#verse; the sun is out again | post vision hunt

[mikomischief]

@shiroi---kumo liked for a starter!

It seemed her duties at the Grand Narukami Shrine would have to wait. This wasn't Inazuma, nor could she say it was even Teyvat. Though, trees that looked like mushrooms could be mistaken as part of Sumeru's ecosystem at one point or another. When would they be able to travel freely again and visit other countries? For one thing, they needed to establish relationships with other countries---diplomacy, she told Ei. Inazuma was too closed off from the rest of the world. Neither here nor there, she supposed, when she couldn't pinpoint where she was.

"Is everyone all right?" While she couldn't pinpoint her location, she did remember traveling with others on her way back to the shrine. They were in a boat, were they not? Yes, from Watatsumi Island---someone needed to check in on activities there. She was going over the newest revisions from her protege's novel when she heard the captain utter something about a pillar. Naturally, humans were so curious, and she couldn't blame them. A pillar appearing out of nowhere? Large, dark, and foreboding? It wasn't Ei's work, for sure. So, they wandered straight towards it.

Alas, she didn't hear a reply from any of the crew, nor did she see a boat. Her feet walked on dry land without another soul around. What happened after they got too close to something they shouldn't have? Falling? That sounded right. Why was no one else with her then? Surely they should have fallen with her... unless something else was at work.

"Oh dear. Looks like I'm a bit lost," she mused to herself, shrugging her shoulders. "I suppose I'll have to explore and find out where I am. Ei is going to be upset if I dilly-dally too long."

[ymiwritesstuff]

Adrift in Your Eyes

Here’s a Kazuha fic bc I love him a lot. This one doesn’t have as much of a plot and is just this carefree, fluffy drabble, if you will. Still, I hope you guys like it!

Genshin Impact

Kaedehara Kazuha x Reader

Summary: His eyes were like a sea you floated and got lost in, but in the most wonderful ways possible.

Pre Vision Hunt Decree

Notes: FLUFF FLUFF FLUFF, Reader being a mega simp lmaoo

Also posted on AO3!

The gentle leaves of the cherry blossom under which you lay cast a slight shadow that loomed above you, hiding you from the warm afternoon sun, something your eyes greatly appreciated. The grass below you swayed in the gentle breeze, as did the pink leaves above you. Narukami Island at this time of day was beautiful, however, your eyes failed to notice it, for they were glued on someone they found the most beautiful of all.

Him.

As your head laid on his lap, your orbs couldn’t look away. There he was, reciting another one of his haiku. You listened, yet at the same time, you didn’t. His gentle voice emanated to your ears, but that’s all you heard. The words became slurred, mixed together into something, and all that was left in your head was his voice that spread warmth and comfort throughout your entire being. It was soft like the grass beneath you, light as the wind surrounding you, and oh, so beautiful.

Kazuha held your hand, as he often did. It was warm to the touch, his skin was soft, smooth like velvet, a trait which not many samurai possessed. Every now and then his eyes, filled with the color of autumn, would glance at you, and you’d get lost in them, heart fluttering in your chest.

It wasn’t often you were this entranced by him. It only ever happened during these kinds of peaceful moments. Moments during which you could both allow yourselves to relax and take some time to enjoy each others’ presence. Though, it usually resulted in you staring up at him, eyes sparkling in awe.

“I hear falling rain,” he spoke, and you finally managed to pay attention to his poetry, your mind perhaps desiring to understand the meaning of his eloquent words.

“I hear my thoughts falling too.”

He gave your hand a light squeeze and a smile immediately crept upon your lips. He leaned against the tree trunk, letting out a tiny exhale and allowing his eyes to close for a brief moment. He basked in the light rays of sunlight that peeked through the leaves, focusing on the feeling of pure bliss he experienced whilst having you close.

His eyes finally opened and glued themselves on yours, the gentlest smile dawning on his face as he finished his verse:

“All I want is you.”

Your own smile widened at that, his words floating in your head for some time as you slowly reached up and placed a single hand on his soft cheek. Kazuha leaned into your touch, placing his own hand on top of yours. As you looked at him, you were once again awestruck by his stunning appearance. His silvery hair that housed a single crimson streak flowed in the wind, his welcoming eyes looked back at you with pure admiration and his fair skin glimmered even when it was only partially blessed by the sun.

He was so gorgeous, almost ethereal, you couldn’t stay silent:

“You’re so…” You ran your thumb along his cheek the skin under it becoming just a tad warmer as you finished your sentence:

“Beautiful.”

As soon as he heard those words, he let out a light sigh and your smile reached new heights when you noticed the pinkish shade dusting his cheeks. His lips soon made contact with the palm of your hand.

“And you are as subtle as the Shogun’s lightning.”

You couldn’t suppress a giggle that left your lips and he soon let out a chuckle as well, leaning down to press a kiss on your forehead. Before he had time to pull himself back up, you gently grabbed the collar of his kimono and guided his lips to yours. You slowly sat up as you kissed him, your hand finding its way behind his neck, while his soon laid lightly on your waist.

His lips, much like everything else about him, were perfect. They felt so good as they lightly moved against yours, his hands holding you as close as possible. He felt calm in your presence, so much so, that not even the most powerful thunderstorm would disturb him. With you, he was at ease.

As you pulled away from each other, you kept your foreheads together, drowning in each others’ eyes. His crimson eyes lost themselves in your (E/C) ones, his carefree heart filling with warmth at the way your lips curled upwards into a smile.

He leaned back against the trunk once again, with you placing your head against his chest, his tender heartbeat echoing in your ears. The breeze hugged your forms as you allowed yourself to melt in his welcoming arms.

Perfect, you thought. This was perfect.

He was perfect.

~

Support me on ko-fi! ❤️

[tilltheendwilliwrite]

A Lamb Among Wolves

Chapter Two

Master List / Jupiter Ascending Master List

Pairing: OMC Bedlam Wise/ OFC Pixie Peradino

Previous Chapter

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Bedlam could hardly believe his ears.

"You want me to babysit?"

"You are to guard her Ladyship until I can convince her to come with us of her own accord," Jol fairly growled. "It's protection work, Bedlam. Not babysitting."

It sounded a hell of a lot like babysitting to him.

He huffed a slight growl but tilted his head in agreement. The Captain was good people, one of the best he'd ever worked with and for, and while Bedlam wasn't about to say so out loud, she was one of a handful of people he respected.

"And where is Her Grace?" he asked, ignoring the fidgeting and twitching of the two Aegis with Jol. His presence affected people that way, and he'd learned to use it to his advantage.

"She went to work."

He snorted. "And what does this precious Entitled do?"

Bedlam imagined it was frivolous, like planning parties or organizing charity events.

Jol held up a sheave. "She works in a gallery of local artisans."

"Art?" he snorted. "Figures."

Jol shot him a glare that quelled only a little of his attitude. She was his superior, in rank at least. "Her name is Pixie Peradino this recurrence. You have to protect her, Bedlam. Gilgamee is after her."

A deadly growl rippled from his throat. "Gilgamee. Why?"

"The Duchess is set to inherit the planet Kar-mal Ta Do."

Bedlam arched a brow, impressed.

Also known as The Garden, Kar-mal Ta Do was a planet of vast flora and tranquillity, a place of healing for both body and soul, producing the ingredients for many of the medications needed in the Verse.

"The Earl Gilgamee has long coveted the world; his intentions to industrialize and expand are well known in the Verse and to the Brantox family, which controlled the planet. Some years ago, the parents of Trillian Brantox were murdered, and while the Aegis could not prove it was Gilgamee, there was little doubt that the Earl was responsible. After he hounded Trillian, insisting on marrying the young Duchess, whose vehement denials were also well known.'

"Unfortunately, Trillian was killed in what they termed a freak accident, but again, no one could prove Gilgamee was behind it. But if Gilgamee gets his hands on The Garden, he will strip the world of its beauty and charge a fortune for its treasures," Jol explained.

Now it made sense why the Aegis wanted this Pixie protected.

Pixie.

What the hell kind of name was that?

Bedlam growled softly before striding up the stairs to the woman's front door. There, he leaned in and inhaled, closing his eyes to get a better sense of her.

The scent slammed through him like the blow from a Warhammer.

Soft, fragrant florals sweetened with just a touch of honey brought the vision of her touching the door, leaning against it, braced as if to run. Anxiety, fear, curiosity and disbelief went from acrid notes to sour, back into burnt sugar, and slipped into ash.

There was no hiding her feelings on things, not from him.

"She doesn't trust you," he murmured when Jol joined him.

"I know, but I also know Gilgamee. He will come for her. She's the only thing standing between him and The Garden."

Bedlam nodded. Something about her, about her scent, had him on edge. He had it now and knew no matter where she went or how far across the Verse she might run; there was nowhere she could go that he would not find her.

Her scent crawled up his nose and buried in his mind, causing the more feral part of his brain to sit up and howl.

The wolf paced, caged, desperate to begin the hunt, growling and salivating to chase down the woman who smelled like sun-drenched meadows and honey-soaked hives.

Thankfully there were no Apinis on Jol's ship. The drones - bee splices - would swarm her.

"Stay out of sight and cloaked unless she's in danger. You do not exactly fit in as a tourist."

Bedlam snorted and activated his boots - a Skyjacker's standard gear - before skating off into the sky, where the second click of buttons had him disappearing.

From the air, he could smell her. Even with her inside her vehicle, the air was practically saturated with her floral notes. The lingering scent stated it was a tract of land she habitually followed.

Once he hit the town, it was slightly harder thanks to the wind-swept streets and the sea breeze. But he followed the trail down a few blocks to where a business spanned three storefronts.

Slowly, Bedlam dropped to hover over the ground before landing softly and peering in the windows.

It was the kind of place that usually made him cringe, catering to the rich with its overpriced and ugly art, but this wasn't what he expected.

There were pottery and weavings, colourful glass and paintings that didn't hurt his eyes with their flashy colours. Even the soap he could smell wasn't overpowering but subtle and natural. It didn't make his nose burn, which was a first.

He scanned the store, noting exits and blind spots before moving closer to the door, where he waited for an old woman to shuffle her way inside. She struggled to get the door open, prompting him in his unseen state to reach out, grasp the top edge and pull it wide.

Her tiny gasp of surprise made him smirk as she stared in wonder at the door before heading inside.

"Pixie? Did they fix the automatic door?" the woman called out.

Bedlam's ear twitched toward the light steps as he ducked in behind the white-haired elder. He remained unseen as he looked up to study his new charge and damn near snarled when her scent overwhelmed him.

She was calm, happy, and relaxed here, and flowers burst from her in sweet and delicious scents, honey mead and summer sun.

She smelled like the Garden planet she owned. Ripe. Lush. Bountiful.

The door bent beneath his grip, the noise drawing her attention.

Bedlam quickly let go, allowing it to swing shut, albeit with a few finger dents in the metal frame now.

"No." Pixie frowned, staring at the door. "They're supposed to come to fix that today. Must have been a glitch."

Her eyes - amber like a wolf - darted around quickly, sweeping over him, then back to narrow as if she could sense him, before returning to the little old woman.

"How are you today, Mrs. Brice?" Pixie asked, her face softening into a sweet smile.

As she moved away, he breathed out, only to inhale another lung full of her scent that shook him to the core.

He didn't know what was happening; he had never felt so entirely out of control before. Every inch of him yearned to be closer, bury his face in her neck, smell her, taste her, and get his teeth on her, but years of training and discipline held him back, allowing him a moment to study the petite female.

Curvy was the word that came to mind; lush ones that would fill his hands. From generous hips to large breasts to an ass he was having a hard time ignoring, she was the kind of woman meant for bedding, meant to offer comfort.

Every part of her was sweet, from her scent to her smile to her skin that appeared velvet soft and begged for fingers to stroke and caress until she wept with desire and screamed his name as he-

Bedlam shook himself out of such thoughts. No matter that Caine had found his mate with an Entitled, such was not the norm.

He was a killer, a rogue. Unfit to think such thoughts about someone as gentle as the woman whose eyes called to his wolf.

This Pixie was nothing like Queen Jupiter, the new matriarch of the Abraxas family. She wasn't strong-willed or sharp-tongued.

Bedlam figured when Gilgamee came for her; she would cry.

He sighed and moved around the store, finding an out of the way corner from which he could observe without getting in the way or being walked into where he settled down to wait.

***

She couldn't put her finger on it, but Pixie felt like she was being watched all day. Even when the shop was empty, she could feel the lingering touch of eyes and knew what it meant to be prey.

Again, she slipped her hand into her pocket and found the small metal disc Jol had given her.

While she felt watched, she wasn't afraid, not really, and assumed the feeling was all in her head, after all, who wouldn't be a little freaked out after her visitors this morning.

Around lunchtime, she went into the backroom to eat, taking her break when Margret arrived, thinking to escape the eyes, but they appeared to follow her.

She did her best to ignore it, warming her leftover stuffed chicken and pasta from the night before, relishing the enticing scent.

Cooking was something Pixie excelled at and enjoyed, even if it meant creating gourmet meals for one.

After a nasty breakup that left her bruised and emotionally raw but stronger for the trials Nathan put her through, she'd moved to Carmel. But even after a year in town, she'd barely begun to find her place, which wasn't anyone's fault. The sad thing was that she spent a lot of time cooking for herself as she had few friends.

She knew people and was friendly with many locals, but it wasn't like she'd joined a book club or spent the evening shooting pool at the bar. She didn't hang out at the beach or eat out at the restaurants.

She was a loner, a recluse, happy with her tiny house full of books and half-finished knitting projects.

Sure she got lonely sometimes, but she'd learned the hard way men didn't want women who looked like her, acted like her, and refused to conform to their ideals.

She wouldn't be talked down to ever again.

But fuck, she missed sex!

Pixie groaned and leaned her forehead against the wall.

What she wouldn't give for some hunk of a man to sweep her off her feet and rail her within an inch of her life.

"Dream on, girl," she sighed. "That shit only happens in fantasy novels."

When the microwave beeped, she took her food out and made her way to the table that doubled as a bench for unpacking stock or packing online orders.

When she'd first started at Sea Swept Finds, the owner - a somewhat frazzled Emily - had given her free rein to do want needed to be done to turn the struggling business into something profitable. And while Pixie didn't have the title of manager, it became quickly apparent that she'd fallen into the role when Emily left a note leaving her in charge as she flew off to France with her fiance.

The only reason Emily had a business at all was that she was bored and liked spending Daddy's money. From a wealthy family, the woman didn't need to work to live; she just did it to keep her father off her back.

Still, Pixie was grateful she had a job that she enjoyed - although not one that utilized her Masters in Botany - and could help in a small way to support the locals who, without Sea Swept Finds, would have no hope of showcasing their talents to the town's many tourists.

