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440mxs-wife · 4 years ago

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The Hunter’s Princess- Chapter 2: The Princes’ Challenge

Pairing: Dean x OFC Kira (eventual), Prince!Dean x OFC Lady Kira. Other Characters: Sam Winchester, Prince!Sam Winchester, Castiel, Rowena, Gabriel, King!John, Queen!Mary, Lucifer and assorted minor characters.

Chapter 2 Word Count: 2550+

Warnings: Kira’s self-doubt, Dean angst, mostly fluff though. Each chapter will have individual warnings as needed.

A/N: This is from some material that’s been rattling around in my head from another project that changed direction. Couldn’t let all this content go to waste, though, so here it is. It’s a work-in-progress, and I will try and update as regularly as I can. If you want to be tagged in this series, send me a message!

Thank you and happy reading!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Castiel bowed and left the room, knowing his friends, Prince Dean and Prince Samuel would explain everything to him later. "As we have gotten older, we have decided it's time for one of you to take over as king. However, you will also need a queen to rule by your side," Queen Mary remarked.

"So, to choose your queen, we suggest a tournament of sorts. Something to help you find the woman most likely to fulfill her duties as your queen. There will be challenges to demonstrate each candidate's strengths in archery and the equestrian arts. Your mother and I will also conduct an interview with each woman," King John explained.

"Each province will send their best competitor. At the end, there will be a ball, where you will each announce your final choices. If you do not find a suitable wife by that time, we will choose for you. This is an important decision, one you will have to live with your entire life, so please choose wisely," Queen Mary warned. "For now, I suggest we ALL get some sleep, so we can do some planning in the morning," she advised.

Each of the princes came over to kiss their mother's cheek and say goodnight. Then they went to their separate rooms, changed into sleeping attire and went to sleep. Castiel would have to wait until morning for his explanation of the conversation between the princes and their parents.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next morning, a proclamation was issued. A search was being held to determine who would be the next queen after marrying either Prince Dean or Prince Samuel. A tournament would take place, featuring events in archery and the equestrian arts. An interview with the current king and queen was also part of the competition. On the final evening, a ball would be held to announce the winner.

Word of the tournament spread quickly throughout the land. When it reached Kira's ears, she began to wonder how it fit in with the reason she was sent here. She got ready for the day and checked across the hall to see if Rowena was awake yet. Her door was open, but she was not inside, so Kira went downstairs for breakfast.

"Good morning, everyone," she announced. Alfred and Rowena were discussing the matter and looked up to greet Kira in return. Stefan offered his good morning wishes when he brought the coffee and tea pots to the table for refills. He also placed a tray of his decadent cinnamon rolls on the table, making her mouth water. Business first, though, she thought.

"I assume you've all heard of the Princes' Challenge?" Kira asked.

"We were just discussing the matter, Lady Kira. Lady Rowena has mentioned that you stand an excellent chance of winning and becoming the next queen. I happen to agree with her assessment," Alfred stated, nodding in solidarity with Rowena.

"You definitely meet all the criteria, dearie," Rowena affirmed.

"So what are the criteria for this 'Challenge'?" Kira asked.

Rowena listed the following requirements to compete in the Princes' Challenge.

One: The candidate must be of noble birth.

Two: Only one candidate may be chosen from each province.

Three: Events will include Archery and the Equestrian Arts. These events will be followed by a private interview with King John and Queen Mary. On the last night, a ball will be held, where a decision will be announced.

The Princes' Challenge will begin in two weeks. Candidates must report to Winchester Castle upon arrival.

"You really think I can pull this off? I mean, I have the athletic stuff covered, no problem, but a private interview with the king and queen? 'Soft-spoken' and 'demure' are not exactly in my vocabulary, you know. If I'm going to screw up anywhere, it'll be there. That and....I can't dance," Kira replied, mumbling the last part about dancing.

"Och, not to worry, Kira, I'm working on a solution to get you some help in those areas. Even the dancing part, dearie," Rowena smirked. Kira stuck out her tongue at her in response.

"See? I'm acting like a child. I'll just mess everything up, so I might as well not even go! Besides, who will run the pub, make sure the townspeople are taken care of?" Kira added.

"Lady Kira," Alfred began. "I have worked for this family since before you were born. Well, the you that was born in this dimension," he smiled wryly.

"Wait a minute, Alfred. You've known all this time?" she asked.

"As I said, I've worked for this family for a very long time. I know you are not the Lady Kira native to this dimension. You are very much alike, don't get me wrong, but there are some subtle differences. But I also know that you are our best hope of restoring each Lady Kira to her rightful dimension. I believe the only way you can do that is to compete in and win the Princes' Challenge," Alfred finished.

"Beggin' your pardon, Lady Kira, but Alfred and I can look after the townsfolk in your absence," chimed in Coraline. "And you know Ella can run that pub of yours inside and out, backwards and forwards. Besides, you may find true love when you least expect it!" she exclaimed.

"All right, all right, I'll go! Rowena, I'll need you with me. No telling when I'll need the services of a witch, especially since it was magic that sent me here," Kira muttered.

After a breakfast of coffee and one of Stefan's cinnamon rolls, Kira and Rowena went upstairs to pack. Kira made sure to bring practical outfits, due to the nature of the competition. She also took her best gown for the ball on the final night. It was made of a dusty rose-colored satin, off the shoulder, corseted bodice and a long flowing skirt with tulle overlay. Kira threw in a few pairs of leggings, her boots and some tunics for the competition days. She included some "day dresses" for wearing when not in competition.

When Kira walked downstairs, Rowena was ready to go and Kira bid farewell to her house staff. The carriage was packed with their luggage, and as they pulled away, Kira waved goodbye to everyone. She knew she was leaving her tiny estate in capable hands. The staff was more than that, though, they were family. Kira knew they would do everything possible to take care of their home.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The princes met up with Castiel so that they could fill him in on what's going on. He seemed a bit skeptical that their parents' plan would work to decide the next queen.

"You have to find your true love through this competition, and decide before the ball? I don't know, my friends," Cas remarked.

"I'm not so sure either, Cas. But what choice do we have? If we don't choose, they'll choose for us. Besides, they still have the chance to interview the candidates, so that should alert us to potential red flags, right? Dean?" Prince Samuel replied.

Prince Dean was lost in thought when his brother's voice jolted him back to reality. "Hmm? What? Absolutely, brother, whatever you say," he stammered.

"Dude, where is your mind? You've been like this ever since we left that pub. Now, what's going on?" Prince Samuel demanded.

"Sorry, I can't help thinking about that woman, Kira. I wish we could meet up with her again. She was....different. But in a good way," Prince Dean hastily added. "I asked around about her. Collins said she inherited her land from her father, since there were no male heirs and she had no husband.

"When he died, he left her with a mountain of debt, so she's had to sell off pieces of her land to keep things afloat. Even so, she struggles with making ends meet, but she makes sure to take care of the townfolk, like her family. He said everyone adores her, and they're fiercely loyal to her," he finished.

"Sounds like someone's a little smitten," Castiel snickered.

"So what if I am? From what I've seen, she's kind, caring, has a great sense of humor. And as loyal as the townfolk are to her, she's just as protective of them. Remember how I teased her about being 'Lady Kira'? She quietly let me know how things work around there and how she doesn't do it for the recognition. She does it because she cares," Prince Dean retorted.

Prince Samuel held up his hands in surrender. "She sounds great, almost too good to be true. But, I hope she does show up, so that I can get to know her a little better as well. I wasn't too focused on that the first time we met."

Prince Dean hadn't thought of that. Since she does hold a title, she's eligible for his parents' little "tournament". That would give him the chance to find out even more about her. He really didn't like to admit when his brother is right, but in this case he is: Prince Dean is a little smitten with Lady Kira.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Rowena? Are you sure I should be doing this? I mean, it seems like there's so much more I could or should be doing at home. I'm not 'queen material', and probably never will be, because I know myself too well. I'm not the uptight, 'genuflect when you say that' type. The kingdom is much larger than our little space in the world, so much more to have control of. It'll take a bit of a strong hand to keep order, and I don't know if I can do that," Kira finished.

