#tag links work on desktop but only sometimes on mobile because this is a functional webbed site

[cheswirls]

saboace fic rec list [non-eng]

loooong overdue. well, ik i’ve been silent abt op on here for longer than i have not, and that’s def not what (most) ppl follow me for, so i’m also throwing this into the main (ship) tags. i may do another one later on, but for now the subject of this list has been set.

prefacing this by saying if you can’t read in any language other than english, that’s okay, you can still go thru all of the recs on this list anyways. 

and how, you might ask? my personal favorite tool is yandex. yandex is an online (free!) translator that i personally think has a better translation system than google. in yandex, if you follow this link > here!

yandex also has a raw text translator where you can input a website link and get an option to translate the page it links to in full. once it’s translated, yandex acts as a background tool to the still-interactive website, so you can browse regularly without being confined to one page. (if yandex gives you any trouble, google translate also will translate interactive webpages in full – just not in the mini-translator on google’s search function. there are also amazing browser extensions that will translate webpages at the click of a button! aka pls don’t let written language be a barrier when it’s digital and on the internet~)

important: the tool is not perfect in any way and i am not claiming it as such. it functions differently with different websites, and i’ve only used it from one web browser, so i can’t claim if that would make things different.

with that being said!! here are five sa fics i love dearly that are not in english. (also please assume all of these are 5/5 stars) [under a cut for length]

1) further down the road by julia aldridge

https://ficbook.net/readfic/12782298 russian - complete - T rating - 30 pages

modern au, this is a roadtrip-to-the-beach fic. :) each little tidbit matches to a song from one of ace’s tapes, and the formatting/flow of the story hinges on that. saboace isn’t established officially in the beginning but the trip acts as the (act) necessary to push them in that direction.  guest appearances by koala + others but they don’t detract from the romance plot, which is refreshing. (also, sometimes yandex –and others– work better if you translate from serbian. there’s no set cryllic translator, so you can honestly try your luck with any of the languages that use written cryllic.)  absolutely cannot get enough of roadtrip fics and this one takes the cake. something about it is so whimsical, especially because the motives behind the trip are revealed steadily throughout the story, so in the beginning you’re on this grand journey with them without knowing the reasons. this also means it gives you different insight if you go back and reread, and i love things with high reread value, so c: hehe

2) a salamander lives in the light music by altair

https://ficbook.net/readfic/9947641 russian - T rating - 5 pages

altair’s writing is fantastic. please check out all of their other works. i am linking one saboace fic of theirs but the underlying message is that all of them are good. seriously. they have this writing style that makes me want to print the words onto a cake and eat them. you get sucked in from the first line, from all the poetic minute details, and it takes you from there. they also just (my opinion here) really understand sabo and ace as characters. this one is short but the prose is so attention-grabbing i had to put it in. the premise is sabo works as an exorcist overseas, and has arrived in boston to track down ace. none of altair’s works are very long but they always pack a punch. if you end up liking this one you will love the other ones too.

3) sabotaged ~♥~ by sasl

https://www.fanfiktion.de/s/61bb9e410000ccad17dfbd73/1/Sabotiert german - complete - E rating - 168k

THIS! okay first a preface: sometimes yandex (chrome browser) has trouble w this site on desktop. on mobile it works fine. if you need to just switch. everything by office is amazing but this is truly the crown jewel of saboace fics. it starts off insincere –ace pretending to come out as bi as a ruse to regain his friendship with his ex, bonney– and very quickly becomes more and more along the lines of the truth when ace confides this to koala, who introduces him to her already-out longtime friend sabo. i.. cannot recommend this one enough. the plot is excellent, the writing is outstanding, the characters are written so full of life and vitality. it’s so funny. like if you care even a shred about laughing and having fun while reading fic i promise you will enjoy this one. immensely. do not let the length scare you, it’s divided into 25 chapters which breaks things down into 5-7k, which is a lot easier to digest.  it’s pretty lighthearted and fun, as office has a tendency to give angst a short lifespan in her fics. everyone is 20+ but i would still classify this as coming-of-age in the most non-spoilery way i can. there is background kid/law but the focus (and pov) stays on sabo and ace, so if that’s not your thing (hint: it wasn’t mine) then i can say with sincerity that it’s manageably minor. also there is minor shanks/marco. ALSO. haha a bit unusual for sa fics, but roger and rouge are both alive and well and wonderful parents and you will love how they are integrated into the story. i know i sure did.  #1 rec off this list if you must knowww. please read this one if you have to pick.

4) my heart will go on by wirola

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29270850 chinese - complete - T rating - 20k

the system rating on ao3 says G, so above is my honest one. also, from the bottom of my heart: fuck this one. everything on the list has a happy ending, and i promise this one fulfills that requirement. (: that being said, it does have its ups and downs. lots.  the more in-depth summary is this: sabo and ace are best friends and live together on the us west coast. ace is an athlete and sabo an artist. one day sabo gets a call and is rudely awakened by the fact that his adoptive father, dragon, is soon to be married to an industry rival, crocodile. the problem is sabo has (thought) been in love with dragon since adolescence, and he views this as himself having very little time to act on his feelings. and with that, lemme backtrack. as someone who doesn’t care about dragon/sabo or dragon/crocodile, i did read the fic in full and absolutely loved it. most of the pov is ace, and most of the narration centers on the fact that ace has been in love with sabo for years, but as his best friend, continues to hold himself to the role of sabo’s wingman. the dragon/sabo is one-sided and simmers out about halfway through the fic. it was interesting! i will say that. it didn’t push the limits of my tolerance at all, which means it should be more than fine for others (the line of what i’m willing to put up with in fics is not very long, so please take this in good faith.) it’s unorthodox, but it’s well worth it.

5) let it rain by noarbor 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/40162059 chinese - complete - G rating - 2k

this one is short but really cute. it’s on my (hidden) list of ao3 sa recs that i might pull from next for another rec list, but since it’s (relatively) recent and in chinese, i’m giving it a spot here. chinese is the one thing i don’t think yandex does greatly because there is no differentiation between (chinese) and written mandarin. if you want a good chinese translator, look for one that has simplified chinese as an option. that being said! this one is SO sweet. in short, sabo has chronic pain that worsens during the rain, so during these times he seeks out ace as a comfort heater so he can get some sleep during the night. it’s really adorable. noarbor knows how to set a scene and let you fall into it. i have read this one so many times. so, so many. highly recommend. 

bonus! 6) once upon a time there were two lovers who lived on a planet of red peppers and cranberries by strayon

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43142967 chinese - complete - G rating - 2.4k

what a title :) anything by strayon is over-the-moon amazing. i like this one the most because it’s so domestic and thats///// a weakness of mine when it comes to sa fics. also bc sabo is portrayed as a nonsensical writer and thats very relatable. basically a fic where ace takes care of sabo while he writes through a new novel. super heartwarming. i love love love how they write ace in all of their fics, and i promise you will too

[threewaysdivided]

Hello and welcome to the mess!  I’m ThreeWaysDivided, also known as 3WD.

Statistically you are here from either my Young Justice: Deathly Weapons fanfic (in which case yes, I’m still writing it, it’s just that Life Happens So Much) or the Van Gogh quote (in which case, in the interest of not deceiving you: this is not a quote/inspo blog, I do that sometimes but for the most part we post nonsense here, sir).

Anything important we should know about you?  

I am a legal adult and have been for several years, and if that is something you have boundaries about then that is A-Okay.

Are you in other places?

I am!  You can find me writing on Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own, and goofing about on DeviantArt and Discord (ThreeWaysDivided#3586).

What can we find here?

Madness.  A rather quiet sort of madness involving plentiful food and plushies, in which we at least try to be balanced and approach things in good faith but still - this way lies madness.

But I suppose you mean content…

Fanfiction (#my writing)

As mentioned, my main fic is Young Justice: Deathly Weapons, a YJ x DP crossover (FFN | AO3).  The #young justice: deathly weapons tag will give you all the content, asks etc. about it, or use #yj:dw if you only want to see chapter release posts and my ‘official’ art pieces.  

If you want to know what I’m up to you can take a peek under #writing update, or send an ask should you need to tap the glass more vigorously.  There is also a discord server.

Wondering if you can make something for, or use part of my work in a thing?  See my Transformational Works Permission Statement.

Talking About Writing (#writing advice)

Sometimes I write my own thoughts, sometimes I share other posts, either way here we talk about the meta of story-telling, analyse how stories and writing techniques work, chat about tropes and all that good stuff.

Big Essays (#scattered thoughts)

Ever wondered what those long Youtube media videoessays would look like if produced by someone with no film or editing skills?  Ever thought they were just too audiovisual and wished you could read a transcript instead?  Boy do I have a thing for you!

You may recognise such smash hits as Tumblr Post Plus is Not Your Friend, Thoughts About Sam Manson, Young Justice’s Terrible Failure of Narrative and Why Does the Danny Phantom Fandom Attract So Many Asexuals?

Art (#my art), Cooking (#3WD Cooks) and Fabric Craft (#sewing)

Sometimes I paint, sometimes I draw, sometimes I bake and sometimes I sew my own pokedolls, whatever takes your fancy.

Fun/ Cool/ Inspiring Anecdotes (#amazing stories)

None of these are mine, they’re just stories I found around and think are Neat.

Short Stories (#original writing)

Cool original fiction pieces by other writers.

Animal Shenanigans (#animal shenanigans)

Sadly I do not own animals but I love seeing the wild things they get up to.

Interesting Quotes (#quote of the day)

Because sometimes I am an inspo blog.

Photography (#photography)

A collection of other’s photos, mostly of natural world stuff, especially birds, flowers and insects.

Fandom Nonsense

In which there be art, meta, fic and other assorted delights.  Tagged by fandom, most commonly Danny Phantom, Batman, Young Justice, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Fullmetal Alchemist, My Hero Academia, Hollow Knight, Dan Jones & Dragons, Marvel and The Dragon Prince.

Is there anything I might need to watch out for?

I try to keep my blog relatively “all ages” so you won’t see explicit or graphic content, NSFW or even much swearing here.  That said sometimes I do talk about heavy or challenging topics such as mental health, loss, relationships and abuse.

I try to tag appropriately so everyone can sort and filter according to their needs but if you need an extra tag on a post then please feel free to let me know.

[humangerbil]

hi! may i ask what app you use for your screen reader? it sounds rlly good.

I didn’t even think to say but several people have asked this now! @cuddlybeast, @wishiwasntstillhere, @selective-yellow, @dalltonagainst

I use Audiblogs. 

I cannot say enough good about this Chrome extension, it is pretty amazing. I am very impressed by it and I did go looking into other options, including paid ones. This was the best one I found that functioned fully on a desktop computer. There may be some phone apps that are worthwhile but I wouldn't know.

It is new and it isn’t perfect though. Calling it a screen reader was also rather incorrect of me. It would be better to say it is a website reader and even that isn’t really it. It doesn’t read everything and seems to be able to cut out things like menus, lists of tags, ect. So it works really well for fics! And articles, blog posts, ect which appear to be more the intended use.

One other thing I rather enjoy is that you can share files. Here is the first chapter of Heroics and Other Things That Don't Require Superpowers by @thenarator (who has kindly given me permission to post this because they are awesome) so you can give it a listen. Link to the fic on AO3 here. (This fic is awesome!!)

As I said, it isn’t perfect so below the cut I am detailing out the issues I have had so far. I do really highly recommend it though! It is the best thing I have found out there and it is free!

There are some fics it cannot access on AO3. It isn’t reading my screen and it accesses the website itself meaning any fic that requires users to have an account or that is M or E rated it only gets the landing pages instead of the actual fic. Leaving these completely inaccessible to Audiblogs. 

It also has a character limit of 100,000 which seems to be around 20,000 words give or take some because of varying word length. 

The “Entire Work” option appears to also not work even on shorter multi-chaptered fics. It only reads the first chapter and you have to go and make new files for each individual chapter.

Which leads me to my current biggest issue. This is still new and UI is lacking. There is no way to move items around on the playlist and new items are added at the top. Meaning if you want to queue up an entire multi-chapter fic you have to do it backwards. I am given to understand that this is in part because you can use podcast apps to better organize things like playlists but I have yet to find a desktop podcast app that works with it. It does suggest several mobile apps that it works with though. (If anyone happens to find a desktop app for me to use please let me know!)

You will notice pretty quickly though some of the pronunciation issues, especially with Japanese words and names. It pronounces “Shouta” as “shout-ah.” It does a similar thing with Shouto making it “shout-oh.” It turns “Shou” and “Sho” into “shoe.” I don’t even know how to explain what it does to “Shouchan” but it isn’t pretty. 

The other more general issue I have run into with pronunciation is different words with the same spelling. Bow being a good example. It tends to default to the “hair bow” pronunciation instead of “taking a bow” way of saying it. It does get it right sometimes but it seems the programming there could still use some work. “He’s up on the stage, bends at the waist, and takes a dramatic [hair] bow” is a bit weird to hear even though I know what it meant to say. I have also run into this issue with content (as in “he is feeling content” and “the content of this book”).  

If a character stutters it reads the letters instead of the sound. "W-what" is said as "double you what" but I think this is a pretty common screen reader issue.

It seems to treat comma lists as a reason to rush. "Milk, eggs, cheese" should be said with pauses for the commas. "Milk [pause] eggs [pause] cheese" but instead it quickly says "MilkEggsCheese." Which is a bit funny but when listening to a serious fic can mess up the tone.

All that said, I really do highly recommend this. Even with the imperfections I have yet to find a single other TTS program that sounds this good. And it’s free! 

Enjoy and happy listening!

[dragonofthedepths]

29/100 (29th of June 2021)

(29/100) Written/posted for the #100daysofwriting challenge by @the-wip-project

I spent several hours today filling out a survey on my fanfiction reading habits! This was not supposed to take several hours, but my inability to answer any free form question without writing multiple paragraphs dragged it out much longer than it was supposed to be! Considering that this was done around baking, having a friend over, and finishing a drawing that according to the timer on my art program took me a cumulative 22.5 hours to complete, I figured I would just copy and paste some of my more interesting answers here for today!

Here’s the link to the survey if you want to take it yourself, apparently it’s part of some kind of collage study: 

https://robertgordonuniversity.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/fanfiction-questionnaire

Question:

What type(s) of library/libraries do you use? What activities or purposes do you use them for?

Answer:

The local library. I go there every now and then when I’m looking for an actual book to read, I usually have what I want already in mind, but might end up picking up something new from the same section if anything particularly catches my interest. Very occasionally I grab a few reference books, usually on things like religions that are harder to find a comprehensive reference for online beneath all the sensationalism and opinions.

I almost always spend at last a couple hours there, looking through my selection and reading a chapter or two. the only reason I’ll leave without sitting down and beginning at least one book is if I’m already late for something somewhere else.

Tldr: I use my local library, I do not go very often but I take my time when I do.

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Question (fanfiction.net):

If possible, please explain your typical process for finding fanfiction to read.

Answer:

Whenever  I get interested in a new show I’ll latch on to a concept or particular character interaction eg. Villain!hero, ensemble finds out secret, character A needs a hug, character A adopted by character B, character C & character D friendship & hurt/comfort. Sometimes (especially if it’s a lesser known thing/has a small fandom) I’ll be as vague as favorite character, timetravel, wingfic, or soulmate AU. Whatever it is that I’ve latched onto, I’ll enter it into the search bar on whatever browser I’m using, and open whatever links look most appealing in a new tab, giving preference to stories from any website except Wattpad* over any king of collection, and links to Ao3 preference over links to anything else.

From there I work my way through everything that was offered, and as I do so I eventually come across new things that capture my interest, and —in general terms— follow them.

On ff.net I’ll follow the link back to the page for whatever franchise this is, then open the filter menu, select "all ratings" and begin using the filters to look for whatever character or pair of characters (seeing as looking for idea is not really possible on ff.net) interests me most in either the family, hurt/comfort, or angst genre depending on which has the most stories, unless one of them has stories in excess of 3 or 4 hundred, in which case I’ll pick whichever has the least stories. I’ll then go through the offerings, opening any story that look is interesting in a new tab. If I make it through all of that and somehow haven’t found something better to do on Ao3, then when I’m done I’ll go back to the genre filter and pick whichever had the middling number of stories, then after that the one on the opposite end of the spectrum from most to least. If at any point I’m offered more than 1,000 stories I’ll add additional filters until the results drop below 1,000, because I am not dealing with slogging through that much ff.net at once. If there is that much written for whatever I’m looking for, then either there’s some on Ao3 and I can leave, or I’m actually looking for something more specific and was just over-estimating how vague I’d need to be to get results at all. This is very methodical probably because I do not like this site and am putting up with it only to find what I’m currently looking for, I never get new ideas prompted to me or am enticed to wander off the beaten track. I don’t use ff.net very often, though still more often then I go to the library.

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Question:

Are there any search features or filters you wish fanfiction.net had for readers and searchers?

Answer:

Fanfiction.net is not a functional website, it’s a particularly shitty ghost town that is actively crumbling to pieces around its few remaining inhabitants. I it’s a hassle to read on and I only do so because I’m a fan of rare pairs, and have to take anything I can get, and because I’m a fan of a particular kind of low-brow overpowered-hero fanfiction that tends to be more common there then on Ao3 or Tumblr.

I wish it didn’t have adds in the middle of a page, every time I hit next chapter, ect.

I wish it didn’t have pointless captchas every time I  start a new session.

I wish it had a visually pleasant format for presenting the stories for you to select from. Whether they’re search bar results, the results of a filter search, stories in a collection, or stories on an author’s page. It’s the same aggressively bad format and makes it hard to tell them apart from eachother and hard to pick which one(s) I want.

I wish stories could have longer summaries. They are so short that it forces everyone to sound same-y and rushed, and if an author want to include trigger warnings they have to be even shorter.

I wish there was a way to exclude/search/mark trigger warnings.

I wish you could select more than four characters in the filters, I wish authors could TAG more than four characters.

I wish there was a way to search/mark platonic relationships instead of only romantic.

