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#June Thorax
tooneychaos · 5 months
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Did another meme! Wanted to add more detail/frames but Krita said no :(
Regardless, hope you enjoy these weird bugs
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libraryofmoths · 2 months
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Moth of the Week
Bird-Cherry Ermine
Yponomeuta evonymella
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The bird-cherry ermine is a part of the family Yponomeutidae, the ermine moths. It was first described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus. It was originally placed in the genus Phalaena but was later transferred to the genus Yponomeuta, becoming Yponomeuta evonymella. This species’ common name comes from their main food plant: Bird Cherry.
Description This moth has a white thorax, head, and forewings. The forewings have five horizontal lines of small black dots, and a few black dots are also on the back of the thorax. The hindwings are shorter and wider than the forewings and are a beige/light brown color. Both the forewings and hindwings have a fringe on the end however, the forewings’ white fringe is short and only on the outer margin while the hindwings’ brown fringe is all over the hindwings’ edges besides the parts touching the forewings. Additionally the hindwings’ fringe is longer on the bottom of the wing. This moth’s thin and wiry antennae are two thirds the length of the forewing and are usually white.
Wingspan Range: 16 - 25 mm (≈0.63 - 0.98 in)
Diet and Habitat This species’ caterpillars mainly feeds on Bird Cherry (Prunus padus), but they also occasionally feed on cherry (Prunus) or buckthorn (Rhamnus). They are known to sometimes be pests of the bird-cheery because the caterpillars pupate and feed together in web like nests that can cover whole trees. This web keeps them protected and allows them to eat mostly unbothered by other insects and predators. The tree is still likely to survive after this, but may grow less in the following growth season/spring. Adults feed on nectar.
This species can be found in Europe and the northern and eastern parts of Asia. They live in many habitats such as river lowlands, deciduous forests, alluvial forests, stream banks with bushes and trees, gardens, parks, and more. Strangely according to Butterfly Conservation, this moth can be found “often far from the known foodplant.”
Mating This moth is seen in June to September and has only gerarion per year. Females let their eggs on the winter buds of their food plants.
Population sizes fluctuate, but it’s not uncommon for mass outbreaks of caterpillars to happen, which results in defoliated trees.
Predators This species is preyed on by parasitic wasps and seems to have few other predators.
Fun Fact This moth is attracted to light. Additionally when disturbed, this moth can skip away and falls to the ground. Note: this second fact does not currently have a citation on Wikipedia so it may be disproven in the future.
(Source: Wikipedia, Butterfly Conservation)
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hive-sight · 8 months
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Changes 3 and Authorization
Sentients, greetings and gratitudes! This one has news!
Lumina has come to this one and has expressed an interest in pursuing first contact with the Terrans of Sol-3 sometime in the near future. Lumina stresses that, were it not for Raxor showing them Terran media of encounters with extra-planetary entities, that the contact would likely be immediate.
This is a pronounced change in Lumina that this one had not expected! Jumping into the research as they did, this one had expected first contact to be approaching, however, for Lumina to take the concerns of their crewmate into consideration… It is simply unlike any Thalorix behavior this one has seen. It is… refreshing.
On a more personal note, Lumina has started incorporating Terran mannerisms into their speech and body language. They have begun gesticulating with their primary arms, crossing their secondary arms at about the middle of their torso. They have begun referring to themselves as “I” as the Terrans do.
That there is no issue with this must be stressed. It is a logical step to take in the effort of making the eventual meeting with the Terrans go peacefully. Matching actions and speech with a sentient is the typical step taken in order to begin building relations. It just typically takes a more significant amount of time.
Following will be the transcript of the crew meeting in which Lumina approved first contact.
—Transcript Start—
Elysia:       The date is 4682C 4A 6L, time is one quarter Xylopthia rotation. The assigned Thalorix, Lumina has called the crew together to discuss first contact. Absent is the assigned Xyndri, Voxen. Present are, the assigned Ithorin, Elysia, the assigned Valkorin, Raxor, and the assigned Thalorix, Lumina. This one now passes control of the meeting to Thalorix Lumina.
Lumina:     I thank you Ithorin Elysia. As you have, no doubt, noticed, I have delved deep into my own research of the sentients of Sol-3. While you, Elysia, sought to find how they had become what they are, and you, Raxor, sought to identify any threat they may pose, I investigated who they are. What separates them from us, and what separates one of them from any other one.
*Lumina places the hand of one of their primary arms on the juncture between their abdomen and thorax*
Lumina:     Obviously, given their lack of biological castes, finding this degree of difference between individuals was difficult. Outside of varying changes in color, the Terrans do heavily resemble each other.
Raxor:       By the Queen’s left wing is that an understatement! Can’t tell one from the next myself!
Lumina:      Valkorin Raxor, please.
Raxor:       Apologies Thalorix.
Lumina:     My conclusion may seem… controversial. Please hold any questions until my explanation has finished. When I look at humanity as, instead of a species, but as a singular caste, I find the differences in individuals to be nearly identical to the differences between any two members of the same caste of our own species. Elysia, you rather enjoy combing over cycles of data correct?
Elysia:       Correct. This one finds such data analysis to be soothing.
Lumina:     But Ithorin Permisia does not. Also correct?
Elysia:       Permisia does tend to enjoy a more ‘up close’ approach yes. Prefers to be on-site to make new discoveries.
*Lumina dips their antennae*
Lumina:     Terrans are much the same.
—Transcript End—
This one believes that Lumina is trying to convey that the crew should begin looking at Terrans at more of an individual level. But this one is unsure. Please, if any of you Sentients have a perspective, inform this one. This one could not bear to be the reason for the failure of this mission.
In addition, if any among you have questions, this one would be happy to answer.
On this, XD 4682C 4A 7L, TD 17th of June, 2030, Elysia of Xylopthia is looking forward to more glorious interaction, and signing off.
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diiiptera · 11 months
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Found a little scarab but his thorax is a bit messed up so I can't really tell if he's a June beetle or an emerald euphoria beetle, anyone got an idea?
He couldn't really walk too good so I'm gonna take care of him for a bit :)
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ifaabeyo · 9 months
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Ogún's days of the week are Tuesday and Wednesday, and the 4th day of every month. His feast day is June 29, coinciding with that of Saint Peter. His numbers are combinations of 3 and 7. His eleke (necklace) consists of alternating green and black beads. In some lineages, Ogún's necklace also takes purple, brown or red beads mixed in with the green and black. His priests sometimes wear an achabbá (metal charm bracelet or anklet with tools, machetes, keys, locks and other pieces of metal hanging from it.) Traditionally, Ogún lives in a three-legged metal cauldron with Ochosi, and he's placed next to Eleguá. Eleguá, Ogún, Ochosi and Osun are known as the guerreros (warriors).
Ogún's protection is especially important in questions related to surgery and operations of all kinds, fevers, accidents where there's profuse bleeding, and any kind of wound caused by metal. He likes roasted sweet potatoes, plantains, kola nuts, white beans, smoked fish, toasted corn, palm oil, cane alcohol and cigars. Offerings to Ogún are often left at the railroad tracks, which are one of his symbols. He's syncretized with San Peter, because Peter owns the keys to the kingdom. To a lesser degree, he's also associated with Saint Paul, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Michael, and Saint Rafael. The children of Ogún can be violent, impulsive, and unforgiving, but they are also brave, determined, and never give up hope. They're tireless workers, and they're astute. They're known for their frankness and sincerity, which make people overlook their flaws. In the human body, Ogún inhabits the thorax, which represents vitality and strength.
