#Danny sees every building as a shortcut
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azulhood · 1 year ago
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Driver Danny.
Danny goes to Gotham (you can pick why) and he's strapped for cash.
So he tries everything to keep the flickering lights on and the leaky roof over his head.
Dishwashing, pizza delivering, grocery shop Manning, beverage making, tutoring.
He does everything.
Eventually he ends up doing less then legal stuff.
Keeping a look out while a store gets robbed (didn't really feel guilty for that one, the owner was an asshole) work at the iceberg lounge.
Somehow he ends up as a gettaway driver...
Danny, the son of Jack "what's a red light?" Fenton.
He becomes the most sort after driver in Gotham.
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scrapyardboyfriends · 4 months ago
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I might be way off but it feels like someone somewhere wanted a shortcut way of manufacturing a buzz, a fandom, and thought "well it worked last time like this, so let's do the same and press the magic button" except they've not realised there is no magic button. It's like alchemy. Chemistry. Danny and Ryan, good build up, tension, a decent forbidden affair scenario and new ground for Aaron. It strikes me as super naive from tptb. Sure they will gain a following from the usual anything mlm crowd but I struggle to see it becoming a ready-made phenomenon. One reason alone because Danny is super checked out these days. He's not the fresh and enthused actor of ten years ago.
Oh these people love nothing more than "buzz". It seems like that's all they're ever after rather than actually cultivating their fanbase and caring about their characters. That's why they do all of their mediocre stunts and promote them with silly trailers. It's why every character has a secret connection they can exploit or a dark secret they can use to make headlines. All they want is for people to talk on social media it seems. But none of it is sustainable because nothing has any proper build up or lasting consequences. I know people have no attention span these days but I don't think this is how you solve that issue.
Also totally agree on the Danny being checked out front. I feel like he's been phoning it in since Ryan left. He clearly blatantly came back for the money. He definitely seemed less than enthused by the bad boy Aaron nonsense of his return after the initial bit. I do wonder if they were to actually come up with something decent for him if it might wake him up a little and make him care again but I don't think this will be it.
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five-rivers · 4 years ago
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Oooh, I just saw the big about prompts!
“Blessings of rot and petrichor, my prince. May you have a home in the dark, and may the distant stars you reach for never fade.”
(Can be inspiration or an actual quote; do what ya want! :P)
The world ended on a Saturday, and it wasn’t Danny’s fault.  Even if that Saturday happened to be his sixteenth birthday.  
Okay, maybe that was a bit overdramatic.  But, honestly, neither he nor anyone else he’d ever spoken to knew why or how things had turned out this way.  Just that, one morning, reality shook, shuddered, and took a few steps to the left.  
Humanity woke to green-streaked skies, a rainbow sun, and a lot more universe than they were used to.  So did ghosts.  
This was a problem.  It might even be deemed the problem.  Humans and ghosts didn’t exactly get along, and even when neither the ghosts nor the humans involved particularly wanted to fight, the new laws of nature and the few who did want to fight tended to ruin things for everyone else.  (Cough, GIW, cough, Walker, cough.)
Hence the end of the world.  Or, at least, most large-scale governments.  
It could have been worse.
Amity Park stopped being a city that day, fragmented with Ghost Zone wilderness, landscape and spatial dimensions shattered in a spiderweb centered on Fentonworks, the portal a wellspring of wild power and unpredictable translocations.  Danny had worried that the portal had been the cause of the whole thing, but Amity Park was far from the only place with similar issues (look at New York), and Danny eventually was able to accept that not every bad ghost-related thing that happened was on him.  
(Probably.)
Honestly, once everything calmed down a bit, the new world was much more comfortable, physically and mentally, for Danny to live in.  Which was weird, but made sense.  The new world was split between human and ghost, just like him.  It was everyone else who was uncomfortable, now.  
Which, again, he felt guilty about, but, yeah.  He couldn’t do anything about that, so feeling guilty was counterintuitive.  Thank you, tiny Jazz in his head.  
It was Saturday again.  Time for the market fair.  
“Mom and Dad are already out?” asked Danny, leaning over the banister.  
“Yeah,” said Jazz, not looking up from her work transcribing an old ghost text into something more palatable to human eyes.  She adjusted her green lenses to sit closer to her eyes.  “An hour or two ago.  Some guys from Chicago came in last night, apparently, and they wanted to get a head start.”
“Okay,” said Danny.  “I’m going, too.  You want anything?”
“Nope.  I’d be going myself if I did,” said Jazz.  
“You sure?  Nothing for dinner?”  
“Nope, I’m all set.”
“Cool,” said Danny, padding towards the door.  He pulled his nice, dark coat, the one he’d gotten from Dora, off the hook, and shrugged into it, pulling up the hood.  
“No shoes today?” asked Jazz, who had finally looked up.  
“Eh,” said Danny.  “I guess not.  Doesn’t really feel like a shoe kind of day.”  He flexed his toes.
“Well, avoid blackberries, then,” said Jazz.  
“They should avoid me,” joked Danny.  “Good luck with that book!”
“Thanks,” said Jazz, waving as Danny left.  
Fentonworks was the same tall, brick-and-UFO building as it had always been, but now it stood alone on top of a small hill rising from a distinctly purple forest.  The dark grass waved back and forth like the tentacles of a sea anemone.  Bright green portal streaks, cracks in reality, stood out against the foliage, along with a few other buildings that had once belonged to the Fentons’ neighborhood.  The sun was blue today, but Danny predicted it would be green by nightfall.  
Danny walked down the path, the dirt on it declining to adhere to Danny’s feet.  He hummed, quietly, a tune he half-remembered from before the apocalypse.  He would not be walking all the way to the market fair, it was too far.  His parents had taken the Speeder.  
Danny, on the other hand, had a shortcut.  
He reached one of the portal-fractures and passed through to a part of the forest where the trees whispered to one another.  He took a moment to reorient himself, and continued to the next portal fracture.  
As far as he knew, he was the only person who could reliably travel like this.  He could have flown, but the market fair was busy, and he preferred to maintain his peaceful life.  Phantom was still a celebrity in Amity Park.  Even more so now, than before, as ghosts were no longer shot on sight.  
Some ghosts even came to Amity Park’s market fair.  
He walked through a wider-than-usual fracture which deposited him just outside the main fragment of Amity Park, near the erstwhile mall.  The mall and its attached parking lot being the place the market fair took place.  
It was busy.  There were trucks stamped with the seal of Illinois parked on the edges, presumably belonging to the delegation from Chicago.  There seemed to be more ghosts than usual as well, enough of them to make Danny shiver.   Had they come from Chicago, or was it just a coincidence?  If they had, that would be nice.  Chicago had a lot of local influence, and was one of the places that was still trying to hold together something like a national government.  If they accepted ghosts, others would follow more readily.  
Peace between the two worlds in places other than Amity Park would be very nice.  
Danny wandered down the paths of the market fair, not in any particular hurry to get to his parents’ booth.  He was always more interested in the other things at the fair.  Even if he rarely bought anything.  
People seemed to be mostly moving in one direction.  No, they were being drawn in one direction, with people tugging their companions onward.  Danny, not having anything better to do, went with the flow.  
Which led back to where the Chicago delegation was set up.  Several people were standing in front of the trucks, arguing.  
“How can you lose an entire bevy of ghosts?” demanded the man who appeared to be in charge.  
The target of his ire merely shrugged.  
“Can’t lose people like that, bub!” shouted someone from the crowd.  There was a titter of laughter.  
“Didn’t you have a big, fancy announcement, fed?” 
More laughter.  
“Yeah, what did you want to say?”  This voice had an echo to it, and the the man looked extremely aggrieved.  
Nevertheless, he took a deep breath.  “We were led to believe,” he said, cheek jumping, “by certain ghosts, that there was a way to negotiate with the ghosts and... reverse this nonsense.”
Wow.  So, Chicago got scammed.  That could have repercussions.  Danny hoped Amity Park wouldn’t see too much of the fallout.  
“Wouldn’t you jump on any chance to stop this?” demanded the man in response to the jeers, gesturing at the sky and its pulsing bands of light.  
“Tell us a better story!” shouted Ember, who had struck up a much more cordial relationship with Amity Park after the apocalypse.  “One that we’ll remember!”
The man turned away, throwing his hands in the air.  “Go find them!” he shouted, presumably to his subordinates. 
The crowd broke up.  
Danny was curious.  It was one of his defining characteristics, both as a human and as a ghost.  He followed one of the Chicagoans as they walked into the market turning this way and that.  
“So,” he said, “what story was your boss fed?”
The woman jumped and looked down at him, disconcerted.  (Yes, he was short.  That wasn’t his fault.  Except that it probably was, via the portal accident.)
The woman sighed.  “Why not, it’ll be out before too long.  We were told that the rightful king of ghosts was in hiding here, or something stupid like that.  I don’t think they ever said he could fix the world, even.  Only that he could be negotiated with.”  She kicked the ground.  “This is so stupid.  There’s no ghost king.  This is never going to get fixed.”
“It’s not so bad, is it?” asked Danny.  
“How old even were you when it happened.  Ten?” asked the woman.  
“Excuse me, I was sixteen,” said Danny, crossing his arms.  
“That’s cute,” said the woman, dragging her hand down her face.  “You’re like thirteen, tops.  Not nineteen.  Jesus.  Go bother someone else, kid.”
Danny rolled his eyes.  “Well, you aren’t wrong that there’s no ghost king.  Last guy who called himself that got beaten up and locked in a sarcophagus forever.”
Then, just to mess with her, because she’d been rude, Danny turned invisible and left before she turned around.  
Now...  He should probably try to warn people about the scam artist ghosts.  Or would they know from the other people watching?  
Danny flicked back into visibility and continued perusing the various stalls, making small talk with the owners, bringing up the Chicagoans when it was appropriate.  
He was passing by the covered entrance of the mall, one of the most crowded spots in the market fair, when his ghost sense went off, indicating an unfamiliar ghost was nearby.  He scanned the crowd for the ghost.  He didn’t have to look very hard.  Strange ghosts tended to draw eyes, even in Amity Park.  
Especially ones that looked like this.  Inhumanly tall, cloaked, and moving smoothly.  Glimpses under their hoods showed faces riddled with decay- or at least the appearance of decay.  The three of them held instruments.  Flute, drum, and summoning bell.
Danny stood to the side to let them pass.  After all, they weren’t doing anything bad as far as he could see.  
They did not.  Instead, they stopped in front of Danny.  Typical.  
Then they started playing their instruments.  And kneeling.  
Aaaand the crowd was getting bigger.  There was the person from Chicago, too.  Could he escape without turning invisible with all this attention on him?
Probably not without showcasing his ghost powers.  There were people who knew him in this crowd.  Like Paulina.  And Star.  
“Um,” said Danny.  “Hi?”
The leading ghost looked up as the sun’s light turned emerald green.  
“Blessings of rot and petrichor, my prince. May you have a home in the dark, and may the distant stars you reach for never fade.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Danny saw the Chicagoan’s jaw drop.  
“I think you might have the wrong guy,” said Danny.  “I’m not anyone’s prince.”
The ghost grinned, sharp and white.  “We came to give our blessings, my prince.  You do not need to accept them for them to exist.  We offer, also, our service and our hope in this new world that you are so suited for.”
Yeah.  This was going to be a problem.  
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nightmarenoise · 5 years ago
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Just comparing two cartoons I love
I understand that nobody asked in any capacity, but here I go anyway:
It feels fair to compare Ducktales 2017 to Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2018), not only because they're only about a year apart and truly, what is a year, but also because they
1. Both use this style that looks like it jumped straight out of a comic book. Okay, it's mostly the solidly inked shadows, but it gives me, personally, comic-y vibes.
2. They have taken what's arguably the main characters (the triplets for DT, the Turtles for TMNT) and shaken the formula up a good bit. Were the triplets formerly indistinguishable and all had the exact same personality, interests and voice actor, they are now three entirely separate entities with different traits and appearances. And while the turtles had about one defining personality trait and looked basically the same, save for the color of their masks, Rise made them different species of turtle to justify giving them radically different designs and three-dimensional personalities. Both shows faced criticism for this decision from people who cannot deal with change. Despite this, in both cases, it just works and does so incredibly well.
3. The oldest bros wear red.
4. We have two middle bros associated with the color blue who are both voiced by Ben Schwartz.
5. Both shows have a focus on family, with Ducktales especially focusing on found family and Rise on brotherhood.
6. Anime references!
Ducktales has a larger cast overall, with a lot of different characters all interacting with each other and they all have the most pleasant voices I've ever heard in my entire life. It's all solidly animated, the style is consistent and the animation is fluid, the characters are diverse and they're all lovely in their own right, except for those who aren't. The writing is top notch. Everyone feels consistent despite the large cast and it's delightful to watch all those interesting people interact with each other in their own way. The show also handles its mystery elements and occasional action scenes incredibly well, building suspense and delivering laughs and gut punches without hesitation. They juggle different tones like a professional clown, except the true clown was us, the audience, all along, for ever having doubted them.
The overarching plot of Ducktales, for its first two seasons, was mostly to uncover the mystery of what had happened to the mother of the triplets and all that would entail. Mystery and mythical elements will likely continue to be afoot for season 3.
Rise works with less focal characters, we have the Turtles, Splinter and April as well as various bad guys, but more than makes up for it with a lot of animation. A lot a lot of animation and it's all high quality. There's usually so much going on on-screen that a watching it once isn't enough to catch it all. Despite that, it doesn't feel crowded or rushed. Lots of dynamic shots and incredibly-choreographed action scenes, but nothing the thoroughly solid writing has to hide behind. Even when the baddies aren't the main concern, they're still well-rounded, interesting characters with unique abilities and motivations. Although, most of the mutants are just really feral. Still a delightfully diverse cast.
The turtles on the other hand spent their first season trying to foil their various foes, from a yokai trying to mutate all of humanity, to his mutants, to dealing with random mythical stuff, to the nefarious Foot Clan trying to reassemble the Dark Armor in the shadows. It's generally a more action-driven show, but they still find the time for some heartfelt moments.
The triplets 2.0
Despite their conventiently color-coded caps, they were really mostly the same character possessing three different bodies at a time. Well, the times of eerie The Shining like-twins, except extended to triplets, are over!
We have Huey, the oldest brother, voiced by Danny Pudi. He's a gentle, intellectual soul who values red hats, science, scout badges and checklists. Huey is arguably the closest in characterization to the original triplets, with some additional neat freak sprinkled in for flavor. He tries to be the responsible older sibling and keep his brothers under control and out of trouble. He also seems to have the most fiery temper of the bunch and should clearly not be pressed to the breaking point. He's my personal favorite and I heard season 3 will bring more focus to him, which makes me elated to hear. 888/10.
Middle child Dewey, the blue one, voiced by Ben Schwartz, who will inevitably come for all the iconic blue characters. He's very clearly the middle one, because he craves attention and validation and occasionally dreams of being an only child. Dewey is the one who started the investigation into their mom's disappearance and kept it from his brothers, partially to save them from hurt, but also because he wanted to feel special. He's the most interested in going on adventures with their uncle, but can get reckless when doing so. He's a bit of a spotlight hog, who has his own talk show that nobody watches and sings his own theme song when he needs to get hyped up, or just to fill this silence. This may sound kind of negative, but rest assured, he's a good, sweet boy. The focal triplet for the first season. 500/10.
