Crafting surged during the pandemic. But experts believe there are benefits to up-close-and-personal crafting that an online quilting class just can’t replicate.
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Students at the storied Radnor High said their team symbol, the Red Raider, was racist and vowed to change it. Alumni fought back with surprising vehemence.
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The arena was filled with raucous spectators who, in tiered seating, surrounded the wrestling pit under. Camels were paraded in and out of the ring, dolled up in their greatest regalia, their elaborate saddles noting their names, origins and their trainers or proprietors.
Held in mid-January on Turkey’s Aegean coastline, the annual camel-wrestling pageant around the city of Selcuk almost overpowers the senses. When I attended the event in 2017, sausages sizzled on stalls bordering the arena old adult men chain-smoked cigarettes while sipping down beer or raki, a classic Turkish drink created with aniseed. There was the reduced din of chitchat, the occasional collective gasp and, of training course, the odor of moist camel’s hair and excrement. (The pageant was canceled this yr simply because of the coronavirus pandemic.)
Camels obviously wrestle in the wild, and staged matches aren’t permitted to get as well boisterous. A camel wins by producing its opponent scream, slide or retreat, and trainers remain close at hand to be certain neither party is hurt. Winners are rewarded with a mass-generated Turkish carpet, and, even with betting remaining unlawful, low-degree wagers typically just take position between enthusiasts, possibly in the form of a couple of beverages or a handful of Turkish lira.
Properly suited to desert disorders, camels were being utilised in medieval periods as pack animals together the Silk Street. They’re still made use of by nomadic tribes in a lot of Central and South Asia — in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. Occasionally they’re even now used in Turkey.
With a legacy rooted in historical Turkic tribes, the community of Turkish camel entrepreneurs, trainers and dromedary lovers is nonetheless vivid and aggressive. But the competition has come to be something of a specialized niche expression in present day Turkey. These days, it would seem to be as a great deal about socializing, gossiping and consuming as it is about the camels battling it out in the sand.
As a previous camel operator myself (extra on that afterwards), I was significantly eager to show up at the pageant because moving to Turkey virtually a 10 years in the past. Hip young Istanbul buddies moaned that the observe was an obscure and mawkish occasion, very similar to Turkish oil wrestling, anything that only travellers know or treatment of. To my shock, however, the spectators ended up almost all Turks.
The camel guys are a lively bunch and treatment deeply about their animals. Several trainers, this kind of as Yilmaz Bicak, slept with the camels overnight in a barn on the outskirts of city, to make sure their well-staying and deter burglars.
The animals employed in wrestling gatherings are acknowledged as Tulu camels — a breed that effects from mating a Bactrian (two-humped) camel with a dromedary (a single-humped) camel — and are bred exclusively for the competitions.
The camels wrestle at the time a working day, and every match lasts around 15 minutes — all over again, to secure the animals’ welfare. Right before moving into the ring, the male camels are brought close to a female camel, but the animals are not permitted to touch, ensuing in a sexual stress which the trainers say provides the males with additional power.
Camel wrestling has fallen in and out of favor over the years. Mostly discouraged in the 1920s, the practice noticed a rebirth in the 1980s, as desire in Turkey’s regular cultures grew.
Additional just lately, the occasions have appear under criticism by animal rights activists, who persistently claim that the party can be damaging to the camels.
As for my camel story: Back in 2007, as a youthful and carefree backpacker, I expended various months traipsing by way of Syria, my coronary heart established on exploring the barren lands and historic archaeological sites in the east of the place. Together the way, I bought Alfie, a gracious and handsome dromedary camel.
I’d at first prepared to trip to Petra, in southern Jordan, but, shortly soon after reaching Damascus, I struggled to get paperwork for Alfie to cross the Syrian-Jordanian border. Alas, Syrian paperwork prevailed, and, after declining an present from a Russian circus checking out Damascus, I was compelled to sell Alfie to a Bedouin family members. (Alfie has considering that been renamed Bradley and, final I read, continues to roam the eastern Syrian desert.)
As the festival draws to a shut, the stall holders marketing photographs, calendars, videotapes and typical camel paraphernalia pack up for the calendar year. The animals are loaded up on to large vehicles and driven back to their corner of the Aegean region, or even more afield, to put together for the next set of competitions.
Step-by-step SEO guide for 2021
When we talk about search engine optimization, it all comes down to creating an effective SEO strategy. The approach you take will directly influence the outcome. Now that online businesses profit the most, it is even more important to do this the right way. With that in mind, here is a helpful step-by-step SEO guide for 2021.
Coming up with a good SEO strategy
Doing SEO is more complex than you would initially think. If you don’t have a good strategic approach, you won’t be able to accomplish much. First, you need to create a solid plan about what you are trying to achieve. Then, you need to outline the most critical points of the plan. After that, we get to the implementation process. There are no workarounds. If you want to increase your organic traffic, there is a blueprint you need to follow.
Understanding SEO
There are two main types of search engine optimization:
- on-page SEO;
- off-page SEO.
Before you start anything, make sure you understand the difference between on-page and off-page SEO.
In a few simple words, on-page optimization involves every element you can physically include in your website. Examples are keywords, keyphrases, title tags, meta descriptions, headings, URLs, internal links, etc.
Opposite to that, off-page search engine optimization deals with things that are not directly on your website. That includes link-building strategies, social media sharing, brand building, guest posts, and so on.
To properly do optimization, you need to combine both of these SEO types. Luckily, this step-by-step SEO guide for 2021 will teach you how!
Start with a list of keywords
To create this guide, we spoke with a few SEO expert companies. According to wpfullcare.com, having a list of keywords is a good start. The list consists of short keywords and long keywords, where short ones usually have one or two words, and long ones have three or more. Keep in mind that longer keywords have less competition, so that might be a good way to create something unique that will point to your website.
