Take a Mental Health Day

This is a huge problem that a lot of people have. Whether you work from home, or work outside the home, chances are great that you may need a break from your schedule. Some call it a personal day, while others call it a mental health day. Whatever way you may call it, it should be your day, the day you can spend embracing yourself and no one else.

Does it sound too good to be true? That’s because we have a tendency to cling to our responsibilities with a death grip. Somehow, many of us have decided that the world would stop spinning if we dropped out of it for a few hours. Try taking a one day break, and when no catastrophe ensues, you’ll see just how valuable a personal day can be.

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Make a day for you

Make certain that everyone knows you’re taking this day. Request it off from work, get a babysitter for the kids and make alternative arrangements for meals. This is just one day. You can do it, and your family can function without you for a few hours.

Leave the phone home

If you are like me, you probably are always checking that phone of yours. For your own sake, leave the phone home. Yes, some clients may get back to you, or their other things that need to be done. However, they will be there tomorrow. You don’t need to worry about them today. All you need to do is worry about yourself.

Plan your day

Now this plan can be simple if you choose, or elaborate, if you so choose. However, the main thing to take away from this is do what you want. Do something that you want to do that will being you happiness. If you are racking your brain for some suggestions, here are a few:

Lay on the couch and binge watch some television. Get take out, snacks, and other food that you normally don’t eat on a daily basis.

Call up a friend and see if they want to see a movie, go shopping, or even have a nice lunch. It is something you normally won’t do, but it will be nice to have some human interaction.

Have a spa day. Grab an appointment at your local spa for a massage, facial, or just a mani-pedi. Doesn’t matter what you choose as long as you are happy.

By taking a mental health day, you are rediscovering your self-worth. Not only that, but you are taking all the stress you have built up over time and letting it go. Everyone needs a day to relax, unwind, and be themselves. Always plan for a day to do what makes you happy without having work and stress get in the way.

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How to Achieve a Positive Mental Attitude

I know, I know, you come to this blog to learn about SEO, but if you read our FAQ’s you will learn that we love to write on other topics too. Well, in my eyes, these topics can also tie into SEO and content writing.

Today, we will be talking about a positive mental attitude. Having a positive mental attitude will help you achieve many goals throughout your life; it will make your home and work live a happier environment both for you and your family. Those who keep with their positive mental attitude, no matter how hard life gets, you will notice you succeed a lot more than those who have a very negative mental attitude. However, I will say this, finding and keeping your positive mental attitude can be extremely difficult without the proper knowledge. None the less, these five tips will help you.

Embrace life

I know, I know, it is always easier said than done. Well, the moment you decide to embrace life along with everything that is included, achieving your positive mental attitude will be a lot easier. It helps that you understand that your life will always have ups and downs, which you cannot always change, but in the end it will make you a stronger person.

Stay cool, calm and collected

I can easily guarantee that half of your parents told us to stay cool, calm, and collected at least once in our life. The emotions you feel when you are angry, upset, and mad can negatively impact our positive mental attitude. Of course, there is nothing wrong with letting out our emotions, but you have to keep them in check. You have to understand and take full responsibility for your own actions.

Love yourself

I know this is a heard one for me to do. Everyone gets annoyed, upset, and mad over the things you do, the way you look, and the choices you made throughout life. However, loving yourself will bring you one step closer to gaining a complete positive mental attitude. Loving yourself will allow you to be in a much happier place, not to mention, you will be much more confident and reflect a positive attitude no matter what situation may arise.

Keep your work at work

This can be a tough one if you work at home like myself. You need to keep work during your work designated hours. That means, no checking work email, no bringing work home, and once work is done forget about it. I know the feeling all too well because sometimes you feel as if work never ends, but it truly does. The moment you can break away from work, will be the moment you will feel much better.

Relaxation techniques

Relaxation techniques are perfect for you when trying to achieve a positive mental attitude. You can get yourself into yoga, pilates, hypnotherapy, and meditation. Just by joining a group or even doing it by yourself will help you feel much more relaxed. I recommend doing this after a stressful day, or before you head off to work.

There are many more different ways that you can gain a positive mental attitude; however, some ways will be easier to do than others. You just have to learn to take your negativity out of your life.

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Are keywords dead?

Okay, I decided this post needs to enlighten a lot of people. I have been getting numerous emails on this topic we will be going over today, which I thank those who emailed me. Many people were asking me if keywords were dead or a dying breed. Well, for starters, many people believe that, but personally, I don’t believe it. Here’s why.

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Placement vs. Frequency

First things first, keywords are not totally dead and buried. You have to think, Google needs some sort of thing to go off of, right? Well, now let’s do a little knowledge check. Does Google crawl pictures? If you said yes, please read this. If you said no, you are on the right track. Google needs text and text equals to keywords.

Now that we got that out of the way, I want to emphasize that the frequency of your keywords are not as important as the placement of your keywords. For instance, using “SEO writing company” in your title tag of your website and another time in one of your headers, are way more effective than keyword stuffing it a million and one times throughout the body of your website.

A tip to the wise, Google breaks down your site into these sections headers, body, side bars, meta data and last priority. Headers and meta data are high priority areas, which you should place your keywords. These places will help you rank higher in search engines.

