#THE NEW URL??? VERY SEXY BY THE WAY | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

blondiest · 3 months

Text

HELLO! this is the first supposedly-annual nealloblondiest "mello isn't dead" bonanza, and this rec list is my main contribution. i have not made a rec list before, and i'm sure this isn't anywhere near comprehensive, but while compiling this, i found several new-to-me fics that i loved and am excited to include! the criteria for this list are mello/near fanfictions that are set after the end of the kira case in which mello survives or comes back from the dead. i'm not listing out the tags for these fics, since i trust everyone can check that for themselves and make judgments accordingly :-)

i will be including one (1) fic of my own here, but you can also find a list of all the fics i have which fall into this category over here <3

meronia authors: if you have a fic that fits this criteria, please feel so incredibly free to reblog and add a link to it [and i will in turn reblog your version so we can all see more fics!!] i am tagging the authors whose tumblr URLs i know, but i very well may miss someone; feel free to tag them in the replies if you think they would like to see it!

without further ado, the list is below the cut!! ^_^

heaven is a place on earth with you by @neallo

rating: E | category: M/M | chapters: 1/1 | words: 1.4k

There is no blood or body of Christ, no priest and no pews, but it’s here and now that Mello finally rediscovers a long-lost sliver of faith. Hands on Near’s hips, Mello lowers his face and presses his mouth to Near’s soft abdomen. “I love you,” he murmurs, head bowed and eyes shut as if in prayer.

getting mine out of the way at the start here :-) this is a sequel to my only one, my smoking gun but can very easily be read as a standalone.

Impulse by @empressofthewind

rating: M | category: M/M | chapters: 1/1 | words: 2.5k

In the span of a few weeks, Mello and Near’s rendezvous had quickly become a regular part of Near’s work day; Mello would suggest a time and place, and Near would always agree. Near was perfectly content with the arrangement, as long as his employees didn’t find out.

a sexy little post-kira workplace-romance oneshot in which mello helps near out with a case. and also gives him many hickeys ^_^ <3 the kissing scene in this makes me chewing-off-my-hands insane (highly positive)

orchid by anonymous

rating: M | category: multi | chapters: 1/1 | words: 269

mello wonders about what he's gotten himself into, sometimes.

very sweet, very short smutty ot4 fic (mello x matt, mello x near, mello x linda, with an implication that all four are dating each other).

reflection by @squidish

rating: E | category: M/M | chapters: 1/1 | words: 2.7k

Their bedroom door was open and the bed faced it. When Near closed the door, Mello raised an eyebrow. Just the one. There was a mirror on the back of the door that hadn’t been there yesterday. It was vertical, rectangular, with a simple black frame. Near looked at him with an expression so blank it could have meant literally anything. “You don’t have to,” he said, beginning to twirl his long hair, “but I’d like it if you watched.”

very intimate & adoring, yet still filthy [<- very positive] smut <3 ray imo excels beautifully at established relationship fics & captures a delicate dynamic that i'm very fond of.

Arsonist's Lullabye by TzviaAriella

rating: T | category: M/M | chapters: 1/1 | words: 3.3k

Two years after the end of the Kira case, Near and Mello pay a visit to L's grave.

i love the dynamic in this one very much; it's very contentious / antagonistic (esp at the start) but not without tenderness underneath :')

ringing... by @madmeridian

rating: T | category: M/M | chapters: 1/1 | words: 1.8k

Near receives a phone call and reflects a bit on his past.

mello and near get in touch over the phone after the end of the kira case; great dynamic here. it's a cute and charming story but without feeling de-fanged; their dialogue still has teeth to it :D

august underground by @brothercrush and @firebuggg

rating: E | category: M/M | chapters: 2/15 | words: 10.5k

Hell spits them out on a little Greek island.

was not going to include in-progress fics on this list, but had to make an exception. slowburn alternating POV story in which near drags mello out of hell. beautiful prose & a complex, compelling dynamic <3

#meronia #mellonear #mihael keehl #nate river #mello death note #near death note #death note

76 notes · View notes

bcacstuff · 5 months

Note

Wow...