She was halfway through her lunch, reading on her phone when Margaret opened the door in a flurry.

"Misty Brower is here. She said you called about a weaving, but I can't find the order!" she cried, almost in tears.

Pixie internalized a sigh.

Margaret was a sweet thing, barely into her twenties and overly dramatic at the best of times. She was flighty, and though she had a heart of gold, she was dense as a fence post. The poor blonde fit the stereotype so well that she occasionally made Pixie cringe.

Rising from her chair, Pixie made her way to the door, where she pointed at the rolled tube standing behind the till. "It's right there."

"Oh… I didn't see it."

"I gathered that," Pixie murmured, smiling when Margaret cast a worried glance her way. "The receipt is taped to the tube."

"On it. Sorry, I disturbed your lunch," the young woman bubbled, hurrying away.

"I'm going to unpack some boxes after. You can run the front for a while."

"Sure thing!" Margaret waved.

Pixie closed the door and sighed before turning back to her lunch.

It wasn't until she sat down at the table that she realized something was off. Half of her chicken pasta was missing.

She scowled at the dish. Yes, she'd eaten half before dealing with Margaret, but now there was only a quarter left in the container.

"Oh, my God!" she whispered in horror. "Do we have rats?"

She'd never seen a rat in the store or droppings in the stock room, but how else would a quarter of her dinner go missing?

Pixie gave the room a once-over but found nothing else out of place and didn't see any visible signs of an infestation. Still, she wasn't overly inclined to eat what remained of her lunch and quickly closed up the containers before returning them to her lunch bag.

The last thing she wanted to do was put food in the trash if they did have a rat problem.

With her respite cut short, Pixie began to open the shipment of new glass ornaments from the town's incredible glassworks.

Bill, the artisan, created simply stunning pieces that blew Pixie away every time they arrived.

Today, she was thrilled to unpack an orange and white octopus the size of a basketball. Its tentacles curled around the bulbous head, giving the piece a lovely feel of kinetic movement, while each little sucker had to have been so tedious to make.

She placed it carefully on the table before opening the next box.

This one contained a sea turtle in lovely blues and greens. It was a particular favourite of the summer tourists and would likely sell in no time.

The third box contained the smaller, cheaper pieces. Starfish, water drops, waves, seahorses and colourful fish appeared like magic from their bubble wrap suits.

Pixie lined them all up, checking to make sure there were no cracks, chips, or flaws when the stockroom door was swinging open again.

"The guy for the front door is here," Margaret stated before walking away, leaving the repairman standing in the doorway.

"Hi," Pixie smiled, though she was annoyed Margaret hadn't just pointed him back the way he'd come in to fix the handicap accessible door at the front of the store. "The door is right out front. You can go ahead and get started."

"Pixie Peradino?"

She blinked and straightened. "Yes?"

He stepped into the room and raised his hand. "Sorry about this."

Pixie could only stare in horror at the gun now pointed at her face.

Next Chapter

[nossbean]

I haven’t had as much time as I’d hoped to get stuck in with @jaime-brienne-fic-exchange yet, but from the fraction of the 105 (🎉🎉🎉) fics I have been able to read, a few recs:

Book canon

Innocent This is my gift fic and I’m obsessed. The author did more with my prompt than I could’ve hoped for, their style packs a hell of a lot of punch into a pretty condensed space — I love how they weight emotional/physical/reflective responses — and takes up complex issues (gender! Morality! Innocence! Trauma!) and handles them deftly all whilst also giving a post-LSH Brienne space she needs to grieve, and rage, and be bloody exhausted, and also be perfectly Brienne through it all: grappling with all she’s been through and all she wants to be and all she wants to still believe. so, like, ALL THAT, whilst ALSO having these pitch perfect notes of the relationship she has with Jaime, the relationship Jaime has with her, and how those two things need to come a bit more into alignment if they’re to move forward, and then a *chef’s kiss* of an ending that made me melt and punch the air in equal measure, as it hit a particular target of mine with precision. There’s also a very cathartic scene wherein some stuff happens but I don’t want to give it away but have been thinking about it pretty nonstop since it was posted...! ~enigmatic~ It was just all superb. This recommendation is roughly as coherent as my comment ~1.5 weeks ago, which maybe gives you an idea as to the feelings the fic instills. All in all, WORTH YOUR TIIIMMMEMEMEEE.

that would be enough  This fic!!! It is snappy, and I adored the Brienne and Jaime of this fic. The author captures a whole hell of a lot with the fewest of words (truly, how!!!) and it navigates, again, a post-LSH JB, and that complex thing between JB in a way that feels utterly visceral and true. Leaning into the profundity of their feelings for one another whilst also allowing how terrible they both are at speaking to said feelings, rather both being people of action and trying their best even when things don’t go exactly as they’d hoped (and sometimes even when they do), it’s just a damn satisfying read. There are these character notes throughout that I just wanted to linger in, and have done, on re-read, and anticipate doing time and again. It really is just a pleasure of a read that will nestle into you and linger.

Alternate universes

Love Isn’t a Sprint, It’s a Marathon  This fic is SO MUCH FUN. There are so many clever and delightful easter eggs and overlays from Jaime and Brienne’s Riverrun road trip onto a marathon (!) our two favourite dummies are running in modern Westeros, and it’s fucking GREAT. There are laugh out loud gags and moments, and emotional/romantic beats which land just when you want them, and the author’s style is pacy (running pun intended; this fic taught me things) and just carries you along so pleasingly. It also gifted me with visions of Jaime in a perfectly tussled bun and tight jogging outfit (in Lannister colours, ofc), and Brienne in her favourite blue sports bra, and to the author I say: thank you. The, hm, confounding (to Brienne) history between JB in this ‘verse is revealed throughout the fic, which works so well in conjunction with how the marathon experience is progressing their relationship, building up a satisfying tension between them and rewarding us with a fantastic end. I don’t want to give too much away, so have some emoji in lieu of spoilers: 🥳😍😂😍🔥🎉 🎉🎉😍🥰 also to this introvert, Brienne’s way of interacting with strangers on a marathon course is SO relatable, my god. This is one of those stories that just leaves you happy.

when the sun is coming through, you fill my head with you  This fic is a modern reconciliation/second chances fic with a great premise, and I basically had a meltdown about the author’s prose. It is STUNNING. The fic looks at a JB separated by several years after a botched (or was it?) overture made just before one of them leaves town. Brienne, soaked to the bone and injured after defending a person from four (4) muggers turns up on Jaime’s doorstep one night unannounced. Me, loving this: she went to him because she knew he’d look after her even after all this time 😭😭😭 Things proceed apace from there, and as I said in my comment: Jaime throughout all of this is this wonderful blend of capturing that energy he has with a softness that feels very true to the heart of him. And Brienne! There’s a line in the fic specifically about her which just... yes. The author also manages a really interesting spin on the “I’m strong enough” line, which I went head over heels for. Also I made so many noises while reading over the prose alone but it isn’t just beautiful (it is beautiful), it also weaves so well through character and the situation and omggggg. Make a cuppa and spend some time with this fic, it’s well worth it.

Multichapters

So I’m mostly saving multichapters at the moment, I did get involved in these two, both AUs:

The Shooting Party (complete) Another fic which made me lose my damn mind. The conceit is wonderful and fun and it was played to perfection, but honestly it was the way these two were written here which got me. Set in 1912 on a holiday weekend at the Stark estate, Brienne asks Jaime to pretend to be courting her in order to put off the man her father is bringing as a potential suitor: Hyle Hunt. Jaime agrees, with one two caveats. My comment on this fic was borderline incoherent but possibly the only sensible thing I said was that the author had got to the very heart of Brienne in her POV (she is the sole POV), was written with such evident love for the character, and it was just such pure joy to read. Everything we got of Jaime, too, was just exactly as one (me) might hope, particularly of the circumstances in the fic. I love him always, but particularly here 💖 Truly I literally finished reading this fic only a little while ago and am still processing but Y’ALL. I wanted to live there forever, I was stunned joyful. AND THE AUTHOR’S STYLE! Such a pleasure, my god. This fic expanded in my chest, and I’m trying to keep cozy that joyous feeling as long as possible.

Way Enough (WIP) Currently a WIP, this modern AU follows Brienne and Jaime as they reunite after years apart: the central setting so far has been a rowing boat house, and the author is incredibly evocative with their descriptions of... well everything, honestly, but the loving way they describe rowing is really such a pleasure to read. Jaime and Brienne in this is also great: a particular dynamic I always enjoy wherein Jaime is just so overjoyed to see Brienne again, and Brienne is, too, but in a far more reserved and tentative way. We’ve so far has two out of five chapters posted, but I’m really looking forward to where it’s going.

[inosaku-ask]

Yo Ho! On the Beach I Spot a Siren

This was the life for her! The salty water spraying all over her, the churning of her great vessel against the thick and hard waves, the shouting her men giving out orders, and all of it complete with a swing of a hearty ale. Ino Yamanaka loved this life and she wished it would never end.

…well, that would change if she didn’t get away from the navy pursuing her for the successful robbery of the nearby port. She felt pretty calm about the whole thing, given that she decided to grab a pint of ale before giving her men the orders to make head towards their secret island once they escape or disable their pursuers. No need to kill, the entire crew already had gained a terribly high bounty as it is.

Captain Ino tossed her mug overboard, not really caring about pollution. It was the 17th century after all, nobody cared if you threw diseased hacked-off limbs or a entire corpse overboard. She rather drunkenly wandered over to a cannon and watched as her crew loaded it up. Ino reached into her coat’s pocket and pulled out a book of matches. She struck one alit and then threw it down onto the cannon’s wick. Her man ran off before the cannon jumped back from the recoil of the shot. The cannon flew into the portside of a navy ship, causing a minor explosion. Not enough to sink it right away, but enough for it to run off back home.

The men laughed the entire way to their private island, reflecting on their successful raid of the port and their easy victory over an navy vessel. Their beloved Captain downed some more whiskey before they landed, and took a entire bottom of the best stuff with her as she strolled alone on the beach. She swung the bottle back and forth as tried to sing a familiar shanty the best she could in her drunken stupor. Her voice was wobbly as was her movements and her alcohol-laded mind constantly made her forget the next verse in the song.

Something caught her eye. She paid no mind to it, Ino just thought it was one of those pink India Elephants she saw she really got hung over. But she couldn’t help but to stare at it. Well, a part of it was pink, but not entirely. Just the hair. The rest of the body appeared to be human…but the bottom…

…ye gods, a actual beautiful siren of the sea. On the beach, sun-bathing. Ino licked her lips, wondering if perhaps she was seeing a mirage. But no, mirages don’t reflect on the water’s surface. The thing looked real…so maybe it was real. The over-worldly voice did sound real to her…

Ino reached into her coat and felt some rope she placed in there some time ago. Matches and rope, the very things any great pirate should have on her at all times. One of the few things her mentor told her before she ran the traitor through with a enflamed sword. Ino dived over into a nearby bush and spied on the pink-haired mermaid for a bit to watch her movements. No way she wasn’t going to let this beauty escape.

With the mermaid’s back turned towards the land to gaze out to the sea, Ino left her hiding spot and approached slowly, making sure to not spook the creature. Right behind her back, Ino sprung upon the siren. The mermaid gasped and tried to swim away to the sea, but Ino dragged her in to dry land. Ino applied her weight down upon the beached siren and bought her arms together to bind them in thick rope. As much as the lady of the sea tried to struggle, the mighty pirate captain was able to bound her arms and keep away from the water’s edge.

“Oh my…” Ino exasperated as she watched her new siren pet growl at her. “Shall I call this my lucky day?”

“Perhaps it’s better if you call this your last day.” The siren grunted.

“I dunno why you didn’t recognize this place as a pirate’s fortress, mistress of Davy Jones.” Ino hiccupped. “We don’t fly flags up high to call attention to us, but I’m pretty sure someone like you would check to make sure you didn’t land on any civilized place…”

The mermaid’s response was to raise her tail up and smack Ino in the face. Being a strong swimmer to go against the intense weather of the region, the kick was enough to send Ino flying into a tree a few feet away. But unfortunately for the siren, Ino’s drunken state didn’t make her feel much pain, so the pirate captain was able to get up and quickly capture her prey again before the mermaid could return to the office.

“Now then!” Ino clapped her hands together after propping the mermaid against a far away tree and placing herself away from the range of the tail. “I believe we should get to know each other a bit better. My name is the…”

“Boar of the Sea?” The mermaid asked with a nasty smirk.

“No!” Ino shrilled with a rage-full expression. She calmed down and started again: “I’m the Feared Captain Ino Yamanaka. Feared because I can raid at any time and take whatever I want without remorse or without much trouble. And you are?” The siren went quiet but kept her gritting expression solid on her face. “Come on. This will be easier if you explained who you are.”

“…Sakura.” The mermaid admitted with a growl.

“Good!” Ino sat down and went quiet for a good long minute. Sakura stared at her captor in confusion. Ino finally spoke up: “…I’m not to sure how to go on from here.”

“Maybe?” Sakura grunted. “Let me go, you kidnapper?”

“Pirate.” Ino reminded.

“Pirates.” Sakura sighed and got comfortable on the tree. “You pirates pollute the ocean with your waste and gunpowder…”

“So does the navy.”

“Yeah, because they’re hunting your kind first!”

“I think we got off on the wrong foot.” Ino finally admitted.

“Oh.” Sakura groaned, lifting up her tail to firmly remind Ino. Ino’s response was to start laughing like crazy at the stupid pun she inadvertently made. Being drunk, her laughter wouldn’t stop and just got wilder and wilder the more she rolled around in the sand. Sakura wanted to remain tight-lipped, but the endless guffaw caused her to start giggling. So, the two girls started to bawl their eyes out from pure and stupid joviality.

“Yeah, I shouldn’t hold ya captive.” Ino burped out. “Even as a greedy pirate, I know if you love something, you should let it go.”

“Love?” Sakura questioned.

“Yeah.” Ino shrugged as she dug out her dagger…the one she stole off her dead mentor’s burning body. “I mean, have you seen the standards of male pirates? Stinky, hairy, and to act as unappealing as possible. Good men, my men, but there’s a good reason why I don’t share a bed with them.”

“And you want to pursue a relationship with a creature known to drag men to their deaths?” Sakura pointed out, holding up her bound hands.

“Why not?” Ino giggled. “It’s something different! Besides, it’s not like the navy is going to send men out to hunt you down and hold you hostage. You could follow us around and we could…” Ino’s path of thought got cancelled by her brain asking to be shut down. Ino managed to undo the rope bonds before she collapsed onto the soft sand.

“Cap’n!” Called out a gruff voice followed by a very firm shake. Ino awoke with a great splitting headache and blurred vision. “Oh, she’s awake. Back to ye posts!”

