#forgot to add outreach tags

[c4ts4ndstuff]

the "foundation" of the castle will use prismarine blocks btw, here's a rough example

i can't decide, and i keep forgetting about all the blocks they've added in the past few years which makes me excited and harder to make a decision

[vanillann]

the brilliant (y/n) (george weasley x reader)

thank you for the request, much love!! i hope you enjoy this, sorry this isn’t my bestbut i tried my best!!<3

When my boyfriend invited me to come with him and his family to the Quidditch World Cup, I didn’t expect this much walking.

George was beside me, talking to Ron, who was no more than a foot ahead, about Victor Krum while I was talking with Hermione about the history of the World Cup.

Suddenly Ginny, who was just ahead of me stopped, causing me to run into her back. George quickly caught me before I could fall. I gave a small smile as a thank you and looked ahead. What in Merlin name was going on?

I heard a new voice that was unfamiliar talking with Mr. Weasley, while leaves fell from the tree above.

“I think we woke the birds,” as soon as I point up at the tree, someone came flying from the tree onto the ground in front.

“Cedric, it’s good to see you.”

Mr. Weasley took the boy hand and shook, smiling like a proud father.

“Diggory?” Fred came up behind, his hand on George shoulder.

“He’s cute, isn’t he Hermione,” Ginny said giggling beside me, Hermione soon followed behind her, a softer set of giggles.

Suddenly Mr. Weasley and what I believe to be Mr. Diggory set off up the hill again.

We all quickly walked to keep up with the older men, so deep in conversation they must of forgot we were their.

“Ced, why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” The boy turned back to make eye contact with me.

“I knew you hate surprises,” was all he said as he turned around and ran up to stand beside his father at the top of the hill.

Once we all reached the top of the hill we saw nothing but the sun and, a dirty boot?

“Okay, who left their shoes on the hill,” Fred walked up to the shoe and pointed at it while holding his nose.

“Very funny Fred, it’s actually a portkey,” Mr. Weasley patted his son on the back.

“A portkey?” George whispered in my ear.

“It’s a bewitched object that will transport graspers to their set location.”

I turned around and looked up at my boyfriend, watching him have a dopey smile on his face.

“I don’t know what you’re saying but I’m sure I love you.” He quickly placed a kiss on my forehead and threw an arm over my shoulder.

“George, stop kissing (Y/N) and put your hand on the PortKey,” Hermione yelled out to us.

I jokly stuck my tongue out at her, which she happily reciprocated. 

“Sorry, the brilliant (Y/N) was explaining why we are playing with a dirty boot.”

George quickly moved the arm around my shoulder to my hand, dragging me to the boot.

“Oh what would you do without me,” I placed my other hand across my forehead, causing George to give a light laugh, opposite of his normal loud and happy one.

“Probably fail.”

“He’s got a point (Y/N),” Harry adds while I place my hand on the top of the boot, Georges on top of mine.

Before I could even think about responding to Harry, I was flying through the air. I felt the wind around me flying through my fingers, then just as fast as it started I was on the ground.

“(Y/N), you didn’t inform me of that,” I looked up to see George holding his hand out for me, both our bags in his other hand.

“Guess I’m not as brilliant as we thought.” I quickly took the outreach hand and pulled myself up.

“Well I would still fail without you so, I’ll let it slide this time.”

I laughed while throwing my arms around his middle, his empty hand going across my shoulder again. We started walking behind the rest of the group, the sound of people feet not far ahead.

“I’ve read all about the World Cup,never thought I would actually see it,” I looked up at George while he looked down at his feet.

“Tell me about it.”

“What?”

“Tell me about the history, oh so brilliant (Y/N).”



tag list:

@siriusmaraudeers

[cj-jacobs]

Okay, this isn’t the Christmas fic that I still haven’t finished (had a family tragedy right after the holiday, it’s a long story, but I will finish it as soon as I can.) But last year, I was asked by an anon to write a fic based on the Bechloe tags I wrote on this Valentine’s Day post. I wrote the fic last year and almost forgot about it until yesterday, then remembered I said I would post it *this* Valentine’s Day. It’s short, and is meant to fit in with PP1 canon. 

The gifs at the end are reposted with the permission of the incomparable fandom queen, the Artist Formerly Known as Snodes.

Aaaand I just realized as I’m posting it that I have no title for this, lol. If I think of one I’ll add it later. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Beca ducks her head into the doorway of the rehearsal room, halfway hoping it’ll be dark and empty and she can just go back to her room and pretend she forgot they were supposed to be doing Bellas “outreach” tonight. Even the word makes her cringe. But no, there’s Chloe, standing at the whiteboard, doodling hearts and rainbows. When she glances over and sees Beca, she erases them, a little guiltily.

“Hey,” Beca says, coming further into the room.

“Hey! Where have you been? Everyone else got started half an hour ago.”

“Sorry, I know, I know,” she says with a sheepish air. “I fell asleep.”

Chloe looks incredulous. “Before eight p.m.? On Valentine’s Day?”

“Yes,” Beca says testily. “Because my life is awesome. Thank you for reminding me.” She looks around the empty space. “Are you the only one here?”

“I’m supposed to catch up with Aubrey. But I wanted to wait for you.”

Beca gives her a strange look. They’ve been friends for a few months now and spend a ton of time together, but she feels like she isn’t any closer to figuring Chloe out. “You didn’t have to.”

“I know.”

As she approaches closer to the whiteboard, Chloe only now seems to notice her red hoodie. “Beca.” She sounds disappointed. “You were supposed to wear pink.”

“Yeah, I know that, and this is literally as close as my wardrobe gets to pink. So,” she shrugs. “Take it or leave it.”

Adjusting fast, Chloe assures her, “No, it’s fine. Red is good, too. You’ll clash with Amy, but luckily, this is the one day of the year when red and pink are allowed to mingle. Oh, except for, you know, on me.” She gestures at herself. “In which case it’s always allowed, because I’m the only ginger on the planet who looks hot in pink.”

“Congratulations.” Beca gives her a wry smile, but can’t exactly argue the point. Tonight she’s wearing a light pink sweater with darker pink hearts embroidered on the front of it, and the whole thing seems to be doused in glitter, but somehow, on Chloe, it looks good. “Speaking of Amy, where is she?” Beca asks. “Because I’m not doing this alone.”

“She already left, you’ll have to track her down.” Chloe picks up a clipboard from the top of the piano and consults it. “Let’s see, this time, you two are doing... Baker, Hammons, and Jackson Halls.”

“You gave me the dorm where I live? Chloe, that’s humiliating.”

“Sorry,” Chloe says with a slight grimace. “Luck of the draw.”

Closing her eyes for a second, Beca mutters, “I don’t know if I can do this.”

“Well, you have to. It’s an official Bellas duty.” Chloe takes her phone from her pocket and holds it up in a threatening way. “Do I need to call Aubrey?”

“No, oh my God!” Beca stops her, alarmed by the thought that she might actually call her. “Fine. I’ll do it.”

Chloe looks smug as she puts the phone away.

“Damn,” Beca says under her breath, a little impressed. “That was so hardcore.”

From behind the piano, Chloe drags out a massive and beat-up cardboard box. Beca by now has enough experience as a Bella to hate the sight of it. It’s their props box.

“Okay, so, here’s your bow. And your quiver of arrows. I love the word quiver, don’t you?” Chloe asks confidentially, miming a sultry little shudder. “It brings back memories of all those erotic novels my grandma gave me.”

Beca makes a perplexed face but decides it’s best not to pursue the matter. She reluctantly takes the bow and quiver from Chloe, giving an exaggerated stagger at the weight, which Chloe ignores.

“Okay,” Beca sighs. “Is that it?”

“Do you know how to use it?” Chloe asks. “Want to take it for a test run?”

Glancing at the bow, Beca says, “You know what, I’ll figure it out.” The sooner she gets started, the sooner this whole thing will be over.

“Okay. Just some pointers, it helps if you close one eye when you’re aiming,” Chloe offers. “And, um, if you can, try not to shoot directly at anyone’s eyes or testicles. We don’t need another lawsuit.”

Beca pauses as she adjusts the quiver, but again decides not to press for details. “Cool.” She turns toward the exit, but Chloe stops her.

“Oh, wait! You almost forgot your wings. The most important part of the costume.”

Beca turns back, looking miserable. “Is that really necessary?” she whines. “This already sucks so hard.”

“Of course it’s necessary. It’s what makes you a Cupid,” Chloe insists as she hands over the wings. “Otherwise, you’re just a freak in a hoodie shooting arrows at people.”

Beca considers this. “Valid point,” she admits.

“I’m wearing some too, see?” Chloe says in a coaxing manner, lifting a second pair of wings from the box and slipping into them easily, like she’s done it a hundred times.

“Is that supposed to make this less embarrassing?” Beca’s still holding her wings out in front of her, stalling for time.

“Here, I’ll help you.” Chloe reaches out to take them again and steps up close, right into Beca’s personal space, which Beca is starting to suspect is her favorite place to be. “Hold your arms out.”

Chloe delicately tugs the wings up over her arms and onto her shoulders, then brushes Beca’s hair out of the way, making sure none is caught under the straps.

“Your hair looks amazing tonight, by the way,” Chloe tells her. “It’s so bouncy.”

Beca doesn’t seem to know how to respond to this. “Thanks.” She tries not to smile, smiles anyway, then physically tries to force the smile back into non-existence while Chloe watches, amused.

Next, Chloe adjusts the shoulder straps, hooking her fingers underneath the edges to maneuver the wings into place. As soon as her fingers graze the sides of Beca’s breasts, which is basically impossible to avoid doing, Beca feels a totally unexpected jolt of heat. It’s like Chloe’s hands are made of fire, though of course they can’t be any warmer than normal. But there’s no mistaking the glow radiating out from every spot her fingers touch, even through the fabric of a hoodie, a tank top, and a bra. Then the heat seems to be spreading from places she’s touched to places she hasn’t touched.

Beca draws in a shaky breath, then just stops breathing completely for a second, holding perfectly still and fighting the urge to close her eyes. Oh, shit. This should not feel the way it does. And trying to act like it doesn’t feel that way is taking a monumental effort. She prays Chloe doesn’t notice anything, but is positive she does. Of course she does. There’s a sensual-yet-playful twinkle in her eyes that looks like an enhanced version of her usual flirtatious manner. She knows exactly what she’s doing.

“There,” Chloe whispers. “Perfect.” Still only a few inches away from her face, she asks softly, “I’m not straight either, am I?”

Beca seems both baffled and alarmed by this question. “Dude, what?”

“My wings,” Chloe clarifies, trying not to laugh. “Are they crooked?”

