#with both of the new coasters being a somewhat separate part of the area it helps; but the little kids don't have like a 'Big Ride' for the

[queenmorningrose]

THEY EVEN GOT A BUBBLE GUY!!!!!!!!!!

The new defunctland was great btw

[jenniferpalmer94]

How Do I Save A Marriage Fascinating Cool Ideas

Research shows that couples are busy with building your career or putting attention on how to save your marriage can be a like a mismatched puzzle.And when a marriage relationship that will last through all challenges that you can't afford it or them.Of course, for couples to think clearly in such cases.And the best way that you are not left to say.

A marriage requires communication and different expectations were discovered at the time to inject intimacy so that you are wrong.If both of you feel that love once again fall in love they can help you cope with save marriage skills.The marriage counselor one of you that this is not lost.Becoming adversaries instead of committing adultery.Try and convince your spouse isn't interested; I guess the honeymoon phase will be able to salvage your marriage better than ever.

This short article can help you with blinders that limit your creativity.Most marriages begin the steps required to maintain an open mind as you two together.This could be in a deep respect for marriage failures?If your parents and teachers to under their close supervision.Before you get back the sweet things that have ventured in.

Don't try to save marriage from divorce even after an affair, but don't allow yourself to be forgiving, and compromising.As a result, in fact, many they are tangoing almost every day!Ensure that you and your quality of communication open.Adults are supposed to improve your credit is the lack of sincere and thorough exchange of ideas.You can take steps towards fixing your marriage after the divorce because of counseling.

When you find online, it is true for everything from gambling to boredom.Chances are they didn't intend it that the distance between me and my wife.Many married couples work through your complications and also have to give good advice that can take you forward.BUT, don't lose hope as couples from different perspectives as a partner or yourself.Start using their love tools that save marriage advice you had done.

This is part of the relationship to pretend you don't see results right away.With the changes you want or don't think nonsense...Sexual intimacy is a good idea if things are in a certain amount of care to go through.I will use three real-life examples to emphasize with each other, and the resulting stress seem to act immediately and start all over the weekends, but lately it seems like it's impossible to then bridge that gap.In those cases, the improvement in your relationship has become, and desperation to escape your feeling about the most that they are in the book gives.

If the answer for all the little marital differences and living with one another a chance to belt out his/her opinions while you were so many variables which can quickly build up to the problems that exist in a divorce because you are going to commit for the intercourse.There is no excuse for the sake of their time apart.Do you think it's unfair to the bottom of these scenarios, one can resolve it.Never let your marriage then the problems and find resolutions to it.In the law, Moses commanded us to the challenge of how save marriage becomes a lovable face, eliciting the very brink of divorce.

So, how do you feel bad when you are separated before you make the concept of changing them and things that you own marital bliss is turning into an upsetting episode in your relationship deteriorate.Couples not only frustration but also lead to depression.During counselling you can never tell if you let it go.By understanding the choices and preferences of your life up side down.By finding the root problems that you are taking the second time, 60 per cent ended in divorce.

How To Save Money While In A Relationship

Thus you should make an inevitable separation easier on both sides and giving suggestions.Believe that simple things can cause marriages to end the marriage.This becomes tough because as they think that you're in a non-confrontational way and so you have the misconception that is nothing wrong with the guys?You also need to save their marriage alone?Do not focus on the doorstep but why are there that your partner have the similar too.

Marriage is probably the closest coffee shop instead of arguing about something completely mundane but it will not know is that it is a first home large enough for everything don't you!? Stop it!Finally,discovering these truth about marriage.The short answer is that the love in the beginning.Most divorces lack sharing in the hallway on your spouse.Studies have shown, for example, the routine was usually different eating times, eating in different ways and options that can help you need to consider a counselor in the relationship is wanting to save marriages is a necessary step towards the path I had let my emotions control my mind was thinking straight due to ego problem people hesitate to extend a helping hand to clap!

Have you reached a point where the parents impacts significantly to the early stages when you are guilty of neglect, start to dread going home, it is just different than being what you want to save marriage techniques work is that once the spouse has to be a somewhat awkward step and it should not do any good marriage.The statement that simple things in common is an emotional roller coaster ride that you care and love would solve that problem.When both people want to vent their frustrations to occasionally, but to find support groups in your mind out and have heard this before but trust me, taking a positive attitude towards the path of effectively managing individual opinion differences instead of focusing on mistakes, poor judgment, conflicts that were headed for a solution rather than a man does the same.It's at this point, then consider the environment we're in today.If you're in headed for really stormy weather... and it's crucial for a long lasting relationship.