Louie, the evil triplet, a schemer and a conman. Voiced by Bobby Moynihan.  The youngest of the bunch. While they call him evil, he's really far too lazy to cause serious harm, except for when it's his laziness that's causing him to take dangerous shortcuts, oops. He dreams of making a fortune, but without having to work for it and preferably without any responsibility either, thank you. He also occasionally dreams of being a spoiled fat cat. Despite his chill demeanor, he can be a bit of a crybaby and those tears are only fake 50% of the time. I feel like he likes getting babied, but mainly because that means there's less work for him to do. Season 2, which focuses more on him, reveals that he's actually quite brilliant, capable of seeing all the angles and giving him some chessmaster-like qualities. He needs to learn to use those abilities for good. 665/10.
Hi, she's Webbie! The honorary triplet, who also got a massive makeover, from annoying token girl tagalong to socially awkward, adorkable action girl. Be careful who you call ugly in middle school, indeed. Like a more ferocious  Mabel Pines, she has a grappling hook and years of martial arts training under her belt. Webbie can absolutely decimate you, but won't, because she's a sweet girl. Voiced by Kate Micucci. She continues to like unicorns and the color pink, but assuredly in the most badass of ways. She helped Dewey with his quest to uncover the mystery of his missing mom, but works well with all of the triplets, with Huey taking her under his wing a bit and Louie trying to get her to chill out more. Webbie is a sweetheart and I would die for her, were it not completely unnecessary, since she's more than capable of taking care of herself. ∞/10.
A lot of the supporting cast also saw updates and changes, for instance Gyro being a genius without social skills and Fenton being an adorkable scientist, but again, they work really well. They're interesting new takes on beloved characters. Even the new additions to the cast are great. In short, I love me some birds and am excited for season 3, Disney, get your scheduling together.
The Turtles 2.14.2 - I upgraded my upgrade in the middle of the upgrade
Also, these guys have seen so many different iterations in their, what, 30+ years of existence. As someone with no prior attachment to the turtle brand, I don't have a lot to say here. Leo's not the leader in this one and Raph has more personality than being angry at Leo for being the leader. Donnie is not just a random nerd spouting technobabble and Mikey has more depth than yelling the catchphrase every now and again. Apparently, this made people upset. I don't know how to help you with that.  The middle brothers exude some high chaotic energy and should not be left unsupervised, but the oldest and youngest seem fairly stable.
Raphael, the red-bandana'd alligator snapping turtle is an imposing figure. He's the oldest and therefore team leader by default. Raph has no reason to be upset at Leo, so he isn't. Despite his ferocious appearance, he's a soft guy, who likes teddies and doting on his brothers, but fears puppets. He's a bit of a knucklehead, most of his plans involve smashing things with his tonfa and he may refer to himself in the third person in the heat of the moment, but he possesses emotional intelligence, is open about his feelings and looks after his brothers. He is big and and strong, but his heart is bigger and stronger. He especially loves small animals animals, who don't usually return his feelings. RIP in F. This responsible guy is voiced by Omar Benson Miller. 300/10, very soft. Somehow both the heart and the big guy of the group.
Donatello has been upgraded from second-to-youngest to second-to-oldest, not that it makes much of a difference. His color of choice is purple and he continues in the character's tradition of being a nerd, although this time, with self-confidence. Donnie is very sure of himself and his abilities. As a spiny soft-shell turtle, he's less sure of his shell, but that's okay, he's made robotic battle shells to make up for it and his bō is the mother of all multitools. This guy can build you a tank out of a buggie and upgrade your animatronic into something to give the FNAF franchise a run for its money. He's the smartest of the four and when not focused on his phone, very focused on the mission. Due to having to deal with his bros, he can be exasperated a lot. Thinks of himself as an emotionally unavailable bad boy, even though he's just really sensitive and wants his dad or someone parent-aged to tell him they're proud of him. Theater kid. 999/10, give the middle child a hug and some coffee, you can't tell me he has a healthy sleep cycle. This sarcastic nerd is brought to you by Josh Brener.
Leonardo, Ben Schwartz's second blue character (Sonic (2020) being the third under his belt) and also his second ninja after Randy Cunningham. He's not the leader. He's still a good character. Leo has approximately 800 charisma and unwavering faith in both, his family and himself. Mostly himself though. Like Louie, season 2 revealed that he is a master of prediction and playing people like the cheap kazoo you can't tell me he doesn't have to play Darude's Sandstorm on. He dabs, he boards, he will pun you to death and back and he has an Odachi that can cut through space. Leo likes hogging the spotlight when given the chance and wants to be showered with attention and praise. Having four kids really only means twice the middle child nonsense. Leo is a red-eared slider, the original species of the TMNT, as I've been told. He's also the best at being a ninja, but usually too lazy to really apply himself. He's younger than Donnie, but tumblr suggested to read the two as twins, since they're approximately the same age, which sheds a whole new light on their dynamic and frankly, makes way too much sense. 420/10, for our memelord Leonardo.
Michelangelo, the eternally youngest of the bunch. An artiste, who puts stickers on himself, tags the lair, has a spiritual connection to his skateboard and the color orange. Mikey loves all things arts and craft, but he also tries his hands at cooking. He idolizes famous TV chefs and can do pretty much anything out of and into pizza. He's funny, without being annoying, like I feel a lot of other iterations of this character are. It's an easy pitfall for comic relief guys, but this one is more than that. If that's an issue, feel free to leave my house. Mikey is genuinely sweet and happy, optimistic and soft, but also the one brother who knows when it's time to take off the gloves and just get straight to the point. He's open about and in touch with his feelings. He's just baby. Don't treat him as one though. A lot of promo stuff says Leo has taken him under his wing, but he's had more episodes together with Donnie. Not that I'm complaining, they work very well together. Mikey and Raph are both the emotional centers of the group. Does not mind being yeeted after retracting into his shell, as box turtles may do. (Disclaimer, do not yeet actual box turtles!) His weapon of choice is a Kusari-Fundo that can turn into a fire-demon and is about as unpredictable as he is. Likes to jump and bounce around. Probably does parkour. Voiced by Brandon Mychal Smith who is audibly having a blast. 500/10, just an all around Kusari-fun guy.
For last, but certainly not least, April O'Neil, my girl, who saw an upgrade from flip-flopping love interest who was vaguely ninja-ing, but mostly damsel in distress-ing, to all-around spunky powerhouse and by God, she is glowing. Rise has her more as a big sister figure to the turtles, and I will not be told otherwise. She is independent and don't need no man, mutant or no. She has her teleporting pet, her faith in herself, her pinpoint baseball hitting skills and the a complete and utter lack of fear. Despite being a weirdness magnet, April is perfectly comfortable. She would like to be able to keep a job, maybe, but she has loving friends who respect and love her. Surprisingly good a ninja, fearless and fun. Occasionally thinks about being popular at school, but it's really not a big concern, she's not gonna throw a tantrum over it or anything. April is very chill. Not likely to be damseled. More likely to run after the turtles and clean up their messes or save them and everyone involved is fine with that.
The late 10's are really coming in to show us how dynamic and well-written female characters that aren't just "strong", but three-dimensional and relatable are done, huh?
An iconic performance by Kat Graham and ∞/10 for being the honorary better ninja non-mutant non-turtle and best big sister.
Here we have it, two older properties, having new life breathed into them to make them fresh and enjoyable. Have a new spin put on them, to better fit in with our current world. You can feel the love oozing out of every frame. At the end of the day, of course, it all boils down to taste and whether or not you like something. I gave Ducktales 2017 a go because a lot of the staff from Gravity Falls went to work on it and if you don't know me, I love me some Gravity Falls. It's a good show and I enjoy it. I recently got into Rise and while I don't know much about the people working on it, it is also a greatly enjoyable show, easily on the same level as Ducktales, if not above, yet with far less people speaking about it. Which is frankly saddening. I can only recommend the two of them wholeheartedly. If you love animation, yourself and occasionally feeling things, these are for you!
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archadianskies · 5 years ago
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a second chance is another way to remember
@dbhrarepairs Thursday Day 4: Red String of Fate + Secret; Modern AU Josh/Simon
There was a boy who lived at the end of their street and his name was Josh. For as long as Simon can remember, Josh had been a part of his life. They even had a secret password for the treehouse in their backyard (it was Jericho). There was Danny, and Danny’s best friend and sometimes Josh’s friend North, and they called themselves the Jericho Four and spent their childhood playing games or eating snacks or exploring or reading books by torchlight under a blanket. 
Well, the reading books thing was just between him and Josh. The Sawyers’ had an amazing library because Josh’s mom was a professor at Detroit University and always believed knowledge to be the most powerful weapon. She always gave her son new books, and in turn her son would eagerly share them with Simon. They’d lose hours and hours devouring each new book she gifted them, and eventually they’d fall asleep with the torch still in Simon’s hand and the open book still in Josh’s. 
If Simon could choose to travel back in time to any era, any monumental turning point in human history, he’d still choose his childhood, he’d still choose Joshua Sawyers.
Life has a funny way of moving at breakneck speed and crawling at a snail’s pace too. Simon and Daniel moved away, and the Jericho Four was no more. They went to school, they went to college, they went to university. Somewhere between all that, their parents disowned them when word around town spread that Simon Lambert kissed a boy. It had been a shameful secret but Daniel stood up for his brother, and for himself too because love wasn’t ever shameful and should never be a secret and he’s gay too so fuck you both they’ll make it on their own. So they did and it’s been just Simon and Danny for seven years now. They move back to Detroit and they work themselves to the bone to survive and they do, they manage it somehow because there’s no other option. There’s no time for love, nothing beyond fleeting glances and harmless crushes and if he’s honest with himself, Simon still thinks of Joshua Sawyers and wonders how handsome he must be now.
Danny’s taking night classes for a short course, and when Simon finishes his Wednesday shift at the cafe he brings coffee and leftover pastries. There’s a handy shortcut that cuts through one of the buildings, a beautiful old construction of brick and climbing ivy. Simon ducks inside and finds himself pausing when he glimpses one of the lecturers working diligently on something. He’s tall and handsome, a pair of thick black rimmed glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose. His dark skin is washed with a cooler hue from the bright study lamp on his desk, and he absently rubs his shaved head in thought. Smiling to himself, Simon discreetly tucks the little image into his folder of harmless little crushes, and hurries on to find his brother.
He hates the closing shift but that’s just how it is sometimes. At least his bag is full of pastries and muffins they can freeze and divvy up for the next couple of days. Simon cuts through the university grounds just as one song finishes playing on his phone, and right before the next song starts he hears it- yelling. Hitting the pause button, he yanks the earphones out and stands still. There it is again, the sound of laughing and yelling and a bottle breaking. And then a cry for help. Simon breaks into a run, belatedly thinking it’s Danny that’s better in a fight, not him, but a cry for help is a cry for help. He finds himself in a tiny laneway behind one of the lecture halls, and there’s broken glass and a crumpled form on the ground, and five drunk students.
“Hey!” Simon turns the torch on his phone and shines it right at them. “Hey this is campus police!”
“Oh fuck!” There’s a chorus of colourful curses before they disperse in a mad scramble, and then Simon’s rushing to the fallen figure.
“Oh my god, are you ok? Oh shit-” Simon gently eases the person to sit up and he realises it’s the very handsome lecturer he saw the other week. “Come on, I don’t live too far from here. I’ll patch you up. Can you walk?”
They groan but manage to nod their head slightly. Simon gathers up the man’s belongings, wincing when he finds the glasses had been crushed underfoot. He shoulders him and the short journey home feels thrice as long. Guiding him to sit on the edge of the bathtub, Simon rummages through the bathroom cabinet for supplies. Placing two aspirin in his hand, he fetches a glass of water for him before starting to tend to his wounds, luckily finding nothing more than bruising and grazes. 
“Thank you.” The man slurs, wincing as he touches his split lip. “If you hadn’t been there, I-”
“It’s ok. I’m just glad you’re alright.” Simon gently wipes the blood from his chin before dabbing at the graze on his brow. “Nothing’s broken and there’s no cuts or anything. You’ll have some nasty bruises though.”
“I have a lecture at ten tomorrow morning, that’ll be interesting.” He mutters, then heaves a tired sigh. “My car’s back at the university.”
“Stay the night.” Simon blurts. “It’s late and it’s dangerous and my brother’s staying at his boyfriend’s place tonight so I can stay in his bed and you can have mine.”
“Uhhh…” The man blinks at him, clearly taken aback. “Thanks? I- yeah, wow, thanks. You’ve already done so much for me, I just- are you sure?”
“I’m so sure. I’d never forgive myself if I just turned you back out into the night in the state you’re in.” Simon reassures him and means every word of it. 
“I’d at least like to know the name of my Good Samaritan.” He gives a lopsided grin.
“I’m Simon.” The grin drops immediately, his eyes widening.
“Simon...Lambert?”
“...yes?” He breaks into a beautiful smile, tarnished only by a wince as it tugs on the split wound.
“I’m Josh. Joshua Sawyers.” It feels like the universe grinds to a halt and Simon’s been handed a serendipitous twist of fate. 
“Oh my god.” Simon bites back a sob and throws his arms around him, and Josh laughs as he squeezes him close in return. “Oh my god it’s you.”
“It’s me.” He feels his smile against his neck, and Simon’s heart leaps into his throat. 
“God it’s been like, twenty years!” He murmurs into his shoulder. “And you’re a professor now? Like your mother?”
“Just like mom, yeah.” Josh chuckles, the sound making butterflies erupt in Simon’s stomach. “And you’re back in Detroit!”
“Yeah, me and Danny moved back about seven years ago.” He pulls away only because the angle is starting to strain his back something awful. “He’s taking night classes for business management, and I work at the cafe close to the uni.”
“We’ve been so close all this time.” Josh smiles and the bathroom light puts a twinkle in those soulful dark eyes of his. “And now you’ve saved my life. My childhood bestie to the rescue.”
His smile is contagious, and Simon feels his cheeks ache from smiling so much. It’s a good kind of ache. He can’t remember the last time he smiled so brightly.
“I’m glad I found you again.” Is what he manages to say at last, and Josh’s beaming smile softens into something tender and fond.
“Yeah, me too.” He reaches out slowly, hesitantly, and grasps Simon’s hand. “I really missed you, Simon. I didn’t have anyone to read with after you left.”
“Can’t imagine North ever sitting still long enough to finish a book.” Simon quips, heart pounding as he tries to casually cope with the fact Joshua Sawyers is holding his hand and very gently rubbing his thumb over his.
“Her girlfriend is the Professor of Robotics at Colbridge University, can you believe it?” Josh tips his head back and laughs. “She’s a published author. I feel like that serves North right. All those times she made fun of us for reading as kids and now her girlfriend writes books.”
“You still see her.” It’s not a question, and Simon feels himself smiling as nostalgia washes over him, warm and soft. 
“Yeah, we catch up every now and then. We’re part of an activist group led by Markus Manfred.”
“The artist? As in Carl Manfred’s son? Wow.” Simon blinks in surprise. “Isn’t he an actor too? He’s in that medical drama. Actor, artist, and activist. How annoyingly perfect.” Josh laughs loudly at that and Simon grins stupidly; a part of him knows he’d do anything to make him laugh. When Josh stands at his full height, he’s taller than Simon and a voice inside Simon’s head gleefully notes he’s the perfect size for hugs. He decides to test the theory and wraps his arms around Josh’s waist, turning his head so his ear is pressed to his chest, tucked under his chin. 
“I’m really, really glad I found you again, Josh.” He doesn’t dare say it any louder than a whisper, but he feels Josh envelop him in his arms and smudge a kiss in his hair. 
“Life led us back together.” It’s tinged with amusement, his tone, and Simon aches for him. It’s as though there’s a thread in his heart tethered to Josh.
“It’s you, Josh, it’s always been you.” He pulls away just enough so he can look into those deep dark eyes. “It’ll always be you.”
