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biffhofosho · 2 years

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I'm just curious about why do you not like writing in second person? Why do you prefer third? I see most fanfictions written in second person so I was just wondering why you made the decision to write your work in third person? And I see you posted a new Hyungwon piece, I can't wait for work to get over so I can read it cause I love all your work so much!

Thank you for this ask! I will try and edit my fiery lion as I answer even though I know I can't lol.

I don't dislike second person; I actively hate it. :D

This is really for a lot of reasons, but I will limit myself to three and then explain what I mean.

It's pointless.

It's usually disingenous.

It doesn't make any logical sense.

To point one: All writers in all of history create characters when they write. It is impossible to write an actual reader. Impossible. Period.

It doesn't matter if those annoying hair color, eye color, Y/L/N or Y/B/F acronyms are there. It will never, ever be every nebulous reader out there. Why? Because by writing the story, the author is making choices for that character that will inevitably rule out part of their audience. (Side note: authors, please don't call it a "named reader" either--that's just a character lol. Own it.)

The moment I read about Y/N drinking her morning coffee, my brain screams "Nope! Not me!" I hate coffee, can't even stand the smell. What if I'm shy and awkward (I'm neither lol), but I'm reading about Y/N trading sexual innuendos with Minhyuk? What if I don’t like wearing dresses, but Y/N is wearing a strapless ass-hugger in the club? I can’t walk in heels either. Uh-oh. What if my hair is short, but Joohoney is supposed to be running his fingers through my tresses? You get the drift. But taking out those descriptors feels like stage directions, and that’s boring af to read, which is why authors put in the details in the first place.

For a beloved friend, I once fired out a second person drabble (which feels more acceptable to me because it's like a conversation at that point), and even though I know her well, I put her character in a situation which, later, she teasingly said, "I would never ride a rollercoaster, but I would for you." Ha ha, cute, but also, see? Even intimately knowing my "you" character, I still made an untrue rendition of her.

None of that would prompt me to stop reading (nor did it take out my friend who enjoyed my drabble regardless), but I have seen some very solid pieces with borderline flame comments that say, "yOu sAiD Y/N HaS BrOwN HaIr. I DoN'T HaVe bRoWn hAiR. tHiS ToOk mE OuT Of tHe sToRy aNd i cOuLdN'T FiNiSh. YoU ShOuLd cHaNgE ThAt!"

Yeah, that was an actual comment I once saw (though the style choice is me just emphasizing my scathing tone). Rude af, and, yeah, I wanted to punch that reader in the boob for demanding something so unreasonable (ever heard of a commission???), but it underscores my point.

We don't complain about movies and television and published novels being in first and third. Why not? Nothing's ever stopped us from imagining ourselves in those OC roles before, so why the shift? A different discussion maybe, but it's something to think about.

To point two: Most writers don't even like writing in it! To those that do, I would never begrudge them their voice, but I don't think the average fic reader really knows how much authors don't like writing second person--they simply feel they have to because that's where the demand has moved.

I commission a lot of writers I enjoy, and before we strike up a deal, I always ask if they're comfortable creating an OC and writing in 1st or 3rd. Every single last writer I've commissioned (I think it's six at this point?) has said the exact same thing to me.

"I don't like writing in second, but it's what gets notes."

>:(

The thought of a writer sacrificing their artistic integrity for a heart-smash sets my teeth on edge. If you're going to go to all the effort to create an alternate universe (and, let's be real, that takes, at the minimum, hours or, in my case, years), let it be true to your voice. That's why I say, if you love writing second, do it. But I know that's not true for the vast majority of fic writers, and it aches my artistic soul.

To point three: Simply put, second person makes no actual sense at all???

If the goal is for me (the reader) to be the main character in the story, how is that to work? I don't think of myself as "you". I think of myself as "I". So shouldn't it be written in first person? Otherwise, it sounds more like I'm reading a stranger as the MC...

I don't know where this commitment to second started, but I wish I could time travel back and undo it. I've been writing third person established character/OC fanfiction since I was sixteen. I just turned 40. I will never write anything else. My preference is third for the freedom it affords (between the limited and omniscient and objective focuses, I find something tailored to suit every piece I create), but at least I understand first because I live it every day lol.

