’s used as the most important part of the actual <title> tag, the tag that also defines your title in Google’s search result pages. This tag is not only visible when someone shares your post on Facebook or Twitter, it’s also used when someone bookmarks your site.

Optimize the title page according to these guidelines » 

Optimize your content

Learn how to write engaging copy and how to organize it well on your site: Combine our SEO copywriting and Site structure training. »

$249 - Buy now »

InfoHere we go: use Yoast SEO to optimize your page’s content. I’m just going to tell you that again. And if you don’t use WordPress, that’s not even an excuse anymore. We have Yoast SEO for Magento 2 and Yoast SEO for TYPO3 these days (created with our partner MaxServ).

Our SEO analysis will tell you, every time you write a post or page, what can be improved on your content:

Read our SEO blog, as there’s a ton of free information about content optimization in there. And subscribe to our newsletter to keep your knowledge up to date.

How about meta descriptions?

I felt the need to at least mention meta descriptions here. Most SEO plugins, plans or whatever, mention meta descriptions as a must-do. I agree to a certain level. If you can write a nice, optimized ‘invitation’ to your website, you should most definitely add a meta description to your product pages. Usually, there is so much unrelated content on a product page (dimensions, manufacturer info, terms of service, etc.) that there’s always a risk that Google creates a meta description for that product page that doesn’t give the right information. So it makes sense to serve your own.

On regular pages and posts, Google will most probably grab a piece of related content, including the keyword used in the search query. That makes a lot of sense for news sites, for example. Still, I recommend adding a meta description to all your important pages. Facebook will use it as a description as well. And usually, when you are setting up a page on your website, it’s not that much work to add it, right?

Go make a website!

So, with this second part about content optimization, we have covered the very basics of SEO related things you should take into account when you make a website. I am sure you can come up with more insights, more tools or any other help for people that want to create a new website. Please feel free to add these in the comment section below this post, our readers (and I) will appreciate that!

Now go start that website!

Read on: ‘The ultimate guide to SEO copywriting’ »

http://ift.tt/2yWevi6

[miettawilliemk1]

Create a website with SEO in mind: Content optimization

If you make a website from scratch, you need to take a few SEO related things into account. It’s incredibly important to do this right from the start, as that will prevent a vast number of future headaches. Things like speed optimization and the right use of heading tags help to improve your website for both your visitors and Google. Now, I am sure you have covered the technical basics we described in the first part of this article. Just be aware of what you are doing, add focus and you’ll be fine. The greatest challenge begins when you start adding content to your website.

In this article, we’ll go over a number of steps everyone who makes a website should take when optimizing content.

Learn how to write awesome and SEO friendly articles in our SEO Copywriting training »

$199 - Buy now »

Info Filling the website with content

You can optimize the entire technical side of your site and still find it lost on page two or more in Google. SEO isn’t a trick. It isn’t something your web developer can do for you. It’s something you can get guidance in, for instance with our SEO courses, or in our Yoast SEO (Premium) plugin. But first and foremost, SEO is Seriously Effortful Optimization. A continuous process, and something you, as a website owner, should make a strategy for. If you make a website, be prepared to write valuable content about the topic/purpose of your website. And that process starts with a bit of research.

Keyword research

Speaking from experience, I have often seen product manufacturers describe a product from their point of view. Let me give you an example: our Yoast SEO Premium plugin has an internal linking feature, which analyzes what posts on your website best match the content you are writing in your new post. You can copy that link from the WordPress sidebar and paste it into your post, to optimize your site structure. How awesome is that? Well, it might not sound so awesome to the user. They’re probably wondering what exactly they’re gaining with this feature. From a developer point of view, the description matches the feature. But for the user, the description should be:

Our internal linking tool allows you to create valuable links to all pages of your website, which will help these pages to rank in Google.

And even that might be a bit technical. In your keyword research you should focus on customer lingo first: how do people call your product? Find the right keywords and start writing. Want to learn more about keyword research? Take our SEO copywriting course for more insights.

Setting up the menu and site structure

In that same SEO copywriting training, we continue the SEO process for your website with the next step: site structure. You can even take our site structure course for more on this subject. Don’t underestimate the importance of a good structure. It’s the foundation of you visible site. If you set up a proper site structure right when you start a website, you’ll make optimizing your content so much easier.