“Oh.” Ino moaned. “I drank too much of that ale. Remind me to not get that bottle again…’tis too powerful to have around.”

The crewmate nodded in understanding and lifted his captain back onto her feet. Ino’s head reeled back in such a way she nearly barfed but managed to keep it in. As she was lead back to the ship, she couldn’t but think about Sakura…if she even existed in the first place. Ino was so drunk, she had lost track of time. So it’s possible she just imagined the whole thing…

…but then she noticed something sticking out of her coat pocket. She yanked out some bits of cut rope and a note written on soggy paper. And written on the paper: “I’ll be following you.”

Plastered on the note was a lock of pink hair.

[gameofthrawns]

Miracle Island

A/N: I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date. A late submission for tarched’s HTTYDArtAugust, Prompt 5: Hunted. This one was a freaking monster to write compared to my usual stuff, at over 3.5k words—So now I know for sure that I will never write a novel. So I’m using that as my excuse. I also found it just...kinda hard to write. 

If you read my story for the “Campfire” prompt, you’ll probably remember these random Dragon Hunter OCs. Probably gonna post this along with that one in my “Viking War Tales” one-shots collection. Just as a warning, this story gets a bit violent. And a bit long. And a bit dark. So yeah.

“Did you ever learn where she’s from?”

Hans smiled at Ivar’s question. “Who?”

Ivar’s mustache twitched in annoyance. “Don’t play dumb, boy. Sigrid.”

Hans glanced back at the woman marching with Rolf a few yards behind them. Her skin was pale like the moon, with cheeks touched by pink. Her hair was tied in a golden plait that shimmered like the Sun. Her eyes were blue, like ice, or the sea, or the sky on a clear summer day.

What had Hans learned of Sigrid these past few months? He had learned that she was from some Viking village called Raglif; like many other Viking islands, it was a rather sad land, constantly plagued by freezing winters, dragon raids, and just general misery. Much worse than his own village back in Polder, actually.

He had, through the course of multiple nights, learned of her many, many scars, tracing them with his fingers as they explored each other’s bodies in the darkness.

He had learned that her favorite colors were green—especially the shade of green his eyes were, or so she claimed—and purple, which was the color of her favorite flower, wolfsbane. She didn’t like any nuts because she had been allergic to some of them when she was a child, even though she wasn’t now. She had an insatiable sweet tooth, which was really a shame because Hans remembered there being plenty of sweets to go around back in Polder...just not for him. But if he returned now, with Sigrid at his side...

He had learned that she was actually, while not by much, probably the worst fighter in the squad. She made up for it with her cleverness and her deft hands and fingers, capable of building and weaving even seemingly worthless scraps into something useful.

He had learned, much to his horror, that with those same hands and fingers she could deliver excruciating pain upon unwilling victims. It was something her father, the madman, had forced her to learn, so as to better torment her own little brother. The Grimborn brothers themselves had sometimes personally called upon her to break the mind, body, and spirit of prisoners. Hans had only seen her doing such grim work once, and only briefly, for the brutality and cold-bloodedness of the affair made his stomach turn.

It wasn’t much surprise, actually, that a woman so well-versed in the art of inflicting pain could also excel at providing pleasure. That, too, was apparently something her father had forced her to learn. That little fact about Sigrid’s past had always made Hans particularly uncomfortable, in a strange way he’d never felt toward another person before. He wondered if he was taking advantage of her in some way, a thought that had never occurred to him about sex ever since his first experience at the ripe old age of fourteen.

He had learned that Sigrid was actually quite the romantic, or at least, she tried to be. Just last night night, she had told him that they were a “match made in Hell”: two bad people who’d done many bad things, teaching each other to be good, to love. It was an interesting idea, certainly.

“And why do you think she would tell me that?” he finally replied. No doubt, he was grinning like an idiot, but he didn’t care.

“We’re not blind,” Ivar said. “Well, maybe Rolf...”

“Heard that!” Rolf shouted from a few paces behind Hans.

“...but there’s a reason we split you two up for this little hunt.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, ‘Oh’. Do you now how many times we’ve counted so far?”

“Counting what?”

“Times you’ve disappeared.”

“You and Snorre have been—”

“Three times!” Ivar narrowed his eyes at a particular tree. “That’s just when we’re paying attention. I can’t imagine—well, actually, I can...”

That made Hans frown. “Um, do you think Snorre minds?”

Ivar’s mustache twitched again. “The boss thinks you two are cute together. And efficient.”

“And you?”

“A little fucking never hurt anyone, I guess.” The older man shrugged. “Just be careful about...you know. We’re on Miracle Island, and the last thing you want right now is a little miracle popping out of—”

“Ah yes, Miracle Island, truly a blessed place!” Rolf suddenly appeared to Hans’ left, excitedly waving his hunting knife. Hans wisely shifted closer to Ivar. “The world can be so cruel and uncaring, but here...this is where heroes are born, where good always triumphs evil.”

“Sneaky bastard,” Ivar muttered. How a man like Rolf, filled to the brim with energy and cheer, could move so silently was a mystery only he and He were privy too.

“To be able to down the Dragon Boy and his Night Fury with a single bolt? In the dead of night? It was destiny, I tell you.”

“A single bolt dipped in dragon root,” Ivar countered.

“Truly miraculous.”

“Indeed. You’re the worst shot out of all of us.”

“Indeed, indeed. Say what you want, my ever-envious friend.” He tapped his head with the edge of his knife. “And envy, as Hans would say, is...”

Hans rolled his eyes. “A sin.”

“I concur, and so I say, to Hel with you, Ivar!” He laughed, and even Hans chuckled until he noticed Ivar glaring at him. “And I’ll have both of you know that once we capture this downed beast, I will be forever known as the man who brought down the greatest enemy the Dragon Hunters have ever known.”

Ivar just shook his head and muttered under his breath.

“Tell me, friend, how do you think we’ll find the Dragon Boy?”

Hans didn’t really give a damn, at this point. “Um, dead, hopefully?”

“Now there’s no fun in that. I hope he’ll be injured, but still able to run.”

“I really would prefer if he was just dead.”

“He’d be scurrying off like prey.” Rolf did a goofy little jog in place. “ And I’d like you, Hans, to have the honor of delivering the killing blow.”

“Why me?”

“Because Rolf would miss.”

“Oh do shut up, Ivar.”

“Dammit, Rolf, get back in formation!” Snorre bellowed from just up ahead. “I don’t mind a little chatter, but at least follow my orders! Let’s look good when we meet up with Olav’s squad, eh?”

Rolf jogged back to his position by Sigrid. “Right, right, my apologies, sir.”

A calm silence fell over the five hunters as they marched through the ever-thickening forest. Hans snuck another glance back at Sigrid. Apparently she had the same idea, and she gave him a small smile. it was enough to make his heart flutter.

Still keeping his eyes scanning his sector, he leaned a bit closer to Ivar and whispered, “I think I’m in love.”

Ivar scoffed. “Are any of us normal enough to really know what that word even means?”

That made Hans think. “What do you mean?”

“We’re all damaged goods here. No Dragon Hunter’s fully right in the head, or he wouldn’t have chosen hunting fucking dragons as a job.”

“Yes.”

“You agree, for once?”

“I mean that...Yes, I do know what love is.” Hans turned to Ivar; the man’s mustache twitched like mad, but he was still dutifully watching the trees. “I want to...I am going to marry her, Ivar.”

Ivar whistled. “This been going on for that long?”

“Just three months. But she is...special.

“No one gets married in this line of work,” he said grimly. “At least, not happily. Or permanently. Heart shatters one way or another. So you better get out of this mess while you can.”

“I am not joking,” Hans said quickly, trying not to sound defensive. “I love her. Really. She is special.”

“Yeah, you said that.” Ivar finally turned to look at Hans, looking quite serious. “I mean getting out of dragon hunting, before it gets you killed. You and Sigrid. Just do what you usually do.”

“Disappear?”

“Yes, disappear, and then just don’t come back.”

Hans’ eyes slightly widened. “Really?”

For a moment, he could’ve sworn Ivar smiled. “I don’t know why you want my approval so badly, anyways. Snorre’s the boss, so just...make sure he knows. He won’t like it, but he’ll understand. I think.”

“Thank you,” Hans whispered.

As if on cue, Snorre suddenly barked, “Crossbows, spread five!”

Guided by instinct, Hans and Ivar parted from each other as quickly as the , pulling out their crossbows and scanning the surroundings for movement. Only now did Hans realize just how dense the vegetation had gotten, his vision blocked by a maze of vines and trees that seemed to reach the sky.

Rolf had shot down the Night Fury last night; that was certain. It had been a full moon, and all five of them had clearly seen it and its rider fall. The dragon was at best poisoned and severely injured; the Dragon Boy himself was most likely dead.

Unless...nothing. There was no other way it could have happened. So why did it feel like they were walking straight into a trap?

“Problem, Snorre?” Sigrid asked from somewhere all too far away. Hans resisted the urge to glance back at her, for fear that the mere sight of her would cause him to break formation.

“A hundred yards ahead,” Snorre called out. “Two bodies in front, probably Olav’s men. Anybody else?”

“Clear,” Hans said.

“Clear.”

“Clear.”

“Clear.”

“You think it’s the Night Fury, boss?”

The wind whistled strangely—ominously, almost—in reply.

“I...I don’t know. It’s messy. Ripped their guts out and just...left it all there.”

“But I hit it.” Rolf sounded almost hurt by the possibility that he hadn’t actually downed the Night Fury.

“Maybe Night Furies are immune to dragon root?” Sigrid suggested.

“We all saw it go down. It went down! I’m telling you, it went down...”

“Then...the Dragon Boy?”

“No,” Snorre said. “No, they’re all mangled. A dragon’s work, for sure.”

A pause. The wind began howling. “You think we should check the cave?” Ivar asked.

“It’s our only way in, right?”

It was then that Hans realized that he wasn’t just imagining that the wind had suddenly started shrieking. It wasn’t wind at all. He exchanged a look at Rolf, who seemed to come to the same, dreadful conclusion.

By the time the other man screeched “DOWN!”, Hans was already diving for the dirt. The ground shook just before he landed, and he felt heat wash over him.

In the span of seconds, he was already back on his feet, crossbow at the ready, scanning his surroundings, searching for the Night Fury among the treetops.

“Call out!” Snorre ordered. “One check!”

“Two check!” he shouted. “I’m here!”

“Three check!” Ivar followed. “No wounds. That fucking Night Fury!”

But Rolf said nothing.

Sigrid said nothing.

“That shot came from above,” Ivar warned. “Where did he go? Where did that little shit go?”

“Spread three!” Snorre hissed. “Eyes up! Eyes—Hans, what are you doing?”

Hans sprinted towards Sigrid’s crumpled form, ignoring Snorre’s orders, ignoring Ivar’s shouting, ignoring the fact that all that remained of Rolf was scattered, burnt chunks of flesh.

Sigrid was a grotesque swirl of colors: white, beige, and shimmering gold, all now marred with dark reds and ashen black. But she was crying; she was breathing.

He didn’t dare look back at Snorre, but for a brief moment, he locked eyes with Ivar, who was staring at him with an inscrutable expression. Then the older man’s mouth moved.

Disappear.

Scooping Sigrid into his arms, Hans ran as fast as he could.

Like prey.

Hans had imagined the Dragon Boy to be a bit...thicker. More intimidating.

The fact that the “greatest enemy the Dragon Hunters have ever faced” was leaning unconscious against a cave wall, half a left leg missing, a foot-long crossbow bolt stuck in his chest, made him look almost pathetic. So Rolf had struck the rider, not the dragon. Why the Night Fury fell from the sky because of it, Hans did not know, but that was what must have happened.

What a strange coincidence that Hans would so quickly find himself switch from the position of predator to prey and then predator again so quickly, all in one day. It’d be easy, Hans decided, to end the boy’s life right here. In any other situation, he would, without hesitation. But he had something else to focus on right now, something that completely drained him of his desire to do anything else.

Sigrid whimpered as he put her down by the small fire. Her face was, even now—twisted in pain, streaked with tears, slightly burnt and bloodied—made his heart stir with that familiar feeling of love. He wiped at some blackened hair dipping down near her eyes. It was hard and brittle, and it crumbled at his touch.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Sigrid whined, looking down at herself. “Hurts.”

Hans didn’t dare follow her wild gaze, didn’t dare confirm what he felt. There was so much blood. His hands were drowning in it. She was falling apart, and he didn’t know what to do.

“I know it hurts, little treasure, I know,” he heard himself say. “I will fix you. Just look at me, Sigrid. Look at me, please.”

“I can’t!” she cried. Try as they might, her eyes couldn’t focus on him, or anything else. They darted wildly to and fro, searching desperately for something to save them.

Such a thing, Hans’ mind knew, did not exist. But in what felt like the first time in his life, his heart did not agree. His heart held on to hope. His eyes searched for something to stop the bleeding. But he...he honestly couldn’t remember how. Rolf always dealt with wounds, and now Rolf was dead.

“We leave,” he said, his voice breaking. Liar, liar, liar, his own mutinous mind chanted. “We leave, and then I can fix you, okay?”

“It hurts too much,” she whispered, each breath shorter than the last. “I don’t...die.”

“You will not die, Sigrid. You cannot die.”

“No, I don’t...want...”

“I can fix you. Please, God, can I...I can fix you.”

“Hans...”

“And then I am going to marry you, okay?” he cried. “Okay? Okay, Sigrid?”

He was praying, silently, praying to He who died for all mankind’s sins for a miracle. Just one miracle, on Miracle fucking Island, of all places. Was that too much to ask?

Sigrid opened her mouth, but instead of words, she replied with only a soft gurgle, a bit of blood. Was that a yes or a no?

“I love you, Sigrid,” he said between sobs. “Don’t go away.”

Her blue eyes stopped searching, her body slacked. Her answer died on her lips, and then swiftly whisked away by a long, final sigh.

“Please, God,” he pleaded. “Oh please, Sigrid, don’t go away.”

Something growled.

In his grief, Hans had failed to notice the Night Fury that had slipped by him and positioned itself between him and its rider, the pupils at the center of its green eyes narrow and vengeful. A pair of distinctly human dangled from its mouth, threads caught along two rows of bloodied daggers. It dropped Snorre and Rolf’s heads and gently kicked them into the dim light, confirming what Hans’ guilty heart already suspected: Snorre and Ivar were dead.

Surrender, it seemed to hiss. You are alone.

He shook Sigrid gently. “Wake up,” he whispered.

She couldn’t. He couldn’t either, still staring between her and the heads. The nightmare continued.

The Night Fury shook its head in pity and made a deep, rumbling noise. You. Are. Alone.

Only then did his heart let go of hope. It did so with great reluctance, but it could not deny reality anymore. The dragon was right; he was alone. The body in his arms was still warm, but the wonderful, singular life that once inhabited it had moved on. And so his heart fell.

