#nobody proofread this meta

[aroaceleovaldez]

reminder that the only reason the "ADHD is actually demigod BATTLE STRATEGIES" and "dyslexia is DEMIGOD BRAINS HARDWIRED FOR ANCIENT GREEK" things exist in the PJO universe is because it's a very direct reference to early 2000s teaching/parenting techniques for neurodiverse and disabled children, which aimed to frame childrens' disabilities and hardships as a "superpower" or strength so that the children would feel more positively about their disabilities or situations. This technique has fallen out of favor since then for the most part since more often than not it just results in kids feeling as though their struggles are not being seen or taken seriously.

Yes, demigods are adhd/dyslexic (and sometimes autistic-coded) in the series. This is extremely important and trying to remove it or not acknowledge it makes the entire series fall apart because it is such a core concept. Yes, canon claims that their adhd/dyslexia is tied to some innate abilities, which is based on an outdated methodology. It's important to acknowledge that and understand where it comes from! But please stop trying to apply it to other pantheons in the series like "oh, the romans have dyscalculia because of roman numerals!" or "the norse demigods have dysgraphia for reasons!" - it's distasteful at best.

A better option is to acknowledge the meta inspiration for why that exists in the series, such as explaining potentially that Chiron was utilizing that same teaching methodology to try and help demigods feel more comfortable with their disabilities and they aren't literal powers. In fact, especially given Frank, there's implication that being adhd/dyslexic isn't a guaranteed demigod trait, which means it's more likely to be normally inherited from their godly parent/divine ancestor as a general trait, not a power, and further supports the whole "ADHD is battle strategy" thing being non-literal. It also implies the entire greco-roman pantheon in their universe is canonically adhd/dyslexic - and that actually fits very well with the themes of the first series. The entire central conflict of the first series fits perfectly as an allegory about neurodiverse/disabled children and their relationships with their undiagnosed neurodiverse/disabled parents and trying to find solutions together with their shared disability/disabilities that the kid inherited instead of becoming distant from each other (and this makes claiming equivalent to getting a diagnosis which is a fascinating allegory! not to mention the symbolism of demigods inheriting legacies and legends and powers from their parents and everything that comes with that being equivalent to inheriting traits, neurodiversity, and disabilities from your parents).

anyways neurodiversity and disability and the contexts in which the series utilizes representation of those experiences particularly during the 2000s symbolically within the narrative is incredibly important to the first series and the understanding of what themes it means to represent. also if i see one more "the romans have dyscalculia instead of dyslexia" post in 2023 i'm gonna walk into the ocean.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Oh, indeed. There is an incredibly popular quote used in probably hundreds of jonsa graphics and a few metas and no doubt a lot of videos by now, "Stone and snow, that was all that was left of Winterfell. Just like her and Jon." I have no idea where it originally came from, some 2011/2-era fanfic or graphic edit, but it certainly does not come from GRRM. Heck, it's not even grammatically correct and not even really GRRM's style (not that that's ever stopped anyone).

And yet, a few years ago, a jonerys friend asked me to proofread their meta disputing various jonsa claims… and within their essay, they had spent 6-8 paragraphs disputing this quote. 🤦‍♀️ They were extremely surprised to hear it was not actual ASOIAF text that they needed to consider.

And there's so much out there, just like this. Another pervasive one, non-ship related, is “a harp in the tomb, a child in the womb, a dragon in a stone egg”, a nice bit of poetry sourced only from a theory essay postulating Rhaegar's harp is in Lyanna's tomb. People have come to me going, "but that theory must be true, I mean, the poem!" and I had to gently explain he drew the receipts himself.

(lol, well, I say not ship-related even though it's R+L=J, but I tend to think of those obsessed with it (particularly that essayist) more as theory-obsessives rather than ship-obsessives. Not to slight shippers, I'm one myself, but it's a different kind of attitude for text analysis and projection, focusing less on proof of love specifically.)

But yeah, made up or misread jonsa theories are hilariously pervasive -- "the girl in grey" for one (it's Alys Karstark, who came to the Wall as a girl in grey riding a dying horse escaping a forced marriage. GRRM gave the answer in the book the prophecy appeared ffs, the whole story point of the prophecy is that Jon sent Mance and the spearwives to Winterfell to aid "Arya" and thus they ended up in Theon and Jeyne's storyline, but no, Sansa's going to do it all over again just because!) And my Ashford tourney crack theory they stole and misinterpreted (it was about Aegon, and about the fact nobody won the tourney because of Dunk (Sandor, lol, though I'll accept Brienne too), and I've seen people seriously considering it important even though I admit it's almost certainly coincidence and doesn't mean anything! Jonsas aren't the only ones of course, believe me I've seen some tremendous crack in my own ship, but I'm thinking specifically of cases like that where the actual text of the story (Alys Karstark, Mance, Jeyne, Theon; or the historical events of the tourney where Dunk and Egg met and Baelor Breakspear died) doesn't even seem to exist if you're only looking at edits and videos and other fanworks. It gives a wildly bizarre reading of the text if you've never actually read it.

And yes, twitter is full of these cases where the text has become irrelevant, where people make inferences and projections on top of distanced inferences and projections. Not to exclude worg and reddit, where people just make theories-on-top-of-theories, building up enormous cloud castles with no real foundation. Like the Southron Ambitions Conspiracy (textually, the rantings of a lonely paranoid woman), which developed (rationally) into the fan theory that "the STAB bloc formed to remove the Targaryens", but people use that as a basis for so much more, defaulting it as true, even though it is still only an unproven theory! And because it's maester-related and Targaryen-related, it's been mixed with the maester anti-magic conspiracy (very likely true, but also very shadily sourced within the text), into this enormous Protocols of the Elders of Hightower bizarre conspiracy theory that the Hightowers and Citadel want to control all of Westeros and killed all the Targaryens and dragons even the ones who were killed by each other and you can't trust the maester-written Fire & Blood in any way! except it's an inviolate text for the parts you want to be true and nothing is real but everything is, how dare you say otherwise.

Anyway, thank you so much re the term "sourcecreep" and that Jack Sparrow not-a-quote. Fascinating stuff.

@ilynpilled

ppl being more interested in Fandom than the actual source text is so real like they do have their own nonexistent text thats just a recycled concoction of the same bland fandom incorrect quotes tropes over and over again which deviates so much from the canon and they prefer to the actual thing lol

my favorite example of sourcecreep is the fact that if you go on reddit, pinterest, or facebook, or google image search 7 years ago, or flickr and photobucket if you're properly fandom old, you will find image edits of disney's jack sparrow with the quote overlay "the problem is not the problem. the problem is your attitude about the problem."

if you've seen enough of these edits (there are many thousands of them), you might even read those two sentences in his trademark cadence.

the problem here, though, is not anyone's attitude about the problem. it's that this quote has never appeared in any of the five films in which jack sparrow appears. nor in any of the video games he stars or guest-stars on. nor in any of the tie-in young jack sparrow novels or the film novelizations. it is not from a deleted scene or an early draft of any script. it's not from any of the disney park parades or firework shows in which jack is included as a face character with recorded speaking lines. it's not from the original ride or the re-dress of the ride post-dead man's chest.

this is a quote from the YA series the sisterhood of the traveling pants. one of the characters' coaches says it to them in one of the books because they are children in high school. there is no reason for it to be attributed to this character or this franchise besides one patient zero at some point or another 20 years ago making an image with a text overlay on picnik photo editor and uploading it to their livejournal or whatever.

anyway this is how asoiaf fans on twitter absorb information about their favs from the series and then post about it. i believe there are many such cases across fandom at large.

[raine-kai]

Contextualizing the Messy AkiHaru Scene

So...it came to my attention that a lot of translations of the scene where Akihiko crashes at Haruki's house in chapter 20 of the manga or the anime movie suggest that nothing happened more than we see in the panels/on the screen.

This is a translation error. The Japanese is unambiguous that a lot happened during the scene break; the art backs this up, in the change to Haruki's hairstyle from before to after the scene break.

Mainly, I want to retranslate for people who are interested, who didn't know that this was a mistranslation. But, I think that no matter how the scene is translated, there are subtexts and undercurrents that are lost, that cannot be simply translated into existence.

So I would like to explain several things in the lead-up to the scene in question, as well as in the aftermath, in order to hopefully give more context.

WARNINGS FOR SPOILERS AND NONCON

Notes on Translation: Given astonished me from its very first chapter with its deliberate and brilliant use of words. It is a story that is so incredibly articulate when it wants to be that moments of wordlessness or fragmented words are equally articulate, for they are crafted with as much deliberation and care as the articulate moments. As anyone knows who has ever tried to translate something, just plain translating the surface meaning of words often leaves a lot of the meaning behind. I will do my best to convey in English what the original text conveyed to me in Japanese, but it will inevitably fall short of the original text.

The Lead-In

First off, let's talk about Akihiko and the particular damage that he brings with him into this scene. He, of course, has the argument with Ugetsu and the fact that he has nowhere to go; but he has also been living this way for two years, presumably only a little longer than he has known Haruki. Akihiko describes the patterns that he and Ugetsu go through:

[Translation: "Even since Ugetsu and I broke up, we periodically continue to clash. Sometimes it's about the timing at which Ugetsu found a new guy. Sometimes it's just before or after Ugetsu is away for a long time. Sometimes these clashes come suddenly, immediately after we have been intimate for a few days, just like we used to be.]

Later, Akihiko reveals that he has a pattern of dealing with being kicked out of the home he shares with Ugetsu by finding someone, anyone to stay with. He has come to associate these stays as transactions, where the thing that he provides is most often sex. (We also see this transaction-based approach in his relationship with Ugetsu, for whom he feels compelled to cook—a thing that he later continues for Haruki with an urgency that does not match Haruki's easygoing acceptance of this dynamic.)

In fact, we see hints that perhaps Akihiko associates crashing with someone with providing sex to a deeper degree than even he acknowledges, in a scene in volume 1 where he crashed at Haruki's apartment while drunk, and upon stating it would be too much trouble to pull out a futon, did not merely crawl into bed with Haruki, but on top of him.

[Translation: Haru: Akihiko, get a futon and sleep wherever... Aki: Whaaat? But that's so much effort... Haru: So sleep on the....floor....]

So this is a deeply engrained association for Akihiko.

However, it is also a part of his life that he has gone out of his way to conceal from Haruki. From Haruki, he has not merely concealed the many times that he has essentially prostituted himself for a place to sleep; he has also hidden from Haruki that he has any flatmate at all, much less the nature of his relationship with said flatmate.

Haruki has the idea that Akihiko used to sleep around, but does not anymore. He is blinded partly by his own desire to see only the best parts of Akihiko; he is also blinded by Akihiko's desire to only reveal the best parts of himself to Haruki.

In volume 4, we see the moment that Akihiko lets slip that he has a flatmate, and the degree to which this shakes Haruki.

But the more emotional moment for Haruki comes when he realizes that Akihiko is talking to him on the phone while having sex with a woman.

[Translation: "That was a woman.... He was totally having sex."]

No promises have been broken; no trust has been betrayed. But there is an illusion of Akihiko that Haruki has, that Akihiko himself has carefully cultivated over the recent months for a reason that even he cannot explain. It is a paper-thin illusion, that only held up because Akihiko and Haruki both wanted it there.

But now, that illusion is shattering.

This just so happens to overlap with Take suggesting that Haruki take on a support role in his ex-gf's band.

Haruki has struggled from volume 1 with insecurities. He is the band leader; he is the one who brought them together, the one who runs their social media, the one who keeps them in line. Given is a band that absolutely would never have existed without Haruki. Yet he feels outshined by the other three members. There are several scenes depicting Haruki struggling with this. Akihiko is often the one to whom he voices his insecurities, and always without fail sets him straight. There is one particular exchange, during the same conversation when Akihiko reveals that he has a flatmate, when Haruki calls himself ordinary (凡人枠) and Akihiko retorts that he is not, he is 調停者枠....which is difficult to translate, but essentially means mediator, but in this case is denoting that he is the one who brings the different pieces of the band together (both musically, and as a person). Akihiko tells him then, "You're the one that everybody seeks," with a particular look in his eyes even as he reaches for Haruki's face. (Haruki pulls away and Akihiko pulls back and laughs it off.)

But the undercurrent is, for the first time, Haruki is beginning to see the truth of the words that he never quite believed. He is wanted and needed...he just needs to find a way to explain this to the other members of Given. In particular, Akihiko, who has always felt to Haruki like someone on equal or higher footing than himself, despite Haruki himself being older.

And these are the undercurrents at play as we head into the scene in question.

The Crucial Chapters 19-20

Akihiko shows up on Haruki's doorstop in the middle of the night, with an injured face from a fight with Ugetsu.

Haruki lets him in and they start talking as usual....but this time, it's different. They are both just a little bit at odds in a way they have never been before.

Haruki is aware, now, of a facet of Akihiko's life that until recently he had believed was left in the past.

Akihiko perceives that Haruki is hiding something, and in his typical way, immediately wants to know what it is.

This is why, when Akihiko asks his questions and asks if Haruki is hiding something, Haruki snaps back in a way we have never seen him do before:

[Tr: "[I am, but] you're one to talk!"]

Akihiko grabs Haruki by the wrist and asks again, and Haruki tells him...but throws in that the band he is doing support for is his ex's band.

Akihiko responds, "So you're going back to your ex?" and proceeds to crawl on top of Haruki to acknowledge for the first time what has always been unspoken between them: "You're in love with me, yet you're gonna run away?"

As Haruki lies sputtering for a response (he tries to pretend ignorance, but can't finish a sentence, between Akihiko pressing closer and his own shock) Akihiko reaches for Haruki's braid—the hair that Haruki has been growing out for as long as he has known Akihiko, as something like a wish charm (願掛け) for his love; the hair that Akihiko is somewhat obsessed with, taking every opportunity he can to play with it or style it—and speaks words that reveal that he is still fixated on Haruki's ex.

[Full text: 春樹さぁ、元カノがどうとか言ってたけど、お前こんなんで本当に女なんか抱いてたの？

Translation: You talk about this ex-girlfriend, Haruki, but did you seriously have sex with women like this?