“Oh.” Beca steps back and looks her over, trying to concentrate on anything other than the warm buzz of sensation still coiling through her. “Um…”

They’re not crooked. Not at all. The wings are perfectly straight. So there’s absolutely no reason for Beca to reach out to adjust them, to step right back into the body-heated, perfume-scented, too-close-to-breathe zone she’d just escaped from. Still, she finds herself doing precisely this, as if she’s being pulled by a magnet.

“Hang on,” she murmurs. “Let me just…” she trails off as she runs her fingers along the edges of the shoulder straps, starting high and then moving lower. She’s gratified to see that Chloe loses the upper hand as her composure vanishes almost immediately. Her body tenses up and seems to vibrate with responsiveness, her gaze becoming unfocused and her lashes fluttering as if she, too, has to struggle not to close her eyes. Beca works her fingers underneath the straps, needlessly tugging them around a little, letting her hands graze the sides of Chloe’s chest, even as she’s amazed at herself and wonders what the hell she’s doing. There’s a kind of power in it, she realizes. Not to mention, she can feel an echoing buzz in her own body in the exact places she touches Chloe’s, the heat fading a bit but definitely still there.

Eventually, she forces herself to drop her hands. “Okay, you’re good.”

“Thanks.” Chloe collects herself and smiles at her, the playfulness returning. It feels like a game, and now they’re both even.

But then the smile fades and Chloe bites her bottom lip, gazing at her with a sudden intensity that makes Beca think for a split second that she wants to kiss her, for real, and isn’t just doing that automatic flirting thing she always does. They’re still standing way too close to each other, but Beca doesn’t step back. Instead she finds herself staring at Chloe’s lips, which is probably not the signal she should be sending, and yet she can’t seem to look away. She can’t tell if she’s imagining it, or if Chloe really does seem to be leaning in now, just the barest fraction of a millimeter every second. Or wait, is she the one leaning in? Which one of them is moving? She tears her gaze away from Chloe’s lips and meets her eyes, which doesn’t help at all, because it’s like they’re stuck in some kind of force field. She’s never experienced anything like it.

Into the silence, Chloe’s phone suddenly emits an insistent chirp, causing them both to jump a little.

Beca remembers to breathe again as Chloe breaks their eye contact to search for her phone. Half relieved and half disappointed, she steps back to a safe, sane distance, and begins re-adjusting her hair, just to have something to do with her hands.

“It’s Aubrey.” Chloe still sounds a bit breathless, too. Wincing as she looks at the text, she adds, “Crap, she’s annoyed. I should get out there.”

Beca can read the text too, even upside down, possibly because it’s in all caps.

WHERE ARE YOU?!? ARE YOU MAKING OUT WITH SOMEONE???

Pressing her lips together awkwardly, Beca looks away from the phone. Her cheeks heat up at the implication, and at the fact that it’s possibly not that far off the mark. Especially if they hadn’t been interrupted.

Chloe seems flustered too as she rapidly texts back. I’m with Beca. Be right there!

Now they deliberately avoid looking at each other, and for a few seconds they busy themselves with gathering their things. Beca’s glad for the distraction. She hefts the bow and the quiver of arrows again, preparing to leave. “So I’m guessing she’s gonna be pissed at me tomorrow, right?”

Giving her a reassuring pat on the arm as they head toward the door, Chloe says, “Nah, she’ll be fine, don’t worry. Our route includes the frat houses, so I’ll make sure she drinks a lot.”

They’re both using their normal, everyday voices, as if by some unspoken agreement to pretend that whatever just happened didn’t actually happen. And really, Beca reasons to herself, it probably didn’t, she probably just imagined it. She’s lonely, and horny, and it’s Valentine’s Day. It was all in her head.

Chloe turns out the lights, then there’s a quick moment of awkwardness when they both try to pass through the door at the same time, forgetting about the wings, and they get hung up and briefly stuck. Both laughing, Chloe gives Beca enough of a shove to pop her free, then follows after her.

After she locks up, she turns to Beca and looks her up and down in a last minute once-over of approval. “I know you don’t want to hear this, Bec, but you look adorable.”

Chloe’s right, she doesn’t want to hear that. Instead of responding, she tells her, “And you look like you could wear that to class, and no one would even notice.”

She’s teasing, but Chloe does look ridiculously natural in the Cupid wings. They suit her. In fact, standing directly under the glow of the streetlight, with the glitter in her sweater sparkling and her bright blue eyes doing their best to compete, she looks more like an angel than a Cupid. Like an angel that’s fallen straight from heaven. Beca almost voices this thought, and is horrified at herself. Jesus Christ, what if she’d actually said that out loud?

Chloe misinterprets the source of her consternation, thinking she’s feeling mortified over the outfit, and tries to give her a pep talk before they part. “I get that this all seems really pointless, and cheesy, but just remember, it’s for the Bellas. We wouldn’t do it if it didn’t make a difference. So maybe, I don’t know,” she suggests gently, “try to have fun?”

“I can’t make any promises.” But Beca finds herself smiling. No matter how much she complains, she knows it won’t be that bad. Especially with Amy as her partner in crime.

As if reading her mind, Chloe grins too. “I mean, it’s better than being alone in your room all night, right?” she asks with a wink, turning to head off in the direction of fraternity row. “See you tomorrow.”

Too late, Beca suddenly recalls that Chloe was just dumped by her most recent boyfriend, only, what, a week ago? She feels like a dick for not remembering sooner. Tonight must be especially shitty for her.

She turns to walk away, hesitates, then turns back. Before she can stop herself, she calls out. “Hey.”

Chloe turns back to face her, curious and waiting.

Already rolling her eyes at herself before she even gets the words out, Beca manages to struggle through them anyway. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

It takes a few seconds for her to believe her own ears, and then Chloe seems surprised and touched, her smile mixed up with something achingly vulnerable. It’s almost sad, in a way, how little it takes to make her light up with joy. “Thanks,” she beams at Beca. “You too.”

As Chloe turns and continues on her way, Beca watches her for a second and realizes that her wings are now crooked, due to her own totally unnecessary adjustment of them, probably. For some reason, Beca doesn’t tell her. They look cute that way.

Finally, she turns around and heads off in the opposite direction, placing the back of one hand against her hot cheek and hoping that by the time she finds Amy, her face isn’t the same color as her hoodie. That girl can sniff out unresolved sexual tension like a beagle on the trail of a rabbit.

Already on the sidewalk up ahead of her, a group of guys is mocking her costume, trying to take a picture. As Beca passes by, she indicates the arrows. “These are poison-tipped, by the way.”

They laugh a little, but then they don’t seem to know whether she’s serious or not. She smirks to herself as they warily keep their distance.

Maybe this will be fun, after all.

Original post here. 

[gilligould]

since last night, i’ve received several additional questions regarding the piece i created in celebration of tony’s birthday; instead of addressing each of these individually, i thought it easier to explain a bit more about my creative process.  as stated previously, i have tremendous respect for my fellow creators, and would never intentionally undermine the ethics of the artistic community.  i’ve put together an faq of sorts that will hopefully help resolve any potential issues.  

no. 1: in regards to reference photos.

i typically reference a variety of images for my works.  more often than not, i’m looking at trivial details concerning color or lighting.  for more complex pieces, however, i will occasionally reference specific poses or expressions.  this post explains a bit about my most recent piece, though i would like to expand upon several points here.

i’ll sometimes utilize what i like to call a “frankenstein technique,” that is, mash up a variety of poses to create a new, more dynamic pose.  my bday piece is an example of this technique in action.  see below:

here, you can see several of the images previously cited in this post, in addition to another image — which i admittedly forgot to cite, sincerest apologies — have been cropped and laid over one another.  while credit for the images themselves goes to marvel and associated photographers/videographers, the mashup is my own doing.  the result is... undeniably patchy, but it helps tremendously with my visualization process.

from here, i created a rough sketch, emphasis on “rough.”  my goal was to outline the general form as well as the various focal points, ie. the arc reactor and gauntlet.

next, i added detail.  this is still fairly loose, but i wanted to make sure the anatomy checked out.  i included the layer on which i jotted notes to provide further insight into my thought process as i prepared to make my final sketch and start on color.

this is my final sketch.  for anyone wondering whether or not my drawings are “outlined” or “traced,” never.  i may use my own first few drafts as references throughout, but under no circumstances will i intentionally plagiarize the work of another.

no. 2: in regards to a “my art” tag.

my blog is not exclusively an art blog.  as an anticipated visual communication design major, however, i am incredibly passionate about art; i will occasionally post the projects i’ve been working on and reblog those of others.  

all of my original works are tagged with “*art,” note the asterisk, and may be found here.  if you follow me, you may know that i recently completed my senior year of high school and have been incredibly busy these past few months; due to this fact, the majority of the works under this tag are older — however, you can still find several recent pieces!

the works i reblog from others are tagged with “art” and may be found here.

not including a “my art” link in my bio was a personal preference, but i would be more than happy to add one if it would make navigating my blog less confusing.  until such time, all of my original creations can be found here.

no. 3: in regards to my tagging system.

there seems to be some confusion regarding my decision to tag my artworks as “edits.”  as my blog has gained a greater following and my creative outreach has expanded, i’ve adopted a tag system as a way to stay organized.

most of my original creations — whether they be drawings, photosets, gifs, or videos — are tagged as “edits.”  while i understand the term itself can be misleading, i've taken it to mean any creation referencing a previously obtained form of media.  therefore, the term “edits” could encompass the aforementioned drawings, photosets, gifs, and videos.

simply put, any of my works — regardless of post type — portraying tony stark are tagged with “tonystarkedit,” just as my works portraying peter parker are tagged with “peterparkeredit,” and so on and so forth.

if there are additional questions, or if you would like me to elaborate on any of the above points, feel free to message me! i appreciate everyone who has come to me with their concerns, and am more than happy to help in any way i can.

[tallulahchanel]

This is my submission for the With Love, From Wakanda Fic best hosted by @hoopshoney and @purple-apricots

Fandom: Black Panther

Pairing(s): Nakia & BabysisterReader; Nakia/Everett

Prompt: "You're part of the family, don't you know?"

Notes: Reader is black, but non-black readers are free to enjoy as well. Drew some inspiration from Over Time by bitofageek. The following gif was created by @bisexualcarol (please don’t sue me, I legit have nothing you would want). Also, please don’t kick me out of the fandom or revoke my black card for my pairing choice (LOL).

Warnings: Just pure shenanigans.

Words: 3.5k

Tags: @queen-of-the-jabari @zaddysqueen7

You rocked back and forth on your heels and toes, unable to contain your excitement.

Today you were going to see your big sister for the first time in weeks. Of course, there were the occasional kimoyo bead calls, but with her running the Outreach Center, your classes at the University, and the time difference, the calls were few and far between. Now, she was returning home, but only long enough to attend the wedding and go back to Oakland.