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Oblique-Banded Pond Fly - Sericomyia chrysotoxoides
I’ve been notified by tumblr yesterday at this blog’s posts have reached 1000 total likes! As such, I give a sincere thank you and my sincerest appreciation to all who enjoy my insect photography! I’ll keep doing my best to upload great content to warrant more recognition and to share all the insights I can on the insect world and the behaviors of these amazing creatures. This post wasn’t really planned around this, but I’ll be including this post as a blog milestone, and I hope to reach 1000 more likes and beyond. Now, to address today’s specimens, compared to last week’s post, this specie of Hoverfly may have a great difficulty keeping up a façade as a Bee to avoid being eaten. With a mostly black-colored body, accented with yellow, this specie would probably be more likely to be mistaken for a Wasp, and those are certainly not to be messed with for fear of a venomous sting! Looking at other specimens on Bugguide, their face (not pictured here) is yellow to yellow-white with a silhouette similar to that of Wasp mandibles, further lending credibility to effective Wasp-mimicry. The antennae are a little short, but that wouldn’t break the illusion considering the stripes are the standout (literally) feature. Do note though, shortened antennae help distinguish the Sericomyia genus from the Chrysotoxum genus (which, of course, have longer antennae, especially as far as Flies are concerned).
The Sericomyia genus hasn’t been explored on the blog before, but looking into it reveals some interesting insects. Their young can be found in vegetation-filled ponds where they are reported to feed on microorganisms drawn to the rotting. The adults meanwhile (similar to last week’s specie) can be found on fresh greenery and perching on flowers to feed. With the adults, what was noticeable immediately to me during research was that this specie has a look-a-like and that other species may be able to pass for different Hymenopterans with varying degrees of success. Vockeroth's Pond Fly (S. vockerothi) makes an effective Bee-mimic and the Narrow-Banded Pond Fly (S. militaris) could look like a small Bald-Faced Hornet from a distance, while today’s specie could probably be mistaken for a Yellowjacket! Patterning aside, it’s the fine yellow fuzz around the abdomen that could fool me if I squinted at it. Taking the pattern back into consideration and remembering that I mentioned a look-a-like specie, pay attention to the bands of your Hoverfly, as well as what region you find it. The Western Pond Fly (S. chalcopyga) and the Oblique-Banded Pond Fly (more common in the east of North America) look remarkably similar! Without close examination, we only have the direction of the stripes as a visual aid: the Western Fly’s stripes are horizontally aligned with each other while the Oblique Fly’s stripes gently curve upwards towards the thorax. If I can find the former, I’ll do a comparative post, but until I can head west for a bug hunt, let these individuals be your guide when looking for the yellow-stripe curvature. 
Pictures were taken on October 3, 2018 in Toronto and June 9, 2019 at the Royal Botanical Gardens with a Samsung Galaxy S4. Thank you again so much for 1000 likes!
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gliphelgeneral · 1 year
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Luna moth (Actias luna) ●▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬๑۩۞۩๑.▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬● The Luna moth (Actias luna) also known as the American moon moth is a Nearctic moth in the family Saturniidae, subfamily Saturniinae, a group commonly known as giant silk moths. It has lime-green colored wings and a white body. The larvae (caterpillars) are also green. Typically, it has a wingspan of roughly 114 mm (4.5 in), but can exceed 178 mm (7.0 in), making it one of the larger moths in North America. Across Canada, it has one generation per year, with the winged adults appearing in late May or early June, whereas farther south it will have two or even three generations per year, the first appearance as early as March in southern parts of the United States.
Eggs, attached in small groups to undersides of leaves, are mottled white and brown, slightly oval, and roughly 1.5 millimeters in diameter.[8] Larvae are primarily green, with sparse hairs. The first instar, emerging from the egg, reaches a length of 6–8 mm (0.24–0.31 in), the second 9–10 mm (0.35–0.39 in), the third 12–16 mm (0.47–0.63 in) and the fourth 23–26 mm (0.91–1.02 in). The fifth (final) instar grows to approximately 70–90 mm (2.8–3.5 in) in length.[8] Small, colorful dots – yellow or magenta – may line the sides of the fourth and fifth instars. The larvae may take on a reddish-brown color just prior to cocooning. Fifth-instar larvae descend to the ground and use silk to bind dead leaves around the cocoon.
The imagoes (winged, sexually mature), often referred to as 'adult moths,' emerge from the pupae with the wings small, crumpled and held close to the body. Over a period of several hours the wings will enlarge to full size. Wingspan is typically 8–11.5 cm (3.1–4.5 in), and in rare instances as much as 17.78 cm (7.00 in). Females and males are similar in size and appearance: green wings, eyespots on both forewings and hind wings, and long, sometimes somewhat twisted tails extending from the back edge of the hindwings. Bodies are white and hairy. Adults have vestigial mouthparts and do not feed. Energy is from fat stores created while a caterpillar. The forward edge of the forewing is dark-colored and thick, tapering in thickness from the thorax to the wing tip. Its color can range from maroon to brown. The eyespots, one per wing, are oval in shape on the forewings and round on the hindwings. Each eyespot can have arcs of black, blue, red, yellow, green or white. The eyespots are thought to confuse potential predators.
There are some sex-determined and regional differences in appearance. Females will have a larger abdomen compared to males because it contains 200–400 eggs. Both sexes have antennae, but on the male, much longer and wider. Wing color is blue-green in the north and for the over-wintering generation in the central and southern states; second and third generation wing color has more of a yellow-green tint.
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todaysbug · 2 years
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June 24th, 2022
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Northern Bluet Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)
The northern bluet is found all over the palearctic region, stretching from the northeastern tip of Eurasia all the way down to North Africa, but can also be found in North America. This species formerly included Enallagma annexum, with which it shares its common name, which is endemic to North America.
These bugs live atop freshwater bodies, and are particularly sensitive to the effects of climate change; in fact, the health of the northern bluet population is an important indicator of the health of the entire aquatic ecosystem!
During reproduction, the male bluet holds the female's neck with his cerci, claspers at the end of his abdomen, and her abdomen arches to meet his thorax, forming a mating wheel. This position looks a lot like a heart! They fly in this position to lay eggs on an aquatic plant, which hatch into aquatic nymphs.
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landscapedesignfirm · 10 months
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What You Need to Know About Japanese Beetles
As part of our ongoing series on invasive insects, this article focuses on Japanese beetles, a significant concern for homeowners and gardeners due to their destructive impact on over 300 species of ornamental plants. This article will discuss the characteristics, life cycle, and damage caused by Japanese beetles in Pennsylvania. We will also explore various control methods and offer tips for preventing infestations.
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How Japanese Beetles Came to Pennsylvania
Japanese beetles (Popillia japonica) are invasive insects native to Japan, as the name implies. The Japanese beetle was introduced into the U.S. in 1916 near Riverton, New Jersey, and likely arrived in the United States on ornamental nursery stock. The pest soon spread throughout the eastern United States, being detected on the west coast as early as the 1940s. Since then, the pest has spread throughout much of North America, affecting most states and Canada.
Japanese Beetle Appearance
Adult Japanese beetles are about one-half of an inch long with a shiny metallic green body and copper-colored wing covers, and their neck, head, and legs are reddish-brown. The adult beetles also have two patches of white hairs at the tip of their abdomen and five tufts of white hairs on both sides of their abdomen. In addition, adult beetles often have orange wing tips, which show when they are flying to escape predators or when disturbed. The larvae, or grubs, are creamy-white with brown heads and three pairs of legs on the thorax region (where the wings and legs attach to the main body).