Type in a few ideas in the search bar and see where that takes you. Play with combinations of words and try to come up with something simple but memorable. Having a list of 10 keywords is a good start.
Analyze your competitors on Google’s first page
When you have the list of your ten keywords, do a search query and look at the top 10 results. Google’s first page will show you competitor companies that already use those keywords. The goal here is to change a couple of combinations and improve the keywords so they describe your company more precisely. For example, the “shoes for men” keyword is not specific enough. However, if you add more words to it, like the location, age group, and category, you will come up with something more unique.
Remember that you need to spend some time playing with different combinations to see what works best for your website.
Optimize for voice search
Voice search was viral in 2020, and that trend is continuing in 2021. With that in mind, optimizing your website for voice search is crucial. It can bring you an edge over your competitors.
Focus on local SEO
The pandemic created a gap between people. Everyone is focusing on their local retailers because they are the closest. Furthermore, even if there weren’t the pandemic, you would still need to work more on your local SEO before expanding your business. You need a strong base before you tap into other markets.
On-page strategies will help you improve your local SEO, and that’s where your focus should be. This is an extensive topic. However, as long as you understand the gist of it, you will know what to do.
All of your keywords, titles, headings, and other on-page SEO elements should include location. Use the city name or even neighborhood. Let’s go back to the previous example of the “shoes for men” keyword. The phrase will be more impactful if it says “shoes for man LA
.” You need to optimize all of your content to be location-specific.
Optimize content to reflect search intent
The content you produce must fit into a category of whatever people are looking for. There is a reason why some articles do better than others. For example, 99% of the time, people need an answer to a question. Formulate your titles so that they reflect what people search for.
Furthermore, people tend to like lists more than walls of text. They are easier to read and more concise.
Here is an example of how to improve a title. If you come up with something like “SEO tips and tricks for your website”, that title will do okay. However, if you change it to “30 best SEO tips and tricks”, it will do much better. Understand the intent of people, and you will be able to give them what they want.
Link building, link profiles, and content sharing
The final part of this step-by-step SEO guide for 2021 is understanding how to increase website traffic and ranking. We need to discuss three terms:
- link profiles;
- link building;
- content sharing.
A link profile includes different types of links you must have on your website. They directly influence your rating. For example, a good link profile means you have a mix of relevant local and industry-specific backlinks and a balanced ratio between natural strong and weak links.
Once you understand link profiles, you will know how to properly do link building. Just avoid all paid forms of links or link farms because you need organic traffic.
Content sharing will help you in this. Utilize social media platforms and your customer base. By creating shareable content, you can use this type of SEO to build a brand and increase awareness about your business.
A step-by-step SEO guide for 2021 made easy
We hope that this step-by-step SEO guide for 2021 has everything you need to improve your website. Remember to take your time, focus on your clients’ needs, and mix different strategies to find the best approach. SEO cannot be done overnight; it is a process you need to revisit every week.
When I see my mom on the display screen keeping her very hot-pink, just one-pound dumbbells, I begin actively playing “Circle of Life” by the singer she calls “Elton Johns.” We start out with shoulder rolls followed by arm circles, primary facet techniques and — her favourite — ahead punches.
She’s wearing my brother’s cycling windbreaker from his university days practically a few many years in the past. It was usually significant but now swallows her like a trash bag.
Only a year ago, my stocky, 84-12 months-old mother could hike with me up steep San Francisco hills. But because the pandemic hit, she has shriveled, turn out to be wobbly on her feet, even fallen a number of instances. Now, on the display in her billowing chinos, she’s trying to exercising with me, but her moves are sluggish.
Suppressing my anguish, I shout above the music, “Can you carry your leg higher, Ma?”
Right before coronavirus, she and I took walks each weekend to a coffee store or to Lafayette Park, in which dogs played and locals practiced tai chi in opposition to the backdrop of San Francisco Bay. But it experienced been a calendar year considering the fact that my parents’ assisted living facility went on lockdown, meaning it experienced been a calendar year because she and I experienced observed each individual other in individual.
For the initial months, I would call a lot of occasions a working day to look at in. “Ma, are you Ok?” “Are you washing your fingers?” I would implore her to continue to keep her head and body energetic: “If you do not keep relocating, you will turn into a vegetable!” “Watch the information!”
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All over Thanksgiving, when it was clear we would not be able to get for the vacations, we begun to satisfy on FaceTime to physical exercise, which we refer to in her native Japanese as “taiso.” I speedily discovered that I couldn’t just phone and count on her to simply click the button on her laptop to join us. The method demanded phase-by-action directions, reminders and intricate organizing.
Very well before the pandemic, I experienced mounted a “mommy cam” in my parents’ apartment at the facility to keep an eye on them. My father, who is 85, has dementia and is unable to stroll on his own, and I fear about my mother far too. Now I make positive to examine out the movie feed in advance of calling to see if she is napping, undertaking laundry or tending to my ailing father.
If she’s no cost, I get in touch with and say, “Hi Ma! When shall we do taiso?” and remind her to obtain her reading through eyeglasses so when the laptop or computer fires up, she can see to push the appropriate options on the monitor. The digital camera allows me to see that she’s at her computer, but not what’s on the display.
“Ma, what do you see?” I inquire. “A black monitor? Something eco-friendly that suggests FaceTime?”
“FaceTime? What button?”
The initially handful of weeks I had to repeat instructions five or six periods. As I lifted my voice, my light and even-tempered mom would moan. Imagining messages from my perform colleagues accumulating in a further window, my heart level would increase.
“Can’t you see it?” I would say, recognizing I was demanding matters that she was getting rid of the ability to do and that I would regret lashing out.