The Talon jet came into view and your face lit up with joy as it took its place on the landing pad. The ramp was barely opened before you sprinted towards the jet and engulfed Nakia in a hug, almost knocking her down in the process. Fortunately, she was able to catch herself before embracing you.

"Usisi omkhulu!"

"Omncinci," she addressed you by your special nickname before planting a kiss on your forehead. "I missed you too."

"So, how's the center? How's Oakland? Do you have time to go to the beach?" You bombarded her with questions after you pulled away and began exiting the jet.

She chuckled, basking in your curiosity. "We have plenty of time to talk about those things. As much as I missed you, I had a long trip and would like to rest and freshen up before the Rehearsal Feast tonight."

"Right," you responded with a nod.

Later on that night there was to be an exclusive feast in celebration of your baba, the River Tribe Elder, marrying the Mining Tribe Elder, Babalo. When the pair announced their engagement at one of the meetings, King T'Challa became ecstatic about the amount of good press and a possible merger this could result in. Unfortunately, both elders became the butt of a few bedroom jokes from the king's cousin, Erik, but your baba was happy, and that's all that mattered. It has been years since your umama died, and you thought it was time that baba moved on with another woman, especially one as beautiful, kind, and nurturing as Babalo.

"Where's my welcome wagon?" Nakia asked while you two made your way towards the palace doors.

You chuckled. "It's only just me."

"Really? Just you?"

"Yes," you answered with an eye-roll. "I mean, everyone has their hands full with this feast tonight. Besides, your returns to Wakanda are so frequent that they're not special anymore."

Nakia playfully swatted you on the behind while chuckling. "I still can't believe that T'Challa is making such a big deal out of this."

"You're surprised?" You questioned with a raised brow. "Two Tribal Elders are getting married, and you don't expect the king to make a big deal? And it's only an exclusive dinner with family and a few prominent members of each tribe. It's not like he's throwing a big parade in the streets."

Nakia sighed. "I suppose you're right."

"He's saving the parade for the wedding day."

"What?!" Nakia asked with widen eyes.

"I'm kidding," you said with a giggle.

She rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless.

You two continued walking the long corridor in silence before you broke it, remembering something you needed to tell your sister.

"Agent Ross is here, by the way."

"He's is?!" Nakia questioned, causing both of you to stop in your tracks. "Why?"

"He was rushed to the hospital after a deadly injury during one of his missions. When he was allowed to be moved, T'Challa had him brought back here to recover. He's fine now, and Shuri kicked him out of the lab the other day. He’ll be staying in one of the guest suites while he recuperates."

"And why am I just now hearing about this?" Nakia had a look of grave concern on her face, one you've only seen twice in your life—the day you got the news of your umama's death, and the day you took three bullets to the chest while accompanying Nakia on a mission.

"I um….kind of forgot to tell you," you said, feeling your cheeks get hot with guilt and embarrassment.

"You what?!"

"It slipped my mind. In my defense, I'm taking fifteen hours worth of classes, and every time I turn around, a professor wants a five-hundred-word paper about something as ridiculous as air. Along with that, I just started a new job at the market's smoothie stand, all the while trying to help prepare for this wedding. I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

Nakia held an arm out and pulled you into a hug, placing a kiss on your forehead. "It's alright, omncinci. I understand that you're taking on a lot. I'm not mad, I promise."

You smiled and hugged her back before you two began walking again.

"So, besides all of those papers, how is school going?"

"Well....." You began, but you got distracted by a figure turning onto the same corridor you and Nakia were walking. "Agent Ross."

"Hello," he returned as he began walking towards the both of you with a friendly smile.

Nakia smiled upon seeing him, and she couldn't help, but notice how perfectly the dark grey robe swayed around him as he walked towards you two, complimenting his ivory skin—almost like it was tailor-made for him.

"Hello, Miss Nakia," he greeted her, and you noticed that his smile grew brighter upon seeing her.

You weren't surprised by this. You knew there was tension between your sister and Agent Ross since the UN Conference in Vienna, where you and Shuri sat next to him while he and your sister kept stealing glances at each other.

"Hi," Nakia returned. "I just heard you were here."

"Yeah," he replied as he began to rub the back of his neck. "I....uh.....there was an explosion."

"Ah!" Nakia nodded in understanding, sensing that he doesn't want to go into further detail. Knowing all too well about the effects that dangerous missions can have on the psyche, she decided not to press on.

"Agent Ross," you murmured under your breath. “Why don’t you come to the feast tonight?”

You hoped your sister would pick up the hint, but she continued to lock eyes with Everett as if the man would disappear if she were to take her eyes off him. Rolling your eyes, you spoke a little louder this time.

"Agent Ross," you got his attention. "There's a feast tonight to celebrate the engagement between my baba and the Mining Tribe elder. I....we," you corrected yourself as you wrapped an arm around Nakia's shoulders, "would love for you to come."

"I don't know," he responded sheepishly. "I heard it was a family thing."

"You're part of the family, don't you know?"

"I am?" Everett raised his brows curiously.

"Yes," you answered with a nod. "After all, you saved my sister's life. That makes you like a brother in my book." You resisted the urge to add -in-law. You didn't want to push that agenda.....not yet anyway.

"Well, if you insist...." he trailed off as his eyes moved from you to Nakia, seeing if she'll protest, but you interjected before she could get the chance.

"Oh, we do!"

"Omncinci," Nakia tried to get you to stop, but you purposefully ignored her and extended an arm towards Everett.

"Come on, Agent Ross. Why don't we get lunch while Nakia rests and gets ready for tonight? My treat."

"Alright," he said with a friendly smile and linked arms with you.

Before you managed to pull him away, he stole a glance at Nakia, who shook her head at your antics.

~~~

The day passed by faster than anticipated, and before you knew it, the night fell and you were at the feast, sipping cider—because you didn’t like the taste of champagne—and chatting it up with your soon-to-be brothers, Masamba and Khamisi.

The palace ballroom was filled to the brim with prominent members of each tribe and distant relatives you hadn't seen in months. The beautiful decorations consisted of clover and juniper green ceiling drapes, representing the River Tribe, and was complemented by the crimson and burgundy red wall drapes that represented the Mining tribe. The decorations were your idea, and you wondered if you should give up your dreams of becoming a doctor and go into interior design instead.

You glanced over at Everett, who was conversing with King T’Challa and Queen Naomi, and you noticed that he was trying to seem attentive, but he kept looking around—more like looking for someone in particular.

It was already thirty minutes into the feast and Nakia has yet to make an appearance, for reasons you will never understand. Then again, she was probably trying to make an entrance. Despite her controlled and collective demeanor, Nakia does occasionally have a flair for the dramatics.

You caught his eye and he gave you a friendly smile. You returned it and excused yourself from Masamba and Khamisi before going over to him. “Agent Ross,” you greeted him, then turned to T’Challa and Naomi and gave them a respectful curtsy. “Good evening, wam kumkani and ikumkani wam. I can’t thank you enough for organizing this wonderful feast.”

“You’re welcome,” Naomi replied with her charming smile. “We were honored to do it.”

“If you don’t mind, I would like to borrow Agent Ross. I’m sure my baba would like to meet him.”

Without giving them an opportunity to respond, you linked arms with Everett and guided him over to where your baba and Babalo were chatting with M’Baku and his companion, Lady JoAnna.

“Good evening,” you greeted the group before turning your attention to the River Tribe elder. “Baba, I have someone I’d like you to meet. This is Everett Kenneth Ross. He’s a friend of Nakia’s, and he saved her life.”

“I...um,” he stammered as a blush crept on his cheeks, “I was just doing my job.”

You chuckled. “Don’t be so modest. After all, who knows how that bullet could’ve hurt my sister if you hadn’t jumped in front of her.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” your baba said to Everett as he held his hand out for a shake. “Any friend of Nakia’s is a friend of mine.”

Everett returned the handshake. “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well.”

“Speaking of Nakia,” your baba began as his eyes landed on you, “where is your sister?”

You opened your mouth to answer, but a figure on the balcony caught your attention. You smiled when you noticed that it was your sister making her way to the grand staircase, the lime green V-neck, Asymmetrical dress swaying perfectly with her fluid motions while her beautiful auburn curls were styled in a beautiful afro. She caught the attention of everyone in the ballroom, especially Everett, who followed her every move with his eyes.

You were the first to greet her once she descended the staircase. “You look beautiful, usisi omkhulu.” You gave her a hug before whispering in her ear. “And might I say that you caught the attention of a certain CIA Agent.”

“Omncinci,” she addressed you in a scandalized tone, but you could tell she was blushing even though her pigmentation didn’t show it.

You giggled and linked arms with her. “Come on, the food will be served soon.”

Everyone took seats at their assigned tables as you escorted your sister to the grand rectangular dining table. Being the lady you are, you pulled Nakia’s chair out for her and held it until she sat down and thanked you.

You gave her a smile in return just as you caught sight of Everett.

“Agent Ross,” you called him over while you held onto the chair next to Nakia, the seat that was assigned to you. “You can sit here.”

“Are you sure?” He asked, not wanting to overstep. He glanced over at your sister and baba for any signs of objection.

You could feel Nakia glaring at you for your shenanigans, but, as usual, you ignored her. “I insist.” You held out the chair for him, and once he sat, you went to the chair next to him. “Move,” you told Shuri, kindly gesturing for her to move over to the next chair while you took over that one.

Supper was going great as everyone fell into a series of conversations—updates on the programs King T’Challa has put in place, Shuri’s new inventions, and even things at the university.

"Nakia is doing very well at the Outreach Center," you said to Everett, causing groans and eye rolls at the table.

For the past hour or so, it's been "Nakia this. Nakia that." Even when someone tried to change the topic of conversation, such as the wedding or Shuri's work at the Science and Information Exchange, you still manage to interject something about your big sister.

"After all, she is such an inspiration to the people of Oakland, especially the little girls. In fact—OW!" You were cut off by a swift kick to your shins and you glared at the teenager beside you.

You glanced over to your sister, who mouthed a "Thank you" to Shuri, and back again.

"Well," you began with an offended tone and eye-roll, "I was just stating how proud I am of my big sister, but I can see that I managed to annoy everyone in the process."

At least you got a chuckle out of Everett, who found your shenanigans quite adorable.

~~~

Later on that night, after the feast, Nakia—still fashioning the dress—was in the garden gazebo, taking in the beautiful and rare flowers. Spending time in Oakland doesn’t allow her such luxuries. That’s not to say she doesn’t enjoy her work there. She gets to help people like she always wanted without having you worry about losing her.