It’s all about meaning

Some people think this is a why keywords dying. Well, I do not think so because Google still crawls your site for vital information; however Google no longer is interested in only the keyword(s) or phrases, but it is interested in the meaning behind it. In a way, Google decided to be sophisticated because if you think about it, anyone can write their keywords on their site pretty easily. Nonetheless, when you think about it, if you are serious about the game, you will already have great high-quality content that has a meaning behind it. You won’t have keyword stuffed content that some people who are looking to make an extra buck quickly.

Semantic search is in full swing

Semantic search has been having a major impact on user searches. It seems like Google draws a meaning from the words right on your website, instead of them focusing on the words themselves. Google draws a meaning form what users search with “semantic search.”

To get a better understanding of a semantic search, let’s use a search query for “cheap pizza in Orlando.” If the search engines analyzed the phrase, it would only look for websites that have the words “cheap,” “pizza,” and “Orlando” in them, which can bring up many results from pizza places, stores, and events that feature pizza. While on the other hand, a semantic search clarifies the meaning behind your search query – meaning the user is more than likely looking for a cheap pizza place around Orlando. So, as long as your website content seems like you are a cheap pizza place around Orlando, your website would show up in the search engine results – even if you do not have those exact keywords on your site.

Structure is important

Did you know there are two different ways to look at the SEO structure; however, both these ways can have a major effect on your page authority?

The big picture structure represents the entire structure and navigation of your website. Basically, if your website is very easy for visitors to navigate, your visitors will have a much easier time finding the information they want and need, plus Google will reward you for your time and efforts. That is why you want to title your pages correctly, correctly use your headers and make your website easy to navigate for your visitors; also you will want to make sure your sitemap will allow the search engine to crawl on it.

Also a tip to the wise, interlink your internal content will help you gain more authority, regardless of your keywords.

Now, the small picture structure is concerned more about how each of your website pages is laid out. This is pretty easy if you follow an Googles traditional structure. If you don’t know about the Googles traditional structure, it consists of a body, header, footer, and sidebars. If you place all content in their appropriate places, Google will have an easy time crawling your page, and it will be able to understand the accurate meaning of your website without you having to keyword stuff.

Overall, you can see a glimpse that keywords are not dead. Without keywords or text for that matter, your SEO will never work. Google needs some kind of text to crawl and know what your website is all about.

10 SEO Marketing Tips for Your Small Business

Marketing your small business in today’s technology-driven world is a different game than those who marketed their business 10 years ago. Even two years, it was extremely different, SEO has changed a lot, key marketing techniques came and went with Google Algorithm’s updates. Since the internet is always changing, you will always need a new and improved strategy when it comes to SEO. Luckily for you, you can try these ten tips to help make your strategy that much better.

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Identify your target keywords

As I have said in the past, your SEO foundation will be your target keywords. You will need to base these keywords off your demographic, in-depth analysis of recent and current trends, which can provide you with keywords that have high traffic, with little to no competition.  The key is to create interesting content that keeps your readers’ attention. The better you are keeping the reader’s attention, the longer they will stay and you will increase your chances of them using your services.

Mobile friendly

As some of you know, mobile traffic is rapidly taking over desktop traffic. Of course, that can be scary for those who don’t know how to convert their desktop version of their website to a mobile-friendly website. Luckily for you, most hosting sites now offer a mobile friendly option, or even automatically come with that option.

Keep it simple

Most people have in their minds that simple is not as grand as making it stand out. Well, sometimes when creating content to market your small business, simple is better. You want to keep your content simple, because not everyone will know all the abbreviations, acronyms, about the industry you are in. You should have your content easy to understand, but also informative to those who have a background in your industry.

Market strategy

A marketing strategy is vital for your company. Your marketing strategy allows you to work with your final goal in your sight. Your marketing strategy should include social media, blog posts, targeted audience, and whatever else you will need in order to reach your final goal. However, as you continue on this journey, you may find yourself changing things, adding things, and taking away things. This is a perfectly normal thing to do.

Take advantage of infographics

The last couple of years, infographics are becoming more and more popular. They actually make up a large portion of content that is produced and shared on social media platforms. However, that is not a shocker because infographics are great for presentations, marketing, and catching their reader’s attention. With all this combined, it is a very effective tool to take advantage of.

Prioritize

I watched many small businesses forget about how important it is to prioritize their daily marketing tasks. Yes, all businesses need to learn this from the very beginning. In order to be successful with your marketing plan, you need to manage your time. You need to prioritize your tasks because some tasks may be more vital than others. Granted, all tasks should be done on the day you assign them, but without time management, you will fall behind.

Social media

There are many social media platforms today. There are over hundreds of million users who use these platforms daily. If your company isn’t on them, you are doing it wrong. Many consumers go straight to social media to find reviews, services, and products. This avenue is easy, cheap, and can get your brand out there.

Link building

Link building is important. This does not mean you go off and buy your links because that is illegal and Google can and will penalize you, which I hope you decide not to try your odds. However, the true link building takes time and energy. The more links you have to your site or blog, the higher you will rank. The important thing is to have links on sites that are relevant to your topic.

Relevant content

Your content should always stay relevant to what your business is all about. For some, that can be a very narrow. However, the reasons behind keeping all your content relevant is to help with link building. Yes, relevant content helps out more than you know.

Analytics

Analytics will soon become your best friend. The number analytics provide will not lie, even if you think they are. These numbers will tell you all about your page’s failures and successes. Of course your successes are worth a celebration; however, your failures will allow you to see what you need to do to improve your site. Analytics will give you goals to set, and is a great resource when trying to come up with a brilliant marketing strategy.

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