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timerayon5-blog · 5 years ago
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adamwatchesmovies · 6 years ago
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2012 (2009)
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Every time I watch 2012, it gets a little worse. To be fair, half of this movie is downright awesome. You’ve got every type of disaster (except maybe for tornadoes) ganging up to try and kill John Cusack. The second half is when it gets rough with one cliché after another and many predictable developments. 
The Mayans predicted it, but nobody listened. As December 21, 2012, Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is the downtrodden divorced father of two children who have fully embraced their mother’s new boyfriend (Amanda Peet plays the mom, Thomas McCarthy her boyfriend, Gordon). Meanwhile, Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a scientific advisor to the president of the United States (Danny Glover), who discovers that the Earth is doomed. While Jackson and his family dodge a plethora of disasters, they encounter a Russian billionaire (Zlatko Burić) who has secured himself a ticket to safety courtesy of a shady international organization. There are a whole lot of other characters all trying to make it out alive as the world ends.
I love the first half of this movie. Say what you will about Roland Emmerich’s films (I like Independence Day) but if the guy knows how to do one thing, it’s destroy everything. In most disaster movies you’ve got a couple of big events.  In 2012 you’ve got volcanoes, tidal waves, earthquakes reducing entire cities to smoldering wrecks. The death toll is apocalyptic and it’s glorious. You haven’t seen real movie destruction until you see a car drive through a collapsing building, or you see an entire city snap in half and sink into the ocean. If I ever manage to obtain a time machine and wanted to mess around with people from the past, I’d take clips of this film and show to people. They would go out of their minds and burst into tears because the special effects are incredible. The first 79 minutes will so thoroughly quench your thirst for destruction that you won’t ever feel the need to see another disaster movie.
“Did I just read something about ‘the first 79 minutes’?” I’m afraid that you're correct. This film has many flaws, but they don’t hamper the enjoyment you will have while entire cities are torn to shreds… but then 2012 lasts a bloated 2 hours and 38 minutes! The parade of disasters sent from up above at first as though they’re on a mission to kill Jackson, but in reality, are sacrificing billions… so he can get back together with his wife. Why else would every chasm, collapsing buildings, and mound of lava always direct him and the mother of his children together? Poor Gordon doesn’t stand a chance when God himself is forcing these two to join forces in order to save their kids. You might as well give up. Your odds of getting the girl are nill. When the movie is interested in reducing the human population to something under a thousand, it’s consistently enjoyable. What’s tiresome is scene after scene of Jackson and his family dodging every cataclysm to the point where they’re outrunning, outracing or out-flying Mother Nature itself.
The other problem with this film is that there are way, waaaaay too many characters. I get the idea. I don’t mind the “coincidences” of so many people that know each other or are somehow connected crossing paths. It serves the film’s message and theme. My issue is that it causes the story’s tone to vary too much. In a scene, we can see people bawling as they helplessly witness vehicles exploding and families being swallowed up by the earth. Next, cut to an ironic scene where two Jazz musicians sing about it not being the end of the world. With the overabundance of characters, we have half a dozen plots to wrap up and a running time that’s way excessive. The writers spent far more time dreaming up ways to kill people than to flesh them out, resulting in every narrative shortcut in the “disaster movie book” playing out. I could have done without the stereotypically evil Russian, the manufactured villain, the pickle-eating conspiracy theorist (played by Woody Harrelson) and the president’s daughter (Thandie Newton) for example. No one is coming to see this film because of the drama, but we’re all forced to sit through it and trust me, it does not pay off.
2012 has some dynamite special effects and when it comes to the Earth trying to kill people, and succeeding, it can’t be beaten. Too bad to see all of this spectacle you have to sit through bad jokes and equally cringe-inducing drama. I like the first half but that second half makes me wish this was on VHS so I could “lose” tape number two. On Blu-ray, on a big TV with the sound cranked up, it’s dumb, fun entertainment but it’s still not good. (On Blu-ray, June 6, 2015)
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book-o-scams · 8 years ago
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What is your favorite thing about Edd’s character in A Fistful of Ed? Is there more of a reason behind why he is upset?
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When it first came out, I loved A Fistful of Ed for a lot of reasons!  First of all, Raven’s scenes are the highlight of season 5 for me, I had loved her art since before she worked for the show, so it was really exciting to see her do the bulk of an episode, and for it to be upgraded from an 11-minute story to a two-parter.  
Secondly, Edd was a hard character for me to understand, he has a lot of traits and a fairly consistent only-rational-character role in the series, but AKA didn’t always try to connect his actions to details about his life outside of each episode, the way that the writers clearly understand Eddy’s home life even if they rarely address it. I can’t remember where/when it was brought up, but season 5 was suggested to be thought of as Edd’s season, after season 4′s finale revealed the spotlight to be on Eddy.  While Edd did take the focus more often at that point, I didn’t feel like anyone but Raven was digging into his inner life and making him as much of a main character as Eddy. So it was even MORE exciting when it became clear how much the episode was turned over to Raven’s understanding of him.
 THIRD, I couldn’t believe I was finally getting what I’d always been asking for. GENUINE EMOTIONS!  As much as I value simple slice-of-life stories, the way the style developed toward complicated expressions was begging for a more serious tone than just the show’s usual topics of outrage and failure.  When the storyboards were being pitched, there was push-back behind the scenes because it was so unusual to play a scene as outwardly dramatic and break the characters down to tears.  But from what I hear it was actually Danny who was most interested in seeing Raven’s vision through, and gave it the green light. I am so grateful that we got the story the way it was originally pitched, because there’s really very little else in the show that suggests how strongly Ed and Edd feel about each other and their group, and we need to see them finally erupt so that Eddy’s exposed backstory in Big Picture Show doesn’t feel out of place in an otherwise numb universe.  That they managed to find such an emotional story while not letting up the violence at all is especially impressive.  For once, beating people up feels cohesive to the character development, instead of a shortcut to slapstick.  It’s also a humongous relief after the focus on the Eds’ increased suffering for the past two seasons, it puts a really nice bow on everything without actually being an ending.
I should also probably bring up the 3-day marathon of the first 5 seasons, leading up to the premiere of Fistful, which was being advertised as the last episode ever, despite ads running during the final day for the Invaded special (and the fandom being completely aware that two winter episodes and a movie were on the way as well). “The Best Day Edder” marathon in April 2007, making fun of a similar-but-disappointing “Best Day Ever” SpongeBob marathon from November 2006, was a dream come true for me, a brief moment where EEnE was treated like CN’s proudest project and celebrated for being the network’s longest-running series.  The end of the episode left me quaking, I was so satisfied and excited to see the Eds start winning and protecting each other.  The whole marathon was a really inspiring experience for me.
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Compared to that, I was pretty depressed leading up to the next series finale, Big Picture Show.  It felt significantly more final, and more than two years passed between Fistful and BPS, so it was really nerve-wracking waiting to see if AKA could pull off another big emotional feat.  But when information about Edd’s deleted dodgeball-incident-retelling was presented to me, it really cemented my love for the show and permanently renewed my obsession with Fistful.
Basically, after starting school in another town, Toddler Edd was targeted in dodgeball by the other students, who were presumably a little older and jealous of his advanced grades. This provoked Edd to build a dodgeball cannon and go around the school mutilating other students.  He ultimately regretted seeing how much damage he could do to the human body and was further traumatized by the shame and ridicule after being arrested, forced to give a public apology and kicked out of his first town.  He moved to Peach Creek, hid any evidence he had of the incident in his hat so he knew where it was, and attempted to reinvent himself. It works phenomenally as a backstory for his warring morality and dark side, it would’ve worked well to finally put him on the same level of “bad but improving” as Ed and Eddy, and most of all, it does nothing but support and reinvent previous episodes without retconning anything.
It affects one scene in ‘Ed in a Halfshell’ and one scene in ‘Every Which Way But Ed’, but it affects ALL of ‘A Fistful of Ed’, because Edd’s clumsiness isn’t just being misinterpreted as him being a tough guy. The kids frame it as “it’s always the quiet ones,” suggesting they think Edd has finally snapped from their bullying, and the severity of their injuries makes them treat him like a soon-to-be killer.  They have no idea Edd has actually been through that reality already, but it very clearly wears on him throughout each scene, until he’s finally crying in front of everyone on the cafeteria floor.  Edd struggles to defend himself for an impressively long time, but the final straw being Ed’s mom banning Edd from his friends suggests that Ed and Eddy are the only people who give Edd the strength to forget he was ever MORE violent than the rest of the characters. When I watch the scene of him alone, in the dark, working and crying in the botany room, it’s now very easy to see that he’s not just thinking about the events of Fistful.  He’s stepping back and taking a look at his life, everyone he’s hurt, wondering if he can ever escape it or if it will eventually return to haunt him in every town he ever lives in.  Edd probably struggles a lot with forgiving himself– he knows he has to if he’s ever going to move on, but he’s completely betrayed his morals and in retrospect it probably explains why he accepts so much abuse in Peach Creek.
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Big Picture Show is the other half of the dodgeball incident coming back to haunt Edd.  Fistful makes him think about the acts he committed and the judgement he faced, but it probably helps Edd make it to the cafeteria scene that he knows he didn’t actually do anything and that he was hurting himself at the same time these acts were occurring.  In Big Picture Show, the scam not only forces him to see the kids gorily injured, with chunks of their bodies missing, it also causes him to be banished from yet another town by yet another set of angry schoolkids.  This (and ‘A Town Called Ed’) plays into why I approach Eddy and Bro’s backstories with so much “history repeating itself”– almost ALL of Edd’s story has been about him having to face the same guilt over and over with slight changes.  I wish that the final cut of the movie had included his backstory so that we didn’t have to piece the most important part of his character together from insider info, but it’s still impressive enough to me that so much of it IS visible, even if only through Edd internalizing it in Fistful and BPS.
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artificialqueens · 8 years ago
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This Town (Biadore) - Lemonade
A/N: Some lyrics are switched around, and some are interpreted differently for the flow of the story/sake of the plot. Here is the song this fic is inspired by. I also want to say I didn’t forget about I Don’t Know Him!! I have the outline for it, I’ve just been having a really hard time finding the motivation/voice to write (I say as I submit this monster of a one-shot).
Summary: Biadore AU. Roy takes a trip down memory lane.
Waking up to kiss you and nobody’s there The smell of your perfume still stuck in the air
Roy woke to Danny’s face only inches away from his. His strikingly colored eyes gazing up at him like he had put each individual star in the sky. “You’ve gotta stop staring at me while I sleep.” Roy chuckled before turning from his side to lay on his back, his arms stretching behind his head. Danny followed him, curling up to his side while draping one arm over his chest and tangling his legs with his. “But you’re pretty when you sleep.” Roy crooked an eyebrow at him, his hand had absentmindedly fallen to Danny’s arm, running up and down his tattooed skin. “Pretty? I’ve been called a lot of things, but pretty is definitely not one of them.” Danny shrugged. “Well I think you’re pretty, so now you’ve been called pretty and can never say that again.” Danny giggled. Roy smiled down at him, his laughter the purest thing Roy thought he would ever experience. It was like a child’s. He tilted Danny’s chin up with one finger, leaning the rest of the way down to kiss him. They couldn’t get out of bed without their morning kiss.
Roy’s eyes fluttered open, sunlight seeped in through the blinds and created a pattern across the room. For a moment, Roy expected to see Danny’s face mere centimeters away from his, expected his shiny eyes to be fixated on him. He even reached his hand out to graze against a body that wasn’t there. A body who hasn’t been there. Danny had never slept in this bed before, had never been in this apartment before; Still, Roy saw the dent he left in the mattress and smelled his favorite perfume lingering in the air.
Roy sighed. He missed Danny.
———-
And I know that it’s wrong That I can’t move on
Roy lived far enough from where he grew up that he wasn’t bombarded with constant reminders and bottled up feelings, but not so far that he couldn’t revisit them every once in a while. He hooked the final button on his shirt. The royal blue played nicely against his skin tone. It was Danny’s favorite color on him. It’s why he wore it so much. Roy gave himself one final look in the mirror, smoothing out the nonexistent wrinkles on his top. He looked nice. His eyes looked miserable. He grabbed his car keys from the kitchen counter as he left his apartment. Maybe he’d visit his mother while he was visiting memory lane.
———-
Drive highways and byways to be there with you
It didn’t take long for the past to start pumping through Roy’s veins. The shortcut he always took home never failed to remind him of…
Roy was electrified. He felt more alive than he ever thought possible. He made it. Those four hellish years called high school were now behind him, he was accepted to his first choice college, and he and Danny had decided to stay together despite the new found distance between them. Danny remained in their little town while Roy zoomed down the desolate byway out of it. Music from the playlist Danny had made him blasted from Roy’s car, window’s rolled down and his one hand dancing through the wind like some final scene from a coming of age movie. It was perfect, all expect for his phone that would not stop ringing. No one was on the road with him (he was sure only a handful of people knew the path existed) so he answered. “You’re killing my vibe.” Roy said to whoever was on the other end.
Heavy breathing. Sobbing. A high pitched shriek. That was all Roy heard for the first minute of the call. He stopped his car dead in it’s tracks.
“Hello? Hello?” He was panicking now. Another minute went by and all there is to be heard on the other end was distant chattering of conversations he wasn’t involved in.
“Roy?” It was Courtney. Her voice had that shrill tone it took on when she had become upset.
“What’s going on? Are you okay?” Maybe that Zoe girl Courtney had been dating dumped her.
“It’s Danny.” Courtney swallowed back her sobs and Roy’s heart dropped.
“What do you mean Danny? What’s wrong with Danny? What happened to him?” His words caught on fire as they frantically flew from his mouth, desperate for her to say this was all a prank and Danny was fine.
“He was in a car crash.” Courtney finally managed to cry out. Her hand came across her mouth to silence her whimpers. She wanted to be strong, because she knew when it came to Danny Roy was anything but.
Courtney gave him the hospital information, and as fast as he was speeding down the road to get out of town, he was doing twice that to get to Danny.
Roy burst through the hospital doors. He had cried the whole ride there. “Where is he? Where is he?” He screamed at no one in particular. Courtney ran up to him, streaks of mascara had stained her cheeks. “He’s okay. You wouldn’t answer your phone again, but he’s okay.” The sense of relief washing over Roy’s being was so powerful he didn’t even feel Courtney’s arms wrapping around him.
“I have to see him.”
“They’re only letting family in.”
“I don’t care.”
No one was going to stop Roy from seeing Danny, not after he spent the last hour thinking he had lost him. God help anyone who tried. “Daniel Noriega. I need to see him.” The nurse at the front desk looked up at him nonchalantly, a stark contrast to Roy’s chaotic demeanor. “Only family is allowed to see Mr. Noriega. Are you family?” Before he could lie someone else did it for him. “Yes. He’s one of Danny’s brothers.” Danny’s mother answered as she emerged from a lengthy hallway. Roy shuffled around the desk to embrace her. “I’m so sorry.” He whispered. Her hand offered comfort in rubbing Roy’s back. “Go see him.” The words were mumbled softly in his ear. “He asked for you as soon as he woke up.”
Making his way to Danny’s room was a blur of emotions Roy couldn’t recall. He knew he ran. He ran so fucking fast to get to him, like he wouldn’t be there if he didn’t make it in under two minutes. He skipped steps, tripping once but quickly recovering. When he made it, he relaxed himself. He didn’t want to scare Danny by bolting inside and he didn’t want to upset him with his distressed appearance.
