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capaldisrighteyebrow · 7 years ago

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I don’t need a bodyguard! -spacedarcy

@spacedarcy This has taken a while. And it’s not exactly finished…but it’s going somewhere. Modern AU fluffiness. How did I get here?

He’s run through half of his speech for the fifth time that afternoon when a series of short knocks interrupts his train of thought. Muttering a few more lines, he crosses the room, fumbling with the remaining buttons on his freshly pressed, tailored shirt before giving up and opening the door to his suite.

“Oh.” The girl’s head snaps up from chest to eye level so quickly there’s a possibility of whiplash. She’s no less befuddled by his face, it seems, for she asks, “Ben Solo?” as if she expected someone else.

“Yes?”

“You don’t look like your picture. You’re ol…your hair is longer,” she amends in accented English, shaking her head like her mind’s an Etch-a-Sketch and she’s reshaping lines from a new reference. “Sorry. I’m from…”

He’s already pieced it together and finishes her sentence: “From my uncle’s shop.” Ben turns back into the hotel room, waving his hand in a gesture that she should follow him inside. “You can leave the case on the table. I’m sorry he troubled you to bring them.”

He buttons his shirt all the way to the throat, then takes up the ends of his black, silk tie, looping them around with practiced ease, only half watching the knot form in the mounted floor-length mirror. His eyes rest on the girl’s reflection, taking in how her white knuckles continue to clutch the stainless steel briefcase despite his instruction.

“Is there something else?” he asks.

She clears her throat. “Luke didn’t tell you?”

He takes a deep breath. His uncle isn’t the most forthcoming, living like a practical hermit holed away in his shop, surrounded by antiques and relics of eras long since passed. Ben had spent his formative summers roaming through the dusty shelves that smelled of must and decay – it wasn’t a place he visited often, not anymore.

There was nothing to be gained by searching for answers in rare texts and historical artifacts, as his uncle had once wished him to do. Luke had been so focused on looking inward, seeking nirvana through meditative retreats, that he’d forgotten to look around at the suffering of the world. Ben, with his ambassador mother’s influence and his own company’s impressive reach, was determined to do something about it. Global crises required present action and future commitments. It’s why he’d dedicated his life to combining technological advancements with humanitarian efforts.

He smooths the tie against his chest, assessing the final look; he fiddles with the knot. “What is it?”

In the mirror, she shifts her weight from foot to foot in her black flats. Wearing khakis, a white blouse, and a navy blazer that’s too tight in the shoulders and too broad in the waist, she looks like a kid dressed up as an FBI agent for Halloween. Her hair is the only kept thing about her: secured in a low bun that makes her look years older than Ben suspects she actually is.

“I’m attending the event with you.”

Ben’s hands tighten the silk a hair more than comfortable, thrown off by her statement. “Excuse me?”

She brushes her hand next to her ear, though there’s no stray hair to push back. A nervous tick, perhaps. “I’m going along as security.”

He turns and narrows his eyes at her. It’s hard to determine the amount of muscle, or perhaps weapons, hidden beneath the ill-fitting garments. Still, it doesn’t matter. “I don’t need a bodyguard,” he dismisses.

“I’m not–” she starts, then cuts off the thought, as if calculating her approach, trying to gauge how he’ll react even before she delivers her retort. “I’m not here for you. I’m here to ensure these make it back to your uncle.”

He blinks – once, twice. “You’re here to protect my accessories?”

She places the briefcase on the coffee table in front of the loveseat, putting in a combination and scanning a fingerprint to open the latches. The girl turns the case in his direction; inside are a gold watch ringed with an inlay of diamonds, an equally bedecked tie clip, and golden cufflinks in the shape of dice which belonged to his father. She waves her hand over the family jewels like she’s a model on The Price is Right.

“Luke said they’re invaluable,” she reports. “Irreplaceable.”

His uncle may be on to something there, but it doesn’t change Ben’s attitude about having a shadow all evening. Growing up as an ambassador’s son, he’s long since had his fill of someone watching his every step. Then there’s the fact that he doesn’t wish to wear the pieces in the first place; it was only at his mother’s insistence that he agreed, only at the reminder that the award he’s presenting is to honor his late father that he gave in.

“They have more sentimental value than anything else. There’s no reason for you to stay,” he repeats, taking up the watch and sliding it over his wrist.

“With all due respect, Mr. Solo–”

“Ben,” he abbreviates with a wince, finally understanding why his mother hates when people address her as ma’am; he doesn’t want to be a mister anything in this girl’s eyes. “Formalities aren’t necessary.”