As Marieke put it:

Your users need the structure to navigate through your site, to click from one page to the other. And Google uses the structure of your site in order to determine what content is important and what content is less important.

That’s a quote from our ultimate guide to site structure. It’s as simple as that. Optimizing the site structure influences SEO, UX, crawling of your pages and, let’s not forget, the right structure makes maintenance so much easier.

Good site structure will also help highlight the most important pages for your users. Include these pages in your (main, sub or footer) menu. As with customer lingo, use the data collected from Google Analytics to find the pages your visitors like most, and use these in your menu. Read more about optimizing your menu here.

Learn how to write engaging copy and how to organize it well on your site: Combine our SEO copywriting and Site structure training. »

$249 - Buy now »

Info One page per topic

Keyword research is done, the structure is set up, so now we can start writing. And we’ll create one page per topic. Need more pages to elaborate on a topic? Then feel free to do so, but use a new, long tail keyword for every new page.

Using one focus keyword per page, you force yourself to make a hierarchy in your collection of keywords, something you already started when doing your keyword research.

Small step back to keyword research

Now I see you thinking about this focus keyword and the analyses in our plugin during your writing process. You know that feeling when you check keyword density and wonder what to do with synonyms? The first thing to do here is to check Google Trends. Let’s say we optimize for (just an example!) “create a website”. A synonym is “start a website”. Google Trends tells us the main keyword should be “create a website”, see graph here:

But we use “start a website” a lot ourselves and want to include that phrase in our post as well. In the Yoast SEO Premium plugin, I can simply insert a second focus keyword. Overall keyword density should be right in that case (check both keyword tabs), as we know Google treats them as the same keyword: If I do a search for “start a website”, “create a website” is also a highlighted (bold) keyphrase in the results. “Make a website” is also a valid synonym. Just a small peek into the way I approach this myself.

Title tags

Using the focus keyword we mentioned earlier, creating a great title for your page is easy. Google still values that title highly, so put some effort in improving it. We usually use the title as the main article heading (or the H1 we mentioned in part 1 of this post). Besides that, it’s used as the most important part of the actual <title> tag, the tag that also defines your title in Google’s search result pages. This tag is not only visible when someone shares your post on Facebook or Twitter, it’s also used when someone bookmarks your site.

Optimize the title page according to these guidelines » 

Optimize your content

Learn how to write engaging copy and how to organize it well on your site: Combine our SEO copywriting and Site structure training. »

$249 - Buy now »

InfoHere we go: use Yoast SEO to optimize your page’s content. I’m just going to tell you that again. And if you don’t use WordPress, that’s not even an excuse anymore. We have Yoast SEO for Magento 2 and Yoast SEO for TYPO3 these days (created with our partner MaxServ).

Our SEO analysis will tell you, every time you write a post or page, what can be improved on your content:

Read our SEO blog, as there’s a ton of free information about content optimization in there. And subscribe to our newsletter to keep your knowledge up to date.

How about meta descriptions?

I felt the need to at least mention meta descriptions here. Most SEO plugins, plans or whatever, mention meta descriptions as a must-do. I agree to a certain level. If you can write a nice, optimized ‘invitation’ to your website, you should most definitely add a meta description to your product pages. Usually, there is so much unrelated content on a product page (dimensions, manufacturer info, terms of service, etc.) that there’s always a risk that Google creates a meta description for that product page that doesn’t give the right information. So it makes sense to serve your own.

On regular pages and posts, Google will most probably grab a piece of related content, including the keyword used in the search query. That makes a lot of sense for news sites, for example. Still, I recommend adding a meta description to all your important pages. Facebook will use it as a description as well. And usually, when you are setting up a page on your website, it’s not that much work to add it, right?

Go make a website!

So, with this second part about content optimization, we have covered the very basics of SEO related things you should take into account when you make a website. I am sure you can come up with more insights, more tools or any other help for people that want to create a new website. Please feel free to add these in the comment section below this post, our readers (and I) will appreciate that!

Now go start that website!