In conclusion: I have no idea how this turned out. I was trying to be equal parts tongue-in-cheek and serious, but maybe it's just kinda bitchy? My first draft was exactly the way I wanted, and I accidentally closed the tab and had to start over. :( Maybe my next rant should be on how Tumblr should have an auto-save feature...

Also, weirdly, I don't ever insert myself in a second person fic anyway. I usually put one of my OCs in (generally my bae, Wally, from "Idol Thieves" because I might be in love with that stubborn bitch). There's something weird to me about copy-pasting myself into a story, but is that just me?

In the end, I guess I'm just grateful that there are still people who can appreciate my craft the way I craft it. I'm different. I like to be so. Read second person if you want to, write it if you want to (but only if you WANT to, not because you feel you have to, pleaseeeeeeeeeeee). Either way, you will never ever find it here, and maybe that's why you're here anyway. :D

So, anyway, thanks for asking (and I'm sorry if you regret it lol)! I hope you enjoy the new story. I love it and feel like I've lived it, even if the OC is not me lol.

(Also, I already had this second pov tag in my tag list lol.)

#q&a #asks #writing talk #second person is the devil and no one will convince me otherwise #this is my alamo #shots fired

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omoi-no-hoka · 4 years

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I read your post on how you got started in the translation industry and I was wondering if it is possible to get an entry/basic level translation gigs in Japan with N3-level proficiency or if even those want at least N2 proficiency. Also since you've been living and working in Japan for a long time, what advice would you give those wanting to work in Japan in regards to avoiding black companies?

Finding Translation Work in Japan

Hi there! Thank you for your ask.

To be honest, “translation” is so very broad that I can’t give you a simple “yes” or “no” as an answer. My answer is “Maybe” with the following caveats. For the sake of this post, I’m going to assume that your native language is English, or that you have native-level proficiency, and you plan to do English↔Japanese translation in a Japanese workplace.

Field of Translation

This is perhaps the biggest factor. I understand that in order to translate legal or medical things, there is a particular certification that you must obtain. This requires N1/native level proficiency in both languages. I have thought of attempting to obtain the medical one, but I’m not ready for it. I would need to study a LOT of terminology in both English and Japanese.

As for other fields, I think it really depends on the company and how much they are willing to teach you on the job. Also, depending on the field, many field-specific terminology may be katakana words derived from English, meaning that while they will be new Japanese words for you, they will not be entirely new words.

But if I were to work in, say, the banking industry doing translation, I would certainly have a hard time learning all the words, especially if I didn’t already have some sort of background in banking in English.

For example, I specifically work as a translator for a company that provides services to other very big companies that you have heard of. Technically, I work for an anti-malware software company and the technical support aspect of it. When a product is updated, I will translate internal manuals and things like that. I also translate the Big Wig conversations, which are done in English since the client and our company’s HQs are in America, so that our local guys know what’s going on. I also create/translate/edit/take minutes for presentations given to Big Wigs. I also handle all IT issues in our project, because our IT ticketing system is 100% in English. ANYTHING English-related is funneled to me.

Contractually-speaking, I do not work for any other clients. But since I’m the only translator in our company in Hokkaido capable of interpretation as well, I am often asked to assist under the table. (Translation and interpretation are two entirely different beasts, btw.)

While I don’t have a background in IT or computers or anything like that, since most of the terminology is in katakana and I’m not absolutely clueless about computers, my learning curve wasn’t too sharp. I struggled more with bullshit corporate acronyms and the formalities of Business Japanese (sonkeigo and kenjougo).

A person holding an N2 is considered capable of Business Japanese. Even if you have extensive knowledge in the field of translation, you will have a VERY difficult time adjusting to the Japanese-language workplace if you are not good with Business Japanese. From that standpoint, I cannot recommend someone at N3 to enter a Japanese company to do translation. It will be grueling. I was N1 when I joined the company, and I still had difficulty composing emails and other workplace-related words I hadn’t come across.