Note: the こんなんで/"like this" is beautifully ambiguous. On a surface level of course it is referring to Haruki's long hair—with all the years of pining and love for Akihiko that that implies—but it also draws attention to how they are right now. The fact that Akihiko has crawled on top of Haruki as he has before, and Haruki does not fully push him away. It draws attention to the way that Akihiko himself is so central to Haruki's entire being.]

While Haruki flushes and thinks to himself, "Shut up, shut up! I did have sex with women, before I met you!" Meanwhile, Akihiko kisses him—a kiss that the art carefully does not show us lip-to-lip, either only showing us angles where we cannot see the point of contact, or focusing on the contact of only their tongues. Make no mistake, this is not a romantic kiss. This is a kiss full of frustration and pent up emotions and two years of unspoken, unacknowledged emotion brewing between these two.

Akihiko begins to strip Haruki further, and Haruki interjects, 「え、うそ、うそうそ、待った」(tr: "Wha- wait wait wait, just a sec"), which Akihiko ignores, and proceeds to begin performing oral sex on Haruki, even as he acknowledges internally that his actions are taking out his frustration with Ugetsu on Haruki.

[Note: the words Haruki uses at this point are not clear "Stop" signals. え、うそ、待った are all words that convey shock and uncertainty, and it is noteworthy that Haruki does not at any point use a word that would convey an equivalent of "Stop". That doesn't make this consensual, as his consent has not been obtained, but this is important to note, that Haruki deliberately does not ever outright tell Akihiko to stop.]

This is where Akihiko reflects on his messy relationship with Ugetsu, and the lingering hold it has on him:

Even since Ugetsu and I broke up, we periodically continue to clash. Sometimes it's about the timing at which Ugetsu found a new guy. Sometimes it's just before or after Ugetsu is away for a long time. Sometimes these clashes come suddenly, immediately after we have been intimate for a few days, just like we used to be. Like he is urging me, "Great, here's an opportunity. Let's part ways and break up for real." Like he is shutting me out of his world by force, to reinforce that he doesn't need me. What the hell? If you don't want me, why do you allow me to hold on? If you sympathize with my holding on, why do you try to throw me away? I want to trap you. I want to escape. I want to give up. I can't fully give up. I want to touch you. I can't breathe...

And when Akihiko comes back to the present, some time has past. His shirt is gone, Haruki places a hand over Akihiko's with tears in his eyes, and for the first time, says やめてよ [approx. translation: "Please stop," but this is a very gentle way of saying it—a plea in softer language]....and then continues, そんな顔しないでよ、辛そうな顔しないでよ、なんなの？言ってよ、なんでもしてあげるから [tr: "Please stop looking like that, like you're in such pain...What is it? Please tell me. I would give you anything."]

It is the なんでもしてあげるから here that is utterly striking. @edragoon​ and I debated translations and arrived on "I would give you anything" as the best option, but even with Haruki's soft language leading up to this, even with his words so focused on Akihiko's pain, the sheer love conveyed by these words is heart-wrenching—as is the art, Haruki's hand reaching out to Akihiko's face.

Akihiko has unearthed Haruki's unspoken feeling as part of his self-destructive spiral in a move that he no doubt expected to hurt Haruki, but instead, Haruki has owned up to his no longer hidden feelings and offers all of himself to Akihiko; turns the focus back onto Akihiko and his pain, rather than on himself, as Akihiko probably expected. As no doubt has happened in similar situations with Ugetsu.

And Akihiko, caught between Haruki here and the mess in his heart that is Ugetsu, expresses resentment that these words are coming from Haruki instead of Ugetsu.

"Why did you have to be the one to say that?" Akihiko laments silently, and then out loud,

[tr: "Telling you won't change anything."]

He follows this up with a small, "Sorry," and wonders to himself "Why couldn't it have been you?" (In Japanese, as in English, it is ambiguous whether he is wishing that Haruki were the one he wanted those words from, or that Ugetsu were the one saying those words. The last use of "you" in his internal monologue was directed at Haruki, supporting the first interpretation, but he is also lost in his head, so it would be no surprise if he is swaying back and forth.)

The scene breaks here, and on the next page, Haruki is curled up facing the back of the couch, fully dressed in new clothes and his hair now pulled back in a ponytail, and Akihiko is seated on the floor with his back to the couch, shirtless.

[Tr: "I'm sorry. Truly. I was completely in the wrong."]

Haruki responds, "That's not the part I want an apology for," even as he remembers those damning words, Telling you won't change anything.

[Tr: "...I said I'd give you anything. By the end it was basically consensual."]

Haruki goes on to say Akihiko is free to stay over, but he will be going to a friend's place.

Akihiko visibly panics, but only manages to call Haruki's name once as Haruki tells him he can use anything, can leave the door unlocked, but simply should be gone by morning.

Haruki leaves the apartment, and we see him cry as he walks through the darkened streets as those words Akihiko spoke again.

Left behind, Akihiko berates himself for how much he lets himself lean and depend (甘える) on Haruki, and he reflects on the events with his family and Ugetsu that lead him to where he is, without anywhere else to go. [NOTE: this is no doubt a significant factor in his later decision to move out of Haruki's apartment once as he goes through the process of bettering himself.] He contemplates the ways in which he has behaved towards Haruki, the parts of his own life he has almost instinctively hidden from his view.

Akihiko spends the night on the floor by the couch. (A shot of the clock at one point tells us it is 1:20am.)

We see morning dawn, and it is as Take is at work discussing lunch break that he gets a text from Akihiko, asking if he's seen Haruki. It is in the evening, when Take goes home, that he finds Haruki listless and hollow-eyed in front of his apartment.

The clock reads 9:40pm when Haruki comes home at last. Apart from the few hours he was with Take, Haruki has spent the better part of a night and a day alone who knows where.

[Tr: "Oh, you're still here"]

The hair that Akihiko had adored, the hair that Haruki had been growing since the day he met and fell for Akihiko, is cut short.

The Aftermath

The two of them don't shy away from the subtext of the last day—especially Haruki, who says blandly, "Sorry, but I'm tired after your rejection of my feelings, as you can see. Please go home." And when Akihiko tries to reach for him with a, "Wait, but—" his hand his slapped away by Haruki, who informs him, "Look, I'm angry at you." and cuts off Akihiko's attempted apology one syllable in with an admonishment that an apology will only make him angrier.

But Akihiko says what he should have said the night before—that he is at the end of his rope and has nowhere to go. He quietly asks to be permitted to stay in Haruki's apartment, assuring him that he will sleep on the floor, that he will not do anything again. He begs for Haruki to help him.

Haruki is furious.

「サイアク」the narration repeats: "[This/he] is the worst."

At last, Haruki agrees, but with the words, "If you weren't a band member, I'd throw you out."

The next day at band practice, Akihiko and Haruki are wildly out of sync, and while Haruki puts on a carefree smile for Uenoyama and Mafuyu, he is still spiraling with despair and humiliation.

And yet Akihiko too is on pins and needles, reacting with abject (though silent) horror when Uenoyama asks Haruki what's wrong.

But Haruki tells Uenoyama and Mafuyu nothing, and when he walks off and Akihiko goes after him, the words that come out of his mouth are all about his insecurities about his place in the band. About how he is too ordinary and does not belong in such a band of geniuses.

This is not what Akihiko was expecting his outburst to be about; this is also familiar territory for him, that he knows how to handle. Akihiko knows music.

He assures Haruki of why his music was off today, as he would have any other day. He assures Haruki that he is utterly deserving of his place in their band, as he has so many times before.

[Tr: "I've pretty much always told you that you're necessary, haven't I!?"]

And all at once, memories come rushing back to Haruki of so many times that Akihiko has told him of his value.

Haruki's anger loses its momentum and he deflates. They had back to Haruki's apartment, with Akihiko promising to cook dinner, as he is the freeloader. (Another nod to his tendency to view these arrangements as transactional.)

Living together proves a disillusionment process for Haruki. Of course, the night that Akihiko first came to his apartment was the enormous catalyst, but the disillusionment process continues.

All of those ways in which he had formerly idealized Akihiko crumble one after another for Haruki as they live together. Akihiko cooks, but he only has one flavor profile, and often makes fried rice. Akihiko spends most of his days on music, be it violin or the drums, and it is louder than Haruki is used to with his bass—it is also evidence that Akihiko is the musician he is because he puts in the work, not just inherent talent.

...And that brings us to the end of volume 4, so I think I shall stop here!

If you read all this way, thank you, and I hope this added something positive to your day!

[pocketgalaxies]

Hey, you’ve might of already answered this and I missed it, apologies for that, but what is your opinion on the whole Yu and Birdie fight? And how Bells Hells reacted to it? I’ve seen some harsh takes,like, harsh ass takes. And I am wondering what yours is. Again, sorry if you have already answered this.

hello! nobody has asked me this so you're all good!

idk what the harsh takes are but i personally thought it was totally in line with the characters as we know them so far, so i have no complaints dkfjskdf like?? idk i think critical role would not be as successful as it is if these people weren't extremely masterful character creators, and as long as things are in-character there's very little for me to complain about

all this to say i feel pretty neutrally positive about it, kind of just "that happened the way it happened!" and looking forward to seeing more extensive fall-out in upcoming eps, honestly not sure if i have much else to say at this point. i don't have any TAKES per se, just really hoping we get some RP-heavy stuff this week to get a better idea of how everyone is Feeling™? but some rambly thoughts about what happened in general:

in general i think the death wish run did a LOT of work to make bells hells trust yu. she repeatedly showed that she was willing to take huge risks to help bells hells succeed, and i think this ultimately played a big part in preventing the party from immediately turning on them once they revealed their true form (especially imogen and orym)

ashley did such a wonderful job walking the line between "you're my mom, i trust you above all else" and "you're a stranger i haven't seen in 90 years." i made a liveblog post about this too but i think it's interesting to see how fearne was p much paralyzed with indecision, but as soon as she got something out of birdie (read: that she is ruidusborn) that explained her behavior as anything other than intentionally hurtful, she was ready to turn on yu, but she needed that answer first.

imogen's prioritization of information-gathering makes a lot of sense considering that she knows better than most how emotions can bias your actions and perceptions, as well as how your feelings may not always be accurate or fair to the situation. imogen explicitly wanted fearne to have a happy reunion with her mother, and she also had some level of persistent suspicion of yu (from jealousy sure but also from the mind shielding), but she used detect thoughts to get all the info she could first, and that ended up defining her course of action

ashton was very very quiet. but mad at yu for sure. not sure what to make of it yet aside from being very very pissed at a traitor

fcg...i'd have to rewatch to rly confirm this but my initial impression was that fcg did a pretty terrible job picking up on the social subtext of everything that was going on DKFJSDF. sam has been v consistent in showing that there is just Something lacking in fcg's social instincts. everything is a little bit too objective, a little bit too black and white

chetney is consistently morally questionable and willing to make deals with the (proverbial) devil. i still feel like i don't understand this man at all so that's all i have to say at this time

i'm getting tired and i think ppl have written much better meta about orym than i have. something something he feels like he failed himself and will and keyleth 6 years ago and he was not willing to let it happen again

i wrote a little about laudna in yesterday's gifset but basically she just made me Sad. the use of bane to de-escalate was really interesting on marisha's part and in general i think laudna is extraordinarily non-confrontational and also was completely panicking. the helpless confused "agh!"s as she presses her hands into her eyes and summons the shadows onto a person that she loves. it made me very sad.

anyway hope this was fun to read i'm not going to proofread it so sorry if it's nonsense but long story short i don't have any particular takes about it at all, let alone harsh ones dkdkfjskdjfs

if you want to read more smarter neutrally positive analyses you can go in my #cr meta tag! there are some posts about yu and birdie in there too since i am too tired to put them here rn lmaooo

[sylleblosscm]

Since my bookstore hates me specifically and it taking all the time in the world to send me my copy of Dawn, @lightwithinthenightsky very kindly helped me get a digital version of it to read right away. And like a normal person who likes things a normal amount, I’ve been taking notes of details and things of interest, and also whatever I want. 

 It’s really a few different stories. The first is Episode Ardyn with a twist at the end, and the second is a story about Aranea. This is as far as I am right now, and I will be using these notes for myself to refer back to when I write Real meta about it. I have them in my Drive but I’m storying them here too so uh. If anyone wants them, I guess? Wants to discuss/use as a reference/ whatever. Go wild. But be warned: I don’t proofread prelim notes so even I don’t know what I was trying to say at any point. 

Pg ~140

Aranea, my girl.!!! Wyf!!!!!

Interesting information about life in the Empire

Aranea has fond childhood memories. 

First, playgrounds, then sporting grounds and theatres repurposed for the Empire’s ambitions.

Life under the Empire, once luxurious, is now empty and difficult. Luxuries are hard to find.

Regardless, some remain loyal to the emperor because something glory something. 

Aranea likes to sleep on a firm mattress and stiff sheets, where she can spread out. Absolute blanket hog. Crucial info.

The Empire values its MTs more than the mercenaries they hire, because mercenaries are cheap.

Pg 155

Diamond weapon, my old friend

I’m out of garlic prawns :(

Diamond Weapon was able to fell an apparently shitload of Imperial forces with its glowing red core. 

Like that one episode of Doctor Who on the Titanic.

Aranea seeing red and going apeshit on Diamond Weapon for taking human lives, my beloved. 

She crashed into a storehouse Cloud Strife style and just got up like it was nothing Top energy. 

Pg 159

Thanks to DW (I am going to call it that now and Imagine the annoying little sis from Arthur, nobody can stop me) there is an evacuation order in place throughout the Imperial Capital. 

The Aerial Safety Net system is a thing, which was installed on highrise rooftops “back when the Empire cared about safety”.

So there are clear vibes of a not-too-distant pass where the citizens of the Empire had it good.

Kind of interesting that “thank the Gods” is still an expression used outside of Lucis, in places not necessarily blessed by the Gods. 

TANGENT: After growing tired with the Gods’ bs, Luna and others changing their language to something along the lines of “thank the stars” instead. Must come back to this.

The safety net is one-way; it can stop things from falling but not rising.

How many times has someone accidently hit, say, a ball into the air and lost it on the net? Like with roofs and stuff? Was that a common issue?