"Och, darlin', don't you worry about that. Just be yourself, and they will love you. Besides, I think a member of the royal family is already a bit smitten with ye," she added mysteriously.

"What are you talking about?" Kira demanded.

"I was talking to Alfred before you came down for breakfast, and I happened to tell him about last night in the pub. He said that the two men that came in late for drinks were none other than Prince Dean and Prince Samuel!" she announced.

Kira gasped in complete surprise. "No.....I'm completely doomed! I was such an idiot last night! Prince Dean called me by my title, and I got a little upset with him. I explained how things work in our neck of the woods and kind of slammed his beer down on the bar. I should go back. Driver? Please take me home," she commanded.

"Driver, you'll do no such thing, keep on course," Rowena declared. To Kira she said, "He is under strict orders to deliver you to Winchester Castle, even if you give him a direct order to do otherwise."

Kira crossed her arms over her chest and slouched in her seat, pouting in her corner of the carriage. She knew Rowena was right to keep on their course to Winchester Castle. She still had her doubts, though, about whether she was fit to be queen. Rowena must have sensed that, because she came over to sit beside Kira. "Don't worry, dearie. I've arranged for some assistance--" she broke off, and as there was a whooshing of wings, Gabriel appeared where Rowena had been sitting.

Kira sat up straighter in utter surprise. "Gabriel?? How did you know where I was?" she asked incredulously.

"Uh hello? Archangel?" he said sarcastically. "I can go anywhere I want, and Sweetcheeks, I'm particularly tuned to where you are. Besides, Thing One and Thing Two explained to me what happened. I suppose I'll be nice and let them know you're all right, but that you have work to do in this dimension."

Tears sprang to Kira's eyes as she thought about how worried her Sam and especially her Dean were about her disappearance. She wiped the tears away and looked at Gabriel. "Will you please do me a favor, Gabe? Will you please tell Sam and Dean that I love them, that I'm sorry to be away from them but that I'll be home as soon as I can?"

Kira knew Sam and Dean weren't Gabe's favorite humans, and the feeling was kind of mutual. But, she thought if he saw how upset she was, that he'd do as she asked. Gabriel rolled his eyes and said, "Fine, I'll tell them. You're lucky I love ya, kid. But I'm not kissing either one of them for you, no matter how many tears you cry," he declared.

Kira smiled through her tears and reached for his outstretched hand. "Thank you," she whispered. She turned her attention back to the rolling hills and trees that dotted the landscape. It had been awhile since Kira got to sit back and relax. Soon her eyelids became heavy and kept drifting closed. Before she knew it, she was snoozing away in her corner of the carriage, dreaming of a certain green-eyed prince that she was hoping to see again.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Back at the bunker, Sam had pulled some lore books to try and figure out how to return Kira to their dimension. On the other hand, Dean paced the floor, running over every detail of what had occurred in Room #17.

Rowena said that Kira's locket was a powerful charmed object that had been passed from mother to daughter for generations. With it, the wearer could move between worlds, which could be dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands. Dean only hoped that Kira would be found quickly and returned home before too much time had passed. Rowena was a powerful witch, but Dean didn't know if even she had enough juice to bring them both back.

As he paced the floor in the library, he heard the flapping of wings. At first, he thought it was Castiel, but before him stood none other than Gabriel. "Give me one good reason why you're here," Dean growled.

The archangel rolled his eyes. "Dude, I bring you news of your girlfriend, and this is the greeting I get?" Gabriel retorted.

"She's not my girlfriend," Dean shot back. Not yet anyway, he thought.

"Uh-huh, yeah. Right. Keep tellin' yourself that, bucko. Anyway, I'm supposed to tell you and Samsquatch that Kira loves you and she's sorry to be away from you. Also that she'll be home as soon as she can," Gabe finished.

"If you've seen her, where she is in that other world, then you can bring her back, right?" Dean asked hopefully.

"Um, no. It has to do with that locket around her neck that's blocking me from doing that. Relax, Dean-o, she's in good hands. I'm on her wavelength, so if anything goes wrong, I'll be there for her," Gabriel assured Dean.

"How the hell can I relax, when the woman I love is stuck in another dimension? Plus, no one has any real plan of how to bring her home!!" Dean roared.

"Well, at least you finally admitted your feelings for her. I'll see what I can do. Meantime, you two flannel-jockeys keep researching," Gabe snarled as he zapped out of the bunker.

Sam came over and laid his hand on Dean's shoulder. "He's right, Dean. We'll get Kira back. Then you can tell her how you feel," Sam remarked.

"I hope so, Sammy. I sure hope so," Dean replied softly.

Part 3 here!

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Tags: @janicho88 @akshi8278 @magssteenkamp @swiftlymoniquesblog @lyarr24 @miss-nerd95 @distefano123 @hobby27 @deanwanddamons @jessica-noel94 @wayward-mikaelson @jawritter @gabrielslittleangel @jensengirl83 @deangirl93 @ellewritesfix05 @supernatural-jackles

#dean x reader #dean winchester x reader #au!dean winchester x reader #au!dean winchester #spn #au supernatural #The Hunter's Princess series

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riichardwilson · 4 years ago

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Image SEO: Optimizing images for search engines

Michiel Heijmans

Michiel is a partner at Yoast and our COO. Internet veteran. His main goal with most of his articles is to kick-start your site optimization. So much to do!

Whether you’re a blogger or write articles for an online magazine or newspaper, chances are you’ll find yourself asking whether your article needs an image or not. The answer is always “Yes”. Images bring an article to life and also contribute to your website’s SEO Company. This post explains how to fully optimize an image for SEO and provides some pointers on using images for the best user experience.

Always use images

Images, when used correctly, will help readers better understand your article. The old saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” probably doesn’t apply to Google, but it’s certainly true when you need to spice up 1,000 dull words, illustrate what you mean in a chart or data flow diagram, or just make your social media posts more enticing.

It’s a simple recommendation: add images to every article you write to make them more appealing. What’s more, since visual search is getting increasingly important — as seen in Google’s vision for the future of search — it could turn out to provide you with a nice bit of traffic. And if you have visual content it makes sense to put image SEO Company a bit higher on your to-do list.

A while ago, Google Images got a brand-new interface with new filters, metadata, and even attribution. These cool new filters show that Google increasingly knows what’s in an image and how that image fits into the larger context.

Google’s new interface for Image Search was released at the end of September 2018

Finding the right image

It’s always better to use original images – photos you have taken yourself – than stock photos. Your team page needs pictures of your actual team, not this dude on the right or one of his stock photo friends. Off topic: also, this dude really needs a haircut.

Your article needs an image relevant to its subject. If you’re adding a random photo just to get a green bullet in our SEO Company plugin’s content analysis, then you’re doing it wrong. The image should reflect the topic of the post or have illustrative purposes within the article. Also, try to place the image near the relevant text. If you have a main image or an image that you’re trying to rank, try to keep that near the top of the page, if that’s possible without feeling forced.

There is a simple image SEO Company reason for all of this: an image with related text ranks better for the keyword it is optimized for. But we’ll discuss image SEO Company later on in this article.

Alternatives

If you don’t have any original images that you can use, there are other ways to find unique images and still avoid stock photos. Flickr.com is a nice image source for instance, as you can use Creative Commons images. Just remember to attribute the original photographer. I also like the images provided by sites like Unsplash. We have a blog post that gives you an awesome overview of where to get great images. Steer clear of the obvious stock photos, and if you are using stock photos, pick the ones that look (ok, just a bit) more genuine. But whatever you use, you’ll probably find that images with people in them always look like stock photos. Unless you took the photos yourself, which (in my opinion) is always the best idea.

Obvious alternatives for photos could be graphs or illustrations, which is what we at Yoast use. If you’re interested, our resident illustrator Erwin wrote a fun article about the making of illustrations on our developers blog. Also, an honorable mention should go to animated GIFs, as they are incredibly popular these days.

But even though animated GIFs are popular, don’t go overboard. It’ll make your post harder to read, as the movement of the image distracts your readers’ attention. They can also slow down your page.