Start with Freelance Translation/Proofreading

There was a year or so where I had N1 but was still teaching English. I found freelance English-Japanese translation jobs online. Lots of them were one-shot things, like “translate this brochure about our little tiny town” or “I am a researcher who has written a paper on Persian-French relations during the 16th century, and I need someone to proofread my English.” Lol that one was pretty specific and paid very handsomely. By doing well on a job, I established a relationship with that client and I would get more work either from them or someone they knew. Prices are fixed before translation.

The average price for translation is 3-7 yen per character (if the original text is in Japanese) or per word (if the original text is in English). The price increases depending on the complexity of the material. The brochure about the little town was 4 yen per character, but the research paper was 9 yen word (despite the fact I was only proofreading instead of translating because it was incredibly complex).

Proofreading goes alongside translation. I didn’t really do much of that, but you can see a price range of 1-5 yen per character/word. If you are N3, proofreading is great way to get your feet wet!

NOTE: Do not take on proofreading or translation jobs for a language that is not your native language. No matter how good you think your Japanese is, it will not be good enough to proofread. Even if you have an N1, you will miss things. Even I, as a translator with almost 3 years experience in my field, always have a Japanese coworker proofread everything I translate into Japanese, and 9 times out of 10 they fix at least one thing.

How to Avoid Black Companies

In Japan, some companies are labeled ブラック企業 “black kigyou,” which means that they violate labor laws in some heinous fashion. Denying pay, benefits, or leave, forcing employees to do grueling amounts of overtime that can lead to 過労死 karoushi (death by overwork), etc. These companies will rob you of your sanity at best and your life at worst, and are to be avoided at all costs.

When I was searching for a position teaching English, I googled reviews of each big Eikaiwa school, like AEON or whatever else there is. Many previous teachers air their grievances on places like glassdoor.com. It was easy to learn which schools I should avoid.

Also, I applied online to many different big Eikaiwas. Three of them (sorry, I can’t remember which) immediately emailed me back and said I was hired, without an interview or anything. That should be a HUGE red flag to you right there. Why are they so desperate to hire that they’ll take you without even giving you an interview? And even if they do later say, “Your hiring is dependent upon an interview,” that means that their initial contact email was fraudulent.

Research the company as best you can. See if you can find someone who has worked for them. Beware of smaller, private companies. They tend to fly under the radar and are prone to be even shittier. Then again, there was a woman who died of death by over work a few years ago and she worked for the biggest advertising firm in Japan.

Here’s an article from Business Insider about karoushi and black companies.

A 2016 report examining karoshi cases and their cause of death found that more than 20% of people in a survey of 10,000 Japanese workers said they worked at least 80 hours of overtime a month.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry defines the threshold for karoushi as greater than 80 hours of overtime a month. Since this article was posted in 2018, a new law regarding overtime has been implemented by the Japanese government. Now there is a legal cap on overtime of 100 hours per month (and 720/year) for busier months, with the general upper limit set at 45 hours per month (360 hours/year).

Even if a company isn’t black, be prepared for overtime. My company makes sure that every employee adheres to the 45 hours per month limit...as best they can. If you follow this blog you know that I have done 60 and 70 hours of overtime in certain months, because I am our only translator and when shit hits the fan I’m the only one who can handle it.

However, my company is very good about making sure that I receive all of my overtime pay. Every single minute of overtime I do is properly reimbursed. Sometimes this means that if I work 60 hours one month, I will only report 45 that month, and then report 15 extra hours the next month. Or I will take a couple days off but claim that I worked (with my bosses’ approval, of course).

I can’t speak for other companies for sure, but I fear that when this law was introduced in 2019, many companies did not change their business models and instead forbid employees from reporting overtime that exceeded legal limits, meaning they would be going without compensation.

So be aware that if you are going to work in a Japanese company, you are likely to have overtime. Some people don’t, and congratulations to them! But it is an extremely real possibility. Make sure that you can handle it physically and mentally, and that you are being properly compensated. After my first month of Big Overtime, my boss told me, “I’m surprised that you managed to do all that. I thought that Americans had a poor work ethic compared to Japanese people, but now I see that’s not true.”

kinda racist, but thx

If you have an interview and it goes well and you receive a contract, ask to take the contract and have time to think about it. Then, have a Japanese person you trust read the contract and make sure there is nothing shady hidden in there. Contracts and legalese are difficult enough in my own native language--I don’t trust myself to catch something in Japanese.