And fell.

And fell.

And shattered.

Hans screamed in a way that matched how he had loved Sigrid, still loved Sigrid: with an intensity and ferocity he had never felt before. It was as much fueled by love as it was by hatred, for the two, in this case, were one and the same. He hated everything: earth and sky and sea, birth and life and death, past and present and future. He hated the parents he never knew, his uncle and all the other people who had wronged him in life, the people who had helped him in life, the people who never knew him, the people he never would know. He hated Him, in particular, the Savior who was supposedly all-powerful and all-good yet had let his friends die so cruelly and pointlessly. He hated his friends, and himself, and even Sigrid, because if love and hope couldn’t bring her back, perhaps hate could.

And above all, he hated the Night Fury.

He didn’t recall grabbing his long axe and charging towards the dragon, but he suddenly found himself, still screaming, within arm’s reach of exacting his vengeance, staring into demonic eyes and devilish teeth, close enough to smell its vile breath and feel his bones tremble as it roared.

“Catch!” a distinctly female voice shouted from behind him.

He spun around, just in time to catch a glimpse of something deadly flying towards him. It sank deep into his right shoulder, and searing pain stripped him of what remained of his reason and senses, pulling him to the ground.

The Night Fury’s head loomed over Hans; its pupils were no longer slits, but wide black bulbs, both taunting and pitying him. He raged against it; in his mind, he was already up off the ground, long axe carving cleanly through the neck of Sigrid’s killer. But his body couldn’t obey, and the realization of this fact only made him scream harder.

He wanted to kill the Night Fury. He wanted to kill this Dragon Boy. He wanted to honor Sigrid’s name with their screams, killing them as she probably could have done: slowly, painfully. But he had only just begun to lift his head up when a heavy boot stomped it back down, crushing his screams down into muffled whimpers.

She was a Viking girl, probably even younger than him. Her skin was pale like the moon, with cheeks touched by pink. Her hair was tied in a golden plait that shimmered like the Sun. Her eyes were blue, like ice, or the sea, or the sky on a clear summer day...

“Sigrid,” he tried to say.

“Hiccup?” she replied, though she wasn’t looking at him.

She put more of her weight on to his face as she ripped her axe out of his shoulder, sending another lightning bolt of pain ripping through his entire body, leaving him howling. He felt how quickly the blood from the open wound was spilling out of him, soaking his arm and the earth below.

It was over.

The world around him grew more distant, yet also clearer and brighter, with each passing moment, and he now knew for certain that that girl was Sigrid. He let his head roll to the left and watched Sigrid kneel beside a wounded boy that looked oddly familiar. What was his name?

“Hiccup,” Sigrid said, shaking the boy’s shoulder. “Hiccup, wake up.”

The Night Fury slowly approached the boy, whining like a worried pup.

A “huh” escaped from the lips of someone nearby. His own, perhaps, trying to pronounce that boy’s name. Yet, that couldn’t possibly be his own voice. Hans didn’t know why just yet, but it wouldn’t make any sense.

With a groan, the boy’s eyes slowly fluttered open. The boy had green eyes, Hans noted, much like...

Himself. There he was.

Sigrid crushed Hans with a loving embrace, much to his confusion. “As-Astrid?”

“Hi, babe,” she said softly, her voice cracking just a bit.

Hans was grinning like an idiot. “Hey, As,” he croaked. “Hey, As. Hey. You’re here. Hi.”

“Of course, silly.” Sigrid pulled out a strand of parchment from her pack. “Toothless, lick this.”

The Night Fury did so.

“This arrow could’ve hit your heart, you know?” She began placing the parchment over the arrow wound. “If you tried to take it out yourself...Thank the gods you didn’t.”

Hans shook his head. “Good guys don’t die”

Sigrid tilted her head “Oh, and you’re a good guy?”

“Definitely...I think.” He giggled. “You’re...you’re so much beautiful, lady. My lady.”

Sigrid touched his forehead with the back of her fingers. “Damn it,” she said, sighing. “Let’s get this home quickly, Toothless.”

“Mmm, nah.”

“What’s wrong, babe? The arrow?”

Hans smiled weakly. “Mmm, tired. And the arrow, yeah.”

“Babe, I promise you, if we try pulling the arrow out here, it’ll hurt. A lot. So let’s get back to—”

“And...you’re pretty. Toooo pretty.” He puckered his lips and started kissing the air.

“Yeah, all right. Let’s go.” Sigrid strapped her bloodied axe to her back and gently picked Hans up off the ground. The Night Fury nudged at Hans’ dangling legs, whimpering.

“It’s fine, Toothless,” she said. “I’ve got him. I guess I’ll be riding you back, and Stormfly can carry—Wait, Stormfly? Stormfly? Where’d my girl run off to...”

“Marry me?” Hans suddenly asked.

The Night Fury made a noise of confusion. Sigrid froze. “What?”

“Like not today.” Hans’ arms flopped around lazily. “But later, you know. Tonight...no, tomorrow. Let’s...not rush.”

That made her giggle. “Sure, Hiccup,” she said.”

“Yeees?” Hans slurred.

“If you actually remember any of this? Yes.”

Hans could only stare as Sigrid and the Night Fury carried him away, out of this dreary cave and into the warm, blinding light that was quickly consuming everything. Into the next life. Hell, probably. Such a fate would’ve been enough to make even Rolf frown.

But she said “Yes”, and that made Hans smile.

Second A/N: Yes, I planned to pair and then kill Hans and Sigurd from the very beginning. I don’t expect tears, but I hope this story hurt at least a little bit. The part I was stuck on was just exactly how to best fit all the moments I wanted to have into a (kinda?) cohesive timeline.

In hindsight, I should’ve divided this better as a three-part thing, with a middle story as part of the “Hunters” prompt. But whatever.

[zenmountainssundaypost]

“Hey Baby, you sure smell gooood. “

The Does have the bucks worked up again. The Rut has started on Zen Mountain .

The Buck stops here

This time of year, when I am not brooding about winter, is one of my favorites. We get to see a lot of bucks as the rut starts up.

Most of the year they big boys stay in their little hidy holes . We have Blacktail deer up here. Bucks tend to own small deep dark areas in the thickest of woody glens. You can , and I have walked right by big bucks without them moving…Then they leap up , I have a friggin heart attack followed by me gingerly making my way home to change my shorts.

During archery season , finding a buck up here is usually a chore. We are on the edge between woods and prairie . Beings the boys like the deep dark and we have open expanses , we don’t see them.

Come the rut however ; the boys are dumb and lookin’ for love.

Get off me !

More often than not, the girls are not as interested as the boys are… Hmmm..

Generally , the girls want absolutely nothing to do with the bucks going as far as running up to Ma and myself where the boys simply wont go.

“Crap! Buck blocked again !”

Before the big winter storm that lasted weeks on end up here dropping inches of snow per hour, day and night for all those weeks , we had a LARGE band of deer . Does were constantly in the yard and getting into trouble . With dozens of does during rut you get a LOT of bucks come through.

Since the storm other than our doe that hangs out here at the homestead, we do not see very many meaning less bucks and of course that means less fawns which again leads to less deer….

The numbers are slowly coming back slow but sure. The winter is suppose to be mild so we shall see once they all herd up for the season.

We still get to see quite a few bucks as they wander through looking for our girls and they running from the boys.

Nice rack!

We have had several come by throughout the years . Usually the Big Boys still manage to only come through when it is predawn…or right after I put the camera inside.

In Theory; I have a video of some decent sized bucks from yesterday though I haven’t had a chance to see how it turned out. They were a couple hundred yards out.. If there is anything it’ll probably end up as one of the “seasonal” music vids.

These boys aren’t the biggest nor are they the smallest but when they come in , it is always great to see them. They made it through hunting seasons…sometimes Ma and I grit our teeth when we see a nice sized body buck that would have looked nice in the freezer as venison is a nice portion of our meat group. We don’t just go for racks, it’s all about the meat.. smaller antlers and bigger body is far more important to us.

Hunting season over , they are all about looking at them and enjoying watching the antics between the boys and gals.

Busted

We are generally slow moving up here as a rule . We normally are fairly quiet .We still get busted by the deer ALL the time.

In my case, my field of view is crap now to begin with but I also tend to be thinking about a project or problem when I take that step out onto the deck only to feel someone staring at my back. Turning around it is usually a doe some ten feet away that I hadn’t noticed…dumbass …

The girls normally just stare at me. Sometimes they start simply due to me moving quickly to look at something..something important…. like a deer bush , or possibly a bear rock….*eye roll* only to have an actual animal right behind me.. Because I am soooo in tune with my surroundings.

I have had a few bucks this season watching me before I see them..Pretty sure one of them stuck his tongue out at me before he turned around to walk off.

Yesterday I was harvesting tomatoes and peppers..Yup they are still going in November this year…When Ma says;

” Don’t move. Turn around he is right behind you.”

Ok..so in my mind , my sarcasm is weighing comments verses doing what Ma says:

” Hmmmm point out that I can Not ‘not move’ while turning around and who exactly is right behind me which covers a lot of land to not move and turn around to…meh… I’ll just follow instructions ish..”

Sure enough another nice buck was staring at me harvesting…

I watched him..

He watched me..He looked at the hand full of tomatoes then back to me , then tomatoes.

I turned back to finish harvesting.. There was no way I could get out of the garden , around the deck , up the stairs , into the house, back out with the camera all without moving..Soooooo.. As I couldn’t see him all that well anyway..Figured if he was hungry , he could come help. Seems turning my back to him upset him and to took off…

He came back later.. Garden gate closed

“HA!”

Final thoughts

Today’s post is another short one with me trying to get some work around here done and back in the “studio” again

Back in the Saddle

Yesterday I put up the ” Public ” version of

“The Awakening “ a year in the folder waiting for me to get back in “Studio” mode.

A year ago October , I watched the sun rising and sat in the studio watching what was at the time a couple pics and came up with this…. This last a couple days I added a bass track and some mixing….Yup… all that time for a couple day’s work…

I am presently looking at “Donnybrook ” the Lightning storm music vid which has been on the shelf even longer. I pulled several tracks that I wasn’t too happy with so I will have to rework them. Then I get to sit down with the storm and try to sync the two together …So.. Probably not today….or this week….

As I say , I have the new Buck vid , no idea if anything will come from it. Lost my Elk video SOMEWHERE.. I have been looking for a good week . Also lost a really cool full moon rise, and a couple cool snow vids. So…. I’ll just be watching for more fun stuff out there . That is  the nice thing about using daily stuff up here for inspiration : errr… It can happen any day. Just not Every day.

Sit and Spin

Ma has been working with her travelling “ Pocket Wheel” Yesterday , we decided to more or less relax and she with her wheel and I with the studio…..

Hummie sat outside the front room window bobbing his head from side to side like watching a tennis match while both Ma and I were “What the Hell!”ing and Seriously?!?! Come On!”ing until he got bored and flew off.

The thing about Ma’s small wheel is that it can be adjusted down so fine..Which means , of course, there are a billion fine adjustments all of which make Ma swear like…well like me.

Trying to get the wheel set when there is no real info out there other than ” It’s so easy..”

What in the Hell kind of instruction is that ? Fixing a toilet is easy too but I have seen Many numbnuts bugger the hell out of that from flooding restrooms to cracking bowls . Telling them “It’s easy.” Isn’t going to keep you from heading to the store to buy a new toilet to replace the shattered one or from having to run grab the wet vac..

For the Instructionally challenged ; Instructions are like a “How To ” or ” DIY ” page or video ..Instructions are not adjectives…friggin duh.

Anyway.. so that is something I am trying to help Ma with by looking in other directions.

And of course , Ma isn’t just trying to set up a new style of wheel , learn to spin with it which is completely different from her Castle Wheel but she is also running a different style of spinning as well as Plying ….Yes.. I know “Blah Blah..Yakity Smakity ” I’ll get into all of that in another post ; one for Ma and her spinning/ knitting..

*shrug* I think it is interesting . Ma makes some great shawls , caps , hats , gloves, sweaters ; of many styles and uses, very nice warm socks , once again many styles…and on and on with out a single snot rag cozy in the house .

Weather forecast

The Sun will come up at some point , dropping once again until a moon possibly takes its place.

We are having mostly wet weather with some wind in between. Temps are dropping.. All those things that mean Fall. The day warms.. the wind blows..The wind blows.. the next storm comes in…then the wind blows…

It looks like we are suppose to get down to freezing at night for the next few eves coming up Tuesday which , of course will finally wipe out the harvest….with a large pot of Salsa Verde Zen Mountain style following shortly there after….Hopefully we will still have jars as there are several other canning projects ahead of that and it does NOT freeze well at all.

Zen Vee shall See

Waking up early is almost a chore for my eyes now days as I watch the sun rise in part for them to adjust slowly to light keeping the headache to this side of blinding rage.

Still , sitting out in the mornings even in the dark is interesting.

Walking through the front room , the house is as dark as it was when I went to bed. Looking out the front windows I can see the lights of Gotham far below.

Not wanting to wake Ma just yet , I stumble about in the kitchen for a cup of coffee, pouring black coffee from a black coffee maker into a black cup in the dark..marginally tougher than in the light with my crappy vision . Deciding by weight that the coffee is actually in the cup and not o the counter , I quietly open the doors to go out to the porch.

Far too early for worrying about a camera , I sit down to watch the far Eastern skies , looking for a glimmer.

Slowly a wink of orange flares in and out . The colors blackening as clouds far beyond the far ridge swallow the first signs of dawn.

I see movement through the few bushes that are between myself and Gotham. Hints of silhouettes of something walking through the last vestiges of a night wearing down. Picking up Ma’s Binocs , I look around to see a pair of does coming in as they normally do in the early morns . A large buck following behind them snuffling at the scent they leave.

The buck’s neck , swollen with the rut  doesn’t notice me watching the three of them as the girls make their way into the yard. Too dark to count antlers even with the binoculars , I put them down to pick up my coffee .

The buck stands off to the side of the does while they lick at the mineral block. The girls know I am sitting there, they had watched me as they came in with a pleading glance at the buck and back to me. I shrug my shoulders . They sigh as one and attempt to ignore Horny Boy while they hang out .

The girls edge away from their courter while he edges ever closer whispering sweet little ;

“Berrrrrrrrppppp”s at them . Seemingly a Don Juan De Redneck ..pretty sure belching in a girl’s ear has never worked in swaying any gal to give up her virtues ..but then , What do I know?

It was about that time that I moved at the wrong moment and he saw me.. Being the proverbial “Deer in the Headlights” he stood there “He can’t see me if I don’t move right ? “ …um no.. that would be Myth….

“Crap….” He slowly backed away from the girls as they waved and giggled then all but dropped to the ground , unclenching .