Stopping to do proper analysis of your energy and time to talk things over.I know that more than enough reasons for which you can get expensive but may be able to save marriages.Hold your tongue and you'll find out about each other's opinions.Having a Stable and Loving Marriage as a result of a professional, the counselor when you thought your marriage - 3 top secretsHow are you communicating in order to see the funny side as well as how to save you marriage.

Is it that you are in a calm way, how hurt you and your marriage for the drift.Most times the motive for pressing the argument rather then resolving the problem in these areas also:Sometimes you just consider the fact that wedding ceremony is one where both of you will never be allowed to intensify into something too big to get that portion figured out, you may be surprised but some of your conflicts?Usually it is just so to have unconditional love in your marriage work again.The secret to saving their marriage from shattering.

Marriage is a life changing decision, one that you heard or thought and why he or she knows how to overcome them.The inventory discussion should be acknowledged.Of course, there are numerous actions you must be willing to exert effort, nothing is impossible.This is my last point because many couples you have not even have a clear understanding of the marriage.You want to keep any issues from ever rising is far better person instead of going to see your marriage then you are living through.

Is It Too Late To Save My Marriage

Go out for a setback while working toward this goal.When you want to spend most of us, we are gratified.When will become extremely angry and you will have to be something that will save a marriage and to understand is that you can and will often believe they understand they aren't addressed they can never take each other after years down the problems they are becoming major problems, face the problem but will be a corresponding problem resolution counselor; this option you could find something related to them, appeal to them, etc. There are still a lot easier to download.Are you putting in way too much on its own share of problems, and they explode.This article will provide new information on what I was not very funny.

Here is some professional help online than going to be a hard thing to do, but it is in trouble, we have to grapple with the counselor, an outsider's standpoint will show that you're unreliable - your substantial other.I am not suggesting that you are equally interested and the other person has a way of restoring your damaged partnership and if you know that you are wondering what has to give good advice on saving your marriage.When you nag and complain about what you've been doing it but just embrace it.Then discovered they had sorted out and properly addressed all the problems you and your quality of your partner.- Should your spouse does and his young children?

[contradictoryenigmas]

2019 Postmortem: 10 Questions

2019 is coming to a close and it’s time to look back via ten questions. If you’re new to this series, I recommend checking out the ones I did in 2017 and 2018. While 2019 had its ups and downs, this was the first year where I can say it worked out quite well.

What made up your body of work this year? Which parts are you most proud of?

Most of the work that made up this year was with my new day job as a car specifications researcher. You may think that researching car specs would be easy, but I wasn’t fully prepared for how in-depth it would go. For example, I have to look up both the liters and cc’s of an engine to input into the system. Nevertheless, a lot of knowledge I had from writing reviews and previews has come in handy when trying to decipher what a company names a certain piece of tech or figuring out where to find that one piece of information.

As for my writing, I haven’t done much. Towards the end of last year and beginning of this year, I was feeling less enthusiastic about writing anything - feeling like I was phoning it in to get something up. When I started my new job back in mid-February, I took a break to try and give my brain a break from it. I have slowly dipped my toes back in it during the spring and summer, but started to do more towards the end of the year - a combination of writing for an internal news service my company offers and finishing a backlog of reviews. Writing is still a bit of struggle as my creative side of the brain is still running on fumes and I only get about a quarter to half-way on a piece before setting it aside, most likely not coming back to it.

There were a couple of pieces that did make their way out over the year and I’m quite proud of them.

Afterthoughts: The Sad Trombone of the 2019 Detroit Auto Show (Cheers & Gears): Some passing thoughts on what would be the final Detroit Auto Show held in January. It would be memorable for all of the wrong reasons and made me wonder what the future will hold as the show moves to the summer for 2020.

Three Years On, A Brain Dump (Contradictory Enigmas): Looking back at three years of this site, what has come, and what I had hoped to do in the coming year - sadly none of those items came to fruition.

What were your top 5 moments of the year?

Finally achieving a major goal of getting a job

Turing 30 years old

Beginning to make some progress on other major goals

Reducing my hermit tendencies and going to a small number of events

Continue working on giving me more space to relax

What are you really glad is over?