Preparing images for use in your article

Once you have found the right image – whether it’s a photo, illustration, or chart – the next step is to optimize it for use on your website. So before you add your image, there are a number of things you need to think about:

Choose the right file name

Image SEO Company starts with the file name. You want Google to know what the image is about without even looking at it, so use your focus keyphrase in the image file name. It’s simple: if you’re writing an article on the Notre Dame and you use an image showing a sunrise in Paris over Notre Dame Cathedral, the file name shouldn’t be DSC4536.jpg. A proper file name would be notre-dame-paris-sunrise.jpg, making sure the main subject of the photo (and your article) is at the beginning of the file name.

Choose the right format

For images, the right format doesn’t exist; it depends on the kind of image and how you want to use it. In short, we recommend to:

choose JPEG for larger photos or illustrations: it will give you good results in terms of colors and clarity with a relatively small file size;

use PNG if you want to preserve background transparency in your image;

or, use WebP instead of JPEG and PNG. It will produce high-quality results with smaller file sizes. You can use tools like Squoosh to convert your image into WebP.

use SVG for logos and icons. With the help of CSS or JavaScript, you can manage images in SVG format, for instance, resize them without loss of quality.

If you know a large part of your audience uses specific browsers or devices, make sure to check whether your preferred format is supported by those browsers on CanIuse.com.

When you’ve chosen the right name and format, it’s time to resize and optimize your image!

Scale for image SEO

Loading times are important for UX and SEO Company. The faster the site, the easier it is for users and search engines to visit (and index) a page. Images can have a big impact on loading times, especially when you upload a huge image to display it really small – for example, a 2500×1500 pixels image displayed at 250×150 pixels size – as the entire image still has to be loaded. So resize the image to how you want it displayed. WordPress helps by automatically providing the image in multiple sizes after uploading it. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean the file size is optimized as well, that’s just the image display size. So think about the size in which you upload your images!

Use responsive images

This one is essential for SEO Company as well, and if you’re using WordPress it’s done for you since it was added by default from version 4.4. Images should have the srcset attribute, which makes it possible to serve a different image per screen width — this is especially useful for mobile devices.

Reduce file size

The next step in image SEO Company should be to make sure that your scaled image is compressed so it’s served in the smallest file size possible.

Of course, you could just export the image and experiment with quality percentages, but I prefer using 100% quality images, especially given the popularity of retina and similar screens these days.

Tools like JPEGmini can drastically reduce image file sizes without artifacts

You can still reduce the file size of these images by removing the EXIF data, for example. We recommend using tools like ImageOptim or websites like JPEGmini, jpeg.io or Kraken.io.

When you’ve optimized your images, you can test your page with tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, WebPageTest.org or Pingdom.

Adding the image to your article

While Google is getting better at recognizing what’s in an image, you shouldn’t totally rely on their abilities yet. It all comes down to you providing the context for that image — so fill in as much as you can! We’ll discuss how below.

Your image is ready to use, but don’t just throw it into your article anywhere. As mentioned earlier, adding it close to related textual content helps a lot. It makes sure the text is as relevant to the image as the image is to the text, something users and Google prefer.

Captions

The image caption is the text that accompanies the image on the page — if you look at the images in this article, it’s the text in the gray box below each one. Why are captions important for image SEO Company? Because people use them when scanning an article. People tend to scan headings, images and captions as they scan a web page. Back in 1997, Nielsen wrote:

“Elements that enhance scanning include headings, large type, bold text, highlighted text, bulleted lists, graphics, captions, topic sentences, and tables of contents.”

In 2012, KissMetrics went even further, stating that:

“Captions under images are read on average 300% more than the body copy itself, so not using them, or not using them correctly, means missing out on an opportunity to engage a huge number of potential readers.”

Do you need to add captions to every image? No, because sometimes images serve other purposes. Decide whether you want to use yours for SEO Company as well or not. Bearing in mind the need to avoid over-optimization, I’d say you should only add captions where it would make sense to the visitor for one to be there. Think about the visitor first, and don’t add a caption just for image SEO Company.

alt text and title text

The alt text (or alt tag) is added to an image so there will be descriptive text in place if the image can’t be displayed to the visitor for any reason. I can’t put it any better than Wikipedia:

“In situations where the image is not available to the reader, perhaps because they have turned off images in their web browser or are using a screen reader due to a visual impairment, the alternative text ensures that no information or functionality is lost.”

Be sure to add alt text to every image you use, and make sure the alt text includes the SEO Company keyphrase for that page (if appropriate). Most importantly, describe what’s in the image so both search engines and people can make sense of it. The more relevant information surrounding an image has, the more search engines deem this image important.

When hovering over an image, some browsers show the title text as a ‘tooltip’. Chrome shows the title text as was intended. Title text for images is similar and a lot of people who use titles simply copy the alt text, but more and more people leave them out altogether. Why is that? Here’s Mozilla’s take:

“title has a number of accessibility problems, mainly based around the fact that screen reader support is very unpredictable and most browsers won’t show it unless you are hovering with a mouse (so e.g. no access to keyboard users).”

It is better to include such supporting information in the main article text, rather than attached to the image.

Read more: Read more about alt tag and title tag optimization »

Add image structured data

Adding structured data to your pages can help search engines display your images as rich results. While Google says structured data doesn’t help you rank better, it does help to achieve a more fleshed out listing in Image Search. There’s more, though. For instance, if you have recipes on your site and you add structured data to your images Google can also add a badge to your images showing that this image belongs to a recipe. Google Images supports structured data for the following types:

Product

Video

Recipe

Google has a number of guidelines you need to follow if you want your images to appear rich in image search. The main takeaway is that the image attribute is mandatory and that your images should be crawlable and indexable. You can find them all Google’s Structured Data General Guidelines. Try out Structured data training if you want to learn how to add structured data to your pages!

OpenGraph and Twitter Cards

Earlier on, I mentioned using images for social sharing. If you add the following image tag to the <head> section in your page HTML like this:

That will make sure the image is included in your share on Facebook (and OpenGraph is also used for Pinterest, for instance).

Our Yoast SEO plugin has a Social section where you can set and – in the Premium version – even preview your Facebook and Twitter posts. Make sure to use a high-quality image, like the original image you used in the post, as the social platforms use higher quality/larger images more often than not. If you have set this up correctly, and it’s not showing the right image, try to flush Facebook’s cache in the URL Debugger. Twitter Cards do the same for Twitter and are also generated by our plugin.

Alignment

This is one of my pet peeves: Images should never break the left reading line. I’m sure there are studies backing this up, but for me it’s personal. I just really don’t like it when text starts to the right of an image, only to jump to the left the next image down:

Maintain the left reading line; don’t align images to the left

If you use an image at the same width as your text column, that’s fine and it will even help emphasize the image more.

I’ll be honest: this has absolutely nothing to do with image SEO Company, but I saw the chance to express my opinion and used it! I think it’s bad for user experience. So, just to please me: don’t do this. Thanks, I really appreciate it.

XML image sitemaps

If you are a web developer, you might wonder about XML image sitemaps. I’d prefer to describe this as images in XML sitemaps. Google is clear about this:

Additionally, you can use Google image extensions for sitemaps to give Google more information about the images available on your pages. Image sitemap information helps Google discover images that we might not otherwise find (such as images your site reaches with JavaScript code), and allows you to indicate images on your site that you want Google to crawl and index.

Every now and then, people ask us about XML image sitemaps. We don’t generate these in our plugin, but follow Google’s advice and include them in the page or post sitemaps. Just scroll down in our post sitemap and you’ll see we have added images to all our latest posts (there is a column just for that). Adding images to your XML sitemaps helps Google index your images, so be sure to do so for better image SEO Company.

Image SEO: summary

Image SEO Company is the sum of a number of elements. With Google getting better at recognizing elements in images every day, it makes sense to make sure the image and all its elements contribute to a good user experience as well as SEO Company. It would be foolish to try to kid Google.