Read on: ‘The ultimate guide to SEO copywriting’ »

http://ift.tt/2yWevi6

[mariathaterh]

Create a website with SEO in mind: Content optimization

If you make a website from scratch, you need to take a few SEO related things into account. It’s incredibly important to do this right from the start, as that will prevent a vast number of future headaches. Things like speed optimization and the right use of heading tags help to improve your website for both your visitors and Google. Now, I am sure you have covered the technical basics we described in the first part of this article. Just be aware of what you are doing, add focus and you’ll be fine. The greatest challenge begins when you start adding content to your website.

In this article, we’ll go over a number of steps everyone who makes a website should take when optimizing content.

Learn how to write awesome and SEO friendly articles in our SEO Copywriting training »

$199 - Buy now »

Info Filling the website with content

You can optimize the entire technical side of your site and still find it lost on page two or more in Google. SEO isn’t a trick. It isn’t something your web developer can do for you. It’s something you can get guidance in, for instance with our SEO courses, or in our Yoast SEO (Premium) plugin. But first and foremost, SEO is Seriously Effortful Optimization. A continuous process, and something you, as a website owner, should make a strategy for. If you make a website, be prepared to write valuable content about the topic/purpose of your website. And that process starts with a bit of research.

Keyword research

Speaking from experience, I have often seen product manufacturers describe a product from their point of view. Let me give you an example: our Yoast SEO Premium plugin has an internal linking feature, which analyzes what posts on your website best match the content you are writing in your new post. You can copy that link from the WordPress sidebar and paste it into your post, to optimize your site structure. How awesome is that? Well, it might not sound so awesome to the user. They’re probably wondering what exactly they’re gaining with this feature. From a developer point of view, the description matches the feature. But for the user, the description should be:

Our internal linking tool allows you to create valuable links to all pages of your website, which will help these pages to rank in Google.

And even that might be a bit technical. In your keyword research you should focus on customer lingo first: how do people call your product? Find the right keywords and start writing. Want to learn more about keyword research? Take our SEO copywriting course for more insights.

Setting up the menu and site structure

In that same SEO copywriting training, we continue the SEO process for your website with the next step: site structure. You can even take our site structure course for more on this subject. Don’t underestimate the importance of a good structure. It’s the foundation of you visible site. If you set up a proper site structure right when you start a website, you’ll make optimizing your content so much easier.

As Marieke put it:

Your users need the structure to navigate through your site, to click from one page to the other. And Google uses the structure of your site in order to determine what content is important and what content is less important.

That’s a quote from our ultimate guide to site structure. It’s as simple as that. Optimizing the site structure influences SEO, UX, crawling of your pages and, let’s not forget, the right structure makes maintenance so much easier.

Good site structure will also help highlight the most important pages for your users. Include these pages in your (main, sub or footer) menu. As with customer lingo, use the data collected from Google Analytics to find the pages your visitors like most, and use these in your menu. Read more about optimizing your menu here.

Learn how to write engaging copy and how to organize it well on your site: Combine our SEO copywriting and Site structure training. »

$249 - Buy now »

Info One page per topic

Keyword research is done, the structure is set up, so now we can start writing. And we’ll create one page per topic. Need more pages to elaborate on a topic? Then feel free to do so, but use a new, long tail keyword for every new page.

Using one focus keyword per page, you force yourself to make a hierarchy in your collection of keywords, something you already started when doing your keyword research.

Small step back to keyword research

Now I see you thinking about this focus keyword and the analyses in our plugin during your writing process. You know that feeling when you check keyword density and wonder what to do with synonyms? The first thing to do here is to check Google Trends. Let’s say we optimize for (just an example!) “create a website”. A synonym is “start a website”. Google Trends tells us the main keyword should be “create a website”, see graph here:

But we use “start a website” a lot ourselves and want to include that phrase in our post as well. In the Yoast SEO Premium plugin, I can simply insert a second focus keyword. Overall keyword density should be right in that case (check both keyword tabs), as we know Google treats them as the same keyword: If I do a search for “start a website”, “create a website” is also a highlighted (bold) keyphrase in the results. “Make a website” is also a valid synonym. Just a small peek into the way I approach this myself.