“rogue MTs thrashing about alongside the daemons. The control system normally keeping them in line must have been put out of commission.” **Aranea suggests that there have been issues with rogue MTs slaughtering innocents before. This is good plot stuff, also I used something like it once so ha. 

Aranea finds a dead person murdered by one of the MTs, and can scarcely stand to look at it (bby girl pls).

Aranea looked after a three-year-old once? Who? Did I miss this? Will it come up again? Is mommy energy but also mummy energy?

There are a lot of residents stuck in the city that nobody seems either available or willing to help. Aranea has her team step up to the task like the top she is. 

“All right, Tiny. Time for your spanking.” Aranea please I can only be so bisexual. 

Diamond Weapon is king-konging it on top of Z Keep.

Pg 167

All the civilians they rescued are children. 

“...Aranea had experienced something similar before. The adults must have seen to the children’s safety, then gone to try to hold off the daemons and MTs. She felt sure of it, remembering voices from the distant past.” Episode Aranea when??

I think this book just roasted Chapter 13. Good.

Aranea is very Angry at the military for leaving the children in this situation, but also at herself for being part of such an organisation, and tries to comfort a little boy ;-; 

Man I came in here for a cool Luna AU but this/?? Dude.

Pg 170

Naturally, this seems to be all Ardyn’s doing. 

Something about the Emperor not producing an heir? Ok??

Apparently the Emperor had a wife and son but they both ded now. Are they trying to make me feel sorry for this creep? I don’t.

He wouldn’t even discuss the prospect of remarrying. So instead he decided to try to live forever rather than produce another heir. 

You know. Like a creep.

Apparently, he once was, or had the persona of, a selfless statesman, and that all changed about the time Ardyn arrived. 

Aranea’s already closer to guessing Ardyn’s true nature without seeing it or being told than anyone else, what a Queen. Queen of my heart. 

Aranea having a moment of silence for an Emperor she didn’t care for. 

Anyway, in case the theme isn’t clear, Aranea cares very, very dearly for human life and childhood innocence. 

Ardyn wants to send Diamond Weapon to Tenebrae. HMMM. 

Oh god Ardyn eats apples loudly, please I take back everything good I ever said fuck this guy.

Biggs, Wedge, and the people they rescued are on a train heading to Tenebrae, around the same time Noct is on a train. Probably not the same train; Noct’s didn’t have that many children. Also, Biggs, Wedge and Aranea were already in Tenebrae when Noct got there.

GET HIS ASS, ARANEA. FUCKING ROAST HIM. 

Pg 184

And now Aranea’s beating Loqi’s ass. Good For Her.png.

Ok they’re getting along now she also saved his ass.

Why does Loqi have a child?

Aw, Aranea’s whole home was destroyed by daemons. She’d wanted to help fight them off, but she was just a kid. She was told to remain and look after the younger kids.

Oh shit, is the kid the Emperor’s granddaughter????

Aranea takes the kid, Loqi stayed behind because something something glory to the empire. RIP, dude.

Pg 194

Aranea deduces the kid is used to being doted on.

They engage DW from Wedge’s ship. 

It gets knocked down but it gets up again. They’re never gonna keep it down. 

She announces the resignation she’d sarcastically tendered to Ardyn and fucking j u m p s from the ship what is it with this series and badass women jumping from midair? 

Then she says it was an honour to serve with everyone Aranea pls..

Yooo Aranea puts up a hell of a fight and resigns to being defeated then Biggs and Wedge show up and DLC WHEN?????????

She’s gonna take it out by being yeeted at it holy shit Imma wife this chaotic queen dlc whennnnnnn

Pg 207

Huh. Apparently Tenebrae was a resort destination before the Empire’s occupation. Neat.

The boys are roasting Aranea for saying goodbye to everyone and it’s the cutest shit??

Pg 210

First the DW fight then a bunch of daemons. Poor bastards :/

Aw the kid was worried about Aranea, and Aranea just gives her a big hug please.

The kid’s name is Solara Antiquum, Sol for short. Yeeeah, I know who this is.

Help this whole interaction is so cute, Aranea, please adopt this child and live an idyllic cottagecore life it’s all I want for you now.

Secret Granddaughter, yep.

Pg 214

The same year Noct comes back 

Aranea, Biggs and Wedge living their best life with their daughter, Good For Them.png.

Apparently she has a “famous” cassoulet recipe, she’s getting wifier by the second. 

It’s Sol’s favourite food. 

[kiranatrix]

Any tips for writing a well DN fanfiction ?

This is a bit tricky to answer since everyone’s idea of what makes a good story differs. The main thing is to write something YOU like and want to do for fun. But I can give you my process at least.

- Ideas. The idea has to 100% grab me by the neck and shake me. If I can’t get it out of my head, then I know I’ll have the stamina and creative juice to actually write it to completion. If the idea fizzles out after a few days then I doubt I’d be able to make other people interested in it either.

- Characters. Readers like to be able to recognize their favorite characters, so while author interpretation is good and needed, we still want to feel their essence from canon. Closely reading the source material or good meta helps with understanding who they really are/what motivates them. Putting them in new situations but still keeping their personalities, quirks, values, etc. is a good combo. For the same reason, stories centered on OCs will have a harder time attracting readers because the author has to get you to be interested in them. Canon characters have that interest built-in.

- Plots. Have the loose story ending in mind but don’t be afraid to change things up as you write. Twists and turns are fun but when they come out of the blue, not so much. Subtle foreshadowing is your friend! Writing satisfactory character arcs takes some time to build up (multi-chapter), but you don’t need to worry about that in a short one-shot since that’s more like a snap shot in time. Outlining can help you think about the major plot points and it doesn’t have to be detailed. I leave the fleshing out for the writing.

- Vetting. Bounce your ideas off people you trust to tell you something sucks or not. I’m serious, this is solid gold. BUT that shouldn’t stop you if you have an idea you really have to get out of your system. No one can see your vision as well as you can but if you’re writing to appeal to others too, other opinions are worth listening to. Grow some thick skin if you want to grow as a writer because you’ll only receive really helpful feedback if you can listen to it without hurt feelings.

- Proofing. Format it nicely and proofread. Nobody really cares about the odd typo here and there but when there are a lot, it can hurt the enjoyment of the story. Get Grammerly, use spellcheck, grab a beta reader, etc. Break up your paragraphs. When writing dialogue, use line breaks when a new person speaks. Break up long chunks of exposition with dialogue and vice versa. Check a page of a published book to see how professional typographers do it— there tends to be a lot of empty space and line breaks because that is easier for people to read.

- Kill your darlings. No, not your characters, I mean be prepared and willing to cut out writing that doesn’t work. If you don’t get overly attached to any one thing in your writing, you have ultimate freedom to look at it objectively for what works. Your story will be better for that.

- Do something different. The easiest way to carve your niche is to write something unique that isn’t like everything else out there. Maybe you have a unique style? Unique character interpretation? Like to focus on a genre that isn’t very prominent in fanfic?

- Don’t become obsessed with stats, popularity, or comments. It really sucks to write a story that you loved but nobody else seems to. All that hard work! But that’s the game and no one is obligated to read it, like it, or comment on it. If they do, awesome! They have great taste lol! But if not, do not take it to heart, and keep doing what makes you happy. Fanfic is a hobby we do for free and for fun, that’s it. Its popularity will not validate you or invalidate you because it’s not like we’re making money or getting anything else out of playing in the canon author’s sandbox. What I hope you get out of fanfic is from the writing part (the act of creation), not the number of kudos etc.

- DN specifically. This is a complex universe with lots of Death Note rules, shinigami lore, unique personalities, dark themes juxtaposed with humor, moral dilemmas, and complicated mind games. These are the aspects that make canon Death Note an incredible, compelling story. Fans of the series enjoyed it in the main story and will enjoy it in yours, too.

- Have Fun. This is the most important thing. Nothing else really matters because this is where the author’s passion comes from. That means don’t be afraid to break hearts or be fluffy or dark or silly or serious or however it is fun for you to be. If you disregard everything else, just do this.

[digitalmarketingcompanyindelhi]

The Ultimate SEO Friendly Website Redesign Checklist

As a provider of SEO services in Delhi we get a lot of questions from our clients regarding preserving the existing SEO structure while they want to redesign their website since it is an important task. Nobody wants to reinvest the whole capital and effort that they had put up earlier in the process of SEO.  We also noticed that there are many people that face the same issue and have the same doubt in the minds.

There are a lot of clients that come to us too late when they have actually redesigned their website and the whole structure of the SEO is already damaged. As the best digital marketing company in Delhi, we find this problem rising and becoming too common these days due to the steps that are taken by the inexperienced website designing companies. Upon investigating this further we also found out that once you redesign your website without thinking about the SEO aspect of it, the ranking of your website takes a major blow due to it. The ranking and the traffic take a major dip further down and recovering from these things takes a lot more effort than before.

Since this common is becoming common and a lot of businesses facing a lot of problems due to it, we as the provider of best SEO services in Delhi decided to come up with a checklist of our own that can help save the rankings and traffic of lots of businesses.

 The best checklist for website redesign needs to be a perfect blend of technical aspects of the website like the code and the schema while also encapsulating things like the execution and the content planning for it.

The checklist that we have designed as one of the best SEO services provider in Delhi consists of all the elements that are related to things that are important before and after the launch of your website. Having said enough, let us jump straight into it:

 Things that you should look out for while the initial setup of the website:

1.   Setting the development of the website as no index and no-follow.

2.   Cross-check if the links on your website are search engine friendly and can be discovered easily.

 Things that you look out for during the phase of content planning:

1.   Using website tools like Dynamo mapper can help you to crawl through the entire website so that you can get the list of all the URLs on the page.

2.   Making use of Google search console and SEM rush can help you to identify and note the top landing pages of your website.

3.   Create an SEO map by using techniques that are focused on mapping and also tracing the targeting keywords to URL.

4.   Making sure that the relationships among the different content are maintained without disturbing their structure.

 Key points that you should crosscheck while creating the content for your website:

1.   Upload the content that is a minimum of 1000 words after consulting your SEO company in Delhi.

2.   Taking some time to review the content that you are going to upload and also proofread it for grammar and spelling mistakes.

3.   Present your content in a way that it attracts a visitor to read it, consulting an SEO consultant in Delhi can help you learn more about this.

4.   Concentrate on meta-title and description as well since they also play a major role in the SEO of your website.

5.   Cross-check your landing pages to ensure that the SEO is working as you desire or not.

 Next up is the list of things that you should cross-check with respect to technical things related to SEO:

1.   One of the best practices in this is to make sure that the overall structure of the website is set for both the search engine as well as the person visiting your website.

2.   Making sure that the responsive aspect of the website is working properly or not is the next major task.

3.   Code in such a manner that you follow maximum W3 standards.

4.   Cross-check the schema and structured data on your website.

5.   Make sure that all the images on the website have their own alt tag with the correct values.

6.   Compressing and optimizing the images to make sure that the website loads faster.

7.   Working on the creation of a new sitemap for your website.

8.   Cross-check the Robots.txt file on your website and validate it with the help of an SEO expert in Delhi.

 Finally, let us have a look at the things that you need to ensure during the launch of your website:

1.   Removal of the no follow and no index from the website once it goes live.

2.   Validating the Google Analytics and setting it up to make sure that the structure of the URL is correct and also the flow of your website is as per your checklist.

3.   Uploading the new sitemap of your website on the console of Google and Bing.

4.   Using Dynamo Mapper and similar tools to create error reports for your website.

 We hope that we didn’t scare you with a huge checklist for SEO during the redesign of your website. Things may appear to be huge but if this list is followed properly with the consultation of the best SEO services in Delhi you will see the results guaranteed.

If you would like to work with the best SEO services in Delhi, get in touch with us at Conceptualise.in today!

[marshmallowgoop]

@kuribo4indahouse replied to your post “[[MOR] Getting my stuff reblogged by big blogs always kinda feels...”

Don't worry too much about tumblr. Tags are weird. People often just won't see things they would like. My tumblr isn't anything to write home about, but sometimes I'm sirprised nobody sees some things I post that I think are of interest. And then snothr blog posts the same thing and it gets tons of notes. I think tumblr's system gives preference depending on several factors. I have like 1200 followers, I guess that is quite a bit but not that much? So your stuff is probably being missed by many KlK fans on this very site, it's weird. :/ 

Don't worry about it. Your coverage of the KlK game is absolutely amazing btw, I think you'd work well as a game's journalist for example...or just media/film journalist.

I hope I made sense lol, I'm a little sleep deprived

You made perfect sense. Thank you for writing all this when you were so tired. I have too much to say to put well in a reply, so I hope it’s okay if I post this as a non-reply. Do let me know if not; I’ll take this down right away.

I agree that Tumblr is highly flawed. If content includes outside links or somehow seems “spammy” by the site, then that content won’t be searchable. You might be able to find the content by scrolling through the tags, but tags aren’t looked at as much as the search—in fact, it’s actually impossible to go through Tumblr tags using the mobile app—and if content isn’t searchable, it will never be recommended to other users, either. 

Because I’m careful to cite my sources (and write a lot, I guess?), the majority of my work isn’t searchable. That means that the only way folks will find anything I do is if they happen to go through tags, follow me or check out my page, or if a big blog reblogs my work. And that’s the thing: Tumblr—and social media in general—is so much about being noticed by the right people.

And if you go to your Tumblr settings, click “Labs,” and opt to enable the “Reblog Graphs,” you can really see this phenomenon in action. 

All you have to do is hit the little bubble icon at the bottom of posts on your dashboard or blog:

For example, check out the Reblog Graph of a recent post of mine that did fairly well:

The orange dot here is my root post, and each of the blue dots represents one reblog. Because I’m a small content creator (and this post isn’t searchable), only four blogs reblogged the post straight from me, whereas 13 blogs reblogged the post from a bigger blog. If that bigger blog hadn’t reblogged my work, it’s likely that none of those 13 blogs would have reblogged my work, either. They probably wouldn’t have even seen it.

Of course, this is just how society works. Joe Nobody’s not gonna make much of a name for himself until he’s noticed by someone powerful and influential who can help make him big. But social media sites like Tumblr hurt so bad because it’s just so clear to see how much you don’t matter unless someone huge thinks you do.