Beetle Life Cycle
The beetle’s life cycle is completed in approximately one year in Pennsylvania. Female beetles lay eggs in the soil under host plants in late June through mid-August. Then, the beetle larvae will hatch after two weeks and feed on grass roots until winter. Japanese beetles spend the winter buried in the ground, moving towards the surface as the spring season approaches and the weather gets warm. During this time, the larvae will continue to feed on grass roots until they mature, usually from late May through June.
From late June to July (around June 20 in the southern areas of Pennsylvania), the larvae will have matured into adult beetles and emerge from the ground. While Japanese beetles begin emerging from the soil around late June, the pests are most abundant during July. When mating, female beetles lay around 40-60 eggs in the soil, where the life cycle repeats.
As mentioned previously, the beetles feed on more than 300 species of host plants, from ornamental plants to even fruit and crops. The larvae only feed on grass roots, while the adult beetles feed on a much more extensive range of plants. Some common ornamental plants the pest feeds on include roses, flowering cherries, marigolds, and birch—adult beetles damage plants by “skeletonizing” the foliage. “Skeletonizing” means that the beetles consume only the leaf material between the veins. As a result, these leaves may turn brown and eventually fall off.
Adults feed during the day and tend to favor hot weather and plants growing with total exposure to the sun. The larvae, meanwhile, damage lawns by chewing grass roots, causing the turf to brown and die. The result is that the turf pulls up easily from the soil, or dead patches of grass form if the problem is severe.
Japanese Beetle Treatment & Management
Our plant health care specialists have a specific treatment program for managing the beetles and protecting your plants. For example, one pest management treatment method for Japanese beetle populations in a landscape is pesticide application.
Methods for controlling and eliminating Japanese beetles include:
Biological approaches: Introducing natural predators, such as parasitic wasps or flies, can help control beetle populations.
Chemical approaches: Pesticide applications by plant health care specialists can manage beetle infestations and protect plants.
Cultural approaches: Removing rotting tree fruit and maintaining a healthy lawn can help prevent beetle infestations.
Traps are also available, but the trapping method is used more as a monitoring tool to measure the extent of pest presence of the pest. Traps use floral lures or female pheromones to attract beetles, so the traps could attract more beetles to your landscape. Like the pesticides, these traps should be handled by a professional plant health care specialist to ensure that they are used correctly.
Contact Burkholder PHC for Japanese Beetle Treatment in Your Landscape
Japanese beetles can be a significant issue for homeowners, as the beetles negatively affect the appearance and health of their plants and lawn. If you have plants that show signs of the pest’s activity or want to keep your landscape safe from them, reach out to Burkholder PHC. Our team will conduct a plant health care evaluation and diagnosis of your landscape and inform you of your treatment options. We provide no-cost identification of the situation in addition to free testing, diagnostics, inspections, and evaluations. Contact us today for a free consultation.
Blog is originally published at: https://www.burkholderphc.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-japanese-beetles/
It is republished with the permission from the author.
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lakelandseo · 1 year
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Diving for Pearls: A Guide to Long Tail Keywords - Next Level
Welcome to this refreshed installment of our educational Next Level series! Originally published in June 2016 this blog has been rewritten to include new tool screenshots and refreshed workflows. Together we’ll uncover keywords in the vastness of the long tail.
Looking for more Next Level posts? Previously we explored how to create relevant and engaging SEO reports.
One of the biggest obstacles to driving forward your business online is being able to rank well for keywords that people are searching for. Getting your lovely URLs to show up in those precious top positions — and gaining a good portion of the visitors behind the searches — can feel like an impossible dream. Particularly if you’re working on a newish site on a modest budget within a competitive niche.
Well, strap yourself in, because today we’re going to live that dream. I’ll take you through the bronze, silver, and gold levels of finding, assessing, and targeting long tail keywords so you can start getting visitors to your site that are primed and ready to convert.
Quick steps to building a long tail keyword list:
Draw from your industry and customer knowledge
Add suggestions from Google Autocomplete
Explore industry language on social media
Pull relevant suggestions from a keyword tool
Prioritize using popularity and difficulty metrics
Understand the competitive landscape to pinpoint opportunities
What are long tail keywords?
The "long tail of search" refers to the many weird and wonderful ways the diverse people of the world search for any given niche.
People (yes, people! Shiny, happy, everyday, run-of-the-mill, muesli-eating, credit-card-swiping people!) rarely stop searching broad and generic 'head' keywords, like “web design” or “camera” or “sailor moon.”
They clarify their search with emotional triggers, technical terms they’ve learned from reading forums, and compare features and prices before mustering up the courage to commit and convert on your site.
The long tail is packed with searches like “best web designer in Nottingham” or “mirrorless camera 4k video 2016” or “sailor moon cat costume.”
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This adaptation of the Search Demand Curve chart visualizes the long tail of search by using the tried and tested "Internet loves cats + animated gifs are the coolest = SUCCESS" formula.
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The Search Demand Curve illustrates that while “head” and “body” terms typically amass higher search volume, seeming appealing at first. The vastness of the “long tail” presents a more substantial opportunity and larger percentage of search traffic that shouldn’t be ignored. You can really see this illustrated when combined as a percentage of search traffic. While this graph contains no cats, it is still entirely illustrative. However the long tail of search isn’t slowing down anytime soon with voice search and AI integrations we can expect the vastness of the long tail to continue to grow.
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While search volume for any individual long tail keyword is typically less, user intent is much more specific and viewed as a group targeting the long tail often enables you to target a larger more engaged audience. Also beautifully illustrated in Dr. Pete’s infamous chunky thorax post.
The long tail of search is being constantly generated by people seeking answers from the Internet hive mind. There's no end to what you’ll find if you have a good old rummage about, including: Questions, styles, colors, brands, concerns, peeves, desires, hopes, dreams… and everything in between.
Fresh, new, outrageous, often bizarre keywords. If you’ve done any keyword research you’ll know what I mean by bizarre. Things a person wouldn’t admit to their best friend, therapist, or doctor they’ll happily pump into Google and hit search. In this post we’re going to go diving for pearls: keywords with searcher intent, high demand, low competition, and a spot on the SERPs just for you.
Bronze medal: Build your own long tail keyword
It’s really easy to come up with a long tail keyword. You can use your brain, gather some thoughts, take a stab in the dark, and throw a few keyword modifiers around your ‘head’ keyword.
Have you ever played that magnetic fridge poetry game? It’s a bit like that. You can play online if (like me) you have an aversion to physical things.
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I’m no poet, but I think I deserve a medal for this attempt, and now I really want some "hot seasonal berry water."
Magnetic poetry not doing it for you? Don’t worry — that’s only the beginning.
Use your industry knowledge
Time to draw on that valuable industry knowledge you’ve been storing up, jot down some ideas, and think about intent and common misconceptions. I’m going to use the example pearls or freshwater pearls in this post as the head term because that’s something I’m interested in.
Let’s go! Let’s say I run a jewelry business and I know that my customers regularly have questions, like:
How do I clean freshwater pearls
Using my knowledge I can rattle off and build a keyword list.
Search your keyword
Engage google suggested search tool to get some more ideas. Manually enter your keyword into Google and prompting it to populate popular suggestions, like I’ve done below:
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Awesome, I’m adding Freshwater pearls price to my list.
Explore the language of social media
Get amongst the over-sharers and have a look at what people are chatting about on social media by searching your keyword in Twitter, tiktok, Instagram, and Youtube. These are topics in your niche that people are talking about right now.