On the times we link immediately, I savor the victory: “Good position, Ma! Received it on the 1st try out!”
She appears on my display screen in turquoise looking through eyeglasses that make her eyes cartoonishly substantial. Her tied-back again hair is a cap of white atop a layer of dyed black, a reminder of how lengthy it is been due to the fact she’s been able to stop by the salon.
Her desktop personal computer made use of to be her content spot. For hours she would electronic mail with pals or draft her subsequent tanka, a style of Japanese poetry. Prior to likely to bed, she would ship my brother and me emails, wishing us a restful slumber, nevertheless we may possibly have just spoken by cellular phone. Even as adult youngsters browsing her prolonged after we had moved out, she used to consider satisfaction in tucking us in, asking if we were being heat sufficient. Now, she does this for my father.
It only took a handful of months of lockdown for her to reduce all desire in her laptop or computer. When we commenced taiso, I had to remind her the place the power button was.
Now that we have been at this for months, she requires a lot less steerage. On superior days, we can get as a result of six or 7 tunes devoid of the Wi-Fi freezing up or the team interrupting or my father needing interest.
We really do not discuss significantly in the course of taiso. I product a transfer and she follows. We start with sluggish tunes and drop our weights for quicker new music. I entice her with “Circle of Everyday living.” She sways with arms over her head.
“This is a sad track,” she suggests, “but I like it. Is Elton Johns nonetheless alive?” And then, “Look, this arm does not go up as substantial.”
At times she embellishes my moves, fluttering her fingers like a silly ballerina. When she is in a significantly fantastic mood, she will wave her arms toward the ceiling, demanding a speedier track.
“Ma,” I say. “Can you do your washing device imitation?” She used to be a masterful mimic. With out hesitation, she will jiggle her trunk sideways, hands flailing at her sides, deadpan. No doubt, she nonetheless has it. “We’ll be performing that shift,” I say, “so fork out attention.” During the refrain of Donna Lewis’s “I Really like You Always Forever,” I shout, “Washing device!” and we shake our torsos in agitate manner.
In December, as we pumped our arms to “Do They Know It’s Xmas?” I remembered remaining a teenager and belting out that tune with large school mates. I was dropped into my childhood bed room — the peach-coloured carpet, the partitions plastered with Springsteen and Nike posters: “Just Do It.”
Again then, while the radio performed in our New Jersey home, Ma may possibly have been folding laundry on the couch, deep-frying battered veggies in crackling oil for tempura, or sprinkling cinnamon on espresso cakes she experienced baked.
Now, she is plodding in position with very small pink weights, viewing me with this sort of target that I have to keep back again tears.
I see numerous tales in my mother’s confront: her childhood in a shattered Japan through Globe War II the youngest and only girl of 4 siblings shedding her beloved mother to disease when she was 10 doing manufacturing facility do the job in The usa to help my father’s instructing profession at Rutgers obtaining taunted by co-workers for her accent and for eating rice balls for lunch.
The strains around her eyes converse of the a lot of several years she was up at 5:30 a.m. for her 90-moment commute into Manhattan wherever she was an business assistant. In the night, her perform continued at home, with hours of cooking, housework and parenting.
When I worked in the metropolis soon after college, she and I commuted collectively from household and once in a while fulfilled for lunch, taking in our rice balls on a window bench at the World Economical Middle. On distinctive occasions, we dealt with ourselves to the lunch buffet at the Hilton, where by we ate right until our skirts felt like girdles.
Now her furrowed brow betrays the frequent be concerned she has about my father, who has issue communicating his demands. Or her accumulated confusion from the extended isolation: “I really do not know what is heading on any more,” she says. “When will this be in excess of?” But in this instant of taiso, her deal with suggests: “I’m with you. I can do this.”
I seize the second. “Ma, can you continue to do your sea lion imitation?”
She begins, elbows glued to her ribs although her fingers sloppily slap jointly and her head bobs.
“Yes!” I say, and we’re each laughing.
At the conclude of a good session, she settles into her chair with arms splayed, closes her eyes and smiles.
“Great position, Ma!” I say, but what I want to do is keep her.
Taiso does not often go very well. When my mom is frustrated or puzzled, or when I am annoyed by her struggles with technologies, we grimace our way via the motions or we skip it. But I make the hard work practically each individual working day, with the hope of reviving a part of my mom that I fear we are dropping. Taiso doesn’t change our discussions or rid me of my ever-present paranoia, but it does give us a momentary reprieve, a sort of digital sanctuary.
If it weren’t for Covid, I never ever would have realized that my mother and I can have entertaining collectively without having actually staying in the exact same put. Lately, we have started out to function her sea lion moves into the starting of Madonna’s “Open Your Heart.” She is the mama sea lion, and I am the little one, and we are related no matter what.
We slap our arms together. “Am I performing it appropriate?” I say, and she nods.
For a 12 months, this was all we experienced. But this Mother’s Day, we’ll ultimately have so a great deal a lot more. A day jointly. In individual.
When you stand in the Chimanimani Mountains, it is tough to reconcile their present serenity with their beleaguered earlier. From the valleys underneath, tremendous partitions of gray stone rise earlier mentioned dense deciduous forests. Concealed among many crevices are historic rock paintings, designed in the late Stone Age by the San folks, also recognised as Bushmen they depict dancing guys and women of all ages, and hunting functions chasing right after elephants. There’s even a portray of a crocodile so monumental that it may possibly for good prevent you from the riverbank.
As you climb larger, towards Mount Binga, Mozambique’s highest peak, the forests flatten into expanses of montane grasslands. Wild, isolated, shed in time, it’s a put in which prosperous area traditions stay on, in which people still communicate about ancestral spirits and sacred rituals. A nearby guideline there after instructed me about a sacred mountain, Nhamabombe, exactly where rainmakers nevertheless go to make rain.