Keep these things in mind when adding an image to an article:

Use a relevant image that matches your text

Pick a good file name for your image

Make sure image dimensions match the image size as displayed

Use srcset if possible

Reduce file size for faster loading

Add a caption, if appropriate, for easier scanning of the page

Use image alt text. No need for a title text

Add structured data to your images

Add OpenGraph and Twitter Card tags for the image

Don’t break the left reading line with an image – align images right or center

Use images in your XML sitemaps

Provide all the context you can!

Besides contributing to SEO Company and user experience, images can also play an important role in conversion. So don’t underestimate the importance of image SEO Company on your site!

Keep reading: WordPress SEO: The definitive guide to higher rankings for WordPress sites »

SEO Company by DBL07.co

source http://www.scpie.org/image-seo-optimizing-images-for-search-engines/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/626412001924644864

0 notes

scpie · 4 years ago

Text

Image SEO: Optimizing images for search engines

Michiel Heijmans

Michiel is a partner at Yoast and our COO. Internet veteran. His main goal with most of his articles is to kick-start your site optimization. So much to do!

Always use images

Images, when used correctly, will help readers better understand your article. The old saying ��A picture is worth a thousand words” probably doesn’t apply to Google, but it’s certainly true when you need to spice up 1,000 dull words, illustrate what you mean in a chart or data flow diagram, or just make your social media posts more enticing.

Google’s new interface for Image Search was released at the end of September 2018

Finding the right image

Alternatives

Preparing images for use in your article

Choose the right file name

Choose the right format

For images, the right format doesn’t exist; it depends on the kind of image and how you want to use it. In short, we recommend to:

choose JPEG for larger photos or illustrations: it will give you good results in terms of colors and clarity with a relatively small file size;

use PNG if you want to preserve background transparency in your image;

or, use WebP instead of JPEG and PNG. It will produce high-quality results with smaller file sizes. You can use tools like Squoosh to convert your image into WebP.

use SVG for logos and icons. With the help of CSS or JavaScript, you can manage images in SVG format, for instance, resize them without loss of quality.

If you know a large part of your audience uses specific browsers or devices, make sure to check whether your preferred format is supported by those browsers on CanIuse.com.

When you’ve chosen the right name and format, it’s time to resize and optimize your image!

Scale for image SEO

Use responsive images

Reduce file size

The next step in image SEO Company should be to make sure that your scaled image is compressed so it’s served in the smallest file size possible.

Of course, you could just export the image and experiment with quality percentages, but I prefer using 100% quality images, especially given the popularity of retina and similar screens these days.

Tools like JPEGmini can drastically reduce image file sizes without artifacts

You can still reduce the file size of these images by removing the EXIF data, for example. We recommend using tools like ImageOptim or websites like JPEGmini, jpeg.io or Kraken.io.

When you’ve optimized your images, you can test your page with tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, WebPageTest.org or Pingdom.

Adding the image to your article

Captions

“Elements that enhance scanning include headings, large type, bold text, highlighted text, bulleted lists, graphics, captions, topic sentences, and tables of contents.”

In 2012, KissMetrics went even further, stating that:

alt text and title text

The alt text (or alt tag) is added to an image so there will be descriptive text in place if the image can’t be displayed to the visitor for any reason. I can’t put it any better than Wikipedia:

It is better to include such supporting information in the main article text, rather than attached to the image.

Read more: Read more about alt tag and title tag optimization »

Add image structured data

Product

Video

Recipe

OpenGraph and Twitter Cards

Earlier on, I mentioned using images for social sharing. If you add the following image tag to the <head> section in your page HTML like this:

That will make sure the image is included in your share on Facebook (and OpenGraph is also used for Pinterest, for instance).

Alignment

Maintain the left reading line; don’t align images to the left

If you use an image at the same width as your text column, that’s fine and it will even help emphasize the image more.

XML image sitemaps

If you are a web developer, you might wonder about XML image sitemaps. I’d prefer to describe this as images in XML sitemaps. Google is clear about this:

Image SEO: summary

Keep these things in mind when adding an image to an article:

Use a relevant image that matches your text

Pick a good file name for your image

Make sure image dimensions match the image size as displayed

Use srcset if possible

Reduce file size for faster loading

Add a caption, if appropriate, for easier scanning of the page

Use image alt text. No need for a title text

Add structured data to your images

Add OpenGraph and Twitter Card tags for the image

Don’t break the left reading line with an image – align images right or center

Use images in your XML sitemaps

Provide all the context you can!

Besides contributing to SEO Company and user experience, images can also play an important role in conversion. So don’t underestimate the importance of image SEO Company on your site!

Keep reading: WordPress SEO: The definitive guide to higher rankings for WordPress sites »

SEO Company by DBL07.co

source http://www.scpie.org/image-seo-optimizing-images-for-search-engines/

0 notes

laurelkrugerr · 4 years ago

Text

Image SEO: Optimizing images for search engines

Michiel Heijmans

Michiel is a partner at Yoast and our COO. Internet veteran. His main goal with most of his articles is to kick-start your site optimization. So much to do!

Always use images

Google’s new interface for Image Search was released at the end of September 2018

Finding the right image

Alternatives

Preparing images for use in your article

Choose the right file name

Choose the right format

For images, the right format doesn’t exist; it depends on the kind of image and how you want to use it. In short, we recommend to:

choose JPEG for larger photos or illustrations: it will give you good results in terms of colors and clarity with a relatively small file size;

use PNG if you want to preserve background transparency in your image;

or, use WebP instead of JPEG and PNG. It will produce high-quality results with smaller file sizes. You can use tools like Squoosh to convert your image into WebP.

use SVG for logos and icons. With the help of CSS or JavaScript, you can manage images in SVG format, for instance, resize them without loss of quality.

If you know a large part of your audience uses specific browsers or devices, make sure to check whether your preferred format is supported by those browsers on CanIuse.com.

When you’ve chosen the right name and format, it’s time to resize and optimize your image!

Scale for image SEO

Use responsive images

Reduce file size

The next step in image SEO Company should be to make sure that your scaled image is compressed so it’s served in the smallest file size possible.

Of course, you could just export the image and experiment with quality percentages, but I prefer using 100% quality images, especially given the popularity of retina and similar screens these days.

Tools like JPEGmini can drastically reduce image file sizes without artifacts

You can still reduce the file size of these images by removing the EXIF data, for example. We recommend using tools like ImageOptim or websites like JPEGmini, jpeg.io or Kraken.io.

When you’ve optimized your images, you can test your page with tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, WebPageTest.org or Pingdom.

Adding the image to your article

Captions

“Elements that enhance scanning include headings, large type, bold text, highlighted text, bulleted lists, graphics, captions, topic sentences, and tables of contents.”

In 2012, KissMetrics went even further, stating that:

alt text and title text

The alt text (or alt tag) is added to an image so there will be descriptive text in place if the image can’t be displayed to the visitor for any reason. I can’t put it any better than Wikipedia:

It is better to include such supporting information in the main article text, rather than attached to the image.

Read more: Read more about alt tag and title tag optimization »

Add image structured data

Product

Video

Recipe

OpenGraph and Twitter Cards

Earlier on, I mentioned using images for social sharing. If you add the following image tag to the <head> section in your page HTML like this:

That will make sure the image is included in your share on Facebook (and OpenGraph is also used for Pinterest, for instance).

Alignment

Maintain the left reading line; don’t align images to the left

If you use an image at the same width as your text column, that’s fine and it will even help emphasize the image more.

XML image sitemaps

If you are a web developer, you might wonder about XML image sitemaps. I’d prefer to describe this as images in XML sitemaps. Google is clear about this:

Image SEO: summary

Keep these things in mind when adding an image to an article:

Use a relevant image that matches your text

Pick a good file name for your image

Make sure image dimensions match the image size as displayed

Use srcset if possible

Reduce file size for faster loading

Add a caption, if appropriate, for easier scanning of the page

Use image alt text. No need for a title text

Add structured data to your images

Add OpenGraph and Twitter Card tags for the image

Don’t break the left reading line with an image – align images right or center

Use images in your XML sitemaps

Provide all the context you can!