YouTube is also pulling up some interesting ideas around my keyword. This is simultaneously helping me gather keyword ideas and giving me a good sense about what content is already out there. Don’t worry, we’ll touch on content later on in this post. :)
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I’m adding understanding types of pearls and Difference between saltwater and freshwater pearls to my list.
Ask keyword questions…?
You’ll probably notice that I’ve added a question mark to a phrase that is not a question, just to mess with you all. Apologies for the confusing internal-reading-voice-upwards-inflection.
Questions are my favorite types of keywords. What!? You don’t have a fav keyword type? Well, you do now — trust me.
Answer the Public is packed with questions radiating out from your seed term
Pop freshwater pearls into the tool and grab some questions for our growing list.
To leave no rock unturned (or no mollusk unshucked), let’s pop over to Google Search Console to find keywords that are already sending you traffic (and discover any mismatches between your content and user intent.)
Pile these into a list, like I've done in this spreadsheet.
Now this is starting to look interesting: we’ve got some keyword modifiers, some clear buying signals, and a better idea of what people might be looking for around "freshwater pearls."
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Should you stop there? I’m flabbergasted — how can you even suggest that?! This is only the beginning. :)
Silver medal: Assess demand and explore topics
So far, so rosy. But we've been focusing on finding keywords, picking them up, and stashing them in our collection like colored glass at the seaside.
To really dig into the endless tail of your niche, you’ll need a keyword tool like our very own Keyword Explorer. This is invaluable for finding topics within your niche that present a real opportunity for your site.
If you’re trying out Keyword Explorer for the first time, you’ll have 10 free searches/mo with a free Moz Community account and even more with a Moz Pro free trial or paid subscription.
Find search volume for your head keyword
To start, enter a broad industry keyword. In my case I’ll type in "pearls" into the Keyword Explorer search box. Now you can see Moz’s Monthly Volume displaying how often a term or phrase is searched for in Google:
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Now try "freshwater pearls." As expected, the search volume goes down, but we’re getting more specific.
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We could keep going like this, but we’re going to burn up all our free searches. Just take it as read that, as you get more specific and enter all the phrases we found earlier, the search volume will decrease even more. There may not be any data at all. That’s why you need to explore the searches around this main keyword.
Find even more long tail keywords
Below the search volume, click on "Keyword Suggestions."
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Well, hi there, ever-expanding long tail! We’ve gone from a handful of keywords pulled together manually from different sources to 1,000 suggestions right there on your screen. Positioned right next to that, search volume to give us an idea of demand.
The diversity of searches within your niche is just as important as that big number we saw at the beginning, because it shows you how much demand there is for this niche as a whole. We’re also learning more about searcher intent.
I’m scanning through those 1,000 suggestions and looking for other terms that pop up again and again. I’m also looking for signals and different ways the words are being used to pick out words to expand my list.
I like to toggle between sorting by Relevancy and search volume, and then scroll through all the results to cherry-pick those that catch my eye.
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Now reverse the volume filter so that it’s showing lower-volume search terms and scroll down through the end of the tail to explore the lower-volume chatter.
If we don’t have tracked data in our database you can always cross reference with another data set to validate their value.
This is where your industry knowledge comes into play again. Bots, formulas, spreadsheets, and algorithms are all well and good, but don’t discount your own instincts and knowledge.
Use the suggestion filters to your advantage and play around with broader or more specific suggestion types.
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Looking through the suggestions, I’ve noticed that the word “cultured” has popped up a few times.
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To see these all bundled together, I want to look at the grouping options in Keyword Explorer. I like the high lexicon groups so I can see how much discussion is going on within my topics.
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Scroll down and expand that group to get an idea of demand and assess intent.
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I’m also interested in the words around "price" and "value," so I’m doing the same and saving those to my sheet, along with the search volume. A few attempts at researching the "cleaning" of pearls wasn’t very fruitful, so I’ve adjusted my search to "clean freshwater pearls."
Because I’m a keyword questions fanatic, I’m also going to filter by questions (the bottom option from the drop-down menu):
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OK! How is our keyword list looking? Pretty darn hot, I reckon! We’ve gathered together a list of keywords and dug into the long tail of these sub-niches, and right alongside we’ve got search volume.
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You’ll notice that some of the keywords I discovered in the bronze stage don’t have any data showing up in Keyword Explorer (indicated by the hyphen in the screenshot above). That’s ok — they’re still topics I can research further. This is exactly why we have assessed demand; no wild goose chase for us!
Ok, we’re drawing some conclusions, we’re building our list, and we’re making educated decisions. Congrats on your silver-level keyword wizardry! :D
Gold medal: Find out who you’re competing with
We’re not operating in a vacuum. There’s always someone out there trying to elbow their way onto the first page. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that just because it’s a long tail term with a nice chunk of search volume all those clicks will rain down on you. If the terms you’re looking to target already have big names headlining, this could very well alter your roadmap.
To reap the rewards of targeting the long tail, you’ll have to make sure you can outperform your competition.
Manually check the SERPs
Check out who's showing up in the search engine results page (SERPs) by running a search for your head term. Make sure you’re signed out of Google and in an incognito tab.
We’re focusing on the organic results to find out if there are any weaker URLs you can pick off.
I’ll start with “freshwater pearls” for illustrative purposes.
Tumblr media
Whoooaaa, this is a noisy page. I’ve had to scroll a whole 2.5cm on my magic mouse (that’s very nearly a whole inch for the imperialists among us) just to see any organic results.
Let’s install the Mozbar to discover some metrics on the fly, like domain authority and back-linking data.
Tumblr media
Now, if seeing those big players in the SERPs doesn’t make it clear, looking at the Mozbar metrics certainly does. This is exclusive real estate. It’s dominated by retailers, although Wikipedia gets a place in the middle of the page.
Let’s get into the mind of Google for a second. It — or should I say "they" (I can’t decide if it’s more creepy for Google to be referred to as a singular or plural pronoun. Let’s go with "they") — anyway, I digress. "They" are guessing that we’re looking to buy pearls, but they're also offering results on what they are.
This sort of information is offered up by big retailers who have created content that targets the intention of searchers. Mikimoto drives us to their blog post all about where freshwater pearls come from.
Tumblr media
As you get deeper into the long tail of your niche, you’ll begin to come across sites you might not be so familiar with. So go and have a peek at their content.
With a little bit of snooping you can easily find out:
how relevant the article is
if it looks appealing, up to date, and sharable
be really judge-y: why not?
Now let’s find some more:
when the article was published
when their site was created
how often their blog is updated
how many other sites are linking to the page with Link Explorer
how many tweets, likes, etc.
Learn more about how to do a competitor analysis in our free guide, and don’t forget to download the handy worksheet.
Document all of your findings in our spreadsheet from earlier to keep track of the data. This information will now inform you of your chances of ranking for that term.
Manually checking out your competition is something that I would strongly recommend. But we don’t have all the time in the world to check each results page for each keyword we’re interested in.
Keyword Explorer leaps to our rescue again
Run your search and click on "SERP Analysis" to see what the first page looks like, along with authority metrics and social activity.
Tumblr media
All the metrics for the organic results, like Page Authority, goes into calculating the Difficulty score above (lower is better).
And all those other factors — the ads and suggestions taking up space on the SERPs — that's what's used to calculate Organic CTR (higher is better).
Priority is all the other metrics tallied up. You definitely want this to be higher.