Title tags

Using the focus keyword we mentioned earlier, creating a great title for your page is easy. Google still values that title highly, so put some effort in improving it. We usually use the title as the main article heading (or the H1 we mentioned in part 1 of this post). Besides that, it’s used as the most important part of the actual <title> tag, the tag that also defines your title in Google’s search result pages. This tag is not only visible when someone shares your post on Facebook or Twitter, it’s also used when someone bookmarks your site.

Optimize the title page according to these guidelines » 

Optimize your content

Learn how to write engaging copy and how to organize it well on your site: Combine our SEO copywriting and Site structure training. »

$249 - Buy now »

InfoHere we go: use Yoast SEO to optimize your page’s content. I’m just going to tell you that again. And if you don’t use WordPress, that’s not even an excuse anymore. We have Yoast SEO for Magento 2 and Yoast SEO for TYPO3 these days (created with our partner MaxServ).

Our SEO analysis will tell you, every time you write a post or page, what can be improved on your content:

Read our SEO blog, as there’s a ton of free information about content optimization in there. And subscribe to our newsletter to keep your knowledge up to date.

How about meta descriptions?

I felt the need to at least mention meta descriptions here. Most SEO plugins, plans or whatever, mention meta descriptions as a must-do. I agree to a certain level. If you can write a nice, optimized ‘invitation’ to your website, you should most definitely add a meta description to your product pages. Usually, there is so much unrelated content on a product page (dimensions, manufacturer info, terms of service, etc.) that there’s always a risk that Google creates a meta description for that product page that doesn’t give the right information. So it makes sense to serve your own.

On regular pages and posts, Google will most probably grab a piece of related content, including the keyword used in the search query. That makes a lot of sense for news sites, for example. Still, I recommend adding a meta description to all your important pages. Facebook will use it as a description as well. And usually, when you are setting up a page on your website, it’s not that much work to add it, right?

Go make a website!

So, with this second part about content optimization, we have covered the very basics of SEO related things you should take into account when you make a website. I am sure you can come up with more insights, more tools or any other help for people that want to create a new website. Please feel free to add these in the comment section below this post, our readers (and I) will appreciate that!

Now go start that website!

Read on: ‘The ultimate guide to SEO copywriting’ »

http://ift.tt/2yWevi6

[elenaturnerge1]

Create a website with SEO in mind: Content optimization

If you make a website from scratch, you need to take a few SEO related things into account. It’s incredibly important to do this right from the start, as that will prevent a vast number of future headaches. Things like speed optimization and the right use of heading tags help to improve your website for both your visitors and Google. Now, I am sure you have covered the technical basics we described in the first part of this article. Just be aware of what you are doing, add focus and you’ll be fine. The greatest challenge begins when you start adding content to your website.

In this article, we’ll go over a number of steps everyone who makes a website should take when optimizing content.

Learn how to write awesome and SEO friendly articles in our SEO Copywriting training »

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Info Filling the website with content

You can optimize the entire technical side of your site and still find it lost on page two or more in Google. SEO isn’t a trick. It isn’t something your web developer can do for you. It’s something you can get guidance in, for instance with our SEO courses, or in our Yoast SEO (Premium) plugin. But first and foremost, SEO is Seriously Effortful Optimization. A continuous process, and something you, as a website owner, should make a strategy for. If you make a website, be prepared to write valuable content about the topic/purpose of your website. And that process starts with a bit of research.

Keyword research

Speaking from experience, I have often seen product manufacturers describe a product from their point of view. Let me give you an example: our Yoast SEO Premium plugin has an internal linking feature, which analyzes what posts on your website best match the content you are writing in your new post. You can copy that link from the WordPress sidebar and paste it into your post, to optimize your site structure. How awesome is that? Well, it might not sound so awesome to the user. They’re probably wondering what exactly they’re gaining with this feature. From a developer point of view, the description matches the feature. But for the user, the description should be:

Our internal linking tool allows you to create valuable links to all pages of your website, which will help these pages to rank in Google.

And even that might be a bit technical. In your keyword research you should focus on customer lingo first: how do people call your product? Find the right keywords and start writing. Want to learn more about keyword research? Take our SEO copywriting course for more insights.