Roy poked his head in, slowly sauntering into the room. Danny’s legs were up in one of those contraptions Roy thought he’d only see on tv, his right arm was in a sling, and his face was cut and bruised. It broke Roy inside to see him like this, but he kept his expression controlled. He didn’t want to make Danny feel bad. “Hey, babe.” Roy spoke softer than silk. “Hi.” Danny’s voice sounded more broken than he looked. Roy pulled a chair up to his bed, immediately taking his uninjured hand into his own and caressing it with the pad of his thumb.
“I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“I’m so sorry you had to come back for me.”
They spoke simultaneously.
“What? Danny, don’t be sorry. You’re hurt.” He reached his other hand out to cup Danny’s face, his touch feather light in fear of hurting him. Danny nuzzled into his palm. It was the most comforting thing he felt all day. “Yeah, and you’re suppose to be on your way to college.” Roy shook his head, getting ready to speak but being cut off by Danny’s words. “Roy, all I’m going to do is hold you back. I mean, look, you were on your way out of this going nowhere town and had to U turn all because my dumbass got in a stupid accident. I don’t want to be the thing that’s tying you down here. You deserve to get out of this place.” Roy scooted closer to his bedside, as close as he could possibly get. Gingerly, Roy cupped Danny’s face with both hands, holding his head up so he would have to look him in the eyes. “Daniel Anthony Noriega, you listen to me right now. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is more important to me than you are. I don’t care what I’m doing, or where I am, if it’s for you I’m gonna come running–Well, maybe not running since I tripped up the steps, but you know what I mean.” Danny laughed at that. Roy was grateful to hear his favorite sound in the world. “You’re not holding me back. I promise.” Roy rose from his seat to press a tender kiss against Danny’s forehead. “I love you, Danny.” He pecked his lips. “I love you too, Roy.”
“Can you just tell me one thing?” Danny asked.
“What is it, love?”
“Did you really fall coming up the stairs?” A bright smile lit up Danny’s features. It looked out of place on his beaten up face. The room erupted with laughter from the two of them. It hurt Danny’s sore body, but he couldn’t help himself. “Oh bitch, let me show you.” Roy rolled up his pants to show Danny a scraped knee, which made Danny laugh harder. “Oh my poor baby! Let me get up, you need this bed more than I do.”
Roy cracked a smile as he remember their banter. Danny was hurt, but they spent the whole night giggling with each other. If the laughter wasn’t enough to make him remember that day, the pinched nerve he got in his neck from sleeping in a chair next to Danny’s bed sure did.
Roy sighed. He missed Danny.
———-
‘Cause if the whole world was watching I’d still dance with you
Roy drove slowly by their high school, coming to a stop to take in the dully painted building and all of the memories it held…
Roy swayed stiffly with Courtney at arms length, eyes drifting to the person he really wanted to be with while his brain blocked out the awful music they were playing. Courtney frowned. “Honestly, I don’t want to be here with you either.” A sharp edge to her usually posh tone cut through the fog in Roy’s mind.
“What?”
“I said, I don’t want to be here with you either.”
“Who said I don’t want to be here with you?”
“Your eyes. They’ve been plastered on Danny Noriega all night.” Roy nearly choked at Courtney’s observation. “No, no– I don’t– he doesn’t– I wasn’t.” A playful slap hit Roy’s arm. “Oh Haylock, relax. I’ve known since we started,” she put air quotes around the word, “dating.” Roy was puzzled. “You– what?” He decided, for once, not to pretend that he and Danny were just friends. “How did you find out?” Courtney smiled sweetly at him. “Because I’m doing the same thing with you. You know Zoe, right?” Roy shook his head no, still oblivious to where she was going with this. Courtney turned them around, it wasn’t hard to take control of their awkward dancing since neither of them cared enough to lead the other. “She’s the one in the pink dress: brunette, hair tied with a matching bow, the prettiest smile in the entire world.” Roy combed over the sea of girls in pink dresses. Only half of them were brunette, only two had their hair tied up, and only one was smiling wide enough to have Courtney’s knees knocking. “I think I see her.” Courtney’s eyes drifted shut as she thought of Zoe’s sweet Chapstick and vanilla scented shampoo.
“Well, I’d rather be dancing with her right now, just like you’d rather be dancing with Danny.”
“Why can’t you?” Roy asked the blonde.
“I guess the same reason you can’t with Danny.” She answered.
“Yeah, but your mom isn’t chaperoning the dance.”
“It’s still scary.”
Roy stopped moving abruptly, causing Courtney to trip over her own two feet. Her words sparked a fire in him that he didn’t know was there. Being scared, hiding who he was, hiding who he loved, it wasn’t it for him anymore. He wanted to dance, at prom, with his boyfriend. Why couldn’t he do that? Why did everyone else get to enjoy their last school dance while he and Danny made sad puppy dog eyes at each other from across the room? What was the point? What the fuck was so different about their love that he had to feel ashamed of it? Nothing, and no more. “I’m sick of being scared.” Roy declared to Courtney. “I’m gonna ask Danny to dance.” The blondes eyes widened. “But your mom.” She pointed out, in case he forgot in the haze of whatever was clouding his judgment. “I don’t care.”
He began to walk away, realized he had forgotten something, and turned back around. Roy’s larger hands consumed Courtney’s petite ones.
“Thank you so much for covering for me Court.”
“Thanks for covering for me too.” She chuckled, lightly punching him in the arm. “Still friends?” She proposed. “Still friends.” He agreed. “Do you think Danny’ll still want to be friends since I’ve been dating his boyfriend all year?” A mock expression of contemplation swiped across Roy’s face. “I don’t think he’ll mind.” They hugged, then Roy was back on his mission. Walking purposefully towards Danny.
Danny’s eyes hadn’t left Roy all night (his ass hadn’t left the bleachers either) so his boyfriend striding towards him, carrying himself with all of the confidence in the world, did not go unnoticed. As he got closer, Danny’s heart pounded faster in his chest until Roy was towering over him, extending his hand for him to take. “Would you like to dance with me?” He offered a warm smile. It was a horrible feeling leaving Danny to sit here alone all night, but he was going to make it right. “Roy!” Danny earnestly jumped up from the plastic bench, grabbed Roy’s arm, and pulled him to a side of the room that wasn’t flooded with students and staff members. “Roy, what are you doing?” Danny was sure to keep his voice quiet, he didn’t want to cause any attention to their conversation.
“Asking my boyfriend to dance.”
“But your mom.”
“I don’t care.”
“Roy.” Danny took both his hands in his, holding them low so no one would notice. “You don’t have to do this for me. I told you, I don’t mind that you’re not out. I don’t mind that we can’t be a couple in public. It’s okay, baby, I understand.” Danny staved off the urge to caress Roy’s cheek. “If you’re not ready, you’re not ready. You shouldn’t do this if you aren’t a hundred percent sure.” While Danny was fighting with his limbs not to touch Roy, Roy did it without a care in the world. He cupped Danny’s face with his newly free hands, pulling Danny closer to him. “I’m a hundred percent sure.” Roy put Danny’s concerns to rest. “I’m ready to come out. There’s no reason we should have to hide what we have. There’s nothing that makes us different from anyone else in this room. I’m done thinking that there is.”
Danny’s heart nearly burst, he didn’t think he’d ever be prouder of another person than he was of Roy in this moment. A muscular pair of arms wrapped around Roy, squeezing him tightly. “I’m really proud of you.” He whispered in his ear. His words made Roy’s chest buzz. Hearing someone is proud of you was always a good feeling, but it felt ten times more magnificent coming from Danny’s lips. Their hands stayed knitted together after the hug ended. “So is that a yes? You’ll dance with me?” Danny had never heard the other sound so shy in his life. It was adorable.
“You sure you’re ready?”
“I’m sure.”
“Then it’s a yes.”
Hand in hand, Danny and Roy walked straight to the middle of the dance floor. The pair earned some confused glares, some ‘I knew it’ stares, and a thumbs up from Courtney; Which made both of them blush. They turned to face each other, it was virtually too late to turn back now, but Danny still asked.
“Sure?”
“Sure.”
With that Roy wound his arms around Danny’s waist, and Danny tangled his arms around Roy’s neck. That was that. The two of them were holding each other closer than anyone else in the room, their foreheads pressed together. No other soul existed in that moment. It felt like time was standing still just for them to enjoy. They saw the world in each other’s eyes, so the world around them melted away as they danced together. All the worries Roy had about coming out were retreating to the farthest reaches of his mind. He had even forgotten his mother was there, witnessing the whole thing. “I’m really happy I did this. Kind of wish I did it sooner. I could have been dating you instead of Courtney.” Danny snickered. “She seems like a lovely girl.” He mocked Roy’s mother’s voice. “Well see, here’s the thing: I don’t like girls.” They roared with laughter, the eyes they lost after their march of pride had darted back to them again due to the sheer volume of their cackling.
“What do you say we give them a show?” Roy’s tone was laced with innuendo. “Babe, are you sure?” To say Roy was shocking him this evening would be the understatement of the century. “I mean, you just came out like fifteen minutes ago. Are you really ready to make out in front of our whole grade?” Roy’s answer came in the form of his tongue invading Danny’s mouth. His hands moved to Danny’s long hair, taking a clump of it in his fist gently. Their fantasy was short lived as one of the history teachers tapped them both on the shoulder. “Roy. Daniel. You guys know the rules, no kissing.” As if being scolded by his teacher wasn’t enough, Roy’s mom was right behind the man. His usual olive toned skin went as pale as Danny’s.
“I’m sorry, did I just hear you tell my son who he can and can’t kiss?”
Roy’s jaw needed help off of the ground. His mom…was defending him? Defending his right to kiss Danny? He thought a man walking on the surface of the sun would be more likely to happen than this.
“Oh, n-no, Mrs. Haylock, you-you’ve misunderstood.” Danny couldn’t help but to snort at his nervous stammering. Roy elbowed him to stop. “Public displays of affection aren’t allowed on school property period. It has nothing to with them b-being, uh…uh…being…” Danny’s eyes nearly flew to the back of his head. Why did straight people have to get so touchy around anyone who wasn’t straight too? “Gay, Mr. Todd. I think the word you’re looking for is gay.” He chimed in dryly. “Yes-yes, Daniel. Thank you.” Danny nodded his head. “No problem, captain heterosexual.” Roy elbowed him again.
Before his foot was so far down his throat it was coming out of his ass, the boys teacher excused himself. The Sahara desert had nothing on Roy’s mouth, he couldn’t even swallow down his nerves as the clack of heels moved closer to him. Danny knew when things were none of his business. He took a few steps back to give them some privacy, but stayed close enough so that he could hold Roy’s hand through it. “Roy.” His blood felt ice cold. She had just defended them, Roy should be the most relived eighteen year old in the world right now, but the anxiety bubbling in the pit of his stomach took that away from him. His blood felt ice cold, that was, until his mother hugged him. Danny’s lips curled into a smile at the sight.
“You’re okay with this?”
“Roy, I’ve been okay with this since you were eight. And I’ve been okay with this,” she gestured between Danny and her son. “since you guys were twelve.” Anxiety was no longer burning in his blood stream. She kissed him on the forehead, wished the two of them a good rest of their prom, hugged Danny, and disappeared into the crowd to resume her chaperoning duties. “How fucking awesome was that!?” Danny beamed so brightly he was like a ray of light. He had seen Roy struggle with his sexuality for years, witnessing his mother’s reaction made his heart swell for his boyfriend. “I can’t believe it. I thought she’d disown me, or send me to conversion therapy, or something.” Danny kissed him on the cheek. “I’ve always told you to have more faith in people. Are you going to start listening to me now?” Roy pecked him back. “Probably not.”
They spent the rest of their night as every other couple in the building. Holding each other, laughing, sneaking into the bathrooms to make out. It was amazing how everything changed quite literally overnight. The last song was announced over the loud speakers, everyone made their way from secret make out spots and back onto the floor. “Tonight was amazing, for like, a million different reasons.” Danny gushed as they rocked slowly to the music, his head resting on Roy’s shoulder. “Yeah,” Roy’s eyes flicked up from Danny, meeting Courtney’s, who had finally mustered up the courage to dance with Zoe. They shared a smile from across the room. “it really was.”
“I love you, Danny.”
“I love you too, Roy.”
That night was magical. Sure, every cliche teen drama described prom night as ‘magical’, but Roy’s truly was. It was the first time he and Danny could be a couple publicly, his mom accepted him with open arms, and they spent the rest of prom weekend in a woven mess of each other.
Roy sighed. He missed Danny.
———-
I remember everything From when we were the children playing in this fairground
Roy slammed his car door shut. The last place he wanted to visit required some physical activity…
Danny tugged a lagging Roy along behind him, following a path of painted rocks he had placed there himself so he wouldn’t forget the way. Roy was panting, he didn’t think he could take another step, so he didn’t. “Danny, where the hell are we going?” His words were punctuated with heavy breaths. “Well Jeez Roy, maybe you’d find out if you actually moved.” Roy shot him a look, and Danny put his hands up in mock defense.
“I just want you to see it already.”
“You’re dragging me into the middle of the woods. I’m not so sure you’re gonna show me some awesome discovery as much as I am you’ll axe murder me instead.”
“You watch too much T.V.” Danny said simply before grabbing Roy’s hand and tugging him along again. He slowed his pace at least, so Roy wasn’t trailing behind him or gasping for air, but walking hand in hand with him. Roy could feel the excitement radiating off of Danny. There was a skip in his step and the most captivating smile he thought he would ever see smacked on his face. The warmth beaming from his boyfriend was enough to make him crack a smile too.
As they got closer Danny jumped in front of Roy. “Wait!” He practically yelled. The suddenness of it all had knocked Roy off of his feet, literally. A pile of leafs broke his fall and that was all Danny needed to completely lose it. The spirited boy was on the ground, holding his stomach, and laughing manically. Jesus Christ, that was most glorious sound Roy had ever heard. People always talked about laughs that were so infectious they made you laugh with them, that was Danny. No one else could make Roy giggle just by giggling themselves.
Roy laid in his pile of leafs, cackling.
Danny laid on his mound of dirt, cackling.
No two people had the ability to make each other laugh the way they did.
Eventually, by some miracle, they had stopped snickering long enough to pick themselves off of the ground. “What the fuck was that, Danny?” Roy was biting back his laughter. “It was gravity and your ass meeting for the first time. I think they liked each other.” Roy rubbed his rear end. “I hope gravity buys my ass dinner, because I think it left a bruise.” Danny burst out again. He had laughed so much tears began running down the side of his cheek. Roy thanked whatever God or entity might exist for blessing him with the ability to make Danny cackle like that. It was his favorite song in the world.
Once Danny found some composure they were back on the trial to his little surprise. His hands had been covering Roy’s eyes this time, leading him the rest of the way, which was only a few more steps. “Okay.” He positioned Roy perfectly so he was standing right in front of it. “Keep your eyes closed.” Danny ran over to it, opening his arms to showcase his discovery. “Ta da! You can look now!” Roy’s eyes snapped open. They landed on…a shed? Was this some kind of joke? What was Danny so excited about? “Uh…it’s…great?” It was obvious by the muddled look on Roy’s face he didn’t understand what finding this shed meant for them, or what Danny was going to make it mean for them. Danny rolled his eyes, grabbing Roy by the hand and pulling him once more. “C'mon, I’ll explain.”
The door creaked open with a sound straight out of a horror movie. “Okay, that was terrifying.” Danny shrugged. “It just needs some oil or something.” The place was rather spacious, the only thing inhabiting it were dust bunnies. It would be a nice place to smoke: far away from any police or parents who could catch them. Decent scenery as well, Roy supposed, but he still didn’t see the big deal. Danny had twenty other smoking spots that weren’t this much of a hassle to get to. “I figured since you said you didn’t want anybody to know about us, we could chill here. There’s no chance of your parents, or anyone else for that matter finding out. My mom won’t be barging in on us every five minutes just to make sure nothing’s going on, and nobody knows it exists. It’s our own little hideaway.” Danny grinned.