I mean, I fall into this thinking, too! So often I’ll see a post that I think is really good, but it’ll have very few notes, and popular blogs won’t have picked it up at all. I’ll wonder to myself, “Is this creator someone that I shouldn’t be supporting? Is this a repost of someone else’s work that people are ignoring as they should?” 

And... that’s sad! It’s sad that I think this. It’s sad that I’ll have blogs “like” my posts and only reblog them when someone big and popular does—and sad that I catch myself doing this, too. It’s sad that your worth is so decided by a few powerful people at the top.

On a personal level, I’ve had so many doubts and insecurities about my work because I’ll see essays that make similar arguments to my own but garner so much more praise. I’ll see YouTubers make videos on topics I’ve literally written a book’s worth of meta about cite “recommended reading” and never include anything by me. They say that “comparison is the thief of joy,” but comparison is also a way to help push yourself to be better. What are others doing that I’m not that gets them noticed?

Maybe Tumblr isn’t the best place for my kind of content. Maybe I need to start making video essays. Maybe I format my posts badly. Maybe folks have a personal problem with me. 

My frustration is that I’m unsure of my own quality. I know I have a lot to learn and improve on, but I believe in what I do. I cite my sources, I proofread, I strive for accuracy and make sure that I can back up all of my arguments and claims. I’ll spend hours writing and rewriting until I get a post the way I want it, I’ll scrub through tons of video footage to confirm that I’m spelling that word right, I’ll take numerous photos to be sure that the one I’m putting on my post is the best it can possibly be. 

I think about presentation and readability and keep my paragraphs from going on too long. I include pictures and gifs to break up the word blocks, and I think about the placement of these images and the relevancy of them. I think about making my language engaging and exciting, even when talking about more academic concepts, and I’ve worked a lot on improving my grammar and making myself as easy to understand and as accessible as I can. I’ll watch an entire movie or read peer-reviewed journals or papers to make my responses to asks extensive and interesting and nuanced.

Everything I write that’s longer than a few sentences generally takes, at the absolute minimum, two hours of my time (including this!) I’m sure some of my more ambitious posts have pushed 30 hours, if not more.

And some of those ambitious posts? They get maybe 20 notes and not a single comment.

So, I wonder. Am I making content that people don’t like because it’s bad and I need to get better, or am I just doing all the wrong things to get noticed? Or do people—especially the big, influential people—simply hate me?

This is why social media contributes to such poor mental health, and I know I’m far from alone. There are people who work so much harder than me who get so much less for their efforts. There are so many passionate, dedicated, kind people who don’t receive the attention they deserve—such as yourself, kuribo4indahouse!

Thank you for your sweet words. I know I shouldn’t be a game journalist because I’m not really a gamer and that’s not my expertise, but to be taken more seriously and become more recognized as a media journalist or commentator would be a dream come true. 

I don’t know if I have what it takes, but nobody can know. All I can do is keep improving and trying, and even if I don’t “make it,” I love what I do, and I’m very thankful to those who support me.

[souljaems]

↬ “keep running home to you” flash!au part 2 — lee jeno.

— part one & final part 

— words: 3.6k

— warnings: I don’t know any of the NCT Dream members personally, I’m writing this based only in my opinions. I didn’t create any of the universe used in this story, all rights reserved to DC Comics.

— no proofread, sorry about any possible mistakes.

— fINALLY HERE IT IS THE SECOND PART!!! I’m not over yet, but the final part will be coming soon, I hope you all can enjoy this. Thank you so much for all your support, that’s my Christmas gift for all of you. GIVE JENO ALL THE LOVE HE DESERVES. 

”Jisung, what do you see?” Your voice sounds in Jisung’s ear, while he’s staring at the metahuman in front of him.

”You gotta be kidding me, how is this man a meta? I used to read every single post on his blog, he's a good writer.” Jisung says staring at the man who's literally controlling the wind.

”What can we say? There are no bad guys like the ones in our old gold days.” Donghyuck’s says in a fun tone, only to see you rolling your eyes beside him. ”Remember Jisung, he's not controlling the wind, he's controlling the thoughts of the people around you, making it into this kind of cloud of thoughts that it may look like wind, but it's not, it's much stronger.”

Jisung tries to run into the weird cloud barrier to arrest the guy, but he's thrown away meters back, only confirming the Donghyuck words.

”Okay, that hurt, you’re right Haechan. How do I stop a guy that can use the thought of people as a weapon?” Jisung asks in a rushed tone, slowly getting back on his feet.

”Okay, listen. If he's only using the thoughts of people around you guys to create this weapon, then it means he can't reach the whole city to create a stronger weapon, he has a limit.” Yeri's voice sounds in his ear, making a smile appear in Jisung's face.

”Got it, I'm running everyone out of here.” Jisung answers, already taking every single person he can see in the surrounding area to a safe and distant place.

”THAT’S MY BOY, YOU ALL.” Hyuck screams in the Star Labs, the place where all the team is, trying their best to help Jisung.

After Jisung is back, all the weird and rigid cloud that created a wall around the guy is gone, Yeri's plan worked and now the guy is unprotected.

”Give up Martin, I took all the source of your cloud away, you can't use the thoughts of people to protect yourself anymore, it's over.” Jisung says calmly walking 

“Okay Flash, I gotta give you credit for that, it was really impressive. But did you really thought that was the limit of my abilities? You’re not capable enough to stop the Mind Master from destroying this city.”

“Ugh, that’s a terrible name.” Jisung and Hyuck say both at the same tiime, with the disgust in Haechan’s face forcing you and Yeri to hold your laughs back.

“You two don't you dare to laugh, I can totally think about a better one than this.” Hyuck voice sounds in Jisung’s ear making him smile. 

“You will never destroy this city, not on my watch. Now, let’s get over with this.” Jisung says ready to handcuff the guy with the special handcuffs capable of containing the power of a metahuman. 

Jeno is watching the whole thing through the TV, a helicopter is recording live the whole, and thankfully to his speed, he’s capable of seeing a fast cloud emerging from behind Jisung and at this point he doesn’t even have to think about it, he’s already up from his chair, running to the place Jisung is. The Flash is clearly in danger.

Jisung is almost arresting the guy, but then he feels a strong pain in his chest and when he lowers his head to see what has happened, he notices a sharp shape that has just crossed his body. Mind Master is looking at him with a proud smile.

“You did exactly as I wanted, Flash. I knew the only thing capable of truly hurt you was your own thoughts, they’re the only thing fast enough to injure you in a way that your body can’t heal faster.” The man stares at Jisung eyes like he's something that he got in a fish, making Jisung want to punch his face.

Jisung tries to get out of it but a strong pain makes him scream, the cloud now has the shape of a hook, there's no way Jisung can get out of it.

”His blood pressure is dropping, he's not losing any blood but I don't think he's capable of handling this much of pain.” Yeri says while staring at the computer that has Jisung's health information.

”Why is he not healing Yeri? What do you mean he's not capable of handling it?” You quickly ask feeling a strong pain in your chest, seeing your brother like that is killing you. ”Yeri!”

”His cells can't even start the healing process, it's not because the cloud is still there, it is because the cloud is moving fast inside of him, just like his thoughts, his cells can not heal faster than that.” Yeri starts to explain, feeling afraid to continue.

”Jisung, you have to stop moving, this thing is very close to your heart, it can kill you.” Donghyuck says while he's already looking for his mask, he's in no damn way letting this guy kill Jisung.

Hyuck is opening a breach so he can go there when he feels Killer Frost approaching him. Killer Frost is an alter ego of Yeri that just appears when Yeri's scared or angry, and now, she's damn scared of losing her friend.

”Easy to say.” Jisung answers still trying to move.

”It's useless Flash, you can't escape something with your own speed.” Mind Master says, walking around in circles, enjoying every single second of The Flash's suffers.

”Jisung stop moving, please! Listen to Hyuck, they're coming to help you.” You beg on his ear, already feeling tears forming in your eyes.

”No! Don't let them come, it will make his powers stronger. Y/n you have to stop them!” Jisung quickly says trying to escape one more time, but this time, it's fatal.

”JISUNG!” You scream when you see the computer's screen indicating that his heart has just stopped beating.

Jeno finally arrives, he pushes the Mind Master away, what makes his cloud fade away from Jisung, since now he's clearly surprised.

”My powers are not enough to kill two speedsters at the same time. Too bad, guess you'll have to wait until another day.” The man says before fading away in some kind of cloud protecting him. ”Goodbye Flash.”

”Damn it!” Jeno screams in anger, running to Jisung that is not breathing anymore. ”Oh no, no, don't you dare to die on me. Jisung? Jisung? Please, you... You can't die.” Jeno says in a lower tone of voice, feeling tears rolling down his face. ”You can't die because of me, I was supposed to be the Flash and fight that guy... please Jisung.” His heart is literally shattering into pieces, he can't believe that for the first time in his life, he got it late. And even for the first time, that was fatal.

The breach Hyuck opened on the Star Labs close, and now it appears where Jisung is. He's with Killer Frost and both of them have tears in their eyes.

”Who are you?” Hyuck asks in a threatening tone when he sees Jeno next to Jisung's body.

Jeno stares at the two of them, seeing the same pain that he has in his eyes in their eyes.

”Answer the damn question right now if you don't want to become an ice crystal.” Killer Frost says with her hands ready to split ice.

”I’m not here to hurt you, I'm a speedster just like him.” Jeno answers slowly getting up, with the tears still falling down on his face.

”So what? We fought speedster before, that doesn't mean you're a good guy.” Donghyuck says trying his best to hold his tears, with his hands ready to spill energy at Jeno if he had to.

”Take me to Star Labs, and I'll explain everything.” Jeno says, quickly looking at the helicopter that's still recording the whole situation.

”How do you...”

”Believe me, I just know.” Jeno says clearing the tears from his face. ”I also know Y/n is hearing the whole situation there, she needs to hear the truth too and I can't tell this here, please, I just want to save him.”

Hyuck can't explain why, but his hands are going down without his control. There's a feeling inside of his guts that tell him to believe in the stranger, and when he looks at Killer Frost, he knows she's feeling the same way. Even because, speedster or not speedster, they have enough things in the Star Labs to stop the stranger if they have to.

”Okay.” Haechan says, breathing heavily, not being sure he can discuss anything at the moment.

”Okay?! Vibe, we can't just...” Killer Frost starts to say, with wide open eyes towards Hyuck.

”You can feel that's the right thing to do too. The whole city is watching.” Hyuck rushes to say, opening another breach and signing to the stranger to take Jisung’s body. ”Let’s go.”

After all of them entered in the breach, the breach closes and opens right after in the Star Labs, where you are, with your heart broken. Jeno feels his heart shattering to pieces when the first thing he sees is you, running to him just to hug Jisung’s body.

Everyone stares at you, but nobody seems to know exactly what to say, you're crying your heart out.

”My baby brother... It has to be something we can do, he can't be...” You say without a thousand of tears rolling down your face, you're on the floor hugging your only sibling's body, and you can help it but to feel like a part of you is completely gone. ”Hyuck, p-please, tell me that's something we can do to save him.”

Donghyuck is staring at you, his eyes already denying everything. Killer Frost is gone, which means Yeri is back, now on her knees standing by your side and trying to give you support.

”There is, but you guys have to listen to me first, okay? I can explain everything.” Jeno's beside you, so when he softly speaks next to you, your attention turns to him as well, and you have the feeling you heard his voice before, but it's not only that. You're feeling like you're going to believe whatever he says, it's almost as you already trust in him.

”Wait, are you talking about some twisted kind of resuscitation? Because if you are, forget it, we're not doing that to him, right Y/n?” Hyuck says, looking for your backup, but you honestly are not listening, all you can do is stare at the mysterious person by your side that gives you a strange feeling in your chest.

”Take your mask off.” You say with tears still falling down your face, attracting Jeno's attention. He's feeling nervous to be that close to you again, but now he's almost sweating because of your request.

”What?” Jeno asks, not getting the point of it.

”I just lost my brother to some masked guy, so enough of masks for today. Take it off, please.” You ask him again, and all Jeno is capable of doing is nodding, he could never deny a request from you.

Jeno takes a deep breath before finally taking his mask off, he thought he would see a shocked you in front of him, but your eyes are as calm as ever staring at his.

”Wait... you're the guy who saved Y/n from the Master Mind today when he was driving like crazy that car. Who are you?” Yeri questions him in a confused tone.

”Lee Jeno, from high school. How didn't I remember you earlier?” You ask, still looking at Jeno's eyes that indicates how he's surprised that you remember his name at all.

You feel some kind of electricity running through your veins when you look at Jeno's, It's weird but at the same time a peaceful feel. Before Jeno starts talking, you ask him to take your brother to the emergency room in the Star Labs, look at him makes your chest hurts. You really want to believe that Jeno has a solution for all of that, but part of you still tell you that your brother is gone for good.

”You said there's a way to save him, we're listening.” You ask, staring deeply at Jeno's eyes. You have no idea why you can't seem to be away from his eyes.

”Okay, so, um... There's no easy way to explain this, but, speedsters have the ability to travel in time because we can break the barrier of time-space and run faster than it if we want to.” Everyone looked at Jeno with shocked eyes and he quickly starts to explain it better. ”Yes, I know it sounds already crazy but I swear it gets worse. I'm from another timeline, where I was the Flash, Jisung was the Kid Flash and you guys were still in the team. Something that I can't tell you guys now happened, and another thing also happened right after it that made me decide to come back in time change the past where my mom was murdered, but I didn't know what effects that would make in this present, so that created an alternate timeline where a whole new existence where a lot of things changed, because I messed up the original timeline.” Jeno stops explaining when he sees the confused looks on your faces. ”And I can tell from the ”I don't believe you”look on your faces that you don't believe me.”

”Wait, are you telling us that all of this started when you created this flashpoint in the timeline?” Hyuck asks looking at Jeno like he's crazy. ”Oh, that's a great name, but that's... not the point, sorry.”

”How any of this will bring my brother back? Are you going to turn back in time and stop him from fighting the Mind Master today?” You ask, not being sure if you’re following this.

