SEO: Easy Guides for Dummies

What is SEO?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the activity in an attempt to optimize content to increase its potential in getting into the search engine’s top ranking. If you need your website to be visited by more audience, getting to know SEO is the right decision.

Search Engines and SEO

Search engines are the system that Search and find the pages people are looking for through their system. Many views it as this big librarian that get the book his customers are looking for—in this case, the pages.

Search engines have their own system that would show the best-related results with the keywords you are looking for. For instance, if you look for rose, then the Search Engines would instantly link the word rose with every rose on the internet and put it on their Search Engines Results Page (SERPs).

SEO Explained

Just as the name suggests, SEO is how you optimize the content on your website to get acknowledged by the desired search engines. After all, the goal of every search engine is one that is to show the most relevant results to their users.

How you optimize your content itself depends on what search engine you are trying to put your work into. YouTube algorithm is different from Google or Bing algorithm, and that says that you can’t really treat different engines the same.

SEO and Business

SEO matters for your business. Even more so when your business depends on customers online. Of course, social media is an important aspect for your marketing, but if you want your customer to find you on the internet, SEO is equally important.

With SEO your content will be more visible on the internet and the traffic that visit your page will be beneficial to attract them to be potential customers. SEO will also increase the chance of people who look for your brands come to the right place at the right time.

SEO Writing vs. Content Marketing

SEO writing means writing content that is optimized for being discovered. Writing SEO means that you create content that has potential words or phrases that your intended audience will type in the search engine. On the other hand, if you are writing content for your business strategy, that is more of a content marketing. In this, you cook content that will answer your customers’ questions and queries. You put content that would best relate to audience as your potential customers.

SEO Tools

In ranking results in their SERPs, search engines depend on many things, including the quality, the page speed, and also its relevance and usability. These things can be valued by tools to make sure your content is up to the standard SEO. Many websites have offered plagiarism check and page speed for free. If you want to upgrade it though, you can always subscribe for premium use.

Optimizing Our Content for Google

If you create content in written works and put them on the internet, then Google might be your biggest bet to make audience flock to your website since most people use Google as a search engine.

Search engine, especially Google has a system that sorts out the most relevant pages to show in their SERPs. Their algorithm is by far the most reliable system to satisfy users’ needs of information. How do they do it? How do we get around to meet its expectations?

Crawlability

Just like other search engines, imagine the internet as this big library with Google as its librarian. There are billions of books in its building and trillions of pages for that matter. You as a user have some keywords for the book you are looking for, but you don’t know the book. As a librarian, Google will find your words inside your book, link it to any similar words and display all of the pages of the books you might be looking for. This process of linking one site to another is called crawling and use a computer program called a spider to do it.

With that in mind, you could increase our ranking by putting links in your content. The bigger the website you are referring to, the bigger the chance your page would be recognized by Google.

Mobile Friendly

Since 2018, Google has changed its priority in indexing to mobile. This is caused by the increase in mobile search for the past years. Thus, making your content is easy to read in the mobile view will benefit you greatly.

Search Intent

At first, search engines only depend on the keywords being typed in their search, but over time, Google has introduced the different method for them showing the results of their users’ inquiries.

Instead of randomly throwing their users articles with the relevant keywords, Google read the intent behind the keywords presented. For example, if you look for how to cook in a rice cooker, the first link, probably the featured snippets, would show you a how-to article about it. However, if you type only a rice cooker, what comes out will be a potential rice cooker you want to buy in the first line of the SERPs, followed by links to shopping websites.

If you type “Jakarta”, the main result would be the pictures of Jakarta in maps and followed by Google maps link. In this case, Google interprets Jakarta as a place and that you want to know where it is on the map or you want to go there, hence the chosen results. It will be different if you put other words in addition to it.

Knowing this, it is important for you to ask yourself: does your keyword has met your audience's intent? Would it be recognized by Google based on its interpretation of users’ intent?

Content Quality

At the end of the day, the most important point in SEO is the quality content. Google itself makes sure the content is good by holding into Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EAT).

Expertise demands you to convey your knowledge of your field in an engaging way. Authority comes with the recognition of other websites in your expertise when other website starts to recommend and put your links on their website; that is your authority.

Expertise and Authority are really the factors that boost readers to your page. However, you need to keep them there satisfied. Their trust towards you is valued by Google. That means, if your readers keep being negative towards you, there is a possibility that your rank will come down the ledger.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO plays an important role in determining whether your content reach its intended audience or not. Learning about how it works and how to do it right gives you benefit more than you might expect, so grab your seat and do it!

Boso Jowo Ch. 1

Boso Jowo iku isih dadi boso sak mbendinane wong Jowo dek des. Ndek kota? Alah, alah... dek panggon koyok Malang ae uwes ora digae! Koyo-koyo boso Jowo iku isih digae, ning lek awakmu ngrungokne, omong nyang wong anyar, wong Jowo mulai nggawe boso Indonesia dan orane kromo. Poinku?

Boso kromo uwes mulai ilang.

