Saturday, November 30, 2019

The Most Important SEO Data Points for Your Website

by Sienna Luard Any online marketer will knowthe importance of analytics data for measuring website performance. Without these metrics, you have no way of evaluating different marketing strategies. But you don’t always have time to analyze everything – you just need to know the data that gives you a good overview. There are a number of important SEO data points that every marketer should pay attention to in order to optimize future marketing strategies. Domain Authority Created by Moz, a leading online SEO resource, Domain Authority is one of the most comprehensive and revealing measurements about your website. Basically, by combining various website statistics, including link counts and MozRank, this metric tells you how well your domain is likely to rank in Google’s search results pages. Measured on a 100-point scale, a high Domain Authority score translates into better search rankings and more organic traffic. Use Moz’s Open Site Explorer tool to compare your site with others and measure its authority over time. Number of Indexed Pages Put simply, the more pages you have indexed by search engines, the more opportunity you have to rank higher for certain keywords. Having more pages also allows you to build a more solid internal linking structure. But beware – just like backlinks, having more is not necessarily always better for SEO. The content still needs to be high quality and the keywords must be relevant and non-repetitive. Site Speed (Page Load Time) Do you know how many seconds it takes for your pages to load? Site speed is a critical factor in determining how your website ranks with Google and other search engines. Faster page load times also enhance the user experience. Check out your site speed statistics with Google’s PageSpeed tools, and use the tips to improve your site speed. Google has repeatedly stated the importance of page load time in rankings, so neglecting site speed is no longer an option. Organic Traffic Getting more organic site visits is one indication of a successful search marketing strategy. Unlike â€Å"paid† traffic, which comes from Adwords or other advertisements, the amount of organic traffic shows how successful your content strategy is. Make sure you are regularly publishing unique content. If the number of organic visits is steadily rising for specific keyword phrases, you’re on the right track. Use Google Analytics to find out which keyword phrases are attracting visitors to your site, and which web pages these visitors are landing on. Backlinks Backlinks are one of the most important factors in Google rankings. Quality backlinks from authoritative websites show Google that your site is useful and relevant, and you’ll be rewarded with higher search rankings. However, remember that quality counts. A high percentage of poor-quality links from untrustworthy websites is not good for SEO. Develop relationships with relevant, credible websites that add value to your website and try to get links to your site from these domains. Social Media Engagement Since Google’s Hummingbird update, social signals have become increasingly important to SEO. Boosting your presence on social media platforms not only promotes your brand to a wider audience, it also improves your credibility score with Google. Monitor the number of Facebook Likes, LinkedIn Followers, Twitter Followers, and Google+ Follows your site has and track these figures over time. Some effective ways to boost social media engagement include keeping an active blog (you can always look to outsource a freelance blog writer if you do not have the resources within your company to do this), creating polls or competitions and posting articles that are easily likeable/sharable. Bounce Rate Technically speaking, this is the percentage of visitors who navigate away from your site after viewing only one page. Along with other user metrics like organic click-through rate, Google measures the quality and value of your content, and adjusts your ranking accordingly. For this reason, it’s crucial to reduce your website’s bounce rate by delivering quality content that is relevant to the keyword phrases that drive people to your site. Now that you know some of the most important SEO data points for your website, you can take the necessary steps to improve your site’s ranking with search engines. You won’t see the results of your work overnight, but when you start to focus on the SEO metrics that really matter, you can maximize your online visibility in the long term and keep up with the competition.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