If your friend thinks that the contract is fair as well, and if you feel like the company has a good atmosphere, take the job. That is what I did, and I am glad I did.

Translation and Interpretation

A lot of people don’t know the difference between “translation” and “interpretation” and use them interchangeably, but they are actually entirely different tasks that require different skills.

Translation: the conversion of written text from one language to another.

Interpretation: the conversion of spoken word from one language to another.

You will most likely be hired as a translator, because translation is much cheaper than interpretation. However, if your company is like mine, you will have interpretation work to do as well. You may be asked to take part in meetings and facilitate communication between the English-speaking and Japanese-speaking people, or act as a guide to a client from American headquarters, for example.

With translation, you usually have the blessing of time. You can look up a word you don’t know, you can think about the grammar, you can think about tone.

But with interpretation, you need to be:

Listening to Speaker A’s English and mentally summarizing their words

Starting to say Speaker A’s words in Japanese while holding on to the bits that will come later because English and Japanese word order is so different

Continuing to listen to added speech from Speaker A as you concurrently are relaying their previous speech in to Japanese and retaining the parts that you can’t say yet because of word order.

Then do it all for again for Speaker B’s reply, and repeat.

Basically, your mind has to be doing three things at once. Does your head hurt? Mine does. If I have to do simultaneous interpretation like that for more than a couple hours I literally develop a headache.

I will NEVER recommend an N3 person attempt interpretation in a business setting. Nor N2 for that matter. It is hard and you do not have the benefit of time to think and double-check things.

Also, many people don’t understand exactly how difficult it is to do interpretation. I have to sometimes just say “Sorry, pause” to the speaker because my head can’t retain any more, especially if figures and data and dates are referred to. Thankfully my coworkers have come to understand my method and are just happy that I can facilitate communication for them.

If you have any other questions regarding job hunting, please let me know and I’d be more than happy to offer what advice I have! 💖

#Anonymous #work in japan #life in Japan #expat in japan #japanese translation #japanese interpretation #job hunting #job hunting in japan #japan #ask me anything #asks are open

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katieinmyanmar · 4 years

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(January 18-February 14)

Min gă la ba! Welcome to my blog! Sorry this took so long to get up, I’ve been incredibly busy these last three weeks.

A quick note before I start: I use Myanmar (people here pronounce it “mee-an-mar”) and Myanmar language rather than Burma and Burmese because that is how people here refer to the country and language. I also don’t have a Myanmar language keyboard for my computer, so for Romanization of Myanmar script I use the system designed by Aye Su Mon.

Some background information on how the Peace Corps (PC, they really love their acronyms) works: for about three months we are in training (called Pre-Service Training or PST), then we move to our individual sites after swearing in as Volunteers. We will serve at our sites for two years, integrating into our communities, teaching English, training teachers, and working on community development projects. During PST, we learn about the Myanmar language, culture, and education system, as well as have technical training on how to teach English as a foreign language. They days are long and exhausting (all day six days a week), but I’m enjoying what i’m learning and it’s not too bad for the most part. I’m learning a lot, especially about Myanmar culture and language. We’ve all gotten used to being really tired and super busy. I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since I arrived—it feels like I’ve been here way longer.

The people of Myanmar are truly the kindest, most generous people I have ever met. Whether it’s a hot meal, a tuktuk ride, or simply being patient as we stumble through Myanmar language phrases, everyone has been unbelievably kind. Most people in Myanmar have rarely (if ever) seen a foreigner before, much less an American. Because of this, we attract a lot of attention whenever we go out into the city, which is perfectly fine, even though it does take some getting used to.

One of the highlights of being in Myanmar is the food. Myanmar food is very oily and sometimes spicy, but it tastes very good. Rice (htă miǹ, pronounced like “ta-min”) is served for three meals a day, usually with some meat (the shrimp curry is my favorite) and vegetables and tea. I think one of my favorite breakfasts so far has been mohinga, which is essentially a fish-based soup that you eat with green onions, cilantro, noodles, and chili peppers. Every region has its own version (and every region thinks theirs is the best), so there are many varieties.