Besides contributing to SEO Company and user experience, images can also play an important role in conversion. So don’t underestimate the importance of image SEO Company on your site!

Keep reading: WordPress SEO: The definitive guide to higher rankings for WordPress sites »

SEO Company by DBL07.co

source http://www.scpie.org/image-seo-optimizing-images-for-search-engines/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/08/image-seo-optimizing-images-for-search.html

0 notes

aroselane · 5 years ago

Text

The Devil in Me Ch. 12

Chapter Twelve:

Shay:

Was it possible to feel so terrified and so excited at the same time?

These feelings are fighting inside of me, and it is painful. My stomach hurt.

I was thankful at least that I talked to Jody about what I should wear today. We settled on something cute.

A thin white long sleeve shirt. The dark gray skirt has that ripple at the ends. It is high at my waist, and it has the v shape down.

I wore black tights with black heels. A single strap went over and buckled at the other side of the shoe.

My nails are still done the same. Black toes, and black nails. My ring finger being the exception, a black heart instead of solid black. My makeup is done simply. My eyebrows, mascara, and eyeliner. The black lipstick is the finale.

I left my hair down, nothing fancy there.

With me pulling my small black purse over my shoulder, I was ready to leave.

I didn’t get very far before my phone went off.

From: Jody – ‘Good luck today <3.’

I couldn’t quite explain what I felt when I saw her message. It was a combination of love and warmth.

It was something I needed.

To: Jody – ‘Thank you <3.’

To: Jody – ‘See you later?’

I walked outside, and before I even had the door locked behind me, I had a new message.

I smiled to myself while I finished the last lock.

From: Jody – ‘Of course.’

From: - Jody – ‘Just let me know when you are done.’

I felt better, and I was thankful for her.

I made my way to the familiar facility.

My nerves only got the best of me, the closer I got.

I had to remind myself to breathe properly. You’d be surprised how often I had to do that.

I took in a deep breath.

The large building was now in my sight.

Was I shaking? Damn it.

I just hoped I didn’t trip and fall on my face. Maybe heels weren’t the best idea, after all.

The walk to the side entrance where we met Baird at last time felt different.

I didn’t see the ginger-haired man waiting like the last time.

I pulled my phone out to check the time.

11:42 AM.

Good, just making sure that I’m not late.

Part of me thought I should wait to go in, but the other more dominant part said fuck it.

I walked through the doors.

Baird was inside, looking at the tablet in his hands.

“Oh,” he said as he looked up to see me.

“Good afternoon,” I said.

He smiled politely, “Eager, are we?”

I wanted to run away now.

Instead of answering with words, I just laughed awkwardly.

“It will be similar to before,” he said, “When your friend Jody came in.”

I nodded.

“Your lanyard,” he said, “Before anything else.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a lanyard and held it out for me.

I didn’t hesitate to take it and put it on.

“Thank you,” I said, just above a whisper.

“This way,” he said, gesturing for me to follow him.

I was quick to fall in behind.

I wanted to ask all kinds of questions, but I didn’t even know where to begin.

He led me through the same way we went with Jody.

So this is the standard meet and greet then?

The room covered in chairs is where we stopped.

“Same as last time?” I asked, “Need to make sure everything is ready?”

He glanced over at me and smiled lightly, “Yes.”

“Then I will take a seat right here,” I said, “Just let me know when you’re ready for me.”

I sat down before he opened the side door.

Could I be any more nervous?

I took in a deep breath, and I let it out slowly. I repeated it about five more times before I felt better.

It always felt like forever when you were forced to wait. I don’t know why time worked that way, I just know that it does.

Sometimes it just felt a little cruel.

I pulled my phone out of my purse so that I could check the time.

12:07 PM.

Alright, so I most definitely waited a little bit already.

I heard a click, and my heart sped up.

Voices filled the room, and I felt silly.

Steven led the new volunteers into this room.

“Shay,” he greeted.

“Hey,” I said.

“Baird told me to let you know that your match is running a little late.” he said, “But don’t worry, he’ll come to get you soon.”

I nodded. Isn’t this how it always worked?

I leaned back in my chair as I watched the others take their seats.

This was the last thing I wanted to sit through again.

I focused my attention on the girl with the extremely short bangs.

She had one of those larger gauges in her the side of her nose.

I felt like I wanted to ask her about it. It looked painful. She pulled it off, though.

“Shay.”

I was quick to stand up and look around.

The guy next to me laughed at me.

I didn’t really give a shit. I was about to meet my match.

Baird stood in front of the door expectantly.

“It appears that we lost you for a little while.”

I felt embarrassed.

“Sorry,” I said, “I zone out sometimes.”

Even though I was so focused on that girl's nose piercing.

He opened the door, and I don’t know what I was expecting.

The room was small. A table was at the center of the room, and at the opposite corner was another door.

So that is how the others get in here.

“Have a seat at this end,” he gestured for me to sit at the end closest to the door I entered.

I heisted just a moment before sitting.

He took a seat at the end with his tablet still in his hands.

“So,” he said, “Let me start by saying welcome.”

“Thank you.”

“Next,” he began, “I know you and Jody are close, so after this, you two are free to discuss your interview.”

“Was she not allowed to before?” I asked.

“She had to sign this,” he handed me a piece of paper.

I glanced at it before meeting his eyes.

“You can only talk about the process, and your match with others involved in the program.”

“So, I can’t even mention it in passing?” I asked, “Like if I need to go somewhere, and my brother asks where I’m going?”

“You can tell him where you are going, that is not a problem,” he said, “You just cannot go into specifics.”

I nodded, “But now I can, but only with Jody?”

“Yes,” he said, “And anyone here that works here, or that has gone through the interview process.”

“Okay,” I said, “And this paper is me agreeing to that?”

“Yes,” he said, “Before you can meet your match.”

Damn it.

I didn’t even read the paper, I just signed it.

He looked at me a little confused before taking the paper.

“So now we can begin,” he said.

I watched him type something on the tablet.

“He will be here shortly.”

I nodded.

My nerves were kicking up again.

A small knock at the door made me stand up quickly.

Noah:

Shit, I’m running late.

I was too worried about what I was going to wear that I changed a couple times. It didn’t help that the pain in my back returned with a vengeance.

This wasn’t really happening, right?

Why was I so concerned with my appearance now? I usually didn’t give a shit.

I was way too worried about what she would think when she saw me.

Fuck it.

I decided to wear the outfit Eileen helped me pick out.

The shirt is black, with long sleeves. The material is a little thinner than a thermal, but that’s what it looked like. Three buttons held the top of my shirt closed.

I felt a bit self-conscious in this shirt, it was a little tighter than I was used to.

I hiked up the sleeves before pulling on my dark blue jeans. These too are a smidge tighter than I felt comfortable wearing.

I just wanted to look good, I felt silly that I was trying so hard.

Eileen said I looked good in this, so here we are. When I bent over to put on my socks and shoes, the pain in my back turned into a dull throbbing.

Both my socks and my shoes are black.

My watch is on my right wrist. My ring is on my middle finger, same hand.

I tucked the pendant Eileen gave me into my shirt so that the necklace the facility issued was in full view.

It was a small black metal rectangle, going down the long way. My tracker.

It was our version of a dog tag.

My last name and birthday were written on it. Birthday on the back, last name on the front.

I couldn’t delay it anymore.

My mind was all over the place. I wanted to run as fast as I could down there, but I had to be a little more patient than that.

I made my way out of my room, and I let Baird know that I was on my way down.

I just needed to get there.

The walk felt longer than usual, but I felt it when I got close.

I felt her.

She is in the next room, and the pain in my back felt minuscule.

I knocked lightly on the door.

I didn’t wait for a response, I opened it.

Shay was standing up, looking right at me.

“Noah?” she asked.

She looked stunning.

“Hi,” I said.

I could see it on her face, she wasn't sure what to think of her match being me.

“Take your seat,” Baird said.

I didn’t even want to look at him.

I pulled the chair out before sitting down.

“Did you know?” she asked me.

I opened my mouth, but Baird spoke first.

“Now that you two have met, your interview process may begin,” he said, “I am here strictly to monitor.”