So now we have 3 important numerical values we can use to gauge our competition. We can use these values to compare keywords.
After a few searches in Keyword Explorer, you’re going to start hankering for a keyword list or two. For this you’ll need a paid subscription, or a Moz Pro 30-day free trial.
It’s well worth the sign-up; not only do you get 5,000 keyword queries per month and 30 lists (on the Medium plan), but you also get to check out the super-magical-KWE-mega-list-funky-cool metric page. That’s what I call it, just rolls off the tongue, you know?
Okay, fellow list buddies, let’s go and add those terms we’re interested in to our lovely new list.
Tumblr media
Then head up to your lists on the top right and open up the one you just created.
Now we can see the spread of demand, competition and SERP features for our whole list.
Tumblr media
You can compare Volume, SERPS Features, Difficulty, Organic CTR, and Priority across multiple lists, topics, and niches.
How to compare apples with apples
Comparing keywords is something our support team gets questions about all the time.
Should I target this word or that word?
Tumblr media Tumblr media
For the long tail keyword, the Volume is a lot lower, Difficulty is also down, the Organic CTR is a bit up, and overall the Priority is down because of the drop in search volume.
But don’t discount it! By targeting these sorts of terms, you’re focusing more on the intent of the searcher. You’re also making your content relevant for all the other neighboring search terms.
Let’s compare the difference between freshwater and cultured pearls with how much are freshwater pearls worth.
Tumblr media
Search volume is the same, but for the keyword how much are freshwater pearls worth Difficulty is up, but so is the overall Priority because the Organic CTR is higher.
But just because you’re picking between two long tail keywords doesn’t mean you’ve fully understood the long tail of search.
You know all those keywords I grabbed for my list earlier in this post? Well, here they are sorted into topics.
Tumblr media
Look at all the different ways people search for the same thing. This is what drives the long tail of search — searcher diversity. If you tally all the volume up for the cultured topic, we’ve got a bigger group of keywords and overall more search volume. This is where you can use Keyword Explorer and the long tail to make informed decisions.
You’re laying out your virtual welcome mat for all the potential traffic these terms send.
Platinum level: I lied — there's one more level!
For all you lovely overachievers out there who have reached the end of this post, I’m going to reward you with one final tip.
You’ve done all the snooping around on your competitors, so you know who you’re up against. You’ve done the research, so you know what keywords to target to begin driving intent-rich traffic.
Now you need to create strong, consistent, and outstanding content.
As Dr Pete confirmed:
We don’t have to work ourselves to death to target the long tail of search. It doesn’t take 10,000 pieces of content to rank for 10,000 variants of a phrase, and Google (and our visitors) would much prefer we not spin out that content. The new, post-NLP (Natural Language Processing) long tail of SEO requires us to understand how our keywords fit into semantic space, mapping their relationships and covering the core concepts. Study your SERPs diligently, and you can find the patterns to turn your own long tail of keywords into a chonky thorax of opportunity.
Here's where you really have to tip your hat to long tail keywords, because by strategically targeting the long tail you can start to build enough authority in the industry to beat stronger competition and rank higher for more competitive keywords in your niche.
Wrapping up…
The various different keyword phrases that make up the long tail in your industry are vast, often easier to rank for, and indicate stronger intent from the searcher. By targeting them you’ll find you can start to rank for relevant phrases sooner than if you just targeted the head. And over time, if you get the right signals, you’ll be able to rank for keywords with tougher competition. Pretty sweet, huh? Give Moz’s Keyword Explorer tool a whirl and let me know how you get on :)
0 notes
bfxenon · 1 year
Text
Diving for Pearls: A Guide to Long Tail Keywords - Next Level
Welcome to this refreshed installment of our educational Next Level series! Originally published in June 2016 this blog has been rewritten to include new tool screenshots and refreshed workflows. Together we’ll uncover keywords in the vastness of the long tail.
Looking for more Next Level posts? Previously we explored how to create relevant and engaging SEO reports.
One of the biggest obstacles to driving forward your business online is being able to rank well for keywords that people are searching for. Getting your lovely URLs to show up in those precious top positions — and gaining a good portion of the visitors behind the searches — can feel like an impossible dream. Particularly if you’re working on a newish site on a modest budget within a competitive niche.
Well, strap yourself in, because today we’re going to live that dream. I’ll take you through the bronze, silver, and gold levels of finding, assessing, and targeting long tail keywords so you can start getting visitors to your site that are primed and ready to convert.
Quick steps to building a long tail keyword list:
Draw from your industry and customer knowledge
Add suggestions from Google Autocomplete
Explore industry language on social media
Pull relevant suggestions from a keyword tool
Prioritize using popularity and difficulty metrics
Understand the competitive landscape to pinpoint opportunities
What are long tail keywords?
The "long tail of search" refers to the many weird and wonderful ways the diverse people of the world search for any given niche.
People (yes, people! Shiny, happy, everyday, run-of-the-mill, muesli-eating, credit-card-swiping people!) rarely stop searching broad and generic 'head' keywords, like “web design” or “camera” or “sailor moon.”
They clarify their search with emotional triggers, technical terms they’ve learned from reading forums, and compare features and prices before mustering up the courage to commit and convert on your site.
The long tail is packed with searches like “best web designer in Nottingham” or “mirrorless camera 4k video 2016” or “sailor moon cat costume.”
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This adaptation of the Search Demand Curve chart visualizes the long tail of search by using the tried and tested "Internet loves cats + animated gifs are the coolest = SUCCESS" formula.
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The Search Demand Curve illustrates that while “head” and “body” terms typically amass higher search volume, seeming appealing at first. The vastness of the “long tail” presents a more substantial opportunity and larger percentage of search traffic that shouldn’t be ignored. You can really see this illustrated when combined as a percentage of search traffic. While this graph contains no cats, it is still entirely illustrative. However the long tail of search isn’t slowing down anytime soon with voice search and AI integrations we can expect the vastness of the long tail to continue to grow.
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While search volume for any individual long tail keyword is typically less, user intent is much more specific and viewed as a group targeting the long tail often enables you to target a larger more engaged audience. Also beautifully illustrated in Dr. Pete’s infamous chunky thorax post.
The long tail of search is being constantly generated by people seeking answers from the Internet hive mind. There's no end to what you’ll find if you have a good old rummage about, including: Questions, styles, colors, brands, concerns, peeves, desires, hopes, dreams… and everything in between.
Fresh, new, outrageous, often bizarre keywords. If you’ve done any keyword research you’ll know what I mean by bizarre. Things a person wouldn’t admit to their best friend, therapist, or doctor they’ll happily pump into Google and hit search. In this post we’re going to go diving for pearls: keywords with searcher intent, high demand, low competition, and a spot on the SERPs just for you.
Bronze medal: Build your own long tail keyword
It’s really easy to come up with a long tail keyword. You can use your brain, gather some thoughts, take a stab in the dark, and throw a few keyword modifiers around your ‘head’ keyword.
Have you ever played that magnetic fridge poetry game? It’s a bit like that. You can play online if (like me) you have an aversion to physical things.
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I’m no poet, but I think I deserve a medal for this attempt, and now I really want some "hot seasonal berry water."
Magnetic poetry not doing it for you? Don’t worry — that’s only the beginning.
Use your industry knowledge
Time to draw on that valuable industry knowledge you’ve been storing up, jot down some ideas, and think about intent and common misconceptions. I’m going to use the example pearls or freshwater pearls in this post as the head term because that’s something I’m interested in.