”No, we don't know which consequences that could bring to Jisung or to any of us, it's not safe for him. Travel in time there's always this high risk of changing too many things, I know that better than anyone.” Jeno states, biting the intern part of his cheeks after, he’s so mad at himself for letting that all happen.

”So, how are you saving my brother?” You ask in a worried tone.

”I need you guys to help me to find a point where it's safe enough for me to travel back in time, without putting Jisung’s life at risk so we can stop him from fighting the Mind Master in a different way.”

”You do realize that we're not capable of thinking in all the variants, right? Our computers are not good enough to predict all the variants, we're talking about the timeline here.” Yeri says, making the three of you exchange worried looks.

“I know, but finding out at least some of the variants will help us to get a better guess in what to do.”

”Jeno, if what you're telling us is true, it's impossible to actually know any true variants, because almost all our these years weren't really lived by us, they're just memories.” Hyuck says in a suggestive tone.

”What does that mean?” Jeno aks, not getting Hyuck’s point.

”It means we don't have actual numbers or probabilities to use, it's not safe to risk a guess from doubtful variants, it can mess even more the timeline.” Hyuck says in a serious tone, but part of him is breaking, he really wants to believe that there’s a way to save Jisung.

”We don't know that for sure.” Jeno tries to say, but he’s already having a lack of confidence.

”Don’t we?” Yeri asks in a tired tone. ”We really want to help, but what you're asking to do is impossible, it won't truly help you to know what's the best moment, we don't even know if this moment you’re looking for exists in this timeline.”

”So, my brother is gone.” You say trying to stop your tears from falling down, attracting the attention of everyone for you. ”I think is time for you to go too Jeno, I have a funeral to plan.” You give a bitter smile and walk out of the room, not feeling well enough to hear about it anymore.

”Y/n wait!” Jeno calls you out, but you don't stop, what makes him go after you, he couldn't let you think that it was all over. ”You have to believe me, it must be another way to save him, we just need to think better about it.” He says, holding your wrist and making you stop, still not looking at his eyes.

“Jeno, that’s the problem, I want to believe you, I really do. I don’t know how to explain it, but there’s this part of me that screams “trust him”, and when I look at you it makes really hard for me not to listen to this crazy feeling that trusting in you won’t be a mistake, but... I don’t really know you Jeno and all my eyes can see right now is my brother not breathing in that bed.” You say, not being able to control your tears anymore, you pull your hand back, escaping from Jeno’s grip and feeling your wrist tingling right after it. “You’re doing something to me.” You whisper, closing your eyes and trying to ignore the feeling that you’re going crazy.

“What?” Jeno asks, being shocked for a moment when you turn around to face him in the eyes, 

“You said you came from another timeline right? Where we all helped you like Team Flash? We were something else to each other back there, weren’t we?”

A short silence it's all both of you can hear. Jeno’s eyes are wide open and he feels like his heart will stop any time now.

“I... how do you...” Jeno starts to say, but stop himself when he remembers he can’t talk about it the risk of messing it up it’s too big.

“I don’t know, it’s just a guess. The way you look at me and all these weird feelings I’m getting right now, it just made me wonder about it. See, I have a good life, a good job, good friends, but I’ve always felt like something was missing and I sound completely crazy right now, but this feeling seems to fade away when you’re close and... I can’t stand being next to you without feeling like I want to look at your eyes. I know you can’t’ say much, but you know I’m right.” You say, seeing Jeno slowly moving his hands to clean your tears off your face, you feel your whole body tingling with his touch, it’s a weird sensation since you don’t know Jeno at all, but it’s like your body is already used to it.

“Yes, you’re right, I can’t talk much about it, but we were something else.” Jeno whispers with a small smile on his face.

“At least I’m not going crazy.” You answer in a sad tone, closing your eyes in relief.

“I promise you Y/n, I’m gonna fix this, you’re not losing Jisung, just trust me, okay?” Jeno says in a low tone of voice, taking his hand out of your face slowly, he really didn’t want to let go of you.

“Okay.” You answer opening your eyes just to see Jeno smiling at you, running out of the place right after it.

”Where is he going?” Hyuck asks in a confused tone after seeing you enter the room again.

”I hope he's not doing what I think he is.” You answer, taking a deep breath and going straight to the computer. ”Find his house Hyuck, I think I know what he'll do and we have to stop him.”

When Jeno stopped running, he's at home, already looking for his mom.

”Mom? Mom, where are you? Mom, I need you.” Jeno calls for his mom, already feeling his voice trembling, he doesn’t know if he’s capable of doing what he has to.

”I’m in the kitchen Jeno, why?” Nora answers, turning just to see his son in tears. ”Oh baby, what happened? Why are you crying?” She asks, but the answer she gets just makes her confused, Jeno is now hugging her out of nowhere.

”I think I'm going to let go of the woman I love.” Jeno whispers getting his mom to feel even more confused, but what she thinks it's happening is that Jeno is giving up on you.

”Oh my dear, the things didn't go how you expected?” She asks in a sweet tone while caressing his back.

”N-no, I thought I was doing the right thing, but... now I see I only screwed up everything. Following my heart was a bad idea.” Jeno says, but his mom immediately push him a little, so now she's facing him.

”Following your heart never will be a bad idea. Even if things don't go as expected, at least it’ll give peace to your heart. You're an adult, following your heart is becoming even harder now, but don't stop doing it just because it's getting harder, sometimes things won't go as your heart wants to, but it’ll bring you peace and more responsibility to try again. Try again is not a sign that you failed, it's a sign that you're growing up and learning about your mistakes. You learn with your mistakes.” Nora says in a serious tone and with a warm smile in her face. ”Don’t be ashamed to follow your heart. It's the best you can do.”

”Do you really think that works?” Jeno asks in a lower tone, enjoying every second of having his mom by his side. She's really the wisest person he knows.

”I lived my whole life like this, so I think you'll have to trust me on this.” She answers with a sweet smile on her face while running her fingers through Jeno's hair.

The doorbell sounds in the kitchen, making Jeno's mom look at the clock, not being able to risk a guess at who could be, but when she finally opens the door, she just smiles at Jeno who is behind her.

”Maybe you don't have to do any of that.” She answers, leaving the door and making Jeno face you in front of his door.

[shirtlesssammy]

7x23: Survival of the Fittest

The Road So Far:

I just want to give a GIANT shoutout to everyone in fandom that survived this and stuck around. I know in my heart my interest would plummet without Cas. Season 7 was brutal.

Now:

We find Crowley and Dick Roman sharing a business Scotch and negotiating how they’re going to divvy up Earth once the Leviathan master the human race. Demons get Canada. Leviathan need America though. (“They’re so fat.”)

In return for this generous offer? Crowley must give “Frick and Frack” imposter blood (as part of the cocktail that will kill Dick Roman.) They agree, and because Dick Roman doesn’t “kiss on the mouth” to seal his deals, Crowley unfurls a standard writer that stretches 10 feet. Lol.

Sam and Dean, meanwhile, are on the road trying to locate a righteous bone. Sam suggests contacting Cas again. For the record, I believe when Dean says “Dude, on my car” he’s making an oath that Cas made an appearance naked and covered in bees, not that he showed up naked, covered in bees, on Dean’s car. Either way, Dean was there and Cas was naked. But there were bees.

The boys arrive at a nunnery crypt and find the perfect bone, Sister Mary Constant. “Let’s bone this nun.” Oh Dean, always a way with words.

Crowley and Roman finish their negotiations.

Sam and Dean perform a summoning spell for Crowley. (Ah, was it during Dean and Crowley’s summer of love that they finally got him on speed dial?) Crowley doesn’t show, but Meg does. And she has a friend along with her: Cas.

He’s currently jamming out to some serious emo soft rock in the car. 

(Sidenote: Cas and Jack wave the same way. My heart.)

Dean is showing very, very, very little patience for his dear, damaged friend, but I know he cares so I’ll let his posturing and toxic attitude slide for right now. Cas does have serious questions about monkeys and cosmetics. Indulge the angel, Dean.

Once inside, Cas continues to act and say strange things. In his own broken way, he lets the brothers know that the angel garrison protecting Kevin is gone. Dean, in his usual football coach aggression, scares Cas, who does not want to deal with conflict. (I do love Dean’s line “We’re worried.” His worry manifests itself through anger throughout the series.)

Meg notices the demon summoning spell materials and is about to ditch when Crowley finally makes his appearance.

Crowley is less than pleased to see the angel. Cas dives into a nice, rambling diatribe about insects and honey (and a THOUSAND Cas + bees fics were born.) There is meta out there about this but I just can’t find it right now. Sigh, it was really good. Crowley doesn’t want to torture Cas if he’s not all there, so he hands the boys his blood, or is it? He says it is, but also says not to trust anyone.

He then tells Meg that she can stay with Cas until they handle Dick Roman.

Meanwhile, Bobby in the body of a hotel maid, is well on his way to becoming a vengeful spirit.

Dick Roman makes plans in case Crowley double crosses him. It involves an arm.

We briefly check in with Kevin Tran at SucroCorp Headquarters. His allies aren’t the sharpest blades in the drawer.

The brothers soak the righteous bone in the blood.

Nothing happens so Sam and Dean have no idea if it worked. Cas flaps in (I miss his wings) to present the (I proofread that as “his”. Brb, weeping) brothers with sandwiches. (His monitoring of the ingredients and comforting the pig before slaughtering it? Don’t touch me.) 

And when Dick Roman asked for the arm, he meant a literal frozen arm, wristwatch still intact.

While Kevin awaits his fate, he’s presented with dinner, a Biggerson’s burger. “I’m a vegan.” Not for long, buddy. You’re going to be living off of hot dogs soon enough.  

Kevin escapes with the help of his purloined hairpins and overhears a board meeting fronted by Dick Roman. He's discussing business strategy, including how they're going to divide America up to perfect their plan of industrialized leviathan feeding. This is all delivered in a cheerfully upbeat business-speak manner as they enjoy sushi made from fresh orphan.

When Kevin's heard enough, he heads straight for the exit, but is confronted by Dick's assistant.

Dean and Sam sit in a car and tap into Sucrocorp's security cameras. (They thank Charlie for it and I smile just to hear her name mentioned.) To their dismay, they discover that Sucrocorp is now overrun with Dick Romans, or a bunch of dicks, as the show might phrase it.

In the boardroom, Dick has Polly take off her dress and draws attention to her slight build. (Gross) He injects her with a drug that will be targeted to all skinny Americans. As it takes effect in Polly, she begins to spasm and foam at the mouth. She collapses quickly to the floor.

Sam notices a truck pull up outside of Sucrocorp and recognizes the maid as she gets out of the truck. He sees ectoplasm dripping from her, puts two and two together, and bails on the stakeout so he can go retrieve Bobby. He confronts Bobby in a back alley as the security camera whirls around. Bobby brandishes the knife at Sam, telling him to leave. When Sam refuses, Bobby slams Sam against the side of the car and chokes him. It's only when Bobby sees his reflection in the side of the car that he withdraws, horrified.

Back at the cabin, we learn that the woman Bobby possessed is doing much better. Sam then switches over to talking about the leviathan hunt and reveals the multiple Dicks. Cas looks perturbed by the news. “Hey, Shifty, what's your problem?” Dean asks. DEAN

“Do we need a cat? Doesn't this place feel one species short?” Cas says, deflecting. (Me: But seriously, YES) He refuses to get involved since he destroyed everything.

“Nobody cares that you're broken, Cas. Clean up your mess,” Dean shouts. This causes Cas to flap off and Meg informs Dean that Cas is the only one who can recognize the real fake Dick. They need him.

Later, Sam and Dean spin their wheels trying to figure out how to tackle their Dick problem when Bobby appears. He tells them he's going vengeful now that he's in the Veil, and begs them to burn the flask. Cut to a little while later, standing around a bed of hot coals. It's all feelings and no hugs in this little funeral scene and Dean chucks Bobby's flask into the coals. As the flask burns, a light illuminates Sam's and Dean's face. And then...Bobby is gone.

Jump to later, where Cas is busily playing games when Dean approaches him for help. He's not asking for a soldier. Instead, he just needs a lift to get to his car. They flap into a little storage garage with a covered car. Cas muses on their approaching assault on Sucrocorp. If Sam and Dean die, they're heroes. But if Cas dies he's just doing what he can to fix his own stupidity. Although, he also entertains the possibility that he'll die and get brought back again. “It's a punishment,” he tells Dean about his last three resurrections. OUCH, man.  

Dean delivers his own brand of pep talk in reply. “I'd rather have you, cursed or not. Nut up, alright? We're all cursed. I seem like good luck to you?” He's angry and defensive, but Cas starts to smile anyway. He detects a note of forgiveness in Dean. Cas vows to go with Dean and help out.

It's gray, it's rainy, but that doesn't stop Baby from squealing tires and generally being amazing. The Impala tears into Sucrocorp headquarters to the strains of Born to Be Wild.

Meg emerges, armed with borax and a knife. Dean, Castiel, and Sam are already inside, having slipped in while Meg distracted security outside. They hastily go from room to room checking for Dick Romans.

Outside, demons accost Meg. Crowley is moving in.

Sam rescues Kevin, who convinces him to stick around and blow up Sucrocorp's lab. In the lab, Dick is delicately sampling lethal creamer when Dean and Cas show up and slice up the chief lab tech leviathan. 

Dean pulls out the bone weapon, Dick lunges for Dean, and Cas tosses Dean out of the way and hurls himself at Dick. Dick easily chucks Cas across the room. This gives Dean the perfect opportunity to stab Dick right in the chest, but it seems to have no effect. Dick's still walking and talking and being smarmy. But then Dean opens his jacket and pulls another sharpened bone from a front, inner pocket vast enough to hold and conceal a giant bone (who MAKES these coats and where can I find one?) Cas pulls Dick's head back, baring his throat long enough to allow Dean to stab Dick right through the neck.

Dick Roman snarls angrily and begins to pulse with energy. He cackles before exploding into black goo.

Sam picks up his head to look around the lab moments after the explosion. It's empty of anyone but him and Kevin. While it's spattered with black goo, Dean and Cas are gone.