Myanmar people don’t really do dessert, usually for dessert there is fruit or jaggery (palm sugar cubes). The other day, one of my PC friends taught the hotel staff how to make pancakes (they were very improvised but mostly worked, and the staff was pretty into it), so we had pancakes (of sorts, they weren’t really “pancakes” like Americans would think of them) for breakfast the next day. It was extremely exciting, there is a version of French toast here but so far no pancakes. Since we don’t have maple syrup (I’ve been told you can buy it in Yangon, but it’s super expensive), we ate our pancakes with honey and bananas.

On my days off, I have been going into Bago city with some of my PC friends and exploring the pagodas. Bago is not like an American city: there are not any skyscrapers or tall buildings, but there are plenty of motorbikes, trucks, and tuktuks rushing by. Crossing the street can be quite a challenge! There are also way more dogs and cats here than in America. So far I have been to the Shwemawdaw Pagoda and the Shwe Thalyaung Buddha (Reclining Buddha), as well as several other pagodas that I don’t know the names of (one had a massive Burmese Python in it, which was really cool). I have also been to the Kanbawza-thadi Royal Palace (Golden Palace) outside of Bago. All the pagodas are beautiful and the Kanbawza-thadi Royal Palace was breathtaking. Everything was golden and extremely ornate. I am really interested in Myanmar history, and I hope to learn more about it while I am serving here. I can do another post on pagodas later if there’s interest, I don’t want to make a long post even longer.

To help us learn about Myanmar language and culture, each of us has a sponsor family who lives in the community near where we are staying. In most countries, PCVs live with a host family during their service, but for various reasons we cannot do that in Myanmar. The sponsor family program is Peace Corps Myanmar’s adaption of the host family program: we eat dinner with our families about twice a week, and on Saturdays we spend the afternoon with them. My family and my friend Liz’s family are friends, so we spend a lot of time together. In my family (mí thà zú, pronounced “me taaa zoo”) are my ă meì (mother, pronounced “ah may”), ă phei (father, pronounced “ah pay”), ă ko (older brother), ă má (older sister), and nyi má leh (younger sister, pronounced “ni ma ley”). My family is loving and amazing, though it can be hard to communicate because they speak very limited English and I speak very limited Myanmar. I am learning so much from my family regardless, especially about Myanmar language. The other members of my group (cluster) and I have started bringing our language homework because our families always like to help us and teach us new words. My family is kind, loving, and generous; my ă má even took me to a tailor to get a longyi (traditional Myanmar wrap-around skirt worn by both men and women) and shirt made for me!

A few days ago we had our first English Club session. English Club is an opportunity for us to practice our teaching with Myanmar schoolchildren (sixth-eighth graders) in a Myanmar classroom. English Club is very different from the regular classroom because there are only about fifteen students (regular classrooms usually have up to 60 students) and it focuses on speaking. We were co-teaching with a partner (though I was in a group of three because we had an odd number) and had to plan a ninety-minute lesson. It was really cool to be in front of actual students, especially because before this I had only practiced with my cohort. The students were really smart and engaged, we actually felt that we had made the lesson too easy. It was difficult because we had never taught in front of students before, but we were able to improvise when our lesson finished early and the lesson as a whole went really well, so I consider it a win. I’m looking forward to doing it again, even though lesson planning is stressful I really enjoy teaching.

Now, you might be wondering how Peace Corps Trainees in Myanmar entertain themselves when there is limited Internet (except at this hotel, which has wifi!!!). The answer is lots and lots of cards (everything from President to Oh Hell), Uno, karaoke, group study sessions, and chiǹ louǹ (pronounced “chin loon,” but with a very soft n). I can��t really explain chiǹ louǹ except to describe how it’s played: everyone stands in a circle (barefoot) and tries to keep a special wicker ball in the air. The catch is that you can’t use your hands, so you have to hit the ball with your legs, feet, chest, or head.