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2023/11/27/the-couple-next-door-channel-4-review/&ved=2ahUKEwiyx6HX-eSCAxUaREEAHQunDq0Q0PADKAB6BAhVEAE&usg=AOvVaw2qhh3IaISCzwuZLZSPxIgF

The Couple Next Door, Channel 4, review: nonsensical, ridiculous – and very, very bingeable

3/5

Eleanor Tomlinson and Alfred Enoch star in this sexy thriller set in an alternate-reality Yorkshire that looks more like LA than Leeds

Eleanor Tomlinson, Jessica De Gouw and Sam Heughan in The Couple Next Door CREDIT: Sofie Gheysens/Channel 4

The Couple Next Door (Channel 4) is a sexy thriller and, if we’re honest, this isn’t Britain’s forte. Put it this way: a pivotal scene in which our two main characters lock eyes in a moment of simmering lust occurs while they’re putting the bins out. In an attempt to be less British – and this is a co-production with US network Starz, so it needs to be – the six-part, boxsetted drama has been given a glossy, international look. Hilariously, it claims to be set in Leeds, and you will believe that if you’ve never been to Leeds and are prepared to accept that it looks like LA’s San Fernando Valley, where the weather is great all the time (apart from the scene with the bins. Because rain is sexy).

It’s enjoyable nonsense. Evie and Pete, played by Eleanor Tomlinson and Alfred Enoch, are a young couple who move into a new home in Truman Show suburbia and are immediately love-bombed by Becka (Jessica De Gouw), a hot yoga instructor who lives across the road with Danny, an equally hot traffic cop who rides a motorbike (because motorbikes are sexy). Danny wears tight, white T-shirts that show off his He-Man physique – he’s played by Outlander’s Sam Heughan – and Becka just wears her underwear when guests pop round.

To be fair, the guests probably expect that sort of get-up, because Danny and Becka are swingers. Not that The Couple Next Door uses the term, because it’s striving to be far classier than that. Becka and Danny have the hots for Evie, and she – despite suffering a horrendous tragedy and being raised in a Christian cult based in what looks like the village from Emmerdale – is soon turned on to the whole wife-swapping idea.

Pete, who is fatally nice, is less enthusiastic (Enoch is the only actor here who makes his character behave like a normal person). While all this is going on, a creepy neighbour played by Hugh Dennis is stalking Becka, and Danny starts moonlighting for a local criminal kingpin. The drama ramps up. Evie, who appears at the outset to be a sensible, sweet-natured type, goes fully bonkers by around episode four.

Every five minutes there’s a complete failure of logic, either in terms of plot or production. Why would a crime boss trying to transport goods under the radar send them out in a car flanked by two police outriders? Why does the show go to the trouble of filming its countryside scenes in Yorkshire but not bother to disguise the architecture in any of the urban shots (it’s Belgium, apparently)? I found the whole thing ridiculous. So ridiculous that I happily binged the lot in two days.

11 notes · View notes

seonghwacore · 9 months

Text

hey new users! i know that the first thing tumblr asks you to do to join tumblr is follow blogs similar to your interest, VERY MUCH LIKE TWITTER EH? 😃🤡😃🤡😃🤡

this is a new establishment that disadvantages both old users and new users. since you're a new blog immediately following us, you look so shady without pfp and header and description and our fight or flight response will be blocking and reporting you as spam. you don't get the content you wanna see, old users experience in this hell site declines in quality cus we have to block and report every single day.

talking about user experience, this doesn't look good for tumblr as a business as well. i dont even wanna blame the uix guys behind this web you just get order from "the important ones".

we are currently in the freaking age of ultron era. we are shooting dozens of bots immediately. no mercy. some of em come into my dm, asking if i'd be interested in some sexy smoking hot women. honestly? i would bro. but not from a malicious pornbot.

(they just don't know i already have two malewives... both are cute and sexy...)

you, new users, can get into the crossfire, if you don't immediately give your blog a makeover or state in your description that "i'm new don't block me!!!! i follow you cus im interested in your posts don't shoot me!!!!" you will be immediately blocked even if your blog/url look like this:

(sweet kelly was the one offering me hot sexy mothers that i unfortunately have to refuse)

for a decade tumblr has been a place to enjoy arts, all types of creations ranging from graphics to creative writings. and people can get pretty political here too. we care nothing about your mlm business or nfts. but you can possibly get followers who will tip you, if you post your amazing and genuine creations.

usually, i will immediately block blank blogs but because of this new setting, now i will wait for 3 days to review my new followers and if they don't show any change or inform me in any kind of way, sorry, bullet through your head.