Let’s go! Let’s say I run a jewelry business and I know that my customers regularly have questions, like:
How do I clean freshwater pearls
Using my knowledge I can rattle off and build a keyword list.
Search your keyword
Engage google suggested search tool to get some more ideas. Manually enter your keyword into Google and prompting it to populate popular suggestions, like I’ve done below:
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Awesome, I’m adding Freshwater pearls price to my list.
Explore the language of social media
Get amongst the over-sharers and have a look at what people are chatting about on social media by searching your keyword in Twitter, tiktok, Instagram, and Youtube. These are topics in your niche that people are talking about right now.
YouTube is also pulling up some interesting ideas around my keyword. This is simultaneously helping me gather keyword ideas and giving me a good sense about what content is already out there. Don’t worry, we’ll touch on content later on in this post. :)
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I’m adding understanding types of pearls and Difference between saltwater and freshwater pearls to my list.
Ask keyword questions…?
You’ll probably notice that I’ve added a question mark to a phrase that is not a question, just to mess with you all. Apologies for the confusing internal-reading-voice-upwards-inflection.
Questions are my favorite types of keywords. What!? You don’t have a fav keyword type? Well, you do now — trust me.
Answer the Public is packed with questions radiating out from your seed term
Pop freshwater pearls into the tool and grab some questions for our growing list.
To leave no rock unturned (or no mollusk unshucked), let’s pop over to Google Search Console to find keywords that are already sending you traffic (and discover any mismatches between your content and user intent.)
Pile these into a list, like I've done in this spreadsheet.
Now this is starting to look interesting: we’ve got some keyword modifiers, some clear buying signals, and a better idea of what people might be looking for around "freshwater pearls."
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Should you stop there? I’m flabbergasted — how can you even suggest that?! This is only the beginning. :)
Silver medal: Assess demand and explore topics
So far, so rosy. But we've been focusing on finding keywords, picking them up, and stashing them in our collection like colored glass at the seaside.
To really dig into the endless tail of your niche, you’ll need a keyword tool like our very own Keyword Explorer. This is invaluable for finding topics within your niche that present a real opportunity for your site.
If you’re trying out Keyword Explorer for the first time, you’ll have 10 free searches/mo with a free Moz Community account and even more with a Moz Pro free trial or paid subscription.
Find search volume for your head keyword
To start, enter a broad industry keyword. In my case I’ll type in "pearls" into the Keyword Explorer search box. Now you can see Moz’s Monthly Volume displaying how often a term or phrase is searched for in Google:
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Now try "freshwater pearls." As expected, the search volume goes down, but we’re getting more specific.
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We could keep going like this, but we’re going to burn up all our free searches. Just take it as read that, as you get more specific and enter all the phrases we found earlier, the search volume will decrease even more. There may not be any data at all. That’s why you need to explore the searches around this main keyword.
Find even more long tail keywords
Below the search volume, click on "Keyword Suggestions."
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Well, hi there, ever-expanding long tail! We’ve gone from a handful of keywords pulled together manually from different sources to 1,000 suggestions right there on your screen. Positioned right next to that, search volume to give us an idea of demand.
The diversity of searches within your niche is just as important as that big number we saw at the beginning, because it shows you how much demand there is for this niche as a whole. We’re also learning more about searcher intent.
I’m scanning through those 1,000 suggestions and looking for other terms that pop up again and again. I’m also looking for signals and different ways the words are being used to pick out words to expand my list.
I like to toggle between sorting by Relevancy and search volume, and then scroll through all the results to cherry-pick those that catch my eye.
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Now reverse the volume filter so that it’s showing lower-volume search terms and scroll down through the end of the tail to explore the lower-volume chatter.
If we don’t have tracked data in our database you can always cross reference with another data set to validate their value.
This is where your industry knowledge comes into play again. Bots, formulas, spreadsheets, and algorithms are all well and good, but don’t discount your own instincts and knowledge.
Use the suggestion filters to your advantage and play around with broader or more specific suggestion types.
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Looking through the suggestions, I’ve noticed that the word “cultured” has popped up a few times.
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To see these all bundled together, I want to look at the grouping options in Keyword Explorer. I like the high lexicon groups so I can see how much discussion is going on within my topics.
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Scroll down and expand that group to get an idea of demand and assess intent.
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I’m also interested in the words around "price" and "value," so I’m doing the same and saving those to my sheet, along with the search volume. A few attempts at researching the "cleaning" of pearls wasn’t very fruitful, so I’ve adjusted my search to "clean freshwater pearls."
Because I’m a keyword questions fanatic, I’m also going to filter by questions (the bottom option from the drop-down menu):
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OK! How is our keyword list looking? Pretty darn hot, I reckon! We’ve gathered together a list of keywords and dug into the long tail of these sub-niches, and right alongside we’ve got search volume.
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You’ll notice that some of the keywords I discovered in the bronze stage don’t have any data showing up in Keyword Explorer (indicated by the hyphen in the screenshot above). That’s ok — they’re still topics I can research further. This is exactly why we have assessed demand; no wild goose chase for us!
Ok, we’re drawing some conclusions, we’re building our list, and we’re making educated decisions. Congrats on your silver-level keyword wizardry! :D
Gold medal: Find out who you’re competing with
We’re not operating in a vacuum. There’s always someone out there trying to elbow their way onto the first page. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that just because it’s a long tail term with a nice chunk of search volume all those clicks will rain down on you. If the terms you’re looking to target already have big names headlining, this could very well alter your roadmap.
To reap the rewards of targeting the long tail, you’ll have to make sure you can outperform your competition.
Manually check the SERPs
Check out who's showing up in the search engine results page (SERPs) by running a search for your head term. Make sure you’re signed out of Google and in an incognito tab.
We’re focusing on the organic results to find out if there are any weaker URLs you can pick off.
I’ll start with “freshwater pearls” for illustrative purposes.
Tumblr media
Whoooaaa, this is a noisy page. I’ve had to scroll a whole 2.5cm on my magic mouse (that’s very nearly a whole inch for the imperialists among us) just to see any organic results.
Let’s install the Mozbar to discover some metrics on the fly, like domain authority and back-linking data.
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Now, if seeing those big players in the SERPs doesn’t make it clear, looking at the Mozbar metrics certainly does. This is exclusive real estate. It’s dominated by retailers, although Wikipedia gets a place in the middle of the page.
Let’s get into the mind of Google for a second. It — or should I say "they" (I can’t decide if it’s more creepy for Google to be referred to as a singular or plural pronoun. Let’s go with "they") — anyway, I digress. "They" are guessing that we’re looking to buy pearls, but they're also offering results on what they are.
This sort of information is offered up by big retailers who have created content that targets the intention of searchers. Mikimoto drives us to their blog post all about where freshwater pearls come from.
Tumblr media
As you get deeper into the long tail of your niche, you’ll begin to come across sites you might not be so familiar with. So go and have a peek at their content.
With a little bit of snooping you can easily find out:
how relevant the article is
if it looks appealing, up to date, and sharable
be really judge-y: why not?
Now let’s find some more:
when the article was published
when their site was created
how often their blog is updated
how many other sites are linking to the page with Link Explorer
how many tweets, likes, etc.
Learn more about how to do a competitor analysis in our free guide, and don’t forget to download the handy worksheet.
Document all of your findings in our spreadsheet from earlier to keep track of the data. This information will now inform you of your chances of ranking for that term.
Manually checking out your competition is something that I would strongly recommend. But we don’t have all the time in the world to check each results page for each keyword we’re interested in.