4 Tips on Managing Your Student Loans

4 Tips on Managing Your Student Loans New grads, take heed. You’re freaking out about the escalating price tag of your education and that’s totally fair. But don’t panic yet. Take a step back to acknowledge and celebrate your accomplishment. Then plan your strategy for a sane repayment plan and fight back against the fear and doom. Here are 4 steps to getting yourself on the right track to a secure financial future. Starting now will set you up to avoid crashing and burning in a pile of tears and terror in a year or two.1. Don’t ignore your mailSo many grads can’t even bring themselves to open their first loan statement, let alone log in and look at the big fat number staring at them from their laptop screens. But avoiding the inevitable will not make that number smaller. In fact, you could make a bad situation even worse. Step one: open the envelope. Know exactly what you owe. The devil you know, right? If you have multiple loans, track down the names of your servicers and make a list of each, detailing the interest rates and balances. This will be crucial to smart planning.2. Be wary of the grace periodA sixth month grace period does not mean you don’t have to think about your loans for six months. Remember that your loans will continue to accrue interest- and lots of it- while you’re merrily trying to figure out what you want to be when you grow up. The grace period exists mostly to benefit those who may need the extra time to get set up in their post graduate careers. Treat it as such.The longer you wait to start repaying, the more interest will accrue. And that interest will be added to your principal balance as soon as your loans come up for repayment. The longer you wait, the worse it gets. Step two, in a nutshell: use your grace period if you need it, but consider making payments against the interest while you wait.3. Keep your term as short as you canIt may seem like a good idea to pay your loans back in 25 years instead of 10. After all, a lower monthly payment number is a seductive thing. But just remember that the interest clock is not going to slow down for you. You could end up paying back almost double what you owe if you take a significant amount of time to repay. The Student Loan Repayment Calculator online is your friend. You should never choose repayment terms that you can’t handle, but you should chose the fastest repayment timeframe that makes sense for you. It will save you money!4. Consider refinancingOne way to lower your interest rates, particularly across a wide range of loans from different servicers, is to go through a refinancing company. You can always make an inquiry with a company like SoFi without committing to a refinance. In most cases, refinancing means a lower interest rate and a lower amount paid in the end. If you can guarantee total savings like this, it’s almost always worth it to consolidate. Be careful, however, of your particular situation and how it qualifies (or doesnà ¢â‚¬â„¢t) you for different loan forgiveness plans. If you don’t qualify for loan forgiveness or income-based repayment (often requiring you to pay a lot more over a longer period), a private lender is always an option.Repaying your student loans can seem like a prison sentence. And in some ways it is. But it’s always a better idea to have more information, to be more involved, and thereby more empowered. Be proactive and put your best foot forward. Future you will thank you!

Friday, November 22, 2019

7 Proofreading Steps

7 Proofreading Steps 7 Proofreading Steps 7 Proofreading Steps By Mark Nichol Proofreading is the last line of defense for quality control in print and online publishing. Be sure to conduct a thorough proofread of all documents before they are printed for distribution and of all Web pages before they go live, using these guidelines. But before you proof, you must edit. (This post explains the difference between the two processes.) There’s no use expending time and effort to check for minor typographical errors until the editing stage is complete. Review for proper organization, appropriate tone, and grammar, syntax, usage, and style before the document is laid out. Stakeholders should read the edited version before layout and submit requests for revisions during the editing stage. If anyone other than the editorial staff must see the proof, remind him or her that only minor changes should be made at this point. 1. Use a Checklist Create a list of important things to check for, such as problem areas like agreement of nouns and verbs and of pronouns and antecedents, and number style. 2. Fact-Check Double-check facts, figures, and proper names. If information remains to be inserted at the last minute, highlight the omission prominently so that no one forgets to do so. 3. Spell-Check Before proofreading a printout, spell-check the electronic version to find misspellings, as well as errors you or a colleague make frequently, such as omitting a closing parenthesis or quotation mark. 4. Read Aloud Reading text during the proof stage improves your chances of noticing errors, especially missing (â€Å"a summary the report follows†) or repeated (â€Å"a summary of the the report follows†) words. 5. Focus on One Line at a Time When proofing print documents, use another piece of paper or a ruler to cover the text following the line you are proofreading, shifting the paper down as you go along. This technique helps you keep your place and discourages you from reading too quickly and missing subtle errors. 6. Attend to Format Proofreading isn’t just about reviewing the text. Make sure that the document design adheres to established specifications. Check page numbering, column alignment, relative fonts, sizes, and other features of standard elements such as headlines, subheadings, captions, and footnotes. Inspect each type of feature within categories, such as looking at every headline, then every caption, and so on. 7. Proof Again Once revisions have been made, proofread the document again with the same thoroughness, rather than simply spot-checking the changes. An insertion or deletion may have thrown off the line count, for example. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Direct and Indirect Objects41 Words That Are Better Than GoodIs "Number" Singular or Plural?