I wish there was a way to search/mark a single character in multiple separate relationships eg. [A/B] and [A/C]

I wish there was a way to search for certain tropes or cliches without relying on pure hope that either the author used part of their limited summary space to mention it, or that someone else already made a collection for that trope and managed to find at least a few (they never have all) of the fics containing it.

I wish you could copy and paste the text without having to switch to the mobile version of the website. I don’t personally know why you can’t do this on desktop but I’ve heard other people say it’s because it’s actually generated as a pdf instead of genuine text.

I wish there was a way to open the whole story in one tab instead of being forced to go through it other by chapter.

I wish there was a way for authors to include author’s notes without it being part of the chapter.

I wish there was a way for authors to respond to comments without doing so in the author’s notes.

I wish the formatting wasn’t so aggressively bad as to be actively harming the quality of the story. I have found stories that were posted on both Ao3 and ff.net and read them on both websites, no differences in text, in punctuation, in anything at all, but on Ao3 it flowed much better, was much easier to read, and I’d have given a higher estimation of the author’s skill level if asked. All because it wasn’t actively being dragged down by ff.net’s formatting.

There are probably a fair few more things that I’m just not managing to think of at the moment, but considering there’s no way ff.net will ever be fixed and is in fact very likely to completely implode and die in the near future, I think this is good enough.

Sorry for the essays every time I’m allowed to write an answer but you’re asking loaded questions.

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Question (Ao3):

If possible, please explain your typical process for finding fanfiction to read.

Answer:

Whenever  I get interested in a new show I’ll latch on to a concept or particular character interaction eg. Villain!hero, ensemble finds out secret, character A needs a hug, character A adopted by character B, character C & character D friendship & hurt/comfort. Sometimes (especially if it’s a lesser known thing/has a small fandom) I’ll be as vague as favorite character, timetravel, wingfic, or soulmate AU. Whatever it is that I’ve latched onto, I’ll enter it into the search bar on whatever browser I’m using, and open whatever links look most appealing in a new tab, giving preference to stories from any website except Wattpad* over any king of collection, and links to Ao3 preference over links to anything else.

From there I work my way through everything that was offered, and as I do so I eventually come across new things that capture my interest, and —in general terms— follow them.

On Ao3 I’ll head back up to the top of a fic I really enjoyed and click on the tag for whatever little bit of it I enjoyed the most, and begin browsing again from there, refining with filters and following links and tags from new stories.

I will filter out reader inserts, original characters, y/n, or notps if I keep seeing too many of them in my results, but otherwise I’ll just scroll past them. Sometimes if I’ve been reading for a specific idea for a while I’ll sort by word count and begin going through it from least to most to see if there’s anything I’ve been missing because it’s not been updated recently. And sometimes if I feel like reading fanfiction but don’t have anything particular in mind I’ll just head to the Ao3 page for the main character (more reliable then a fandom tag, if a franchise exists in multiple forms of media they’ll usually each have their own tag the fanfiction will be scattered accordingly) of one of the bigger fandoms I’m in and start trawling the page for anything that looks interesting.

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Question:

Please use the box below to write any thoughts or opinions on this questionnaire or the subjects within it that you did not get the chance to share.

Answer:

On how I find fanfiction to read on websites that are not ff.net or Ao3, copy-pasted from the original all-encompassing answer I wrote before I realized you were looking for answers only about the website you’d just been talking about:

Wattpad (which I did not select when asked what websites I search for fanfiction on because I never willingly go looking there I just end up on it sometimes to my great frustration.):

Whatever idea it is that I’ve latched onto, I’ll enter it into the search bar on whatever browser I’m using, and open whatever links look most appealing in a new tab, giving preference to stories from any website except Wattpad* preference over tags or other collections, and links to Ao3 preference over links to anything else.

(*If links to Wattpad make it onto the first page of results, I’ll take whatever meager scrapings I was offer from other websites, then give up the search as a lost cause and pick a new idea as a I mourn the lack of the content I want to read. Only if I am already very attached to an idea and very desperate will I follow a link to wattpad. That website is the only one I have ever encountered worse then ff.net and it is an absolute unnavigable MESS.)

Tumblr:

If I’m on tumblr (mobile, I’ve never used tumblr on the computer but I don’t think it works the same) then once I find one thing to read that I like, I’ll begin tapping my way through the suggested posts on the bottom based on whatever looks the most interesting from what little I get to see of it. Sometimes I’ll end up on a specific blog or a specific tag, and I’ll just scroll through reading anything that looks even mildly cool regardless of whether it has anything to do with what I was originally searching for or not, until I click on a specific post for some reason (usually a “read more“), and then I’m back to navigating by suggested posts again. I tend to wander through fandoms and subfandoms a lot faster here, trading one interesting idea for the next as they’re presented to me. It’s a lot of fun and I sometimes discover completely new stuff! I’ll often end up following Authors I really like so that their stuff will end up in my feed, and this is really the only site on which I do that.

Just another couple comments on my general media consumption habits that I didn’t really see anywhere else to put:

Everything I stated about my fanfiction habits when getting into a new show applied if it’s a movie or book or game too, it’s just that 90% of the time it’s a show. My favorite movies are documentaries so I’m not sure what fanfiction for them would even look like, I prefer video essays and theories for games, and I just don’t read as many books as I used to. About half of the remaining 10% of the time is actually probably musicals.

It’s not unusual for me to have seen only three or so episodes of a show, but to have read insane amounts of fanfiction for it. I have difficulty sitting down to actually watch a show, and I usually only expend the effort for my absolute favorite series, so most of my interaction with most shows ends up being fanfiction. Getting into a new show because I came across some really good fanfiction for it is not uncommon either.

[jojospeachtree]

app recommendation: Notion

ok so here we go:

starting this off with my current favourite productivity app, Notion !!!

it is so so pretty and very interactive and right now, i’m currently using it to plan out study schedules, syllabi, my revisions, as well as budgeting and my job applications. i initially downloaded it as a note-taking app, but i don’t think i will be doing that (even if i did, it will only be condensed, quick revision notes). after watching a few youtube videos on studytube, i have completed adapted into notion. what’s great with it is that it is 

F R E E

for students !

just sign up with your university/school email, and let it guide you through it. for my experience, i got the education pro thru random pop ups, but if you need a tutorial on how to get this payment plan, just message me directly!

Some Notion Pros (aside from it being free):

1. A little lost on where to start? That’s okay, use templates!

Notion, when you begin, already prepares templates with different functions and purposes. There are for personal purposes (budgeting, agendas, planners...), education purposes (lesson plans, grade calculators, thesis planning...) and even for design management and engineering! Using templates is a great way to explore this app if you’re not quite sure how to use it yet or how to personalize your pages. For me, I downloaded templates from studytube (I will link the ones I used), and then made my own changes to it depending on how I want to use it. With Notion’s many different features, it is easy to get lost and to be overwhelmed, but use these tools to guide you!

2. See everything in many ways!*

I will be honest that I don’t know how to order this list, but my second favourite thing about Notion is that it gives you different perspectives on a list that you create. Example:

Here is a quick look on my Math Self-Prep for the next two weeks. This is a table that includes the dates I want the chapters finished by (because I’m crazy like that), my comfort level for each topic, which units they belong to, etc. But! There are so many aspects to this list that it can be a little too much. 

See the little arrow beside “Table View” above the table? Well, that’s a drop-down list on the different views you can have. Here is my “Comfortability Board View”, so I can easily see my comfort levels on each topic.

Now you can see it in a different perspective! Because sometimes, tables aren’t right for everything

3. Tags! Filters!*

Okay, so you know how you can have different views for a single table or list? Well, you can have another column on this table for “tags” to categorize your stuff. 

Here’s a look into my budget for this school year. See those colourful boxes? Those are the tags. And when you change the view, you can filter those views to only show specific tags. 

Example: So what if I only want to see my loans so I can know which ones to pay off? 

Filter one of your views to only include your loans! 

EZ

Better yet, you can filter a new list to only show loans you’ve paid for, loans you haven’t��paid for, etc! Whatever! Filter them however you want!

4. Subpages!*

Do you want a wholeass section in your page dedicated into one topic, but a small part isn’t enough? Do you want a whole notebook in your page? 

W E L L 

Each new section in Notion is called a page. But ! You can include subpages in it that is dedicated to more things, and you can just click on this subpage link and it will direct you to it! You can have deep, deep notebooks with many twisting sections just because you need a new section for everything! YOU CAN EVEN HAVE PAGES DEDICATED TO THE THINGS ON YOUR TABLE.

5.. Use it e v e r y w h e r e. 

Like most software, Notion is available in desktop and mobile, Android, iPhone, Windows, whatever. It synchs your notebooks in all of your devices, and !!! THE MOBILE VERSION ISN’T UGLY. One of the huge turn-offs I always get from apps is that mobile versions are always so compressed because it is in a smaller device, but Notion !!! Notion makes it work !!! I can actually look at my phone to check through my planners and not cry while looking at it. 

I wish I can go deeper into this app because there is so much more to talk about, and I wish I was more descriptive. Unfortunately, I can’t provide a lot of photos because I am just starting to use Tumblr and I’m not that comfortable with it yet, and I don’t have a lot of examples to show you since I am also just starting with Notion as well. But! I will do my best to update you about things I discover so that you can draw inspiration for your productivity and journalling purposes. 

I hope this helped you in some way! I will be talking more about Notion in the future and how I use it, so this is my introductory piece for it!

*I will be posting videos about these steps in Tiktok to show more of it, so make sure to follow me on there too (@ jojospeaches)! I am on private, so just request a follow! 

[writinglionqueen]

The Queen’s Rules of Writing Fics:

Hey guys!! So I’ve been compositing a whole bunch of tips and tricks (and things people should do more) in terms of writing here on Tumblr. You don’t necessarily have to follow any of these, but these are very good ideas to be wary of when you post fics here on this website. No this isn’t about grammar or anything, but it is definitely things pertaining to format and the likes. This is probably good for any new writers or people who are still trying to get the hang of it. I’ve, also, only been writing on this site for, about, a year now so take my ideas lightly but these have been incredibly helpful for me and my readers so it may help you and your readers to take a look at. (Mainly...I made this for beginners)

1) The most important thing I think people forget or are not very aware of; if you’re fic is too long (I usually gage this at around 1000 words and more) USE A KEEP READING LINK!!!  Please...this will actually help you out a ton. People will be super invested to read your story is your summary or first paragraph, above the keep reading link, is amazing.  I can not begin to describe how many author’s I’ve seen who don’t use it on extremely long fics and post their stories to fill up my dash. You’re fic is amazing. But long fics clutter a dash. Especially on mobile. No one wants to keep scrolling past your fic to look onto their dash. It really saves people’s patience that way. It also saves the suspense of your story if you do it. If you don’t know where to find the link; on desktop/laptop, it’s the three dots next to the gif button when you make a new line of a post. You will not find this on the mobile which makes it difficult to do...but just save your story on mobile, if that’ s where you write and head over to a desktop to put in the keep reading link. Trust me...it’ll save you, your followers, and your reader’s dashes. PLEASE USE IT!!

2) A warning for a fic never hurt anyone.  I use a warning if I choose to make smut (NSFW content) or any things that could possible hold a trigger for some. I usually place my warnings right before a reader even gets to a fic. Some people don’t want to read NSFW content and avoid it when they can (other’s are not old enough and you should warn for it nonetheless). If you are concerned for the trigger you have in your fic, ask another author if it’s something you should warn before a reader chooses to read your work. Trust me it’ll help. 

3) Tagging fics matter Though Tumblr’s tagging system isn’t always the best, it is super important for any reader you may have. Your tags can include the pairing (i.e. drew mcintyre x reader) or things like it. This can help you find your own content easier and help readers find it as well. But you should always tag if it pertains to a trigger or to smut content. If your fic mentions rape use that in the tag [rape mention] or use tw: rape. This goes on for a lot of those type of topics as well.  You don’t want to unintentionally harm a reader so it’s always important to tag for it because most readers have a tag blocker specifically for their triggers. ALWAYS TAG TRIGGERS. If the reader does choose to read even though you properly tagged and warned for everything, than you’re all good. But make sure you are helpful when it involves triggering content. If you don’t know which tags to use, always look it up or ask another author who would know. 

4) Having trouble with people not viewing your work; make a tag list Tag lists are an amazing tool for an author. It puts a lot of your followers or avid readers into a tagged list which let’s them know you publish a fic. To do this, ask others if they’d like to be on the tag list (don’t tag people who don’t want to be on there), start a new draft and use the @ function to start adding people. When you have made this list, save it as a draft so you cna always copy and past it onto your stories. Tumblr is weird sometimes about tagging others but it is a beneficial thing to use. Be avid about your tag list ever now and again and update it when you need to for specific kinds of work and content. DO NOT PUT OTHER’S ON THERE WITHOUT PERMISSION. Ask first. 

These are all the tips I can think of that would be beneficial to know as a beginner. Like I said, you don’t have to follow any of these. To each their own, but please be wary of these ideas on this site (Especially the tags and keep reading link). 

Happy writing!

~Bri👑

[wickedbananas]

Rewriting the Beginner's Guide to SEO, Chapter 2: Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking

Posted by BritneyMuller

It's been a few months since our last share of our work-in-progress rewrite of the Beginner's Guide to SEO, but after a brief hiatus, we're back to share our draft of Chapter Two with you! This wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Kameron Jenkins, who has thoughtfully contributed her great talent for wordsmithing throughout this piece.

This is your resource, the guide that likely kicked off your interest in and knowledge of SEO, and we want to do right by you. You left amazingly helpful commentary on our outline and draft of Chapter One, and we'd be honored if you would take the time to let us know what you think of Chapter Two in the comments below.

Chapter 2: How Search Engines Work – Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking

First, show up.

As we mentioned in Chapter 1, search engines are answer machines. They exist to discover, understand, and organize the internet's content in order to offer the most relevant results to the questions searchers are asking.

In order to show up in search results, your content needs to first be visible to search engines. It's arguably the most important piece of the SEO puzzle: If your site can't be found, there's no way you'll ever show up in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page).

How do search engines work?

Search engines have three primary functions:

Crawl: Scour the Internet for content, looking over the code/content for each URL they find.

Index: Store and organize the content found during the crawling process. Once a page is in the index, it’s in the running to be displayed as a result to relevant queries.

Rank: Provide the pieces of content that will best answer a searcher's query. Order the search results by the most helpful to a particular query.

What is search engine crawling?

Crawling, is the discovery process in which search engines send out a team of robots (known as crawlers or spiders) to find new and updated content. Content can vary — it could be a webpage, an image, a video, a PDF, etc. — but regardless of the format, content is discovered by links.

The bot starts out by fetching a few web pages, and then follows the links on those webpages to find new URLs. By hopping along this path of links, crawlers are able to find new content and add it to their index — a massive database of discovered URLs — to later be retrieved when a searcher is seeking information that the content on that URL is a good match for.

What is a search engine index?

Search engines process and store information they find in an index, a huge database of all the content they’ve discovered and deem good enough to serve up to searchers.

Search engine ranking

When someone performs a search, search engines scour their index for highly relevant content and then orders that content in the hopes of solving the searcher's query. This ordering of search results by relevance is known as ranking. In general, you can assume that the higher a website is ranked, the more relevant the search engine believes that site is to the query.

It’s possible to block search engine crawlers from part or all of your site, or instruct search engines to avoid storing certain pages in their index. While there can be reasons for doing this, if you want your content found by searchers, you have to first make sure it’s accessible to crawlers and is indexable. Otherwise, it’s as good as invisible.

By the end of this chapter, you’ll have the context you need to work with the search engine, rather than against it!

Note: In SEO, not all search engines are equal

Many beginners wonder about the relative importance of particular search engines. Most people know that Google has the largest market share, but how important it is to optimize for Bing, Yahoo, and others? The truth is that despite the existence of more than 30 major web search engines, the SEO community really only pays attention to Google. Why? The short answer is that Google is where the vast majority of people search the web. If we include Google Images, Google Maps, and YouTube (a Google property), more than 90% of web searches happen on Google — that's nearly 20 times Bing and Yahoo combined.

Crawling: Can search engines find your site?

As you've just learned, making sure your site gets crawled and indexed is a prerequisite for showing up in the SERPs. First things first: You can check to see how many and which pages of your website have been indexed by Google using "site:yourdomain.com", an advanced search operator.

Head to Google and type "site:yourdomain.com" into the search bar. This will return results Google has in its index for the site specified:

The number of results Google displays (see “About __ results” above) isn't exact, but it does give you a solid idea of which pages are indexed on your site and how they are currently showing up in search results.

For more accurate results, monitor and use the Index Coverage report in Google Search Console. You can sign up for a free Google Search Console account if you don't currently have one. With this tool, you can submit sitemaps for your site and monitor how many submitted pages have actually been added to Google's index, among other things.

If you're not showing up anywhere in the search results, there are a few possible reasons why:

Your site is brand new and hasn't been crawled yet.

Your site isn't linked to from any external websites.

Your site's navigation makes it hard for a robot to crawl it effectively.

Your site contains some basic code called crawler directives that is blocking search engines.

Your site has been penalized by Google for spammy tactics.

If your site doesn't have any other sites linking to it, you still might be able to get it indexed by submitting your XML sitemap in Google Search Console or manually submitting individual URLs to Google. There's no guarantee they'll include a submitted URL in their index, but it's worth a try!

Can search engines see your whole site?

Sometimes a search engine will be able to find parts of your site by crawling, but other pages or sections might be obscured for one reason or another. It's important to make sure that search engines are able to discover all the content you want indexed, and not just your homepage.

Ask yourself this: Can the bot crawl through your website, and not just to it?

Is your content hidden behind login forms?

If you require users to log in, fill out forms, or answer surveys before accessing certain content, search engines won't see those protected pages. A crawler is definitely not going to log in.

Are you relying on search forms?

Robots cannot use search forms. Some individuals believe that if they place a search box on their site, search engines will be able to find everything that their visitors search for.

Is text hidden within non-text content?

Non-text media forms (images, video, GIFs, etc.) should not be used to display text that you wish to be indexed. While search engines are getting better at recognizing images, there's no guarantee they will be able to read and understand it just yet. It's always best to add text within the <HTML> markup of your webpage.

Can search engines follow your site navigation?