The second thing you’re probably wondering about is the climate in Myanmar. Myanmar is tropical and has three seasons: hot, cold, and rainy. It’s the end of the cold season right now (hot season starts in March/April), and the average temperature is about 95 degrees Fahrenheit. In the hot season, temperatures can reach up to 116 degrees Fahrenheit, and the rainy season is, well, rainy. Not “rainy” like “Oh it’s pouring for a few days”—actual monsoons, especially in Mon State. There are lots of geckos (which are the best because they eat spiders and mosquitos), snakes (though I haven’t actually seen one in the wild), dogs, cats, chickens, cows, and other various creatures. The mosquitos can be pretty relentless, but I’ve learned to accept it and wear a lot of bug spray when I go out.

(click on the pictures to see the captions)

#pst #pre-service training #bago

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reputationiseverything · 5 years

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7 Advanced SEO Strategies I’m Trying to Implement Before 2020

email marketing engagement process

Google makes over 3,200 algorithm changes per year.

That’s a lot of changes.

Just think about that for a minute… and let that sink in. It’s roughly 9 changes per day.

So how can you beat this gigantic company at their own game and rank high? Especially when you consider that they generate over $100 billion+ per year in ad revenue?

You could follow their advice on how to rank well but that won’t do much for you.

The real trick to rank well is to leverage technology.

See, although Google has made things harder, there are things you can do now that I couldn’t when I first started. For years now technology has evolved, which has made your life easier as an SEO.

Here are 7 advanced SEO strategies that I’m implementing as we speak and you should too.

Advanced SEO Strategy #1: SEO A/B Split Testing

To improve your rankings, what do you have to do?

You have to go in and manually make changes to your site. And if you aren’t sure what changes to make, just put in your URL into this SEO Analyzer and it will spit out a report like the one below.

But there is one issue with making changes manually, and I know this because I own an ad agency and I do the SEO for my own website.

It takes forever to make changes.

Heck, I can barely keep up with the changes I need to make on NeilPatel.com as I have far too many pages.

But now with companies like Rank Science and Distilled ODN, you no longer have to make changes to your site.

I know that sounds crazy, but think about what I just said.

You no longer have to make changes to your site.

You are probably wondering how right?

When you want to track your website, you just install a piece of javascript like the one Google Analytics gives you and you are off to the races.

Rank Science and Distilled ODN are similar. You install a piece of javascript and that’s it. From there it doesn’t matter if you have a CMS, or how your website is built, or any of that… they can make changes to your HTML code without you needing to do anything.

You don’t even have to give them your server password or an FTP login. The technology has changed so much that the simple javascript you add to your website can now make the changes for you.

I know that may be hard to believe, but that is how A/B testing worked for years. If you use Optimizely, VWO, or Crazy Egg… you just add a javascript and from their end, they can adjust your site.

So why can’t the same be done for SEO? Why do you have to manually make changes still?

The cool part about tools like ODN or Rank Science is they can make the changes automatically, which is really useful if you have thousands of pages.

Here’s how they work:

This way your site can always be SEO-friendly without you having to make any of the adjustments yourself.

Advanced SEO Strategy #2: E-A-T

In the SEO world, there has been an acronym that has been thrown around a lot and it is E-A-T.

It stands for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.

Google no longer wants to rank just “good” content. Now, they are worried that a piece of content that ranks is inaccurate and can hurt the potential searcher.

For example, let’s imagine you are giving medical advice on your site. You have a ton of links and all of the right signals to rank well but your content is inaccurate. Now imagine someone injures themselves after taking your advice… well, that would be bad.

In the SEO world, you see sites in the health space or financial space having more issues with Google algorithm updates because their information may be inaccurate and Google is looking for sites to prove their expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.

But my hunch is, over the next year or two, they will crack down on many more industries.

If you are going to rank a site, everyone these days can manipulate SEO signals, but it is hard to manipulate things like expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. Especially when you combine all three.

One thing I’m focusing on in the next 12 months is to increase what I believe will help boost my rankings in the long run.

How you may ask? Well, I’m going to leverage a handful of tactics:

Guest post – guest posting on popular industry and news sites should help increase my brand recognition over time. I used to do this more frequently in the past and I will kick this off again. If you don’t know how to guest post, check this out.