The sounds of footsteps brought her out of her revelry, and she stood up from her seat, the matching lime green shoes in her hand, to see who it was. After all, who else, besides her, would be in the gardens at this hour?

“Agent Ross?” She addressed the man when he came into view.

“Oh,” he expressed his surprise at having seen her. “I didn’t know anyone was out here. And please, call me Everett.”

She nodded and took in his appearance. A black robe and black sandals adorned him, and she admitted, once again, to herself that he looked good. “What brings you here at this hour?” She asked, even though she already knew the answer.

“I couldn’t sleep.”

She gave him an understanding nod. She remembers the sleepless nights from her days as a War Dog, too afraid to sleep because the events would replay in her dreams. It took three weeks before she was able to sleep after the plane crash.

“Do you want a snack? My omncinci and I keep a stash here in the gazebo.” Nakia walked over to the bench she had vacated and squatted to open a secret drawer that contained a jar of french onion dip, a family-sized bag of chips, snack cakes, and bottles of water.

While she did that, Everett couldn’t help but admire how the beautiful Wakandan moonlight illuminated Nakia’s luscious dark chocolate skin.

“Everett?” Nakia brought him out of his thoughts. “I asked if you wanted to share a snack with me.”

“Oh! I would like to.”

Nakia smiled and invitingly patted the seat next to her. She opened the jar of dip and handed him the bag of chips. “Would you like some dip? It’s the best Wakanda has to offer.”

“Sure,” he said with a nod before scooping some of the dip with the chip.

Nakia watched patiently for his response, and she smiled when she saw his eyes light up.

“It’s delicious."

“I told you.” She took a chip of her own and scooped it in the dip before handing him the jar.

The pair fell into a comfortable silence before Nakia decided to break it.

“About my omncinci….I just thought I should apologize for….” she trailed off, trying to figure out a way to word your earlier stunts.

Everett chuckled and shook his head. “There’s no need for that. She’s…..one-of-a-kind, I guess you could say.”

“That she is,” Nakia replied before eating another dip-covered chip. “She takes a lot after our umama.”

"Tell me about her."

"My umama?"

Everett nodded. "I would love to hear about her, but only if you want to tell me."

Nakia took a minute to chew on the snack cake she had just opened. "What can I say? She was strong, smart, beautiful, and she could kick butt like no ones business."

"Sounds like you have it honest."

Nakia’s cheeks began to heat up, and she was grateful that Everett wouldn’t be able to notice because of her skin tone and the darkness of the night. “She died honorably serving our country.”

Everett sighed sympathetically. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s okay,” she said before taking another bite of her snack cake. “It was years ago. Of course, it’s not something that's easy to get over, but she wouldn’t want me to dwell on it for the rest of my life.”

Everett nodded in understanding, knowing how it feels to lose a parent. He was eight years old when he lost his dad, an Air Force pilot, to a bombing. Even at his advance age, he still feels that twinge of pain in his heart for him.

"I'm retiring from the CIA," he said suddenly, breaking the comfortable silence that fell between them.

Nakia looked at him with furrowed brows. "Why?"

"Honestly, I'm getting too old to be dealing with explosions, car chases, and running after criminals."

Nakia chuckled, but she understood where he was coming from. Even though she was doing good for people as a War Dog, she knew that eventually she was going to get tired of the adrenaline-pumping work - especially after it has cost her so much already.

“So, what are you going to do now?”

Everett shrugged. “I’m not sure just yet. Maybe I can start training the younger generation to take over.”

“I’m sure they can learn a lot from you,” Nakia said just before a yawn escaped her lips. “I’m sorry. I must be tired from today’s events.”

“It is late,” Everett agreed. “What time is it?”

Nakia tapped one of her kimoyo beads to check the time. “It is 2:48.”

“We should get some sleep.”

Nakia nodded agreeably before putting the snacks away and grabbing her shoes. “Are you going to be able to rest?”

“Yeah. I usually fall asleep easier after a walk.”

She linked arms with him. “I can escort you back to your quarters. I insist,” she added, noticing that he was going to protest.

He decided it was best to go with her instead of disputing.

The silent walk to his suite was shorter than Nakia would’ve liked, but there they were.

“Thank you,” Everett told her.

“It was no problem,” she said with a smile.

He turned the knob to go inside, but Nakia’s voice pulled him back.

“There’s….um...an annual ball in a couple of months, and I was wondering if I could save you a dance. Only if you’d want.”

He grabbed her hand and gave it a tender kiss. “I would love to.”

She smiled. “Well, have a good night, Everett.”

“You too, Miss Nakia.”

“Please. Only Nakia.”

“Nakia,” he said, and she kind of liked hearing her name on his lips.

After he went inside, she lingered there for a minute before turning towards the direction of her quarters.

“Not a word out of you,” she told you the minute she laid eyes on you at the end of the corridor.

Raising your free hand defensively while the other craddled a fudge pop, you released a small sigh. “Okay.”

Nakia furrowed her brows curriously. “Why are you roaming the halls this late? You should be resting for the wedding.”

“I should be asking you the same question.”

“None of your business,” she gently retorted before walking passed you.

Fashioning a smirk, you turned and followed her. “I can’t believe that you asked him to dance with you at the ball.” You released a squeal, but Nakia immediately shushed you, so you wouldn’t wake everyone in the palace.

“I did, and he said yes. End of discussion.” You recognized the finality in her voice, and decided not to press the issue. “Besides, we need to talk about your knack for meddling in my affairs.”

“Well, as much as we need to have that conversation, it’s getting late, and I really need to head to bed.” You emphasized your statement with a faux yawn that Nakia caught on to.

“Omncinci,” she addressed you with a firm tone, but, yet again, you purposefully ignored her.

“Goodnight, usisi omkhulu.”