Just as a crawler needs to discover your site via links from other sites, it needs a path of links on your own site to guide it from page to page. If you’ve got a page you want search engines to find but it isn’t linked to from any other pages, it’s as good as invisible. Many sites make the critical mistake of structuring their navigation in ways that are inaccessible to search engines, hindering their ability to get listed in search results.

Common navigation mistakes that can keep crawlers from seeing all of your site:

Having a mobile navigation that shows different results than your desktop navigation

Any type of navigation where the menu items are not in the HTML, such as JavaScript-enabled navigations. Google has gotten much better at crawling and understanding Javascript, but it’s still not a perfect process. The more surefire way to ensure something gets found, understood, and indexed by Google is by putting it in the HTML.

Personalization, or showing unique navigation to a specific type of visitor versus others, could appear to be cloaking to a search engine crawler

Forgetting to link to a primary page on your website through your navigation — remember, links are the paths crawlers follow to new pages!

This is why it's essential that your website has a clear navigation and helpful URL folder structures.

Information architecture

Information architecture is the practice of organizing and labeling content on a website to improve efficiency and fundability for users. The best information architecture is intuitive, meaning that users shouldn't have to think very hard to flow through your website or to find something.

Your site should also have a useful 404 (page not found) page for when a visitor clicks on a dead link or mistypes a URL. The best 404 pages allow users to click back into your site so they don’t bounce off just because they tried to access a nonexistent link.

Tell search engines how to crawl your site

In addition to making sure crawlers can reach your most important pages, it’s also pertinent to note that you’ll have pages on your site you don’t want them to find. These might include things like old URLs that have thin content, duplicate URLs (such as sort-and-filter parameters for e-commerce), special promo code pages, staging or test pages, and so on.

Blocking pages from search engines can also help crawlers prioritize your most important pages and maximize your crawl budget (the average number of pages a search engine bot will crawl on your site).

Crawler directives allow you to control what you want Googlebot to crawl and index using a robots.txt file, meta tag, sitemap.xml file, or Google Search Console.

Robots.txt

Robots.txt files are located in the root directory of websites (ex. yourdomain.com/robots.txt) and suggest which parts of your site search engines should and shouldn't crawl via specific robots.txt directives. This is a great solution when trying to block search engines from non-private pages on your site.

You wouldn't want to block private/sensitive pages from being crawled here because the file is easily accessible by users and bots.

Pro tip:

If Googlebot can't find a robots.txt file for a site (40X HTTP status code), it proceeds to crawl the site.

If Googlebot finds a robots.txt file for a site (20X HTTP status code), it will usually abide by the suggestions and proceed to crawl the site.

If Googlebot finds neither a 20X or a 40X HTTP status code (ex. a 501 server error) it can't determine if you have a robots.txt file or not and won't crawl your site.

Meta directives

The two types of meta directives are the meta robots tag (more commonly used) and the x-robots-tag. Each provides crawlers with stronger instructions on how to crawl and index a URL's content.

The x-robots tag provides more flexibility and functionality if you want to block search engines at scale because you can use regular expressions, block non-HTML files, and apply sitewide noindex tags.

These are the best options for blocking more sensitive*/private URLs from search engines.

*For very sensitive URLs, it is best practice to remove them from or require a secure login to view the pages.

WordPress Tip: In Dashboard > Settings > Reading, make sure the "Search Engine Visibility" box is not checked. This blocks search engines from coming to your site via your robots.txt file!

Avoid these common pitfalls, and you'll have clean, crawlable content that will allow bots easy access to your pages.

Once you’ve ensured your site has been crawled, the next order of business is to make sure it can be indexed. That’s right — just because your site can be discovered and crawled by a search engine doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be stored in their index. Read on to learn about how indexing works and how you can make sure your site makes it into this all-important database.

Sitemaps

A sitemap is just what it sounds like: a list of URLs on your site that crawlers can use to discover and index your content. One of the easiest ways to ensure Google is finding your highest priority pages is to create a file that meets Google's standards and submit it through Google Search Console. While submitting a sitemap doesn’t replace the need for good site navigation, it can certainly help crawlers follow a path to all of your important pages.

Google Search Console

Some sites (most common with e-commerce) make the same content available on multiple different URLs by appending certain parameters to URLs. If you’ve ever shopped online, you’ve likely narrowed down your search via filters. For example, you may search for “shoes” on Amazon, and then refine your search by size, color, and style. Each time you refine, the URL changes slightly. How does Google know which version of the URL to serve to searchers? Google does a pretty good job at figuring out the representative URL on its own, but you can use the URL Parameters feature in Google Search Console to tell Google exactly how you want them to treat your pages.

Indexing: How do search engines understand and remember your site?

Once you’ve ensured your site has been crawled, the next order of business is to make sure it can be indexed. That’s right — just because your site can be discovered and crawled by a search engine doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be stored in their index. In the previous section on crawling, we discussed how search engines discover your web pages. The index is where your discovered pages are stored. After a crawler finds a page, the search engine renders it just like a browser would. In the process of doing so, the search engine analyzes that page's contents. All of that information is stored in its index.

Read on to learn about how indexing works and how you can make sure your site makes it into this all-important database.

Can I see how a Googlebot crawler sees my pages?

Yes, the cached version of your page will reflect a snapshot of the last time googlebot crawled it.

Google crawls and caches web pages at different frequencies. More established, well-known sites that post frequently like https://www.nytimes.com will be crawled more frequently than the much-less-famous website for Roger the Mozbot’s side hustle, http://www.rogerlovescupcakes.com (if only it were real…)

You can view what your cached version of a page looks like by clicking the drop-down arrow next to the URL in the SERP and choosing "Cached":

You can also view the text-only version of your site to determine if your important content is being crawled and cached effectively.

Are pages ever removed from the index?

Yes, pages can be removed from the index! Some of the main reasons why a URL might be removed include:

The URL is returning a "not found" error (4XX) or server error (5XX) – This could be accidental (the page was moved and a 301 redirect was not set up) or intentional (the page was deleted and 404ed in order to get it removed from the index)

The URL had a noindex meta tag added – This tag can be added by site owners to instruct the search engine to omit the page from its index.

The URL has been manually penalized for violating the search engine’s Webmaster Guidelines and, as a result, was removed from the index.

The URL has been blocked from crawling with the addition of a password required before visitors can access the page.

If you believe that a page on your website that was previously in Google’s index is no longer showing up, you can manually submit the URL to Google by navigating to the “Submit URL” tool in Search Console.

Ranking: How do search engines rank URLs?

How do search engines ensure that when someone types a query into the search bar, they get relevant results in return? That process is known as ranking, or the ordering of search results by most relevant to least relevant to a particular query.

To determine relevance, search engines use algorithms, a process or formula by which stored information is retrieved and ordered in meaningful ways. These algorithms have gone through many changes over the years in order to improve the quality of search results. Google, for example, makes algorithm adjustments every day — some of these updates are minor quality tweaks, whereas others are core/broad algorithm updates deployed to tackle a specific issue, like Penguin to tackle link spam. Check out our Google Algorithm Change History for a list of both confirmed and unconfirmed Google updates going back to the year 2000.

Why does the algorithm change so often? Is Google just trying to keep us on our toes? While Google doesn’t always reveal specifics as to why they do what they do, we do know that Google’s aim when making algorithm adjustments is to improve overall search quality. That’s why, in response to algorithm update questions, Google will answer with something along the lines of: “We’re making quality updates all the time.” This indicates that, if your site suffered after an algorithm adjustment, compare it against Google’s Quality Guidelines or Search Quality Rater Guidelines, both are very telling in terms of what search engines want.

What do search engines want?

Search engines have always wanted the same thing: to provide useful answers to searcher’s questions in the most helpful formats. If that’s true, then why does it appear that SEO is different now than in years past?

Think about it in terms of someone learning a new language.

At first, their understanding of the language is very rudimentary — “See Spot Run.” Over time, their understanding starts to deepen, and they learn semantics—- the meaning behind language and the relationship between words and phrases. Eventually, with enough practice, the student knows the language well enough to even understand nuance, and is able to provide answers to even vague or incomplete questions.

When search engines were just beginning to learn our language, it was much easier to game the system by using tricks and tactics that actually go against quality guidelines. Take keyword stuffing, for example. If you wanted to rank for a particular keyword like “funny jokes,” you might add the words “funny jokes” a bunch of times onto your page, and make it bold, in hopes of boosting your ranking for that term:

Welcome to funny jokes! We tell the funniest jokes in the world. Funny jokes are fun and crazy. Your funny joke awaits. Sit back and read funny jokes because funny jokes can make you happy and funnier. Some funny favorite funny jokes.

This tactic made for terrible user experiences, and instead of laughing at funny jokes, people were bombarded by annoying, hard-to-read text. It may have worked in the past, but this is never what search engines wanted.

The role links play in SEO

When we talk about links, we could mean two things. Backlinks or "inbound links" are links from other websites that point to your website, while internal links are links on your own site that point to your other pages (on the same site).

Links have historically played a big role in SEO. Very early on, search engines needed help figuring out which URLs were more trustworthy than others to help them determine how to rank search results. Calculating the number of links pointing to any given site helped them do this.

Backlinks work very similarly to real life WOM (Word-Of-Mouth) referrals. Let’s take a hypothetical coffee shop, Jenny’s Coffee, as an example:

Referrals from others = good sign of authority Example: Many different people have all told you that Jenny’s Coffee is the best in town

Referrals from yourself = biased, so not a good sign of authority Example: Jenny claims that Jenny’s Coffee is the best in town

Referrals from irrelevant or low-quality sources = not a good sign of authority and could even get you flagged for spam Example: Jenny paid to have people who have never visited her coffee shop tell others how good it is.

No referrals = unclear authority Example: Jenny’s Coffee might be good, but you’ve been unable to find anyone who has an opinion so you can’t be sure.

This is why PageRank was created. PageRank (part of Google's core algorithm) is a link analysis algorithm named after one of Google's founders, Larry Page. PageRank estimates the importance of a web page by measuring the quality and quantity of links pointing to it. The assumption is that the more relevant, important, and trustworthy a web page is, the more links it will have earned.

The more natural backlinks you have from high-authority (trusted) websites, the better your odds are to rank higher within search results.

The role content plays in SEO

There would be no point to links if they didn’t direct searchers to something. That something is content! Content is more than just words; it’s anything meant to be consumed by searchers — there’s video content, image content, and of course, text. If search engines are answer machines, content is the means by which the engines deliver those answers.

Any time someone performs a search, there are thousands of possible results, so how do search engines decide which pages the searcher is going to find valuable? A big part of determining where your page will rank for a given query is how well the content on your page matches the query’s intent. In other words, does this page match the words that were searched and help fulfill the task the searcher was trying to accomplish?

Because of this focus on user satisfaction and task accomplishment, there’s no strict benchmarks on how long your content should be, how many times it should contain a keyword, or what you put in your header tags. All those can play a role in how well a page performs in search, but the focus should be on the users who will be reading the content.

Today, with hundreds or even thousands of ranking signals, the top three have stayed fairly consistent: links to your website (which serve as a third-party credibility signals), on-page content (quality content that fulfills a searcher’s intent), and RankBrain.

What is RankBrain?

RankBrain is the machine learning component of Google’s core algorithm. Machine learning is a computer program that continues to improve its predictions over time through new observations and training data. In other words, it’s always learning, and because it’s always learning, search results should be constantly improving.

For example, if RankBrain notices a lower ranking URL providing a better result to users than the higher ranking URLs, you can bet that RankBrain will adjust those results, moving the more relevant result higher and demoting the lesser relevant pages as a byproduct.

Like most things with the search engine, we don’t know exactly what comprises RankBrain, but apparently, neither do the folks at Google.

What does this mean for SEOs?

Because Google will continue leveraging RankBrain to promote the most relevant, helpful content, we need to focus on fulfilling searcher intent more than ever before. Provide the best possible information and experience for searchers who might land on your page, and you’ve taken a big first step to performing well in a RankBrain world.

Engagement metrics: correlation, causation, or both?

With Google rankings, engagement metrics are most likely part correlation and part causation.

When we say engagement metrics, we mean data that represents how searchers interact with your site from search results. This includes things like:

Clicks (visits from search)

Time on page (amount of time the visitor spent on a page before leaving it)

Bounce rate (the percentage of all website sessions where users viewed only one page)

Pogo-sticking (clicking on an organic result and then quickly returning to the SERP to choose another result)

Many tests, including Moz’s own ranking factor survey, have indicated that engagement metrics correlate with higher ranking, but causation has been hotly debated. Are good engagement metrics just indicative of highly ranked sites? Or are sites ranked highly because they possess good engagement metrics?

What Google has said

While they’ve never used the term “direct ranking signal,” Google has been clear that they absolutely use click data to modify the SERP for particular queries.

According to Google’s former Chief of Search Quality, Udi Manber:

“The ranking itself is affected by the click data. If we discover that, for a particular query, 80% of people click on #2 and only 10% click on #1, after a while we figure out probably #2 is the one people want, so we’ll switch it.”

Another comment from former Google engineer Edmond Lau corroborates this:

“It’s pretty clear that any reasonable search engine would use click data on their own results to feed back into ranking to improve the quality of search results. The actual mechanics of how click data is used is often proprietary, but Google makes it obvious that it uses click data with its patents on systems like rank-adjusted content items.”

Because Google needs to maintain and improve search quality, it seems inevitable that engagement metrics are more than correlation, but it would appear that Google falls short of calling engagement metrics a “ranking signal” because those metrics are used to improve search quality, and the rank of individual URLs is just a byproduct of that.

What tests have confirmed

Various tests have confirmed that Google will adjust SERP order in response to searcher engagement:

Rand Fishkin’s 2014 test resulted in a #7 result moving up to the #1 spot after getting around 200 people to click on the URL from the SERP. Interestingly, ranking improvement seemed to be isolated to the location of the people who visited the link. The rank position spiked in the US, where many participants were located, whereas it remained lower on the page in Google Canada, Google Australia, etc.

Larry Kim’s comparison of top pages and their average dwell time pre- and post-RankBrain seemed to indicate that the machine-learning component of Google’s algorithm demotes the rank position of pages that people don’t spend as much time on.

Darren Shaw’s testing has shown user behavior’s impact on local search and map pack results as well.

Since user engagement metrics are clearly used to adjust the SERPs for quality, and rank position changes as a byproduct, it’s safe to say that SEOs should optimize for engagement. Engagement doesn’t change the objective quality of your web page, but rather your value to searchers relative to other results for that query. That’s why, after no changes to your page or its backlinks, it could decline in rankings if searchers’ behaviors indicates they like other pages better.

In terms of ranking web pages, engagement metrics act like a fact-checker. Objective factors such as links and content first rank the page, then engagement metrics help Google adjust if they didn’t get it right.

The evolution of search results

Back when search engines lacked a lot of the sophistication they have today, the term “10 blue links” was coined to describe the flat structure of the SERP. Any time a search was performed, Google would return a page with 10 organic results, each in the same format.

In this search landscape, holding the #1 spot was the holy grail of SEO. But then something happened. Google began adding results in new formats on their search result pages, called SERP features. Some of these SERP features include:

Paid advertisements

Featured snippets

People Also Ask boxes

Local (map) pack

Knowledge panel

Sitelinks

And Google is adding new ones all the time. It even experimented with “zero-result SERPs,” a phenomenon where only one result from the Knowledge Graph was displayed on the SERP with no results below it except for an option to “view more results.”

The addition of these features caused some initial panic for two main reasons. For one, many of these features caused organic results to be pushed down further on the SERP. Another byproduct is that fewer searchers are clicking on the organic results since more queries are being answered on the SERP itself.

So why would Google do this? It all goes back to the search experience. User behavior indicates that some queries are better satisfied by different content formats. Notice how the different types of SERP features match the different types of query intents.

Query Intent

Possible SERP Feature Triggered

Informational

Featured Snippet

Informational with one answer

Knowledge Graph / Instant Answer

Local

Map Pack

Transactional

Shopping

We’ll talk more about intent in Chapter 3, but for now, it’s important to know that answers can be delivered to searchers in a wide array of formats, and how you structure your content can impact the format in which it appears in search.

Localized search

A search engine like Google has its own proprietary index of local business listings, from which it creates local search results.

If you are performing local SEO work for a business that has a physical location customers can visit (ex: dentist) or for a business that travels to visit their customers (ex: plumber), make sure that you claim, verify, and optimize a free Google My Business Listing.

When it comes to localized search results, Google uses three main factors to determine ranking:

Relevance

Distance

Prominence

Relevance

Relevance is how well a local business matches what the searcher is looking for. To ensure that the business is doing everything it can to be relevant to searchers, make sure the business’ information is thoroughly and accurately filled out.

Distance

Google use your geo-location to better serve you local results. Local search results are extremely sensitive to proximity, which refers to the location of the searcher and/or the location specified in the query (if the searcher included one).

Organic search results are sensitive to a searcher's location, though seldom as pronounced as in local pack results.

Prominence

With prominence as a factor, Google is looking to reward businesses that are well-known in the real world. In addition to a business’ offline prominence, Google also looks to some online factors to determine local ranking, such as:

Reviews

The number of Google reviews a local business receives, and the sentiment of those reviews, have a notable impact on their ability to rank in local results.

Citations

A "business citation" or "business listing" is a web-based reference to a local business' "NAP" (name, address, phone number) on a localized platform (Yelp, Acxiom, YP, Infogroup, Localeze, etc.).

Local rankings are influenced by the number and consistency of local business citations. Google pulls data from a wide variety of sources in continuously making up its local business index. When Google finds multiple consistent references to a business's name, location, and phone number it strengthens Google's "trust" in the validity of that data. This then leads to Google being able to show the business with a higher degree of confidence. Google also uses information from other sources on the web, such as links and articles.

Check a local business' citation accuracy here.

Organic ranking

SEO best practices also apply to local SEO, since Google also considers a website’s position in organic search results when determining local ranking.

In the next chapter, you’ll learn on-page best practices that will help Google and users better understand your content.

[Bonus!] Local engagement

Although not listed by Google as a local ranking determiner, the role of engagement is only going to increase as time goes on. Google continues to enrich local results by incorporating real-world data like popular times to visit and average length of visits...