“Thanks Da…. “

I watched the buck easing back into the brush , looking through branches at me.

” Still see you Bud..”

“Crap..”

The colors of a coming dawn began to once again seep between layers of low clouds; reds golds and orange traced with browns. The clouds black and heavy as the next wave of rain began to fall.

It is beginning to look like

Just another day on Zen Mountain

  Getting into a ” Rut” It’s that time of year "Hey Baby, you sure smell gooood. " The Does have the bucks worked up again. The Rut has started on Zen Mountain .

[lawrenceseitz22]

How Local SEO Fits In With What You’re Already Doing

Posted by MiriamEllis

You own, work for, or market a business, but you don’t think of yourself as a Local SEO.

That’s okay. The forces of history have, in fact, conspired in some weird ways to make local search seem like an island unto itself. Out there, beyond the horizon, there may be technicians puzzling out NAP, citations, owner responses, duplicate listings, store locator widgets and the like, but it doesn’t seem like they’re talking about your job at all.

And that’s the problem.

If I could offer you a seat in my kayak, I’d paddle us over to that misty isle, and we’d go ashore. After we’d walked around a bit, talking to the locals, it would hit you that the language barrier you’d once perceived is a mere illusion, as is the distance between you.

By sunset — whoa! Look around again. This is no island. You and the Local SEOs are all mainlanders, reaching towards identical goals of customer acquisition, service, and retention via an exceedingly enriched and enriching skill set. You can use it all.

Before I paddle off into the darkness, under the rising stars, I’d like to leave you a chart that plots out how Local SEO fits in with everything you’ve been doing all along.

The roots of the divide

Why is Local SEO often treated as separate from the rest of marketing? We can narrow this down to three contributing factors:

1) Early separation of the local and organic algos

Google’s early-days local product was governed by an algorithm that was much more distinct from their organic algorithm than it is today. It was once extremely common, for example, for businesses without websites to rank well locally. This didn’t do much to form clear bridges between the offline, organic, and local marketing worlds. But, then came Google’s Pigeon Update in 2013, which signaled Google’s stated intention of deeply tying the two algorithms together.

This should ultimately impact the way industry publications, SaaS companies, and agencies present local as an extension of organic SEO, but we’re not quite there yet. I continue to encounter examples of large companies which are doing an amazing job with their website strategies, their e-commerce solutions and their paid outreach, but which are only now taking their first steps into local listings management for their hundreds of physical locations. It’s not that they’re late to the party — it’s just that they’ve only recently begun to realize what a large party their customers are having with their brands’ location data layers on the web.

2) Inheriting the paid vs. organic dichotomy

Local SEO has experienced the same lack-of-adoption/awareness as organic SEO. Agencies have long fought the uphill battle against a lopsided dependence on paid advertising. This phenomenon is highlighted by historic stats like these showing brands investing some $10 million in PPC vs. $1 million in SEO, despite studies like this one which show PPC earning less than 10% of clicks in search.

My take on this is that the transition from traditional offline paid advertising to its online analog was initially easier for many brands to get their heads around. And there have been ongoing challenges in proving direct ROI from SEO in the simple terms a PPC campaign can provide. To this day, we’re still all seeing statistics like only 17% of small businesses investing in SEO. In many ways, the SEO conundrum has simply been inherited by every Local SEO.

3) A lot to take in and on

Look at the service menu of any full-service digital marketing agency and you’ll see just how far it’s had to stretch over the past couple of decades to encompass an ever-expanding range of publicity opportunities:

Technical website audits

On-site optimization

Linkbuilding

Keyword research

Content dev and promotion

Brand building

Social media marketing

PPC management

UX audits

Conversion optimization

Etc.

Is it any wonder that agencies feel spread a bit too thin when considering how to support yet further needs and disciplines? How do you find the bandwidth, and the experts, to be able to offer:

Ongoing citation management

Local on-site SEO

Local landing page dev

Store locator SEO

Review management

Local brand building

Local link building

And abstruse forms of local Schema implementation...

And while many agencies have met the challenge by forming smart, strategic partnerships with providers specializing in Local SEO solutions, the agency is still then tasked with understanding how Local fits in with everything else they’re doing, and then explaining this to clients. At the multi-location and enterprise level, even amongst the best-known brands, high-level staffers may have no idea what it is the folks in the in-house Local SEO department are actually doing, or why their work matters.

To tie it all together … that’s what we need to do here. With a shared vision of how all practitioners are working on consumer-centric outreach, we can really get somewhere. Let’s plot this out, together:

Sharing is caring

“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” - Jeff Bezos, Amazon

Let’s imagine a sporting goods brand, established in 1979, that’s grown to 400 locations across the US while also becoming well-known for its e-commerce presence. Whether aspects of marketing are being outsourced or it’s all in-house, here is how 3 shared consumer-centric goals unify all parties.

As we can see from the above chart, there is definitely an overlap of techniques, particularly between SEOs and Local SEOs. Yet overall, it’s not the language or tactics, but the end game and end goals that unify all parties. Viewed properly, consumers are what make all marketing a true team effort.

Before I buy that kayak…

On my commute, I hear a radio ad promoting a holiday sale at some sporting goods store, but which brand was it?

Then I turn to the Internet to research kayak brands, and I find your website’s nicely researched, written, and optimized article comparing the best models in 2017. It’s ranking #2 organically. Those Sun Dolphins look pretty good, according to your massive comparison chart.

I think about it for a couple of days and go looking again, and I see your Adwords spot advertising your 30% off sale. This is the third time I’ve encountered your brand.

On my day off, I’m doing a local search for your brand, which has impressed me so far. I’m ready to look at these kayaks in person. Thanks to the fact that you properly managed your recent move across town by updating all of your major citations, I’m finding an accurate address on your Google My Business listing. Your reviews are mighty favorable, too. They keep mentioning how knowledgeable the staff is at your location nearest me.

And that turns out to be true. At first, I’m disappointed that I don’t see any Sun Dolphins on your shelves — your website comparison chart spoke well of them. As a sales associate approaches me, I notice in-store signage above his head, featuring a text/phone hotline for complaints. I don’t really have a complaint… not yet… but it’s good to know you care.

“I’m so sorry. We just sold out of Sun Dolphins this morning. But we can have one delivered to you within 3 days. We have in-store pickup, too,” the salesperson says. “Or, maybe you’d be interested in another model with comparable features. Let me show you.”

Turns out, your staffer isn’t just helpful — his training has made him so well-versed in your product line that he’s able to match my needs to a perfect kayak for me. I end up buying an Intex on the spot.

The cashier double-checks with me that I’ve found everything satisfactory and lets me know your brand takes feedback very seriously. She says my review would be valued, and my receipt invites me to read your reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook… and offers a special deal for signing up for your email newsletter.

My subsequent 5-star review signals to all departments of your company that a company-wide goal was met. Over the next year, my glowing review also influences 20 of my local neighbors to choose you over a competitor.

After my first wet, cold, and exciting kayaking trip, I realize I need to invest in a better waterproof jacket for next time. Your email newsletter hits my inbox at just the right time, announcing your Fourth of July sale. I’m about to become a repeat customer… worth up to 10x the value of my first purchase.

“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” - Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn

There’s a kind of magic in this adventurous mix of marketing wins. Subtract anything from the picture, and you may miss out on the customer. It’s been said that great teams beat with a single heart. The secret lies in seeing every marketing discipline and practitioner as part of your team, doing what your brand has been doing all along: working with dedication to acquire, serve and retain consumers. Whether achievement comes via citation management, conversion optimization, or a write-up in the New York Times, the end goal is identical.

It’s also long been said that the race is to the swift. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch appears to agree, stating that, in today’s world, it’s not big that beats small — it’s fast that beats slow. How quickly your brand is able to integrate all forms of on-and-offline marketing into its core strategy, leaving no team as an island, may well be what writes your future.

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!

from Blogger http://ift.tt/2kkgp69 via IFTTT

[swunlimitednj]

How Local SEO Fits In With What You’re Already Doing

Posted by MiriamEllis

You own, work for, or market a business, but you don’t think of yourself as a Local SEO.

That’s okay. The forces of history have, in fact, conspired in some weird ways to make local search seem like an island unto itself. Out there, beyond the horizon, there may be technicians puzzling out NAP, citations, owner responses, duplicate listings, store locator widgets and the like, but it doesn’t seem like they’re talking about your job at all.

And that’s the problem.

If I could offer you a seat in my kayak, I’d paddle us over to that misty isle, and we’d go ashore. After we’d walked around a bit, talking to the locals, it would hit you that the language barrier you’d once perceived is a mere illusion, as is the distance between you.

By sunset — whoa! Look around again. This is no island. You and the Local SEOs are all mainlanders, reaching towards identical goals of customer acquisition, service, and retention via an exceedingly enriched and enriching skill set. You can use it all.

Before I paddle off into the darkness, under the rising stars, I’d like to leave you a chart that plots out how Local SEO fits in with everything you’ve been doing all along.

The roots of the divide

Why is Local SEO often treated as separate from the rest of marketing? We can narrow this down to three contributing factors:

1) Early separation of the local and organic algos

Google’s early-days local product was governed by an algorithm that was much more distinct from their organic algorithm than it is today. It was once extremely common, for example, for businesses without websites to rank well locally. This didn’t do much to form clear bridges between the offline, organic, and local marketing worlds. But, then came Google’s Pigeon Update in 2013, which signaled Google’s stated intention of deeply tying the two algorithms together.

This should ultimately impact the way industry publications, SaaS companies, and agencies present local as an extension of organic SEO, but we’re not quite there yet. I continue to encounter examples of large companies which are doing an amazing job with their website strategies, their e-commerce solutions and their paid outreach, but which are only now taking their first steps into local listings management for their hundreds of physical locations. It’s not that they’re late to the party — it’s just that they’ve only recently begun to realize what a large party their customers are having with their brands’ location data layers on the web.

2) Inheriting the paid vs. organic dichotomy

Local SEO has experienced the same lack-of-adoption/awareness as organic SEO. Agencies have long fought the uphill battle against a lopsided dependence on paid advertising. This phenomenon is highlighted by historic stats like these showing brands investing some $10 million in PPC vs. $1 million in SEO, despite studies like this one which show PPC earning less than 10% of clicks in search.

My take on this is that the transition from traditional offline paid advertising to its online analog was initially easier for many brands to get their heads around. And there have been ongoing challenges in proving direct ROI from SEO in the simple terms a PPC campaign can provide. To this day, we’re still all seeing statistics like only 17% of small businesses investing in SEO. In many ways, the SEO conundrum has simply been inherited by every Local SEO.

3) A lot to take in and on

Look at the service menu of any full-service digital marketing agency and you’ll see just how far it’s had to stretch over the past couple of decades to encompass an ever-expanding range of publicity opportunities:

Technical website audits

On-site optimization

Linkbuilding

Keyword research

Content dev and promotion

Brand building

Social media marketing

PPC management

UX audits

Conversion optimization

Etc.

Is it any wonder that agencies feel spread a bit too thin when considering how to support yet further needs and disciplines? How do you find the bandwidth, and the experts, to be able to offer:

Ongoing citation management

Local on-site SEO

Local landing page dev

Store locator SEO

Review management

Local brand building

Local link building

And abstruse forms of local Schema implementation...

And while many agencies have met the challenge by forming smart, strategic partnerships with providers specializing in Local SEO solutions, the agency is still then tasked with understanding how Local fits in with everything else they’re doing, and then explaining this to clients. At the multi-location and enterprise level, even amongst the best-known brands, high-level staffers may have no idea what it is the folks in the in-house Local SEO department are actually doing, or why their work matters.

To tie it all together … that’s what we need to do here. With a shared vision of how all practitioners are working on consumer-centric outreach, we can really get somewhere. Let’s plot this out, together:

Sharing is caring

“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” - Jeff Bezos, Amazon

Let’s imagine a sporting goods brand, established in 1979, that’s grown to 400 locations across the US while also becoming well-known for its e-commerce presence. Whether aspects of marketing are being outsourced or it’s all in-house, here is how 3 shared consumer-centric goals unify all parties.

As we can see from the above chart, there is definitely an overlap of techniques, particularly between SEOs and Local SEOs. Yet overall, it’s not the language or tactics, but the end game and end goals that unify all parties. Viewed properly, consumers are what make all marketing a true team effort.

Before I buy that kayak…

On my commute, I hear a radio ad promoting a holiday sale at some sporting goods store, but which brand was it?

Then I turn to the Internet to research kayak brands, and I find your website’s nicely researched, written, and optimized article comparing the best models in 2017. It’s ranking #2 organically. Those Sun Dolphins look pretty good, according to your massive comparison chart.

I think about it for a couple of days and go looking again, and I see your Adwords spot advertising your 30% off sale. This is the third time I’ve encountered your brand.

On my day off, I’m doing a local search for your brand, which has impressed me so far. I’m ready to look at these kayaks in person. Thanks to the fact that you properly managed your recent move across town by updating all of your major citations, I’m finding an accurate address on your Google My Business listing. Your reviews are mighty favorable, too. They keep mentioning how knowledgeable the staff is at your location nearest me.

And that turns out to be true. At first, I’m disappointed that I don’t see any Sun Dolphins on your shelves — your website comparison chart spoke well of them. As a sales associate approaches me, I notice in-store signage above his head, featuring a text/phone hotline for complaints. I don’t really have a complaint… not yet… but it’s good to know you care.

“I’m so sorry. We just sold out of Sun Dolphins this morning. But we can have one delivered to you within 3 days. We have in-store pickup, too,” the salesperson says. “Or, maybe you’d be interested in another model with comparable features. Let me show you.”

Turns out, your staffer isn’t just helpful — his training has made him so well-versed in your product line that he’s able to match my needs to a perfect kayak for me. I end up buying an Intex on the spot.

The cashier double-checks with me that I’ve found everything satisfactory and lets me know your brand takes feedback very seriously. She says my review would be valued, and my receipt invites me to read your reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook… and offers a special deal for signing up for your email newsletter.

My subsequent 5-star review signals to all departments of your company that a company-wide goal was met. Over the next year, my glowing review also influences 20 of my local neighbors to choose you over a competitor.

After my first wet, cold, and exciting kayaking trip, I realize I need to invest in a better waterproof jacket for next time. Your email newsletter hits my inbox at just the right time, announcing your Fourth of July sale. I’m about to become a repeat customer… worth up to 10x the value of my first purchase.

“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” - Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn

There’s a kind of magic in this adventurous mix of marketing wins. Subtract anything from the picture, and you may miss out on the customer. It’s been said that great teams beat with a single heart. The secret lies in seeing every marketing discipline and practitioner as part of your team, doing what your brand has been doing all along: working with dedication to acquire, serve and retain consumers. Whether achievement comes via citation management, conversion optimization, or a write-up in the New York Times, the end goal is identical.