It’s not every single day that a place with a earlier rife with war and environmental destruction fulfills an ambitious conservation goal. But which is just what transpired past 12 months in Mozambique when, immediately after overhauling its environmental code, the region formally specified Chimanimani as a new countrywide park.
Mozambique has found its share of heartache, and Chimanimani is no exception. Immediately after the region attained independence from Portuguese colonizers in 1975, it was plunged into civil war. As numerous as one particular million Mozambicans died. So, too, did untold quantities of wild animals, which had been hunted for their meat or whose parts were being traded for weapons.
The Chimanimani Mountains became a frontline, and their mountain passes became transits for guerrilla troopers through equally the Rhodesian Bush War, which lasted from 1964 until eventually 1979, and the Mozambican Civil War, which stretched from 1977 until eventually 1992.
Situated on the Zimbabwe border about 90 miles southwest of Gorongosa, Mozambique’s most popular nationwide park, Chimanimani National Park marks the most recent triumph in an environmental renaissance for a country where, just 30 years back, armies have been continue to funding wars with the blood of poached wildlife.
Across the nation, Mozambique’s national parks authority, the Countrywide Administration of Conservation Areas, is performing with personal associates to bolster wildlife figures and restore ecosystem functionality. The most outstanding initiatives are in Gorongosa Countrywide Park.
In portion simply because of the country’s history of conflicts, Mozambique’s biodiversity is poorly researched, and biological expeditions have been sparse. Therefore, a very first action was to start two biodiversity surveys in Chimanimani, led by Dr. Piotr Naskrecki, the director of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Laboratory at Gorongosa, and funded by BIOFUND, a nonprofit committed to conservation, and Fauna & Flora International, an worldwide wildlife conservation firm. The expeditions involved experts from 7 international locations, which include many from Mozambique.
As a doctoral student completing my subject investigation in Gorongosa, I participated as the mammal expert on the yearly biodiversity surveys. Just after ending my Ph.D. in 2018, I shifted to a occupation in photojournalism. I went on my very last two biodiversity surveys in 2018 and 2019 — initially in Chimanimani’s buffer zone, then in the coronary heart of Chimanimani — as the photographer.
These surveys are like organic treasure hunts. Scientists, just about every with a distinct specialty, are let free in the landscape to unearth as many species as they can.
The mammalogists set digital camera traps for substantial mammals like antelope, live traps for small mammals like rodents, and mist nets for bats. The ornithologists arm on their own largely with binoculars, their ears and an astonishing memory for chicken tracks. By working day, the entomologists sweep their butterfly nets in the grassland and, by night time, normally stand at a gentle surrounded by clouds of insects, choosing them out of their hair and waiting for anything interesting to land.
The herpetologists, or reptile and amphibian specialists, shoot rubber bands to quickly stun lizards, dive into knee-superior drinking water just after agile frogs, and normally keep away from currently being bitten by venomous snakes although much away from healthcare care.
By contrast, the botanists have a tranquil activity: there’s a little something relaxing and practically stylish about strolling across the mountainside, inspecting stunning bouquets and urgent some in paper for posterity.
Biodiversity surveys are not for the faint of heart, and they cast a lot more than a tiny doubt on the strategy that researchers are all dull nerds in lab coats.
Through the a long time, I myself have been bitten by a tarantula, numerous bats, a mouse, plenty of bugs and even a (nonvenomous) snake. After, back in New Jersey immediately after a study, a health care provider flushed my ears when I complained of muffled hearing. Out poured dozens of very small, wax-entombed bugs in a variety of shapes and dimensions. (The gurus normally dress in plugs in their ears when standing at the insect mild for this actual rationale.)
There is a little something about this modify of speed that I’ve constantly found immensely captivating. In the great Chimanimani mornings, the scientists who did not have to be up ahead of dawn chasing their species would lounge, sipping fast coffee from plastic mugs and seeing the clouds solid shadows on to the large rock dome.
Featuring a various set of rare and endemic avian species, Chimanimani is a fowl-watcher’s paradise. At Rio Nyahedzi, a camp some 4,000 feet earlier mentioned sea level, the survey’s ornithologists discovered the bokmakierie, a bird that was last found in Mozambique in the 1970s. (Nyahedzi is shut to Mount Binga, which lies directly on the border concerning Mozambique and Zimbabwe.)
As the park gets more consideration, it will also catch the attention of hikers and rock climbers. Some of the park’s most wonderful waterfalls are 15 miles from the nearest highway, and you can hike for times without having looking at a different human staying. The park vibrates with solitude, experience and discovery.
At the stop of the two surveys, scientists in Chimanimani experienced discovered more than 1,400 species: 475 plants, 43 mammals, 260 birds, 67 amphibians and reptiles, and at minimum 582 species of bugs. Some are new to science.
“It was amazingly effective as a swift study,” explained Rob Harris, of Fauna & Flora International’s Mozambique system, emphasizing that the discoveries took area in a somewhat short time period of time.
The outstanding range uncovered by the surveys is only a section of what is known. As a entire, the Chimanimani Mountains are recognised to contain almost 1,000 plant species by itself. Seventy-6 plant and animal species are endemic to the Chimanimani Mountains, meaning they exist nowhere else on Earth.
Like all wild areas, Chimanimani’s upcoming is everything but specific. Endemic species are significantly threatened by local climate improve due to the fact of their restricted assortment, they do not have anywhere else to go as disorders turn into unsuitable. And human population advancement will keep on to jeopardize the fringes of the park. “The deforestation outdoors the park and in the buffer zone was alarming,” mentioned Zak Pohlen, an ornithologist.