#tumblr #what do i tag this with?!?!?! ugh #dear new users

12 notes · View notes

iuwon · 1 year

Note

ok i ran out of things to say already I DONT SPAM ASK BOXES OFTEN so i’ll give u a moot game to do 😁😁 this is unoriginal but assign ur mutuals tropes so we can bring a little deluluism from twitter to tumblr

AUHHHH A MOOT GAME😍 this is so sexy of u i love ur brain SAWRY IM GONNA TAKE A WHILE TO ANSWER THIS

@jaeyunverse — you know that trope where the kpop idol goes undercover on twitter, so like undercover kpop idol x fan. YEAH, like whenever i see those tropes i just can’t see anyone who’d suit the role better than you i’m being so serious, like your personality radiates this vibe that makes a person want to get to know you more. i can envision a whole smau and you’d make the whole thing SO FUN i’ll be the side internet best friend who comments under ur every tweet

@tyunni — IDK IF THIS IS A TROPE but you know the plot wherein they’re oblivious to the fact that they’re in love with each other so their whole story is just their own friends trying to give them signs that the other likes them, and then both of their friends teaming up until they’re in the brink of just straight up telling them bc you guys are not getting the hint IT’D BE SO CUTE AND FUNNY GIGGLES

@yjwfav — THE PREVIOUS BULLY TURNED INTRO NICE DUDE TROPE. like don’t get me wrong, they wouldn’t actually be a bully, just someone who was misunderstood. this is so random but i would do anything just to see that trope with nadia😁 the conflict and confusion and misunderstandings i feel like slow burn really fits you SO SO SO WELL like do u guys see it cause i see it so clearly THIS TROPE JUST FITS YOU SO WELL IM SORRY

@fairybinie — THE FAKE RELATIONSHIP TROPE WAS MADE FOR U SHUT UP the slow burn and tension and hints and everything like i can envision this already and having u talk to me about it on twt dms and my hand would be over my mouth and all I DON’T EVEN NEED TO EXPLAIN MYSELF

@s-uwu-binie — THE BEST FRIENDS TO LOVERS TROPE WOULD BE SO SO SO CUTE ON YOU MY ASAWA😭 or like the whole aspect of first love and🥺 it would be so wholesome and fluffy like having a best friend and a lover at the same time THIS WOULD BE SO PERFECT YOU DONT UNDERSTAND

@iyeonjuni — honestly the only trope i can really see on you is the love triangle trope LMSSMDNDNXD I DON’T KNOW HOW TO EXPLAIN IT just two people pining after you 😍😍 OR MORE we Never know but i really see that on you, i also see like one of them being someone from the past and then comes back as the one who got away, so you’re stuck in between choosing. i just cannot explain why .

@enhayos — I DO NOT KNOW WHY BUT I REALLY REALLYYY NEEDED TO PUT THIS: the trope wherein the both of you have changed and your relationship is on the edge so you’re just trying to find your way back to each other. GRRRRHHHHH THIS IS THE PERFECT TROPE FOR YOU ???? I’M SORRY IF IM WRONG BUT I JUST SEE THIS HAPPENING IF EVER

@junityy — the seat mates trope. I LOVE IT SM just hear me out and imagine this: seatmates. always paired up with each other. LIKE THEY COULD BE LOUD AF OR WAYYY TOO QUIET OR WHTVR BUT THIS WOULD BE SO SO SO CUTE UEUEUEUEUE😭😭 like them having this very obvious liking towards u and like to them everything is about you so like they’d notice all the little things about you and pick up your little habits or moods ok ill stop

@yyx2 — the enemies to lovers trope, honestly. this would be so sexy. like i wouldn’t say that you guys would be enemies but you guys wouldn’t exactly like each other and would disagree w/ each other a lot. you guys would be in the fine line between liking and disliking e/o it’d be so juicy HAUSHSHSBDH

@yeoforce — roommates to lovers but you guys are rivals that’s the spiciest trope so far. the tension, the awkward moments, the questionable moments I’D BE SO FUN AND SPICY i’m already envisioning scenarios I WONT EXPLAIN INTO DETAIL BC U DONT OPEN TUMBLR ANW

@ksjluvrbot — new url i lov it anw ur trope would be the amnesia trope like u forgot about your s/o and the memories so it’s a whole slow burn I FEEL LIKE IT SUITS U fr you’d be so skeptical of them at first and definitely avoidant because ur like WHO TF IS THIS DUDE GET HIM AWAY, but they’re very persistent towards you so you slowly get to notice all the little things they do yadayda I WON’T GO INTO DETAIL EITHER BC U DON’T ALSO OPEN TUMBLR

me when i don’t know who else to add i’m just tagging people off the top of my head I’M SORRY IF I DIDN’T ADD YOU😭