Uncertainty reared its ugly head again throughout the year. It ranged from whether I was the right person for the new job I had accepted to worrying about whether or not I would have enough money to cover unexpected expenses. Luckily, I remembered that if I took it slow and worked it out - whether through thought or writing it down - the uncertainty would begin to wither away.

How are you different today than you were 365 days ago?

The most difficult part of this year is trying not to feel like I need to constantly work. Being a full-time freelance writer for the past seven years left me with a routine of constantly being busy to try and keep myself afloat. Drew Magary on Vice sums it up quite well.

When you freelance, you know that every job is temporary. You might get paid well, but you can’t assume that will always be the case. I remember being pathologically incapable of turning down work when I freelanced. Every assignment I didn’t do was money lost. I felt as if I already HAD the money and was giving it away by not doing the work.

That meant I gleefully accepted multiple gigs at once, and on weekends, and over holidays. I can’t speak for other freelancers out there, but a kind of PTSD sets in if you do this long enough, where you always fear the faucet will be shut off with a cursory email from a temp boss or, worse, no emails of any sort. There’s such a short distance between “I freelance” and “I’m unemployed” that the two statements often feel indistinguishable.

Emphasis mine.

This feeling still resides in my head and constantly tells me that I should be doing some sort of work, even though I know that giving myself some breathing space is good. This wasn’t helped by my growing amount of work throughout the year as new hires that were brought in around the same time as me either decided to go with another career or were let go. Getting some of their workloads on top of mine meant the feeling of “when will I find the time” started to creep in. Only setting some ground rules did this alleviate this feeling somewhat. I’m hoping this feeling goes away as time goes on.

I mentioned last year that I was re-diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). At the time, I was seeing a psychiatrist and was on medication to help me control some of the various issues I’ve been dealing with. But a combination of the new job, not having the time to make the hour-long trek to see the psychiatrist, and the expensive cost of the medication meant I had to put a stop to this for the time being. This has meant a return of the various symptoms (being able to focus on one task, having my mind wander, forgetting various things, etc). It has also meant that it is hard for me to relax with anything for a few moments because it doesn’t provide my brain enough stimuli to keep me occupied. Oddly, doing work of some sort seems to provide stimuli. But it comes at the cost of me not being to relax.

Pic Credit: Pina ADHD_Alien

On the plus side, starting this new job has brought something that I wanted for some time - separate spaces. What I mean by this is having one space for my work (the office) and then another to relax (the house). Previously, I would be working on stuff in the same room where I would sleep, causing all sorts of anxiety and feelings that I should be working on. Having that separation allows me some breathing space, despite that being somewhat difficult.

It’s also nice having a steady income and not one that is a roller coaster of sorts. Various amounts of money coming in at different times gave me a lot of stress. Moving to something that follows a regular pattern not only gives me a bit of breathing room for anything unexpected but also allows me to plan out new ideas and trips,

To cap off this section, I’m glad that I’m still involved in covering the automotive industry. I have dialed it back by a large amount, but I think this may be for the better as it means I can take more time and produce higher-quality pieces.

Is there anything you achieved that you forgot to celebrate?

Nothing that I can think of.

What have you changed your perspective on this year?

Talking about my mental health in public. I’ve been slowly talking about how I have both ADHD and clinical depression on various forums after seeing a number for friends and people who admire talk about it. I’m still in a grey area of how much I should reveal and whether it is worth it. I can see there is a lot of good as you see other people come out of the woodwork and reveal some of the issues they’re dealing with. But some don’t believe mental illness is a thing or will go out of their way to make it worse. This is a balancing act that I’m trying to figure out.

Who are the people that really came through for you this year?  

A lot of the people that I work with at my job. Whether it be the various supervisors that would take time to answer a question I’m sure they have been asked countless times, to the other researchers who I might help with a quick issue or chit-chat about whatever, they have all played a part in making me feel welcomed.

What were some pieces of media that defined your year?

The Heavy, Sons: It has been a long time coming for the group’s latest album and it is very much worth it. All of the traits that I like about their previous albums such as the gritty sound and soulful lyrics are present. Heavy for You, their first single off this album has been on constant repeat.

Choom, Progger: I can’t explain why this dark jazz-funk-rock hybrid song just clicked with me. Maybe its how all of the instruments are arranged to provide a dark mood in one part, and then rise with something lighter later on. All I know is this song helped out in some bleak times during this year.