...and even provides searchers with the ability to ask the business questions!

Undoubtedly now more than ever before, local results are being influenced by real-world data. This interactivity is how searchers interact with and respond to local businesses, rather than purely static (and game-able) information like links and citations.

Since Google wants to deliver the best, most relevant local businesses to searchers, it makes perfect sense for them to use real time engagement metrics to determine quality and relevance.

You don’t have to know the ins and outs of Google’s algorithm (that remains a mystery!), but by now you should have a great baseline knowledge of how the search engine finds, interprets, stores, and ranks content. Armed with that knowledge, let’s learn about choosing the keywords your content will target!

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

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[iamanartichoke]

It’s almost 4am, I can’t sleep because of Reasons, and my brain isn’t functioning enough to be productive, so I’m just gonna fill out this writing meme. So, yeah, if you’re interested in some very long, self-indulgent writing babble, keep reading, and if you’re on mobile, I’m sorry the cut doesn’t work. 

1. What are your favourite genres and/or styles to write in?

Contemporary lit has always been my thing. I was never really into reading or writing much action/adventure or fantasy, which is weird because I was very into shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and LOST - but, I was mostly into those shows for the very rich character dynamics and developments, so. Anyway, Sanctuary is the first thing I’ve written in my life that isn’t in the contemporary, real-world genre and I’m doing okay with it, but I do sometimes get a little paranoid that it’s too character focused with not enough action/comic-genre stuff going on. This is really stepping outside of the box for me, to be honest. 

(I just remembered that I did write some Batman fanfic when I was maybe 16  or so, but I’m not sure it counts bc it was terrible and I pretty much just wrote  a Buffy-esque character to be Batman’s sappy love interest. God, how embarrassing.) 

2. What was the last writing project you finished and felt successful with?

Okay, so, when I was finishing grad school, I had to complete a “publishable” thesis project and mine is/was this collection of linked short stories that I spent probably a good year and a half (including my thesis semester) working on. Technically, I did finish it enough that it passed the graduation requirements, and I have been chipping away at it on and off since then, but after I graduated, I just ... stopped writing, in general. Depression and real life are a shitty combination for writers with very little internal motivation. But, despite that, this collection holds a very dear place in my heart. There are seven stories total, all young adult, coming-of-age themed, and they’re linked by character in that they all take place in a small town and the characters from each story sort of know each other in passing, as happens in a small town. There’s room for ten stories, because it’s a nice, even number. I love all of the characters and I think it could be something really great and could be published successfully - just, it needs a lot more work to get to that point. Eventually it will. Anyway, yes, that’s my last “finished” writing project and I do feel a modicum of success toward it, for what it’s worth. 

3. If you have a WiP how do you feel it’s going? What stage are you in?

I am actually 85% pleased with how Sanctuary is going. I started writing the fic without any real idea of what I wanted to do with it or where it would go - I was just having a lot of Loki feels during a difficult time in my life. Prior to this, I would handle my Character Feels by indulging in a lot of watches and re-watches and occasionally making music videos and sometimes fan art (graphics, I can’t draw for shit), but these methods just weren’t cutting it this time ... and hence, fic was born. 

It’s not a perfect story, of course - there are some inconsistencies and errors and the writing can always be more polished, but I’m just happy that I’ve stuck with it for this long and allowed it to develop the way that it has. I’m able to flex my writing muscles and get back into the practice of it while having fun at the same time. The story is four chapters away from completion, but I have plans for a sequel and also a couple of one-shots from Thor’s POV that I want to play around with. Overall, I’m pretty pleased with where I am in my little fic-verse right now. 

When it comes to original fiction, aside from the aforementioned short story collection, I am in the plotting stages of a novel involving reincarnation, because I am tropey trash, but it has potential. So, there’s that. 

4. What are your favourite places to write?

I actually feel like I write more productively when I am away from my apartment, which is a conundrum because I pretty much only leave my apartment to go to work or, like, the grocery store. I have a job that allows me to be at a computer for most of the day, so when I’m not busy, I like to write at work. I weirdly feel more productive and clear-headed at desktop computers, but I don’t have one of my own, so when I’m not at work or at the library, I write on my laptop in places like Barnes and Noble or laying in bed like a lazy bum. I do have a desk at home, but it is woefully neglected, I’m sad to say. 

5. Do you prefer to write with long hand or type? Or some other method?

9 times out of 10, I type. However, when I am struggling particularly hard with writer’s block, I’ll write long hand because, for whatever reason, switching methods jolts my brain a little bit and gets the juices flowing again. I wrote the entirety of the Kree battle and Val/Loki in the infirmary (I forget what chapter that was) long hand, among other scenes. 

6. Do you remember your first character? If so can we meet them?

My childhood is filled to the brim with embarrassing fiction. I don’t remember my first character, to be honest - I remember being in fourth grade and writing some kind of story for Young Author’s Day at school, and that’s the first thing I remember even writing, but I couldn’t tell you what the story was or who the characters were to save my life. When I was in sixth grade, I discovered S.E. Hinton’s books, and from that point on, I spiraled down into the genre of coming-of-age, tortured, sad protagonists (God, Ponyboy Curtis was my first spirit animal, talk about tragic) and I’ve never quite looked back. 

7. Where do you get your inspiration?

Where don’t I get my inspiration, would be a better question. Music is a big inspiration - sometimes I’ll hear a lyric that I want to put to a story, or a song will have a storyline that I like and that’ll get the creative juices flowing. I do get some inspiration from real life, but I shy away from writing anything too closely related to my own life - things that I pull from my life are incredibly fictionalized, but the roots are sometimes there, if that makes sense. Movies and TV shows, of course, especially with character types that I’m drawn to. Other people’s literature is a big inspiration, too. Idk, I think inspiration just comes from everywhere. Everyone and everything has a story that can be told. 

8. Do you outline a story before writing it, or does it all live in your head until the first draft gets put down?

I’m kind of 75/25 on this - 75% lives in my head and 25% is outlined, but the outline is always kind of a loose guideline that may end up completely changing by the time the words are actually on the page. I mostly use outlines to put things down tangibly when they get too cluttered in my head and I start confusing myself. I also use outlines to keep track of plot threads, to try to keep things consistent. For Sanctuary, my outline is a mixture of what I want to accomplish in each chapter and an extensive notes section on various canon I’m using, so that I can keep things straight. 

9. Where do you go/ What do you do when you’re feeling stuck?

Writing long-hand is a thing I already talked about. Other things I find helpful: going for a long drive to just sort of let myself zone out and think about the story without the pressure of sitting at the computer, listening to music ... sometimes I just put the story away completely and let it sit while I do/focus on other things, and I come back to it refreshed and ready to try again. 

10. What got you starting writing/doing Art? (Because I always love origin stories)

I don’t know - writing has just always been a part of who I am. The urge to write was something that came very naturally to me. I’m sure being a voracious reader was part of it, too - I grew up reading books like there was no tomorrow, and I was a very introverted, shy child, so I read more than I talked to people, and that just sort of naturally translated into writing stories of my own. I’ve never been a people-person in that I don’t like interacting with people much (in real life, anyway) but I like to examine and think about how people work, and it’s a strange thing but so it goes. But yeah - there’s no real “origin story” with me, just a long history of being a reclusive nerd. 

I guess this is a tagging meme but I wasn’t tagged, so if anyone out there wants to do it, feel free, I’d love to read other people’s responses if you feel like sharing them. :) 

[teenageglitterchaos]

Virus Protection For Your Mac

Contrary to a popular belief, Macs are not 100% immune to viruses and malware. In addition to the in-built protection tools that your computer has, you should install a modern and powerful antivirus to ward off potential hazards.

The assumption that Macs can boast of bulletproof protection against viruses is long outdated. The vast majority of harmful programs are indeed designed for PCs — simply because these devices account for around 90% of the market. Nevertheless, that 10% that belong to Macs have recently turned into a hotbed for new digital threats. If you don’t have an antivirus on your computer or keep it disabled, you expose your confidential data, savings, and reputation to significant risks. In this article, you’ll find a detailed clarification of how you might contract malware and why an antivirus is a must-have for Macs.

Airo is a new name in Mac malware protection and focuses on macOS solely. As such it claims to offer the best-looking Mac antimalware apps around, and the folks behind it say it also utilises AI. Antivirus, malware protection, and more features to help protect your device. Norton AntiVirus Plus and Norton 360 plans include antivirus and malware protection, plus an array of additional features to help protect your PCs, Mac, Android and iOS devices, including.

Why Macs Are Safer Than PCs

Apple devices feature a plethora of advanced tools for warding off threats:

The brand notarizes safe apps so that you can be sure of their security from the onset

If a piece of software is not labeled as harmless, the Gatekeeper won’t launch it unless you approve of it manually

XProtect juxtaposes each downloaded item with its inventory of malware and detects dangerous files long before they might provoke any damage

All dubious items are labeled with quarantine tags — you’ll notice it as soon as you try to launch the file

Each app is allowed to function only within its sandbox, without affecting the rest of the software

All of these measures are embedded in each Mac. You don’t need to fine-tune them, and they don’t affect the productivity of the device when running in the background. However, they are not flawless and don’t make your device 100% immune to all possible hazards.

Not all dubious items are marked with flags. When you fetch music or movies from torrents, the system will most likely perceive them as safe even if they are not.

The XProtect inventory includes only 94 rules which is a tiny fraction of all the known threats. This tool is helpless against the freshest hazards that hackers create in bulks.

The newer generation of Macs is equipped with T2 security chips. macOS Catalina requires user’s permission before accessing external drives, iCloud Drive, desktop files, or documents. But still, sophisticated malware might pass itself away as a legit file, sneak inside the system and convince the Gatekeeper to launch it.

What’s more, the functionality of the antiviruses downloaded from the AppStore might be limited due to the above-mentioned sandbox approach. They won’t be able to inspect all the contents of your hard drive and eliminate the threats. Even if you grant them the maximum access to all the parts of the device, you won’t be able to fix this problem.

Which Threats You Can Contract and How

The two categories of malware that you are most likely to suffer from are potentially unwanted programs and adware. The trick is that you might willingly install them, providing your manual approval to launch these files. You might believe that you are installing a photo editor, a multimedia player, or even an antivirus — but this would be malware in disguise. You might consciously allow malware to sneak inside the system when fulfilling the following operations:

Clicking on advertising banners

Opening links from unknown recipients from your email and messengers

Downloading files from third-party sites (not from AppStore or the sites of their official developers)

Installing dubious browser extensions

You might fall prey to the so-called “dialogue fatigue”. This means, the Gatekeeper will be warning you against potential threats but you will be too lazy or tired and will disregard this signal.

Moreover, even the most seasoned e-commerce fans sometimes share their financial credentials with bogus shops that don’t actually sell anything but get hold of the gullible users’ bank card details.

Don’t trust the notifications that convince you to download the freshest version of the Adobe Flash Player. This is one of the most common malware traps: instead of downloading the player that you don’t really need you deliberately welcome a spying tracker into the system.

Another famous trap is fake virus notifications. You see a highly emotional pop-up telling you that your device is infected with a rare and powerful malware. Regular antiviruses allegedly can’t handle it, so you need to download a special one. The pop-up insists this is a pressing issue and gives you no time to think. You rapidly download the antivirus… which happens to be malware.

Arguments in Favor of an Antivirus

Let’s start with the most widespread argument against antiviruses. Some Mac owners think that such apps might have a detrimental effect on the device’s productivity. This might have been true years ago but hardly anymore. Modern antiviruses are relatively lightweight and highly efficient. Of course, we are talking about the top products and not random ones from unknown manufacturers. Also, the memory, disk speed, and processing power of the latest generation of Macs can successfully cope with some extra workload.

The best thing about modern antiviruses is their versatility. In addition to protecting your device from malware, they offer a much broader functionality, such as:

Boost your Mac’s productivity by freeing its disk space. They identify junk items and duplicate files and safely eliminate them, leaving the useful contents intact.

Help you uninstall unnecessary apps quickly and safely. You won’t even need to manually empty the trash bin.

Disable advertising banners on websites and prevent diverse sites from spying on you. You won’t share a bite of your private data with online shops or social media outlets.

Help you retrieve your computer in case it gets stolen. First, you will be able to remotely lock your Mac through a mobile app. Second, its web camera will take a portrait of the thief so that you can share it with the police.

Plenty of other useful functions.

DepositPhotos – antivirus

We design Mac hardware and software with advanced technologies that work together to run apps more securely, protect your data, and help keep you safe on the web. And with macOS Catalina available as a free upgrade, it’s easy to get the most secure version of macOS for your Mac.*

Apple T2 chip. The next generation of security.

The Apple T2 Security Chip — included with many newer Mac models — keeps your Mac safer than ever. The Secure Enclave coprocessor in the Apple T2 chip provides the foundation for Touch ID, secure boot, and encrypted storage capabilities. Touch ID gives you a seamless way to use your fingerprint to unlock your Mac, fill passwords in Safari, and make purchases with Apple Pay. Secure boot helps ensure that you are running trusted operating system software from Apple, while the Apple T2 chip automatically encrypts the data on your Mac. So you can be confident knowing that security has been designed right into the architecture of your Mac, from the ground up.

Apple helps you keep your Mac secure with software updates.

The best way to keep your Mac secure is to run the latest software. When new updates are available, macOS sends you a notification — or you can opt in to have updates installed automatically when your Mac is not in use. macOS checks for new updates every day, so it’s easy to always have the latest and safest version.

Protection starts at the core.

The technically sophisticated runtime protections in macOS work at the very core of your Mac to keep your system safe from malware. This starts with state-of-the-art antivirus software built in to block and remove malware. Technologies like XD (execute disable), ASLR (address space layout randomization), and SIP (system integrity protection) make it difficult for malware to do harm, and they ensure that processes with root permission cannot change critical system files.

Download apps safely from the Mac App Store. And the internet.

Now apps from both the App Store and the internet can be installed worry-free. App Review makes sure each app in the App Store is reviewed before it’s accepted. Gatekeeper on your Mac ensures that all apps from the internet have already been checked by Apple for known malicious code — before you run them the first time. If there’s ever a problem with an app, Apple can quickly stop new installations and even block the app from launching again.

Stay in control of what data apps can access.

Apps need your permission to access files in your Documents, Downloads, and Desktop folders as well as in iCloud Drive and external volumes. And you’ll be prompted before any app can access the camera or mic, capture keyboard activity, or take a photo or video of your screen.

FileVault 2 encrypts your data.

Virus Protection For Your Mac Hard Drive

With FileVault 2, your data is safe and secure — even if your Mac falls into the wrong hands. FileVault 2 encrypts the entire drive on your Mac, protecting your data with XTS-AES 128 encryption. And on Mac systems with an Apple T2 Security Chip, FileVault 2 keys are created and protected by the Secure Enclave for even more security.

Designed to protect your privacy.

The most secure browser for your Mac is the one that comes with your Mac. Built-in privacy features in Safari, like Intelligent Tracking Prevention, help keep your browsing your business. Automatic strong passwords make it easy to create and use unique passwords for all the sites you visit. And iCloud Keychain syncs those passwords securely across all your devices, so you don’t have to remember them. You can also easily find and upgrade any weak passwords you’ve previously used (and reused and reused and reused). Cyrillic font for mac.

Free Mac Antivirus

Automatic protections from harmful sites.

Safari also helps safeguard you against fraudulent websites and those that harbor malware — before you visit them. If a website seems suspicious, Safari prevents it from loading and notifies you. And when connecting to unencrypted sites, Safari will warn you. So everything you need to browse without worry is right at your fingertips.

Find your missing Mac with Find My.

The Find My app combines Find My iPhone and Find My Friends into a single, easy-to-use app on Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Find My can help you locate a missing Mac — even if it’s offline or sleeping — by sending out Bluetooth signals that can be detected by nearby Apple devices. These devices then relay the detected location of your Mac to iCloud so you can locate it in the Find My app. It’s all anonymous and encrypted end-to-end so no one — including Apple — knows the identity of any reporting device or the location of your Mac. And it all happens silently using tiny bits of data that piggyback on existing network traffic. So there’s no need to worry about your battery life, your data usage, or your privacy being compromised.

Keep your Mac safe. Even if it’s in the wrong hands.

Virus Protection For Your Macbook Pro

All Mac models with the Apple T2 Security Chip support Activation Lock — just like your iPhone or iPad. So if your Mac is ever misplaced or lost, the only person who can erase and reactivate it is you.

Virus Protection For Your Mac Os

macOS Security

[asklotarasarrin]

Getting Started Role Playing

I’ve had a number of asks on this topic over the years, and rather than retyping the same thing repeatedly, I’m gonna try and collect my thoughts on how to go about this. All of this is assuming you’re on desktop; mobile makes some things a little more difficult. Feel free to add to this; I’m sure there’s things I’m forgetting.

Warning: Long Post!

First things first: Preparation

Get your blog in order

Create a character bio - This should include character name, a description, and a background. If your character is a canon character, then it’s not so bad to forego this, but I think it’s a good idea even for canon characters, as not everyone is going to be familiar with every single character in a universe.

Put a short explanation of the blog in the blog header - This is like a pitch or an introduction to what your blog is about. This should indicate you’re an RP blog, who you RP(if you have multiple muses on the blog, I think it’s okay to just say ‘multiple OCs’ or ‘multiple muses’), and maybe the universe your muse is from. Some blogs also include if they’re selective or not, multi-ship or not, open to cross-over/multiverse or not, etc, but not nearly as necessary.

Rules page - not necessary, but sometimes helpful if you have any particular things, such as being unwilling to RP smut, or you have some triggers/sensitive topics that you aren’t will to do, etc.

Make sure your inbox is open - Seems silly, but I forget this one frequently when I’m making a new blog. Check other blog settings as well- (submissions, anon, etc)

Follow other blogs - This seems obvious, but it is key. Follow other blogs you want to RP with! Find others from the universe your muses are set in. Do take the time to read their bios and rules pages, if they have any.

Write an Introduction post - Not everyone does this, but I think it’s very helpful. It should be a SHORT post, in or out of character. Many blogs are disinclined to reblog long intro posts because people instinctively skip over walls of text.