#📬 : iuwon's sent mail #sage <3 #moot games

31 notes · View notes

eggman-is-fat-mkay · 7 months

Note

Firstly, when you get this, you have to answer with 5 things you like about yourself, publicly. Then, send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers (non-negotiable, positivity is cool)

firstly i think i am very sexy. i've been going to the gym a lot lately and it's paying off! my personal trainer says i need to eat more, and he's right, but i'm still making very respectable gains. i've been holding a plank (hands on floor, not elbows) for a little bit longer every night, just before i go to bed, for a few months now, and last night i set a new personal record of 25 minutes! i was cheating a little bit, shifting side to side and lifting one hand up to give my abs a break, and my form was more than a little sloppy, but still! 25 minutes straight!!!! (the secret is music, and wear loose clothing -- you overheat *super* fast) i've definitely got the six pack to show for it too. and as a certified gay dude and muscle enjoyer i gotta say it is a huge confidence boost to be low-key attracted to the guy i see in the mirror

second i'd say i am a pretty smart guy. most programmers are. i *love* being able to think of something, go "hey, i kinda wish that existed", and then just build it. and then... holy crap, that exists now. and i made it happen. and that's just such a cool feeling that i think everybody should get to experience.

if i don't tell anybody about my current project i'm gonna burst so here we go. i've been browsing a certain monosodium glutatmate related site lately that lets you upload images, put tags on them, and then search for them by their tags, and i've been somewhat disappointed with it. like most boorus, its search feature is quite limited -- you can specify the results have all of these tags, none of these tags, and one or more of these tags, but that's it. if you want to search for one of these two but not both, or one or more of these AND one or more of those, you're outta luck. i thought that was kinda disappointing. fortunately, i'm a programmer, and, as it turns out, this particular imageboard provides a full database dump containing the URL, rating, description, full list of tags, upvote/downvote/favorite count, image URL, etc., of every post on the site, all in one gigantic 3GB .csv file. practically begging me to make a better search function with it. it didn't take me long to whip up a script in rust that could parse that .csv file and, given a search string like "fluffy 1{ cat dog } 2-{ a b c }" (meaning "must be tagged fluffy, either cat OR dog but not both, and two or more of a, b, and c"), spit out a list of URLs of posts that matched. running the script on my laptop, it took about 12 seconds to search through the whole database, 30 if running on my phone. i also thought that was kinda disappointing and i could do better. so i started looking into ways to speed it up. i loaded the entire post database into RAM for faster access (my phone's 6GB of RAM was not thrilled about this, but it pulled through), i used the excellent rust library Rayon to search in parallel across all available CPU cores, i downloaded a second database dump from the site matching each tag name with its internal tag number (storing those instead of the names greatly reduced my RAM usage, not to mention integers are several times faster to search through than text strings), and i wrote a modified version of the search algorithm that took advantage of SIMD instructions to compare four integers at once on a single CPU core. all together, those improvements got my time for a single search down from 30 seconds to 1 second on my phone, and from 12 seconds to 50 milliseconds (that's a 20th of a second!) on my laptop. that's over a 200x improvement! isn't programming cool!!!! also the drag-race linear search algorithm i came up with for searching through the tags faster than a binary search was no doubt come up with long ago by someone much smarter than me, but i don't care i'm still proud of myself for having come up with it. i'm currently working on hooking that search algorithm up to a discord bot and in the process learning the intricacies of using postgresql to keep track of who's looking at what and what they want to see next. i'm learning a ton and it's super fun!

i'm no super-genius, don't get me wrong -- especially that SIMD part was mostly me throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what stuck -- but i definitely felt pretty cool after seeing the 10% performance improvement it got me :P

thirdly i can semi reliably get people to laugh. since i'm autistic this does not come naturally to me, but through many years of practice and a lotta misses i've figured out a system, there's three parts.

When someone asks a rhetorical question, answer it incorrectly. example

when someone else makes a joke, your job is to "yes, and". ex.: "eggman always likes sitting in the sun. like he's cold blooded. i bet he's a lizard." "it's true. zuckerberg's actually my cousin"

commit to the bit. pretend what you just said is true. what would that imply? zuckerberg's my cousin; i probably hang out with him a lot. is he normal for a lizard, and the rest of us are that good at pretending to be human, or is he weird even by our standards? what's lizardfolk physiology like? zuckerberg was acting really strangely in the 2018 facebook senate hearings -- he nearly blew our cover. hey, that's a joke right there. just keep these ideas going in your head and string them together with whatever you can think of. ex.: "zuckerberg's actually my cousin. he's a lot less awkward once the meat suit comes off. i don't know why he gets so nervous in front of humans. guess he's just camera shy. during the facebook senate hearings he was such a mess we had to spoon feed him lines through a transmitter in his fourth ear. i don't know how people didn't notice. swear that guy is gonna out us one day. don't know why they haven't given his meat suit to someone else yet. anyway i talked with him about the whole social media panopticon thing but he was kinda stubborn on that point." alternately: "is zuckerberg your cousin?" "no actually common misconception he's just about the only celebrity who isn't. the overlords keep trying to kill that rumor cause he's making us look bad. there was talk of installing a lizard as the head of facebook so we'd have control over social media but the higher-ups wouldn't sign off on it"