But as I reflect on these surveys and my time in Mozambique, I cannot support but truly feel total of hope. I am influenced every single working day by the passion of youthful Mozambican conservationists to safeguard their country’s disappearing wilderness. And most of all, I’m encouraged by their optimism.
Just one of the targets of these surveys is to coach youthful Mozambicans to acquire about management roles in conservation. Ana Gledis da Conceição, a Mozambican mammalogist, for instance, spent numerous years assisting me in surveying mammals by 2019, she was co-main the mammal staff with Mnqobi Mamba, a master’s student at the College of Eswatini.
Ms. da Conceição states she’s specifically where by she’s supposed to be — a youthful scientist who fights for the conservation of biodiversity. “I want to invite youthful persons like me to embrace this bring about for the great of all of us,” she stated.
“In spite of anything,” she included, “Mozambique has considerably to lead to the long run of conservation.”
Types of Google ranking drops and how to handle them
Google rankings are not set in stone. Through dedication and effort, you can drastically improve them. But once you reach the top of the page, it becomes tricky to stay there. Just like your ranking can improve, it can also deteriorate. A variety of different factors can cause Google ranking drops. How you deal with them will depend on the type of drop you’re experiencing. So, let’s take a closer look at some of the most common types of Google ranking drops and how to handle them.
When should you be worried about Google ranking drops?
Before you start panicking at the sight of your suddenly low ranking, consider this: fluctuation is normal. Between the work that you put in and the things
others in your niche do, you cannot expect your position on the results page to never change. It’ll go up and down occasionally, even frequently. This is not necessarily a cause for concern. It is so common it even has a name – the Google dance. So, take a moment to assess the situation. Is the drop a long-lasting one? Is it significant (meaning more than just a couple of positions)? Have your rankings dropped across multiple keywords? Is there a particular competitor that is overtaking your positions? These could be signs of a severe ranking drop that must be handled before it becomes a problem.
Make sure that the Google ranking drops you’re seeing are not just a part of the standard Google dance.
Google ranking drops caused by your practices
SEO is known to improve Google rankings well. Most on-page and off-page SEO tactics specifically aim to do so. But sometimes, they can backfire and cause you to make a mistake that costs you a good position in the search results.
You’ve made changes to your website
As a part of regular maintenance, you will sometimes make significant changes to your website. Perhaps you’ve changed your domain name or switched from HTTP to HTTPS. Maybe you’ve just done some reorganizing. Either way, this can cause increased downtime, poor link structure, lack of mobile optimization, and general errors. In the case of updates, these are often just temporary problems you resolve as you settle into your new website. But when left unaddressed, they can negatively affect your ranking.
- What can you do about it? First, find out what the problem is by analyzing your website using Google Search Console. If the problem is something you can fix, like error pages, do so. If downtime is caused by maintenance, your ranking should go back up on its own. Finally, if the issue is so severe that you cannot fix it, restore an older version of the website.
You’ve incurred a penalty due to suspicious practices
There is no one right way to practice SEO. But there are certainly many wrong ways to do it. If you do things like link spamming, keyword stuffing, article spinning, or try to trick search engine bots, you can get penalized. While these so-called grey and black hat SEO practices can have short-term benefits, the penalties they incur can set you back dozens of positions and even get you blacklisted.
- What can you do about it?Stick to white hat SEO, and you’ll avoid penalties. If you’ve already received a fine, stay away from grey or black hat SEO in the future.
Being investigated for bad SEO practices can severely hurt your rankings and reputation.
Google ranking drops caused by outside factors
It’s possible that you’re doing everything right and still experiencing a significant drop in rankings. This could be due to the behavior of your competitors, users, or business partners.
A competitor outranks you
One of the reasons why your position might suffer on the results page is because someone else has risen to your place. Your competitor may have managed to drastically improve their local SEO, go viral on social media, or successfully market a new product launch. This is why you can never rest on your laurels in SEO – staying on top requires constant work.
- What can you do about it? The first thing you’ll want to do is identify the competitor or competitors who now outrank you. Then, analyze what they’ve been doing recently that’s made them so successful. Finally, apply what you’ve learned from them to your website and further improve on it.
User behavior changes
Google’s goal is to serve up results its users will like. So, when what the users are looking for changes, so do the Google results. If you were, for example, relying on traffic from long-tail keywords and your users suddenly start searching for short-tail keywords, you’re likely to see a drop in rankings.
- What can you do about it? Unfortunately, user behavior is unpredictable and entirely out of your control. The only thing you can do is to perform in-depth market research regularly and adjust your practices accordingly.
You’ve lost backlinks
Backlinks from other websites can significantly improve your ranking by contributing to your authority and directing traffic to your pages. But what happens if you are suddenly left without them? If the websites that host your backlinks remove them or simply go down, this can cause a severe drop in rankings for you.
- What can you do about it? Find out why you’ve lost backlinks. If the host website is still up, contact the administrator and ask them to reinstate your links. If not, look for ways to gain new backlinks. A quick and easy way to promote your brand and improve your rankings can be to hire a professional like AZ Citation Services and get listed in business directories.
Google ranking drops caused by the search engine
Finally, you cannot forget arguably the most significant factor in your rankings – the search engine itself. Google is constantly working on improving its search results, and some of the changes implemented can affect your ranking.
The algorithms have changed
Google is constantly fine-tuning its algorithms to become even better at locating what its users are after. Although these changes are usually minor, they can affect your rankings if they happen in an area that is particularly important for your SEO.
- What can you do about it? Not much – Google will change its algorithms as it sees fit. Your best bet to maintain or recover rankings after these changes is to follow the latest news from technology and SEO, learn how the new algorithms work, and adjust your practices.
Changes in algorithms are often minor, but they can have major consequences for your ranking.