Keyword Explorer leaps to our rescue again
Run your search and click on "SERP Analysis" to see what the first page looks like, along with authority metrics and social activity.
Tumblr media
All the metrics for the organic results, like Page Authority, goes into calculating the Difficulty score above (lower is better).
And all those other factors — the ads and suggestions taking up space on the SERPs — that's what's used to calculate Organic CTR (higher is better).
Priority is all the other metrics tallied up. You definitely want this to be higher.
So now we have 3 important numerical values we can use to gauge our competition. We can use these values to compare keywords.
After a few searches in Keyword Explorer, you’re going to start hankering for a keyword list or two. For this you’ll need a paid subscription, or a Moz Pro 30-day free trial.
It’s well worth the sign-up; not only do you get 5,000 keyword queries per month and 30 lists (on the Medium plan), but you also get to check out the super-magical-KWE-mega-list-funky-cool metric page. That’s what I call it, just rolls off the tongue, you know?
Okay, fellow list buddies, let’s go and add those terms we’re interested in to our lovely new list.
Tumblr media
Then head up to your lists on the top right and open up the one you just created.
Now we can see the spread of demand, competition and SERP features for our whole list.
Tumblr media
You can compare Volume, SERPS Features, Difficulty, Organic CTR, and Priority across multiple lists, topics, and niches.
How to compare apples with apples
Comparing keywords is something our support team gets questions about all the time.
Should I target this word or that word?
Tumblr media Tumblr media
For the long tail keyword, the Volume is a lot lower, Difficulty is also down, the Organic CTR is a bit up, and overall the Priority is down because of the drop in search volume.
But don’t discount it! By targeting these sorts of terms, you’re focusing more on the intent of the searcher. You’re also making your content relevant for all the other neighboring search terms.
Let’s compare the difference between freshwater and cultured pearls with how much are freshwater pearls worth.
Tumblr media
Search volume is the same, but for the keyword how much are freshwater pearls worth Difficulty is up, but so is the overall Priority because the Organic CTR is higher.
But just because you’re picking between two long tail keywords doesn’t mean you’ve fully understood the long tail of search.
You know all those keywords I grabbed for my list earlier in this post? Well, here they are sorted into topics.
Tumblr media
Look at all the different ways people search for the same thing. This is what drives the long tail of search — searcher diversity. If you tally all the volume up for the cultured topic, we’ve got a bigger group of keywords and overall more search volume. This is where you can use Keyword Explorer and the long tail to make informed decisions.
You’re laying out your virtual welcome mat for all the potential traffic these terms send.
Platinum level: I lied — there's one more level!
For all you lovely overachievers out there who have reached the end of this post, I’m going to reward you with one final tip.
You’ve done all the snooping around on your competitors, so you know who you’re up against. You’ve done the research, so you know what keywords to target to begin driving intent-rich traffic.
Now you need to create strong, consistent, and outstanding content.
As Dr Pete confirmed:
We don’t have to work ourselves to death to target the long tail of search. It doesn’t take 10,000 pieces of content to rank for 10,000 variants of a phrase, and Google (and our visitors) would much prefer we not spin out that content. The new, post-NLP (Natural Language Processing) long tail of SEO requires us to understand how our keywords fit into semantic space, mapping their relationships and covering the core concepts. Study your SERPs diligently, and you can find the patterns to turn your own long tail of keywords into a chonky thorax of opportunity.
Here's where you really have to tip your hat to long tail keywords, because by strategically targeting the long tail you can start to build enough authority in the industry to beat stronger competition and rank higher for more competitive keywords in your niche.
Wrapping up…
The various different keyword phrases that make up the long tail in your industry are vast, often easier to rank for, and indicate stronger intent from the searcher. By targeting them you’ll find you can start to rank for relevant phrases sooner than if you just targeted the head. And over time, if you get the right signals, you’ll be able to rank for keywords with tougher competition. Pretty sweet, huh? Give Moz’s Keyword Explorer tool a whirl and let me know how you get on :)
0 notes
tooneychaos · 2 years
Photo
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Just finished all 3! Happy (very) belated Pride, here are some insect peeps.
Characters:
Ava/June- Lesbian moth and aroace enby wasp. QPR (queerplatonic rivals)
Greg/Louie- Birom ant and panrom mosquito/bee-fly hybrid (btw have ya’ll seen japanese beeflies before? They’re literal cottonballs hrhajdkabpr). Ace lovebugs (haha get it)
Rosalind- Pansexual moth. Add blue to a rosy maple moth and they are automatic pan icons
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libraryofmoths · 10 months
Text
Moth of the Week
Madagascan Sunset Moth
Chrysiridia rhipheus (misspelled “ripheus”)
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The Madagascan sunset moth is in the family Uraniidae. This species was first described in 1773 by Dru Drury who put it in the Papilio genus, a genus of butterflies. He though this because it looked like a swallowtail butterfly, and additionally the specimen he was given had a different species’s head with clubbed antennae (a defining characteristic of butterflies) attached to the body. Jacob Hübner corrected this mistake in 1823 and placed the moth in the genus Chrysiridia. I though this moth would be perfect to post in June for its rainbow colors.
Description The Madagascan sunset moth’s body are covered in black fur on the back and orange fur on the underside. The thorax is an iridescent blue or green and the legs and head are black with filiform antennae. The wings are iridescent red, blue, and green with the colors mixing for the full rainbow. Black patterning of spots and stripes are on all four wings with the forewings having a black edge. The hindwings themselves have a white fringe on the edge and six tails which are often broken off or damaged over time. The upper side of both wings are mostly black with a large patch by the body. Patterns on the wings can vary and some moths are asymmetrical. This can be caused by many things like temperature shock during growth.
The colors on this moth’s wings do not come from pigments, but instead are caused by the scattering of light from the wings’ scales.
Average wingspan in high altitudes: 7 cm (≈2.8 in)
Average wingspan in low altitudes: 9 cm (≈3.5 in)
On occasion a moth’s wingspan can be as large as 11 cm (≈4.3 in).
Diet and Habitat The larva feed on four types of plants from the Omphalea genus that grow only on Madagascar. These species are O. ankaranensis, O. palmata, O. occidentalis, and O. oppositifolia. The larva eat all parts of the plants from leaves, to stems, to flowers, to fruits, but they avoid the veins of the leave which have a toxic latex in them. Adult moths drink nectar and prefer white or whitish-yellow flowers especially from the Indian almond tree, tea plant, loquat, plants in the Eucalyptus genus, and common mango tree.
First believed to have come from China or Bengal, this moth is only found in Madagascar. They migrate over the island to different areas with their host plant and can be found all over the island except for the south west and extreme south where their host does not grow. This moth’s preferred habitats are deciduous forests and rain forest regions.
Mating These moths mate all year but have the highest populations in March to August and the lowest populations in October to December. The females lay their eggs late in the afternoon or at nightfall. The females will usually lay the eggs in the underside of the host plant’s leaves in groups but can on occasion lay them on top.
Average number of eggs laid in each group: 80 eggs
Predators The Omphalea genus the caterpillars feed on also attracts polistine wasps who prey on the larva. However, the caterpillars and adult moths are toxic because the Omphalea species contains polyhydroxy alkaloids, which the caterpillars gain by eating and retain as adult moths. The wings’ bring colors are a warning signal of this.
Fun Fact The Malagasy people believe the souls of the dead or of ancestors appears in the form of a lepidopteran. The Madagascan sunset moth is specifically called adriandolo or lolonandriana, from lolo for "spirit" or "butterfly" and andriana for "noble" or "king.”