Now that he explained it, it made perfect sense. Roy discovered a new love for this little shack, and a new love for Danny. He respected him so much he went on wild goose chase just to find a spot where Roy would feel comfortable and safe enough to be with him in. “Danny, this is the sweetest thing ever.” Tears pricked his eyes. Roy wasn’t the 'show your emotions’ type of person, but Danny was changing everything he thought he knew about himself. “Oh, babe,” Danny swung his arms around him and Roy squeezed tightly. It made Danny’s heart full, how firmly Roy was holding on to him as he silently cried. “don’t get all emotional.” He chuckled. “It’s not like I built the thing, I just…found it and thought you’d like it.” Roy lifted his face from the crook of Danny’s neck so he could look at him while he spoke. “That’s it though. You’d drag yourself out here everyday just to be with me, when you could be with any other guy you wanted with half the trouble. We can’t even act like we’re dating, and instead of dumping me you find a place where we can.” Hearing it from Roy’s perspective made Danny understand where he was coming from (and a little misty eyed himself). He pressed his lips to Danny’s, shoving every bit of emotion he had into it. The kiss was a tad sloppy, slightly out of control, and constructed of raw passion.
Danny finally (and reluctantly) broke their kiss, peppering Roy’s lips and tear stained cheeks before stopping completely. There was a little closet in the shed where Danny had stored his favorite quilt from home. It was the only blanket thick enough to make the hard wooden floor somewhat comfortable. They worked together to spread it across the floorboards before laying down. Roy was engulfed in Danny’s arms. After the show of emotion that was so rare for Roy, all Danny wanted to do was hold him close to his heart.
“I love you, Roy.” Danny placed a loving kiss to the top of his head.
“I love you too, Danny.” He nuzzled his face in Danny’s chest.
That night was a crystal clear memory that Roy held close to his soul. Danny held him, and kissed him, and made him laugh. They made love all night in that little shack, on that cozy blanket, and talked all morning the same way. Their parents thought they had been kidnapped when they strolled home late afternoon. They shared countless nights like that one in their little hideaway.
Roy sighed, pushing the familiar, heavy wooden door open. He missed Danny.
———-
And I want to tell you everything The words I never got to say the first time around
Roy’s eyes danced across the familiar room, tracing every line in the now rotting wood. It seemed smaller, or maybe the world seemed bigger back then. God, if these walls could talk. Their relationship lived here. This is where they talked for hours, spilling every dark secret and ugly truth about themselves. Roy cried more in this shack than anywhere else in his life. This is where they fought. This is where they made love. This is where they broke up a hundred and one times and got back together a hundred and two.
If the walls had stories, the blanket had fucking novels. Roy wondered if it was still there. He was almost afraid to look. What would it mean if it wasn’t? What would it mean if it was? The door on the shed closet was rusted worse than the main door now. He reached in and pulled out their blanket. It was softer than he remembered, it was definitely cleaner than he remembered too. For as long as it had been sitting here, no dust had accumulated on it. No bugs hid in the seems, and no cobwebs fell as he unfolded the quilt and shook it out. Something did fall. Maybe a left over condom, Roy thought.
He was wrong. A folded piece of notebook paper laid on the floor. Roy didn’t think much of it. It was probably old notes from a study session. The paper was shoved into his pocket as he spread the blanket over the floor as he and Danny did so many times before.
Sad. Pathetic. Nostalgic. Lonely.
He felt a whirlwind of emotions, none of them necessarily positive. Without Danny, he was just a devastated man sitting in a decrepit, abandoned old shack, fostering memories and feelings he should have let go of a long time ago.
Roy sighed. He missed Danny.
He was the light in his life and without him Roy had felt dull ever since. He didn’t laugh as much, or as hard. He never loved so fully, so genuinely, so vulnerably, again. He didn’t find the joy in things anymore. Danny could make a drunken trip to Denny’s at two in the morning the greatest adventure of your life. He brought an energy to the world so unique that Roy never found it again. There was only one Danny, and that Danny wasn’t his anymore.
Roy dug in his pocket, the crinkling noises chewing the shit out of his nerves. He was gonna chuck it, but something told him to unfold it. These weren’t chemistry notes, this was a letter addressed to him, in Danny’s handwriting.
Dear Roy,
I have so much I want to say to you I don’t even know where to start, or how to get it down on one piece of paper. Or how to remember all of it for that matter. You know how my mind wanders.
No one has ever loved me as well as you did. I want you to know that. I was my happiest with you. I felt my brightest with you. I can’t find that anywhere else. I keep trying, but I can’t. You have something special. You are something special, don’t ever doubt that. Don’t ever let anyone treat you like you didn’t put the starts in the sky, because to me you did.
I have to say sorry, too. I’m so sorry. I’m so fucking sorry. I don’t think you’ll ever be able to comprehend the guilt that eats at my insides everyday. How every breath hurts because I know I ruined something that only comes along once in a lifetime. I know I ruined my one shot at love, and I’ll never get that back. I’m selfish, and insecure, and bratty, and angry, and immature. I didn’t support you the way you supported me. I didn’t love you as well as you loved me. Please, please, please know that I did love you though. What I did doesn’t take away all those years prior. It doesn’t make them invalid. Our relationship meant the world to me, you were my world. Never doubt that for a second. You didn’t waste your time with me even though it might feel like you did. I appreciate and cherish every minute we spent together.
I guess accountability is another thing I was never good at. I cheated on you. I have to live with that. We were so close to making it, your senior year of college was almost over, you were gonna come home to me. I ruined that. I ruined us. You were pursuing your dreams and I stabbed you in the back. You would have never done that to me. Still to this day I don’t know why I did. Maybe it was a self sabotage thing. You’re just too good for me, Roy. Always were, always will be. I knew there was someone better out there for you, some place better out there for you. I hope you’ve found them both. I hope somebody is loving you right now. I hope they’re loving you right. I hope they never hurt you like I did. You don’t deserve that. You didn’t deserve that. I’m sorry.
I want you to know that I still love you with the same burning, raw, passion as when we were teenagers. It doesn’t matter if we never speak again, or if we speak everyday for the rest of our lives; You are it for me. I’ll never find a person, because you were my person. That’s my punishment for what I did to you, and I deserve every last bit of it. I don’t deserve to be happy, or loved, because I was. I was and I threw it away.
I’m proud of you, too. I’m proud of everything you’ve accomplished and everything you will. You’re smart, and talented, and brave and funny and compassionate. You’re everything good in the world. You’re everything I wish I could be. Nurture your talents and take care of yourself, please.
I always want to call you and share my day with you. I always want to tell you all the good things that have happened, all the good things that I’ve done. I guess I can’t fit every detail of my life since we broke up on this paper. I got a recording deal. I started posting covers on YouTube and ta da! Maybe I’ll be a rockstar like you always told me I would be. Maybe that’s my way back to you. I always want to call you up crying, too. There’s more rain than there is sunshine, but my problems aren’t yours anymore. I hope your life is the brightest it can be.
I miss you. I love you. I’m sorry.
With all the love in my heart, Danny.
———-
Everything comes back to you
Roy had to stop reading several times as the tears invading his eyes blurred his vision like a windshield in torrential downpour. He thought Danny had forgotten him– maybe he had by now, but this letter gave him something to hold on to. If he never saw Danny again, at least he got some sort of closure from this. He got an apology, and a confirmation that Danny felt just as deeply for him when they were together. He knew he wasn’t alone in missing the other. Roy hoped so much that Danny found someone to make him happy, or learned how to manufacture his own happiness. No matter what, Roy always wanted Danny smiling. He always wanted to think that somewhere in the world he was laughing his face off; It was Roy’s favorite sound. Oh, and how his heart fluttered when he read Danny received a recording contract. Music had always been Danny’s first and truest love. It was his ticket out of this town. He hoped he would make it.
The crunching of leafs and a twig snapping took Roy right out of his thoughts. No one but he and Danny knew of this little shed. Who would be snooping around in the middle of the woods? It could have been a bunny. It could be two lovesick teenagers who discovered this shack and claimed it as their own little hideaway, just as he and Danny did. The noises edged closer and Roy stood up, anxiously awaiting who– or what was going to open that door. It creaked its signature creak. Roy swallowed.
Pale skin his fingers had brushed across numerous times before. Beautifully messy hair he loved to run his hands through. Vivid pops of art sketched on his arms that he’d recognize anywhere. The eyes he looked into and saw his soul in. Lips that he used to kiss swollen. The man that had his heart on a string.
“Danny?”
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madeline0239-blog · 7 years ago
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I suppose these are the tremendous wealthy or tremendous famous who don't wish to be bothered by emails, updates, and so on. Still different LinkedIn subscribers only wish to be linked with people the actually know. Since each endorsement can also be a link to the profile of the one that made it some individuals endorse liberally and may endorse you for skills which are indirectly related. Get severe, you recognize 250 folks which are on LinkedIn that you already know and trust exit and get them related to you. A spot to find information and get ideas about find out how to make nice displays (or not, as the case can generally be). Identify common posts to get more shares: Getting new followers often comes all the way down to how to find people's connections on linkedin often your content material will get shared. LinkedIn Options lets you filter for posts that LinkedIn might discover particularly relevant for you. If more individuals can find you on LinkedIn search, the extra people will request to connect with you.
Discover Certified Candidates. Ever struggled in search of an employee? I remember logging into my account in the future and seeing that somebody was on the lookout for training in Social Networking for their company. Every time you meet someone new in life, ask to attach on LinkedIn. As you build your network, it’s essential to know what’s appropriate and what’s thought-about dangerous LinkedIn etiquette. How do you know what keywords to use? If you are considering using a consultant to assist you with your social media advertising marketing campaign, ensure they use the websites they'd recommend. The next list supplies seven guidelines anybody within the gross sales profession should keep in mind when using LinkedIn as a prospecting software. Lately Danny Bickson at CMU has carried out a full SVD on mutlicore utilizing the GraphLab framework . Before you resolve to purchase Instagram followers, work out whether it makes sense for you to do this. Whereas "quantity" is your eventual purpose, high quality is a great way to begin. Deb launched the idea of "Why-Buy-ROI" as a method to specific client's "branded worth in the market." The "Why-Purchase-ROI" formula takes the idea of expressing accomplishments a step further. Discuss with all workers the importance of "liking" and/or "sharing" standing updates that come from your company web page.
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adamstuckerma · 8 years ago
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22 Unique SEO Tips Backed by 22 Renowned SEO Experts
How great would it be if we could gather all the awesome SEO experts in just one room to talk about search engines ranks with a focus on the best SEO tips available out there? It would be glorious! Since we don’t have a room big enough to gather all the best experts in one place, we took advantage of the online “meetings” and gathered all the up to date SEO tips into an awesome expert roundup post. That is how we got the idea of interviewing 22 renowned SEO experts and how we found out 22 awesome and unique search engine optimization tips … the best of them.
 We’ve got answers from some of the brightest minds about the most actionable tips from the digital marketing world. We’ve found interesting news, insights and really helpful tips and guidelines about mobile optimization, metrics, qualitative content marketing, testing, technical SEO and customer centric websites. These 22 tips are some of the best for small businesses or large enterprises. Make sure you get the best of them.
 Grab a coffee, sit comfortably and start reading the next list with 22 unique SEO tips backed by 22 renowned SEO experts that will make your search traffic bloom. 
 Understand That SEO Is Not Just About Rankings by Phil Frost
Optimize Your Content for Your Customers and Not for the Search Engines by Omi Sido
Understand How Your Site Is Actually Performing Away From Vanity Metrics by Danny Denhard
Don’t Underestimate the Power of Creative Technical SEO by Paul Shapiro
Have Content Deliberately Written to Be Highly Linkable by Sujan Patel
Do Not Underestimate How Important “Branding” Is to SEO by Dixon Jones
Build Your Website on a Solid Foundation of Data and Keyword Research by Trond Lyngbø
Spend the Time and Money to Have Your Site Analyzed in Terms of Its Existing SEO by Julie Joyce
Make the Best Page on the Internet for Your Topic by Andy Crestodina
When It Comes to Link Acquisition You Need to Be Looking for Trust by Tim Grice
Invest Time and Effort into Developing a Link Earning Strategy by Caleb McElveen
If Everyone Else Is Zigging, Then Zagging Is a Strategic Opportunity by Greg Jarboe
Invest More in Content by Eric Enge
Run Your Own SEO Tests Across Different Search Categories by Carl Hendy
Perform an In-Depth SEO SWOT Analysis by Marcus Miller
Understand What Your Targeted Audience Might Be Looking For by Bill Slawski
Test Longer Strategies over Tactics and Measure Each Step of the Way by Bill Sebald
Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile Friendly by Andy Drinkwater
Create Your Own Websites and Experiment Things Risk-Free by Mark Porter
Focus on Content Quality by Rishi Lakhani
Find a Way to Create Attention by Patrick Hathaway
Hone Your Technical SEO Skills as Much as Possible by Dan Leibson 
 We need to mention that all our cool experts had to answer just one-question interview:
 If you were to recommend just one SEO tip, what would that be?
1. Understand That SEO Is Not Just About Rankings
I’ve talked with many business owners that think ranking high in Google is all you need to be successful.  The reality is that SEO is just one of many tactics to drive prospective customers to your website. Sure, ranking high in Google is great, but it’s also worthless if you don’t have a website that is set up properly to convert that traffic into leads and sales.  Plus, you won’t rank high for long unless you have proper tracking in place and a process to monitor and analyze your SEO efforts.  As you can see, SEO is not just about rankings; it’s also about website conversion rate optimization and website analytics and tracking.  That’s important to understand before you start to invest in SEO.
 2. Optimize Your Content for Your Customers and Not for the Search Engines
 Producing content that’s irrelevant and insignificant to your audience’s wants and needs leads to only one thing – people stop taking you seriously. People click on your links in the SERPs but they do not interact with your website and leave quickly – wasted opportunity to turn visitors into customers.
  So how do I find what my buyer persona (not to be confused with ‘buyer profile’) is looking for?
 Glad you’ve asked, so let me give you some actionable tips. Finding questions that people are asking about your products or services.
 A very good place to start is Quora. I just went there and typed something very uninspiring like “carrots” (Writing content for a boring industry? No Problem).
 Some of the questions I get:
Why are carrots good for your eyes? Does eating carrots improve your eyesight? How?
How many carrots should I eat a day?
What else besides carrots can help your vision?
Another favorite place to go would be Answer The Public.
Last but not least, take data from your internal Site Search. All you have to do now is to align a question with a keyword that would bring traffic to your website. To do that just drop a question in the Google keyword planner and you will be presented with an opportunity.
Note: Stay focused and only choose the keywords that answer your original buyer’s persona question.
 I am sure you already know where I am going. You’ve got the question and you’ve got the targeted keyword. All you have to do now is give an answer in the form of a blog article or video.
 We’ve started with the customer in mind and ended up with a content that’s relevant to YOUR audience and, at the same time, well optimized for the search engines.
  3. Understand How Your Site Is Actually Performing Away From Vanity Metrics
 If you track for the right KPIs, auditing will supply you with ongoing changes and help you focus on making the highest priority changes for you to hit KPIs and plan for the future.