(i lied there's 4 parts) learn how to volley. "if zuck's your cousin, why don't you have a facebook account?" "zuck knows enough about me just being my cousin; i don't need him being able to look up all my browsing history and bring it up at family reunions." from here, if reaction is positive, you can run with the bit: "and you know he'd do it in the most well-meaning way too; he'd see me and immediately ask if i found those dildos i was searching for two weeks ago, and if not offer to help. bro has zero social awareness"

for skills i practiced in reddit comment sections, they translated to real life surprisingly well. of course, like anything, this takes practice. coming up with stuff like that on the fly did not come naturally to me at first, and unfortunately i can't really say for certain when or why that changed. i guess my advice would be hang around with people you think are good at making jokes, watch them, and try to figure out why what works, works, and when you think you've got something, try your hand with some friends. or you could take the autistic route of just saying something that wasn't intended to be funny, having people laugh, and laughing along with them while silently puzzling over why that was funny and how you can make a funny on purpose next time. something that's important to remember though is that if you can't think of anything, that's okay. jokes often make conversations more fun, but a lack of jokes does not often make them worse.

smart, handsome, and funny is a pretty good set, i gotta say. i'm not perfect -- no one is -- and i'm definitely not sure how many other people would agree with any of those three assessments of myself (my parents tell me i'm smart, but don't everyone's?), but i'm pretty happy with where i'm at life wise and the rate i'm progressing. you asked for five things i liked about myself; i'm a bit busy at the moment so i'll have to give you a rain check for the other two. but i will definitely be forwarding this ask to everyone i can think of who hasn't blocked me!

#be kind to yourself #positivity #most people have done something that's brag worthy #what's yours?#idc how tiny it is i wanna hear it #if you're reading this light my ask box up #whatever you're proud of yourself for

2 notes · View notes

fluffy-critter · 7 months

Text

#crosspost #busybee

1 note · View note

bfxenon · 2 years

Text

Beyond Title Tags: 5 Worthwhile SEO Tests that Seem “Untestworthy”

Is it testworthy, or is it untestworthy?

There’s a fine line between optimizations and experiments. Testing something is an exercise in curiosity, whereas optimizing a thing is an act of certainty.

If we know the outcome of a given activity before we perform that activity, we’re in optimization territory. For example, if you’ve discovered a load of orphaned pages, then the act of internally linking to those pages is highly likely to result in a positive outcome. We can deem this scenario, “untestworthy” (yes, I know that’s actually a word).

But, as we’ll discuss here, SEO includes a vast array of activities where the outcomes of our work are either uncertain or difficult to predict. Think about the last time you experienced a site migration. Were you certain that the new site would perform better than the original? This might be a scenario that we’ll deem, “testworthy.”

In short, a testworthy activity is one where we don’t know the ending until we measure our outcomes with data.

Measuring our SEO tests

The step-by-step measurement processes and techniques for conducting SEO experiments fall outside the scope of this article, so if you’re reading this and asking yourself, “how exactly do I run an SEO experiment from start to finish?”, here are a couple links to resources that can assist you in learning the nitty-gritty specifics of setting up and measuring SEO experiments:

How to Start Running SEO Tests

Your First Three SEO Tests

For each of the experiments below, I will assume a time-based measurement technique. Although some of the ideas here can be tested using an A/B split testing technique, not all of them can.

Curious about time-based techniques? I cover them in detail in this guide.

A word on statistical significance

One final note to remember. Statistical significance, i.e. when your results can be confidently attributed to your testing criteria, is a sexy concept, but one sobering reality of SEO testing is that statistical significance can only be achieved through rigorously advanced split testing.

Time-based SEO experiments provide us with directional learnings, not absolute conclusions. Advantages of experimenting in this way include the ability to react more quickly, use up fewer resources, and the flexibility to experiment in nearly all search environments where split testing cannot.

Here’s one way to visualize how non-significant tests remain valuable. On the left end of the spectrum, there are the crapshoot experiments: low confidence, low investment initiatives that provide less reliable insights. Further to the right, we can begin categorizing experiments according to higher confidence intervals and higher resource investments. Somewhere in the middle, there are a great many SEO tests that provide directional insights, even when our directional insights aren’t guaranteed with the promise of scientific certainty.