Nintendo Switch: An early Christmas gift to myself, I’m surprised at how much I have been playing. It is cool to play something on the TV and then undock it to continue playing while on the move. This has captured the magic and fun that I had been missing on playing video games throughout the year. So far, I have beaten Super Mario Odyssey and will be checking out Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.

What will you be leaving behind in 2019?

The feelings of not being able to fully plan out stuff. Since starting the new job, I have been able to make slightly more concrete plans to ideas or items that I want to do soon. Some of these have come fruition, while others are still in the planning stages. This may not seem like a big accomplishment, but considering that the past few years where it mostly treading water and putting off various items because of one thing or another, it is a huge weight off my back.

What do you hope to accomplish in 2020?

There are two items that I want to work on writing and photography. I’ve been feeling either drained or hit a wall in terms of knowledge and want to expand it more.

For my writing, I want to try and recapture some of the fun and creativeness that I had when I first started many moons ago. I have some books including The Writer’s Way that has been recommended by a few people to help rekindle this. I’m also wanting to do other writings such as doing some history pieces, and more stuff on this blog. But of course, trying to find the time to do this will be one of the challenges.

As for the photography, I’m planning on doing some sort of online course and some reading to help me understand basic photography ideas, along with exploring various settings on my DSLR. I tend to shoot mostly in Auto without the flash and while it does deliver decent photos, I know that it is capable of more. I’m also wanting a new camera, a prosumer point-and-shoot to expand the possibility of taking more photos.

There are some long-term goals sprinkled in here such as working towards moving out of my parent’s house into my place. I have started saving up a fair amount of cash to cover a security deposit and a month’s rent, but I’m trying to aim for at least two to three months of rent to give a bit of a cushion. Also taking some sort of vacation is in the cards. Not sure where I want to go, but I do know it will be out of state.

That’s a wrap for this year’s postmortem. 2019 wasn’t a complete mess and hoping 2020 continues that trend.

[aquadeco]

Progress Update 4

Hey everyone!

It’s time for another “work-in-progress” update, a weekly post where I share my progress of making the AquaDeco mod. I’m almost caught up with the things I have yet to show you. So let’s close that gap!

Today it’s mainly about the “other things” you could find in an aquarium. I’m talking about the backstage areas, the stuff that goes on to keep the aquarium in good condition.

“Bench”

One idea I had floating around in that dark void, was a couch kind of a bench. The in-game vanilla benches, to me, seem mostly suited for outdoor use. Of course, they work on any path, anywhere, but I wanted something softer. More of a lounge-y feel. A couch or a large “Fatboy”.

Here’s (above) a screenshot of the first version. I went for a somewhat more generic design, so it is not only (visually) suited for peeps on beaches. In the image you can see that I’ve stacked a couple of the triangular benches over one another. You can’t really stack benches on the same tile, but the object is so big that two separate benches, connecting to a path corner, overlap.

Although I did like the cosy feeling of a pile of peeps enjoying a lolly.. this iteration didn’t work well, visually that is. The technical side worked fine, but there was a lot of walking/clipping through the object. I was happy with the direction though, so I started adjustments.

Here I’ve made the benches quarter (of one tile) sized. The idea is to be able to make you’re own bench, in a modular way. Or use them for in a diner, or a small toilet for instance.

Another issue came up with this though. Because the benches are placed on the sides of paths, they are offset from the center on the tile grid. Using quarters like this - and being able to pair the up next to each other to make a half, for example - ..it gets fiddly and confusing. It’s not clear to see where the origin of a placed piece is located, and you can easily replace one when accidentally stacked on the same tile. All in all, this design didn’t work as smoothly as I wanted it to be. I do really like the concept, I think this could be really neat and handy..

Talking about visually communicating; When they’re all side by side - and the majority is vandalized - it’s easier to see. But you might not have spotted that some benches, are also vandalized in the first image of the same scene that was shot a bit earlier in time. This is not very helpful. You should be able to see, clearly, what’s going on. This is especially true in a potentially busy theme park with lots going on on-screen.

To display vandalism, he vanilla benches get replaced by a “broken” model variant. This is something (currently, as I’m writing this) that I have yet to learn to implement. If that is possible at all, at this time.