“Monitor what?” Shay asked him.

“Us,” I said.

“Think of me as a small buffer,” he said, “Ask each other anything and answer as honestly as possible.”

“What if we don’t want to answer?” she asked.

“Then just tell me,” I said, “I will do the same.”

“This process is for you two to get to know each other in a safe environment,” Baird said.

“Safe?” she asked, “I would feel safer in a crowd.”

I didn’t want to have to say something so soon.

“This is safer,” I said, “For me, and everybody like me.”

She looked at me.

“Because you are a Devil?”

I only nodded.

“Why?” she asked, “What makes this safer?”

Baird, of course, didn’t answer. It was all on me now.

“In case I change,” I stated, “It’s safer so that I don’t scare anyone, and safer for you.”

“So that you can’t kill me?” she asked.

I nodded.

How was she so calm?

She glanced at Baird.

“Any questions you have, please direct them to Noah.”

Her gold and brown eyes burning holes into me, the longer she stared.

“Ask me questions too,” she said, “This all feels a little strange.”

I could see it now, she is nervous.

Was she only nervous after knowing I could kill her?

“I’m sorry,” I said, “I couldn’t tell you before.”

“But you knew,” she said, “Did Eileen?”

I quickly glanced at Baird.

He actually stopped what he was doing, surprise dominating his face.

“You know Eileen?” he asked her.

Shit.

She looked from him to me.

“I’m not going to answer that,” she said.

Wait, did she really just say that to Baird?

“Shay,” he said, “Do you know Eileen?”

She took in a breath before leaning back in her chair.

This girl was something else.

“This interview is over.”

Baird stood up.

Holy shit.

She didn’t move, so neither did I.

“Then trade places with Steven,” I said.

Baird met my gaze. I don’t think I have ever seen him angry.

“This process is not a Joke,” Baird said, “I need this information.”

I looked over at Shay, and her gaze was already on me.

“Tell him,” I said, “Or else we won’t be able to meet again.”

“What if I tell him, and we still don’t?” she asked.

So, she did feel something.

“Then, I will take my punishment for it.”

I almost said again, but I didn’t want to elaborate on that if she asked.

“What if I don’t want you to be punished because of me?”

“I give you my word,” Baird said, “If you tell me, I will not cancel future meetings.”

“Tell him,” I said, “Baird does not lie.”

She looked a little unsure, but she nodded.

“She works at the daycare,” Shay said, “My brothers go there.”

Baird looked down at the tablet as if searching for something.

There is no point in looking. The program only wants information about the person entering it. The rest of the family doesn’t get a whole lot of attention.

“Was that really so hard to say?” Baird asked before sitting back down.

I didn’t even want to respond.

“What is with the two of you?” she asked.

The room was silent.

“Baird,” she said, “An answer for an answer.”

Fuck.

“He is angry with me,” Baird stated.

“Why?” she asked quickly.

“That is one answer.”

“It is part of an answer,” she said, “Why?”

“He had me punished after I met you,” I said.

She looked genuinely confused.

“Punished for what?” she asked. “For talking to me?”

“No,” Baird said, “Rules are rules.”

“Sort of,” I said, “I spoke to you, outside of the facility.”

“And before the interview,” Baird stated.

She glared at Baird.

“It was not up to me,” He said, “I simply report, and they take it from there.”

“What did they do to you?” she asked.

She was asking all the hard questions.

“I prefer not to say,” I said.

“Be open with me,” she said, “And I will be open with you.”

I felt like that is something a girl says when someone has lied to her before.

“Be more specific,” I stated.

“I will answer every question, no matter how difficult,” she said, “If you do.”

“How do I know you aren’t just saying that now?” I asked.

She reached across the table and held her hand out to me.

“You trust me,” she said, “And I am trusting you.”

“Please refrain from physical contact,” Baird said.

“Why?” Shay asked.

“Because we don’t know how touching you will make me react.”

She made a face, sort of like she was thinking hard about something. It was cute.

“I trust that you won’t hurt me,” she said.

Not once did she remove her hand.

“It is not a voluntary reaction,” I stated.

I didn’t want to lose the chance, though.

My hand slowly raised to touch hers.

She grinned at me.

My hand was firmly in hers, and it felt good.

“See,” she said, “You look fine to me.”

“Noah,” Baird warned.

My hand retracted.

“What happened?” she asked.

“A spike in vitals,” I said, “Much more, and there would be a reaction.”

“You keep saying reaction,” she said, “But I don’t know what that means.”

I wasn’t even sure where to begin.

“A physical change,” Baird supplied.

“Physical?” she asked, “How physical?”

She narrowed her eyes at me.

“Wait,” I said, “What do you think I mean?”

“Boner,” she didn’t hesitate to say it.

Baird looked startled by her response.

“No,” I said, “It takes a little more than hand-holding to get my motor running.”

She pat the table in front of me.

“Then why did you let go?”

“I advise against this,” Baird said.

I placed my hand in hers again.

“The first change will be my eyes,” I warned. “Then, it could be anything else.”

“What is a Devil?” she asked, “I keep hearing it, but nobody told me exactly what makes them what they are.”

I had to clear my throat for this one.

“You do know what an Alpha is, right?” I asked.

She nodded.

“Well, each type of Alpha is classified differently,” I said, “But you are categorized based on your abilities.”

“Fire then?” she asked.

“No,” I said, “A Devil has a physical change.”

“I thought that didn’t matter?” she asked, “That one Alpha from uptown changed physically, but he isn’t a Devil.”

“It also has to do with control,” I said, not meeting her eyes.

“Oh,” she said.

“The physical change isn’t just a physical manifestation of what your ability is.” I said, “It makes us look like monsters.”

She just stared at me.

I didn’t want to scare her away.

“Okay,” she said, “So what are your powers or abilities?”

I wish I had something amazing that I could do, but I just don’t.

“I don’t do anything special,” I admitted, ��I just know that I am stronger than the average human, and my senses are heightened.”

“So, not mind reading?” she asked.

“No,” I said.

“No stretchy body parts?” she asked.

“No.”

That one threw me off.

“What senses are heightened?” she asked.

“All of them,” I said.

“Taste?” she asked, “Do things taste amazing? Do you taste things that you smell?”

“Yes,” I said, “I guess, and sometimes.”

She smiled at me.

It wasn’t like the usual smiles, this one looked like she had something devious in mind.

“What?” I asked.

“I was just thinking,” she said, “Can you smell me from there?”

I don’t think I liked where this was going.

Okay, I mean yeah, I liked it. I just didn’t like where we were and the person with us right now.

I had to focus on her.

“I can’t,” I said, “I have to focus if someone is a little far.”

“Try it,” she said, “I know what I smell like, I want to know if you can figure it out.”

Her words came to my mind, and I felt a little scared to try.

Can you taste things that you smell?

I shivered at the thought.

“Come on,” she said.

I felt a dull pain behind my eyes.

Shit, I was starting to change.

I focused on her in hopes of stopping the change.

I shut my eyes.

Focus damn it.

It only took a minute before I could hear her heart pounding.

It took a lot to suppress a groan.

“Your heart is racing,” I said.

I could almost feel the sun on her skin, it felt amazing.

“Keep going,” she whispered.

Her words felt like ripples across my skin, burning me.

I needed to focus.

It took more concentration than I was used to, to try and get her scent.

Something sweet caught my attention.

It was familiar, and at the same time, foreign.

Lemon was a scent I knew well, the other I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

She smelled sweet and a little sour because of the lemon.

“I smell lemon,” I said, “But I’m having trouble with the other one.”

“Watermelon,” she supplied.

Something clicked after she said it.

I was so stupid.

Her scent mixed with the lemon and watermelon. I needed to focus on something else.

“Noah,” Baird warned.

My eyes opened, and I could see it on her face.

She wasn’t scared.