Her shoulders set against the friendly shift in his formerly detached tone. She won’t be turned from her duty. “I don’t take my orders from you.”

She’s staring him down more intensely than any sponsor or politician ever has, all over some baubles that his uncle dug out of the Skywalker vault. She looks just as ready to lay him out on the floor as she looks ready to protect him from red-carpet thieves. And, while he wasn’t sure at first, he now believes she’s capable of both.

Ben decides then that he likes her – that even as his exasperation grows, so does his respect.

His curiosity has always been an insatiable thing, and it’s found someone new to whet its appetite. They’ve only just met, but he finds himself with a list of questions on the tip of his tongue. Everything from the mundane, comprehensive where are you from? types to the ones which will synthesize her personal philosophies and life goals into a deeper understanding of who she is. He wants to listen as her dreams fall from her full, pink lips.

Restraint, he scolds himself, tamping down on the romantic notions that pop up suddenly, unexpectedly, while meeting brown eyes that seem to see him, not the founder of a startup so successful that they can hold a celebratory gala. She’s here for a job, not a date.

“Fine,” he acquiesces, sliding the tie clip into place and holding out his hand to her for the cufflinks. “I guess that makes you my plus one.”

An eyebrow stretches tall as she drops the cufflinks into his open palm, then retracts her hand. “Does that actually work for you?”

His neck heats, and he does his best to look sheepish. “What? You’ve been tasked to keep my uncle’s valuables safe, haven’t you Miss…?”

If you want to know her, you should probably start with her name, he thinks belatedly.

“Rey,” she finishes, not backing down from the way he leans forward into her space. She isn’t intimated.

“Rey,” he repeats, drawing the name across his lips slowly. And, just like that, he needs another day – maybe a week – to understand her, to have the opportunity to say her name again and again.

Her eyes go dark, arms crossing over her chest. “I can do my job from the sidelines.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” His grin is a challenge as he secures the cufflinks in place and shakes his wrists to settle his shirt. He moves to the closet and unzips the garment bag holding his suit jacket, then slips into it with a shrug. “I’m only trying to make your job easier, Rey.”

“You are, huh?” She takes a step toward him, closing the distance between them in a bold move that stirs something within him.

“As my guest, you’d be able to keep your eye on…things.”

He nearly says me but chickens out at the last moment. It’s been a long time, too long, since he’s tried to openly flirt with anyone. It’s not something he should be focused on anyway: he should be focused on the queasiness rolling through his stomach at the thought of the speech he has to deliver in a little under two hours.

“Oh, I won’t be letting you out of my sight,” she guarantees, casually pulling the lapels of his jacket closer, as if she’s done it for years. She taps her index finger against the jeweled tie clip. “Alright. You’ve got yourself a plus one.”

“Excellent.” His hand motions up and down in the air, indicating her attire. “Of course, you can’t go like that.”

Now it is her turn to flush with color, though she quickly places her hands on her hips and puffs out her slight chest; it practically grazes his own. In a pointed tone, she reminds him, “I dressed to blend into the background.”

“Something that will be remedied, post-haste,” he assures her.

#reylo fanfic #rey and ben solo #reylo #modern au #fluff #spacedarcy #i accidentally posted this under your other prompt first #so that ask got deleted but I still have it in my docs #because i have ideas for that one too #capaldiwrites

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webbygraphic001 · 6 years ago

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Common SEO Mistakes (and How to Fix Them with Design)

SEO is a complex matter and one that web designers and developers might feel is best left to copywriters and search professionals to handle. That makes sense since many common SEO hacks revolve around the manipulation of content and the tagging of it for search.

Here’s the thing though: there are certain choices you make as a web designer that ultimately affect the search-friendliness of your website. Which means you should be involved in the diagnosis and repair of a website’s SEO mistakes.

Repairing SEO Mistakes with Web Design

A click-through rate (CTR) tracking study from Advanced Web Ranking reported the following data, from as recent as September 2018:

What this shows is the likelihood of users clicking on an organic link based on its position in search

As you can see, Google is already stacking the odds against your website by filling its prime real estate with paid listings. That said, the data above is proof that search users are willing to sift through paid promotions to get to the genuinely good website recommendations. The only thing is…

How do you repair a website’s SEO mistakes so it can get to the top of search?

Mistake #1: Non-Responsive Elements

We’re operating in a mobile-first world which means websites have to be designed primarily for that experience. That doesn’t mean leaving desktop users out in the cold, but it does mean dotting your i’s and crossing your t’s to ensure that every element fits within the truncated space of a mobile screen.