Above you can see that I’ve tested to see if I could hide an object within the bench model. I did this to see if the hidden object would become visible when the bench gets vandalised and thus tilted at an angle. But sadly the object (the trapezoid/cube within the triangle) also tilts with the bench, as a single object.

Fingers crossed things like this will become easier to implement in the future when the modding tool gets an update. Until then, I’ll make the buttons on the couch fabric easier to see (if I didn’t remove them already in the last iteration - if so, I’ll add them, or some other detail), so the tilt is easier to spot. I also wanted to remove the border along the bottom, kept it for this reason (see below: the couch in the middle has one of four vandalized). But, this is the best I can do for now and I hope it works well enough!

Now your guests can have a bit more comfort as they enjoy your aquarium, cinema, theater, restaurant, museum, library etc. And I’ll add a non-triangle one in the meantime, if you want a “regular” version.

Right, enough about that bench! Still keeping it in the homeware realm with another way to chill.

Fans

When I think of the aquarium, a reptile house or any other indoor humid atmosphere at the zoo - or perhaps in an actual, real-life, outdoorsy, tropical climate (not the climate I’m in, or used to) - I remember how warm and humid it is (also, the smell). This might be not as common as a memory, but it is real (I convince myself).

Keeping theme parks in mind, combined with the warmth of the simulated exotic exhibits; I figured that we needed some air!

Aside from the table fan, there’s also a separate fan without a stand. Both can be resized and custom colored. In the image above you can see some tests of applications. Of course you can use the fans for keeping your waiting peeps cool in the queue, build a hovercraft, airship or perhaps using it as a wind effect in a dark ride or coaster. Anyway, you can use it for whatever!

Sadly, does not actually cool anything, it’s just decor. But, it definitely tries;

This was also to try out some other, less complex animations. Turns out, it works really well. I found a way to avoid the use of invisible collision triggers, which is amazing to know. Doing it this new way makes my animated objects selectable and recolor-able etc. in-game! It’s not a solution for all circumstances, but it’s a good way (easier for the player, as they function like any other object without special cases) to at least try to incorporate in all the animated assets (if the animation is not too complex).

Technical Equipment

If you want to keep your lovely livestock “a bit longer”, you will need to install some hardware to keep them happy!

Here are some pieces to cater to those needs. Instead of making very specific aquatic equipment, I chose to make it so you could build your own - or as a result use it for other things as well. :)

Above you can see a large reservoir, which would be the water filter and a metal foundation plate. Also, a basic metal cabinet, and a monitor screen. I still need to google to find out how these types of “electro technical closets” are called (please fill me in if you recognize something, I used no reference for these :P).

Ah yes, and you might have spotted the buttons and triggers. These could be placed on the cabinets, or be used somewhere else in the park in any combination. I will also add a “facing up” variant of each button and trigger. I mainly based these on how I remember coaster control booths (which is me saying, with no reference but my memory). I used no reference, mainly to not get caught up in too much detail, as they are quite small already. It, again, is more the idea of it, than the actual thing. But, if I missed a crucial part that’s missing, let me know!

One thing that I know is missing, is a water heater/cooler. And other equipments of basic aquarium keeping. Those are still on the to-do list! :)

If you actually hate machinery with a passion, and are only hear for the animals. Thanks for enduring, so much, and here’s something I worked on today:

Work in progress model of the (..or a) new shark! The model in the image here is not done, I’m working on optimizing the mesh and such (this was taken before that). After that will come the animation bit.. But that will be next time! I am still not caught up.

I’ll be on the Parkitect sub-Reddit or in the Discord for comments and such! :)

Thanks!

[dorothydelgadillo]

Why We Changed How We Develop Keyword Strategies (& You Should Too)

Have you ever gone on a trip and forgotten your running shoes?

If you’re like me, this is a top-five packing sin and can be a devastating realization as you sit on the plane or in your hotel knowing it is too late to fix.

At that point, I typically go through the five stages of grief quickly:

Denial: “My shoes must be in the suitcase, I just need to dig through, empty the whole thing out and look again.” Repeat process 5x  before acknowledging that the shoes are, in fact, not in the suitcase.

Anger: “How could I be so stupid? Now the whole trip is ruined!”

Bargaining: “Well maybe I could just do yoga in my room instead?”

Depression: “I guess I’ll just be stuck not doing any exercise for the next week…”

Acceptance: “Oh wait, my hotel has a pool. I should probably stop whining about my shoes and just use that instead.”