With this in mind, I’ve put together a list of five inconspicuous SEO tests that appear “untestworthy,” but are actually SEO tests disguised as optimizations.

Test in disguise #1: URL switching

A URL switch test is really very similar to SEO title testing. The idea behind URL switch tests is simple: like page titles, we know that URLs are heavily weighted ranking factors, so if we find that there are URLs that look under-optimized or misaligned with our target terms and search intents, then we can build a hypotheses for testing a new URL and redirecting the original URL.

Some of you might be silently blowing a fuse right about now, and for good reason. URL switch tests can be very risky. If your original URL has already generated a substantial number of links (internal or external) I would exercise extreme caution before running a URL switch test.

As you probably know by now, redirects have the potential to backfire, and if your test fails, cannot be rolled back to the original URL variant as easily as a title test can be rolled back.

But this shouldn’t scare you if you are running a URL switch test in lower-risk scenarios. I have seen many successful URL switch tests in scenarios where the target URL was either freshly-launched, had too few links pointing to it, or where the URL was so ineffective that an experiment was justifiably worth the risk.

How to run a URL switch test

Check the URL’s current traffic levels. Higher traffic levels = higher risk.

Check the URL’s internal and external links. Internal links can be updated, but external links can still lose strength as you pass them through a 302/301.

If the risk is within your level of tolerability, clarify what your new hypothesis and URL test variation will be.

Example hypothesis: Changing the URL string from a partial match string to an exact match string will align our page more closely with the target keyword and increase rankings and clicks for the target keyword.

Change the URL from the control URL to the variation URL.

Add a 302 temporary redirect from the control to the variation, submit the URL for re-indexation in Google Search Console (GSC), and benchmark the date that this is completed on.

Wait 2-6 weeks to measure the clicks before vs. clicks after for equal time durations and days of the week in GSC.

For example: If your measurement period (after data) begins on a Thursday and ends on a Sunday, then I recommend comparing with an equivalent time duration in GSC that also begins on a Tuesday and ends on a Sunday just prior to the experiment launch date (before data). For most websites, the click patterns on weekends will be lower than on weekdays. Using the same days of the week and time durations allows you to control for these differences in daily click patterns.

The optimal time-range is situation-dependent. Pages that generate high click volumes can be measured closer to the two-week time-frame, while pages that generate lower click-volumes will need to run longer.

Caution: If the risk to this page is high, you may want to check in periodically during the first few days to make sure that performance doesn’t drop unexpectedly.

When measuring performance, use the “compare URLs” feature in GSC. This lets you check both the control URL and the variation URL simultaneously.

After you’ve gathered enough data to make a directionally-sound judgment call about which URL performs better, do one of the following:

If the new variation performed better: Change the 302 temporary redirect to a 301 permanent redirect and update all internal links to reflect the new URL.

If the original control URL performed better: Remove the 302 redirect. [Optional: you may want to add a new redirect from the failed variation URL back to the original control URL to speed up the re-indexation process.]

Resubmit the final URL in Google Search Console and periodically monitor the performance after the test has ended to ensure that performance remains positive.

Test in disguise #2: Content refreshes

Isn’t a content refresh a given? We know that refreshing content is good for SEO, so why does it need testing?

Yes, content refreshes are incredibly important and this is an activity that has been proven successful time and time again. However, not every content refresh yields positive results.

Even though it isn’t the norm, content refresh projects can occasionally result in traffic losses, and perhaps equally frustrating, many refresh projects can turn out neutral results. This means that all of that precious time and energy that we spent rewriting and republishing a piece of content failed to produce the outcome that we intended.

For these reasons, it’s important to figure out if our investments in these projects have achieved their desired positive outcomes or not. That’s where SEO testing comes into play.

How to run a content refresh SEO test

Perform your content refresh project exactly as you otherwise would, according to your own content team’s workflow. Make sure to save all of the original files, in case you need to revert back to the original content.

On the date of republication, submit the page URL to Google Search Console to be re-indexed and benchmark the date.

Wait 2-6 weeks to measure the clicks before vs. clicks after in GSC.

Once again, keep in mind that the best time duration will vary based on the click volumes that each page receives.

After you’ve gathered enough data to make a directionally-sound judgment call about which URL performs better, do one of the following:

If the variation performed better: Congrats! Report the results to your team and keep the change.

If the control performed better: Reinstate the original content and files. Then, re-index the page and continue monitoring performance to look for rebounding traffic.

Test in disguise #3: Section rearrangement

A section rearrange test is just what it sounds like. The hypothesis for these experiments is that if we can reprioritize some of the on-page content, elements, or components, then we might be able to influence the page’s rankings and traffic coming in.