Reblog RP memes - The Intro post will help generate interest, the RP memes make it easy to break the ice.

Next Step: Getting Out There

Provided you have taken the time to read other people’s rules and bios, reach out!

If they’ve reblogged memes you are interested in, send an ask with that meme - These are GREAT icebreakers so you can get started with relatively low effort. Friendly reminder: Read the meme carefully. Typically the meme has some form of explanation or instruction in it, and it is very frustrating when someone sends in a meme when they clearly did not bother to actually read what it’s about.

Use the messenger to ask to plot - Sometimes blogs don’t post memes often, or they reblog memes that don’t quite work for your character. Politely ask to plot. Try to come with ideas. It can be frustrating when someone comes to you wanting to plot but has NO idea about what to do. I personally will frequently take premises from memes I like and adjust them as necessary.

Open starters - Alternative to memes, sometimes blogs will post ‘open starters’. These are usually open ended in-character posts that other role players can reply to. It isn’t a bad idea to post your own open starters either, if you’re feeling up for it. Note: Generally speaking, open starters once taken by someone are not available for additional role players unless otherwise noted in the tags. If you like an open starter that has already been taken, you can also use the messenger to ask if you can also get in on that. Many RP bloggers use thread trackers, so the starter would need to be copied to a new post before beginning RP.

Important Notes: Etiquette

There are a number of rules and behaviors that are important to keep in mind, some obvious, some not so much. In no particular order.

Patience - This is my number one thing. RPers come from all walks of life- full-time students and career people, big and small families, personal struggles, different time zones, language barriers abound. And Tumblr is not a well programmed website, so notifications don’t pop up, or get buried under other things. So don’t panic if people don’t immediately reply. Don’t be rude when following up after a reasonable amount of time has passed. Give people the opportunity to measure their replies to you.

Try to keep your In Character and Out of Character clear/separate - Some RP blogs are actually a mishmash of personal and roleplay. Many blogs indicate in the tags or with markings of some form(the most common being ‘//’ slashes or () parentheses). It can be confusing for people without these markers.

Do not reblog RPs you are not involved in - This is a personal pet peeve. RP posts are often only snippets of the overall story, and when reblogged it is taken out of context. The other problem is it adds notifications to a thread that aren’t from the partner, and can be confusing. RPThreadTracker doesn’t have a problem with it, but other forms of tracking can struggle.

Respect and ‘Don’t like Don’t follow’ - universes big and small, OCs and Canon Characters over the top and from humble beginnings, we’re all here to have a good time. You’re not going to like every mun or muse you come across. Not every other blog is going to like you or your muse. People talk shit about self-inserts, teenage OCs, people who like to RP almost exclusively smut, and myriad of other things. But those muns are doing things that make them happy. And you don’t get to control what other people do. If you don’t like it, don’t follow. Don’t RP with them. Let it go.

Self Care - This is part of a larger topic and related to the above bullet point, but important to at least touch on. Not everyone who RPs is well or good. This is meant to be fun. So if you are stressed out or overwhelmed by an RP partner or thread for whatever reason, talk to your partner about it. If they do not respect your requests or needs, then it would be better to not RP with them. There are people who struggle with a myriad of health and situational issues. You will at one time or another meet people who will insist you cater to their every whim, try to control you and your muse. Block these people.

Read tags - This may not seem like an etiquette thing, but this is important. Some people communicate extensively this way. It will help to prevent communication errors.

Read More - use the read more function for NSFW threads. It’s the [...] at the end of the options bar

Tagging - Tag NSFW, triggering content, and anything else you think appropriate. I also try to tag my different verses, my in character and out of character posts, etc.

Trim Your Posts - This is hard to do on mobile, but necessary. When a post has many reblogs, it can be tedious to scroll past. Trimming them/cropping them makes a big difference. [Link here for a tutorial on how to trim - Browser]

Mun and Muse Knowledge [Meta Gaming] - There maybe things your character does not know, and cannot know, that you know. Remember to keep the distinction. Nothing kills my desire to RP with someone than their character somehow reading my character’s thoughts.

Controlling other Characters [God Modding] - You control your character. Your partner controls theirs. You don’t control if they get hit by a punch, if they dodge, if they punch back. It’s part of the give and take.

Drive the Story - Role Playing is joint story telling. Don’t put all the burden if directing where the story goes on your partner. Give your partner something to react to, to build on. If you only ever give one sentence replies, it’s going to get tedious fast.

Other Tips and Tricks

I am a big fan of XKit, a browser addon that makes Tumbling much easier for RPers. [Link here!] The specific functions that are most helpful are Editable Reblogs and One Click Reply. Editable reblogs makes it far easier to trim in post. One Click Reply makes it possible to reply to comments and other notification forms.

In addition to those two, I also like to use the Blacklist, and Post Block functions. Some RPers or topics I particularly cannot stand, so I use Blacklist to keep them from my dash. Post Block is great for those discourse posts and individual RP threads that just squick you out for whatever reason.

I also am easily lost and confused by the innumerable notifications I get on the daily, so it became very important for me to use a website called RPThreadTracker. I highly recommend it, as I occasionally have threads that don’t get replied to for weeks. They also have an add-on button so you can click to add a thread to your list quickly and easily.

Terms

There is a bit of a jargon with this. Sorry if it’s been confusing thus-far!

Mun - the writer behind the blog

Muse - the fictional character, the character

IC/OOC - In Character / Out of Character

OC - Original Character

Thread - the roleplay, the chain of posts making up the story

Selective/Semi-Selective/Private/Mutuals Only - This is often in a blog header - indicates how picky the mun is about selecting RP partners and threads. Read their rules. Respect their decisions to RP or not to RP.

Multi-verse - Indicates the blog is open to threads outside of their designated universe. (IE, my Warhammer character being willing to RP with an Overwatch character). It is advisable to message the mun to hash out the details.

DM or PM - Direct message or private message. Both indicate the tumblr message system.

AU - Alternate Universe. Indicates a deviation from the traditional universe.

[blazehedgehog]

I was interviewed to be part of this article over at Cultured Vultures! It talks about the history of Sonic fan games in the wake of Sonic Mania. Give it a read! I’m actually genuinely impressed the author (Ryan Atkinson) managed to track down Aytaç Aksu. That’s a name I haven’t heard in a very, very long time. That alone makes the article worth checking out, if you ask me.

I also checked in with Atkinson and he’s okay with me posting our full interview. I’m hiding it behind the “Read More” tag because as always I tend to be pretty longwinded (as usual; but that’s the entire reason I asked if it was okay for me to post)

Atkinson: How did you first get into fan games? Sometime in middle school, I started to wonder just how video games were made. My friends and I wrote up some very barebones documentation for a game we called "Sonic: In Your Face" and mailed them to the address Sega printed on the back of their game cases. Unsurprisingly, we received a rejection letter shortly after. But the idea of making your own games stuck with me; I started learning QBASIC on my home PC (an old hand-me-down 33mhz desktop running Windows 3.1). Starting high school, we all had to buy TI-8x calculators for Algebra, which came with TIBASIC. Using what I knew about QBASIC, I taught myself TIBASIC by reverse-engineering games other friends would send me. I started out by making simple text adventures (which I called "Moviegames," usually involving whatever my favorite movie was at the time -- Jurassic Park, Men in Black, etc.) and eventually started learning how to do ASCII graphics. The only problem was, if your batteries died, all software you had written would be erased. So it was a challenge to make anything substantial.

High school meant better access to internet-connected PCs, and eventually I stumbled upon something called "Sonic 2000." It was a Sonic game running in DOS, created by a fan. Or it was going to be, at any rate; I don't think it got very far. Either way, it piqued my interest, because there hadn't been any real Sonic games for a few years. It linked to a website called "Sonic Fangames HQ." Here was a whole community of fans making their own games, most primarily using a piece of software called The Games Factory (which was also available under a different name, "Corel Click & Create" -- same software, different brand). The talk of the town when I got there was the final release of the original "Sonic Robo-Blast," made in an earlier version of The Games Factory called "Klik 'n' Play." I wasn't impressed. The graphics were incredibly simple, the game didn't even have scrolling, and it was plagued by a bug called "Killing Death." It meant that sometimes, when Sonic would bop an enemy, it'd also kill him at the same time, even if you had rings. It was bad. I knew I could do better.  So, after acquiring my own copy of Click & Create, I set about learning. The rest is history.

Atkinson: How has the fan game community changed over the years? The advancements in tech are probably the biggest change. A lot of 2D Sonic fan games still use the great grandson of The Games Factory -- now called "Clickteam Fusion." That's because there's now a pretty robust open source code base called "Sonic Worlds Delta" that closely mimics how the Genesis games worked. Sonic fan games today can look, sound, and feel almost like the real thing, and Sonic Worlds Delta has gone on to power games like Freedom Planet. Back when I originally joined SFGHQ, we were all using The Games Factory's built-in "Platform" movement setting, which not only does not play like anything even close to Sonic, but is also just really buggy and terrible in general. It's amazing how much mileage everyone's gotten out of Clickteam's software. That tends to happen with these [easy] game creation tools; I've heard people doing crazy things with RPG Maker, too. The complexity of today's fan games versus what everyone was capable of 18 or 19 years ago is insane.

There's also the simple fact that the community changes naturally. There seems to be kind of a cutoff point for Sonic fan games -- usually you get experienced enough that you try your hand at entering the game industry proper (for instance, the founder of SFGHQ, Ryan Langley, worked at Halfbrick on mobile games like Jetpack Joyride, and now he works at Pikpok games on games like Doomsday Clicker) or you realize game development just isn't for you and you move on. SFGHQ seems to be a very "generational" place that you don't really stick around forever, though you do occasionally end up with people like me that never seem to want to leave.

Atkinson: How does it compare to other fan game communities? I think it's just in general more advanced. To my knowledge, SFGHQ was the first website specifically dedicated to fan games. It opened in either 1997 or 1998. It took a really long time for any other fan gaming communities to crop up, and they've struggled to gain traction for various reasons. SFGHQ was already a pretty busy place by the time I got there in 1999, and it only kept growing.

SFGHQ gradually slowed down when Rlan (Langley) left in the mid 2000's, primarily because it was difficult to find someone who wanted the herculean task of maintaining the database of games and resources. In the interim, other fan gaming communities have gained power in its wake, most notably the Mario Fan Games Galaxy (MFGG), which is far closer in spirit now to what SFGHQ was back in its heyday. But SFGHQ is currently trying to stage a comeback; the forums recently relaunched with the ability to publish games to the database yourself with an almost wiki-like functionality, eliminating the bottlenecks that were strangling the community in years past. Hopefully it bounces back.

Atkinson: When you first got involved with Sonic fan games were there many games available and were they easy to find? One of the benefits in those early days was how easy it was to make a game. Making games isn't easy by any stretch, but especially nowadays, there's a lot of work involved in making a good fan game. Standards are very high. Back then, the bar was considerably lower -- you could throw together just about anything in a few days and that would be good enough. I don't remember exactly how many games were available when I got there, but I know I was never short on new things to try out from my new friends.

Atkinson: Why did you start SAGE? I loved all the games my friends and I were making, but trying to talk to anyone outside of our community about them always resulted in funny looks at best. Many wanted to stay away from our games because they viewed them as an extension of piracy. They thought we were making illegal bootleg games, like that "7 Grand Dad" NES game or whatever. Technically, we kind of were, but I always hated that terminology. By that definition, fan art is "illegal bootleg artwork" and fan fiction is an "illegal bootleg book." It's all about your point of view. So, I figured I would change that point of view. The original goal of SAGE was to create enough of a focal point on our community to generate press coverage and destigmatize fan games. I wanted to show the world all the cool stuff we were making and get people to realize these games were actually okay to play. That was a struggle, but SAGE ended up serving a good secondary purpose in that it gave the community a milestone to revolve around. Suddenly the "when it's done" deadline became "get something ready for SAGE." I think that's the actual driving reason why it's still going today.

Atkinson: Please could you describe some of the 2017 SAGE games. Well, the big one would be Sonic 2 HD, a game that went through some turmoil a few years ago due to trouble with an unscrupulous coder. They're back now, having changed out a number of team members, and the end result is a gorgeous 2D game that I think puts even some professional efforts to shame. If you ever looked at Sonic's box art and wished they'd make a game that actually looked like that, well, that's basically what Sonic 2 HD is. It's still got some rough edges, but for what it is, it looks and plays incredible. If Sega ever wants to take another fan project under their wing, it should be that one.

Sonic World (not to be confused with Sonic Worlds Delta mentioned earlier) is one of a growing number of 3D Sonic fan games. It's been in development positively for ages, and has a big focus on community feedback. The game in its current format is almost too big; we're talking dozens of playable characters and something like fifty levels, many of which were made by the community. It's very impressive, but has sometimes had issues with accessibility. It's very easy to be overwhelmed by how much stuff is in that game, but that's the way that community prefers it. Watching this game in the hands of a good speedrunner like DarkspinesSonic is a sight to behold.

Crash N. Tense Adventure is an example of how, even early on, SAGE was never entirely about Sonic. I don't know if there's a hugely robust Crash Bandicoot fan gaming scene, but even back when I personally ran and organized SAGE by myself in the early 2000's, I made sure that this was more a community event than just a Sonic event. If somebody was working on a Mario fan game, or even a totally original IP, that kind of stuff was always welcome at SAGE. N. Tense Adventure is fantastic; I love the animation. All of the characters have so much personality that you can't help but laugh at them, and it helps that it plays exactly like the PS1 Crash Bandicoot games. Honestly, this beats the heck out of anything involving Crash Bandicoot since 2001.

Clash Force 2 is an interesting beast in that the original Clash Force game just went up for sale on Steam. This developer actually seems to be using SAGE as a way to promote the upcoming sequel, which is something I don't think has ever happened before. Sure, we've had games like Freedom Planet show at SAGE, but that's because Freedom Planet started out as a Sonic fan game. This is the first time a published indie developer has shown a game at SAGE, though that kind of praise probably depends on how much you value Steam's publishing system these days. It's a fun game though, blending Sonic and Contra with character designs that feel like distant cousins to something like the Battle Beasts figures released in the 80's.

Forces of Mobius is a game I feel like I should have spent more time with. It's one of the rare few non-platformer games at SAGE, being a role playing game starring Princess Sally from the Archie Comics series. I'm a little in the dark, but it sounds like there's a growing sub-community of people making Sonic RPGs in RPG Maker, as the author mentions other games not only in his series, but games made by his peers, as well. These sorts of games don't show up very often at SAGE, but maybe they should.

And I just can't avoid mentioning SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, a remake of the notoriously bad Sonic 2006 Xbox 360 game. I think there will always be at least one modder out there who is obsessed with "fixing" a broken game, often by creating an unofficial patch. Here, the solution is apparently to just strip the game down to its spare parts and completely rebuild it in Unity. It's an interesting proposition, though I'll admit I'm more befuddled than anything else, especially given how close it's sticking to the source material. I'll still try the finished product, though, if it ever gets that far.

Atkinson: What does you believe the future looks like for Sonic fan games? I think as things continue, 3D games will grow in numbers. Sonic fan games are dominated by 2D games because those are the easiest to make. But with the availability of programs like Unity, and the existence of open source code bases like SonicGDK (Unreal Engine 3) and HedgePhysics (Unity), more and more people are trying their hand at building 3D Sonic games, and the tools are only going to keep getting easier to use from here. Perhaps some day, we'll get a 3D equivalent to Sonic Mania -- a game built by the fans, for the fans, with the blessing, support, and budget of an official Sega title. That'd be nice.

Atkinson: Is there anything you would like to add? I'm not kidding around when I say I really want to help fan games grow. It makes me sad and angry every time yet another news story comes around about a notable fan gaming project getting hit with a "Cease & Desist" shutdown notice. These stigmas are still alive and well, when the people making these games are honestly some of the biggest, most passionate fans out there. Making a fan game is not something to be taken lightly these days; it takes months, more often even years of dedication to finish. AM2R was in development for something like 11 years, and one of the oldest Sonic fan games still in active development, Sonic Robo-Blast 2, is probably over 15 years old at this point. That kind of dedication doesn't come easy. It takes these corporations minutes, maybe even seconds to invalidate a decade or more of work. There is no bigger sign that they don't really care about their fans -- they just want their money. A "Cease & Desist" is like watching your hero rip up your love letter to them. It's awful, and it needs to stop.

A few years ago Sega actually gave their blessing to Sonic fan games, so I think the community will only continue to grow. Hopefully, maybe, my original goal for SAGE will come to pass, and the sheer volume of Sonic fan games will make it a little easier for all fan game creators to make whatever they please without restrictions. If Nintendo can have a whole wall of fan art in their offices, why can't they celebrate fan games too, right? Maybe they're still just lacking the right point of view.

[marrincostello]

45.99% Earnings Increase in 5 Months for a Digital Infoproduct [SEO Case Study]

You’re about to get the strategy behind one of the most challenging SEO campaigns my SEO agency has ever run.

Why was it so challenging?  3 reasons:

First, the niche is massively competitive: A make-money-online infoproduct in the financial niche.  Nuff said.

Second, we only had 5-months to pull this off.

Third, just like any other client, they were extremely hungry for results and demanded quality work.

In the case study below, you’re going to learn the technical playbook, the onsite content strategy, and the link building techniques we carried out to get this 45.99% revenue growth win for this infoproduct business.

The Case Study

Our client takes advantage of the wide reach of the interwebs to teach his students how to earn money trading online. We’re talking currencies, forex, stock markets, crypto, etc.

The business’ revenue is generated solely through the sale of digital download products – in this case, trading guides in an ebook format and video trading courses.

When the owner of this profitable business (which already built some authority in the niche) approached The Search Initiative (TSI) about helping to grow their organic reach and find new students, we were excited to take on the challenge in one of the most competitive spaces there is.

There was also a catch – the campaign was planned for only 5 months, which sounded really scary in this case.

To accomplish this, the game plan was to focus hard on a quick-win strategy, while setting the stage for long term gains post-campaign.