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Close Reading of the Feminine Mystique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Close Reading of the Feminine Mystique - Essay Example Betty Freidan studied and interviewed women that were suburban wives living in good houses with their administrative husbands who made lots of money before writing the book. These homemakers had done all things right. They had wedded when they were young, and some hardly finished or did not finish high school at all, while others were college dropouts, all for the target of marrying their darling and gratifying the perfect illustration of the feminine mystique. After marriage, these women had had large numbers babies by normal childbirth. Furthermore, they stitched all their clothing and cleaned all their dishes by use of hands. They also took the initiative to breastfed all of their children, and they concentrated on their husbands and children’s goals and interests so much that they lost focus of their own. Despite the fact that these women were dwelling by the ideal standards placed by the womanly mystique, they were terribly unhappy. A lot of them were visiting psychoanalysts without helpful results, thus many were anchoring depressing thoughts, resentful and considering all from an extramarital affair to self-murder. The psychoanalysts identified chronic fatigue syndrome to be the most ordinary problem of all (Coontz 19). The women that had this problem had listlessness as well as restlessness. They were at all times tired despite of how much they laid in bed. Their bones and joints always ached. They could never remain interested in or focused on one topic for a long period. They were bodily with their children all the time, although never present in spirit. Betty Frieden had extremely fine thought out ideas, and the American homemakers of the sixties, and later years, really required these ideas. For example, Friedan makes a comment on how the work of the house expands to suit the time available. She clearly noted that the houses of the women who were working were at

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Business decision making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Business decision making - Essay Example taff training on principles and techniques of table service, table setting, buffet services, styles of services and other arrangements that even includes enabling their staff to classify characteristics of spirits, wines and beer on their beverages, they have discovered that though customers are satisfied with the service, they do not have loyal clients or clients that go back primarily because they are satisfied with the correct care that they get. Customer service (also know as client service) is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). In the case of Rostos Tavern, customer service meant letting the clients recognize the superiority and the high value that they maintain on space and quality including the meticulous details to all their services. In a nutshell what management is doing is proving to the customer that they are indeed first class. However, the likelihood that customer go there out of curiosity only, or merely to find out if this is so, should not be discounted. Or the chance that a repeat customer bringing along some friends is an attestation that these are indeed loyal customers, might be an obscure interpretation because they might just want to substantiate what they tell their friends about the place. Our study is to find out how to make clients come back not primarily because of the ambiance and the meticulous attendance to details (for that is what is expected from any so called first class restaurants), but because they are so attached to it from the satisfaction they get every time they visit the place. This has indeed a very strong influence to customer service supporters, using them to train especially their frontline representative. But, however useful it may serve, service in not just about how an individual representative reacts to an individual customer; it’s about how the company as a whole reacts to its customers (Traci Entel, Sarah Grayson, Nathan Huttner;

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Inter-American system of human rights protection Essay Example for Free