The search results page has changed
Although this doesn’t happen very often, drastic changes to Google’s search results page can affect rankings. This happened when Google introduced rich snippets or started favoring multimedia content. If you don’t have the element Google starts featuring, you’re likely to drop lower on the results page.
- What can you do about it? Once again, follow the updates and adjust your practices to the new results page.
You can’t entirely avoid ranking drops, so learn how to handle them!
There is no way to avoid Google ranking drops entirely – not only are they often dependent on factors that are out of your control, but they’re also perfectly normal and expected. So, what you need to do instead is prepare for them. It’s a good idea to regularly track your ranking so you can spot changes in time. Learn to recognize severe drops that need to be addressed. Finally, make sure to identify the causes for the drops you’re experiencing and then develop a strategy to deal with them.
The difference between on-page and off-page SEO
Search engine optimization is one of the most important factors in running a successful online company. It can make or break not only your website but your business as well. To become a master at SEO, you need a lot of time, experience, and patience. Furthermore, you must understand all aspects of SEO. To help you in this learning process, let’s talk about the bread and butter of website ranking – the difference between on-page and off-page SEO!
What is on-page SEO?
As the name suggests, on-page SEO includes everything that happens with your website. Before we start explaining different elements of on-page SEO, let’s answer one question; how to do SEO and why??
SEO is necessary if you wish to make your website available to the people looking for the services you provide. When they do a search query for anything, the search engine returns multiple results. Since there are millions of websites out there, how does the engine pick who to show at the top of the list?
While we do not know how the algorithm works, we can safely conclude that it picks better websites. That’s why on-page SEO plays such a crucial role in rankings. You must optimize elements on your website better than your competitors.
Page title tags
Whenever you open a page in the browser, you will see the page name on the tab. That’s the title tag of the web page. The search engine uses this field to return the correct page from a query.
Meta description
The meta description was one of the more relevant on-page SEO factors, but it lost some value over time. It tells the engine what the page is about. Today, if a page is missing a meta description, Google will create one. However, that does not mean you should skip this step. Always add a meta description to your pages.
Keywords and keyphrases
Keywords and phrases are a crucial part of on-page SEO optimization. People use keywords to search for things, and every website should have a list of potential phrases they may type into the search engine. Today we have a vast number of SEO tools that will help you create the best keywords for your website.
SEO friendly URLs
Naming URLs needs to be done in the right way. Creating an SEO-friendly URL is essential for ranking high on Google. Never use a generic URL for a page; instead, give it a meaningful name that can tell the user what the page is about.
Internal links towards other pages on your website
If you are running a blog, it is smart to link to other areas of your website. This is called internal linking, and it is one of the elements of on-page SEO. Remember that internal links are an essential strategy to improve local SEO. A blog is a perfect channel to talk about local events and news while informing people about the different services you offer.
Tags for headings
While we are on the subject of optimizing blogs, it is crucial to mention headings for tags – H1, H2, H3, and so on. The priority of these tags is important, and you should use them to display headings, subheadings, and titles of articles. Furthermore, these tags also exist as a part of the HTML code. The entire website is written with these tags, and you should use them properly to display navigation menus, names of the pages, and so on. They are built to work as a hierarchy structure, with H1 being the tag with the most significance.
What is the best way to properly maintain on-page SEO?
Besides reading about the difference between on-page and off-page SEO and learning more about the optimization process, it is a good idea to turn to WP Full Care or other similar professionals. They can design your website with style, ensure that all SEO factors are satisfied, and regularly maintain the pages.
Understanding the difference between on-page and off-page SEO will allow you to use multiple elements to improve your website ranking.
What is off-page SEO?
If you followed everything until now, you probably have a pretty good guess about what off-page SEO is. This type of optimization includes all elements and factors that are not physically on your website. An important thing to remember is that you don’t have a lot of influence on what happens with the off-page SEO because it also depends on other people. With that in mind, remember to make the on-page SEO spotless!
Link building
The most obvious example of off-page optimization is link building. You form partnerships with other healthy websites and build a base of backlinks that lead back to your homepage. The more mentions you have, the higher your website ranks.
Social media sharing
Another indirect way to increase the traffic and hours people spend on your website is to share posts, comments, and events on social media. Social media activity is an excellent example of how the results are not entirely in your hands. You can post, be active, and talk to people, but you never know what kind of impact it will have.
Guest posts
Hiring freelance writers or publishers from other websites to post for your blog is a good way to strengthen off-page SEO. When they submit quality content that leads to other verified sites, your website becomes a database of facts and information. Both are highly valued on Google’s list of SEO factors.
Brand building
If you wish to build a brand out of your business, everything comes down to publicity. The more people talk about your business, the better. With that in mind, it is crucial to find ways to mention your brand across the internet. While it builds your company, it also contributes to your website ranking.
The difference between on-page and off-page SEO explained
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of the difference between on-page and off-page SEO. Here is a quick summary:
● on-page optimization includes all elements located on your website;
● off-page SEO is everything that is not a part of your website;
● when it comes to on-page SEO, you have full control over it. Off-page SEO depends a lot on outside factors;
In the end, it is vital to equally work on building both types of SEO, not focus only on one. It is good to know the difference between on-page and off-page SEO, but you should never prioritize one over the other!
On-page Strategies to Improve Your Local SEO
Improving your website can be done in many ways. All of the approaches you take can be divided into two categories – on-page and off-page SEO. The main difference is that, with on-page SEO customization, you have full control of what goes on your website’s pages. Simultaneously, the off-page process mostly refers to your website’s ranking based on its popularity and authority. With that in mind, let’s look at the best on-page strategies to improve your local SEO.
Focus on the keyword frequency and keyword position
When you start researching ways to optimize SEO for a website, the first thing you learn is the importance of keywords. Keywords tell search engines that your website focuses on a specific topic. As a result, people interested in what you are offering will be lead to your site.