Before she had a chance to stop you, you quickened your pace to head towards your room for the night, leaving Nakia to wonder what she was going to do with you.

~~~

Translations

Usisi omkhulu – big sister

Omncinci – little one

[verrycherry]

i forgot i was tagged in a thing

Get to Know Me Tag

Tagged by: @shibawav

Rules: Answer these 92 statements and tag 20 people

LAST:

1. Drink: ginger aaaaale 2. Phone call: uhh a customer at work who was asking if we had any cheesecakes w/o chocolate (no) 3. Text message: to charlie asking when we were hanging out 4. Song you listened to: deceptacon by le tigre!! 5. Time you cried: last night after work

HAVE YOU:

6. Dated someone twice: BIG MISTAKE but yes 7. Kissed someone and regretted it: naah kissing doesnt mean much 8. Been cheated on: not to my knowledge 9. Lost someone special: oh yeah 10. Been depressed: buddy, 11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: SURPRISINGLY NO im not a throw-uppy drunk

LIST 3 FAVORITE COLORS:

12-14: muted green, vermillion, and peachy pink

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU:

15. Made new friends: yes ofc! 16. Fallen out of love: *non committal hand gesture* 17. Laughed until you cried: i cry every time i laugh sagjasguh 18. Found out someone was talking about you: oh boy, yeah, 19. Met someone who changed you: yes! my entire cohort basically lol 20. Found out who your friends are: still trying to figure that out 21. Kissed someone on your Facebook list: haha, yes, 

GENERAL:

22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: 100% i dont add anyone i dont know 23. Do you have any pets: technically my kitty (carrots) isnt mine i stole him from my neighbours but im the one who feeds him and hes asleep on me right now. So.  24. Do you want to change your name: as if cin was my real name 25. What did you do for your last Birthday: uhh suffered through dinner w my parents and grandmother then got drunk alone in my room  26. What time did you wake up: 12 pm i am a leech on society 27. What were you doing at midnight last night: dissociating and watching community  28. Name something you can’t wait for: dream daddy!! and moving out 29. When was the last time you saw your mom: uhh last night when she picked me up from work 30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: how much i let (redacted) bother me, my job 31. What are you listening right now: i WAS listening to critical role but the video ended and i havent changed it 32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: ...no 33. Something that is getting on your nerves: (redacted)’s inability to take responsibility for their own actions 34. Most visited website: youtube and probably a doll dress up site lol

LOST QUESTIONS. I JUST PUT IN RANDOM INFO ABOUT ME

35. Mole/s: one on my temple that scares me 36. Mark/s: ,, a few on my arms and a lot on my hips and inner thighs  37. Childhood dream: as if i remember my childhood  38. Hair color: brownnn w dyed tips 39. Long or short hair: long until it gets annoying 40. Do you have a crush on someone: yes but also *non committal hand gesture* 41. What do you like about yourself: BOY my hips, my ass, my teeth now that they’re fixed, my eyes, my nose 42. Piercings: NO NEVER 43. Blood type: ??? a i think? 44. Nickname: dont like nicknames 45. Relationship status: complicated 46. Zodiac: Libra! 47. Pronouns: he/him 48. Favorite TV Show: communityyy 49. Tattoos: soon! 50. Right or left hand: right! 51. Surgery: my biggest fear is waking up in the middle of surgury  52. Hair dyed in different color: a lot in the past! currently my tips are grey 53. Sport: ew 55. Vacation: if i could go anywhere rn it would be tooooo madrid

56. Pair of trainers: the what

MORE GENERAL:

57. Eating: nothin atm 58. Drinking: ginger ale 59. I’m about to: get ready to go out 61. Waiting for: MY BIRTHDAY SO I CAN WORK IN MY CHOSEN FIELD 62. Want: move OUT 63. Get married: nahhh probably not unless it meant everything to my partner 64. Career: mental health - atm i want to focus on outreach but we’ll see what the future holds!

WHICH IS BETTER

65. Hugs or kisses: hugs ONLY if ive given permission  66. Lips or eyes: eyes 67. Shorter or taller: taller! 68. Older or younger: ,, older 70. Nice arms or nice stomach: hhggh... arms 71. Sensitive or loud: sensetive bc im delicate  72. Hook up or relationship: committed fwb (unless the fucking planets align and i’m actually interested in someone at the same time they are in me) 73. Troublemaker or hesitant: ;)

HAVE YOU EVER:

74. Kissed a Stranger: yeah! 75. Drank hard liquor: yesss 76. Lost glasses/contact lenses: HAHA, every previous pair i have lost 77. Turned someone down: poorly.... 78. Sex on the first date: yup! it doesnt mean much to me 79. Broken someone’s heart: yeah.. 80. Had your heart broken: OH YEAH 81. Been arrested: no 82. Cried when someone died: im not a crier 83. Fallen for a friend: :T

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

84. Yourself: on and off 85. Miracles: nah 86. Love at first sight: crushes at first sight, maybe 87. Santa Claus: oh if only 88. Kiss on the first date: totally! might as well get that out of the way asap

OTHER:

90. Current best friend name: idk if im close enough to anyone... maybe zoe? hey zoe dont read this 91. Eye color: boring old brown 92. Favorite movie: Heathers (1988)

[krisggordon]

Best Free SEO Tools to Help You Improve Your Rankings in 2019

If you’re just getting started with SEO, I’m pretty confident you’re looking to get everything for free. While that’s not always possible, the truth is that there are a lot of great free SEO Tools out there.

  To be honest, there are free tools that even the pros use every single day. And that’s happening for a good reason: some free SEO tools are great.

    Google Tools Suite

Google Tag Manager

Google Analytics

Google Search Console

PageSpeed Insights

Mobile Friendly Tool

Google Alerts

Google Trends

Autosuggest

Google Keyword Planner

CloudFlare Free SSL

Chrome Extensions

WooRank SEO Analysis

Keywords Everywhere

SEO Minion

SEOmofo Snippet Optimizer

GT Metrix

Yandex Metrica

Redirect Checker

TextMechanic.co Text Manipulation Tool

JOSN-LD Schema Generator Tool

Hreflang Tool by Aleyda Solis

Answer the Public

Xenu Link Sleuth Crawler

Ubbersuggest Keyword Research Tool

WordPress Plugins

Yoast SEO Plugin

W3 Total Cache

Smush Image Optimization Tool

  This list isn’t the most comprehensive one and it doesn’t list every free tools out there, but it captures a little bit of everything that is necessary in daily SEO tasks.

  P.S. It’s impossible for me to get them all, so if you know any Free SEO Tools that deserve to make it in this list, please share them in the comments section at the end.

  1. Google Tools Suite

  No list of SEO Tools should miss Google Analytics. Sure, it’s probably not the most accurate but the truth is that no tool is 100% accurate. In fact, Google has an entire suite of tools you can use for free.

  1.1 Google Tag Manager

  Let’s start with Google Tag Manager:

  Are you bored of tracking codes? Using multiple tools is always a hassle when you implement them. If you want to remove one, you have to go through plugins or templates. Maybe you forgot which plugin you’ve used to add the tracking code or which template contains the scripts.

  Well, with GTM you won’t have this issue anymore. You can have them all in one place to enable and disable them at your will. It does exactly what it says: it manages HTML tags which contain tracking codes or scripts.

    You can add your Analytics code there. It supports a variety of Google Tools as well as custom scripts to add external tracking codes, such as Facebook Pixel.

  I’m not going to tell you how to install it, but there are hundreds of tutorials out there so go watch one. Here’s a good one:

    1.2 Google Analytics

  No website should miss out on Google Analytics. While not the most accurate tool, it’s definitely a ‘good value’ for the huge amount of information it offers and the filtering that it’s capable of doing.

    If you don’t use it yet, you should. You can see a lot of things, such as how long your users stay on your pages, if they bounce back to the search results looking for something else or where your traffic is coming from.

  You can add it via the Google Tag Manager.

  1.3 Google Search Console

  The Search Console is something that every SEO should use. Why? Because it tells you whether a page is indexed or not, which is indispensable for every website.

    Previously known as Google Webmaster Tools, this free resource also helps you with:

  Different technical issues

Sitemaps

Backlinks

Keyword & Rank Tracking

  If you don’t have the Google Search Console connected to your website yet, then do this as soon as possible. It’s pretty easy to add:

    1.4 PageSpeed Insights

  PageSpeed Insights is a great tool which will help you quickly identify the most vital issues your site is facing regarding speed.

  However, don’t take the score there for granted. A website might have a low score but still load very fast, which is what actually matters.

  In fact, the PageSpeed Insights tool even lowers the score for using external scripts such as Tag Manager, Analytics or Google Fonts. To avoid that, you would have to host them locally, which is both unpractical and risky and Google doesn’t recommend it.

    That score isn’t in any way related to your SEO performance and getting it to 100/100 won’t guarantee you higher rankings. However, it will help you identify some issues that might be lurking in your website.

  This is just a 1 page check so make sure you don’t check just the Homepage. Now you can’t stay and check every page out there, but you can at least check one category page, one product and one blog post, just to test each important page template.

  If you want to check the pages in bulk, you can use the CognitiveSEO Site Audit Tool. It will check every page, but be prepared, it’s going to take a while!

    1.5 Mobile Friendly Tool

  The Google Mobile-Friendly tool is really useful because it helps you confirm if Google itself sees your website as mobile friendly. Why is it so important that your website is mobile friendly?

  Well, for once because Google has run a mobile first index since 2018. However, what’s more important is that more than 50% of users now search the web using their mobile phones. That number is going to rise.

    So, make sure your site is mobile friendly, otherwise you’ll be losing a lot of visitors and definitely some rankings.

  1.6 Google Alerts

Getting backlinks is hard. But you know what’s harder? It’s getting backlinks from relevant websites.

  Now Google Alerts can’t do the outreach for you, but it can alert you when something new about a topic gets published on the web. So, if I write this article about free SEO tools and you use ‘free seo tools’ as a keyword in Google Alerts, you’ll get notified when my article gets indexed by Google.

      You receive the notifications via e-mail. You can create multiple alerts. Make sure to create a filter, so that they don’t flood your inbox.

    You can also use this to monitor your brand. This is very useful for building relationships and even links. If someone mentions you without giving a link, you can reach out and ask them for one.

  However, we’ve found that Alerts doesn’t always get everything. So we’ve built our own tool: BrandMentions. You should check it out!

    1.7 Google Trends

  Google Trends is a great tool that will show you whether the interest in a particular topic is growing or falling.

  This might be helpful when working on a new niche site. Maybe you think your idea is really cool, but if the interest suddenly declined, maybe you should do some more research to see if it’s worth it on the long run.

    You can also use it to see if interest in your brand is growing or not. Google wants to reward Branded sites, because they are more trustworthy. You can also compare your brand with other brands to see the difference.

  1.8 Autosuggest

  Google autosuggest isn’t actually a tool, but a feature which everyone uses every day when searching on Google, including yourself.

  However, if you want to look for some new keyword ideas for which you can write awesome content, then it’s a good start. Just type a seed keyword there and Google will suggest you what other people generally search. Keep in mind that searches might be personalized, so it’s a good idea to do this in Icognito.

    Keyword Shitter: If you want something that will quickly generate all those ideas you can try Keyword Shitter. Yeah, I know. It’s really called that.

  Another cool thing you can do is scroll to the bottom of a search result to see some related keywords. You can use those keywords in your article to make it more relevant to the main keyword you searched for.

    However, if you want a list of the most important keywords that you should include in your article to make it more relevant and help it rank better, you can try the CognitiveSEO Keyword Tool.

  1.9 Google Keyword Planner

  I was actually going to skip the Google Keyword Planner but decided to add it in the end. The reason why I don’t really feel like adding the Keyword Planner is because it’s an Adwords centered tool. It also doesn’t give as much data as it used to give… except if you pay for Ads. Then it will give you more data.

  The truth is I have a better keyword tool for you, but it’s lower in the article, so keep reading.

  2. CloudFlare Free SSL

  In a world where security is becoming more and more important, having an SSL Certificate is indispensable. Your website should be secured, no matter what you’re doing with it.

  Back in the day, SSL Certificates weren’t all that easy to get. Today however, with tools like CloudFlare, you can secure your website easily.

  Image source: cloudflare.com

  All you have to do is set up an account and have access to your domain registrar. You’ll have to add your host nameservers to CloudFlare, then point your Domain Registrar to CloudFlare’s nameservers. They will act as an intermediary, protecting your website from attacks and also adding SSL.