Our strategists were certain that the value we could provide would have a considerable impact on his business’ bottom line.

How?  Because…

By focusing on increasing organic traffic, we could improve sales, while allowing the client to pull back on ad spend.

Over the course of the campaign, our technically-focused SEO strategies were able to grow organic traffic by 23.46%.

But what did the best job for the client’s business was the 45.99% increase in the number of conversions comparing 1st vs last month of the campaign. Sales went up from just over 2,100 a month to 3,095 – this really bumped their monetization.

And we did it in time.

These gains were achieved within only 5 months of the client signing with TSI and our team starting the campaign.

Here’s how we did it…

The SEO Playbook for Infoproduct Websites

Phase 1: A Comprehensive Technical Audit

I’ve said this in every TSI case study we’ve published so far… and I simply cannot emphasize enough:

A comprehensive technical audit is the most crucial part of any SEO campaign.

So before you begin any campaign, always start with a full technical audit.

Starting with…

Page Speed

First, our technical SEO strategists started at the bottom of the client’s tech stack… and you should too.

This starts with you digging into the web server’s configuration, and running a series of tests to measure the site’s speed.

This enables you to ensure that the performance of the web server itself wasn’t causing a penalty or disadvantage on either desktop or mobile connections.

So, what tests we run?

PageSpeed Insights (PSI) – this should be everyone’s go-to tool and shouldn’t need an explanation.

In cases where transfer speeds or latency are too high, we advise you (and our clients) to consider migrating to faster servers, upgrading to better hosting or better yet, re-platforming to a CDN.

Luckily, most of the time, you can achieve most of the gains through WPRocket optimization, as was the case with this case study.

Your Golden WPRocket Settings

Cache → Enable caching for mobile devices

This option should always be on. It ensures that your mobile users are also having your site served cached.

Cache → Cache Lifespan

Set it depending on how often you update your site, but we find a sweet spot at around 2-7 days.

File Optimization → Basic Settings

Be careful with the first one – it may break things!

File Optimization → CSS Files

Again, this section is quite tricky and it may break things. My guys switch them on one-by-one and test if the site works fine after enabling each option.

Under Fallback critical CSS you should paste your Critical Path CSS which you can generate using CriticalCSS site.

File Optimization → Javascript

This section is the most likely to break things, so take extreme care enabling these options!!

Depending on your theme, you might be able to defer Javascript with the below:

Note that we had to use a Safe Mode for jQuery as, without this, our theme stopped working.

After playing with Javascript options, make sure you test your site thoroughly, including all contact forms, sliders, checkout, and user-related functionalities.

Media → LazyLoad

Preload → Preload

Preload → Prefetch DNS Requests

The URLs here hugely depend on your theme. Here, you should paste the domains of the external resources that your site is using.

Also, when you’re using Cloudflare – make sure to enable the Cloudflare Add-on in WPRocket.

Speaking of Cloudflare – the final push for our site’s performance we managed to get by using Cloudflare as the CDN provider (the client sells products worldwide).

GTMetrix

If you don’t want to use additional plugins (which I highly recommend), below is a .htaccess code I got from our resident genius and Director of SEO, Rad Paluszak  – it’ll do the basic stuff like:

GZip compression

Deflate compression

Expires headers

Some cache control

So without any WordPress optimization plugins, this code added at the top of your .htaccess file, will slightly improve your PageSpeed Insights results:

Internal Redirects

You know how it goes – Google says that redirects don’t lose any link juice, but PageRank formula and tests state something different (there’s a scientific test run on 41 million .it websites that shows PageRank’s damping factor may vary).

Whichever it is, let’s take all necessary precautions in case there is a damping factor and redirects drop a % of their link juice.

Besides, not using internal redirects is just good housekeeping. Period.

As we investigated the configuration of the server, we discovered some misapplied internal redirects, which were very easily fixed but would have a considerable effect on SEO performance – a quick win.

You can test them with a simple tool httpstatus.io and see results for individual URLs:

But this would be a long way, right? So your best bet is to run a Sitebulb crawl and head over to the Redirects section of the crawl and look at Internal Redirected URLs:

There you will find a list of all internally redirected URLs that you should update and make to point at the last address in the redirect chain.

You might need to re-run the crawl multiple times to find all of them. Be relentless!

Google Index Management

Everyone knows that Google crawls and indexes websites. This is the bare foundation of how the search engine works.

It visits the sites, crawling from one link to the other. Does it repetitively to keep the index up-to-date, as well as incrementally, discovering new sites, content, and information.

Over time, crawling your site, Google sees its changes, learns structure and gets to deeper and deeper parts of it.

Google stores in their index everything it finds applicable to keep; everything considered useful enough for the users and Google itself.

However, sometimes it gets to the pages that you’d not want it to keep indexed. For example, pages that accidentally create issues like duplicate or thin content, stuff kept only for logged-in visitors, etc.

Google does its best to distinguish what it should and shouldn’t index, but it may sometimes get it wrong.

Now, this is where SEOs should come into play. We want to serve Google all the content on a silver platter, so it doesn’t need to algorithmically decide what to index.

We clean up what’s already indexed, but was not supposed to be. We also prevent pages from being indexed, as well as making sure that important pages are within reach of the crawlers.

I don’t see many sites that get this one right.

Why?

Most probably because it’s an ongoing job and site owners and SEOs just forget to perform it every month or so.

On the other hand, it’s also not so easy to identify index bloat.

With this campaign, to ensure that Google’s indexation of the site was optimal, we looked at these:

Site: Search

Google Search Console

In our case, we found 3 main areas that needed attention:

Indexed internal search

If you’re on a WordPress site – you have to pay attention to this one.

Most of WordPress websites offer a built-in search engine. And this search engine is usually using the same pattern: ?s={query}.

Bear in mind that ?s= is the default one for WordPress, but if your theme allows you to set this up yourself, you might end up having something else instead of the “s” param.

To check if this is also your problem, use this site: search operator

site:domain.com inurl:s=

If it comes back with any results, it means that your internal search pages are being indexed, you’re wasting Google’s crawl budget, and you want to block them.

For our client, we suggested implementing noindex tags.

If your SEO plugin doesn’t have the option to noindex search results (I know that Rankmath does, but can’t remember if Yoast offers it as I’ve been off Yoast for a long time now), you might alternatively add the following line to your robots.txt:

Disallow: *?s=*

Duplicate homepage

This is another fairly common issue in WordPress if you’re using a static page as your homepage.

You see, the CMS may generate the pagination on your homepage, even if you don’t really have it paginated.

Why does this happen? Well, usually when you have a section where you list some of your newest posts. Or (thank you WordPress!) when you used to have your homepage set up as “Latest Posts” and Google managed to index them.

This creates URLs like these:domain.com/page/12/ domain.com/page/2/ domain.com/page/7/ domain.com/page/{number}/

The problem is caused because Google sees different content on these pagination pages – of course, the articles on page 2, 3, x are different, so the paginated list changes.

If you don’t have enough of the other, non-listed content on your homepage, to convince Google that these pages are similar enough to obey canonical – you have a problem.

In this case, even if you have the correct canonical tags in place, but Google finds these pages to not be identical, it might choose to ignore the canonicals. And you end up having all this stuff in the index.

It’s worth a check if you have similar pages indexed – and you should definitely pay attention:

To find these, run another site: search:

site:domain.com/page

To solve this for our client, we set up the 301 redirects so all of these pagination pages were pointing back to the homepage and we also removed them from XML sitemap:

(If you’re wondering, this screenshot is from Rank Math, which is a great free Yoast alternative, but you can also use Redirection plugin for WordPress.)

Please note that if your homepage is set up as a blog page (see below screenshot), this is most likely NOT a problem!

Other unwanted indexed pages

In our case, we also found other pages that were indexed but shouldn’t be:

Old forum pages

Old template pages

Blog tags

Media pages (thanks again, Yoast…)

Each of them might be different in your case, so you might want to consult an agency or professional SEO.

For this client, we removed the pages and used a 410 Gone HTTP header to remove them from the index faster.

Protip: Site: search queries you need to know

site:domain.com

This one is your foundational search queries and allows you to go through the entirety of what Google has indexed under your domain.

I like to run a search like this and switch to 100 results per page, by adding a num=100 parameter on Google:

https://www.google.com/search?q=site:domain.com&num=100

Then, I just click through the SERPs and inspect what’s there.

Things that are the most common issues are:

Query strings

Login/Cart/Checkout

Pagination

Tags

Anything that surprises you 🙂

Note that it doesn’t work for big sites as Google will only show you a sample of URLs.

site:domain.com/{folder}

This is just an extension of the standard site: search and allows you to find everything in a folder.

For example, on a Shopify site, you can list all category pages by running this search:

site:domain.com/collections/

Moving on…

site:domain.com inurl:{part-of-the-URL}

I love this one. It allows you to list all pages that share a common part of the URL.

For example, let’s say you want to find all pages that have “guide” in the URL:

site:domain.com inurl:guide

Voila!

site:domain.com -inurl:{part-of-the-URL}

Did you notice the little minus sign here “-inurl”? This one allows you to list all URLs that do not contain a certain string in the URL.

Let’s say you want to list all pages that do not contain “blog” in the URL.

Here’s how you’d do it:

site:domain.com -inurl:blog

The combination: site:domain.com -inurl:{part-of-the-URL} inurl:{another-URL-pattern}

Get ready for a really serious tool now! This one is a combination of “inurl” and “-inurl” (not in URL) operators and allows you to list pages that have a specific string in the URL, while don’t have another part in it.

For example, if you want to list all pages that are guides on your site, but not the buying guides – here’s how:

site:domain.com inurl:guide -inurl:buying

Make sure not to use spaces between the “:” and the string!

Also, be careful with the queries where operators cancel each other out – Google won’t return any results for these!

There are plenty of other combinations and search operators, so if any of the above is new to you, you should definitely read more about them here:

Get Your Sitemap in Order

In this case study, the team ensured that the XML sitemap was configured correctly so that Google’s crawlers and indexation engine were able to fully understand the site’s structure and present it to their users accurately.

Run a crawl with Screaming Frog to ensure that no URLs that are noindexed or missing are added to the sitemap.

First, switch to “List Mode” in Screaming Frog. Then select Upload → Download XML Sitemap. Type in the URL and let it crawl.

There should be no other pages than only the ones returning a 200 status code.

If there are, just remove them from the sitemap!

Soft 404 Errors

Soft 404 is a URL that displays a page telling the user that the page does not exist, but it returns a 200 OK (Success) instead of a 4xx HTTP status code.

This can definitely be a big problem for your site because, when it occurs, Google will start selecting what it thinks is a 404 with incorrect (200) HTTP response code on its own and, let’s be honest, algorithm sometimes often gets it wrong!

So, you’re facing an issue that good pages, which you’d rather keep in the index, are being thrown out because Google thinks they’re 404s.

Why does it think so?

Most probably there are similarities between the genuinely good and Soft 404 pages.

Unfortunately, these similarities are not obvious and, when analyzed algorithmically, they can be mistakenly taken as anything common and silly: footer, sidebar, banner ads, or whatnot.

So let me give you an example – this is how my 404 page looks like:

It returns a correct 404 status code, so everything is fine:

Now, if it was returning a 200 code – it would’ve been a soft 404. Google would figure it out and it could all be fine.

But there’s a but.

Let’s say I had a page with just a little bit of content – like this made up one:

As you can see – it has a different content, but everything else is the same: header, sidebar, footer.

When you approach it as Google does – algorithmically, it might end up being very similar to the soft 404 page example above. In fact, Google may class it the same. And this is what you don’t want. You don’t want Google to decide for you.

My rule is – don’t allow Google to make any decisions for you!

Our job, as SEOs, is to make it ridiculously easy for Google to crawl and index your site. So don’t leave anything you don’t have to for the algorithm to figure out.

In this case, we had all 404 pages set up to 301 redirect back to the homepage. It’s a common practice, but occasionally a dangerous one.

Why would it be dangerous?

Because we’ve seen cases where Google would simply treat all 301 redirects to the homepage as Soft 404s. And when it does that, it might also start treating your homepage as a Soft 404 page, because all these Soft 404s are defaulting to your homepage, right?

And what does that mean?

No homepage.

And when there’s no homepage? No rankings!

But if you’re really unlucky, Google will think that if your homepage got removed (Soft 404’d and thrown out of index), your entire domain should go out the window! And it’ll go on and de-index everything.

Sounds harsh!? It does, but we’ve seen extreme cases like this, so it’s better to be safe than sorry.

So why were we comfortable doing it?

At TSI our approach to this is simple: 404s are a natural thing on the Internet!

Therefore, we only 301 redirect the important pages, where applicable. By important, I mean pages that have external or internal links and some history.

We leave 404s where its a legit page of content just removed from the site, but has no value anyways.

I know what you’re thinking: What about Excluded or Errors under Index Coverage in Google Search Console?

To put it simply, in this case – Nothing! Because 404s are normal. Google will report them in GSC, but that’s fine.

Fixing Facebook Pixel Issues

Most infoproduct businesses leverage Facebook retargetting, so if you have an infoproduct (or your client does) you need to consider the following issue.

This problem was quite tricky to find a solution to, but our crawls showed that spiders can follow a pixel image:

So as you can see (or not see, because most of it is blurred) above, crawlers were accessing pages like:

domain.com/“https:/www.facebook.com/tr?id={client’s FB ID}&ev=PageView&noscript=1”

The part in red shouldn’t be there. As you can imagine, this was the case for every single URL on the site. Not good!

We didn’t really know how this was possible or what caused it, but the plugin generating Facebook Pixel was doing it wrong…

The problem was the backslashes “escaping” single and double quotes in the Javascript code generating the pixel:

We retired the plugin and inserted the pixel code directly in the source code (header.php file).

Our tech SEO guys keep complaining that there’s a plugin for literally everything in WordPress. Even for the easiest and smallest things.

So maybe next time, when you’re thinking of installing a plugin do us and yourself a favor – think if it’s really needed.

Don’t use plugins where they’re simply an overkill and the same can be accomplished faster and smoother by just a simple copy-paste.

Heading Structure

This was quite simple, but also an important one.

This site did not use any headings other than H2s… None. At all.

I mentioned the importance of semantic headings in another case study, so I’ll just say that the fix here was to simply organize them on every page and use all headings from H1 to H5.

Simple, but important.

HTTP pages and YMYL

Non-secure webpages are quickly going out of style.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is aggressively promoting the movement of the secure HTTPS protocol being used across the entirety of the web.

Google is also supporting the idea through flagging of non-HTTPS content as “not secure” in Chrome.

This client did indeed have the correct SSL implementation in place, but there was a big problem.

The old HTTP pages were not redirected to their HTTPS versions.

Being in the YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) niche, you shouldn’t leave any loose ends.

I mean, you shouldn’t leave any loose ends at all, but when you’re in the YMYL niche specifically, you simply must not.

You could fix it with the use of Really Simple SSL plugin, which enables the HTTP→HTTPS redirects out of the box.

But as I said above, you don’t need WP plugins for every small action.

Here’s the .htaccess code we installed to have a proper HTTP to HTTPS and non-www to www redirect in place:

RewriteEngine OnRewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^yourdomain.com [NC,OR]RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} =httpRewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://yourdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Be careful, though! Make sure you have access to your FTP server before you click “Save” in the configuration.

In some cases, it might break things and to re-gain access to your site you’ll have to manually amend the contents of your .htaccess file.

All in all, this is what you wanna see if your preferred canonical domain is https://domain.com/:

Content Taxonomy & Internal Linking

In order to improve the internal linking of our client’s numerous blog posts, we recommended a re-organization of the site’s content categorization and taxonomy.

To start with, we suggested creating more categories in WordPress and adding them to the main menu.

This sounds simple, but prior to joining TSI, this site had only 1 big category (about 300 posts): Blog.

Moreover, to save the crawl budget, someone, unfortunately, noindexed all category and pagination pages.

When guys at TSI saw it, they were like this:

​We created 16 new categories in WordPress – all corresponding with the type of course offered and the area of expertise it was teaching. We ensured that there were no more than 20 posts under each category.

See what I mean here?  We’re all about them quick wins.

We also removed the noindex tags from the category pages.

The final trick was to add short, topically relevant text on top of each category page (above the posts), so Google would see them as more than just a list of articles. It meant more love from the G!

Kind of like what I’ve done here for my “SEO News” category page.

Through this, we created topical clusters (silos) under each category.

To create better topical relevance, you can also ensure that the articles would in most cases internally link only within the silo (article to article and article to its root category page).

This helps to better organize the content for the user’s benefit and also made it easier for crawlers to discover the pages.

The process built more internal links to the content, indicating its importance within the site’s information architecture.

A related posts content section was also added beneath each blog post, which amplified the same benefits, as well as providing the additional pros of helping users to find more of our client’s relevant educational content, also improving user metrics and click-through.

Stack those gains!

Phase 2: Creating a Winning Content Strategy

Once the server, site, taxonomy, and Google index were in advantageous positions, it was time to think about creating targeted content that both served the target demographic and would have the potential to rank for their most essential search terms.

Using Ahrefs, our technical team looked at competitor content for potential target keywords and studied metrics that indicated how difficult it would be to rank against them.

Trust me, once you have a list of keywords or topics you’re considering to go after, Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer becomes very helpful:

And to find great keyword suggestions, from the Keyword Explorer you just need to go to Newly Discovered and you’re seeing all examples of new keywords related to your chosen one:

Another worthwhile option is Questions:

From there you can just pick keywords that appeal to you, taking into consideration their difficulty vs search volume.

But if you really want to up your content plan game, you have to check out the Content Explorer on Ahrefs:

It’s an extremely powerful tool, so I suggest you watch the below video to really take full advantage of it:

  For our client, we estimated average monthly search volumes and considered the probable user intent behind each keyword vertical.

And speaking about the user intent – trust me, this is already a huge factor, but it will get even bigger in 2020.

If you would like to learn more about user intent, its types, and discovery, we had a great workshop during the Chiang Mai SEO conference this year. Here’s a video of one of TSI’s resident geniuses, Rad Paluszak, who held the presentation:

  This content research process will give you the information needed to construct a strategy that focuses on creating content to serve users searching for the highest opportunity keywords.