Running your website through Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test isn’t enough.

Open your mobile device and walk through every page of your website. Does everything fit between the two edges of your phone? Are the buttons correctly sized and placed? Are images displayed in full and without distortion?

If not, then start here.

Mistake #2: Usability Issues

If we’re talking about usability issues that are severe enough to cause a high percentage of bounces—which communicates to Google that your website isn’t worth ranking—start by looking at the navigation.

Let’s use this one from Hearth Kitchen as an example:

As you can see, the navigation is clearly laid out in a horizontal row. Labels are clear and all pages are present—there’s nothing confusing or hidden. In addition, the header provides users with other information they’d instantly want from a website of this nature.

Since users’ eyes tend to track in a Z-pattern (starting in the top-left and working their way across), your navigation is the first thing visitors see and realistically might be to blame for a lackluster performance in search.

Mistake #3: Low Readability

Although visual content enhances comprehension as well as memorability of what’s on a web page, your visitors eventually need to read the words on it. When that becomes a struggle, websites suffer from short times-on-page and high bounce rates.

Look, you know that your visitors don’t have much of a patience for anything these days. The least you could do is make the reading experience easy for them.

Has your website’s content violated any of these rules?

Typefaces are black (or nearly black) on a white background.

Fonts are in the serif or sans serif families (i.e. be careful with decorative fonts).

The smallest font size should be 16 pixels or larger.

Lines are between 50 and 60 characters.

Paragraphs contain no more than 3 or 4 lines.

Images or lists break up large chunks of content (like I’m doing here).

Headers enables readers (and search bots) to more quickly decipher what a page is about.

WebDesignerDepot does a great job of adhering to these principles, so if you’re looking for inspiration on how to make content readable, start here.

Mistake #4: Bad Pop-Ups

Everyone hates an ill-timed, irrelevant, or pushy pop-up. Google has even gone so far as to penalize mobile websites that utilize what it deems to be bad and intrusive pop-ups.

So, here’s what I’m going to say:

Utilize the least amount of space possible for your pop-ups.

Yotel has a fantastic example of this on its desktop website:

And, if pop-ups need to appear on mobile, relegate them to a top or bottom banner. It keeps your promotional message out of the way.

Mistake #5: Overweight Images

Google rewards websites that are fast—and we’re talking load times under three seconds. While there are a number of things developers can do to get loading speeds under control, designers should look at images to improve performance and SEO.

Specifically, look at file size.

There is only so much room an image can occupy on a website, especially in this age of mobile-first. So, why use a file that’s 12MB when it’s only going to show up as a thumbnail in the site’s news feed?

I’m not saying you should stop using oversized high-resolution images.

Just be sure to resize and run them through a compression software like TinyPNG to ensure you’re not overloading your web server.

Mistake #6: Text Inside Images

There are two reasons why text inside images is a bad idea for SEO. The first has to do with readability.

Think about what happens when text is laid atop an image. If there’s a distinct contrast between the two, readability should be fine. But what if text is placed over an otherwise mundane part of an image on desktop? On mobile, it shrinks down and may end up appearing over a busier and more distracting part of the photo.

Then there’s how the text is added. If text is pasted into an image file, search bots won’t be able to detect it. If your copywriters wrote that particular string of text with a search keyword embedded in it, you’ve just removed it from Google’s view.

Instead, you should work with your content management system to add text using custom fields meant to go on top of images.

In my opinion, it’s best to stay away from text on images unless you can ensure uncompromized readability and that Google bots can read it. Culture Trip shows how this can be done:

It also has links lower on the page where the text is removed from the photo altogether (which I think looks even better):

Mistake #7: Lack of Trust Marks

The last mistake has to do with security. This is something Google cares about greatly, but a lot of it falls to a web developer to implement.

To do your part, find opportunities to include trust marks to boost the confidence of visitors as they travel around your website. Uncommon Goods includes a number of these at the bottom of the site:

Trust marks may differ based on your website’s business type, but they do exist. Anti-malware software. SSL certificate. Secure payment gateway. These are the kinds of symbols that put your visitors’ minds at ease and allow them to stay longer and convert.

Wrap-Up

Now that you know some of the more common SEO mistakes caused by web design, be sure to account for them in your workflow going forward. You’d be amazed what improved performance, security, and usability will do for a website’s ranking!

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Source from Webdesigner Depot https://ift.tt/2Qv6NET from Blogger https://ift.tt/2GgM0QZ

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iyarpage · 6 years ago