This can work particularly well, if the page section that addresses our audiences’ main search intents is either buried deep below the fold, or if it requires extra steps for the user to access that content.

For simplicity's sake, let’s use the example keyword: “email ideas for cold outreach.”

This keyword appears to have a lot of demand from users who are looking for specific email templates and phrasings that they can use in their outreach campaigns.

Now, let's assume that you’ve got a blog post on this exact topic, but the exact email templates and scripts that users are searching for are buried at the end of your posts, well past a dozen other sections of content that don’t satisfy their search demand. This might be a great case for running a section rearrange test.

The idea is, if you can reprioritize those pieces of information that users are looking for from the bottom of your page to the top of your page, Google is likely to notice the prioritized content as a better match for users to quickly access the information they want. Thus, rankings and traffic may improve in the same way they might improve with a content refresh project.

Added bonus: it’s faster than rewriting new content!

How to run a section rearrange SEO test

Look for pages that are underperforming, and that have addressed a users’ primary search intent somewhere deep within the page.

Rearrange the page sections in a way that might create a better experience or flow for the readers.

Launch the new page (but remember to save the original control page files), re-index in Google Search Console, and benchmark the date.

Wait 2-6 weeks to measure the clicks before vs. clicks after in GSC.

Again, keep in mind that the best time duration will vary based on the click volumes that each page receives.

After you’ve gathered enough data to make a directionally-sound judgment call about which URL performs better, do one of the following:

If the variation performed better: Congrats! Report the results to your team and keep the changes.

If the control performed better: Reinstate the original content and files. Then, re-index the page and continue monitoring performance to look for rebounding traffic.

Test in disguise #4: Content removal

This test is the SEO-equivalent of what CRO professionals call “a takeaway test.”

In digital marketing, there are times when less really is more, so the idea for this experiment is, if we just trim out certain items — whether those might be page elements, or less-helpful content sections — then the removal process could lend itself to creating a tighter, stronger webpage.

In a CRO-driven takeaway experiment, a CRO professional might notice certain elements that distract users or get in the way of a conversion path.

This concept works just a little bit differently for SEO if our goal is to improve rankings and traffic performance. For SEO, content removal experiments are just a matter of “trimming the fat” from our content and page elements.

When analyzing your top pages, ask yourself if you see any sections, paragraphs, or sentences which deviate from the information that the search audience really came for. You might be surprised to see how much of the content we create is actually worthless for our users.

How to run a content removal SEO test

Scan for high-value pages and posts that may be hitting a wall with rankings and traffic performance.

Make sure to analyze the top keywords and SERPs so that you can get very clear on which primary and secondary search intents the users predominantly wish to see and read about.

Scan your page’s content with a dose of radical honesty to look for content that diverges from the information that you might want to see if you were a reader.

If your investigation turns up content and/or elements that don’t help the users, remove them and make sure to save the original control page files, just in case the experiment results are negative.

Launch the new page, re-index in Google Search Console, and benchmark the date.

Wait 2-6 weeks to measure the clicks before vs clicks after in GSC.

Again, keep in mind that the best time duration will vary based on the click volumes that each page receives.

After you’ve gathered enough data to make a directionally-sound judgment call about which URL performs better, do one of the following:

If the variation performed better: Congrats! Report the results to your team and keep the changes.

If the control performed better: Reinstate the original content and files. Then, re-index the page and continue monitoring performance to look for rebounding traffic.

Test in disguise #5: Featured snippets

This activity is one of my all-time favorites.

Treating our featured snippet answers like an SEO test is one of the ways that my teams have been able to accrue competitively high volumes of traffic and clicks in recent years.

When our team began to treat our featured snippets as experiments, rather than optimizations, we were able to learn much more about how to write better answers, and we were able to create processes for scaling up to higher quantities of featured snippet experiments. This meant more “at bats” for acquiring the answer box rankings, which meant faster traffic growth.

Much has already been covered about how to optimize for featured snippets. I’ll simply add a process for testing your featured snippet copy.

What’s more, featured snippet tests are one of the rare instances where statistical significance is undeniably attainable because the success measurement is binary. Either your experiment resulted in acquiring the featured snippet, or it did not. (Caveat: Some longer tail featured snippets may also be impacted by your experiments, but the impacts are generally negligible if you are targeting a strong primary keyword.)

How to run featured snippet tests

Identify opportunities where featured snippets are appearing in the SERPs, and where one of your pages ranks within the top 5 positions but is not occupying the answer box. (Tip: some of the current rank tracking solutions such as STAT make featured snippet identification much easier.)