Speak at conferences – I’ve slowed down on this a bit, but I will pick it up for the same reason above. It should help with E-A-T. If you haven’t spoken at many events, the key is to just apply to a lot of them and eventually some will accept you.

Awards and recognition – continually apply for more awards. I used to do this when I was much younger and I’ve gotten lazy about it these days. The same goes for publishing more books… I already have one New York Times bestseller, why not go for a few more?

A simple thing that you can do if you believe you have been negatively impacted by some of the more recent Google updates is to include an author bio box on every piece of content you write. And, of course, use author schema markup.

A good example of this is my author box…

Using this should help boost your long-term rankings.

Advanced SEO Strategy #3: Host HTML Files From a CDN

We all know that speed impacts rankings. It also impacts conversion rates. Walmart, for example, boosted their conversion rate by 2% for every second of load time they reduced.

And nowadays more Google searches happen on mobile devices, hence load time and speed really matter.

I already have a faster server… my hosting bill is a bit more than I would like.

And it’s actually going to get a bit worse.

Currently, I have a server where my site is hosted. That server is somewhere in the United States… I believe the east coast.

That means if someone wants to visit my website from let’s say New York City, it should load fairly fast. However, if someone from São Paulo, Brazil wants to visit NeilPatel.com, it would take a bit longer as they are further away from my server.

To solve this, I’ve been using a CDN. A CDN is a content delivery network.

Services like Cloudflare cache your images and static content and server it from the closest server to the person visiting your website.

So now when someone from São Paulo visits my website, they are usually served up cached content from a server in Brazil. This makes their experience load much faster.

But as your content changes, and with things like WordPress blogs where you are constantly getting comments and going through page changes, not all of your content is served up through a CDN.

My team is now making a tweak to improve my load time even more. So instead of serving up my HTML pages from my server, we are now going to serve them up from a CDN.

In other words, we are trying to serve as much of our site from a CDN.

As you can see from the Trello list above, that’s all of the stuff we are working on serving up from our Cloudflare account in order to speed up our site and eventually boost our search rankings and conversion rates.

I wish I can walk you through how to do it step by step, and maybe that could be a future blog post, but the easiest is to just find a developer from UpWork to do it for you.

Advanced SEO Strategy #4: Multi-lingual Title Tag Tests

Similar to Rank Science, there’s a tool I currently use to test my title tags.

It’s called Clickflow.

youtube

I use to automatically test my title tag and meta description to maximize my click-through rate. And like Rank Science, you just add a piece of javascript and it can start running tests for you automatically.

That way, you don’t have to manually keep changing things.

And Clickflow has worked well for me for over the past year… really well. Just look at my month-over-month growth from the past couple of months.

Just in the last 31 days, I saw an increase in organic traffic by 96,723 just through title tag split tests.

But here is the kicker: I’m only able to effectively use the software for my English content. Now just imagine if I did this in less competitive markets like Brazil where I am generating 418,953 unique visitors a month.

Or what if I did that with my German blog or Spanish blog? The possibilities are endless!

Sure in English, not many SEOs are doing title tag split testing but some still are. In other regions, many marketers haven’t even heard of this yet.

So, over the next few months, my team will have to manually do this to figure out what works in these markets.

If you haven’t done it yet in English, check out this post. Here you will see some of the basic findings when it comes to boosting CTRs were:

Title tags that contain a question generate 14.1% more clicks on average.

Title tags between 15 and 40 characters generate the most clicks.

Leveraging emotions can increase clicks. Meta tags with a positive or negative emotion generated roughly 7% more clicks.

And if you want something really simple, I’ve found that adding the year in your title tag can drastically increase CTR.

For example, look at a lot of the top results that rank for the phrase “how to start a blog”.

3 of the top 5 results contain the year in the title tag.

Advanced SEO Strategy #5: FAQpage Schema Markup

I blogged about this in the past, but less than .17% of sites are leveraging it.

Before I get into it, just look at my search traffic from the term “digital marketing”.

Sure the chart is bouncing up and down a lot, but I’m getting way more traffic than I was before I implemented the FAQpage markup.

In essence, what it does is add common FAQ-based questions to your search listing. Similar to the image below.