Content Optimization & Keyword Cannibalization

The next task was to look at the existing pieces of content in 2 ways:

Run a keyword cannibalization audit.

I’ve talked about keyword cannibalization quite a bit in the past.

In fact, I think this is one of the most common, content-related on-site issues of this year.

It’s a plague on the industry, I tell you!

At TSI, we’re predicting that keyword cannibalization issues will become less of a problem with Google becoming smarter in natural language understanding (hint: Neural Matching and BERT), but it will probably remain as a hot topic and a big problem for years to come.

So in this case, we faced quite a serious case of keyword cannibalization. Out of around 300 articles indexed, 50 of them were double- or triple-ranking (cannibalizing) around positions 20-40. This was a strong suggestion that it needs to be solved.

This is just one of the keywords:

Since we are not experts in market trading and financial instruments, we had to ask the client for advice. We combined the list of all cannibalizing URLs and keywords, and supplied it to our client for a review.

When we received feedback regarding which pages can be merged, deleted or updated, the work began: We moved and combined the content.

And this is what you want to see:

In the meantime, we purged the pages that were not required and optimized (or deoptimized) the ones that were not preferable but had to stay within the site.

In doing so, we were able to increase the value of the existing content and get the most traffic possible from the client’s previous investment in the content.

Phase 3: An Authority Link Building Strategy

An essential part of any high-impact SEO campaign is the building of high-quality backlinks.

When this client joined us, we did the standard thing we do on every campaign, which you should do as well.

Perform a full audit on your backlink profile and you’ll likely find a mix of lower quality backlinks and some higher-quality inbound links too.

Immediately, some of the lowest quality backlinks were disavowed. You can read more about our approach to the backlink audit here.

Also, do an audit of your anchor text distribution.

In our case, we were slightly concerned about the anchor text distribution having too many exact match, partial match and compound (related to keywords, but not necessarily including the keywords directly – examples of these would be questions, sentence-long anchors, etc) anchors.

It looked like this:

And should look more like this:

With this in mind, during the first month of the campaign, we threw around 25 pillow links (we really propped up client’s social media accounts, created a few About Author pages on the publications he’s been contributing to and posted a few Medium articles) with branded anchors into the mix.

In the next 2 months, we also took a slightly safer approach to anchor texts in our outreach. This was all to balance things out.

Our outreach team began the process of reaching out to relevant sites who were pleased to place our client’s backlinks on their domains.

In the first month, the team negotiated and built 9 strong (DR 50+) outreach backlinks to the site and were able to negotiate 5-8 high-authority links each ongoing month.

Here are some link stats of our outreach job:

This quickly grew the domain’s authority, thus driving up rankings and improving discoverability on the web.

Here’s the link growth over the course of the campaign:

Results

Through completing our campaign using the techniques described in this case study, we were able to achieve considerable tangible growth for this client.

After 5 months of TSI working on the site, the client had enjoyed a 28% growth in the top 10 position rankings in Google, up from 1,713 positions to 2,188.

Stable growth is also shown in SEMRush:

This significantly increased the education business’ organic reach within just 5 months and translated into a 23.46% increase of sessions, an 18.46% increase in users and a 45.99% increase in earnings when comparing the 1st and 5th months of the campaign.

Comparing month-to-month with the previous year, with our help, the site reached a 252.78% increase in organic traffic and a 263.24% increase in goal completion.

The results of this campaign speak for themselves.

After 5 months of working with TSI, our client had seen a nice return on investment, and our proven strategies will continue to bear fruit as the business continues to develop in the long-term.

Conclusion

When a client puts their trust in you, you need to look at it from their perspective.

They’re trading their hard-earned cash for you work on their business, their baby.

With this particular case study, the pressure was on with a 5-month timeline in one of the hardest niches imaginable.

But by focusing on quick wins and optimizing what the client already had, results like this are achievable.

Let’s recap…  remember to focus on:

Technical SEO first – Without a strong boat, you’re not going to sail anywhere. Don’t skip anything in the tech-SEO section above.

Content optimization and strategy – This is the area you want to bank on in the coming years.

Quality Backlinks – Focused on authority and balanced anchor distribution.

As long as you’re doing the right things: fixing everything, providing value and making the site easy for Google to understand – you’re going to win.

And if you need help, you know where to find us: The Search Initiative.

Get a Free Website Consultation from The Search Initiative:

[contact-form-7]

This content was originally published here.

[sylvaetria]

Richtor’s FAQ

This is very long overdue (and also just very long).

This post, and any subsequent FAQ posts, will be tagged as #faq for mobile access, and I will display the tag and a link to this post in my blog description. I will also be making a page for this on my blog, and maybe reblog it at intervals for exposure. 

Please read this thoroughly before asking me any questions or sending any messages. I will redirect some questions (not all) to the FAQ if the answer is there; otherwise, they will be deleted.

Updated: July 14th, 2017

Personal

What pronouns do you use?

They / them, please!

Do you mind if we call you by your birth name?

If you know it, not particularly - most people do. It’s not a matter of being triggered or feeling dysphoria if I’m not called Richtor, it’s just personal preference.

Spells and Resources

Do you have any spells / resources for _____?

Have you checked these lists?

[FAQ and Resource Masterlist]

[Spell and Sigil Masterlist] 

Have you looked through my tagging system?

Have you searched my blog via the search function?

If you have not answered “yes” to all those questions, please do so before sending me any requests for spells, resources, or lists.

Half the time, I already have lists for what is being asked for, which are readily available to those that take the time look for them. I promise you, you will likely find the stuff faster if you look for it on your own, instead of waiting whatever amount of time it takes for me to see your ask, compile the links, then answer your ask.

Most of the links I provide are things that I find on my blog - I search my own blog to provide the resources you ask for. It is all already there.

What is _____ used for?

Have you searched my blog for that answer?

Have you checked Google for that answer?

Most of these messages are able to be Google’d. Sometimes I *do* Google them myself, just to try to prove a point. Especially when phrased such as “uses for _____” (which are pretty impersonal and don’t make me feel nice btw, I’m not an answer machine).

Commonly, in regards to crystals and herbs, typing “metaphysical properties of _____” into Google will help you find what you are looking for.

What does _____ term mean?

Same as above.

If I can use Google to find the answer, why don’t you just do it for me?

Because it isn’t my job to do so. Because I don’t believe I should spoon feed people these types of answers anymore, when they’re already so readily available. Because it is promoting more and more of those types of questions, and I am not very happy to answer them anymore. 

Because I believe it is important that magic users know how to do research on their own, and to actually do so; to me, it is a super important and personal part of the craft, and I don’t believe there will be a lot of growth if you are not putting any effort into it yourself.

The bottom line is - I have allowed a certain type of behavior on this blog go on for far too long, and that is my own error. I should’ve been a bit more severe on my boundaries, but I wasn’t, and now a lot of people expect certain behavior and questions answered of me. 

Now, however, I am putting my own boundaries as a person first before my desires for this blog, and even that is still before those that follow this blog. Basically, I’ll do what I want on my own blog, because it is my blog; what I offer to do is up to me, what I actually do is up to me.

This list has broken links, will you fix them?

Eventually, I’m sure. 

What do we do in the meantime?

Use what is already there; I make my lists as full as I do in case stuff like this happens, so you still have options. 

You can search for that post on my blog, it most likely will be on there. If not, go to Google, type “site:tumblr.com [name of post] [old blog name of poster],” and generally that pulls up some reblogs of that post on other blogs.

Asks and Submissions

Why have you not answered my question?

Does it fall into the list of [Questions I Will Not Answer]? If so, that may be why.

Otherwise, I may have found the content too triggering to post, or I was otherwise uncomfortable answering it or posting it. That list is not extensive, and there are lots of other things I find myself not comfortable answering.

I may not be on Tumblr when your ask gets sent, and therefore it won’t get responded to right away. I also have other things to do outside this blog, and may be busy. 

There are some circumstances where I am on mobile, and I need to wait for desktop access to provide a proper answer and/or resources.

Sometimes I don’t have an answer to give; in these cases I may try to redirect you to other blogs, or ask my followers to provide advice if they can, but depending on the ask’s nature (i.e., if it can be triggering), I may just delete it.

I also have had instances of missing asks - where someone sends in a three part ask and I only get one and three - I won’t answer those sorts of things unless I have all the pieces. Tumblr is notorious for eating asks; I may not have gotten it in the first place.

There are cases where I’m just not in the mood to talk about something, so I won’t. Sometimes I try to leave it for later; if I know I will never get around to answering it, it just gets deleted.

Why do you just delete stuff you don’t want to answer?

Because it is still my blog, my ask box - I still have control over it and decide what I answer and what I post. 

Aren’t you a resource blog? Don’t you *have* to help us?

No I am not a resource blog, not by my own definition. My blog was never made for it to be a resource for other people, ever. It may have become that, sure, but that was never my desire or intention. I have always used my blog as a way for me to gather information I care to know about, for my purposes; the fact that other people get use out of it too is just a side effect. 

I never once bound myself to answering every question I got. I may try to help, yes, and am glad to in most situations, and while I may offer something I am still free to retract that offer whenever I wish. I am not obligated to answer asks. Again, this is still *my” blog, first and foremost. I am not getting paid to be here, I am doing what I do for free, at the cost of my own time and energy; ultimately I decide how I spend it in the end.

Why don’t you post asks you’re not comfortable answering, with messages saying so?

Because it clogs the dash, for one thing. I honestly don’t really care to either. Why would I post it if it still makes me uncomfortable? I do not need to justify that for anyone, or provide reasons for not doing so. 

I am going to send you asks, asking why I haven’t been answered!

Okay, but I’m deleting them.

I am going to resend you my ask in the messaging system!

You really think pestering me to give you an answer is going to get you your answer faster? No; it’s just going to give you a snippy response, if one at all.

Can you open your submit box so we can share you things?

Sadly, no. I have had unsavory things sent to my submission box in the past, so it will never be open again.

Requests

Are sigil / spell / tarot reading requests open?

No; they have not been for a while, honestly.

If they are, I will make a post about it, change the information in my blog description, as well as the text for the ask box.

Trust me, when they are open, you will know.

Can I send a request in now for you to get to when they are open?

Nope, I don’t pre-book slots. These will just be deleted, as I feel it’s pretty disrespectful to still send in requests for a future time when they’re closed.

What if I miss the next time you have them open?

If you care that much about getting something done by me, you can receive notifications on mobile for when I post, so you would not miss the post saying I am taking requests for such things again.

Or, you know, regularly visit my blog to see.

I know your requests are closed but it’s an emergency, can you help?

I will likely send you to someone else who has similar services open.

You said requests are closed, but you still did something for so-and-so?

Yep, because I chose to; I decided I wanted to do that and so I did it. I will choose who I offer my services to, when I want to, and will not be made to feel guilty or bad for denying it when I don’t want to or feel able to do so.

I don’t think you guys understand - last time I opened requests, for maybe half an hour, I got over thirty of them. Sigils take about a half hour for me to do, from first sketches to digital format. That is over 15 hours of work, that I offer to do for free, on top of whatever else I may have going on in my life. I often can’t keep up with the amount of requests that come in, which is why they often stay closed.

Why don’t you do a limit to the number of requests?

It is something I am thinking of doing, yes, but it will still be when I feel up to doing so, and not a moment sooner.

Promos and Casting Spells

Can you do a promo for me?

Depends - have we ever interacted before outside of you asking me to promo you?

If “no,” then I will most likely not promo you.

Why not?

Because I don’t know you, and you’re basically asking a stranger if you can use their follower count as exposure for your own biz. I don’t appreciate my blog trying to be used as advertising, particularly if you have never interacted with me before on Tumblr.

If your first and only time talking to me is to ask for a promo, I am not going to be very inclined to do that for you.

Regardless, I still post what I want on my own blog, and sometimes I’m just not in the mood.

You reblogged a promo post for this person!

Yep, because I chose to - that was my decision to make for what I wanted on my blog, and I made it. 

Most likely, these people are my friends, and we’ve talked beforehand and I’ve *offered* to do that for them; they don’t ask me.

Will you cast spells for me?

Same as above.

I have limited energy to do the things I need to in my own life. Sometimes I need to conserve what I have to do what I need to do - I can’t go around casting spells for every person that asks.

You offered to do a spell for this person!

Yep, because that was my own choice - I decided I wanted to. I will not be guilt tripped or forced into doing something I don’t want to do.

I have made a post about this [here]. 

Other Blog Biz

Will you put long posts under a “read more” cut?

Not likely - in the instance of my blog ever being deleted, most things under “read more” disappear forever. I want my information to remain intact in case of accidental (or otherwise) deletion.

On desktop, you can hit the “J” key to skip past an entire post. I also tag long posts as such on my blog, and Xkit has a blacklist option which can be used to filter those posts.

For mobile, well I’m sorry, you’re just gonna have to scroll for a few seconds. 

I use “read more” cuts for personal matters or trigger warnings, not for long posts.

For now, that is all, although I am sure I will be editing this and adding more to it as time goes by. 

[knoxfxvl202-blog]

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[une-femme-de-lettres]

Hey, love ur blog, I'm thinking of creating a blog for fics and was wondering if you had any advice for a new writer? xx

First, thank you so much! :)

And second, oh my Gosh, I’ve never been asked thatbefore and I’m kind of new on Tumblr too so I don’t really know what to say butI’m gonna do my best. All these tips and advice are the things I learned from mypersonal experience as a writer on Tumblr

(Future me: okay, it turned out that I actuallyhad a LOT of things to say so sorry in advance for the long-ass reply…)

So first there are two sides to running awriting blog on Tumblr: the writing and the blogging.

Number one and most important is of coursethe writing part and for this I have a few pieces of advice to give. I can’t guaranteeyou that ALL these tips will work for you because it depends on you and the wayyou work, you sometimes have to start from there and figure out what works foryou. But again, these is what I figured out from my personal experience:

First advice: read. Like, when I say ‘read’,I mean ‘read A LOT’. You might already be doing that and keep it up, becausereading is what got me into writing in the first place and what allowed me to builda rich vocabulary and overall develop my writing skills (my literature classhelped me a little with that too…) That may be obvious but reading in thelanguage you want to write in is especially important if it’s not your nativelanguage (for example my native language is French but fanfiction helped meimprove hugely my English and now Ionly write in English.)

Again something that might be obvious butthe key is writing about what you like/love. Whether it’s a show, a book or amovie, if you love its story, characters and universe, it’ll be easier to writeabout it. And it’s very common for people to like a show/book/movie for like ayear and then they’re not so much interested in it anymore. And that’s totallyfine, don’t force yourself, if you don’t like the show/book/movie you’rewriting your fic for anymore, move on and focus on what you like.

Also, if you like a show or a movie forexample, and you want to write about it: watch it and re-watch it. This is howyou’re gonna get to know the characters you’re working with and get the overallfeel and atmosphere of the show/movie. And if it’s a book, reading it severaltimes will help you, unconsciously, replicate the author’s style. My examplehere is Supernatural. I spent two and a half months binge-watching the show andit is so long that I don’t really need to re-watch it. At the end, when I wasready and eager to start writing fics for this show, I had spent so much timewatching its characters (mostly Sam and Dean) that I was able to predict howthey would react to certain events and how they would speak and move during a scene.

That brings me to the next advice, whichis, if you don’t really know how to start writing, start with the dialogs (ifthere are some in your work of course). I’m gonna take my previous examplehere. Now that I’m done with Supernatural, all this character/atmosphere thingis in my head and when I’m writing, I’m literally picturing the scene, thecharacters and the dialogs as if I’m watching an episode. But sometimes you canhave this in mind but still not know how to start. That’s when the dialogs comein handy. When I’m in this situation and I have the whole scene pictured in myhead, I first write the dialogs, with an indication of who is talking, like ascript. Then around that, I start writing literally every character’s actionsand movements, then their feelings and thoughts. You don’t have to break itdown like that because once you’ve started writing something, if you’re feelinggood, you’re not gonna want to stop.

Another advice is just to write your ideasas they come. And when you have an idea, don’t let it go and write in somewhereto remember it. Keep a note book close to you so you can write in it at everymoment, especially when you’re lying in bed at night, trying to sleep. That’swhen most of my ideas and inspiration come so keep something to write your ideaon ‘cause trust me, you won’t remember it the next morning…

Also, regarding this whole idea thing: don’tforce yourself to work on one single thing if it’s not the way you like to work.By doing that you’re keeping yourself from doing what you actually would liketo do. And in the end it will prevent you from actually working on that singlething, because you won’t stop thinking about something else. So don’t be afraidto work on a few projects at a time and when you don’t feel like working onone, work on another one.

BUT, sometimes following this advice andworking on too much things at a time can cause complete chaos with unfinishedseries and barely started one-shots, trust me I know what I’m talking about… Soto help with that, you can set priorities, whether they’re based on thepopularity of a work or the time you started writing it. Telling yourself ‘thisstory is important, I have to work on it’ will either help you getting to actuallywork on it or making you realize you don’t want to work on this one, thuspushing you to write the thing you actually want to write.

And finally, there’s the problem of notknowing what to write and just not ‘wanting’ to write. If really your brain issaying ‘nah, I don’t wanna write, I just wanna stare at the blank page and theblinking cursor for the rest of the day’ but your heart is actually saying ‘butI want to write, I have so many good ideas.’ In that case, you have to forceyourself a little, because the hardest part is getting started. To fight this,set yourself a writing goal, like writing at least 500 words a day (that’s whatI do), I don’t guarantee it’ll work but it’s worth the try.

Okay, that was the –long-ass- first andmost important part, now it’s time to tackle the number two: blogging part. Inthat part, I’ll give you some tips to get known on Tumblr and build an audience.Once again, I’m not guaranteeing you that you’ll become famous by following thesebecause the biggest part of building and keeping your audience is your work (ifpeople like it, they’ll keep coming back for more).