It’s also long been said that the race is to the swift. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch appears to agree, stating that, in today’s world, it’s not big that beats small — it’s fast that beats slow. How quickly your brand is able to integrate all forms of on-and-offline marketing into its core strategy, leaving no team as an island, may well be what writes your future.

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!

from Blogger http://ift.tt/2Apphxr via SW Unlimited

[mikomischief]

tag dump #5

[rodneyevesuarywk]

How Local SEO Fits In With What You’re Already Doing

Posted by MiriamEllis

You own, work for, or market a business, but you don’t think of yourself as a Local SEO.

That’s okay. The forces of history have, in fact, conspired in some weird ways to make local search seem like an island unto itself. Out there, beyond the horizon, there may be technicians puzzling out NAP, citations, owner responses, duplicate listings, store locator widgets and the like, but it doesn’t seem like they’re talking about your job at all.

And that’s the problem.

If I could offer you a seat in my kayak, I’d paddle us over to that misty isle, and we’d go ashore. After we’d walked around a bit, talking to the locals, it would hit you that the language barrier you’d once perceived is a mere illusion, as is the distance between you.

By sunset — whoa! Look around again. This is no island. You and the Local SEOs are all mainlanders, reaching towards identical goals of customer acquisition, service, and retention via an exceedingly enriched and enriching skill set. You can use it all.

Before I paddle off into the darkness, under the rising stars, I’d like to leave you a chart that plots out how Local SEO fits in with everything you’ve been doing all along.

The roots of the divide

Why is Local SEO often treated as separate from the rest of marketing? We can narrow this down to three contributing factors:

1) Early separation of the local and organic algos

Google’s early-days local product was governed by an algorithm that was much more distinct from their organic algorithm than it is today. It was once extremely common, for example, for businesses without websites to rank well locally. This didn’t do much to form clear bridges between the offline, organic, and local marketing worlds. But, then came Google’s Pigeon Update in 2013, which signaled Google’s stated intention of deeply tying the two algorithms together.

This should ultimately impact the way industry publications, SaaS companies, and agencies present local as an extension of organic SEO, but we’re not quite there yet. I continue to encounter examples of large companies which are doing an amazing job with their website strategies, their e-commerce solutions and their paid outreach, but which are only now taking their first steps into local listings management for their hundreds of physical locations. It’s not that they’re late to the party — it’s just that they’ve only recently begun to realize what a large party their customers are having with their brands’ location data layers on the web.

2) Inheriting the paid vs. organic dichotomy

Local SEO has experienced the same lack-of-adoption/awareness as organic SEO. Agencies have long fought the uphill battle against a lopsided dependence on paid advertising. This phenomenon is highlighted by historic stats like these showing brands investing some $10 million in PPC vs. $1 million in SEO, despite studies like this one which show PPC earning less than 10% of clicks in search.

My take on this is that the transition from traditional offline paid advertising to its online analog was initially easier for many brands to get their heads around. And there have been ongoing challenges in proving direct ROI from SEO in the simple terms a PPC campaign can provide. To this day, we’re still all seeing statistics like only 17% of small businesses investing in SEO. In many ways, the SEO conundrum has simply been inherited by every Local SEO.

3) A lot to take in and on

Look at the service menu of any full-service digital marketing agency and you’ll see just how far it’s had to stretch over the past couple of decades to encompass an ever-expanding range of publicity opportunities:

Technical website audits

On-site optimization

Linkbuilding

Keyword research

Content dev and promotion

Brand building

Social media marketing

PPC management

UX audits

Conversion optimization

Etc.

Is it any wonder that agencies feel spread a bit too thin when considering how to support yet further needs and disciplines? How do you find the bandwidth, and the experts, to be able to offer:

Ongoing citation management

Local on-site SEO

Local landing page dev

Store locator SEO

Review management

Local brand building

Local link building

And abstruse forms of local Schema implementation...

And while many agencies have met the challenge by forming smart, strategic partnerships with providers specializing in Local SEO solutions, the agency is still then tasked with understanding how Local fits in with everything else they’re doing, and then explaining this to clients. At the multi-location and enterprise level, even amongst the best-known brands, high-level staffers may have no idea what it is the folks in the in-house Local SEO department are actually doing, or why their work matters.

To tie it all together … that’s what we need to do here. With a shared vision of how all practitioners are working on consumer-centric outreach, we can really get somewhere. Let’s plot this out, together:

Sharing is caring

“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” - Jeff Bezos, Amazon

Let’s imagine a sporting goods brand, established in 1979, that’s grown to 400 locations across the US while also becoming well-known for its e-commerce presence. Whether aspects of marketing are being outsourced or it’s all in-house, here is how 3 shared consumer-centric goals unify all parties.

As we can see from the above chart, there is definitely an overlap of techniques, particularly between SEOs and Local SEOs. Yet overall, it’s not the language or tactics, but the end game and end goals that unify all parties. Viewed properly, consumers are what make all marketing a true team effort.

Before I buy that kayak…

On my commute, I hear a radio ad promoting a holiday sale at some sporting goods store, but which brand was it?

Then I turn to the Internet to research kayak brands, and I find your website’s nicely researched, written, and optimized article comparing the best models in 2017. It’s ranking #2 organically. Those Sun Dolphins look pretty good, according to your massive comparison chart.

I think about it for a couple of days and go looking again, and I see your Adwords spot advertising your 30% off sale. This is the third time I’ve encountered your brand.

On my day off, I’m doing a local search for your brand, which has impressed me so far. I’m ready to look at these kayaks in person. Thanks to the fact that you properly managed your recent move across town by updating all of your major citations, I’m finding an accurate address on your Google My Business listing. Your reviews are mighty favorable, too. They keep mentioning how knowledgeable the staff is at your location nearest me.

And that turns out to be true. At first, I’m disappointed that I don’t see any Sun Dolphins on your shelves — your website comparison chart spoke well of them. As a sales associate approaches me, I notice in-store signage above his head, featuring a text/phone hotline for complaints. I don’t really have a complaint… not yet… but it’s good to know you care.

“I’m so sorry. We just sold out of Sun Dolphins this morning. But we can have one delivered to you within 3 days. We have in-store pickup, too,” the salesperson says. “Or, maybe you’d be interested in another model with comparable features. Let me show you.”

Turns out, your staffer isn’t just helpful — his training has made him so well-versed in your product line that he’s able to match my needs to a perfect kayak for me. I end up buying an Intex on the spot.

The cashier double-checks with me that I’ve found everything satisfactory and lets me know your brand takes feedback very seriously. She says my review would be valued, and my receipt invites me to read your reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook… and offers a special deal for signing up for your email newsletter.

My subsequent 5-star review signals to all departments of your company that a company-wide goal was met. Over the next year, my glowing review also influences 20 of my local neighbors to choose you over a competitor.

After my first wet, cold, and exciting kayaking trip, I realize I need to invest in a better waterproof jacket for next time. Your email newsletter hits my inbox at just the right time, announcing your Fourth of July sale. I’m about to become a repeat customer… worth up to 10x the value of my first purchase.

“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” - Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn

There’s a kind of magic in this adventurous mix of marketing wins. Subtract anything from the picture, and you may miss out on the customer. It’s been said that great teams beat with a single heart. The secret lies in seeing every marketing discipline and practitioner as part of your team, doing what your brand has been doing all along: working with dedication to acquire, serve and retain consumers. Whether achievement comes via citation management, conversion optimization, or a write-up in the New York Times, the end goal is identical.

It’s also long been said that the race is to the swift. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch appears to agree, stating that, in today’s world, it’s not big that beats small — it’s fast that beats slow. How quickly your brand is able to integrate all forms of on-and-offline marketing into its core strategy, leaving no team as an island, may well be what writes your future.

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!

http://ift.tt/2kkbcey

[byronheeutgm]

How Local SEO Fits In With What You’re Already Doing

Posted by MiriamEllis

You own, work for, or market a business, but you don’t think of yourself as a Local SEO.

That’s okay. The forces of history have, in fact, conspired in some weird ways to make local search seem like an island unto itself. Out there, beyond the horizon, there may be technicians puzzling out NAP, citations, owner responses, duplicate listings, store locator widgets and the like, but it doesn’t seem like they’re talking about your job at all.

And that’s the problem.

If I could offer you a seat in my kayak, I’d paddle us over to that misty isle, and we’d go ashore. After we’d walked around a bit, talking to the locals, it would hit you that the language barrier you’d once perceived is a mere illusion, as is the distance between you.

By sunset — whoa! Look around again. This is no island. You and the Local SEOs are all mainlanders, reaching towards identical goals of customer acquisition, service, and retention via an exceedingly enriched and enriching skill set. You can use it all.

Before I paddle off into the darkness, under the rising stars, I’d like to leave you a chart that plots out how Local SEO fits in with everything you’ve been doing all along.

The roots of the divide

Why is Local SEO often treated as separate from the rest of marketing? We can narrow this down to three contributing factors:

1) Early separation of the local and organic algos

Google’s early-days local product was governed by an algorithm that was much more distinct from their organic algorithm than it is today. It was once extremely common, for example, for businesses without websites to rank well locally. This didn’t do much to form clear bridges between the offline, organic, and local marketing worlds. But, then came Google’s Pigeon Update in 2013, which signaled Google’s stated intention of deeply tying the two algorithms together.

This should ultimately impact the way industry publications, SaaS companies, and agencies present local as an extension of organic SEO, but we’re not quite there yet. I continue to encounter examples of large companies which are doing an amazing job with their website strategies, their e-commerce solutions and their paid outreach, but which are only now taking their first steps into local listings management for their hundreds of physical locations. It’s not that they’re late to the party — it’s just that they’ve only recently begun to realize what a large party their customers are having with their brands’ location data layers on the web.

2) Inheriting the paid vs. organic dichotomy

Local SEO has experienced the same lack-of-adoption/awareness as organic SEO. Agencies have long fought the uphill battle against a lopsided dependence on paid advertising. This phenomenon is highlighted by historic stats like these showing brands investing some $10 million in PPC vs. $1 million in SEO, despite studies like this one which show PPC earning less than 10% of clicks in search.

My take on this is that the transition from traditional offline paid advertising to its online analog was initially easier for many brands to get their heads around. And there have been ongoing challenges in proving direct ROI from SEO in the simple terms a PPC campaign can provide. To this day, we’re still all seeing statistics like only 17% of small businesses investing in SEO. In many ways, the SEO conundrum has simply been inherited by every Local SEO.

3) A lot to take in and on

Look at the service menu of any full-service digital marketing agency and you’ll see just how far it’s had to stretch over the past couple of decades to encompass an ever-expanding range of publicity opportunities:

Technical website audits

On-site optimization

Linkbuilding

Keyword research

Content dev and promotion

Brand building

Social media marketing

PPC management

UX audits

Conversion optimization

Etc.

Is it any wonder that agencies feel spread a bit too thin when considering how to support yet further needs and disciplines? How do you find the bandwidth, and the experts, to be able to offer:

Ongoing citation management

Local on-site SEO

Local landing page dev

Store locator SEO

Review management

Local brand building

Local link building

And abstruse forms of local Schema implementation...

And while many agencies have met the challenge by forming smart, strategic partnerships with providers specializing in Local SEO solutions, the agency is still then tasked with understanding how Local fits in with everything else they’re doing, and then explaining this to clients. At the multi-location and enterprise level, even amongst the best-known brands, high-level staffers may have no idea what it is the folks in the in-house Local SEO department are actually doing, or why their work matters.

To tie it all together … that’s what we need to do here. With a shared vision of how all practitioners are working on consumer-centric outreach, we can really get somewhere. Let’s plot this out, together:

Sharing is caring

“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” - Jeff Bezos, Amazon

Let’s imagine a sporting goods brand, established in 1979, that’s grown to 400 locations across the US while also becoming well-known for its e-commerce presence. Whether aspects of marketing are being outsourced or it’s all in-house, here is how 3 shared consumer-centric goals unify all parties.

As we can see from the above chart, there is definitely an overlap of techniques, particularly between SEOs and Local SEOs. Yet overall, it’s not the language or tactics, but the end game and end goals that unify all parties. Viewed properly, consumers are what make all marketing a true team effort.

Before I buy that kayak…

On my commute, I hear a radio ad promoting a holiday sale at some sporting goods store, but which brand was it?

Then I turn to the Internet to research kayak brands, and I find your website’s nicely researched, written, and optimized article comparing the best models in 2017. It’s ranking #2 organically. Those Sun Dolphins look pretty good, according to your massive comparison chart.

I think about it for a couple of days and go looking again, and I see your Adwords spot advertising your 30% off sale. This is the third time I’ve encountered your brand.

On my day off, I’m doing a local search for your brand, which has impressed me so far. I’m ready to look at these kayaks in person. Thanks to the fact that you properly managed your recent move across town by updating all of your major citations, I’m finding an accurate address on your Google My Business listing. Your reviews are mighty favorable, too. They keep mentioning how knowledgeable the staff is at your location nearest me.

And that turns out to be true. At first, I’m disappointed that I don’t see any Sun Dolphins on your shelves — your website comparison chart spoke well of them. As a sales associate approaches me, I notice in-store signage above his head, featuring a text/phone hotline for complaints. I don’t really have a complaint… not yet… but it’s good to know you care.

“I’m so sorry. We just sold out of Sun Dolphins this morning. But we can have one delivered to you within 3 days. We have in-store pickup, too,” the salesperson says. “Or, maybe you’d be interested in another model with comparable features. Let me show you.”

Turns out, your staffer isn’t just helpful — his training has made him so well-versed in your product line that he’s able to match my needs to a perfect kayak for me. I end up buying an Intex on the spot.

The cashier double-checks with me that I’ve found everything satisfactory and lets me know your brand takes feedback very seriously. She says my review would be valued, and my receipt invites me to read your reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook… and offers a special deal for signing up for your email newsletter.

My subsequent 5-star review signals to all departments of your company that a company-wide goal was met. Over the next year, my glowing review also influences 20 of my local neighbors to choose you over a competitor.

After my first wet, cold, and exciting kayaking trip, I realize I need to invest in a better waterproof jacket for next time. Your email newsletter hits my inbox at just the right time, announcing your Fourth of July sale. I’m about to become a repeat customer… worth up to 10x the value of my first purchase.

“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” - Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn

There’s a kind of magic in this adventurous mix of marketing wins. Subtract anything from the picture, and you may miss out on the customer. It’s been said that great teams beat with a single heart. The secret lies in seeing every marketing discipline and practitioner as part of your team, doing what your brand has been doing all along: working with dedication to acquire, serve and retain consumers. Whether achievement comes via citation management, conversion optimization, or a write-up in the New York Times, the end goal is identical.