Setting up the menu and site structure

In that same SEO copywriting training, we continue the SEO process for your website with the next step: site structure. You can even take our site structure course for more on this subject. Don’t underestimate the importance of a good structure. It’s the foundation of you visible site. If you set up a proper site structure right when you start a website, you’ll make optimizing your content so much easier.

As Marieke put it:

Your users need the structure to navigate through your site, to click from one page to the other. And Google uses the structure of your site in order to determine what content is important and what content is less important.

That’s a quote from our ultimate guide to site structure. It’s as simple as that. Optimizing the site structure influences SEO, UX, crawling of your pages and, let’s not forget, the right structure makes maintenance so much easier.

Good site structure will also help highlight the most important pages for your users. Include these pages in your (main, sub or footer) menu. As with customer lingo, use the data collected from Google Analytics to find the pages your visitors like most, and use these in your menu. Read more about optimizing your menu here.

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Info One page per topic

Keyword research is done, the structure is set up, so now we can start writing. And we’ll create one page per topic. Need more pages to elaborate on a topic? Then feel free to do so, but use a new, long tail keyword for every new page.

Using one focus keyword per page, you force yourself to make a hierarchy in your collection of keywords, something you already started when doing your keyword research.

Small step back to keyword research

Now I see you thinking about this focus keyword and the analyses in our plugin during your writing process. You know that feeling when you check keyword density and wonder what to do with synonyms? The first thing to do here is to check Google Trends. Let’s say we optimize for (just an example!) “create a website”. A synonym is “start a website”. Google Trends tells us the main keyword should be “create a website”, see graph here:

But we use “start a website” a lot ourselves and want to include that phrase in our post as well. In the Yoast SEO Premium plugin, I can simply insert a second focus keyword. Overall keyword density should be right in that case (check both keyword tabs), as we know Google treats them as the same keyword: If I do a search for “start a website”, “create a website” is also a highlighted (bold) keyphrase in the results. “Make a website” is also a valid synonym. Just a small peek into the way I approach this myself.

Title tags

Using the focus keyword we mentioned earlier, creating a great title for your page is easy. Google still values that title highly, so put some effort in improving it. We usually use the title as the main article heading (or the H1 we mentioned in part 1 of this post). Besides that, it’s used as the most important part of the actual <title> tag, the tag that also defines your title in Google’s search result pages. This tag is not only visible when someone shares your post on Facebook or Twitter, it’s also used when someone bookmarks your site.

Optimize the title page according to these guidelines » 

Optimize your content

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InfoHere we go: use Yoast SEO to optimize your page’s content. I’m just going to tell you that again. And if you don’t use WordPress, that’s not even an excuse anymore. We have Yoast SEO for Magento 2 and Yoast SEO for TYPO3 these days (created with our partner MaxServ).

Our SEO analysis will tell you, every time you write a post or page, what can be improved on your content:

Read our SEO blog, as there’s a ton of free information about content optimization in there. And subscribe to our newsletter to keep your knowledge up to date.

How about meta descriptions?

I felt the need to at least mention meta descriptions here. Most SEO plugins, plans or whatever, mention meta descriptions as a must-do. I agree to a certain level. If you can write a nice, optimized ‘invitation’ to your website, you should most definitely add a meta description to your product pages. Usually, there is so much unrelated content on a product page (dimensions, manufacturer info, terms of service, etc.) that there’s always a risk that Google creates a meta description for that product page that doesn’t give the right information. So it makes sense to serve your own.

On regular pages and posts, Google will most probably grab a piece of related content, including the keyword used in the search query. That makes a lot of sense for news sites, for example. Still, I recommend adding a meta description to all your important pages. Facebook will use it as a description as well. And usually, when you are setting up a page on your website, it’s not that much work to add it, right?

Go make a website!

So, with this second part about content optimization, we have covered the very basics of SEO related things you should take into account when you make a website. I am sure you can come up with more insights, more tools or any other help for people that want to create a new website. Please feel free to add these in the comment section below this post, our readers (and I) will appreciate that!

Now go start that website!

Read on: ‘The ultimate guide to SEO copywriting’ »

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