With that out of the way, my first adviceis having an accessible blog. What I mean by that is that if people can easilynavigate through your blog and find your work, they’ll be more likely to wantto say and read more. Hence the critical importance of having a functioning Masterlist,for both desktop AND mobile (a good part of people is using Tumblr mobile toread). On desktop, you can make your Masterlist by creating a page that willshow under your description text on your blog. But that doesn’t work on the mobileapp so what you will want to do is create a Masterpost, which is basically atext post with your Masterlist in it. With this though you’ll have to reblog itregularly so it shows up on your feed and is quickly findable and accessible.

Your Masterlist will have to feature everyone of your works and also make people that are new on your blog want to readthese works. To do that, you Masterlist must be clear and organized. You cancategorize your works, list them in different and well-defined categories tohelp the read spot what stories they’re interested in.

When you list a work, you must first writeits title and put a link to its corresponding post (you can use the title andmake it clickable so it will bring the reader to this specific work). You alsohave to make it easy for the reader to identify what the story will be about,so that they can decide whether or not they want to read it. To do that, youcan write a quick summary next to the title and even add a few tags that detailfor example the pairing featured in the work, the genre of the work (is itangsty, fluffy, smutty?) or the its length (is it part of a series, is it aone-shot?) you can also indicate the approximate word count. And of mostimportantly you can specify the warnings, if there are any (graphic violence,explicit sexual content?) so the reader knows what to expect and if it’ssomething they don’t want to read, they don’t have to click the link and waitfor the page to charge to find out.

Talking about tags, you can and have to usethe tagging system on your posts so that your works are easily sortable andaccessible through the search function. That way, the reader can pick and find exactlywhat they want to read. Keep in mind that the more accessible your work is, thequicker readers will be able to find what they want and the more they’ll wantto read.

So now, the main issue is getting people toactually come to your blog. You can always rely on the Tumblr recommendationsbut I don’t think many people actually see/take time to go through them. So myadvice for that is like reading to write: follow to be followed. The more blogsyou follow, the better (to a certain extant). Let’s take an example, if youwrite for the Supernatural fandom, you certainly already follow Supernaturalthemed blogs. Not everyone does that but I do: when someone follows me, and ifI see in their description that they write, I’m gonna want to go and see whatthey have and if I like their work, I’m gonna follow them and maybe reblog afew of their works and my audience will maybe want to read more and follow themas well, and so on.

There is also a few blogs on Tumblr thatsometimes ask for more blogs to follow. The more blog you follow yourself, themore you’re likely to encounter this type of posts. Then you have to seize theopportunity. Don’t be ashamed to self-promote if your blog corresponds to theirarea of interest (they asked for it after all LOL…). You won’t be botheringthem if you reblog the post and link them to your Masterlist, that’s actuallywhat they want, and again, if your work is easy to find and they like it, they’llfollow…

By now, you may have got it, the key togetting known on Tumblr is interaction with other people. And the last advice I’llgive you is related to challenges. Writing challenges are a big thing on Tumblrand it allows writers to share their work on a larger scale, as many biggerblogs do these kind of challenges. So it’s another great way to get people tonotice you and it’s also a really fun thing to do.

To conclude I’d say that you have to bepatient, don’t be too greedy and don’t expect too many people to express theirlove and enjoyment, at least at first. They don’t always let you know, but ifpeople like your work and if you put effort into it, your audience will grow byitself and you will eventually get the recognition you deserve.

And most importantly, enjoy yourself. Iknow it can be frustrating working for hours on something, posting it and notgetting any feedback. But don’t forget that, first and foremost, you write foryourself, because you enjoy it and because you love sharing your ideas withother people. And remember that, in the end, your most fervent supporter isyourself.

[felixluis]

Advantages to Hiring the Best SEO

SEO and SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING are really two sides associated with the same coin, but they will include very different actions plus relate to different facets of marketing and advertising. Incorporating SEO in to your marketing strategy is today vital to the success associated with your website and business. This blog site is supposed to let a person understand the SEO trends 2018 and what to expect through the recent Google algorithm modifications. There are also various SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION trends to follow that a person can consider in the approaching year, but you cannot disregard these one's leading SEO styles for 2018 which are stated in this blog post. With regard SEO 2019 PDF to example, thinking about the keyword tea” or even marketing” might take a lengthy time for improving the rank for each on Google, nevertheless, using less searched terms such as home tea-maker” or SEO advertising for your business” can enhance your chances of raking rich in Google. Changes in search algorithms plus in people's search habits plus the preferences of mobile more than desktop are changing the entire world of SEO. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION stands for Search Engine Search engine optimization. ” This is a substantial process of getting traffic in the free, organic, editorial and organic search results on search motors. Strong Google My Company hygiene, frequent updates to on the internet business directories and a dedication to responding to users' feedback, questions and concerns is Regional SEO 101. From targeting the right keywords making use of Google Keyword Planner to posting valuable information- content marketing had been and will always be possibly the most important SEO developments for years ahead. One particular of the hardest parts associated with the social media marketing is reaching your own audience and making it. Using social media, including polls, queries, comments, hashtags, and discussions may really help give your articles and SEO a much-needed drive. 2017 brought an entire fresh set of changes in the particular way businesses market their items and services, marketers try in order to improve their ranking with search engine optimization (SEO), the way people browse the web and much even more. The only goal of penning this article would certainly be to start a debate around the top SEO styles in 2018, which SEO specialists should follow. This SEO guide explains obtaining links from external domains. This particular is a list of the particular most prominent SEO trends that will will make a smashing influence in 2018. Focusing on satisfying consumer intent will produce far better results for the SEO within 2018, rather than a focus on keywords. Hobo UK SEO - The Beginner's Guide (2018) is the free pdf ebook you may DOWNLOAD TOTALLY FREE from right here (2mb) that contains my notes about driving increased organic visitors a site within Google's instructions. Information is designed in order to describe all areas of SEO—from finding the terms and terms (keywords) that generate traffic in order to your website, in order in order to your site friendly to research engines, to building links plus marketing the initial value associated with your blog. OK so you have created your High-Retention video, really time upload and optimize this for SEO. Search Motor Optimisation (SEO) involves various elements, but we are confident that will a super fast website need to be your number one concern in 2018. The voice lookup is growing everyday, which might the key factor for your own SEO success in 2018 because online users are more curious in accessing the web through spoken command. We have simply no choice left other than switching the website into mobile-friendly internet sites along with mobile-friendly SEO strategy to entice more users as well because grab and retain search motors attention. These key phrases and key phrases will after that be integrated into articles that will are relevant for your site simply by the SEO consultant. In 2018 there will end up being an even bigger concentrate upon machine learning and SEO through data. ” Of course, the particular amplification side of things may continue to integrate increasingly along with genuine public relations exercises rather of shallow-relationship link building, which usually will become increasingly easy in order to detect by search engines. The particular Yoast SEO plugin enables a person to write better content along with page and keyword analysis, immediately generate XML sitemaps, enable breadcrumbs, add social and schema markup, as well as a big number of other optimizations. Because of the particular discrepancy between what people are usually likely to type versus exactly what exactly they are likely in order to say, it is increasingly important for SEOs to understand exactly how the nuances of natural talk patterns affect search engine outcomes. While that will not get solved in 2018, all of us need integrate the SEO group alongside other marketing, both compensated and owned initiatives. This particular goes against SEO in character, once we usually want the nearly all high-quality links, but having a few non-important links is just because important. The particular battle for users is accelerating, and companies should pay much more attention to optimizing their visible content for SEO. RankBrain much even more of a ranking signal compared to an SEO masterpiece, however, this does possess some effects upon SEO, and can be specifically useful if users don't understand 100% what they're looking regarding, or simply can't find the particular right words to use. ” The first reaction is that the particular title would make much even more sense without the question tag, but the content itself provides value for people a fresh comer to SEO as the particular blogger reviews aspects that create newcomers hesitant about becoming involved in SEO. Which action reflects in SEO ranking. -2 - We ought to have realized Search engines will use engagement data regarding rankings, but they're not going to talk about it. They possess nothing to gain from getting open, and a reasonable diploma of risk if they request spammers and manipulators to imitate searchers and click for search positions (a practice that, sadly, provides popped up within the grey hat SEO world, will not really sometimes, unfortunately, work). Marketing and SEO experts like as Bill Slawski, Eric Enge, and Marcus Miller believe the particular chase for a featured little can be the focal point within 2018. SEO just stands forSearch Engine Optimisation. He is passionate regarding online marketing technology and like to spend the valuable period to research and operate SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION operations Team. Carrying away technical SEO for local lookup engines is a similar procedure. Technical SEO involves producing sure everything behind the moments is set up for ideal rankings. Brian Dean stated that With out Keywords there is no this kind of thing as SEO”. The strategies in online advertising are as competitive or simply because quickly evolving as search motor optimization (SEO). As the particular main foundation elements of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION like keywords, metadata and optimised images will remain an essential part of an SEO technique, this will no longer become the main priority. one. Guest Posting - Link developing will be a huge SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION practice in 2018 and over and above, since it has been for very some time. Ultimately, success within SEO in 2018 and ahead is determined by creating amazing content plus which makes it as simple as possible for search motors to understand precisely what that will content is about. SEO is a marketing and advertising discipline focused on growing presence in organic (non-paid) search motor results. It will be helpful in case you share some on-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION tips and how to carry out a keyword research. Businesses regardless associated with their industrial sectors are searching out for SEO strategies which usually could enhance their visibility on the web. CTR is again a single of the ranking factors within SEO. SEMRush - Another great device for SEO analysis, particularly exactly where it concerns business intelligence, SEMRush enables you to identify plus analyze the keywords that your own competitors are using. CTR is again one of the particular ranking factors in SEO. And indeed, social networking does help SEO Ideal now, in our opinion, Search engines cannot tell the difference in between sponsored content and organic articles. Site's speed is of the particular heart in search engines plus SEO trends 2018, whether this is in desktop or cellular. You publish a great information, could a person suggest me how to enhance website ranking without doing any kind of off page seo. The primary stage of SEO is to become friendly both to users plus search engines like google. While looking at our own list of the best SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION companies, rest assured that might all offer you these successful SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategies to assist you in order to rank highly in search motors, and also to increase conversion rates. What exactly will be useful to understand while all of us proceed towards is 2018 is usually that SEO is already modifying, and the ranking within the particular first organic spot is not really the best goal anymore. Nearby SEO specifically can help a person optimise your business for individuals searching from the nearby area. An experienced SEO know the particular technical details followed by the particular major search engines to catalog the WebPages. To smoothen out the software program user interface problem, the internet designing group and the SEO specialist function together to build the research engine friendly programs and program code that can be easily included into the customer's website. So, to maintain your own website's high ranking or in order to optimize a site from base to top ranks, ensure that will you know the new SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION trends and set them directly into practice. Additional factors that will should be considered for nearby SEO, but focusing on these types of three will go a lengthy way to not only raise your local ranking, but your trustworthiness and conversions too.

The use associated with specific, purposefully chosen keywords is usually also important in the procedure as the strategy of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION depends on the ways individuals use search engines like search engines. In this post, we now have separated the top SEO techniques in order to help you skyrocket your ratings and boost your number associated with monthly visitors. Hence, it's time for mobile marketing for better SEO result. These 2 updates have compelled the SEOs to keep the mentioned tasks in check and work in the direction of Google's mission statement of supplying authentic search engine results in order to the visitors. Search engines has emphasized links as the ranking factor since the 1990s, according to Moz, and they will continue to be an important aspect of every great SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategy. The ability of web SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION lies in understanding how individuals search for things and knowing which kind of results Google wants in order to (or will) display to the users. You are able in order to build links from Digital Marketing and advertising or content marketing blogs as well, because these are (SEO, Electronic Marketing or Content marketing) carefully related topics. Whenever talking about those factors, Items focus on blog SEO — optimizing blog posts for related keywords. With the changing associated with yet another year, now will be one of the best occasions to ponder the latest SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION trends. Last but not really least, we cannot mention the particular latest SEO trends without speaking about voice search. Keyword research is about finding those terms so you can use them properly in content optimization and SEO generally. When it comes in order to setting up an SEO technique, the rise of voice research brings out the need in order to focus on more long-tail lookup keywords and a natural vocabulary that matches the user's conversational build. They accomplish this simply by increasing their website rank by way of a method called SEO or even search engine optimization. The team from MyTasker has modelled an infographic on SEO Techniques and Techniques which provides valuable insights that are usually essential for driving targeted visitors for your business website. You'll find this here Also well worth checking out out is Moz's Beginner's Guideline To SEO, ” that you can discover here, and the SEO Achievement Pyramid from Small Business Lookup Marketing. So make sure a person pace with regular SEO pattern to keep your ranking continuous. The world of search motor optimization is ever-evolving which outcomes in regular updates about the particular new SEO trends utilizing the particular industry. Optimizing a page's content for featured information will be undoubtedly a good idea that will your SEO team should put into action to get quality traffic. Once you have got competitive data in hand, the particular next step is to strongly leverage proven SEO strategies like content creation and link developing, to replicate and extend the particular success of market leaders. The overwhelming usage of mobile phones for searching plus shopping has compelled the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION professionals to optimize mobile web sites as well as the pattern is fast picking up. You will find that there are several Local SEO ranking factors scattered through this ebook. The ultimate way to understand how well your WordPress SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is working over time will be to setup a free accounts with Google Analytics Ifย a person need some help follow this particular step by step integration guide One of the very very first things you should do will be link your Google Analytics accounts with your Google Search Gaming console account. They make make use of of the state-of-the-art content administration system and help you create good seo content for your own website which will help your own website appear on the best rank of the search motors and this has great influence on generating traffic to your own website which often results in company growth. The voice search is usually getting vital for SEO. As the particular competition increases, more companies appear to acknowledge the potential associated with a successful visual search, whilst brands need to focus actually more on optimizing their visible content for SEO purposes. Your website will in no way be affected if you advertise your website to obtain the high position in SERP's with White Head wear SEO techniques. It's SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION 101 but the number associated with times I see thin, key word stuffed and valueless garbage displays that it isn't necessarily getting listened to. For the long time, links have already been the trust signal for lookup engines — one that SEOs spent the most time upon optimizing (and often manipulating). Grey head wear SEO is entirely centered upon improving search engine rankings. In the particular second URL that mentioned over, contains the keyword SEO”. For that reason, when someone searches for that will keyword my post will end up being highlighted. So these are 10 suggestions that will help make your own on-page SEO much better plus more likely to rank upon search engines. one. As search engines nowadays might be the most popular on the internet tools among web surfers in order to look for specific information, the particular scope of SEO is very enormous. SEO will promptly include almost everything from content, link acquisition, UX and endpoint delivery like quick loading pages through AMP Search engines Accelerated Mobile Pages. If you decide to function with them, they can display you how to take your own SEO strategy well beyond key phrases and provide you a advertising campaign that is well-suited for that twenty first century. Instead, research through good online articles plus learn the ability of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION or search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is all about quality content material and quality links. Apart from this particular, keywords, too, play an essential function in SEO. First, realize that schema markup is 1 of the most powerful, minimum used parts of SEO nowadays Schema are basically brief clips of data that can provide extra information to find users plus search engines.

Black head wear SEO is really a collection of unethical practices to enhance rankings of a website within the search engine results web page. Google and other major research engines take the SEO name and display it within the particular search engine result pages. Here's a listing of Best SEO Companies compiled by GoodFirms which will help your site rank better with regards to traffic plus visibility. Because the competition to get on best of search engines gets harder, the need to adapt in order to these shifts in SEO furthermore increases. The particular work we do as SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION professionals is more about enhancing our websites to provide the better experience for users, which usually subsequently the actual search motors want to reward us. As Search engines continues to refine its enigmatic search algorithm to deliver customers the most relevant results, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION professionals and pundits across the particular globe have taken note associated with a growing number of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION trends and strategies that are usually poised to be the potential future of SEO.

The SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION consultant will need to become vigilant about the changes in developments of keywords and key key phrases since these changes can become seasonal. You may have purchased some links during the past, been upon the wrong end of the particular negative SEO attack or also have your content posted upon multiple sites and these hyperlinks can still impact you. Internal links are usually beneficial for SEO because these people help pass link equity in order to the page receiving the hyperlink. The particular blog is known as The particular Daily Egg, labeled the content material machine for Crazy Egg, the heatmap software that helps you imagine your visitors. ” Resources supplied are promised to become hard-boiled. ” The most recent write-up is titled A Simple Guideline to Understanding and Creating the Website Conversion Funnel, ” essential information for successful SEOs in order to know. This particular research solidified the importance associated with SEO and even more the particular important on being on web page one of a particular lookup engines results.

And as soon as you have a handle upon that, it's time to boost your site for the brand-new SEO trends that I layed out in this guide. Videos can also increase customers time-on-page, making Video SEO the major consideration for 2018. By making use of SEO software, you may ultimate become able to tell what functions, what doesn't, and how a person can rank full of the SERP's (Search Engine Result Pages). The particular battle for users is accelerating, and companies should pay also more focus on optimizing their particular visual content for SEO. Through incorporation of greatest SEO techniques, you can boost your online visibility greatly, which usually will rank you between the particular searches on first page, plus perhaps with the right methods you can even outrank your own competitor. To assist your e-commerce website stay forward of your competitors, one requirements to make sure that their own website follows these top five SEO trends of 2018. Moreover, it is stated that the typing search will be over after a few a lot more years which is why this is important for you in order to select a whole another fixed of keywords when it arrives to SEO.

As mentioned over, speed will be paramount regarding SEO in 2018, that leads all of us on to Accelerated Mobile Webpages (AMP). Therefore, on top of content marketing and advertising, SEO now should be significantly aligned with your company's PAGE RANK efforts. For these reasons they have each a huge SEO value (it's one of the most essential ranking factors), plus a clickability” worth (it serves as a inspiration for people to click). The particular SEO trends and technique in order to rank websites higher changes quick because of the emergence associated with new technologies and changing client behavior. It is often used simply by mobile users on a big scale which made it the powerful SEO trend for this particular year. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION trends in 2018 considers the particular important issues SEO practitioners require to think about in 2018 as well as the path taken by travel search motors and SEO in general. In the event that you know you have REALLY low-quality doorway pages on your own site, you need to eliminate them or rethink your SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategy if you want in order to rank high in Google with regard to the long term.