Enter Crowley, who happily tells Sam that without Dick Roman leading them, the leviathans are easy picking for his demon army. The bone weapon had a kick and dragged Dean and Cas off to Purgatory. Crowley nabs Kevin for his own, then leaves Sam alone in the lab as he silently freaks out.

Dean wakes up in a forest to Cas tersely ordering him to wake up. Cas tells Dean that they're in Purgatory and it's full of monsters and...even worse...leviathans. Dean turns to see red eyes glowing in the woods and tells Cas it's time to go...but Cas has already flapped away, leaving Dean alone. 

Random findings and food for thought:

7x23/13x10 parallels

Dean needs Cas to get Dick

Starry, Starry Quotes:

Here we are, negotiating like proper psychopaths.

Let's bone this nun

Go ask him, he was your boyfriend first.

How important is lipstick to you, Dean?

You have no sense of poetry.

Where's the fun in clobbering a ball of wet fur? Text me when Sparkles here retrieves his marbles

Please accept this sandwich as a gesture of solidarity.

We should play Twister.

I see now. It's a punishment resurrection. It's worse every time.

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

[templatetesterus-blog]

Does Article Marketing Still Work - Are Keywords Important?

Well, does article marketing still work? You bet it does! Are keywords important? You bet they are! Nobody knows where these fable came from, but even dozens so-called internet marketing and SEO gurus are saying that object marketing does not enterprise anymore and that keywords are no longer important. Neither is true.

It likely stems from the fable surrounding the Panda and Penguin algorithm updates, but it is patently obvious to me that you tend to get more guest to your website and blog if you promote them using object marketing. I generally get an upswing in visits to specific pages within my website after I promote that page in the resource of my article.

The pages I have ranked highest in Google are keyword rich for the occupation rendezvous they potion for. I have seen no testament whatsoever for item marketing being dead or of a hammock page acceptance a high divisions for a keyword not contained within that page. Sure, there permanence be the odd one, but Google entries are packed with pages without keywords - that's nonsense. The highest ranked pages for any keyword contain the keyword - generally in the title, but sometimes only in the corpse of the page content. Try it for yourself!

Keep Keyword Density Down

Article marketing is still one of the best orderliness of promoting a website or blog - and when you use it, type sure you utility keywords: least 0.5% - 1%. I am not suggesting you should essence your page with 5% or even 3%, but if you use Yoast for your WordPress SEO you won't get a nice lawn decoration without keywords! You must give your proofreader some impression what your content is about, and Google also likes to see keywords in your Title tickets and Meta Description tag. That's because it helps Google exploiter choose the listed page bulk relevant to their needs.

Google is all approx ceremony its user happy, and Google buyer are those using it as a pastime engines - clan seeking information. These people omission to see their keyword or pastime session in the record Google offers. Otherwise they solidity utility another pastime engine. To suggest Google prefers no keywords displays ignorance of Google's cause in life.

When penmanship articles, make sure you utility the keyword in the title, preferably at the beginning. It may also encouragement to use a related manifestation towards the conclusion so you are using two related keywords. For example, if you are document roughly the topic of keywords, you could use a title "Why Keywords are Essential for Good Web Content." You are then focusing on 'keywords' and 'web content.'

Duplicate Content Won't Help

Where scoop marketing durability have negative results is if you submit the same object to too many directories. Choose one or two major object directories, such as Ezine Articles and Go Articles. Alternatively, submit different stall of your scoop to different object directories. Submission services such Submit Your Article enable you to achieve this easily.

I have yet to see testament of this harming entrance - I have never had a chinchorro page lose its faculty viewpoint through me presenting articles promoting it to multiple directories. Google testament income dealing of too scads copy on the decoys itself, and ultimately parting only one elucidation published. Nevertheless, the placement you get with multiple meekness can help you in the shot term.

Does Article Marketing Still Work - Yes It Does!

Each to his own is what I say. One person may use one promotional method while somebody else uses another. Why are so-called SEO specialist always beefing roughly what others are doing, and claiming it 'doesn't work?' What does it incident to them what I do - unless it does employment and my technique are harming their rankings? Or is their way the only way, and is 'pay me to finds what my medium is' their ultimate objective?

Take my expression for it - keywords are important, and 'does article marketing still work?' - sure it does, and don't let anybody tell you differently unless they can give you definitive verification otherwise. They productivity occurrences their chinchorro page was deindexed - but maybe there are other reasons for that. I don't know. I do know it mechanism for me - article marketing and using keywords!

Pete is a successful article ghostwriter and relies heavily upon item marketing and intelligent use of keyword to get his website to the top of the Google rankings. Check out his website Article Services [https://templatetester.com/yoast-seo-alternatives/] for more information on manuscript articles, article relinquishment  and how to utility keywords correctly.

[lexiehewitt6]

Search Marketing Made Easy With Tips That Help You Succeed

Failing to use the right Search Marketing techniques will mean that very few visitors will ever find your site. Use the tips in this article to start generating more traffic to your website.

Search Engine

To make sure you have a place in search engine results you should have a large amount of keywords, even those that are misspelled, in the area of your site where you put meta tags. The content of your meta tags is what helps the search engine categorize your website and determine how to describe your link to searchers. To demonstrate this, let’s say your site theme is about knives. You could include a variety of related keywords, including: “knives,” “nives”, and “knifes”, along with any other reasonable options you may want to consider.

Be patient for results from Local SEO In Lynchburg VA. Large changes in traffic volume will not immediately happen. On the contrary, it can take several months if your site is fairly new. You need to build your good name, and that takes time.

To boost your PageRank, you have to attract and maintain the visitors on your page. There is evidence that the more time a person is on a site the higher ranked that site will be. There is more and more evidence suggesting that how long a visitor stays on a site affects their PageRank, according to Quantcast scores. When customers can chat, discuss, and interact with each other on your site, they are more likely to stay longer.

Using a product feed will boost your online presence and get more people to your site. These feeds will list details about your products and services, such as images, prices and descriptions. Send these to search engines, as well as sites that compare prices. A feed reader can also help customers subscribe to a feed.

Promote your expertise in your particular field, so your customers are aware of your level of knowledge. It is an effective marketing strategy that can have great rewards. You can do this by starting a website focused around your niche. You can additionally implement search engine optimization strategies to attract as much targeted traffic as possible. Make sure you know exactly what customers are looking for, don’t just guess.

Authoring a blog and commenting on other blogs related to your website’s niche can be a good SEO Marketing technique. Blogs are a great way to move up the search rankings as they are constantly updated: this makes them easy for search engine algorithms to find and rank. Search engines will respond to backlinks by bringing more visitors.

Don’t try using Flash when you’re using a website for Local SEO purposes. Spiders can not read it and it is slow to load. To optimize your website for search engines, you have to have information that’s searchable by them.

Site Map

Including a site map on your website is key to any search engine optimization process. Spiders use the site map to find out information regarding your website. A huge site might require more than a single map. As a guideline, try to stay under 100 links for each map.

Research information about keywords first so you know what to write. You should focus on the correct keywords during website design and you should incorporate your keywords into your titles. Your keywords research will help you ascertain what search words and phrases are being entered by your prospective customers as they look online for products or services like yours. Raise your SEO Services ranking by focusing on these subjects throughout your webpage.

While proofreading is often overlooked, it’s vital to the quality and respectability of all websites. Make sure that all of the information on your site is clearly laid out for your visitors and for search engines. When you have mistakes in your content, search engines will skip over you.

Keep away from spam filters and never use duplicate content. Know that you are possibly using duplicated content without knowing it. Repeating the same product description can save time, but search engines see it as spamming.

Look into using online ads. Do it yourself search engine optimization may sometimes not be enough to see a significant increase in rankings. Advertisers such as these work to increase the number of people visiting your page. Using products such as those from Google can make a huge difference.

Focus on becoming an expert in just one or two aspects of Lynchburg SEO Services right away. New techniques are cropping up every day, but mastering even one will dramatically improve the success of your content.

Use language meta tags if your site is not in English. They can help improve your rankings since they will be found in those foreign language searches.

Try optimizing one page with one specific keyword phrase. Trying to stuff a page with too many keywords will make your content hard to read. It’s better to choose a single topic and provide the best content possible. This will make it more likely that visitors return the site. If your audience is visiting your site often you’ll find that the reward is even greater than that which you gain from search engine optimization!

When buying a new domain, see if your host can redirect your old landing page to the new one. That way, users will be able to use old bookmarks to reach your new site. You can also get redirect pages up on the older domain and that can lead the users there to your new site.

Make sure to configure your hosting company’s server so that it’s case-sensitive for URLS. Having lower case letters in your URL may decrease the chance that visitors end up on your site.

By commenting on relative blogs, you will get increased traffic to your site. Many blog owners will let you drop your link if you leave a comment of substance. If you link your site to irrelevant topics or leave useless comments, you will likely have this privilege revoked. If you know your subject well, it will be easy for you to leave acceptable comments, along with your link, on many blogs.

Internet Businesses

Nobody wants to see his or her own business failing. Many businesses do end up failing, including Internet businesses. However, many Internet businesses actually do succeed because of the vast number of strategies that online businesses can utilize.

When you don’t know where to begin, When it comes to search marketing, you really shouldn’t trust your company’s Google ranking to someone who is not a Lynchburg SEO Expert. If you are reading this, you most likely are searching for someone who can advice you enhance your business’ online visibility, website traffic, and leads.

can appear to be a complicated topic. Therefore, it’s vital that you arm yourself with the right knowledge. The information from this article will help you move forward purposefully.

from https://lynchburgseoexpert.com/search-marketing-made-easy-with-tips-that-help-you-succeed/

from Lynchburg SEO Expert - Blog https://lynchburgseoexpert.weebly.com/blog/search-marketing-made-easy-with-tips-that-help-you-succeed

[sylviajackson10]

Search Marketing Made Easy With Tips That Help You Succeed

Failing to use the right Search Marketing techniques will mean that very few visitors will ever find your site. Use the tips in this article to start generating more traffic to your website.

Search Engine

To make sure you have a place in search engine results you should have a large amount of keywords, even those that are misspelled, in the area of your site where you put meta tags. The content of your meta tags is what helps the search engine categorize your website and determine how to describe your link to searchers. To demonstrate this, let’s say your site theme is about knives. You could include a variety of related keywords, including: “knives,” “nives”, and “knifes”, along with any other reasonable options you may want to consider.

Be patient for results from Local SEO In Lynchburg VA. Large changes in traffic volume will not immediately happen. On the contrary, it can take several months if your site is fairly new. You need to build your good name, and that takes time.

To boost your PageRank, you have to attract and maintain the visitors on your page. There is evidence that the more time a person is on a site the higher ranked that site will be. There is more and more evidence suggesting that how long a visitor stays on a site affects their PageRank, according to Quantcast scores. When customers can chat, discuss, and interact with each other on your site, they are more likely to stay longer.

Using a product feed will boost your online presence and get more people to your site. These feeds will list details about your products and services, such as images, prices and descriptions. Send these to search engines, as well as sites that compare prices. A feed reader can also help customers subscribe to a feed.

Promote your expertise in your particular field, so your customers are aware of your level of knowledge. It is an effective marketing strategy that can have great rewards. You can do this by starting a website focused around your niche. You can additionally implement search engine optimization strategies to attract as much targeted traffic as possible. Make sure you know exactly what customers are looking for, don’t just guess.

Authoring a blog and commenting on other blogs related to your website’s niche can be a good SEO Marketing technique. Blogs are a great way to move up the search rankings as they are constantly updated: this makes them easy for search engine algorithms to find and rank. Search engines will respond to backlinks by bringing more visitors.

Don’t try using Flash when you’re using a website for Local SEO purposes. Spiders can not read it and it is slow to load. To optimize your website for search engines, you have to have information that’s searchable by them.

Site Map

Including a site map on your website is key to any search engine optimization process. Spiders use the site map to find out information regarding your website. A huge site might require more than a single map. As a guideline, try to stay under 100 links for each map.

Research information about keywords first so you know what to write. You should focus on the correct keywords during website design and you should incorporate your keywords into your titles. Your keywords research will help you ascertain what search words and phrases are being entered by your prospective customers as they look online for products or services like yours. Raise your SEO Services ranking by focusing on these subjects throughout your webpage.

While proofreading is often overlooked, it’s vital to the quality and respectability of all websites. Make sure that all of the information on your site is clearly laid out for your visitors and for search engines. When you have mistakes in your content, search engines will skip over you.

Keep away from spam filters and never use duplicate content. Know that you are possibly using duplicated content without knowing it. Repeating the same product description can save time, but search engines see it as spamming.

Look into using online ads. Do it yourself search engine optimization may sometimes not be enough to see a significant increase in rankings. Advertisers such as these work to increase the number of people visiting your page. Using products such as those from Google can make a huge difference.

Focus on becoming an expert in just one or two aspects of Lynchburg SEO Services right away. New techniques are cropping up every day, but mastering even one will dramatically improve the success of your content.

Use language meta tags if your site is not in English. They can help improve your rankings since they will be found in those foreign language searches.

Try optimizing one page with one specific keyword phrase. Trying to stuff a page with too many keywords will make your content hard to read. It’s better to choose a single topic and provide the best content possible. This will make it more likely that visitors return the site. If your audience is visiting your site often you’ll find that the reward is even greater than that which you gain from search engine optimization!

When buying a new domain, see if your host can redirect your old landing page to the new one. That way, users will be able to use old bookmarks to reach your new site. You can also get redirect pages up on the older domain and that can lead the users there to your new site.

Make sure to configure your hosting company’s server so that it’s case-sensitive for URLS. Having lower case letters in your URL may decrease the chance that visitors end up on your site.

By commenting on relative blogs, you will get increased traffic to your site. Many blog owners will let you drop your link if you leave a comment of substance. If you link your site to irrelevant topics or leave useless comments, you will likely have this privilege revoked. If you know your subject well, it will be easy for you to leave acceptable comments, along with your link, on many blogs.

Internet Businesses

Nobody wants to see his or her own business failing. Many businesses do end up failing, including Internet businesses. However, many Internet businesses actually do succeed because of the vast number of strategies that online businesses can utilize.