4. Don’t Underestimate the Power of Creative Technical SEO
People often neglect testing in SEO, mostly because it’s not easy, but optimizing CTR is a way to get some huge wins. Check out how Etsy is doing it or this recent look at approaches from Wayfair and their learnings.
 I’m talking about coming up with novel ideas and analyses that help move the needle but are less about copywriting and more about technical proficiency. A couple examples: digging deep into semantic keyword research and data mining or dynamically populating title tags using the Google Search Analytics API.
5. Have Content Deliberately Written to Be Highly Linkable
Highly linkable content is content written on a broad enough topic that you can work it into guest posts and other link opportunities naturally, without the article having to be directly related to the content you’re linking to.
 For example, I wrote a big piece on customer delight – a thorough guide on how to make your customers happy at every point in your relationship. I’ve been able to link to this piece within articles on topics ranging from marketing and sales to operations and employee management. Having a few of these kinds of pieces means you’ll never miss an opportunity to link to your content.
6. Do Not Underestimate How Important “Branding” Is to SEO
Do not underestimate how important “branding” is to SEO.
7. Build Your Website on a Solid Foundation of Data and Keyword Research
Your goal should be to build a customer-centric destination that works 24/7 at attracting fresh business.
 My company, Search Planet, specializes in E-commerce SEO. I often see even large e-commerce Web shops leak revenue and profit because they’ll mirror their own needs and organizational structure online, instead of focusing on their customers’ needs. So the best prospects don’t find them in search results. Or when they do, they won’t buy from them – but go to their competitors instead.
 By transforming your online presence to be entirely customer-focused, you’ll cut through the clutter, dominate search engines, draw a flood of targeted traffic to your website, and make more sales.
8. Spend the Time and Money to Have Your Site Analyzed in Terms of Its Existing SEO
  You could have all kinds of issues that you aren’t aware of and rather than just trying to throw links at the site or find someone to write better content for your home page, put some focus on doing a thorough SEO audit.
 9. Make the Best Page on the Internet for Your Topic
 So here’s how I think about SEO:
If you made the best page on the internet for your topic …there are 2000 Math PhD’s trying to HELP you;
If you didn’t make the best page on the internet for your topic …there are 2000 Math PhD’s trying to STOP you.
 Of course, it’s not enough just to make a great page. But it’s step one. Combine this effort with a clear understanding of off-site SEO, links and basic understanding of how to increase your domain authority and everything is going to work out well for you.
10. When It Comes to Link Acquisition You Need to Be Looking for Trust
The landscape has changed so much, we’re seeing a lot more weight shifting towards user experience, and link building has become a game of trust.
SEOs need to forget about them; there isn’t a metric out there that gives a true reflection of the value of a link, we have come across so many links with good domain authority or domain trust that we would class as toxic websites. When it comes to link acquisition, you need to be looking for trust, and you can only do this through a manual review; is this website the kind of website Google would trust and want to pass value through, is it a trusted source of information? You should then focus on how your links appear on that site, links that look like ads, in the footer or sidebars are going to be less likely to pass value in the long term.
 We’re seeing a huge increase in the influence site speed has on rankings. We have run a few tests now with clients and are seeing a direct and almost immediate correlation with speed improvements and an uplift in rankings. Make it a priority, work with the development team and ensure your website is as fast as possible.
11. Invest Time and Effort into Developing a Link Earning Strategy
 Do not take any shortcuts to buy or build low-quality links. While links are still a ranking factor, that is no longer their sole purpose. An effective link will provide the opportunity to improve three things; your traffic, your brand, and build trust. These are the links that should be your focal point. These types of links are found in building relationships with relevant websites and companies, creating valuable (not just quality) content, and a consistently having a giving mentality. Though it takes times, the reward will be worth it.
12. If Everyone Else Is Zigging, Then Zagging Is a Strategic Opportunity
  If you just want one SEO tip, then let me share the insight that led me to co-found SEO-PR back in 2003. Hundreds of SEOs optimize web pages hoping that they will get a high ranking in Google search results. And many of them do a great job. But only a small handful optimize news stories, blog posts, or press releases hoping that they will get a high ranking in Google News search results.
Now, the Google News algorithm is similar but different than the Google algorithm. Why? Because inbound links aren’t as strong a signal of the importance of a story. This puts a premium on relevance. But, the big mistake that many SEOs make is assuming that the popularity of keywords used on Google is the same on Google News. They often aren’t. You can see this for yourself by using the Google Trends Explore tool. The default result for any keyword will be web search interest. But you can use the drop down menu to see news search interest. And the trends are often different.
 In addition, Google says that 16% of searches that it sees every day are new. Well, ask yourself: “Where do baby search terms come from?” And you’ll discover that the stork doesn’t bring them. They are generated by the “news.” So, these are search terms that your competitors haven’t been optimizing their web pages to get high rankings for 15 years. So, you have a better shot of getting your news stories or blog posts (if you’re a news source) and even your press releases to get high rankings for than you would for yet another web page.
Now, admittedly, your ranking in Google News may only last a day or two. But, for near term news and events, this is the opportunity to drive traffic to a relevant landing page on your website. Now, the links in press releases are no-follow, so there is no “link juice” in them. But, they can still drive visitors to a page with more information — if it’s relevant and important. We used unique tracking links in four press releases for Southwest Airlines to generate $2.5 million in ticket sales. And when the CFO asked how we knew that they came from the press releases, we showed him that the tracking parameters on the links weren’t used by any other element of the company’s marketing. And when he suggested that we were merely harvesting interest that had been generated by the company’s excellent TV advertising, we showed him that the releases were for new service to cities where Southwest Airlines had never run an ad. He asked what else we knew. Well, we’d analyzed the database of people who had purchased tickets and found that two-thirds had never flown Southwest Airlines before and that they were generally purchasing round-trip tickets for two people.
 Now, here’s the punch line: Part of why we got such strong response was the use of the term “low airfare” in the headline and lead paragraph of the press release. But the other part was the actual price of a one-way ticket in the headline — which actually was a “low airfare.” So, it isn’t just about putting a keyword in the headline and lead paragraph.
13. Invest More in Content
 Here at Stone Temple, we have built up numerous case studies of work we’ve done where we have more than doubled traffic to the pages we work on, simply by making improvements to the content on those pages.
  14. Run Your Own SEO Tests Across Different Search Categories
 15. Perform an In-Depth SEO SWOT Analysis
It is always tough to provide a generic yet actionable SEO tip that folks have not seen a million times before. What is right for a local business is not right for a national business. What works for a B2B company won’t work for a B2C eCommerce store.
If you create a basic SWOT grid and start to detail your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, you can start to get a better idea what kind of SEO you need. This is exactly how we work at Bowler Hat and even our SEO service page details how you need to identify what kind of SEO is right for you.
 As an example. If a weakness was domain authority, then you can focus on that area. Often businesses will have competence in one area or another. They may be great on page SEO but lack keyword research skills. You may have all the content you need but lack authority. It is very easy to focus on your strengths – this approach forces you to confront your weaknesses.
 So my tip – identify your current situation and focus on your weaknesses.
16. Understand What Your Targeted Audience Might Be Looking For
A lesson I learned from one of the highest level corporate law judges in Delaware was to “be responsive” – Make it as easy as possible for people to answer you and to say yes to something that you are asking. This lesson translates well into SEO also. 
What words they might use when they search for it, how they might construct their query and what words they will expect to see on your pages. Also what questions they might have about the goods or services offered on that website; and the answers to those questions, so that you can provide answers, and begin the journey towards having them become customers of your site.
 Being responsive means building a website for your audience that makes it easy for them to learn about what you are offering, and easy for them to purchase from you. Being successful at SEO means building websites for your client’s audience.
17. Test Longer Strategies over Tactics and Measure Each Step of the Way
If I were pressed to give just one SEO tip, it’s to not expect a quick return today (generally speaking).  
  Try testing longer strategies over tactics, and measure each step of the way.
 Google has made huge changes that altered the way SEOs do their work.  Many of the historic, quick-hitting tactics we wrote into our playbooks have either been devalued by Google or have little weight today.  SEO isn’t for the weak-hearted – expect that it could take a while to move into a position that starts to hit your goals.  It takes diligence, trial and error, and patience.  
 Google wants to rank the sites that earn their users’ satisfaction. Google isn’t as easily influenced, thanks to new search models and AI that are designed to truly understand the value of a page the way a user would.
18. Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile Friendly
Google is testing a new algorithm called Mobile First and as long as tests go well, expect this to be rolled out. The reason it is so important is that it will change how Google ranks websites.
At the moment, Google uses your desktop site to rank you on desktop searches – Mobile First turns this on its head because it will base your desktop rankings on your mobile site.
 So if your mobile site is very poor, or even if you don’t have one, expect mobile first to cause you problems.
19. Create Your Own Websites and Experiment Things Risk-Free
When I started out in the industry I was obsessed with consuming every SEO article that was published, but ultimately things really took off when I started launching websites. None of them are particularly successful, but they allowed me to try things risk-free without jeopardizing a client’s campaign. I was able to freely dive into onsite SEO, and I also dabbled in the ‘dark arts’ of link building which of course led to one of my sites being penalized..all fun and games!
 In order to truly understand how a website works I think it’s important to have some hands on experience, and getting that is easier than you might think. WordPress websites are simple to set up, and building up a bit of traffic can also allow you to experiment with advertising, log file analysis and more!
20. Focus on Content Quality
 It seems that the Google algo is getting better and better at pulling out content and really starting to understand how that content answers a query.
 Traditionally we used to talk about “content” and used to hammer in content in areas where really there was no structure, for example on product category landing pages in eCommerce websites. That used to be good enough to dominate the short, mid and long tail of queries as long as you had a decent volume of links.
 My experiments have shown that although you may be able to dominate these queries by link volume alone, you can actually rank better with fewer links if your content quality is decent. And quality means ease of reading, supplying specific answers, breaking it down into digestible pieces, and even semantically layering it. Some of my small affiliate sites are dominating spaces where traditionally massive e-commerce sites used to occupy.
21. Find a Way to Create Attention
 22. Hone Your Technical SEO Skills as Much as Possible
While SEO is a relatively broad discipline, the technical aspects of it are relatively opaque to many, and there is no shortcut for. On top of that, it is a skill that will likely always be in demand.
  Conclusion
On the long run, search engine optimization will always work, it is just metamorphosed into different forms and approaches. The SEO experts involved  in this article said that every business owner should focus on the customer, valuable (not just quality or unique ) content, testing, in-depth analysis, link earning, mobile responsiveness, creative technical SEO while keeping an eye on the ranking signals and the quality backlinks. There are a lot of Youtube videos or “ultimate guides” to improve your SEO.  The truth is that some grass-root pieces of advice directly from the professionals in the field are always the SEO tactics you can learn from. 
 The best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of Google search results. Because nobody might go to the second page in SERP when they look for something. That’s why, from time to time,  you need take into account these kind of actionable SEO tips (directly from SEO experts) and rank higher in Google. Lots of people want to receive organic traffic, write relevant fresh content, have fast loading speed, earn quality links, have authority sites and no Google penalties. Having an SEO strategy, get registered with Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Adwords, and other digital marketing tools might help you outrank your competitors and become number one. But it depends on you to do the things right; if you follow these SEO techniques backed up by experts you might have bigger chances of success. 
 Make sure you pay attention to these more advanced SEO tactics but don’t forget about the basic SEO tips for your website, such as an internal link strategy, increasing social shares for brand awareness, building relevant links for your website optimizing anchor text, crawling your site to fix broken links, get keyword ideas, create valuable and relevant content on your site, easy to read blogs with popular content, onpage SEO optimization for long tail keywords, image alt text, compelling meta descriptions and unique titles and descriptions. Also bear in mind to integrate social media into the whole SEO strategy, because it is an important piece of the pie. This blog post is a collection of actionable SEO tips for beginners but also for professionals and we hope you will take full advantage of them. 
  https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/13605/seo-tips/
On – 26 Apr, 2017 By Andreea Sauciuc
source https://andlocal.org/22-unique-seo-tips-backed-by-22-renowned-seo-experts/ from ANDLOCAL http://andlocal.blogspot.com/2017/05/22-unique-seo-tips-backed-by-22.html
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lucasparkerco · 8 years ago
Text
22 Unique SEO Tips Backed by 22 Renowned SEO Experts
How great would it be if we could gather all the awesome SEO experts in just one room to talk about search engines ranks with a focus on the best SEO tips available out there? It would be glorious! Since we don’t have a room big enough to gather all the best experts in one place, we took advantage of the online “meetings” and gathered all the up to date SEO tips into an awesome expert roundup post. That is how we got the idea of interviewing 22 renowned SEO experts and how we found out 22 awesome and unique search engine optimization tips … the best of them.
We’ve got answers from some of the brightest minds about the most actionable tips from the digital marketing world. We’ve found interesting news, insights and really helpful tips and guidelines about mobile optimization, metrics, qualitative content marketing, testing, technical SEO and customer centric websites. These 22 tips are some of the best for small businesses or large enterprises. Make sure you get the best of them.
Grab a coffee, sit comfortably and start reading the next list with 22 unique SEO tips backed by 22 renowned SEO experts that will make your search traffic bloom. 
Understand That SEO Is Not Just About Rankings by Phil Frost
Optimize Your Content for Your Customers and Not for the Search Engines by Omi Sido
Understand How Your Site Is Actually Performing Away From Vanity Metrics by Danny Denhard
Don’t Underestimate the Power of Creative Technical SEO by Paul Shapiro
Have Content Deliberately Written to Be Highly Linkable by Sujan Patel
Do Not Underestimate How Important “Branding” Is to SEO by Dixon Jones
Build Your Website on a Solid Foundation of Data and Keyword Research by Trond Lyngbø
Spend the Time and Money to Have Your Site Analyzed in Terms of Its Existing SEO by Julie Joyce
Make the Best Page on the Internet for Your Topic by Andy Crestodina
When It Comes to Link Acquisition You Need to Be Looking for Trust by Tim Grice
Invest Time and Effort into Developing a Link Earning Strategy by Caleb McElveen
If Everyone Else Is Zigging, Then Zagging Is a Strategic Opportunity by Greg Jarboe
Invest More in Content by Eric Enge
Run Your Own SEO Tests Across Different Search Categories by Carl Hendy
Perform an In-Depth SEO SWOT Analysis by Marcus Miller
Understand What Your Targeted Audience Might Be Looking For by Bill Slawski
Test Longer Strategies over Tactics and Measure Each Step of the Way by Bill Sebald
Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile Friendly by Andy Drinkwater
Create Your Own Websites and Experiment Things Risk-Free by Mark Porter
Focus on Content Quality by Rishi Lakhani
Find a Way to Create Attention by Patrick Hathaway
Hone Your Technical SEO Skills as Much as Possible by Dan Leibson 
  We need to mention that all our cool experts had to answer just one-question interview:
If you were to recommend just one SEO tip, what would that be?
1. Understand That SEO Is Not Just About Rankings
I’ve talked with many business owners that think ranking high in Google is all you need to be successful.  The reality is that SEO is just one of many tactics to drive prospective customers to your website. Sure, ranking high in Google is great, but it’s also worthless if you don’t have a website that is set up properly to convert that traffic into leads and sales.  Plus, you won’t rank high for long unless you have proper tracking in place and a process to monitor and analyze your SEO efforts.  As you can see, SEO is not just about rankings; it’s also about website conversion rate optimization and website analytics and tracking.  That’s important to understand before you start to invest in SEO.
2. Optimize Your Content for Your Customers and Not for the Search Engines
  Producing content that’s irrelevant and insignificant to your audience’s wants and needs leads to only one thing – people stop taking you seriously. People click on your links in the SERPs but they do not interact with your website and leave quickly – wasted opportunity to turn visitors into customers.