When writing articles for your blog, always remember to use the keyword in the first 100 characters. Furthermore, the keyword should also be present in at least one heading or subheading, alt and caption attributes for images, in the last paragraph, and a couple of additional times throughout the article.
Keyword frequency helps Google understand the content of the article. If the frequency is low, the article will look too vague.
Set proper tags
Every article is divided into sections and subsections. The three most essential parts of an article are the title, headings, and subheadings.
As a rule of thumb, the title should always be set within the H1 tag. Headings should carry the H2, and subheadings the H3 tag. This is the correct way to build a structure within your articles. Optimized headings can be of great help in boosting the overall ranking of your website.
Use external links to turn your website into a hub of valuable content
When browsing the web, the number one way to end up on another website is by clicking on external links. While the goal is to keep visitors on your website, you have to understand they have a wide array of interests. If they are going to leave your website at one point, you do everything you can to send them to another quality website.
Whenever you are referencing other websites in your articles, make sure that they are verified. This is a great way to present your website as a hub that will help visitors find valuable content, no matter where they are.
Still, a word of caution. Even though link building is one of the most effective on-page strategies to improve your local SEO, remember not to overuse external links. This is not a viable way of promoting your website. The ratio between internal and external links should be 65% to 35%.
URL structure
Here is one of the on-page strategies to improve your local SEO that often gets overlooked. When you visit a page, study what the URL looks like. If you are visiting a blog, it will look something like this.
“https://yourwebsite.com/blog/categories/category_name/this-is-an-article-title”
This is an example of a well-structured URL. Have this in mind when building URLs for your articles. The structure of your website plays an important role, so pay attention to these three things:
- always honor website structure
- build shorter URLs
- use the keyword in every URL
Focus on the quality of the content above all
No matter how well-made your website is, no one will spend time on it if you don’t have quality content.
Quality content is your best on-page strategy to improve your local SEO. To create something unique and interesting to the readers, take a look at these tips:
- valuable content must offer a solution to a problem
- it should be concise, well-structured, explanatory, and easy to follow
- do not use unverified sources for your content
- pay special attention to the grammar and the overall writing style
- stay informed on the latest technologies, trends, and topics of interest
- use images and videos to add visual and audio elements to your content
- hire experts to help you write compelling articles
If you follow all of these suggestions, you will do more for your website’s SEO than by using any other approach. Readers like quality; if you provide them with it, they will continue to return.
Create article titles that attract attention
If an article title is not interesting enough, no one will click on it. One of the most effective ways to create an article title is to use the how to prefix. Readers already know that the article will be instructional and will help them learn to do something.
We’ve already mentioned earlier that quality content offers a solution to a problem. That’s why having a question in the title plays such a crucial role.
Image optimization
The last piece of the puzzle is image optimization. This is such a wide topic of discussion, but here are a couple of important pointers:
- The size of the images should be between 70-100 KB. This helps your website load faster.
- Remember to always use the correct format for an image. For example, the logo should always be a vector, made out of solid colors and simple shapes. You should only use JPG and PNG if you want more depth and texture.
- The alt attribute should explain what the image shows, and the caption should be an interesting description associated with the image and the corresponding paragraph.
- All images should be clear and sharp, with good use of contrast.
- Never use images that are not free for use, unless you pay for them.
On-page strategies to improve your local SEO made easy
And there you have it, a few simple and effective on-page strategies to improve your local SEO. These approaches produce the best results when combined. With that in mind, do not focus on just one strategy, but try to mix them, and find a combination that works best. Good luck!
Fran Tirado is producing queer content and only queer content. “I’m just so uninterested in making anything that is not for queer-trans audiences,” he said.
At Netflix, his job title is brand and editorial strategy lead for L.G.B.T.Q. content. That means developing concepts for shows like “I Like to Watch,” in which two drag queens watch and talk about Netflix programming; working with a group of content creators for the company’s @Most social channel; and keeps tabs on the promotional campaigns for shows and movies. He also has a podcast, “Food 4 Thot,” about “sex, identity, culture, what we like to read and who we like to read.”
Mx. Tirado — who previously worked in magazines as the deputy editor of Out and the executive editor of the now-defunct Hello Mr. — once split his time between New York and Los Angeles, but is riding out the coronavirus pandemic on the West Coast. “Trying to fabricate a kind of intimacy digitally with talent, and with our content, is tough,” he said.
“Queer and marginalized people are historically resilient and have a proven track record of thriving in the face of adversity, pandemic and crisis,” Mx. Tirado added. “I know that we will come out of this thing stronger than ever, and it will be the most marginalized that lead the charge on creative ways we used our time and produced digitally despite it all.
“We’ve already seen so much of it, and it’s just going to get better.”
Monday
6:45 a.m. Getting up has been difficult. Normally I’m awake a little earlier, but only to go to a 7 a.m. exercise class down the street, where I pay so that hot Australians can yell at me while I do circuit training. That gym is obviously closed, so I lie in bed like a swollen burrito. Diana Ross’s “It’s My House” is the alarm blasting from my Google Home, and it jeers with irony.
7:20 a.m. Part of my quarantine mania has manifested in an increasingly elaborate skin care routine.
7:40 a.m. I stay in my pajamas, turn off my phone and start writing for a completely uninterrupted time, a ritual I started for quarantine and definitely was not disciplined enough to do before.
I’m working on my own TV pilot and a feature, joining the ranks of every other clichéd gay in Los Angeles. This week, I’m working only on the feature — a gay wedding rom-com I had the idea for when I was 19. I heat up a piece of coconut chocolate-chip banana bread I made and spread cream cheese and blackberries on it.