Additionally, eating the silk from this moth is said to cause a euphoric high.
Another interesting fact is the Madagascan sunset moth is one of only two species in the Chrysiridia genus.
(Source: Wikipedia, Moth Identification, Bug Under Glass)
169 notes · View notes
morenogood51 · 1 year
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Any meta-analysis involving ultra-high industry glutamate, glutamine, Gamma aminobutyric acid along with glutathione 1HMRS throughout psychosis: Significance with regard to studies associated with psychosis danger
Aim Comparison involving transanal removal (Ght) and also transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEM) associated with anal adenomas (RA) provides rarely been carried out. Method From 1990 to be able to 07, the final results involving Les (Forty three RA) and also TEM (216 RA) had been in comparison. Rectal adenomas were coordinated for dimension and length through the arschfick verge. Results Operation time was Forty seven.Five min with regard to Lo and Thirty five minimum pertaining to TEM (S < 0.001). Morbidity had been 10% following Ght Roxadustat nmr and A few.3% right after TEM (G < 0.001). Damaging resection profit margins ended up affecting 50% right after TE as well as 88% following TEM (G < 3.001). Fragmentation in the excised example was affecting Twenty-three.8% following Ght along with A single.4% after TEM (R < 3.001). In the event involving fragmentation, good resection prices ended up witnessed with greater frequency. Repeat has been 31.7% following Ght along with 6.1% right after TEM (P < 3.001). Soon after Ght, RA with a damaging resection edge stood a neighborhood recurrence fee of 0%, in contrast to Fifty nine.6% which has a positive margin (R < Zero.001), after TEM these types of costs had been 3.A couple of and 7.7% (G = 3.3), correspondingly. Conclusion Transanal endoscopic microsurgery provides improvement over transanal excision regarding RA.A great epizootic involving hemorrhagic disease connected with Epizootic hemorrhagic disease malware serotype 2 (EHDV-2) microbe infections throughout yaks from Your five herds took place Denver between June 21 years old as well as March Three, Next year. Impacted yaks assigned temperature, problem, anorexia, dyspnea, as well as inflamed conjunctivae. Ulcerated tooth pads, mucoid sanguineous sinus release, petechial hemorrhages within numerous organs, lung edema, along with serosanguinous liquid in the thorax, abdomen, and pericardial sac had been observed at necropsy. Blood vessels along with tissues trials coming from 7 yaks sticking with the same clinical signs as well as necropsy conclusions were good regarding EHDV-2 simply by reverse transcription polymerase squence of events along with A few yaks were seropositive pertaining to EHDV. Exams regarding malignant catarrhal nausea (Ovine herpesvirus 2), Bovine viral looseness of the bowels virus, Bovine herpesvirus One, Foot-and-mouth disease trojan, along with Vesicular stomatitis trojan had been negative. The studies indicate that will yaks are susceptible to infection together with EHDV-2 as well as show the particular clinical indications, and major along with histologic lesions on the skin involving hemorrhagic disease seen in some other ruminant kinds.Qualifications: Contact-dependent self-consciousness (CDI) has been lately unveiled being an interesting yet common mechanism pertaining to microbe levels of competition where a kinds inserts poisons in to their opponents via immediate bodily speak to with regard to development reductions. Although the molecular as well as innate aspects of CDI methods are increasingly looked into, a new quantitative and systematic photo of the way CDI programs benefit inhabitants competition and hence modify related levels of competition benefits isn't well elucidated. Results: By creating a precise design for the population consisting of CDI+ and also CDI- varieties, we have thoroughly investigated your characteristics and also probable eating habits study populace competitors.
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writeintrees · 1 year
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12 Days of Writer Self Love
Day 5: Flower
@writeblrfantasy
From SPZ:
Tiny leaves shiver and vines sway in the morning breeze, making Bennett itch to sketch the purple flowers that drip from boughs.
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Bennett sweeps through the condo and past his sister who is sitting with their dog, Professor, at her feet. June makes an offended sound. The glass door opens and he's on the wonderfully green, overgrown balcony. The ivy trellis is coming along nicely, he notes, but someone has been slacking on pruning the tomatoes. Bees blunder through the air and Bennett can’t help the grin creeping across his face. He lifts his hand slowly and watches as a bee with a blue striped thorax drifts around him. The stirred air tickles his skin as it investigates him. Deciding he isn’t a flower, it buzzes off to somewhere with more potential for pollen.
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Milkweed Beetle - Tetraopes tetrophthalmus
Today we celebrate the Milkweed Beetles returning to the front yard having last seen them as autumn arrived. They’ve emerged from their overwinter to partake in the summer’s bounties of milkweed leaves and flowers as they do year after year. I’m thrilled to see them active again! Truth be told, they emerged a bit earlier than the photograph dates below, but with other species in the queue to upload, I gave these Beetles a bit of a backseat. This additional time allowed for the photography of more individuals, finding mating pairs and observing new behaviors (more on those in paragraphs 2 and 3). While these Longhorned insects have been seen time and again on the blog, there’s always more to learn about them the more they are found and studied. You may also find beautiful specimens like these, you’re likely to find that they share milkweed with other insects. Picture 9 shows a small moment between a shade-seeking Beetle and Red-Banded Leafhopper. The more observant of you may have noticed an egg on Pictures 1 and 10. I’m closely monitoring it to see if it will hatch into a certain regal and wriggly insect. 
We’ve previous learned much about these Beetles like their nasty taste, their 4 eyes, their life cycle and their territoriality, so what behaviors have I observed this time? Firstly, carefully observe Pictures 3 and 4! This individual is biting into the underside of a milkweed leaf and allowing sap to pool and escape from those nibbles. Why though? Well, the Milkweed Beetle’s diet is composed of leaves and flowers of the plant, and while the Beetle is tolerant of the sap that flows within, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to eat. The milky sap is viscous and sticky which can make eating a chore (while toxic as well, the Beetle is resistant to the toxicity). However, by creating channels to drain the sap from the leaf, the Beetle can begin eating the top of the leaf and work its way down with less sap getting in the way. How crafty!  Secondly, I’ve read that when threatened, Milkweed Beetles will make a squeaking noise using stridulations (similar to Orthopterans, only using their head and thorax rather than their legs). I’d never heard this before until recently. I gently picked up a Beetle from our pine bushes and was wearing gloves at the time (so I didn’t have a good grip) and in response the Beetle tucked in its limbs had begun to make a high-pitched shrill sound. 
This sound isn’t very loud, but is noticeable if things are relatively quiet. I don’t recommend inconveniencing every Beetle you find to try hearing this sound (they have things to do), but you might have some luck if you find one flipped over or in confrontation with another Beetle. This is something known as a disturbance stridulation and many insects have the ability to generate these shrill sounds in order to try and deter predators or similar confronting attacks. It’s clear from studies that this defense tactic works, but why does it work? The main suggestions I’ve found from research suggest that the sound may startle the attacker or make the defending insect more imposing. A little tiny squeak may not seem so threatening to us, but in the insect world it’s another story. Just an random thought from me, but maybe the shrill sound serves as an interruption for the attacker’s focus, delaying the landed strike. If you were trying to do something and a high pitched squeak kept happening at random intervals, I’m betting your focus would be scrambled a bit. Just an idea of course, though it’s gotten me thinking about insect attention span. While anecdotal, this is the application of encountering an insect year after year and learning more about it simply by watching it. There’s so much we can learn from them!
Pictures were taken on June 24, 29 and July 3, 2022 with a Google Pixel 4.
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