It’s also long been said that the race is to the swift. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch appears to agree, stating that, in today’s world, it’s not big that beats small — it’s fast that beats slow. How quickly your brand is able to integrate all forms of on-and-offline marketing into its core strategy, leaving no team as an island, may well be what writes your future.

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!

http://ift.tt/2kkbcey

[maryhare96]

How Local SEO Fits In With What You’re Already Doing

Posted by MiriamEllis

You own, work for, or market a business, but you don’t think of yourself as a Local SEO.

That’s okay. The forces of history have, in fact, conspired in some weird ways to make local search seem like an island unto itself. Out there, beyond the horizon, there may be technicians puzzling out NAP, citations, owner responses, duplicate listings, store locator widgets and the like, but it doesn’t seem like they’re talking about your job at all.

And that’s the problem.

If I could offer you a seat in my kayak, I’d paddle us over to that misty isle, and we’d go ashore. After we’d walked around a bit, talking to the locals, it would hit you that the language barrier you’d once perceived is a mere illusion, as is the distance between you.

By sunset — whoa! Look around again. This is no island. You and the Local SEOs are all mainlanders, reaching towards identical goals of customer acquisition, service, and retention via an exceedingly enriched and enriching skill set. You can use it all.

Before I paddle off into the darkness, under the rising stars, I’d like to leave you a chart that plots out how Local SEO fits in with everything you’ve been doing all along.

The roots of the divide

Why is Local SEO often treated as separate from the rest of marketing? We can narrow this down to three contributing factors:

1) Early separation of the local and organic algos

Google’s early-days local product was governed by an algorithm that was much more distinct from their organic algorithm than it is today. It was once extremely common, for example, for businesses without websites to rank well locally. This didn’t do much to form clear bridges between the offline, organic, and local marketing worlds. But, then came Google’s Pigeon Update in 2013, which signaled Google’s stated intention of deeply tying the two algorithms together.

This should ultimately impact the way industry publications, SaaS companies, and agencies present local as an extension of organic SEO, but we’re not quite there yet. I continue to encounter examples of large companies which are doing an amazing job with their website strategies, their e-commerce solutions and their paid outreach, but which are only now taking their first steps into local listings management for their hundreds of physical locations. It’s not that they’re late to the party — it’s just that they’ve only recently begun to realize what a large party their customers are having with their brands’ location data layers on the web.

2) Inheriting the paid vs. organic dichotomy

Local SEO has experienced the same lack-of-adoption/awareness as organic SEO. Agencies have long fought the uphill battle against a lopsided dependence on paid advertising. This phenomenon is highlighted by historic stats like these showing brands investing some $10 million in PPC vs. $1 million in SEO, despite studies like this one which show PPC earning less than 10% of clicks in search.

My take on this is that the transition from traditional offline paid advertising to its online analog was initially easier for many brands to get their heads around. And there have been ongoing challenges in proving direct ROI from SEO in the simple terms a PPC campaign can provide. To this day, we’re still all seeing statistics like only 17% of small businesses investing in SEO. In many ways, the SEO conundrum has simply been inherited by every Local SEO.

3) A lot to take in and on

Look at the service menu of any full-service digital marketing agency and you’ll see just how far it’s had to stretch over the past couple of decades to encompass an ever-expanding range of publicity opportunities:

Technical website audits

On-site optimization

Linkbuilding

Keyword research

Content dev and promotion

Brand building

Social media marketing

PPC management

UX audits

Conversion optimization

Etc.

Is it any wonder that agencies feel spread a bit too thin when considering how to support yet further needs and disciplines? How do you find the bandwidth, and the experts, to be able to offer:

Ongoing citation management

Local on-site SEO

Local landing page dev

Store locator SEO

Review management

Local brand building

Local link building

And abstruse forms of local Schema implementation...

And while many agencies have met the challenge by forming smart, strategic partnerships with providers specializing in Local SEO solutions, the agency is still then tasked with understanding how Local fits in with everything else they’re doing, and then explaining this to clients. At the multi-location and enterprise level, even amongst the best-known brands, high-level staffers may have no idea what it is the folks in the in-house Local SEO department are actually doing, or why their work matters.

To tie it all together … that’s what we need to do here. With a shared vision of how all practitioners are working on consumer-centric outreach, we can really get somewhere. Let’s plot this out, together:

Sharing is caring

“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” - Jeff Bezos, Amazon

Let’s imagine a sporting goods brand, established in 1979, that’s grown to 400 locations across the US while also becoming well-known for its e-commerce presence. Whether aspects of marketing are being outsourced or it’s all in-house, here is how 3 shared consumer-centric goals unify all parties.

As we can see from the above chart, there is definitely an overlap of techniques, particularly between SEOs and Local SEOs. Yet overall, it’s not the language or tactics, but the end game and end goals that unify all parties. Viewed properly, consumers are what make all marketing a true team effort.

Before I buy that kayak…

On my commute, I hear a radio ad promoting a holiday sale at some sporting goods store, but which brand was it?

Then I turn to the Internet to research kayak brands, and I find your website’s nicely researched, written, and optimized article comparing the best models in 2017. It’s ranking #2 organically. Those Sun Dolphins look pretty good, according to your massive comparison chart.

I think about it for a couple of days and go looking again, and I see your Adwords spot advertising your 30% off sale. This is the third time I’ve encountered your brand.

On my day off, I’m doing a local search for your brand, which has impressed me so far. I’m ready to look at these kayaks in person. Thanks to the fact that you properly managed your recent move across town by updating all of your major citations, I’m finding an accurate address on your Google My Business listing. Your reviews are mighty favorable, too. They keep mentioning how knowledgeable the staff is at your location nearest me.

And that turns out to be true. At first, I’m disappointed that I don’t see any Sun Dolphins on your shelves — your website comparison chart spoke well of them. As a sales associate approaches me, I notice in-store signage above his head, featuring a text/phone hotline for complaints. I don’t really have a complaint… not yet… but it’s good to know you care.

“I’m so sorry. We just sold out of Sun Dolphins this morning. But we can have one delivered to you within 3 days. We have in-store pickup, too,” the salesperson says. “Or, maybe you’d be interested in another model with comparable features. Let me show you.”

Turns out, your staffer isn’t just helpful — his training has made him so well-versed in your product line that he’s able to match my needs to a perfect kayak for me. I end up buying an Intex on the spot.

The cashier double-checks with me that I’ve found everything satisfactory and lets me know your brand takes feedback very seriously. She says my review would be valued, and my receipt invites me to read your reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook… and offers a special deal for signing up for your email newsletter.

My subsequent 5-star review signals to all departments of your company that a company-wide goal was met. Over the next year, my glowing review also influences 20 of my local neighbors to choose you over a competitor.

After my first wet, cold, and exciting kayaking trip, I realize I need to invest in a better waterproof jacket for next time. Your email newsletter hits my inbox at just the right time, announcing your Fourth of July sale. I’m about to become a repeat customer… worth up to 10x the value of my first purchase.

“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” - Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn

There’s a kind of magic in this adventurous mix of marketing wins. Subtract anything from the picture, and you may miss out on the customer. It’s been said that great teams beat with a single heart. The secret lies in seeing every marketing discipline and practitioner as part of your team, doing what your brand has been doing all along: working with dedication to acquire, serve and retain consumers. Whether achievement comes via citation management, conversion optimization, or a write-up in the New York Times, the end goal is identical.

It’s also long been said that the race is to the swift. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch appears to agree, stating that, in today’s world, it’s not big that beats small — it’s fast that beats slow. How quickly your brand is able to integrate all forms of on-and-offline marketing into its core strategy, leaving no team as an island, may well be what writes your future.

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!

http://ift.tt/2kkbcey

[mercedessharonwo1]

How Local SEO Fits In With What You’re Already Doing

Posted by MiriamEllis

You own, work for, or market a business, but you don’t think of yourself as a Local SEO.

That’s okay. The forces of history have, in fact, conspired in some weird ways to make local search seem like an island unto itself. Out there, beyond the horizon, there may be technicians puzzling out NAP, citations, owner responses, duplicate listings, store locator widgets and the like, but it doesn’t seem like they’re talking about your job at all.

And that’s the problem.

If I could offer you a seat in my kayak, I’d paddle us over to that misty isle, and we’d go ashore. After we’d walked around a bit, talking to the locals, it would hit you that the language barrier you’d once perceived is a mere illusion, as is the distance between you.

By sunset — whoa! Look around again. This is no island. You and the Local SEOs are all mainlanders, reaching towards identical goals of customer acquisition, service, and retention via an exceedingly enriched and enriching skill set. You can use it all.

Before I paddle off into the darkness, under the rising stars, I’d like to leave you a chart that plots out how Local SEO fits in with everything you’ve been doing all along.

The roots of the divide

Why is Local SEO often treated as separate from the rest of marketing? We can narrow this down to three contributing factors:

1) Early separation of the local and organic algos

Google’s early-days local product was governed by an algorithm that was much more distinct from their organic algorithm than it is today. It was once extremely common, for example, for businesses without websites to rank well locally. This didn’t do much to form clear bridges between the offline, organic, and local marketing worlds. But, then came Google’s Pigeon Update in 2013, which signaled Google’s stated intention of deeply tying the two algorithms together.

This should ultimately impact the way industry publications, SaaS companies, and agencies present local as an extension of organic SEO, but we’re not quite there yet. I continue to encounter examples of large companies which are doing an amazing job with their website strategies, their e-commerce solutions and their paid outreach, but which are only now taking their first steps into local listings management for their hundreds of physical locations. It’s not that they’re late to the party — it’s just that they’ve only recently begun to realize what a large party their customers are having with their brands’ location data layers on the web.

2) Inheriting the paid vs. organic dichotomy

Local SEO has experienced the same lack-of-adoption/awareness as organic SEO. Agencies have long fought the uphill battle against a lopsided dependence on paid advertising. This phenomenon is highlighted by historic stats like these showing brands investing some $10 million in PPC vs. $1 million in SEO, despite studies like this one which show PPC earning less than 10% of clicks in search.

My take on this is that the transition from traditional offline paid advertising to its online analog was initially easier for many brands to get their heads around. And there have been ongoing challenges in proving direct ROI from SEO in the simple terms a PPC campaign can provide. To this day, we’re still all seeing statistics like only 17% of small businesses investing in SEO. In many ways, the SEO conundrum has simply been inherited by every Local SEO.

3) A lot to take in and on

Look at the service menu of any full-service digital marketing agency and you’ll see just how far it’s had to stretch over the past couple of decades to encompass an ever-expanding range of publicity opportunities:

Technical website audits

On-site optimization

Linkbuilding

Keyword research

Content dev and promotion

Brand building

Social media marketing

PPC management

UX audits

Conversion optimization

Etc.

Is it any wonder that agencies feel spread a bit too thin when considering how to support yet further needs and disciplines? How do you find the bandwidth, and the experts, to be able to offer:

Ongoing citation management

Local on-site SEO

Local landing page dev

Store locator SEO

Review management

Local brand building

Local link building

And abstruse forms of local Schema implementation...

And while many agencies have met the challenge by forming smart, strategic partnerships with providers specializing in Local SEO solutions, the agency is still then tasked with understanding how Local fits in with everything else they’re doing, and then explaining this to clients. At the multi-location and enterprise level, even amongst the best-known brands, high-level staffers may have no idea what it is the folks in the in-house Local SEO department are actually doing, or why their work matters.

To tie it all together … that’s what we need to do here. With a shared vision of how all practitioners are working on consumer-centric outreach, we can really get somewhere. Let’s plot this out, together:

Sharing is caring

“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” - Jeff Bezos, Amazon

Let’s imagine a sporting goods brand, established in 1979, that’s grown to 400 locations across the US while also becoming well-known for its e-commerce presence. Whether aspects of marketing are being outsourced or it’s all in-house, here is how 3 shared consumer-centric goals unify all parties.

As we can see from the above chart, there is definitely an overlap of techniques, particularly between SEOs and Local SEOs. Yet overall, it’s not the language or tactics, but the end game and end goals that unify all parties. Viewed properly, consumers are what make all marketing a true team effort.

Before I buy that kayak…

On my commute, I hear a radio ad promoting a holiday sale at some sporting goods store, but which brand was it?

Then I turn to the Internet to research kayak brands, and I find your website’s nicely researched, written, and optimized article comparing the best models in 2017. It’s ranking #2 organically. Those Sun Dolphins look pretty good, according to your massive comparison chart.

I think about it for a couple of days and go looking again, and I see your Adwords spot advertising your 30% off sale. This is the third time I’ve encountered your brand.

On my day off, I’m doing a local search for your brand, which has impressed me so far. I’m ready to look at these kayaks in person. Thanks to the fact that you properly managed your recent move across town by updating all of your major citations, I’m finding an accurate address on your Google My Business listing. Your reviews are mighty favorable, too. They keep mentioning how knowledgeable the staff is at your location nearest me.

And that turns out to be true. At first, I’m disappointed that I don’t see any Sun Dolphins on your shelves — your website comparison chart spoke well of them. As a sales associate approaches me, I notice in-store signage above his head, featuring a text/phone hotline for complaints. I don’t really have a complaint… not yet… but it’s good to know you care.

“I’m so sorry. We just sold out of Sun Dolphins this morning. But we can have one delivered to you within 3 days. We have in-store pickup, too,” the salesperson says. “Or, maybe you’d be interested in another model with comparable features. Let me show you.”

Turns out, your staffer isn’t just helpful — his training has made him so well-versed in your product line that he’s able to match my needs to a perfect kayak for me. I end up buying an Intex on the spot.

The cashier double-checks with me that I’ve found everything satisfactory and lets me know your brand takes feedback very seriously. She says my review would be valued, and my receipt invites me to read your reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook… and offers a special deal for signing up for your email newsletter.

My subsequent 5-star review signals to all departments of your company that a company-wide goal was met. Over the next year, my glowing review also influences 20 of my local neighbors to choose you over a competitor.

After my first wet, cold, and exciting kayaking trip, I realize I need to invest in a better waterproof jacket for next time. Your email newsletter hits my inbox at just the right time, announcing your Fourth of July sale. I’m about to become a repeat customer… worth up to 10x the value of my first purchase.

“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” - Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn

There’s a kind of magic in this adventurous mix of marketing wins. Subtract anything from the picture, and you may miss out on the customer. It’s been said that great teams beat with a single heart. The secret lies in seeing every marketing discipline and practitioner as part of your team, doing what your brand has been doing all along: working with dedication to acquire, serve and retain consumers. Whether achievement comes via citation management, conversion optimization, or a write-up in the New York Times, the end goal is identical.

It’s also long been said that the race is to the swift. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch appears to agree, stating that, in today’s world, it’s not big that beats small — it’s fast that beats slow. How quickly your brand is able to integrate all forms of on-and-offline marketing into its core strategy, leaving no team as an island, may well be what writes your future.