Inter-American system of human rights protection Essay Human Rights are certain inherent, inalienable, immutable, inviolate freedoms and rights of man which no one can take away. These include the right to life, liberty, equality and dignity. The United States of America recognizing these rights established the Inter American system of Human Rights by adopting the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and the American Convention on Human Rights. Pursuant to the adoption of these instruments the Inter American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter American Court of Human Rights were established to promote and protect Human Rights of individuals. PART A 1. It is pertinent to note that the Inter American Commission on Human Rights primarily seeks to promote consciousness about Human Rights amongst the people of the country. Its functions mainly include receiving complaints, analyzing and investigating them. It has powers of observation and collection of data regarding Human Rights violations in the member States. It can also visit on site and conduct seminars and meetings to promote awareness regarding Human Rights. When a complaint is referred to the Commission, it can after conducting its investigation and analysis publish a report and send it to the State. This report is recommendatory in nature and not mandatory. Hence the Commission can only recommend that the State take due notice of the human rights violations and take appropriate reparatory measures. In the alternative, the Commission can seek opinion from the Inter American Court of Human Rights. So also, in the present case, the Commission has no powers to enforce the law laid down by the State of Colorado but can only request the State to take precautionary measures so as to ensure that human rights are not infringed upon. 2. With respect to the second question, it is seen that as per Article 2 of the Statute of the Inter American Court of Human Rights, the Court has adjudicatory jurisdiction vis a vis a human rights violation brought before it by the Commission or any Member State of the Organization of American States. The said Article refers to Articles 61-63 of the American convention on Human Rights which clearly state that the Court can order the State to allow the human being to enjoy his human right and also order for either monetary or non monetary compensation for the injury so caused. Such an order passed by the American Court would be binding on the State. The provision further clarifies that in case an act or omission on the part of the State would cause irreparable loss to the person, the Commission can take such provisional measures to ensure that the irreparable loss is not caused. It would thus transpire that in the present case, the Inter American Court of Human Rights can enforce the law requiring the Colorado State police to arrest an individual disobeying the restraining order. 3. In the present case various provisions of the various human rights enactments are violated. The Commission can primarily seek to apply Articles 1, 5, 6, 9, 18 24 of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. Article 1 of the American Declaration states that all persons have equal right to life, liberty, and personal security. Article 5 6 deal with a person’s right to protection of self as well as family. Article 9 talks about a person’s right to inviolability of home while 18 24 talks of fair trial and the right to approach the court for remedy. A brief reading of the petition tells us how each of these rights have been violated by omission to act on the part of the State. These clauses are applicable even if the United States have not ratified this Declaration. Further Article 11 of the American Convention on Human Rights which deals with a persons right to protect his honor and home and also gives him the right to seek judicial remedy in case of infringement is another provision that the Commission can consider and apply to this particular case. According to the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons, a duty is laid on the State to punish those persons or their accomplices who commit the crime of forced disappearance of others. This clause has been violated by the husband of the petitioner who allegedly kidnapped their daughters and the police department can be held liable as they stood mute spectators to the whole thing. Article 7 of the Convention of Belem do Para (the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women) condemns all forms of violence against women and seeks to punish such persons who have committed such crimes by enacting proper laws and proper investigation. The Convention also requires that the State should enact and adopt such laws which will help refrain a person from committing such acts of harassment and also ensure that persons who are victims of such violence are given timely and proper hearing. This is a right guaranteed to all women and more so to women who are victims of domestic violence. The police in this particular case having full knowledge of the fact that the petitioner was a victim of domestic violence chose to ignore her pleas and thereby ignore this provision. 4. Prior to considering the kind of jurisdiction that the Inter American Court of Human Rights would have in this present case, it is necessary to list the basic kinds of jurisdiction available to the Court in general. Jurisdiction of the Inter American Court is broadly classified into– Provisional, Advisory and Adjudicatory or contentious Jurisdiction. In provisional jurisdiction, the Court has the power to act in situations that are grave and urgent and require immediate intervention without which grave harm shall be caused to the victim (Buergenthal, 1982, p.241). In Advisory Jurisdiction the Court can give its opinion on the various provisions of the Convention as well as other treaties and also opinionate on the compatibility of the domestic law with any treaty (Buergenthal, 1982, p. 242). In order to avail the adjudicatory or contentious jurisdiction is concerned, it is necessary that the member States subject themselves to the jurisdiction of the Inter American Court (Pasqualucci, 2003, p. 88). It is also necessary for the Convention or treaty in question to grant the jurisdiction to the Court. An illustration to explain this point would be that the Inter American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women very clearly states that the Commission has only advisory jurisdiction and no contentious jurisdiction in respect of complaints filed under its provisions (Pasqualucci, 2003, p. 91). The jurisdiction clause also states that the Inter American Court cannot naturally assume the role of an appellate authority. It cannot make right any wrong decision of the national courts. However, if there is a gross violation of the human rights enshrined in any treaty and if this gross violation were to cause irreparable harm to the individual, then the Inter American Court may interfere and record that the proper procedures as laid down in the treaties were not followed. In the present case, the United States by virtue of having ratified the American Convention, has given people the individual right to approach the Commission for violation of human rights. However, this jurisdiction in advisory in nature and not adjudicatory as it has not yet subjected itself to the jurisdiction of the Inter American Court. Thus any person through the Commission can seek the advisory jurisdiction of the Inter American Court even if the Member State has not subjected itself to the jurisdiction of the Court (Buergenthal, 1982, p. 244) 5. Procedurally, the Commission on receiving a petition shall initially register it and see if it has complied with all the rules of procedure and if the petition does not comply then the Commission will send it back to the petitioner so as to ensure compliance. Once the petition conforms to the rules then the Commission shall then send relevant parts of the petition to the State for its response, for which the State is given two months time. However, in serious and urgent cases, the State is asked to respond immediately. This is done to ensure the veracity of the petition and to ensure that the petition still subsists. The commission may also require the State to present its observations on the admissibility and merits of the case at hand. Once the observations of the parties are submitted or the time period given to each party has lapsed, the Commission will verify the merits of the case based on the facts before it and decide whether to admit it or reject it. In the present case too the Commission should first satisfy itself as to the compliance of all the rules of procedure and then seek observations from the State and other parties concerned. 6. The Commission will then confirm as to whether the petitioner has exhausted all the available domestic remedies. However, in cases where the domestic legislation does not provide for due process of law or where the petitioner is refrained from pursuing domestic remedies then the above provision does not hold true. The Commission has to ensure that the petition before it has been filed within six months of receipt of the decision of the domestic remedy. In this case the petitioner has exhausted all the possible domestic remedies and has not been successful in the same. The Supreme Court of the United States has also rejected the petition of the petitioner and has passed its final judgment in the matter. The Commission should then decide on the admissibility of the petition by setting up a working group. In the present case, it is seen that the Commission has held the petition admissible. When the Commission finds a petition admissible it creates an admissibility report that is made public and the case is then registered and the parties are notified of the same. After the case has been registered, the Commission invites additional observations in writing from all parties concerned. A time limit for submitting these observations is set by the Commission. In some cases, the Commission can also convene a hearing to enable the parties to present their points of view. In this case too, the Commission has opened the case and the parties are informed about the same. Additional observations have been requested from the parties and the Commission has in fact convened a hearing. In this case, the United States government has responded by stating that it has taken proper and adequate measures to combat domestic violence and that the remedies in the domestic judicial system are adequate to tackle the problem. In the hearing the Petitioner will be able to present her case before the Commission in person. After hearing the case of both sides and also after going through the written observations submitted by both parties, the Commission will deliberate on the merits of the case and formulate a report. 7. The first document that the Commission publishes in response to a case is the admissibility report wherein it admits the case and registers it. This report has already been published by the Commission and has been sent to the parties concerned. The Commission has then convened a hearing on the issue and will deliberate on the case after the hearing. The next important document that the Commission publishes is the Preliminary report on the merits of the case. This report contains the preliminary observations and the recommendations of the Commission. 8. If the Commission feels that there is no violation, then the report is published and sent immediately to all parties concerned. In case the Commission feels that some provisions have indeed been violated then a preliminary report is made and sent to the State along with the recommendations proposed by the Commission. 9. In case the State complies with the recommendations given in the preliminary report, the Commission will notify the petitioner as to the same. However, in cases where the State does not comply with the same, the Commission can approach the Inter American Court for adjudication. However, in the present case as the United States has not subjected itself to the jurisdiction of the Court, the said remedy is not available to the Commission in case of non compliance. In the present case, the Commission should deliberate on the observations sent by the parties, investigate on site to determine the veracity of the facts, interview the various concerned individuals and then send its preliminary report to the State along with its recommendations. If the State fails to comply with the same within three months of it being sent, the Commission then has to issue a final report that contains its opinion, final conclusions and final recommendations. The Commission should then send it across to all parties concerned and make a note of it in its Annual report. The Commission should take active steps in terms of follow up to evaluate the actual compliance of the recommendations by the parties. 10. In this present case, if the Commission publishes its preliminary report wherein it holds that there has been violation of human rights and recommends certain precautionary measures to the State then it would mean that the petition has succeeded partially. By partially, it is meant that the violation has been recognized by the Commission. However, for the petition to succeed completely, the State has to comply with the recommendations given by the Commission. If the State refuses to accept the recommendations of the Commission, then the petition would have failed as the petitioner has not achieved any major reliefs but has only obtained a theoretical order that envisages the ideal situation vis a vis human rights.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Dreams in Song of Solomon, Narrative Frederick Douglass, Life of a Slav