9:40 a.m. I prep for the day’s meetings and get dressed for work, which is one of the primary things I do to stay not-depressed. I Slack my agency to make sure a trailer debut is going up on time for “Circus of Books,” a Ryan Murphy documentary about a historic gay pornography shop that is on the same block as my apartment. I literally get to talk about gay porn as my job, like, what is life?
10 a.m. Weekly meeting with the writers in New York who run our L.G.B.T.Q. social channel, @Most. We talk through some key beats, titles and moments planned for the days ahead.
11 a.m. Meeting with the entire editorial team. I’m delighted to report that my new at-home office setup has the prettiest window light ever for videoconferencing.
Noon Catch-up with the team running Ryan Murphy projects to talk through production updates.
1 p.m. Finally catch a break and eat a smoothie for lunch (insufferable).
2 p.m. Meeting with my core team — a group of people who do the same job as me for other marginalized audiences.
3:30 p.m. At this point, my brain is leaving with or without me. I chug a matcha and a protein bar to try to power through an hour of absolutely zombied emailing. I’m working on two more project announcements and three premieres. I also sent some emails about this weekend’s recording of my podcast.
6 p.m. Working out at home is the most difficult part of my day, largely because it’s very hard for me to do exercise without someone yelling at me. I paid my trainer to give me daily workout regimens at home, and he checks in with me. Today is upper body, and I hate every moment of it.
7 p.m. FaceTime my partner. He’s in New York for work, and it’s hard for me to talk about. We’ve been FaceTiming most days until he can come back to L.A., hopefully within a month.
11:30 p.m. I am too high to do my nighttime skin care route. Time for bed!
Tuesday
6:50 a.m. Cold brew, skin care, gay music. I am the proud owner of 41,939 overpriced candles, so I light one to get going.
10:25 a.m. I’ve run out of sticky notes. I throw on some day clothes and hop into my first meeting of the day, talking through new plans for Netflix’s Pride initiative. Luckily, only one component of our campaign has been disrupted by the virus.
Noon Go out for a walk to get some Post-its. I FaceTime my partner on the way. On the way back, I FaceTime a friend who lives down the street to consult on a queer music project he’s working on.
4 p.m. Call a friend in New Orleans who needs help with a podcast project. As you can tell, I do a lot of free business and marketing consulting for friends. I don’t mind doing it, so long as it’s for queer and trans people.
7:15 p.m. After showering, it’s time to make a tomato galette. I have perfected the flaky basic pastry after almost a decade of practice. (I used to be obsessed with making pies, after my first viewing of “Waitress.”)
7:30 p.m. My friends who run WNYC’s “Nancy” podcast text me about co-hosting the premiere of “The Half of It,” a wonderful queer Asian coming-of-age film we have coming out.
9:20 p.m. I’ve been watching TV every night of quarantine, and I am at peace with that. My promise to myself is to watch only new things I haven’t seen before, so my brain remains active.
When I watch pilots or films, I take out a sheet of paper and write out the script’s beats to learn how they are written. I’ve just started “The Good Fight” and am addicted in an unprecedented way.
9:50 p.m. Late dinner. I drizzle olive oil and add salt, pepper and fresh basil onto this bad boy. (The galette.) The edible has hit, a triumph.
Wednesday
7:20 a.m. Up late. I have a standing very early meeting on Wednesdays with folks on the East Coast. I brush my teeth and throw on some terrible clothes, logging on just in time with cold brew in hand.
11:30 a.m. I’m realizing today is on fire and I will not get time to myself to write. I take a selfie and send to Twitter to validate.
1:30 p.m. Call with a writer to debrief on a script he’s working on about the history of gay porn.
2:30 p.m. Meeting for the debut of Ryan Murphy’s “Hollywood” — we discuss digital premiere possibilities.
3 p.m. Weekly task force to discuss the upcoming season of “Queer Eye.”
3:30 p.m. Call with New York magazine — they’re working on a coffee-table book, and I’m contributing a “queer guide” to the city. I miss New York.
6 p.m. After a bunch of emailing, I’m supposed to do my workout, but I truly cannot find the strength. Somebody said something about a burger earlier today, and now all I can think is burger, burger, burger. Time for a grocery run.
Thursday
6:45 a.m. Our chief executive is doing an early-morning Q. and A., but I skip it to write.
9:52 a.m. I’ve finished another breakfast sandwich just in time to log into a town hall of sorts with the C.E.O. of Glaad and listen to her talk about how L.G.B.T.Q.+ communities have been coping with Covid-19.
10:30 a.m. Fairly light schedule today: a meeting for the “Queer Eye” trailer, a “Circus of Books” premiere and a weekly catch-up with my boss.
5:25 p.m. Today got busy, with asks left and right, as well as some script editing. I’m now 25 minutes late to game night with my chosen family, who are all playing on Zoom without me. To be honest, I hate games. But I am so happy to see their faces and share space with them. We play for two hours, and it’s actually quite fun.
10 p.m. Going to bed, I realized I skipped my workout and spiral only a little.
Friday
7:20 a.m. I start the day with Dolly Parton, who is a bit of a muse for my feature, which is about a new-money family of wealthy ranchers.
9:15 a.m. I turn on the new Fiona Apple album and make “protein pancakes” with blueberries, blackberries, bananas, almond butter, granola and honey. Bacon on the side and grapefruit juice.
10 a.m. My birthday is soon, so I’m doing a little planning for a digital fund-raiser for Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in New York.
11 a.m. I’m on my friend Aminatou Sow’s podcast, “Call Your Girlfriend.”
4:58 p.m. I rush the hell out of my last email for the day so I can watch “Drag Race” with my chosen fam — we watch the episode together and talk the whole time in our group chat.
Interviews are conducted by email, text and phone, then condensed and edited.