#Story #Writing #ARoseLane #Novel #Chapters #Literature #The Devil in Me #Abilities #Alpha #Comedy #Human #Romance #Love #Mate #BxG #Program #Smut #YA #Young Adult #Integration

0 notes

legends-of-direbear · 8 years ago

Text

Punchdrunk Love || Brobastian: TTL AU

Tagging: @sebadasssmythe and @squaredancing-weston

Time: Pre-“Not-Dating”

Setting: a new bar, outside of Lima, Ohio

Summary: Of course it starts with Sebastian--the guy's a walking provocation, and Brody can't leave him alone for five seconds. Although, to be fair, Bas is drunk, and Brody's kind of laughing too, at a table in this new bar as they throw back shots and Bas proceeds to no-holds-barred criticize every potential bedmate in the place

It starts with Sebastian.

Of course it does-- the guy's a walking provocation, and Brody can't leave him alone for five seconds. Although, to be fair, Bas is drunk, and Brody's kind of laughing too, at a table in this new bar as they throw back shots and Bas proceeds to no-holds-barred criticize every potential bedmate in the place. It is pretty bad, though not as much as it would be at Scandals. But even though the drunkard's standards will lower before he leaves tonight (no doubt with someone he'd previously ripped on), at this point he's still just talking trash.

Not everyone is their type though, and it turns out the guys next to them-- rugby shirts with popped collars, like they're either from fraternities or a bad eighties movie-- are very straight, and apparently very irked that the "queer" loudly thinks they look like roughneck trash. One of them turns to start up shit, and as Bas gleefully takes him up on it, Brody stands to go order new rounds: Bas doesn't actually get physical, and he can take care of himself in terms of verbal sparring, so the older man figures they'll probably get one more drink before he'll have to steer him from the table to sell Bas' "I'm bored (I don't want to get beat up)" parting line.

Apparently he overestimates the restraint of the two of them though, because when he returns, the guy is towering over Bas, whose standing, cheeky as hell, subtly keeping his chair between them as a buffer. Brody sighs and strides over, but his presence doesn't ease the tension-- instead, the other guy's two friends stand as well, which kills any amusement that the alcohol had built the situation up to be.

Brody puts a hand on his friend's shoulder, a gesture of retreat that eases the posturing of the two other men, and nods his head as he suggests they leave. Nobody actually wants to fight-- it's all just a show of pride, after all, and Brody has no compunctions with just letting someone else feel like the Alpha Male. This place isn't that great, after all.

The younger man sighs as if put out, but moves to follow him, making a comment about how he's lost interest in slumming it anyways. And then it's a call of "Hey fag" and the next thing Brody realizes, Bas has somehow managed to duck a sucker punch aimed directly at him, though the follow-up hook connects solidly with his jaw as the larger stranger laughs.

Brody sees red. Sebastian may have instigated this whole thing, and he may be a cocky asshole, but dammit he's Brody's cocky asshole, and fuck that noise. Two long strides and suddenly the older man is between the two, and he's thrown three punches concurrently into the guy's face before anyone else has thought to move. It's a bit of a ruckus, and by the time his friends act to separate them, his nose is pretty well bloodied (though probably not broken).With the target out of his direct reach, Brody manages to get a hold of himself enough to feel a flush of embarrassment, and he reaches over to Bas and half leads, half-drags him out to the parking lot to escape the whole situation. He doesn't even remember how they got home, but he's pretty sure he doesn't say a word for any of it.

Once they're there, though, he starts going off. About how Bas needs to learn some self-control, how he could've gotten himself killed, how his "pretty face" is going to have a bruise to explain to everyone on Monday. He doesn't stop until he realizes Bas is staring at him, brow furrowed, hand touching his cheek and pulling away a red smear-- apparently the younger man isn't the only one to have some explaining to do. He doesn't even remember the guy hitting back.

Brody bites his lip, eyes flickering down in embarrassment. He waits for the judgment, or the incredulity, or any of it, but instead Bas just takes the dishtowel weighted with ice from the older man and presses it against his cheek, and blue eyes shift back up at green ones.

They don't talk about it-- not about how Bas would have gotten his ass kicked, or the fact that he brought out such a defensive streak in the older man. Gratitude and concern fall too close to the feelings thing that they don't discuss. When they both wind down, Bas will joke about how it was kind of hot, having someone defend his honor (however unnecessary) and Brody will roll his eyes saying he wasn't trying to defend anything but his ass from ending up in the hospital. Which will lead to a conversation about Brody's obsession with Sebastian's ass, and how they can put that to good use, since the night was a bust and they came home alone. And Bas will quirk up an eyebrow suggestively and Brody will comment on how maybe he should just go to bed because sex isn't good for a possible concussion. But when fingers thread into his own, and a body slides over him on the couch, straddling his lap, he doesn't dissuade any of it.

It ends with Sebastian.

#glee #the teachers lounge #rpg #au #ficlet #mine #Sebastian Smythe #Brody Weston #Brobastian #bar

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claraoswald81 · 6 years ago

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Ten Taboos About SEO 2019 You Should Never Share On Twitter

I use huge news for anyone currently inside the niche website and SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION business. Dave Gregory, Content Marketing Supervisor from the UK based efficiency marketing agency, SiteVisibility, predicts that will 2019, and not 2018, is definitely going to be the true year of voice. If we consider Google's Guide then there are almost 200+ factors that lead a internet site in ranking, which we possess researched and clustered in twenty one On Page SEO Factors, that will needs your attention in 2019. SEO Wise Links can automatically link essential terms in your posts plus comments with corresponding posts, webpages, categories and tags on your own blog. 41. An effective sociable media strategy needs a strong SEO plan. 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It's since creating content and ranking this in Google is what SEOs do! SEO solutions look at their links, through where their links are arriving, and what keywords they possess made a decision to optimize for their sites. Hobo UK SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION - A Beginner's Guide (2018) is really a free pdf file ebook you can DOWNLOAD TOTALLY FREE from here (2mb) that will contains my notes about traveling increased organic traffic to the site within Google's guidelines. My conjecture is that the biggest SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION trend in 2019 is heading to be Amazon search. TYPES OF SEO Generally there are two major types associated with seo, white hat search motor optimization (the ‘good' kind), plus black hat (the 'not therefore good' kind). Google's always tweaking its research algorithms, so there's no warranty that SEO practices that worked well in the past will maintain working in the future. An extensive dental marketing plus dental SEO campaign can end up being attained by the enterprise just if the web address associated with a dental practice includes directly into all the promotional materials intended for the business. This shows the importance of focussing voice search engine results within order to grow your company, marketing, and Search Engine Optimization(SEO) strategies. They obtain this by increasing their site rank through a method known as SEO or even search engine optimization. Just like most other SEO approaches, be certain your links are appropriate, plus be careful never to cross the particular line into excessive linking -- you don't want your website visitors to obtain annoyed. Bryan Yeager, Research Director at Gartner, can share 9 Key Insights through Gartner's Marketing Technology Survey in order to Help You Prepare for 2019 and Beyond. 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Tug has been appointed specifically to roll out a multi-lingual search engine marketing techniques campaign using its knowledge in international SEO and PAY PER CLICK.

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lyesattou10-blog1 · 7 years ago

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Blog essay #3.

The human mind is truly boggling, to be invested as an audience is truly a research worthy of conducting. Audience members have different behaviors to different media texts. Some audience members influence their social life throughout different media texts such as television series or radio channels while others use it as leisure time to waste time. Many viewers have a fix schedule every week knowing what media text they are going to view and when they are going to view it. As stated in the course book for example they explained that “Our media choices and interpretations can be shaped by our immediate physical and social environment” (Sullivan 173). This statement correlates a lot with my own social environment as previously stated in the two first blog posts my experience as a sport fanatic is influenced by the environment I grew up in whether it was through family, friends or the type of social gatherings I would attend. However now with technology being advanced viewing media contents have become much easier to access thanks to the different outlets such as Youtube, Facebook and Twitter and also the ways in which audience members can interact with their particular media content they are a fan of. These outlets gave a new sense of media fandom as various forums and blogs gave the opportunity for fans to engage as a community and create discussions about the content they are particularly subscribed too. With these outlets being available to the public it led to many fans being known as nomads which is defined as someone who “uses different Media to Juxtapose”. New advanced technologies also led to this notion of having a “Parasocial” relationships with certain celebrities or athletes. Even though it's a one way relationship it gave the opportunity for fans interact with their role models in a different way. Through this blog post I will be looking into the different types of fans, how audience members use different media texts as rituals, the parasocial relationship between sports athlete and an audience member and finally how these media contexts are being viewed. All these points will be associated to my own personal experiences.