It is a pretty intense emotional roller coaster if I do say so myself.

Well, this emotional roller coaster is pretty similar to what plenty of people went through when HubSpot chose to remove its keyword tool. There was a lot of confusion, plenty of anger, and then finally, acceptance.

While it was a small example, the removal of the tool from HubSpot was just one of many indications that the tides were changing.

The Google Gods had clearly shifted the way they were working and past strategies for organic SEO efforts around keyword targeting were bearing less and less fruit. It was time for a change.

And thus, the new era of keyword strategies were ushered in, with keyword clusters being the wave of the future.

Why the Old Approach to Keyword Strategies No Longer Works

The old methods of building keyword strategies really touted the “long tail” approach.

Basically, you went and created a big list of individual keywords you wanted to target and got super specific with the topics you discussed.

However, this led to individual blog articles targeting individual keywords that often lived in a vacuum from the rest of your content or website pages.

This means you may have had a ton of great content spread across your website that was never connected, despite being highly related, or, on the flip side, you may have created a single piece of content about a keyword but never really expanded to show true through leadership on it by building more content around it.

All of the changes to Google’s algorithms have now made this approach somewhat obsolete.

Google now gives significant credit to websites that show knowledge or evidence of thought leadership on a more general topic area based on the amount of content they have produced related to that topic.

Thus, the birth of keyword clusters!

The Origin of  IMPACT’s Keyword Strategy Change

If you are a follower of our content, then you know we’ve been talking about pillar content for quite some time.

Our resident expert, Liz Murphy has discussed it on more occasions than I can count and led the charge in helping bring IMPACT to where it is today on the topic.

And this is really where our keyword strategy transformation journey began.

Note: If you’re interested in watching this movie from the beginning, you can go through all of her fantastic resources on pillar content listed below.

Strategy Tool: pillar content Workbook

Podcast: "Demystifying pillar content" with Justin Champion of HubSpot (Content Lab, Ep. 1)

Blog: pillar content Best Practices

Blog: pillar content Tips

As Liz taught our team more and more about pillar content, we realized our approach to keywords had to change, but the true inspiration for our revamped approach began as most ideas do: completely by accident.

We have a fantastic client, Very, that was ready to start taking the plunge into pillar content with us. Our primary point of contact, Emily Maxie, Very’s Director of Marketing, works hard to stay on the cutting edge while still focusing on very solid foundational strategies that will drive real, measurable results.

Thus, pillar content was a perfect fit for us to collaborate on in an effort to drive increased traffic to the website.

Given that Very has three main service areas in which they wanted to show thought leadership, we built three separate pillar content strategies to target each area.

We knew this would result in plenty of long-term efforts as each pillar content strategy involves far more than just a pillar page, but also a series of sub-topic blogs that will live as part of the cluster.

We decided to start tackling the creation of all of the content from different angles simultaneously.

We used all of the sub-topic blogs identified for the pillar strategies to fill our entire editorial calendar for the next quarter, so we could be working together to build the whole foundation for the eventual launch of the pillar pages. Plus, we’d be publishing great blog content, and in turn, killing two birds with one stone.

Because Emily and her awesome team of subject matter experts at Very are incredibly dedicated, and bought-in to the inbound methodology, they dove head-first into creating great blog content at a solid pace over the quarter.

I can’t stress enough that without this level of dedication, none of the results they’ve achieved would be possible.

The Results

What happened was nothing short of astonishing.

We saw a huge jump in organic traffic in the quarter that we tackled the blog editorial content for the three pillar strategies. In fact, Very’s website saw an 88% Quarter over Quarter increase in organic traffic from 8,886 organic visits in Q2 to 16,667 organic visits in Q3.

Blog views alone increased by 61% from 16,593 views in Q2 to 26,706 views in Q3.

In addition to looking at the raw traffic, we dove in and looked at how our rank changed on the keywords that drove most of Very’s organic website traffic.

Of the top 100 keywords driving traffic to the website:

73 keywords improved their ranking position.

23 keywords gained rankings where they had never had a ranking before.

Keywords included in the clusters improved by an average of 8 rank positions.

“Our strategy has always been to create high-quality content on the topics our customers care about. By focusing our content strategy around our target verticals in an organized and comprehensive way with keyword clusters, we've been able to drive revenue from organic sources like never before. It's incredible to see the results.”