I know some people say that if you add this to your site then there is no reason for people to visit your site. And in essence, Google wins because it keeps them on their search engine.

But the way I look at it is if your website provides amazing content and helps create an amazing experience, a portion of those people will remember your URL and will come back in the future.

Plus if you aren’t in the number 1 spot, you don’t have much to lose by implementing this. Even if you are in the number 1 spot like I am for my affiliate marketing page and you add FAQpage schema…

I’ve found that when I add the FAQpage schema my traffic hasn’t dropped.

Now all I have to do is add this for another 649 blog posts that we identified that are a good fit for this on my blog. 🙁

Advanced SEO Strategy #6: Content Clusters

I bet you have content on your site. And similar to me, when you wrote the content you used tools like Ubersuggest and wrote whatever had a lot of search volume.

And if you want to get a bit more organized and move faster, you probably even used a content calendar.

But just like me, I bet over the years you never focused on clustering your content together. And because you didn’t you probably have tons of pages on similar topics if not the same topic.

This is a big problem because it confuses Google.

For example, I have so many pages on “keyword tools” and “keyword research” that Google doesn’t necessarily know which page to rank. Because of this, my rankings for some of those terms are somewhat stable, but the rank page from my site constantly changes.

A good solution to this problem and improved overall rankings is to use content clusters. A great example of a site that didn’t use clustering but now does is Hubspot.

Their content went from looking like this:

To looking like this:

The overall goal is to have sections of your site and blog about specific topics. And from there you can link and connect other articles around the same topic together. Doing this lets the search engines know which one is the main topic through things like breadcrumbs and URL hierarchy.

A good example of this is the Beginners Guide to SEO by Moz.

Within that guide, they link 8 chapters that cover all aspects of SEO. Each of those chapters links back to the main introductory article.

Instead of making them 9 separate blog posts (including the introductory page), they linked them all together and made them flow with each other.

Just look at how they set up their URL structure.

Here is the URL of the introductory page:

https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo

And here is the URL of a chapter:

https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/why-search-engine-marketing-is-necessary

Do you see what they did?

They are telling search engines that the chapter is part of the whole Beginner’s Guide to SEO and they did this through the use of folders.

And here is another chapter… https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/keyword-research

As you can see, they followed the same structure. This a simple way to use content clustering to improve your rankings. Case in point, they rank number 1 on Google for the term “SEO” and have for years.

Now I just have to do this with my whole site in multiple languages.

Advanced SEO Strategy #7: Conquer the World

I’m serious when I say that by the way… I really am going after all of the major countries.

The most vital SEO strategy I ever learned came from a Google employee. And it was simple… Google has tons of content to choose from when it comes to ranking sites in English but they lack a lot of high-quality content in other regions.

So, I decided to do something simple years ago… I translated my content into other languages. That’s how my traffic has gone from this:

To this:

Sure, I have leveraged a lot of other tactics over the years as well, like building Ubersuggest into a free SEO tool. But even that, Ubersuggest has grown so fast because it is translated into 9 different languages.

Just look at the language breakdown of Ubersuggest’s traffic stats.

When you combine all of the different variations of English, all of the other variations make up roughly 40% of the tools traffic.

Now with my blog, I haven’t gone as far as translating it into as many languages as the tool, but I plan on translating it eventually into 22 languages. I pick them based on population size and GDP.

This one will take me a few years to really scale up but it provides massive gains for me.

If you want to scale globally, follow this.

This is a must if you want to not only dominate SEO but business in general. Companies these days aren’t just based in the US or UK or China… they are all going global.

Conclusion

No matter if you have been doing SEO for just a few weeks or even years like me, there is always more to do.

Google is constantly changing and with the new technology that’s available to you, there is still a lot of room to do well.

As you can see from the above strategies, that’s the stuff I am focusing on over the next 12 months. They’re tactics that work and provide results.

Some of them are really advanced and require engineering help, but SEO is no longer just about hiring a marketer and having them help you get more traffic. To really do well, you have to get a bit more technical than most marketers are comfortable with.

So, what do you think of the strategies above? Have you tried any of them yet?

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marketingcomcaio · 5 years