Dreams in Song of Solomon, Narrative of Frederick Douglass, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and Push    In 1776 it was stated that our country was based upon one simple truth, "That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Though stated with a poetic justice, this statement did not hold true for all U.S. citizens. Many citizens were held in captivity, versus freedom, unable to pursue those "inalienable rights." After two hundred years of inequality, Martin Luther King, Jr., would provide one of the most vocal positions regarding the lack of equal rights owed to African Americans. In his 1969 Lincoln Memorial speech, King would historically state, "I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream, that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed - we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."    Like most Americans, African Americans have developed several variations of the American Dream. Many African Americans find that their dream differs from the traditional American dream in that there is no immediate success. Sometimes it consists of equality via liberty and/or literacy, while at other a simple desire to know self through historical connection. Dreams of this nature have been a major underlying theme of African-American literature since the 1800's.    In the mid-1800's Frederick Douglass began sharing his story of slavery with what was then considered the "North." Douglass realized his dream early in life and worked to achieve as much of the dream as possible. As he explains in The Classic Sla... ...e up the great African-American literary tradition describing the quest for the dream of equality, and in that, exercising their inalienable rights.    WORKS CITED Brent, Linda. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Penguin Group, 1987. Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Penguin Group, 1987. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. Introduction. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Penguin Group, 1987. ix-xviii. Graff, Harvey J. The Literacy Myth: Literacy and Social Structure in the Nineteenth-Century City. New York: Academic Press, 1979. Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New York: The Penguin Group, 1977. Sapphire. Push. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1996.