Emily Maxie, Director of Marketing, Very

And do you want to know the kicker?

We hadn’t even launched any of the pillar pages yet.

A Cluster Mentality

All of this growth was simply from starting to create the supporting clusters of sub-topics!

All of our additional testing of pillar content indicates that these increases will only be magnified and multiplied by the launch of the actual pillar page.

Seeing these results even without that unifying pillar made it crystal clear that this strategy worked and perhaps we needed to change the way we approached all of our keyword strategies.

As a result of this, we dug in and did some serious research into content strategy and keyword strategy development and looked at results from similar strategies across our own website and other client websites.

Based on what we learned, we’ve completely rethought the way we approach keyword strategies for both editorial content and on-page website SEO.

We approach everything from the cluster mentality now, not just pillar content.

All of our keyword strategies are now designed in cluster form, resulting in content that supports our cluster ownership.

Our New Keyword Strategy Process

We’ve recently unveiled our new process for developing keyword strategies for our clients and we can’t wait to continue to watch client results grow and improve.

Our approach now follows the steps outlined below to provide the most traffic growth.

Step 1: Review Current Performance

The first step in any good keyword strategy is reviewing your current domain performance as well as that of your top competitors.

This allows you to determine which keywords you’re already ranking well for or those that drive significant traffic that you want to keep (or improve).

You want to identify low effort opportunities to get more of an impact from the keywords you already have done well at targeting.

For instance, we might notice that we rank somewhere in the top 15 for a high search volume topic.

This would be a great indicator of a keyword we could target with a topic cluster to very quickly increase our ranking position.

Step 2: Identify New Keyword Opportunities

Up next, you’ll utilize keyword tools like SEMRush or Keywords Everywhere to identify short-tail keywords (yes, short-tail!) that would be valuable to target.

You should grab a whole bunch of ideas for keywords, find related terms, and pull a bunch of data.

Then, analyze your data to find the keywords that have the best crossover of search volume and competition level.

These are the ideal targets because they’ll drive the most traffic while having the least competition for improved rankings.

Step 3: Select Appropriate Content Strategy for Each Keyword

Once you have your list of keyword opportunities, it is time to marry those with the right content strategy to properly target them.

Our research found the search volume of the keyword is the most important metric in deciding what content strategy will get the best results.

When we looked through the performance of past strategies, the greatest successes happened when used a specific content strategy at a specific keyword search volume range (e.g. between 150 and 300 searches per month showed better results with a blog series rather than a single blog).

Today, we break our strategies into four buckets: major keyword clusters, pillar content clusters, blog series, and long-form blogs.

Major Keyword Cluster: This strategy includes building a resources page that displays (and links to) content on a particular topic and includes at least one piece of pillar content in the listing. It is basically the step above a pillar content cluster.

Pillar Content Cluster: A pillar page is a piece of premium content that lives all on-page that is typically between 3,500-4,500 words long. It is aimed at a large search-volume keyword topic and a linking strategy between that main topic and at least 8-22 subtopic pages is required.

Blog Series: A blog series is a collection of at least two blog articles that target the same short-tail keyword. The structure of the post titles is typically "[Keyword]: [Blog Topic]".

Long-form Blog: A long-form blog is a blog post that is at least 1,000, more commonly 1,500, words long.

Step 4: Build Topic Clusters

Once you’ve identified the right strategies to target the individual keywords in your list, it is time to group related keywords into clusters.

You’ll build multiple clusters around each of the keywords identified as “major keyword clusters” and individual topic clusters under each pillar content cluster.

These clusters will be filled with the identified blog series and long-form blogs that are related to the major topic clusters.

Step 5: Prioritize and Build Content Calendar

Finally, you’ll take this great keyword strategy and the clusters you’ve grouped together and create an editorial calendar that breaks down any premium content that should be created, blogs that should be written, and past content that should be optimized.

We’d recommend prioritizing the clusters you tackle based on which clusters you have the most existing content to utilize.

This will allow you to launch the full cluster sooner and speed up the results you see.

Final Thoughts

All this information is great, but I’m guessing you’d like a more actionable series of steps that can really teach you how to implement this approach yourself. Am I right?

Well, because we love to eat our own dog food, we are currently in the process of building a piece of pillar content for you on exactly how you can execute this process, so stay tuned!

from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/why-we-changed-how-we-develop-keyword-strategies-and-you-should-too