When you don’t know where to begin, When it comes to search marketing, you really shouldn’t trust your company’s Google ranking to someone who is not a Lynchburg SEO Expert. If you are reading this, you most likely are searching for someone who can advice you enhance your business’ online visibility, website traffic, and leads.

can appear to be a complicated topic. Therefore, it’s vital that you arm yourself with the right knowledge. The information from this article will help you move forward purposefully.

from Lynchburg SEO Expert https://lynchburgseoexpert.com/search-marketing-made-easy-with-tips-that-help-you-succeed/ from Lynchburg SEO Expert https://lynchburgseoexpert.tumblr.com/post/614988863287574528

[lynchburgseoexpert]

Search Marketing Made Easy With Tips That Help You Succeed

Failing to use the right Search Marketing techniques will mean that very few visitors will ever find your site. Use the tips in this article to start generating more traffic to your website.

Search Engine

To make sure you have a place in search engine results you should have a large amount of keywords, even those that are misspelled, in the area of your site where you put meta tags. The content of your meta tags is what helps the search engine categorize your website and determine how to describe your link to searchers. To demonstrate this, let’s say your site theme is about knives. You could include a variety of related keywords, including: “knives,” “nives”, and “knifes”, along with any other reasonable options you may want to consider.

Be patient for results from Local SEO In Lynchburg VA. Large changes in traffic volume will not immediately happen. On the contrary, it can take several months if your site is fairly new. You need to build your good name, and that takes time.

To boost your PageRank, you have to attract and maintain the visitors on your page. There is evidence that the more time a person is on a site the higher ranked that site will be. There is more and more evidence suggesting that how long a visitor stays on a site affects their PageRank, according to Quantcast scores. When customers can chat, discuss, and interact with each other on your site, they are more likely to stay longer.

Using a product feed will boost your online presence and get more people to your site. These feeds will list details about your products and services, such as images, prices and descriptions. Send these to search engines, as well as sites that compare prices. A feed reader can also help customers subscribe to a feed.

Promote your expertise in your particular field, so your customers are aware of your level of knowledge. It is an effective marketing strategy that can have great rewards. You can do this by starting a website focused around your niche. You can additionally implement search engine optimization strategies to attract as much targeted traffic as possible. Make sure you know exactly what customers are looking for, don’t just guess.

Authoring a blog and commenting on other blogs related to your website’s niche can be a good SEO Marketing technique. Blogs are a great way to move up the search rankings as they are constantly updated: this makes them easy for search engine algorithms to find and rank. Search engines will respond to backlinks by bringing more visitors.

Don’t try using Flash when you’re using a website for Local SEO purposes. Spiders can not read it and it is slow to load. To optimize your website for search engines, you have to have information that’s searchable by them.

Site Map

Including a site map on your website is key to any search engine optimization process. Spiders use the site map to find out information regarding your website. A huge site might require more than a single map. As a guideline, try to stay under 100 links for each map.

Research information about keywords first so you know what to write. You should focus on the correct keywords during website design and you should incorporate your keywords into your titles. Your keywords research will help you ascertain what search words and phrases are being entered by your prospective customers as they look online for products or services like yours. Raise your SEO Services ranking by focusing on these subjects throughout your webpage.

While proofreading is often overlooked, it’s vital to the quality and respectability of all websites. Make sure that all of the information on your site is clearly laid out for your visitors and for search engines. When you have mistakes in your content, search engines will skip over you.

Keep away from spam filters and never use duplicate content. Know that you are possibly using duplicated content without knowing it. Repeating the same product description can save time, but search engines see it as spamming.

Look into using online ads. Do it yourself search engine optimization may sometimes not be enough to see a significant increase in rankings. Advertisers such as these work to increase the number of people visiting your page. Using products such as those from Google can make a huge difference.

Focus on becoming an expert in just one or two aspects of Lynchburg SEO Services right away. New techniques are cropping up every day, but mastering even one will dramatically improve the success of your content.

Use language meta tags if your site is not in English. They can help improve your rankings since they will be found in those foreign language searches.

Try optimizing one page with one specific keyword phrase. Trying to stuff a page with too many keywords will make your content hard to read. It’s better to choose a single topic and provide the best content possible. This will make it more likely that visitors return the site. If your audience is visiting your site often you’ll find that the reward is even greater than that which you gain from search engine optimization!

When buying a new domain, see if your host can redirect your old landing page to the new one. That way, users will be able to use old bookmarks to reach your new site. You can also get redirect pages up on the older domain and that can lead the users there to your new site.

Make sure to configure your hosting company’s server so that it’s case-sensitive for URLS. Having lower case letters in your URL may decrease the chance that visitors end up on your site.

By commenting on relative blogs, you will get increased traffic to your site. Many blog owners will let you drop your link if you leave a comment of substance. If you link your site to irrelevant topics or leave useless comments, you will likely have this privilege revoked. If you know your subject well, it will be easy for you to leave acceptable comments, along with your link, on many blogs.

Internet Businesses

Nobody wants to see his or her own business failing. Many businesses do end up failing, including Internet businesses. However, many Internet businesses actually do succeed because of the vast number of strategies that online businesses can utilize.

When you don’t know where to begin, When it comes to search marketing, you really shouldn’t trust your company’s Google ranking to someone who is not a Lynchburg SEO Expert. If you are reading this, you most likely are searching for someone who can advice you enhance your business’ online visibility, website traffic, and leads.

can appear to be a complicated topic. Therefore, it’s vital that you arm yourself with the right knowledge. The information from this article will help you move forward purposefully.

from Lynchburg SEO Expert https://lynchburgseoexpert.com/search-marketing-made-easy-with-tips-that-help-you-succeed/

[markdaniel9]

Search Marketing Made Easy With Tips That Help You Succeed

Failing to use the right Search Marketing techniques will mean that very few visitors will ever find your site. Use the tips in this article to start generating more traffic to your website.

Search Engine

To make sure you have a place in search engine results you should have a large amount of keywords, even those that are misspelled, in the area of your site where you put meta tags. The content of your meta tags is what helps the search engine categorize your website and determine how to describe your link to searchers. To demonstrate this, let’s say your site theme is about knives. You could include a variety of related keywords, including: “knives,” “nives”, and “knifes”, along with any other reasonable options you may want to consider.

Be patient for results from Local SEO In Lynchburg VA. Large changes in traffic volume will not immediately happen. On the contrary, it can take several months if your site is fairly new. You need to build your good name, and that takes time.

To boost your PageRank, you have to attract and maintain the visitors on your page. There is evidence that the more time a person is on a site the higher ranked that site will be. There is more and more evidence suggesting that how long a visitor stays on a site affects their PageRank, according to Quantcast scores. When customers can chat, discuss, and interact with each other on your site, they are more likely to stay longer.

Using a product feed will boost your online presence and get more people to your site. These feeds will list details about your products and services, such as images, prices and descriptions. Send these to search engines, as well as sites that compare prices. A feed reader can also help customers subscribe to a feed.

Promote your expertise in your particular field, so your customers are aware of your level of knowledge. It is an effective marketing strategy that can have great rewards. You can do this by starting a website focused around your niche. You can additionally implement search engine optimization strategies to attract as much targeted traffic as possible. Make sure you know exactly what customers are looking for, don’t just guess.

Authoring a blog and commenting on other blogs related to your website’s niche can be a good SEO Marketing technique. Blogs are a great way to move up the search rankings as they are constantly updated: this makes them easy for search engine algorithms to find and rank. Search engines will respond to backlinks by bringing more visitors.

Don’t try using Flash when you’re using a website for Local SEO purposes. Spiders can not read it and it is slow to load. To optimize your website for search engines, you have to have information that’s searchable by them.

Site Map

Including a site map on your website is key to any search engine optimization process. Spiders use the site map to find out information regarding your website. A huge site might require more than a single map. As a guideline, try to stay under 100 links for each map.

Research information about keywords first so you know what to write. You should focus on the correct keywords during website design and you should incorporate your keywords into your titles. Your keywords research will help you ascertain what search words and phrases are being entered by your prospective customers as they look online for products or services like yours. Raise your SEO Services ranking by focusing on these subjects throughout your webpage.

While proofreading is often overlooked, it’s vital to the quality and respectability of all websites. Make sure that all of the information on your site is clearly laid out for your visitors and for search engines. When you have mistakes in your content, search engines will skip over you.

Keep away from spam filters and never use duplicate content. Know that you are possibly using duplicated content without knowing it. Repeating the same product description can save time, but search engines see it as spamming.

Look into using online ads. Do it yourself search engine optimization may sometimes not be enough to see a significant increase in rankings. Advertisers such as these work to increase the number of people visiting your page. Using products such as those from Google can make a huge difference.

Focus on becoming an expert in just one or two aspects of Lynchburg SEO Services right away. New techniques are cropping up every day, but mastering even one will dramatically improve the success of your content.

Use language meta tags if your site is not in English. They can help improve your rankings since they will be found in those foreign language searches.

Try optimizing one page with one specific keyword phrase. Trying to stuff a page with too many keywords will make your content hard to read. It’s better to choose a single topic and provide the best content possible. This will make it more likely that visitors return the site. If your audience is visiting your site often you’ll find that the reward is even greater than that which you gain from search engine optimization!

When buying a new domain, see if your host can redirect your old landing page to the new one. That way, users will be able to use old bookmarks to reach your new site. You can also get redirect pages up on the older domain and that can lead the users there to your new site.

Make sure to configure your hosting company’s server so that it’s case-sensitive for URLS. Having lower case letters in your URL may decrease the chance that visitors end up on your site.

By commenting on relative blogs, you will get increased traffic to your site. Many blog owners will let you drop your link if you leave a comment of substance. If you link your site to irrelevant topics or leave useless comments, you will likely have this privilege revoked. If you know your subject well, it will be easy for you to leave acceptable comments, along with your link, on many blogs.

Internet Businesses

Nobody wants to see his or her own business failing. Many businesses do end up failing, including Internet businesses. However, many Internet businesses actually do succeed because of the vast number of strategies that online businesses can utilize.

When you don’t know where to begin, When it comes to search marketing, you really shouldn’t trust your company’s Google ranking to someone who is not a Lynchburg SEO Expert. If you are reading this, you most likely are searching for someone who can advice you enhance your business’ online visibility, website traffic, and leads.

can appear to be a complicated topic. Therefore, it’s vital that you arm yourself with the right knowledge. The information from this article will help you move forward purposefully.

source https://lynchburgseoexpert.com/search-marketing-made-easy-with-tips-that-help-you-succeed/ from Lynchburg SEO Expert https://lynchburgseoexpert.blogspot.com/2020/04/search-marketing-made-easy-with-tips.html

[wjwilliams29]

How to Write SEO Friendly Blog Posts – The Complete Checklist

Writing for SEO purposes can be difficult and time consuming. However, it’s time well spent, as SEO helps us rank better in the search engines.

  How do you write an SEO-friendly blog post, you might ask? Using a step-by-step SEO checklist, of course! By the end of this article, you’ll know exactly how to write search engine friendly blog posts. So, give it a good read!

    Don’t loose time! Below you can find the full checklist you should follow if you want to have SEO friendly blog posts. 

  Download The SEO Friendly Blog Posts Checklist

    Writing

Setup Website/Blog

Perform Keyword Research

Check Competition

Gather Information for Writing

Outline the Article

Write Your Content

Add Optimized Images

Add Video Content

Create the Title Tag of the Blog Post

Create the Meta Description

Blog Post Heading H1

Write Optimized URL

Before Publishing

Add a Featured Image

Categories & Tags

Social Media Optimization

Take Authorship

Proofread

Verify Links

Are Share Buttons Functional?

Publish the Blog Post

After Publishing

Share on Social Media

Build Base Links

Read Comments and Reply to Them

Upgrade Your Article

Maximize/Repurpose Your Content

  Writing

    1. Setup Website/Blog

  The first step in creating a well-optimized blog post is to make sure you website is correctly set for SEO. This is something that you will do only once, but it does depend on the platform you’re website is built on.

  In the checklist, you can find this section in a separate sheet/tab, at the bottom of the screen. Make sure you take a look before you start writing.

  Mobile Friendly:

  Ensure your website is mobile friendly using the Google Mobile Friendly Test Tool. Google tends to rank sites lower if they are not optimized for mobile platforms, so make sure you fix this issue.

  More than 50% of all web traffic has migrated to mobile devices in the past couple of years. This means that most of your readers will be on mobile devices as well.

  Look for a responsive theme/template or use relative values instead of absolute ones in your code.

  Site Is Indexable:

  If your site can’t be found by Google and listed into the search engine results, you’re also wasting your time.

  Problems that lead to bad indexing are usually related to the NoIndex meta tag, or the robots.txt file. Make sure the pages you want indexed are not blocked in any way. Also, ensure that extra pages you don’t really need in the search engine are blocked.

  To block a page, simply edit your robots.txt file:

  User-agent: * Disallow: /cgi-bin/ Disallow: /tmp/ Disallow: /~joe/

  You can also use the following tag in your HTML on specific pages:

  <meta name="robots" content="noindex">

  Check Site Speed: 

  The speed at which your website loads is very important for your business. If your users don’t see the content fast, they will abandon the page. There are two big factors that determine speed: the server on which the website runs, and the content that must be loaded.

  Use Google PageSpeed Insights to determine if there are any issues with your website’s server and structure. Another great tool to do this is GT Metrix.

    Try to fix those issues first. If your website loads very slowly, it won’t matter how well you write. Nobody will ever get to read it.

  Install SEO Plugins:

  If you’re using a popular CMS such as WordPress, Joomla or Drupal, you can make your site easy to optimize by installing a plugin. These plugins will help you optimize your content’s key elements (title, meta description) a lot easier. It will also fix some SEO issues commonly found on different platforms. 

Some suggestions are: Yoast SEO and All in one SEO Pack for WordPress, Easy Frontend SEO for Joomla, and SEO Tools for Drupal.

  Install Social Sharing Plugins:

  Writing a good article is nothing without promotion. Chances of writing something that will go viral on its own are very small. If you’re using one of the popular CMS mentioned above, you should also install a social sharing plugin.

  Some good examples are Fast Social Share for Joomla and WP Social Share for WordPress. There are many options out there, so make your pick based on design and user reviews.