Before talking into depth about the different types of fans it is important to know what is a fan and where it originated from. When you think of fan you might think of a fan of TV series, Sports or a particular music genre or book. However before that it had a negative connotation to it during the 17th century. It referred to a religious devotee, the connections between fandom and religion are particularly notable as the usage of fanatic generally referred to an unwavering, uncritical belief in usually religious dogma. They referred the word as an action or speech “Such as might result from possession by a deity or demon; frantic, furious”.(Sullivan,192). Fans also have it’s own stereotypes as Jenkins mentioned that media fans are often portrayed as brainless consumers, willing to buy anything with a logo or image of their favorite media program or star. However fans wanted to challenge these negative stereotypes by rather than audiences viewing choices being determined by corporations, fans develop their own sense of self-identity. As stated in the course book “Fandom became more than simple enthusiasm for a TV program or film, it was a form of collective interpretation of popular culture that creates a powerful sense of group cohesion”(Sullivan 194). As previously stated in the blogs coming from France soccer was the number one sport. Despite it being the most played sport in France us fans have a negative stereotype in the eyes of non-soccer fans. We were known as chaotic, violent, social misfits and intellectually immature. Soccer fans back in my country are seen as people who can’t separate virtuality with reality. In other terms they are known as “Hooligans”. Habitus defined as a complex function of an individual's social, cultural and economic capital is a huge factor back home. For example a wealthy individual will either watch the game at home or purchase tickets at the VIP area in the stadium because it shows a clear distinction of the person's social status compared to an individual who lives in the inner streets as myself will go to the nearest cafe shop and watch the game as a community. Despite all these negative stereotypes it is important to know the contribution that fans have in particular media texts.

The course book provided an example of a movie called “Rocky Horror”. When the movie got released Local theaters complained that 50 seats out of 800 were occupied. This easily could’ve been the end of the movie however these 50 people that attended the screenings happen to be largely the same people. Bill Quigley eventually took notice and convinced fox to release it at one theatre at a time. However the biggest draw wasn’t the movie itself but the fans. Eventually the film became a cult and grossed over 100 million dollars. This wouldn’t be the case without fan participation. Relating to that story back when I lived France there was a café the suburban area of Nice. The café shop was newly open but the problem was that no one ever attended the shop other than weekends where soccer fans in the area attended the shop to watch games. However the fans that did attend the shop were always the same regulars to view games. This led to the café shop to bring in two new TV’s so the shop can show multiple games rather than just one. With the help of fan participation the coffee shop became not only the most known one in the area but one of the most popular in the whole city. This leads to the four different types of fans. Below is a ranking from passive fans to most active fans:

1. Consumer

2. Enthiusast

3. Fan

4. Producer

In the first blog post I discussed how I had to adapt to the Northern American lifestyle by integrating new media contents to my life. As stated before soccer is the number one sport in France which is not the case here. So I had to explore new sports that are not necessarily popular in France. The NFL being the number one sport in the world in terms of generating revenues was the sport I really got into the most since I came two years ago. My first game was at the Buffalo Bills game where I saw all four types of fans. Myself was a consumer because I hadn’t know much of the sport so I tagged along with some friends who are huge followers of the sport. Once the first game ended my curiosity of the sport grew substantially which eventually led to me becoming an enthusiast because once I learned about the sport(rules and regulations) I was able to enjoy the following games I attended. Fan being a shorter term for “fanatic” was the majority of the stadium. Devoted members in the audience wearing the team jerseys, face painted with the team colors screaming of joy whenever the team scored a touchdown or showing a complete different side when they lost the game. There was one particular fan in attendance that was half naked, half the body covered in blue while the other half was covered in red. For me that was a perfect description of a fan or fanatic. Finally the producers were the one’s organizing the game which in this case was the league and it’s staff members.

Moving forward to rituals myself and my family consume a lot of television. In the course we discussed how media text can structure someone’s social life. In this particular case I will be discussing our rituals with television. In the book Dayan and Katz stated that “media events offer a kind of modern-day civil religion because of their power to interrupt the patterns of everyday life, making these experiences”(Sullivan,180). Every four years during the summer, one of the most viewed events in the world the Fifa world cup occurs. As soccer fanatics we already have a fix schedule every four years on what games to watch and where to watch them. Being from Algerian descent whenever Algeria plays in the world cup we always assemble the Algerian community together and rent a room where we can watch the games on a big projector all wearing the team's colors. Not only it feels like we are at the stadium live but the atmosphere is something else especially with Algerians. Whenever Algeria gets eliminated we end up watching the games on our television in the living room and use it as a source to start conversations. The world cup in a way is like a religious event for my family. Durkheim’s notion that rituals serve to bring communities and societies together correlates perfectly with the world cup. For example Ivory coast had a civil war in 2005. But when the National team qualified for the World cup for the first time in their lives it also ended the civil war. Everyone was unified together and cheered the team’s success.

When viewing a sports game particularly a soccer game at this day and age they offer various of ways to watch games. You can watch it at a bar café shop, you can now watch it at the movie theatre or at the comfort of your own home. In this case the research study conducted during the world cup 2010 in South Africa depicted the pros and cons of both watching it at the movie theatre or at home. One of the quotes red “Specifically, the impact of large screens in theaters is obviously beneficial for the audience. As a screen gets larger, the impact gets greater—the audience feels less like TV watchers, and more like participants in the action on the screen (Lombard & Ditton, 1997; Reeves et al., 1993). Reeves and colleagues (1993) found that audiences who viewed films on a 70-inch screen reported significantly higher levels of presence with the statement “I felt like I was a part of the action” than the others who watched them on a 35-inch screen” (Kim, P.393). In my opinion I feel like watching it at a movie theatre actually ruins the moment. If it was up to me I would rather watch it at the comfort of my own home in the living room alongside family members. There’s no luxury of having that private space at the movies. At home you have the possibility to be as free as you want. As long as you have great surroundings the atmosphere comes with it and you can have the same feeling than the people that attended the movie theatre to watch the games. However there is an exception. During the 2010 World cup I travelled back home to Algeria for a visit of two weeks. During those first two weeks Algeria were going to play England and Slovenia. It was the first time in 24 years that Algeria qualified. So the government placed large screens around the big cities so the people can watch the game not only as a community but for free. In a third world country when events like these occur especially when the country in question is yours brings a lot of temporary energy to the country. In a way it helps the people forget about the countries problems such as corruption and crime and elevates the spirits of the community. In the picture below there’s an example of people being emotionally invested. Also it shows the impact of what an event can have on people.

Which leads to my relationship with athletes that I follow. Para social relationship is when you have a one sided relationship with an athlete or celebrity through social media. You invest your time, interest and emotional energy to that particular persona. However that persona is completely unaware of who you are. In my case I follow many sport figures. I engage in many conversations on these sport figures social media page particularly on Instagram and Facebook. By following these persona’s it allows be to feel like I'm there when I’m really not. It’s crazy to think that they have million of followers that look up to them when they are completely unaware of who you are. Social media allows that one-sided relationship so fans can feel like they have some sort of relation with these celebrities or athletes.

In conclusion this course allowed me to view audience behavior in a whole new way. Now whenever I attend a sports game I'll be able to depict which type of fan they are, how one event can unify thousands of people and how it can influence their own respective social life. It also allows me to view movies and TV series differently knowing that I have a fix schedule on certain series or sporting events.

References:

Kim, K., Cheong, Y., & Kim, H. (2016). The influences of sports viewing conditions on enjoyment from watching televised sports: An analysis of the FIFA World Cup audiences in theater vs. home. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 60(3), 389“409.

Sullivan, J. (2013). Â Media Audiences: Effects, users, institutions and power.(Chapter 7,8)

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