Sort and prioritize featured snippet opportunities according to the opportunities that represent the highest value to your website. I recommend considering the traffic’s audience and conversion potential alongside the potential search volume.

Rewrite the portion of your article where the featured snippet is being targeted. This step is another one where the full context of featured snippet practices span outside the scope of this article, so you may want to check out resources like this if you’re not already familiar with featured snippet rewriting.

Periodically check in on your target answer box(s) and traffic over the next several weeks.

If at first you don’t succeed, test again! The great part about answer box testing is that you rarely need to revert to your control, and you can keep swinging until you hit the home run. In some cases, we’ve had to make as many as ten or more rewrite attempts before successfully capturing the featured snippet.

Repeat this process to run more experiments the remaining featured snippet opportunities that were identified in step one.

More SEO tests in disguise

This list is far from exhaustive.

As I alluded to earlier in the piece, I think that just about anything which requires measurement is a form of testing to some degree, regardless of whether or not this activity can be measured to true statistical significance.

If your team is investing any serious resources into activities like core web vitals, internal linking, E-A-T enhancements, site migrations, Schema markup, or UX changes, it’s usually wise to do a retrospective before and after analysis on whether or not that investment yielded a positive payoff.

Stacking up those experiments to figure out where your bets are paying off, versus where they are not paying off will start to steer your strategy and SEO knowledge toward more profitable outcomes.

0 notes

lakelandseo · 2 years

Text

Beyond Title Tags: 5 Worthwhile SEO Tests that Seem “Untestworthy”

Is it testworthy, or is it untestworthy?

There’s a fine line between optimizations and experiments. Testing something is an exercise in curiosity, whereas optimizing a thing is an act of certainty.

In short, a testworthy activity is one where we don’t know the ending until we measure our outcomes with data.

Measuring our SEO tests

How to Start Running SEO Tests

Your First Three SEO Tests

For each of the experiments below, I will assume a time-based measurement technique. Although some of the ideas here can be tested using an A/B split testing technique, not all of them can.

Curious about time-based techniques? I cover them in detail in this guide.

A word on statistical significance

With this in mind, I’ve put together a list of five inconspicuous SEO tests that appear “untestworthy,” but are actually SEO tests disguised as optimizations.

Test in disguise #1: URL switching

As you probably know by now, redirects have the potential to backfire, and if your test fails, cannot be rolled back to the original URL variant as easily as a title test can be rolled back.

How to run a URL switch test

Check the URL’s current traffic levels. Higher traffic levels = higher risk.

Check the URL’s internal and external links. Internal links can be updated, but external links can still lose strength as you pass them through a 302/301.

If the risk is within your level of tolerability, clarify what your new hypothesis and URL test variation will be.

Change the URL from the control URL to the variation URL.

Add a 302 temporary redirect from the control to the variation, submit the URL for re-indexation in Google Search Console (GSC), and benchmark the date that this is completed on.

Wait 2-6 weeks to measure the clicks before vs. clicks after for equal time durations and days of the week in GSC.

Caution: If the risk to this page is high, you may want to check in periodically during the first few days to make sure that performance doesn’t drop unexpectedly.

When measuring performance, use the “compare URLs” feature in GSC. This lets you check both the control URL and the variation URL simultaneously.

After you’ve gathered enough data to make a directionally-sound judgment call about which URL performs better, do one of the following:

If the new variation performed better: Change the 302 temporary redirect to a 301 permanent redirect and update all internal links to reflect the new URL.

Resubmit the final URL in Google Search Console and periodically monitor the performance after the test has ended to ensure that performance remains positive.

Test in disguise #2: Content refreshes

Isn’t a content refresh a given? We know that refreshing content is good for SEO, so why does it need testing?

Yes, content refreshes are incredibly important and this is an activity that has been proven successful time and time again. However, not every content refresh yields positive results.

For these reasons, it’s important to figure out if our investments in these projects have achieved their desired positive outcomes or not. That’s where SEO testing comes into play.

How to run a content refresh SEO test

On the date of republication, submit the page URL to Google Search Console to be re-indexed and benchmark the date.

Wait 2-6 weeks to measure the clicks before vs. clicks after in GSC.

Once again, keep in mind that the best time duration will vary based on the click volumes that each page receives.

After you’ve gathered enough data to make a directionally-sound judgment call about which URL performs better, do one of the following:

If the variation performed better: Congrats! Report the results to your team and keep the change.

If the control performed better: Reinstate the original content and files. Then, re-index the page and continue monitoring performance to look for rebounding traffic.

Test in disguise #3: Section rearrangement