  If you’re going to make the switch, make sure you check out our http to https migration guide. You don’t want to end up messing up all your rankings!

  3. Chrome Extensions

  If you use Chrome as your default browser, you can use these extensions to aid you in your SEO journey.

  3.1 WooRank SEO Analysis

  WooRank will analyze your website from a technical point of view, highlighting the most important issues that you should fix.

    It works both as a Chrome Extension and on their website.

  3.2 Keywords Everywhere

  Keywords Everywhere is an extension that you must have! This tool might be a little invasive since it literally shows everywhere, but you can easily turn it off from the extension’s shortcut (top right in Chrome).

    3.3 SEO Minion

  I’m not sure how this happened, but in the screenshot above you can see an ad saying “This chrome ext is better than Keywords Everywhere”.

  Well, I’m not sure if it’s better or more useful, because it does different things, but this SEO Minion extension is actually useful, so I’m going to feature it here as well.

  4. SEOmofo Snippet Optimizer

  SEOmofo Snippet Optimizer will help you creating titles and meta descriptions. You can either create new ones directly there or check old ones to see if they’re ok.

    There are a lot of alternatives here… but this is the one I use. It’s the first I found years ago and I still use it.

  However, it appears that the tool works counting characters, but from what we know, Google uses pixels instead. You can use Serpsim instead as a pixel based alternative.

  5. GT Metrix

  GT Metrix is an alternative to PageSpeed Insights. It does pretty much the same thing, telling you which images aren’t optimized, if you have caching problems, if you minify your CSS, etc. I often have the impression that GT Metrix does a better job.

  Focus on the following: Fully loaded time, Total Page Size and No. of Requests. Keep them all low. Another tip is that if you register, you’ll wait less for a page to be analyzed.

    Again, it only acts on one page at a time, so make sure you check multiple page templates to see issues on different sections of your website.

  6. Yandex Metrica

  If you don’t fear Russians & Putin will steal your data and use it to rule the world, then I can’t stress enough how awesome Yandex Metrica is.

  Although it’s dedicated to the Russian search giant Yandex, the cool feature in Yandex metrica is its heatmaps and user session recording. It’s basically a free Hotjar.

    Just make sure you are GDPR compliant when doing these. The users must click accept for you to record their session.

  7. Redirect Checker

  A redirect checker is always in use. You have to make sure that all versions of the site ( http/https & www/non-www) are pointing to a single version via 301 redirect.

  It’s also useful to detect redirects in general, whether you want to see if it’s a 301 or a 302, or need to figure out through which other pages a URL redirects.

  I usually just search for this on Google and end up choosing whichever app ranks first, but a popular redirect checker seems to be https://httpstatus.io/.

  8. TextMechanic.co Text Manipulation Tool

  I’ve been using TextMechanic.co for a very long time (not .com, but the .co version). It has saved me a lot of time, because it’s very easy to manipulate text with it.

    Here’s a list of some things that you can do with this tool:

  Remove duplicates

Mix and match keywords

Remove certain keywords from a list

Clear empty lines

Merge excel columns into rows

Many others, you just have to be creative with how you mix the tools

  9. JOSN-LD Schema Generator Tool

  If you’re not working with WordPress or a very popular CMS, it might be difficult to get all the Structured Data & Schema Markup right on your website.

  Well, that’s why James Flynn created this Schema Markup Generator.

  It’s a pretty simple process. You select what type of page you have, then input your data there and the tool will generate the markup for you. If you’re a programmer, you can use that to dynamically add things like titles and prices into your templates.

  10. Hreflang Tool by Aleyda Solis

  If you have a multilingual website, then you must definitely set up your hreflang tags correctly. If you don’t do this, your site will be an international mess!

  Luckily, we have Aleyda Solis which is a renowned International SEO. She created a Hreflang Tags Generator Tool which you can use to generate these tags in order to set them up correctly.

    You might also be interested in reading our article about common hreflang mistakes.

  11. Answer the Public

  Answer The Public is a great keyword tool which will give you ideas and sort them both alphabetically and topically. It’s a great tool if you’re looking for a broader view on the keywords.

    The best part about it is probably the visualization chart which gathers the keyword phrases around prepositions and connecting words.

  12. Xenu Link Sleuth Crawler

  Xenu is a website crawler. It will crawl your site and list all your URLs and resources. Its main purpose is to identify 404 pages. You can also use it to find which pages are pointing to those 404 pages, by right clicking a result and hitting URL Properties.

    In a previous version of Screaming Frog you could upload a list of the URLs crawled by Xenu and you could analyze your entire site for free this way. Unfortunately, the most recent builds of Screaming Frog limit you to 500 URLs even if you upload your own list.

  A good alternative is Site Audit by CognitiveSEO. It will tell you exactly which links are OK, which links are 404s, which ones 301 and you have a lot of filters at your disposal, as well as reports.

    13. Ubbersuggest Keyword Research Tool

  Ubbersuggest is my Google Keyword Planner alternative. It’s free and pretty generous for a free tool. We can all thank Neil Patel for that.

    It even shows you the top 10 results ranking for that keyword, so that you may take a look at them to see what you’re competing against. Use it wisely to discover new keyword opportunities!

  14. WordPress Plugins

  Since WordPress is the most popular CMS platform out there, I couldn’t have finished this list without listing 3 of the most important plugins you should have on your site.

  14.1 Yoast SEO Plugin

  The Yoast SEO plugin is a must have on any WordPress site. It does a basic thing, which is allowing you to add a Title and Meta description to your pages.

  This is important, because you don’t always want your H1 and Blog Title to be the same as the <title> tag. Using Yoast SEO Plugin, you can actually target more keywords. You can also set a different title for Facebook / Twitter, where keywords aren’t that important, but the catchiness is.

    If you haven’t noticed, this also have a snippet preview, so you won’t have to be checking it with other tools every time.

  The plugin comes with a bunch of recommendations and best practices, but you don’t really need to follow them by heart. Sometimes, a good title can get a red light.

  14.2 W3 Total Cache

  There are a lot of caching plugins out there. Unfortunately, W3 isn’t the easiest to use, but from my perspective, it seems to be the most powerful. It can handle Caching very well and it can also minify your static resources.

    You can set it up using this guide. It will take some time but it’s worth it. It also has support for CDN and you can even implement it with CloudFlare.

  14.3 Smush Image Optimization Tool

  Smush is a great tool for compressing images, one of the leading causes (if not the one) of slow websites. The only disadvantage of the free version is that you can only optimize 50 images at a time. Well… it might be a little inconvenient, but we could say that “One click per day keeps the SEO away”.

    There are a lot of Free SEO Tools out there, way too many to list them all here. Many of them are probably really good, probably better than what I’ve listed before.

  Which tools do you use? If you know any of these tools, please share them below in the comments section.

  The post Best Free SEO Tools to Help You Improve Your Rankings in 2019 appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

from Marketing https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/21838/best-free-seo-tools/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[philipfloyd]

Best Free SEO Tools to Help You Improve Your Rankings in 2019

If you’re just getting started with SEO, I’m pretty confident you’re looking to get everything for free. While that’s not always possible, the truth is that there are a lot of great free SEO Tools out there.

  To be honest, there are free tools that even the pros use every single day. And that’s happening for a good reason: some free SEO tools are great.

    Google Tools Suite

Google Tag Manager

Google Analytics

Google Search Console

PageSpeed Insights

Mobile Friendly Tool

Google Alerts

Google Trends

Autosuggest

Google Keyword Planner

CloudFlare Free SSL

Chrome Extensions

WooRank SEO Analysis

Keywords Everywhere

SEO Minion

SEOmofo Snippet Optimizer

GT Metrix

Yandex Metrica

Redirect Checker

TextMechanic.co Text Manipulation Tool

JOSN-LD Schema Generator Tool

Hreflang Tool by Aleyda Solis

Answer the Public

Xenu Link Sleuth Crawler

Ubbersuggest Keyword Research Tool

WordPress Plugins

Yoast SEO Plugin

W3 Total Cache

Smush Image Optimization Tool

  This list isn’t the most comprehensive one and it doesn’t list every free tools out there, but it captures a little bit of everything that is necessary in daily SEO tasks.

  P.S. It’s impossible for me to get them all, so if you know any Free SEO Tools that deserve to make it in this list, please share them in the comments section at the end.

  1. Google Tools Suite

  No list of SEO Tools should miss Google Analytics. Sure, it’s probably not the most accurate but the truth is that no tool is 100% accurate. In fact, Google has an entire suite of tools you can use for free.

  1.1 Google Tag Manager

  Let’s start with Google Tag Manager:

  Are you bored of tracking codes? Using multiple tools is always a hassle when you implement them. If you want to remove one, you have to go through plugins or templates. Maybe you forgot which plugin you’ve used to add the tracking code or which template contains the scripts.

  Well, with GTM you won’t have this issue anymore. You can have them all in one place to enable and disable them at your will. It does exactly what it says: it manages HTML tags which contain tracking codes or scripts.

    You can add your Analytics code there. It supports a variety of Google Tools as well as custom scripts to add external tracking codes, such as Facebook Pixel.

  I’m not going to tell you how to install it, but there are hundreds of tutorials out there so go watch one. Here’s a good one:

    1.2 Google Analytics

  No website should miss out on Google Analytics. While not the most accurate tool, it’s definitely a ‘good value’ for the huge amount of information it offers and the filtering that it’s capable of doing.

    If you don’t use it yet, you should. You can see a lot of things, such as how long your users stay on your pages, if they bounce back to the search results looking for something else or where your traffic is coming from.

  You can add it via the Google Tag Manager.

  1.3 Google Search Console

  The Search Console is something that every SEO should use. Why? Because it tells you whether a page is indexed or not, which is indispensable for every website.

    Previously known as Google Webmaster Tools, this free resource also helps you with:

  Different technical issues

Sitemaps

Backlinks

Keyword & Rank Tracking

  If you don’t have the Google Search Console connected to your website yet, then do this as soon as possible. It’s pretty easy to add:

    1.4 PageSpeed Insights

  PageSpeed Insights is a great tool which will help you quickly identify the most vital issues your site is facing regarding speed.

  However, don’t take the score there for granted. A website might have a low score but still load very fast, which is what actually matters.

  In fact, the PageSpeed Insights tool even lowers the score for using external scripts such as Tag Manager, Analytics or Google Fonts. To avoid that, you would have to host them locally, which is both unpractical and risky and Google doesn’t recommend it.

    That score isn’t in any way related to your SEO performance and getting it to 100/100 won’t guarantee you higher rankings. However, it will help you identify some issues that might be lurking in your website.

  This is just a 1 page check so make sure you don’t check just the Homepage. Now you can’t stay and check every page out there, but you can at least check one category page, one product and one blog post, just to test each important page template.

  If you want to check the pages in bulk, you can use the CognitiveSEO Site Audit Tool. It will check every page, but be prepared, it’s going to take a while!

    1.5 Mobile Friendly Tool

  The Google Mobile-Friendly tool is really useful because it helps you confirm if Google itself sees your website as mobile friendly. Why is it so important that your website is mobile friendly?

  Well, for once because Google has run a mobile first index since 2018. However, what’s more important is that more than 50% of users now search the web using their mobile phones. That number is going to rise.

    So, make sure your site is mobile friendly, otherwise you’ll be losing a lot of visitors and definitely some rankings.

  1.6 Google Alerts

Getting backlinks is hard. But you know what’s harder? It’s getting backlinks from relevant websites.

  Now Google Alerts can’t do the outreach for you, but it can alert you when something new about a topic gets published on the web. So, if I write this article about free SEO tools and you use ‘free seo tools’ as a keyword in Google Alerts, you’ll get notified when my article gets indexed by Google.

      You receive the notifications via e-mail. You can create multiple alerts. Make sure to create a filter, so that they don’t flood your inbox.