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!

http://ift.tt/2kkbcey

[fairchildlingpo1]

How Local SEO Fits In With What You’re Already Doing

Posted by MiriamEllis

You own, work for, or market a business, but you don’t think of yourself as a Local SEO.

That’s okay. The forces of history have, in fact, conspired in some weird ways to make local search seem like an island unto itself. Out there, beyond the horizon, there may be technicians puzzling out NAP, citations, owner responses, duplicate listings, store locator widgets and the like, but it doesn’t seem like they’re talking about your job at all.

And that’s the problem.

If I could offer you a seat in my kayak, I’d paddle us over to that misty isle, and we’d go ashore. After we’d walked around a bit, talking to the locals, it would hit you that the language barrier you’d once perceived is a mere illusion, as is the distance between you.

By sunset — whoa! Look around again. This is no island. You and the Local SEOs are all mainlanders, reaching towards identical goals of customer acquisition, service, and retention via an exceedingly enriched and enriching skill set. You can use it all.

Before I paddle off into the darkness, under the rising stars, I’d like to leave you a chart that plots out how Local SEO fits in with everything you’ve been doing all along.

The roots of the divide

Why is Local SEO often treated as separate from the rest of marketing? We can narrow this down to three contributing factors:

1) Early separation of the local and organic algos

Google’s early-days local product was governed by an algorithm that was much more distinct from their organic algorithm than it is today. It was once extremely common, for example, for businesses without websites to rank well locally. This didn’t do much to form clear bridges between the offline, organic, and local marketing worlds. But, then came Google’s Pigeon Update in 2013, which signaled Google’s stated intention of deeply tying the two algorithms together.

This should ultimately impact the way industry publications, SaaS companies, and agencies present local as an extension of organic SEO, but we’re not quite there yet. I continue to encounter examples of large companies which are doing an amazing job with their website strategies, their e-commerce solutions and their paid outreach, but which are only now taking their first steps into local listings management for their hundreds of physical locations. It’s not that they’re late to the party — it’s just that they’ve only recently begun to realize what a large party their customers are having with their brands’ location data layers on the web.

2) Inheriting the paid vs. organic dichotomy

Local SEO has experienced the same lack-of-adoption/awareness as organic SEO. Agencies have long fought the uphill battle against a lopsided dependence on paid advertising. This phenomenon is highlighted by historic stats like these showing brands investing some $10 million in PPC vs. $1 million in SEO, despite studies like this one which show PPC earning less than 10% of clicks in search.

My take on this is that the transition from traditional offline paid advertising to its online analog was initially easier for many brands to get their heads around. And there have been ongoing challenges in proving direct ROI from SEO in the simple terms a PPC campaign can provide. To this day, we’re still all seeing statistics like only 17% of small businesses investing in SEO. In many ways, the SEO conundrum has simply been inherited by every Local SEO.

3) A lot to take in and on

Look at the service menu of any full-service digital marketing agency and you’ll see just how far it’s had to stretch over the past couple of decades to encompass an ever-expanding range of publicity opportunities:

Technical website audits

On-site optimization

Linkbuilding

Keyword research

Content dev and promotion

Brand building

Social media marketing

PPC management

UX audits

Conversion optimization

Etc.

Is it any wonder that agencies feel spread a bit too thin when considering how to support yet further needs and disciplines? How do you find the bandwidth, and the experts, to be able to offer:

Ongoing citation management

Local on-site SEO

Local landing page dev

Store locator SEO

Review management

Local brand building

Local link building

And abstruse forms of local Schema implementation...

And while many agencies have met the challenge by forming smart, strategic partnerships with providers specializing in Local SEO solutions, the agency is still then tasked with understanding how Local fits in with everything else they’re doing, and then explaining this to clients. At the multi-location and enterprise level, even amongst the best-known brands, high-level staffers may have no idea what it is the folks in the in-house Local SEO department are actually doing, or why their work matters.

To tie it all together … that’s what we need to do here. With a shared vision of how all practitioners are working on consumer-centric outreach, we can really get somewhere. Let’s plot this out, together:

Sharing is caring

“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” - Jeff Bezos, Amazon

Let’s imagine a sporting goods brand, established in 1979, that’s grown to 400 locations across the US while also becoming well-known for its e-commerce presence. Whether aspects of marketing are being outsourced or it’s all in-house, here is how 3 shared consumer-centric goals unify all parties.

As we can see from the above chart, there is definitely an overlap of techniques, particularly between SEOs and Local SEOs. Yet overall, it’s not the language or tactics, but the end game and end goals that unify all parties. Viewed properly, consumers are what make all marketing a true team effort.

Before I buy that kayak…

On my commute, I hear a radio ad promoting a holiday sale at some sporting goods store, but which brand was it?

Then I turn to the Internet to research kayak brands, and I find your website’s nicely researched, written, and optimized article comparing the best models in 2017. It’s ranking #2 organically. Those Sun Dolphins look pretty good, according to your massive comparison chart.

I think about it for a couple of days and go looking again, and I see your Adwords spot advertising your 30% off sale. This is the third time I’ve encountered your brand.

On my day off, I’m doing a local search for your brand, which has impressed me so far. I’m ready to look at these kayaks in person. Thanks to the fact that you properly managed your recent move across town by updating all of your major citations, I’m finding an accurate address on your Google My Business listing. Your reviews are mighty favorable, too. They keep mentioning how knowledgeable the staff is at your location nearest me.

And that turns out to be true. At first, I’m disappointed that I don’t see any Sun Dolphins on your shelves — your website comparison chart spoke well of them. As a sales associate approaches me, I notice in-store signage above his head, featuring a text/phone hotline for complaints. I don’t really have a complaint… not yet… but it’s good to know you care.

“I’m so sorry. We just sold out of Sun Dolphins this morning. But we can have one delivered to you within 3 days. We have in-store pickup, too,” the salesperson says. “Or, maybe you’d be interested in another model with comparable features. Let me show you.”

Turns out, your staffer isn’t just helpful — his training has made him so well-versed in your product line that he’s able to match my needs to a perfect kayak for me. I end up buying an Intex on the spot.

The cashier double-checks with me that I’ve found everything satisfactory and lets me know your brand takes feedback very seriously. She says my review would be valued, and my receipt invites me to read your reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook… and offers a special deal for signing up for your email newsletter.

My subsequent 5-star review signals to all departments of your company that a company-wide goal was met. Over the next year, my glowing review also influences 20 of my local neighbors to choose you over a competitor.

After my first wet, cold, and exciting kayaking trip, I realize I need to invest in a better waterproof jacket for next time. Your email newsletter hits my inbox at just the right time, announcing your Fourth of July sale. I’m about to become a repeat customer… worth up to 10x the value of my first purchase.

“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” - Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn

There’s a kind of magic in this adventurous mix of marketing wins. Subtract anything from the picture, and you may miss out on the customer. It’s been said that great teams beat with a single heart. The secret lies in seeing every marketing discipline and practitioner as part of your team, doing what your brand has been doing all along: working with dedication to acquire, serve and retain consumers. Whether achievement comes via citation management, conversion optimization, or a write-up in the New York Times, the end goal is identical.

It’s also long been said that the race is to the swift. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch appears to agree, stating that, in today’s world, it’s not big that beats small — it’s fast that beats slow. How quickly your brand is able to integrate all forms of on-and-offline marketing into its core strategy, leaving no team as an island, may well be what writes your future.

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!

http://ift.tt/2kkbcey

[conniecogeie]

How Local SEO Fits In With What You’re Already Doing

Posted by MiriamEllis

You own, work for, or market a business, but you don’t think of yourself as a Local SEO.

That’s okay. The forces of history have, in fact, conspired in some weird ways to make local search seem like an island unto itself. Out there, beyond the horizon, there may be technicians puzzling out NAP, citations, owner responses, duplicate listings, store locator widgets and the like, but it doesn’t seem like they’re talking about your job at all.

And that’s the problem.

If I could offer you a seat in my kayak, I’d paddle us over to that misty isle, and we’d go ashore. After we’d walked around a bit, talking to the locals, it would hit you that the language barrier you’d once perceived is a mere illusion, as is the distance between you.

By sunset — whoa! Look around again. This is no island. You and the Local SEOs are all mainlanders, reaching towards identical goals of customer acquisition, service, and retention via an exceedingly enriched and enriching skill set. You can use it all.

Before I paddle off into the darkness, under the rising stars, I’d like to leave you a chart that plots out how Local SEO fits in with everything you’ve been doing all along.

The roots of the divide

Why is Local SEO often treated as separate from the rest of marketing? We can narrow this down to three contributing factors:

1) Early separation of the local and organic algos

Google’s early-days local product was governed by an algorithm that was much more distinct from their organic algorithm than it is today. It was once extremely common, for example, for businesses without websites to rank well locally. This didn’t do much to form clear bridges between the offline, organic, and local marketing worlds. But, then came Google’s Pigeon Update in 2013, which signaled Google’s stated intention of deeply tying the two algorithms together.

This should ultimately impact the way industry publications, SaaS companies, and agencies present local as an extension of organic SEO, but we’re not quite there yet. I continue to encounter examples of large companies which are doing an amazing job with their website strategies, their e-commerce solutions and their paid outreach, but which are only now taking their first steps into local listings management for their hundreds of physical locations. It’s not that they’re late to the party — it’s just that they’ve only recently begun to realize what a large party their customers are having with their brands’ location data layers on the web.

2) Inheriting the paid vs. organic dichotomy

Local SEO has experienced the same lack-of-adoption/awareness as organic SEO. Agencies have long fought the uphill battle against a lopsided dependence on paid advertising. This phenomenon is highlighted by historic stats like these showing brands investing some $10 million in PPC vs. $1 million in SEO, despite studies like this one which show PPC earning less than 10% of clicks in search.

My take on this is that the transition from traditional offline paid advertising to its online analog was initially easier for many brands to get their heads around. And there have been ongoing challenges in proving direct ROI from SEO in the simple terms a PPC campaign can provide. To this day, we’re still all seeing statistics like only 17% of small businesses investing in SEO. In many ways, the SEO conundrum has simply been inherited by every Local SEO.

3) A lot to take in and on

Look at the service menu of any full-service digital marketing agency and you’ll see just how far it’s had to stretch over the past couple of decades to encompass an ever-expanding range of publicity opportunities:

Technical website audits

On-site optimization

Linkbuilding

Keyword research

Content dev and promotion

Brand building

Social media marketing

PPC management

UX audits

Conversion optimization

Etc.

Is it any wonder that agencies feel spread a bit too thin when considering how to support yet further needs and disciplines? How do you find the bandwidth, and the experts, to be able to offer:

Ongoing citation management

Local on-site SEO

Local landing page dev

Store locator SEO

Review management

Local brand building

Local link building

And abstruse forms of local Schema implementation...

And while many agencies have met the challenge by forming smart, strategic partnerships with providers specializing in Local SEO solutions, the agency is still then tasked with understanding how Local fits in with everything else they’re doing, and then explaining this to clients. At the multi-location and enterprise level, even amongst the best-known brands, high-level staffers may have no idea what it is the folks in the in-house Local SEO department are actually doing, or why their work matters.

To tie it all together … that’s what we need to do here. With a shared vision of how all practitioners are working on consumer-centric outreach, we can really get somewhere. Let’s plot this out, together:

Sharing is caring

“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” - Jeff Bezos, Amazon

Let’s imagine a sporting goods brand, established in 1979, that’s grown to 400 locations across the US while also becoming well-known for its e-commerce presence. Whether aspects of marketing are being outsourced or it’s all in-house, here is how 3 shared consumer-centric goals unify all parties.

As we can see from the above chart, there is definitely an overlap of techniques, particularly between SEOs and Local SEOs. Yet overall, it’s not the language or tactics, but the end game and end goals that unify all parties. Viewed properly, consumers are what make all marketing a true team effort.

Before I buy that kayak…

On my commute, I hear a radio ad promoting a holiday sale at some sporting goods store, but which brand was it?

Then I turn to the Internet to research kayak brands, and I find your website’s nicely researched, written, and optimized article comparing the best models in 2017. It’s ranking #2 organically. Those Sun Dolphins look pretty good, according to your massive comparison chart.

I think about it for a couple of days and go looking again, and I see your Adwords spot advertising your 30% off sale. This is the third time I’ve encountered your brand.

On my day off, I’m doing a local search for your brand, which has impressed me so far. I’m ready to look at these kayaks in person. Thanks to the fact that you properly managed your recent move across town by updating all of your major citations, I’m finding an accurate address on your Google My Business listing. Your reviews are mighty favorable, too. They keep mentioning how knowledgeable the staff is at your location nearest me.

And that turns out to be true. At first, I’m disappointed that I don’t see any Sun Dolphins on your shelves — your website comparison chart spoke well of them. As a sales associate approaches me, I notice in-store signage above his head, featuring a text/phone hotline for complaints. I don’t really have a complaint… not yet… but it’s good to know you care.

“I’m so sorry. We just sold out of Sun Dolphins this morning. But we can have one delivered to you within 3 days. We have in-store pickup, too,” the salesperson says. “Or, maybe you’d be interested in another model with comparable features. Let me show you.”

Turns out, your staffer isn’t just helpful — his training has made him so well-versed in your product line that he’s able to match my needs to a perfect kayak for me. I end up buying an Intex on the spot.

The cashier double-checks with me that I’ve found everything satisfactory and lets me know your brand takes feedback very seriously. She says my review would be valued, and my receipt invites me to read your reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook… and offers a special deal for signing up for your email newsletter.

My subsequent 5-star review signals to all departments of your company that a company-wide goal was met. Over the next year, my glowing review also influences 20 of my local neighbors to choose you over a competitor.

After my first wet, cold, and exciting kayaking trip, I realize I need to invest in a better waterproof jacket for next time. Your email newsletter hits my inbox at just the right time, announcing your Fourth of July sale. I’m about to become a repeat customer… worth up to 10x the value of my first purchase.

“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” - Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn

There’s a kind of magic in this adventurous mix of marketing wins. Subtract anything from the picture, and you may miss out on the customer. It’s been said that great teams beat with a single heart. The secret lies in seeing every marketing discipline and practitioner as part of your team, doing what your brand has been doing all along: working with dedication to acquire, serve and retain consumers. Whether achievement comes via citation management, conversion optimization, or a write-up in the New York Times, the end goal is identical.

It’s also long been said that the race is to the swift. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch appears to agree, stating that, in today’s world, it’s not big that beats small — it’s fast that beats slow. How quickly your brand is able to integrate all forms of on-and-offline marketing into its core strategy, leaving no team as an island, may well be what writes your future.

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!

http://ift.tt/2kkbcey