  These plugins will help readers share the content and make it more popular. As you probably know, social media is one of the biggest marketing channels out there. It would be a complete waste not to take advantage of it!

    Readability:

  Your blog posts should be easy to read. First, make sure your text is easy to understand. Have short sentences, and try to make the paragraphs shorter in width.

  Ensure your background color doesn’t conflict with the font color. Some combinations make it harder for the user to read your posts.

    The best combination for legibility is usually black text on white or light gray background. However, you can use different combinations to express different things.

  We recommend that the paragraphs are 11-12 pixels in size. Also, keep a hierarchical structure in your headings. H1 should be the biggest, H2 smaller and so on.

  Last but not least, place ads smartly, without spamming the user. Avoid random pop-ups or pop-ups that appear as soon as you access the page.

  Customizable Elements and Meta-Tags:

  The post title and meta tags are two important elements that display in Google’s search results.

    Make sure you can easily edit these elements. The page/blog post should also display a H1 tag containing the title of the article. Usually it’s the same as the title tag, but this is not mandatory.

  Just like the post title, it should include keywords and be captivating. There should only be one H1 tag on your page. Other important meta are rel=”canonical” and rel=”prev/next”.

  Canonical tags are used to solve duplicate content issues . If your page has comments, for example, some platforms create separate URLs ending in “/?replytocom=123#”. This can create conflicts between pages in the SERPS.

  The canonical tag should point out what page you want to be displayed in Google. If the page has a self-referencing canonical tag, then all the comments’ URLs will point to the main page.

  In case you have paginated content (on a blog page for example), you should use the previous/next meta tag. This technique can be used for guides separated in multiple pages.

  2. Perform Keyword Research

  Doing keyword research before writing a blog post can maximize the potential organic traffic you get from search engines. First of all, think of what your readers might be searching in order to find your content.

  You can use the Google Keyword Planner to get an idea of what people are searching for. Another thing you can do is start typing keywords in Google and get ideas from the suggestions shown there.

  Or, you can take it a step further and use the cognitiveSEO Keyword Tool.

  It will show you search volume, keyword difficulty and top competitors ranking for specific keywords. The keyword suggestions there are the most relevant to your main keyword from an SEO perspective.

    You can combine some of those into a more complex SEO title that targets multiple keywords at the same time. You can use other search queries that don’t fit in the title in your body.

  3. Check Competition

  After you choose some keywords, check the top 10 results for them to make an idea on who you will competing with.

  You can use the cognitiveSEO tool to compare your site with the competition. The tool will analyze some of the most important metrics (like referring domains and anchor texts) and will make it very easy for you to decide how tough the competition is.

    If you feel like the competition is too high, consider targeting other keywords. Some indicators of a strong SEO competition are: keyword in title, old domain age, domain and page performance and a big number of backlinks pointing to the competitors’ URLs.

  4. Gather Information for Writing

  To be able to pile up a really good piece of content, you need to gather the right resources.  You will need to find at least 3 to 5 well documented and trustworthy sources. If you are writing a personal story out of the top of your head, you can skip this step.

  However, we recommend that you read your top ranking competitors and see if you can spot any gaps. Then, gather information about those gaps and try to cover them up. You can use search operators to find really reliable information sources that can backup statistics, such as numbers or case studies. Examples: site:.gov + keyword, site:.edu + keyword

  Create your own footprints for finding sources by using this list of search operators.

  5.Outline the Article

  Outlining the article will make it a lot easier for you to write it. It saves you time and effort. If you have a proper outline, the structure of your article will be easier to digest by your readers. Your outline should consist of some key points you want to cover up.

  A good trick is to turn those key points into questions, which you will answer below. Consider building the outline as your H2 and H3 tags. These tags tell Google that those phrases are a little more important.

  6. Write Your Content

  It’s finally time to start writing. There are many aspects to be considered in the process. I outlined them below, but they cannot be necessarily put in order.

  Make sure you consider all of them! OnPage SEO is what you have full control over, so try to do your best. Make sure you use the cognitiveSEO Content Assistant for maximum results!

  Bullets, Bolds, H2, H3: People like it when content is split up, because it is easier to read. Search engines like it as well. Use secondary keywords in the headings, and bold important words/phrases in your article.

  Use paragraphs: Use paragraphs and make them shorter, rather than longer. A paragraph should be around 5 sentences long.

  Use the main keyword in the first paragraph: Use the main keyword in the first paragraph of your blog post, and try to place it towards the beginning.

  Use attention grabbers: Phrases like “here’s the deal”, “here’s what I did”, “listen up”, “if you want to find out xyz, keep reading” help keeping readers on your page. The longer they stay, the longer you will benefit, and in time, your rankings will improve. You can check out some interesting info on dwell time and how it can influence your rankings. 

  Use the main keyword in the article body: Use your keyword throughout the article, once around the middle, and once towards the ending.

  Keyword density of maximum 5%: You shouldn’t use your keyword more than 5 times per 1000 words. Usually, some words will repeat more than that, but when your main keyword is in the title, the meta description, every heading and 100 times throughout the content, Google will see it as keyword stuffing. Keep the keyword density between 3% and 5% so you don’t risk anything.

  Include related keywords: This can become a very advanced procedure, but luckily, they can be found at the bottom of Google when searching for a term.

  Over 300 words: This highly depends on the web site type and how often you post, but Google absolutely loves longer articles. Make sure they are at least 300 words long, although we would recommend considering x10 that amount.

  Link internally: Does the blog post include 2-3 links to relevant pages on your website? If not, make sure you link to older related posts. Keep it relevant.

  Link externally: Does the body of your post link to at least 2 reputable resources in the industry? Google likes it when you outbound links. It shows you’re connected with the community. Remember, you can backup your data with the reputable sources you’ve collected in your previous step.

      7. Add and Optimize Images

  Did you know that people tend to find an information source more trustworthy if it contains images?

  Make sure you add at least 2-3 images in your blog post, and optimize them for the search engine.

  Custom vs. Stock: Take or create your own photos. People prefer them over stock photos, and studies have shown this increases conversion rate.

  Give credits: Using other people’s images might also lead you into legal issues, so be careful! You can tell Google to show you only photos you can use, but results will be trimmed down drastically. If you use someone else’s picture, make sure you are allowed to and give the proper credits.

  Fill the alt tags: Search engines can’t really read images, so they use the alt text or description to know what the image is about. Make sure you don’t let them empty, as this can hurt your backlink profile if an image ever gets linked a lot. Also, don’t stuff commercial keywords in there. If some keywords fit in, that’s good. Your main priority, however, should be to actually describe the image.

  Image size: We’re not talking necessarily about width and height, but about KB and MB or storage space. Tools like compresspng & compessjpeg can reduce the storage size of your image without affecting the visual size.

  Images greatly affect user experience if they are not optimized for speed.

  8. Add Video Content

  Consider adding at least one relevant video to your blog post. Some people like watching videos, and that will help you keep them on your page.

  If you can create the video yourself, that’s even better.

  You will benefit both ways: if someone finds and reads your article, it might also add a view on your video. If someone finds and watches the video instead, you can mention the article in the video. Maybe they will give it a read.

  9. Create the Title Tag of the Blog Post

  The HTML title tag is responsible for the headline shown in Google. It’s very important as it will directly impact your Click Through Rate. Spend some quality time crafting it. Don’t worry ! You can decide to make some modifications to it later as well, in case some brighter idea pops up in your head.

  Here are some key points you should consider when creating your title:

  Use the main keyword in your title tag: If you want to rank for a specific keyword you’ve picked in part 1 of this checklist, then the title tag should be the first place you add it to. Try to place it towards the beginning of the title, but don’t make it look unnatural.

  Maximum 70 characters: The title tag should not be too short. It’s easier to rank for long tail keywords anyway. If you exceed 72 characters though, the end of the title will become invisible to the user, and it will value less for the search engines.

  Make it captivating: On average, only about 20% of the people who see your headline will click to read the article, so make it good! Use numbers and captivating words like Free, Awesome, Unbelievable and so on. People usually enjoy how-to articles, top lists, and case studies.

  10. Create the Meta Description

  Meta descriptions are the texts below the headlines that show in search engines. They should describe what the post is about, and should grab the reader’s attention.

Between 150 and 160 characters: Meta descriptions that are too short might be ignored completely and replaced by Google with other sections from your website. Too long meta descriptions won’t show completely in the search results, as they will be cut out.

  Insert keyword: Although they don’t directly impact search rankings, you can also include keywords in it. Your readers see that before they click your link, so use it to convince them to click your link instead of stuffing it with keywords.

  Captivating: Try to implement a sense of urgency in the reader to click the link. Words like Find out, Click to find more can help.

  11. Blog Post Heading H1

  If your platform doesn’t naturally make the blog heading a H1, then place one yourself. There should be only one H1 tag per blog post, and it should contain the main keyword you’re trying to optimize your content for. It can be a variation. Don’t be pushy, and make it look natural. If it doesn’t fit, use synonyms.

  It’s recommended to keep the title tag and H1 title similar, and almost 90% of the times they are identical. WordPress naturally makes them identical, but plugins like Yoast SEO for WordPress make it easier to separate these two, if you wish to do so. 

  12. Write Optimized URL

  When writing the unique URL, try to make it easy for the user to understand what the article is about. Insert your main keyword here as well, or target secondary keywords, preferably synonyms.

  You can even do it the other way around, by inserting your main keyword in the URL, and secondary ones in titles.

  Keep the URLs shorter, rather than longer (under 60 characters). SEO-friendly URLs can lead to higher perceived relevance and can actually improve your ranks. 

    Before Publishing

    1. Add a Featured Image

  Featured images have a very big impact on your audience and your click through rate. They can make the difference between 4% CTR and 40% CTR. Also, they will impact social sharing and engagement.

Custom vs. stock: Creating an in-house featured image is far better, since you can craft it specifically for your target audience.

  Add descriptive alt tag with keyword: Create an alt tag that describes what the image is about. Search engines can’t view images as we do, but it can read the keywords in the alt tags to know what the image is about.

  Landscape preferred: Since responsive reacts to screen width, landscape images fit screens better than portrait images do. We recommend that the featured image is rather wider than higher.

  2. Categories & Tags

  Choose the correct categories and tags for your article. This will help the overall structure of your website.

  Some people might search your site for specific articles. If the articles aren’t in the correct category, they won’t be able to find them.

  Don’t pick too many of them, though! Keep it short and relevant.

  3. Social Media Optimization

  Your blog might require different image sizes than social media platforms do. You might want one description for your site, but another on your Facebook post. Open Graph and Twitter Cards will help display the images and descriptions correctly and separately on social media platforms.

  Yoast SEO Plugin makes it easy to create these descriptions and optimize images (they require a special size to show properly). Use them to make your work easier!

  4. Take Authorship

    It’s important to create a name for yourself. Brands are now turning into faces. You can see this in any niche. People like Gary Vaynerchuk or Brian Dean market through their personal brand.

  This can be done by adding a bio to the article. Most open source CMS like WordPress have author boxes for every user.

    5. Proofread

  Correct any grammar mistakes you spot. Bad spelling can result in poor user experience.

  A second opinion on the subject might also be useful. Ask a friend to look for mistakes you haven’t spotted, or maybe a professional if you have the budget.

  6. Verify Links

  Verify internal and external links. Do they work? If not, have you typed them correctly?

  There’s nothing more frustrating than clicking on a link and waiting for it to load, just to find out it actually doesn’t work. Broken links also affect you from an SEO point of view. Search Engines have to crawl through all the links on your website. They waste time by trying to access links that don’t work. By fixing them, you help the search engines, so they see you as more valuable.

  7. Are the Share Buttons Functional?

   Can your readers easily share your content on the most popular social media platforms?

  You can test to see if it works by sharing it on your own profile.

  8. Publish the Blog Post

  Press that button.

  Make it live.

  There’s no turning back now

    After Publishing

    1. Share on Social Media

  For a blog post to be successful, writing SEO friendly isn’t enough. You also have to promote your content. Share your content on the most popular social media platforms. Use the official page of your blog/website first, then share it on your personal profile.

  You can use Facebook Insights to see how many shares/likes/clicks you got. Twitter doesn’t offer any statistics anymore, but you can still use TwitCount.

    2. Build Base Links

  Writing great quality content is not enough. You also have to promote your content as well!

  Reach out to some blogs in your industry, including your competition. If you find unanswered questions anywhere, you can try to answer them. Leave a comment and, if relevant, a link to your website. Don’t overdo it!

  Another good way to get some initial links is to search Forums or sites like Quora, and answer questions. Use a snippet that best answers the question, and then link to it so people can read more.

  If you are not relevant, you will create a bad reputation for yourself. Use Google Alerts or Brandmentions to get notifications about different topics on the web. When they pop-up, jump into the conversation.

  3. Read Comments and Reply to Them

  Find out your readers’ opinions. Try to build relationships, and fill in the gaps in your article by answering to the questions in your comments section.

  This is a very good way to keep your content fresh! Comment text is considered content as well. Bloggers that engage in commenting can get thousands of extra words to their blog posts.

  4. Upgrade Your Article

  One of the secrets to blogging SEO success is to be consistent. Google likes it when content is frequently updated, aka freshness.

  Instead of writing about the same things over and over again, try to improve some of your old content. You can use what you have learned from your readers to improve your content.

  5. Maximize/Repurpose Your Content

  You can turn your blog post into an infographic, video, slide presentation or ebook/PDF. This way you can maximize the exposure of your content.

  Remember to link back to your blog post, and vice-versa. This way you can cover as many channels as you want by spending the least amount of time.

  Download The SEO Friendly Blog Posts Checklist

  Conclusion

    I know… there’s a lot to it!

  We’ve tried to cover everything, from OnPage SEO and writing tips, to OffPage SEO and promotion. Writing SEO friendly usually resumes to giving useful information.

  Don’t just write for the numbers, write to cover a topic very well. Go in-depth. Bring something new to the table.

  Keep using this step-by-step checklist until you feel that you’ve mastered the steps and don’t need it anymore. After some time, you’ll also figure out what works better for you.

The post How to Write SEO Friendly Blog Posts – The Complete Checklist appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.