  So how do I find what my buyer persona (not to be confused with ‘buyer profile’) is looking for?
Glad you’ve asked, so let me give you some actionable tips. Finding questions that people are asking about your products or services.
A very good place to start is Quora. I just went there and typed something very uninspiring like “carrots” (Writing content for a boring industry? No Problem).
Some of the questions I get:
Why are carrots good for your eyes? Does eating carrots improve your eyesight? How?
How many carrots should I eat a day?
What else besides carrots can help your vision?
Another favorite place to go would be Answer The Public.
Last but not least, take data from your internal Site Search. All you have to do now is to align a question with a keyword that would bring traffic to your website. To do that just drop a question in the Google keyword planner and you will be presented with an opportunity.
Note: Stay focused and only choose the keywords that answer your original buyer’s persona question.
I am sure you already know where I am going. You’ve got the question and you’ve got the targeted keyword. All you have to do now is give an answer in the form of a blog article or video.
We’ve started with the customer in mind and ended up with a content that’s relevant to YOUR audience and, at the same time, well optimized for the search engines.
  3. Understand How Your Site Is Actually Performing Away From Vanity Metrics
If you track for the right KPIs, auditing will supply you with ongoing changes and help you focus on making the highest priority changes for you to hit KPIs and plan for the future.
4. Don’t Underestimate the Power of Creative Technical SEO
People often neglect testing in SEO, mostly because it’s not easy, but optimizing CTR is a way to get some huge wins. Check out how Etsy is doing it or this recent look at approaches from Wayfair and their learnings.
 I’m talking about coming up with novel ideas and analyses that help move the needle but are less about copywriting and more about technical proficiency. A couple examples: digging deep into semantic keyword research and data mining or dynamically populating title tags using the Google Search Analytics API.
5. Have Content Deliberately Written to Be Highly Linkable
Highly linkable content is content written on a broad enough topic that you can work it into guest posts and other link opportunities naturally, without the article having to be directly related to the content you’re linking to.
For example, I wrote a big piece on customer delight – a thorough guide on how to make your customers happy at every point in your relationship. I’ve been able to link to this piece within articles on topics ranging from marketing and sales to operations and employee management. Having a few of these kinds of pieces means you’ll never miss an opportunity to link to your content.
6. Do Not Underestimate How Important “Branding” Is to SEO
Do not underestimate how important “branding” is to SEO.
7. Build Your Website on a Solid Foundation of Data and Keyword Research
Your goal should be to build a customer-centric destination that works 24/7 at attracting fresh business.
My company, Search Planet, specializes in E-commerce SEO. I often see even large e-commerce Web shops leak revenue and profit because they’ll mirror their own needs and organizational structure online, instead of focusing on their customers’ needs. So the best prospects don’t find them in search results. Or when they do, they won’t buy from them – but go to their competitors instead.
By transforming your online presence to be entirely customer-focused, you’ll cut through the clutter, dominate search engines, draw a flood of targeted traffic to your website, and make more sales.
8. Spend the Time and Money to Have Your Site Analyzed in Terms of Its Existing SEO
 You could have all kinds of issues that you aren’t aware of and rather than just trying to throw links at the site or find someone to write better content for your home page, put some focus on doing a thorough SEO audit.
9. Make the Best Page on the Internet for Your Topic
 So here’s how I think about SEO:
If you made the best page on the internet for your topic …there are 2000 Math PhD’s trying to HELP you;
If you didn’t make the best page on the internet for your topic …there are 2000 Math PhD’s trying to STOP you.
Of course, it’s not enough just to make a great page. But it’s step one. Combine this effort with a clear understanding of off-site SEO, links and basic understanding of how to increase your domain authority and everything is going to work out well for you.
10. When It Comes to Link Acquisition You Need to Be Looking for Trust
The landscape has changed so much, we’re seeing a lot more weight shifting towards user experience, and link building has become a game of trust.
SEOs need to forget about them; there isn’t a metric out there that gives a true reflection of the value of a link, we have come across so many links with good domain authority or domain trust that we would class as toxic websites. When it comes to link acquisition, you need to be looking for trust, and you can only do this through a manual review; is this website the kind of website Google would trust and want to pass value through, is it a trusted source of information? You should then focus on how your links appear on that site, links that look like ads, in the footer or sidebars are going to be less likely to pass value in the long term.
We’re seeing a huge increase in the influence site speed has on rankings. We have run a few tests now with clients and are seeing a direct and almost immediate correlation with speed improvements and an uplift in rankings. Make it a priority, work with the development team and ensure your website is as fast as possible.
11. Invest Time and Effort into Developing a Link Earning Strategy
Do not take any shortcuts to buy or build low-quality links. While links are still a ranking factor, that is no longer their sole purpose. An effective link will provide the opportunity to improve three things; your traffic, your brand, and build trust. These are the links that should be your focal point. These types of links are found in building relationships with relevant websites and companies, creating valuable (not just quality) content, and a consistently having a giving mentality. Though it takes times, the reward will be worth it.
12. If Everyone Else Is Zigging, Then Zagging Is a Strategic Opportunity
  If you just want one SEO tip, then let me share the insight that led me to co-found SEO-PR back in 2003. Hundreds of SEOs optimize web pages hoping that they will get a high ranking in Google search results. And many of them do a great job. But only a small handful optimize news stories, blog posts, or press releases hoping that they will get a high ranking in Google News search results.
Now, the Google News algorithm is similar but different than the Google algorithm. Why? Because inbound links aren’t as strong a signal of the importance of a story. This puts a premium on relevance. But, the big mistake that many SEOs make is assuming that the popularity of keywords used on Google is the same on Google News. They often aren’t. You can see this for yourself by using the Google Trends Explore tool. The default result for any keyword will be web search interest. But you can use the drop down menu to see news search interest. And the trends are often different.
In addition, Google says that 16% of searches that it sees every day are new. Well, ask yourself: “Where do baby search terms come from?” And you’ll discover that the stork doesn’t bring them. They are generated by the “news.” So, these are search terms that your competitors haven’t been optimizing their web pages to get high rankings for 15 years. So, you have a better shot of getting your news stories or blog posts (if you’re a news source) and even your press releases to get high rankings for than you would for yet another web page.
Now, admittedly, your ranking in Google News may only last a day or two. But, for near term news and events, this is the opportunity to drive traffic to a relevant landing page on your website. Now, the links in press releases are no-follow, so there is no “link juice” in them. But, they can still drive visitors to a page with more information — if it’s relevant and important. We used unique tracking links in four press releases for Southwest Airlines to generate $2.5 million in ticket sales. And when the CFO asked how we knew that they came from the press releases, we showed him that the tracking parameters on the links weren’t used by any other element of the company’s marketing. And when he suggested that we were merely harvesting interest that had been generated by the company’s excellent TV advertising, we showed him that the releases were for new service to cities where Southwest Airlines had never run an ad. He asked what else we knew. Well, we’d analyzed the database of people who had purchased tickets and found that two-thirds had never flown Southwest Airlines before and that they were generally purchasing round-trip tickets for two people.
Now, here’s the punch line: Part of why we got such strong response was the use of the term “low airfare” in the headline and lead paragraph of the press release. But the other part was the actual price of a one-way ticket in the headline — which actually was a “low airfare.” So, it isn’t just about putting a keyword in the headline and lead paragraph.
13. Invest More in Content
 Here at Stone Temple, we have built up numerous case studies of work we’ve done where we have more than doubled traffic to the pages we work on, simply by making improvements to the content on those pages.
  14. Run Your Own SEO Tests Across Different Search Categories
15. Perform an In-Depth SEO SWOT Analysis
It is always tough to provide a generic yet actionable SEO tip that folks have not seen a million times before. What is right for a local business is not right for a national business. What works for a B2B company won’t work for a B2C eCommerce store.
If you create a basic SWOT grid and start to detail your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, you can start to get a better idea what kind of SEO you need. This is exactly how we work at Bowler Hat and even our SEO service page details how you need to identify what kind of SEO is right for you.
As an example. If a weakness was domain authority, then you can focus on that area. Often businesses will have competence in one area or another. They may be great on page SEO but lack keyword research skills. You may have all the content you need but lack authority. It is very easy to focus on your strengths – this approach forces you to confront your weaknesses.
So my tip – identify your current situation and focus on your weaknesses.
16. Understand What Your Targeted Audience Might Be Looking For
A lesson I learned from one of the highest level corporate law judges in Delaware was to “be responsive” – Make it as easy as possible for people to answer you and to say yes to something that you are asking. This lesson translates well into SEO also. 
What words they might use when they search for it, how they might construct their query and what words they will expect to see on your pages. Also what questions they might have about the goods or services offered on that website; and the answers to those questions, so that you can provide answers, and begin the journey towards having them become customers of your site.
Being responsive means building a website for your audience that makes it easy for them to learn about what you are offering, and easy for them to purchase from you. Being successful at SEO means building websites for your client’s audience.
17. Test Longer Strategies over Tactics and Measure Each Step of the Way
If I were pressed to give just one SEO tip, it’s to not expect a quick return today (generally speaking).  
  Try testing longer strategies over tactics, and measure each step of the way.
Google has made huge changes that altered the way SEOs do their work.  Many of the historic, quick-hitting tactics we wrote into our playbooks have either been devalued by Google or have little weight today.  SEO isn’t for the weak-hearted – expect that it could take a while to move into a position that starts to hit your goals.  It takes diligence, trial and error, and patience.  
Google wants to rank the sites that earn their users’ satisfaction. Google isn’t as easily influenced, thanks to new search models and AI that are designed to truly understand the value of a page the way a user would.
18. Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile Friendly
Google is testing a new algorithm called Mobile First and as long as tests go well, expect this to be rolled out. The reason it is so important is that it will change how Google ranks websites.
At the moment, Google uses your desktop site to rank you on desktop searches – Mobile First turns this on its head because it will base your desktop rankings on your mobile site.
So if your mobile site is very poor, or even if you don’t have one, expect mobile first to cause you problems.
19. Create Your Own Websites and Experiment Things Risk-Free
When I started out in the industry I was obsessed with consuming every SEO article that was published, but ultimately things really took off when I started launching websites. None of them are particularly successful, but they allowed me to try things risk-free without jeopardizing a client’s campaign. I was able to freely dive into onsite SEO, and I also dabbled in the ‘dark arts’ of link building which of course led to one of my sites being penalized..all fun and games!
In order to truly understand how a website works I think it’s important to have some hands on experience, and getting that is easier than you might think. WordPress websites are simple to set up, and building up a bit of traffic can also allow you to experiment with advertising, log file analysis and more!
20. Focus on Content Quality
 It seems that the Google algo is getting better and better at pulling out content and really starting to understand how that content answers a query.
Traditionally we used to talk about “content” and used to hammer in content in areas where really there was no structure, for example on product category landing pages in eCommerce websites. That used to be good enough to dominate the short, mid and long tail of queries as long as you had a decent volume of links.
My experiments have shown that although you may be able to dominate these queries by link volume alone, you can actually rank better with fewer links if your content quality is decent. And quality means ease of reading, supplying specific answers, breaking it down into digestible pieces, and even semantically layering it. Some of my small affiliate sites are dominating spaces where traditionally massive e-commerce sites used to occupy.
21. Find a Way to Create Attention
22. Hone Your Technical SEO Skills as Much as Possible
While SEO is a relatively broad discipline, the technical aspects of it are relatively opaque to many, and there is no shortcut for. On top of that, it is a skill that will likely always be in demand.
  Conclusion
On the long run, search engine optimization will always work, it is just metamorphosed into different forms and approaches. The SEO experts involved  in this article said that every business owner should focus on the customer, valuable (not just quality or unique ) content, testing, in-depth analysis, link earning, mobile responsiveness, creative technical SEO while keeping an eye on the ranking signals and the quality backlinks. There are a lot of Youtube videos or “ultimate guides” to improve your SEO.  The truth is that some grass-root pieces of advice directly from the professionals in the field are always the SEO tactics you can learn from. 
The best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of Google search results. Because nobody might go to the second page in SERP when they look for something. That’s why, from time to time,  you need take into account these kind of actionable SEO tips (directly from SEO experts) and rank higher in Google. Lots of people want to receive organic traffic, write relevant fresh content, have fast loading speed, earn quality links, have authority sites and no Google penalties. Having an SEO strategy, get registered with Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Adwords, and other digital marketing tools might help you outrank your competitors and become number one. But it depends on you to do the things right; if you follow these SEO techniques backed up by experts you might have bigger chances of success. 
Make sure you pay attention to these more advanced SEO tactics but don’t forget about the basic SEO tips for your website, such as an internal link strategy, increasing social shares for brand awareness, building relevant links for your website optimizing anchor text, crawling your site to fix broken links, get keyword ideas, create valuable and relevant content on your site, easy to read blogs with popular content, onpage SEO optimization for long tail keywords, image alt text, compelling meta descriptions and unique titles and descriptions. Also bear in mind to integrate social media into the whole SEO strategy, because it is an important piece of the pie. This blog post is a collection of actionable SEO tips for beginners but also for professionals and we hope you will take full advantage of them. 
  https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/13605/seo-tips/
On – 26 Apr, 2017 By Andreea Sauciuc
from ANDLOCAL SEO Services https://andlocal.org/22-unique-seo-tips-backed-by-22-renowned-seo-experts/ from ANDLOCAL https://andlocalorg.tumblr.com/post/160710858371
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andlocalorg · 8 years ago
Text
22 Unique SEO Tips Backed by 22 Renowned SEO Experts
How great would it be if we could gather all the awesome SEO experts in just one room to talk about search engines ranks with a focus on the best SEO tips available out there? It would be glorious! Since we don’t have a room big enough to gather all the best experts in one place, we took advantage of the online “meetings” and gathered all the up to date SEO tips into an awesome expert roundup post. That is how we got the idea of interviewing 22 renowned SEO experts and how we found out 22 awesome and unique search engine optimization tips … the best of them.
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  We’ve got answers from some of the brightest minds about the most actionable tips from the digital marketing world. We’ve found interesting news, insights and really helpful tips and guidelines about mobile optimization, metrics, qualitative content marketing, testing, technical SEO and customer centric websites. These 22 tips are some of the best for small businesses or large enterprises. Make sure you get the best of them.
  Grab a coffee, sit comfortably and start reading the next list with 22 unique SEO tips backed by 22 renowned SEO experts that will make your search traffic bloom. 
  Understand That SEO Is Not Just About Rankings by Phil Frost
Optimize Your Content for Your Customers and Not for the Search Engines by Omi Sido
Understand How Your Site Is Actually Performing Away From Vanity Metrics by Danny Denhard
Don’t Underestimate the Power of Creative Technical SEO by Paul Shapiro
Have Content Deliberately Written to Be Highly Linkable by Sujan Patel
Do Not Underestimate How Important “Branding” Is to SEO by Dixon Jones
Build Your Website on a Solid Foundation of Data and Keyword Research by Trond Lyngbø
Spend the Time and Money to Have Your Site Analyzed in Terms of Its Existing SEO by Julie Joyce
Make the Best Page on the Internet for Your Topic by Andy Crestodina
When It Comes to Link Acquisition You Need to Be Looking for Trust by Tim Grice
Invest Time and Effort into Developing a Link Earning Strategy by Caleb McElveen
If Everyone Else Is Zigging, Then Zagging Is a Strategic Opportunity by Greg Jarboe
Invest More in Content by Eric Enge
Run Your Own SEO Tests Across Different Search Categories by Carl Hendy
Perform an In-Depth SEO SWOT Analysis by Marcus Miller
Understand What Your Targeted Audience Might Be Looking For by Bill Slawski
Test Longer Strategies over Tactics and Measure Each Step of the Way by Bill Sebald
Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile Friendly by Andy Drinkwater
Create Your Own Websites and Experiment Things Risk-Free by Mark Porter
Focus on Content Quality by Rishi Lakhani
Find a Way to Create Attention by Patrick Hathaway
Hone Your Technical SEO Skills as Much as Possible by Dan Leibson 
  We need to mention that all our cool experts had to answer just one-question interview:
  If you were to recommend just one SEO tip, what would that be?