    You can also use this to monitor your brand. This is very useful for building relationships and even links. If someone mentions you without giving a link, you can reach out and ask them for one.

  However, we’ve found that Alerts doesn’t always get everything. So we’ve built our own tool: BrandMentions. You should check it out!

    1.7 Google Trends

  Google Trends is a great tool that will show you whether the interest in a particular topic is growing or falling.

  This might be helpful when working on a new niche site. Maybe you think your idea is really cool, but if the interest suddenly declined, maybe you should do some more research to see if it’s worth it on the long run.

    You can also use it to see if interest in your brand is growing or not. Google wants to reward Branded sites, because they are more trustworthy. You can also compare your brand with other brands to see the difference.

  1.8 Autosuggest

  Google autosuggest isn’t actually a tool, but a feature which everyone uses every day when searching on Google, including yourself.

  However, if you want to look for some new keyword ideas for which you can write awesome content, then it’s a good start. Just type a seed keyword there and Google will suggest you what other people generally search. Keep in mind that searches might be personalized, so it’s a good idea to do this in Icognito.

    Keyword Shitter: If you want something that will quickly generate all those ideas you can try Keyword Shitter. Yeah, I know. It’s really called that.

  Another cool thing you can do is scroll to the bottom of a search result to see some related keywords. You can use those keywords in your article to make it more relevant to the main keyword you searched for.

    However, if you want a list of the most important keywords that you should include in your article to make it more relevant and help it rank better, you can try the CognitiveSEO Keyword Tool.

  1.9 Google Keyword Planner

  I was actually going to skip the Google Keyword Planner but decided to add it in the end. The reason why I don’t really feel like adding the Keyword Planner is because it’s an Adwords centered tool. It also doesn’t give as much data as it used to give… except if you pay for Ads. Then it will give you more data.

  The truth is I have a better keyword tool for you, but it’s lower in the article, so keep reading.

  2. CloudFlare Free SSL

  In a world where security is becoming more and more important, having an SSL Certificate is indispensable. Your website should be secured, no matter what you’re doing with it.

  Back in the day, SSL Certificates weren’t all that easy to get. Today however, with tools like CloudFlare, you can secure your website easily.

  Image source: cloudflare.com

  All you have to do is set up an account and have access to your domain registrar. You’ll have to add your host nameservers to CloudFlare, then point your Domain Registrar to CloudFlare’s nameservers. They will act as an intermediary, protecting your website from attacks and also adding SSL.

  If you’re going to make the switch, make sure you check out our http to https migration guide. You don’t want to end up messing up all your rankings!

  3. Chrome Extensions

  If you use Chrome as your default browser, you can use these extensions to aid you in your SEO journey.

  3.1 WooRank SEO Analysis

  WooRank will analyze your website from a technical point of view, highlighting the most important issues that you should fix.

    It works both as a Chrome Extension and on their website.

  3.2 Keywords Everywhere

  Keywords Everywhere is an extension that you must have! This tool might be a little invasive since it literally shows everywhere, but you can easily turn it off from the extension’s shortcut (top right in Chrome).

    3.3 SEO Minion

  I’m not sure how this happened, but in the screenshot above you can see an ad saying “This chrome ext is better than Keywords Everywhere”.

  Well, I’m not sure if it’s better or more useful, because it does different things, but this SEO Minion extension is actually useful, so I’m going to feature it here as well.

  4. SEOmofo Snippet Optimizer

  SEOmofo Snippet Optimizer will help you creating titles and meta descriptions. You can either create new ones directly there or check old ones to see if they’re ok.

    There are a lot of alternatives here… but this is the one I use. It’s the first I found years ago and I still use it.

  However, it appears that the tool works counting characters, but from what we know, Google uses pixels instead. You can use Serpsim instead as a pixel based alternative.

  5. GT Metrix

  GT Metrix is an alternative to PageSpeed Insights. It does pretty much the same thing, telling you which images aren’t optimized, if you have caching problems, if you minify your CSS, etc. I often have the impression that GT Metrix does a better job.

  Focus on the following: Fully loaded time, Total Page Size and No. of Requests. Keep them all low. Another tip is that if you register, you’ll wait less for a page to be analyzed.

    Again, it only acts on one page at a time, so make sure you check multiple page templates to see issues on different sections of your website.

  6. Yandex Metrica

  If you don’t fear Russians & Putin will steal your data and use it to rule the world, then I can’t stress enough how awesome Yandex Metrica is.

  Although it’s dedicated to the Russian search giant Yandex, the cool feature in Yandex metrica is its heatmaps and user session recording. It’s basically a free Hotjar.

    Just make sure you are GDPR compliant when doing these. The users must click accept for you to record their session.

  7. Redirect Checker

  A redirect checker is always in use. You have to make sure that all versions of the site ( http/https & www/non-www) are pointing to a single version via 301 redirect.

  It’s also useful to detect redirects in general, whether you want to see if it’s a 301 or a 302, or need to figure out through which other pages a URL redirects.

  I usually just search for this on Google and end up choosing whichever app ranks first, but a popular redirect checker seems to be https://httpstatus.io/.

  8. TextMechanic.co Text Manipulation Tool

  I’ve been using TextMechanic.co for a very long time (not .com, but the .co version). It has saved me a lot of time, because it’s very easy to manipulate text with it.

    Here’s a list of some things that you can do with this tool:

  Remove duplicates

Mix and match keywords

Remove certain keywords from a list

Clear empty lines

Merge excel columns into rows

Many others, you just have to be creative with how you mix the tools

  9. JOSN-LD Schema Generator Tool

  If you’re not working with WordPress or a very popular CMS, it might be difficult to get all the Structured Data & Schema Markup right on your website.

  Well, that’s why James Flynn created this Schema Markup Generator.

  It’s a pretty simple process. You select what type of page you have, then input your data there and the tool will generate the markup for you. If you’re a programmer, you can use that to dynamically add things like titles and prices into your templates.

  10. Hreflang Tool by Aleyda Solis

  If you have a multilingual website, then you must definitely set up your hreflang tags correctly. If you don’t do this, your site will be an international mess!

  Luckily, we have Aleyda Solis which is a renowned International SEO. She created a Hreflang Tags Generator Tool which you can use to generate these tags in order to set them up correctly.

    You might also be interested in reading our article about common hreflang mistakes.

  11. Answer the Public

  Answer The Public is a great keyword tool which will give you ideas and sort them both alphabetically and topically. It’s a great tool if you’re looking for a broader view on the keywords.

    The best part about it is probably the visualization chart which gathers the keyword phrases around prepositions and connecting words.

  12. Xenu Link Sleuth Crawler

  Xenu is a website crawler. It will crawl your site and list all your URLs and resources. Its main purpose is to identify 404 pages. You can also use it to find which pages are pointing to those 404 pages, by right clicking a result and hitting URL Properties.

    In a previous version of Screaming Frog you could upload a list of the URLs crawled by Xenu and you could analyze your entire site for free this way. Unfortunately, the most recent builds of Screaming Frog limit you to 500 URLs even if you upload your own list.

  A good alternative is Site Audit by CognitiveSEO. It will tell you exactly which links are OK, which links are 404s, which ones 301 and you have a lot of filters at your disposal, as well as reports.

    13. Ubbersuggest Keyword Research Tool

  Ubbersuggest is my Google Keyword Planner alternative. It’s free and pretty generous for a free tool. We can all thank Neil Patel for that.

    It even shows you the top 10 results ranking for that keyword, so that you may take a look at them to see what you’re competing against. Use it wisely to discover new keyword opportunities!

  14. WordPress Plugins

  Since WordPress is the most popular CMS platform out there, I couldn’t have finished this list without listing 3 of the most important plugins you should have on your site.

  14.1 Yoast SEO Plugin

  The Yoast SEO plugin is a must have on any WordPress site. It does a basic thing, which is allowing you to add a Title and Meta description to your pages.

  This is important, because you don’t always want your H1 and Blog Title to be the same as the <title> tag. Using Yoast SEO Plugin, you can actually target more keywords. You can also set a different title for Facebook / Twitter, where keywords aren’t that important, but the catchiness is.

    If you haven’t noticed, this also have a snippet preview, so you won’t have to be checking it with other tools every time.

  The plugin comes with a bunch of recommendations and best practices, but you don’t really need to follow them by heart. Sometimes, a good title can get a red light.

  14.2 W3 Total Cache

  There are a lot of caching plugins out there. Unfortunately, W3 isn’t the easiest to use, but from my perspective, it seems to be the most powerful. It can handle Caching very well and it can also minify your static resources.

    You can set it up using this guide. It will take some time but it’s worth it. It also has support for CDN and you can even implement it with CloudFlare.

  14.3 Smush Image Optimization Tool

  Smush is a great tool for compressing images, one of the leading causes (if not the one) of slow websites. The only disadvantage of the free version is that you can only optimize 50 images at a time. Well… it might be a little inconvenient, but we could say that “One click per day keeps the SEO away”.

    There are a lot of Free SEO Tools out there, way too many to list them all here. Many of them are probably really good, probably better than what I’ve listed before.

  Which tools do you use? If you know any of these tools, please share them below in the comments section.

  The post Best Free SEO Tools to Help You Improve Your Rankings in 2019 appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

from Marketing https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/21838/best-free-seo-tools/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[wjwilliams29]

Best Free SEO Tools to Help You Improve Your Rankings in 2019

If you’re just getting started with SEO, I’m pretty confident you’re looking to get everything for free. While that’s not always possible, the truth is that there are a lot of great free SEO Tools out there.

  To be honest, there are free tools that even the pros use every single day. And that’s happening for a good reason: some free SEO tools are great.

    Google Tools Suite

Google Tag Manager

Google Analytics

Google Search Console

PageSpeed Insights

Mobile Friendly Tool

Google Alerts

Google Trends

Autosuggest

Google Keyword Planner

CloudFlare Free SSL

Chrome Extensions

WooRank SEO Analysis

Keywords Everywhere

SEO Minion

SEOmofo Snippet Optimizer

GT Metrix

Yandex Metrica

Redirect Checker

TextMechanic.co Text Manipulation Tool

JOSN-LD Schema Generator Tool

Hreflang Tool by Aleyda Solis

Answer the Public

Xenu Link Sleuth Crawler

Ubbersuggest Keyword Research Tool

WordPress Plugins

Yoast SEO Plugin

W3 Total Cache

Smush Image Optimization Tool

  This list isn’t the most comprehensive one and it doesn’t list every free tools out there, but it captures a little bit of everything that is necessary in daily SEO tasks.

  P.S. It’s impossible for me to get them all, so if you know any Free SEO Tools that deserve to make it in this list, please share them in the comments section at the end.

  1. Google Tools Suite

  No list of SEO Tools should miss Google Analytics. Sure, it’s probably not the most accurate but the truth is that no tool is 100% accurate. In fact, Google has an entire suite of tools you can use for free.

  1.1 Google Tag Manager

  Let’s start with Google Tag Manager:

  Are you bored of tracking codes? Using multiple tools is always a hassle when you implement them. If you want to remove one, you have to go through plugins or templates. Maybe you forgot which plugin you’ve used to add the tracking code or which template contains the scripts.

  Well, with GTM you won’t have this issue anymore. You can have them all in one place to enable and disable them at your will. It does exactly what it says: it manages HTML tags which contain tracking codes or scripts.

    You can add your Analytics code there. It supports a variety of Google Tools as well as custom scripts to add external tracking codes, such as Facebook Pixel.

  I’m not going to tell you how to install it, but there are hundreds of tutorials out there so go watch one. Here’s a good one:

    1.2 Google Analytics

  No website should miss out on Google Analytics. While not the most accurate tool, it’s definitely a ‘good value’ for the huge amount of information it offers and the filtering that it’s capable of doing.

    If you don’t use it yet, you should. You can see a lot of things, such as how long your users stay on your pages, if they bounce back to the search results looking for something else or where your traffic is coming from.

  You can add it via the Google Tag Manager.

  1.3 Google Search Console

  The Search Console is something that every SEO should use. Why? Because it tells you whether a page is indexed or not, which is indispensable for every website.

    Previously known as Google Webmaster Tools, this free resource also helps you with:

  Different technical issues

Sitemaps

Backlinks

Keyword & Rank Tracking

  If you don’t have the Google Search Console connected to your website yet, then do this as soon as possible. It’s pretty easy to add:

    1.4 PageSpeed Insights

  PageSpeed Insights is a great tool which will help you quickly identify the most vital issues your site is facing regarding speed.

  However, don’t take the score there for granted. A website might have a low score but still load very fast, which is what actually matters.

  In fact, the PageSpeed Insights tool even lowers the score for using external scripts such as Tag Manager, Analytics or Google Fonts. To avoid that, you would have to host them locally, which is both unpractical and risky and Google doesn’t recommend it.

    That score isn’t in any way related to your SEO performance and getting it to 100/100 won’t guarantee you higher rankings. However, it will help you identify some issues that might be lurking in your website.

  This is just a 1 page check so make sure you don’t check just the Homepage. Now you can’t stay and check every page out there, but you can at least check one category page, one product and one blog post, just to test each important page template.

  If you want to check the pages in bulk, you can use the CognitiveSEO Site Audit Tool. It will check every page, but be prepared, it’s going to take a while!

    1.5 Mobile Friendly Tool

  The Google Mobile-Friendly tool is really useful because it helps you confirm if Google itself sees your website as mobile friendly. Why is it so important that your website is mobile friendly?

  Well, for once because Google has run a mobile first index since 2018. However, what’s more important is that more than 50% of users now search the web using their mobile phones. That number is going to rise.

    So, make sure your site is mobile friendly, otherwise you’ll be losing a lot of visitors and definitely some rankings.

  1.6 Google Alerts

Getting backlinks is hard. But you know what’s harder? It’s getting backlinks from relevant websites.

  Now Google Alerts can’t do the outreach for you, but it can alert you when something new about a topic gets published on the web. So, if I write this article about free SEO tools and you use ‘free seo tools’ as a keyword in Google Alerts, you’ll get notified when my article gets indexed by Google.

      You receive the notifications via e-mail. You can create multiple alerts. Make sure to create a filter, so that they don’t flood your inbox.

    You can also use this to monitor your brand. This is very useful for building relationships and even links. If someone mentions you without giving a link, you can reach out and ask them for one.

  However, we’ve found that Alerts doesn’t always get everything. So we’ve built our own tool: BrandMentions. You should check it out!

    1.7 Google Trends

  Google Trends is a great tool that will show you whether the interest in a particular topic is growing or falling.

  This might be helpful when working on a new niche site. Maybe you think your idea is really cool, but if the interest suddenly declined, maybe you should do some more research to see if it’s worth it on the long run.

    You can also use it to see if interest in your brand is growing or not. Google wants to reward Branded sites, because they are more trustworthy. You can also compare your brand with other brands to see the difference.

  1.8 Autosuggest

  Google autosuggest isn’t actually a tool, but a feature which everyone uses every day when searching on Google, including yourself.

  However, if you want to look for some new keyword ideas for which you can write awesome content, then it’s a good start. Just type a seed keyword there and Google will suggest you what other people generally search. Keep in mind that searches might be personalized, so it’s a good idea to do this in Icognito.

    Keyword Shitter: If you want something that will quickly generate all those ideas you can try Keyword Shitter. Yeah, I know. It’s really called that.

  Another cool thing you can do is scroll to the bottom of a search result to see some related keywords. You can use those keywords in your article to make it more relevant to the main keyword you searched for.

    However, if you want a list of the most important keywords that you should include in your article to make it more relevant and help it rank better, you can try the CognitiveSEO Keyword Tool.

  1.9 Google Keyword Planner

  I was actually going to skip the Google Keyword Planner but decided to add it in the end. The reason why I don’t really feel like adding the Keyword Planner is because it’s an Adwords centered tool. It also doesn’t give as much data as it used to give… except if you pay for Ads. Then it will give you more data.

  The truth is I have a better keyword tool for you, but it’s lower in the article, so keep reading.

  2. CloudFlare Free SSL

  In a world where security is becoming more and more important, having an SSL Certificate is indispensable. Your website should be secured, no matter what you’re doing with it.

  Back in the day, SSL Certificates weren’t all that easy to get. Today however, with tools like CloudFlare, you can secure your website easily.

  Image source: cloudflare.com

  All you have to do is set up an account and have access to your domain registrar. You’ll have to add your host nameservers to CloudFlare, then point your Domain Registrar to CloudFlare’s nameservers. They will act as an intermediary, protecting your website from attacks and also adding SSL.

  If you’re going to make the switch, make sure you check out our http to https migration guide. You don’t want to end up messing up all your rankings!

  3. Chrome Extensions

  If you use Chrome as your default browser, you can use these extensions to aid you in your SEO journey.

  3.1 WooRank SEO Analysis

  WooRank will analyze your website from a technical point of view, highlighting the most important issues that you should fix.

    It works both as a Chrome Extension and on their website.

  3.2 Keywords Everywhere

  Keywords Everywhere is an extension that you must have! This tool might be a little invasive since it literally shows everywhere, but you can easily turn it off from the extension’s shortcut (top right in Chrome).

    3.3 SEO Minion

  I’m not sure how this happened, but in the screenshot above you can see an ad saying “This chrome ext is better than Keywords Everywhere”.

  Well, I’m not sure if it’s better or more useful, because it does different things, but this SEO Minion extension is actually useful, so I’m going to feature it here as well.

  4. SEOmofo Snippet Optimizer

  SEOmofo Snippet Optimizer will help you creating titles and meta descriptions. You can either create new ones directly there or check old ones to see if they’re ok.

    There are a lot of alternatives here… but this is the one I use. It’s the first I found years ago and I still use it.

  However, it appears that the tool works counting characters, but from what we know, Google uses pixels instead. You can use Serpsim instead as a pixel based alternative.

  5. GT Metrix

  GT Metrix is an alternative to PageSpeed Insights. It does pretty much the same thing, telling you which images aren’t optimized, if you have caching problems, if you minify your CSS, etc. I often have the impression that GT Metrix does a better job.

  Focus on the following: Fully loaded time, Total Page Size and No. of Requests. Keep them all low. Another tip is that if you register, you’ll wait less for a page to be analyzed.

    Again, it only acts on one page at a time, so make sure you check multiple page templates to see issues on different sections of your website.

  6. Yandex Metrica

  If you don’t fear Russians & Putin will steal your data and use it to rule the world, then I can’t stress enough how awesome Yandex Metrica is.

  Although it’s dedicated to the Russian search giant Yandex, the cool feature in Yandex metrica is its heatmaps and user session recording. It’s basically a free Hotjar.

    Just make sure you are GDPR compliant when doing these. The users must click accept for you to record their session.

  7. Redirect Checker

  A redirect checker is always in use. You have to make sure that all versions of the site ( http/https & www/non-www) are pointing to a single version via 301 redirect.

  It’s also useful to detect redirects in general, whether you want to see if it’s a 301 or a 302, or need to figure out through which other pages a URL redirects.

  I usually just search for this on Google and end up choosing whichever app ranks first, but a popular redirect checker seems to be https://httpstatus.io/.

  8. TextMechanic.co Text Manipulation Tool

  I’ve been using TextMechanic.co for a very long time (not .com, but the .co version). It has saved me a lot of time, because it’s very easy to manipulate text with it.

    Here’s a list of some things that you can do with this tool:

  Remove duplicates

Mix and match keywords

Remove certain keywords from a list

Clear empty lines

Merge excel columns into rows

Many others, you just have to be creative with how you mix the tools

  9. JOSN-LD Schema Generator Tool

  If you’re not working with WordPress or a very popular CMS, it might be difficult to get all the Structured Data & Schema Markup right on your website.

  Well, that’s why James Flynn created this Schema Markup Generator.

  It’s a pretty simple process. You select what type of page you have, then input your data there and the tool will generate the markup for you. If you’re a programmer, you can use that to dynamically add things like titles and prices into your templates.

  10. Hreflang Tool by Aleyda Solis

  If you have a multilingual website, then you must definitely set up your hreflang tags correctly. If you don’t do this, your site will be an international mess!

  Luckily, we have Aleyda Solis which is a renowned International SEO. She created a Hreflang Tags Generator Tool which you can use to generate these tags in order to set them up correctly.

    You might also be interested in reading our article about common hreflang mistakes.

  11. Answer the Public

  Answer The Public is a great keyword tool which will give you ideas and sort them both alphabetically and topically. It’s a great tool if you’re looking for a broader view on the keywords.

    The best part about it is probably the visualization chart which gathers the keyword phrases around prepositions and connecting words.

  12. Xenu Link Sleuth Crawler

  Xenu is a website crawler. It will crawl your site and list all your URLs and resources. Its main purpose is to identify 404 pages. You can also use it to find which pages are pointing to those 404 pages, by right clicking a result and hitting URL Properties.

    In a previous version of Screaming Frog you could upload a list of the URLs crawled by Xenu and you could analyze your entire site for free this way. Unfortunately, the most recent builds of Screaming Frog limit you to 500 URLs even if you upload your own list.

  A good alternative is Site Audit by CognitiveSEO. It will tell you exactly which links are OK, which links are 404s, which ones 301 and you have a lot of filters at your disposal, as well as reports.

    13. Ubbersuggest Keyword Research Tool

  Ubbersuggest is my Google Keyword Planner alternative. It’s free and pretty generous for a free tool. We can all thank Neil Patel for that.

    It even shows you the top 10 results ranking for that keyword, so that you may take a look at them to see what you’re competing against. Use it wisely to discover new keyword opportunities!

  14. WordPress Plugins

  Since WordPress is the most popular CMS platform out there, I couldn’t have finished this list without listing 3 of the most important plugins you should have on your site.

  14.1 Yoast SEO Plugin

  The Yoast SEO plugin is a must have on any WordPress site. It does a basic thing, which is allowing you to add a Title and Meta description to your pages.

  This is important, because you don’t always want your H1 and Blog Title to be the same as the <title> tag. Using Yoast SEO Plugin, you can actually target more keywords. You can also set a different title for Facebook / Twitter, where keywords aren’t that important, but the catchiness is.

    If you haven’t noticed, this also have a snippet preview, so you won’t have to be checking it with other tools every time.

  The plugin comes with a bunch of recommendations and best practices, but you don’t really need to follow them by heart. Sometimes, a good title can get a red light.

  14.2 W3 Total Cache

  There are a lot of caching plugins out there. Unfortunately, W3 isn’t the easiest to use, but from my perspective, it seems to be the most powerful. It can handle Caching very well and it can also minify your static resources.

    You can set it up using this guide. It will take some time but it’s worth it. It also has support for CDN and you can even implement it with CloudFlare.

  14.3 Smush Image Optimization Tool

  Smush is a great tool for compressing images, one of the leading causes (if not the one) of slow websites. The only disadvantage of the free version is that you can only optimize 50 images at a time. Well… it might be a little inconvenient, but we could say that “One click per day keeps the SEO away”.

    There are a lot of Free SEO Tools out there, way too many to list them all here. Many of them are probably really good, probably better than what I’ve listed before.

  Which tools do you use? If you know any of these tools, please share them below in the comments section.

  The post Best Free SEO Tools to Help You Improve Your Rankings in 2019 appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.