1. Understand That SEO Is Not Just About Rankings
I’ve talked with many business owners that think ranking high in Google is all you need to be successful.  The reality is that SEO is just one of many tactics to drive prospective customers to your website. Sure, ranking high in Google is great, but it’s also worthless if you don’t have a website that is set up properly to convert that traffic into leads and sales.  Plus, you won’t rank high for long unless you have proper tracking in place and a process to monitor and analyze your SEO efforts.  As you can see, SEO is not just about rankings; it’s also about website conversion rate optimization and website analytics and tracking.  That’s important to understand before you start to invest in SEO.
  2. Optimize Your Content for Your Customers and Not for the Search Engines
  Producing content that’s irrelevant and insignificant to your audience’s wants and needs leads to only one thing – people stop taking you seriously. People click on your links in the SERPs but they do not interact with your website and leave quickly – wasted opportunity to turn visitors into customers.
    So how do I find what my buyer persona (not to be confused with ‘buyer profile’) is looking for?
  Glad you’ve asked, so let me give you some actionable tips. Finding questions that people are asking about your products or services.
  A very good place to start is Quora. I just went there and typed something very uninspiring like “carrots” (Writing content for a boring industry? No Problem).
  Some of the questions I get:
Why are carrots good for your eyes? Does eating carrots improve your eyesight? How?
How many carrots should I eat a day?
What else besides carrots can help your vision?
Another favorite place to go would be Answer The Public.
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Last but not least, take data from your internal Site Search. All you have to do now is to align a question with a keyword that would bring traffic to your website. To do that just drop a question in the Google keyword planner and you will be presented with an opportunity.
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Note: Stay focused and only choose the keywords that answer your original buyer’s persona question.
  I am sure you already know where I am going. You’ve got the question and you’ve got the targeted keyword. All you have to do now is give an answer in the form of a blog article or video.
  We’ve started with the customer in mind and ended up with a content that’s relevant to YOUR audience and, at the same time, well optimized for the search engines.
    3. Understand How Your Site Is Actually Performing Away From Vanity Metrics
  If you track for the right KPIs, auditing will supply you with ongoing changes and help you focus on making the highest priority changes for you to hit KPIs and plan for the future.
4. Don’t Underestimate the Power of Creative Technical SEO
People often neglect testing in SEO, mostly because it’s not easy, but optimizing CTR is a way to get some huge wins. Check out how Etsy is doing it or this recent look at approaches from Wayfair and their learnings.
 I’m talking about coming up with novel ideas and analyses that help move the needle but are less about copywriting and more about technical proficiency. A couple examples: digging deep into semantic keyword research and data mining or dynamically populating title tags using the Google Search Analytics API.
5. Have Content Deliberately Written to Be Highly Linkable
Highly linkable content is content written on a broad enough topic that you can work it into guest posts and other link opportunities naturally, without the article having to be directly related to the content you’re linking to.
  For example, I wrote a big piece on customer delight – a thorough guide on how to make your customers happy at every point in your relationship. I’ve been able to link to this piece within articles on topics ranging from marketing and sales to operations and employee management. Having a few of these kinds of pieces means you’ll never miss an opportunity to link to your content.
6. Do Not Underestimate How Important “Branding” Is to SEO
Do not underestimate how important “branding” is to SEO.
7. Build Your Website on a Solid Foundation of Data and Keyword Research
Your goal should be to build a customer-centric destination that works 24/7 at attracting fresh business.
  My company, Search Planet, specializes in E-commerce SEO. I often see even large e-commerce Web shops leak revenue and profit because they’ll mirror their own needs and organizational structure online, instead of focusing on their customers’ needs. So the best prospects don’t find them in search results. Or when they do, they won’t buy from them – but go to their competitors instead.
  By transforming your online presence to be entirely customer-focused, you’ll cut through the clutter, dominate search engines, draw a flood of targeted traffic to your website, and make more sales.
8. Spend the Time and Money to Have Your Site Analyzed in Terms of Its Existing SEO
   You could have all kinds of issues that you aren’t aware of and rather than just trying to throw links at the site or find someone to write better content for your home page, put some focus on doing a thorough SEO audit.
  9. Make the Best Page on the Internet for Your Topic
 So here’s how I think about SEO:
If you made the best page on the internet for your topic …there are 2000 Math PhD’s trying to HELP you;
If you didn’t make the best page on the internet for your topic …there are 2000 Math PhD’s trying to STOP you.
  Of course, it’s not enough just to make a great page. But it’s step one. Combine this effort with a clear understanding of off-site SEO, links and basic understanding of how to increase your domain authority and everything is going to work out well for you.
10. When It Comes to Link Acquisition You Need to Be Looking for Trust
The landscape has changed so much, we’re seeing a lot more weight shifting towards user experience, and link building has become a game of trust.
SEOs need to forget about them; there isn’t a metric out there that gives a true reflection of the value of a link, we have come across so many links with good domain authority or domain trust that we would class as toxic websites. When it comes to link acquisition, you need to be looking for trust, and you can only do this through a manual review; is this website the kind of website Google would trust and want to pass value through, is it a trusted source of information? You should then focus on how your links appear on that site, links that look like ads, in the footer or sidebars are going to be less likely to pass value in the long term.
  We’re seeing a huge increase in the influence site speed has on rankings. We have run a few tests now with clients and are seeing a direct and almost immediate correlation with speed improvements and an uplift in rankings. Make it a priority, work with the development team and ensure your website is as fast as possible.
11. Invest Time and Effort into Developing a Link Earning Strategy
  Do not take any shortcuts to buy or build low-quality links. While links are still a ranking factor, that is no longer their sole purpose. An effective link will provide the opportunity to improve three things; your traffic, your brand, and build trust. These are the links that should be your focal point. These types of links are found in building relationships with relevant websites and companies, creating valuable (not just quality) content, and a consistently having a giving mentality. Though it takes times, the reward will be worth it.
12. If Everyone Else Is Zigging, Then Zagging Is a Strategic Opportunity
    If you just want one SEO tip, then let me share the insight that led me to co-found SEO-PR back in 2003. Hundreds of SEOs optimize web pages hoping that they will get a high ranking in Google search results. And many of them do a great job. But only a small handful optimize news stories, blog posts, or press releases hoping that they will get a high ranking in Google News search results.
Now, the Google News algorithm is similar but different than the Google algorithm. Why? Because inbound links aren’t as strong a signal of the importance of a story. This puts a premium on relevance. But, the big mistake that many SEOs make is assuming that the popularity of keywords used on Google is the same on Google News. They often aren’t. You can see this for yourself by using the Google Trends Explore tool. The default result for any keyword will be web search interest. But you can use the drop down menu to see news search interest. And the trends are often different.
  In addition, Google says that 16% of searches that it sees every day are new. Well, ask yourself: “Where do baby search terms come from?” And you’ll discover that the stork doesn’t bring them. They are generated by the “news.” So, these are search terms that your competitors haven’t been optimizing their web pages to get high rankings for 15 years. So, you have a better shot of getting your news stories or blog posts (if you’re a news source) and even your press releases to get high rankings for than you would for yet another web page.
Now, admittedly, your ranking in Google News may only last a day or two. But, for near term news and events, this is the opportunity to drive traffic to a relevant landing page on your website. Now, the links in press releases are no-follow, so there is no “link juice” in them. But, they can still drive visitors to a page with more information — if it’s relevant and important. We used unique tracking links in four press releases for Southwest Airlines to generate $2.5 million in ticket sales. And when the CFO asked how we knew that they came from the press releases, we showed him that the tracking parameters on the links weren’t used by any other element of the company’s marketing. And when he suggested that we were merely harvesting interest that had been generated by the company’s excellent TV advertising, we showed him that the releases were for new service to cities where Southwest Airlines had never run an ad. He asked what else we knew. Well, we’d analyzed the database of people who had purchased tickets and found that two-thirds had never flown Southwest Airlines before and that they were generally purchasing round-trip tickets for two people.
  Now, here’s the punch line: Part of why we got such strong response was the use of the term “low airfare” in the headline and lead paragraph of the press release. But the other part was the actual price of a one-way ticket in the headline — which actually was a “low airfare.” So, it isn’t just about putting a keyword in the headline and lead paragraph.
13. Invest More in Content
 Here at Stone Temple, we have built up numerous case studies of work we’ve done where we have more than doubled traffic to the pages we work on, simply by making improvements to the content on those pages.
    14. Run Your Own SEO Tests Across Different Search Categories
  15. Perform an In-Depth SEO SWOT Analysis
It is always tough to provide a generic yet actionable SEO tip that folks have not seen a million times before. What is right for a local business is not right for a national business. What works for a B2B company won’t work for a B2C eCommerce store.
If you create a basic SWOT grid and start to detail your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, you can start to get a better idea what kind of SEO you need. This is exactly how we work at Bowler Hat and even our SEO service page details how you need to identify what kind of SEO is right for you.
  As an example. If a weakness was domain authority, then you can focus on that area. Often businesses will have competence in one area or another. They may be great on page SEO but lack keyword research skills. You may have all the content you need but lack authority. It is very easy to focus on your strengths – this approach forces you to confront your weaknesses.
  So my tip – identify your current situation and focus on your weaknesses.
16. Understand What Your Targeted Audience Might Be Looking For
A lesson I learned from one of the highest level corporate law judges in Delaware was to “be responsive” – Make it as easy as possible for people to answer you and to say yes to something that you are asking. This lesson translates well into SEO also. 
What words they might use when they search for it, how they might construct their query and what words they will expect to see on your pages. Also what questions they might have about the goods or services offered on that website; and the answers to those questions, so that you can provide answers, and begin the journey towards having them become customers of your site.
  Being responsive means building a website for your audience that makes it easy for them to learn about what you are offering, and easy for them to purchase from you. Being successful at SEO means building websites for your client’s audience.
17. Test Longer Strategies over Tactics and Measure Each Step of the Way
If I were pressed to give just one SEO tip, it’s to not expect a quick return today (generally speaking).  
    Try testing longer strategies over tactics, and measure each step of the way.
  Google has made huge changes that altered the way SEOs do their work.  Many of the historic, quick-hitting tactics we wrote into our playbooks have either been devalued by Google or have little weight today.  SEO isn’t for the weak-hearted – expect that it could take a while to move into a position that starts to hit your goals.  It takes diligence, trial and error, and patience.  
  Google wants to rank the sites that earn their users’ satisfaction. Google isn’t as easily influenced, thanks to new search models and AI that are designed to truly understand the value of a page the way a user would.
18. Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile Friendly
Google is testing a new algorithm called Mobile First and as long as tests go well, expect this to be rolled out. The reason it is so important is that it will change how Google ranks websites.
At the moment, Google uses your desktop site to rank you on desktop searches – Mobile First turns this on its head because it will base your desktop rankings on your mobile site.
  So if your mobile site is very poor, or even if you don’t have one, expect mobile first to cause you problems.
19. Create Your Own Websites and Experiment Things Risk-Free
When I started out in the industry I was obsessed with consuming every SEO article that was published, but ultimately things really took off when I started launching websites. None of them are particularly successful, but they allowed me to try things risk-free without jeopardizing a client’s campaign. I was able to freely dive into onsite SEO, and I also dabbled in the ‘dark arts’ of link building which of course led to one of my sites being penalized..all fun and games!
  In order to truly understand how a website works I think it’s important to have some hands on experience, and getting that is easier than you might think. WordPress websites are simple to set up, and building up a bit of traffic can also allow you to experiment with advertising, log file analysis and more!
20. Focus on Content Quality
 It seems that the Google algo is getting better and better at pulling out content and really starting to understand how that content answers a query.
  Traditionally we used to talk about “content” and used to hammer in content in areas where really there was no structure, for example on product category landing pages in eCommerce websites. That used to be good enough to dominate the short, mid and long tail of queries as long as you had a decent volume of links.
  My experiments have shown that although you may be able to dominate these queries by link volume alone, you can actually rank better with fewer links if your content quality is decent. And quality means ease of reading, supplying specific answers, breaking it down into digestible pieces, and even semantically layering it. Some of my small affiliate sites are dominating spaces where traditionally massive e-commerce sites used to occupy.
21. Find a Way to Create Attention
  22. Hone Your Technical SEO Skills as Much as Possible
While SEO is a relatively broad discipline, the technical aspects of it are relatively opaque to many, and there is no shortcut for. On top of that, it is a skill that will likely always be in demand.
    Conclusion
On the long run, search engine optimization will always work, it is just metamorphosed into different forms and approaches. The SEO experts involved  in this article said that every business owner should focus on the customer, valuable (not just quality or unique ) content, testing, in-depth analysis, link earning, mobile responsiveness, creative technical SEO while keeping an eye on the ranking signals and the quality backlinks. There are a lot of Youtube videos or “ultimate guides” to improve your SEO.  The truth is that some grass-root pieces of advice directly from the professionals in the field are always the SEO tactics you can learn from. 
  The best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of Google search results. Because nobody might go to the second page in SERP when they look for something. That’s why, from time to time,  you need take into account these kind of actionable SEO tips (directly from SEO experts) and rank higher in Google. Lots of people want to receive organic traffic, write relevant fresh content, have fast loading speed, earn quality links, have authority sites and no Google penalties. Having an SEO strategy, get registered with Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Adwords, and other digital marketing tools might help you outrank your competitors and become number one. But it depends on you to do the things right; if you follow these SEO techniques backed up by experts you might have bigger chances of success. 
  Make sure you pay attention to these more advanced SEO tactics but don’t forget about the basic SEO tips for your website, such as an internal link strategy, increasing social shares for brand awareness, building relevant links for your website optimizing anchor text, crawling your site to fix broken links, get keyword ideas, create valuable and relevant content on your site, easy to read blogs with popular content, onpage SEO optimization for long tail keywords, image alt text, compelling meta descriptions and unique titles and descriptions. Also bear in mind to integrate social media into the whole SEO strategy, because it is an important piece of the pie. This blog post is a collection of actionable SEO tips for beginners but also for professionals and we hope you will take full advantage of them. 
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    https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/13605/seo-tips/
On – 26 Apr, 2017 By Andreea Sauciuc
from ANDLOCAL SEO Services https://andlocal.org/22-unique-seo-tips-backed-by-22-renowned-seo-experts/
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thatrandomsarahchick · 1 year ago
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Oooh, if this is 'stranded in a different universe' au? Danny won't even point on facial recognition. Either that, or he'll ping as being a close match to a random student on the other side of the country.
Driver Danny.
Danny goes to Gotham (you can pick why) and he's strapped for cash.
So he tries everything to keep the flickering lights on and the leaky roof over his head.
Dishwashing, pizza delivering, grocery shop Manning, beverage making, tutoring.
He does everything.
Eventually he ends up doing less then legal stuff.
Keeping a look out while a store gets robbed (didn't really feel guilty for that one, the owner was an asshole) work at the iceberg lounge.
Somehow he ends up as a gettaway driver...
Danny, the son of Jack "what's a red light?" Fenton.
He becomes the most sort after driver in Gotham.
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