Boso Jowo iku koyok ndue telu boso dewenane. Ono boso Jowo ngoko, boso Jowo ngoko alus, boso kromo, boso kromo inggil, boso keraton. Belajar boso Jowo, angele ra kaprah! (Iki wae aku mekso banget nules, wkwk)

Masio Boso Jowo isek digawe lisan, seng tulisan, koyok-koyok raonok rupane. adewe iso moso mojok.com. tapi yo mboh maneh ndi seng nules boso Jowo. Buku-buku lek adewe menyang toko buku, onone yo boso Indonesia utowo Inggris. Yo rumangsane Jowo rakenek digae buku? Opo mergo pemina boso Jowo saitik maleh raenek seng nules buku Boso Jowo? Utowo, seng luweh parah maneh, gak enek wong Jowo seng iso nules buku? Sek, sek... ra mungkin gak enek wong Jowo seng iso nggae buku, seng bener penulis raiso nules boso Jowo, bener?

Dino iki aku nggur pengen ngetokne unek-unekku masalah buku seng basane Jowo. Yo mugo-mugo sok sok maneh onok metu buku boso Jowo, amrih e wong Jowo iso nules boso Jowo, ora nggacor tok. *)

Kanker dan Ibu Ani

4 hari yang lalu (10 Februari 2019) muncul di beranda saya kabar bahwa ibu negara tahun 2004-2013 sedang menjalani perawatan di rumah sakit di Singapura. Beliau didiagnosis mengidap kanker darah. Leukimia. Pertama kali saya melihat berita tersebut di feed YouTube saya, saya tidak langsung membuka. Saya pikir, “Oh, oke.” Jujur saja, siapa sih yang peduli ketika kita sendiri dalam masalah? Apalagi, ibu Ani bukan siapa-siapa kita. Beliau adalah ibu negara, iya, apakah kita pernah bertemu beliau? Tidak. Kita mungkin lebih familier dengan Paula dan Gigi, istri dari Baim Wong dan Raffi Ahmad yang tengah populer youtube channelnya.

Siapa sih ibu Ani ini bagi anak-anak millenial? Apakah perlu kita bersimpati atas apa yang dideritanya? Saya lebih sering tidak peduli dengan isu begini dahulu kala, bahkan juga sampai sekarang sepertinya (seperti yang terlihat dari reaksi awal saya). Lalu apa yang membawa saya untuk membawa hal ini di sini? Itu karena saya sedang bersimpati. Bukan karena diri saya sendiri, tapi karena teman kos saya membicarakannya. Mereka bersimpati dengan ibu Ani Yudhoyono.

Saya mungkin tidak benar-benar mengkhawatirkan beliau, tetapi masalah kanker yang hangat di sekitar saya ini memicu saya untuk bertanya-tanya. Apa kabar orang-orang yang terkena kanker dan tidak mempunyai cukup biaya untuk pergi ke Singapura berobat? Tidakkah kita peduli dengan mereka? Bukankah mereka ada? Kenapa tidak kita cari mereka dan kita bantu mereka? Tentu saja bersimpati untuk ibu Ani bukanlah sesuatu yang salah. tapi alangkah baiknya jika kita lebih membuka mata dengan kejadian serupa yang terjadi pada rakyat kecil ‘pumpung’ topik ini masih hangat? *)

Catatan: Tetangga saya menderita kanker payudara parah selama bertahun-tahun. Tidak pernah beliau dibawa ke rumah sakit. Mahal. Saya mendengar berita tersebut dari facebook ketika di kos, dan saya mengenali rumah beliau. Rumah tersebut bukan rumah permanen. Temboknya hanya sepinggang orang dewasa sementara sisanya adalah ‘gedeg’, anyaman bambu yang biasa digunakan sebagai dinding di desa. Sekarang hambur tidak ada orang yang mempunya rumah dengan gedeg, namun dengan ini, setidaknya pembaca mengetahui bagaimana kondisi ekonomi keluarga ini. Saya tidak mengetahui ini sampai saya berada di semester 5. Saya tinggal di luar kota selama hampir 7 tahun untuk bersekolah. Ketika saya pulang ke rumah setelah saya mendengar kabar tersebut, saya tanyakan ibu saya tentang tetangga tersebut. Beliau tidak tahu menahu. Yang ibu saya tahu adalah bahwa tetangga tersebut sakit. Bukankah ini menunjukkan betapa tidak pedulinya kita pada lingkungan sekitar? Sementara dunia mengumandangkan betapa mengenaskannya penyakit yang dialami orang-orang penting di luar sana, orang-orang yang bahkan tidak punya uang untuk mendiagnosis penyakit sedang bertahan di luar sana. Dan mungkin, ini adalah saat di mana kita harus mulai berpikir bagaimana cara untuk menyelamatkan orang-orang kecil ini karena nyawa di mana-mana sama pentingnya.

To the Islands of Indonesia Ch. 1

1. Java: Ken

His name is Ken Adhiyasta. He didn’t know what it meant, but his friends said it was a cool name, so he didn’t mind the meaning. He thought himself as a cool person, he accepted any challenge he was given to and, well, he won most of it – in fact, all of the challenge except one: to attend the annual royal competition, with a great magic force as a reward.

Oh, you still don’t know about it? Ah, I see… well, let me explain.

Ken lived far in the heart of Java Island, a land where the sky poured all of its water along the years. Its jungles were covered with moss, bushes were grown to the chest of an adult, and the only path to go outside was through the great Brantas River. There were many myths believed by the Javanese about the river. One of it was that the river hid a monstrous white alligator whose existence had caused hundreds of lives lost. However, several years ago, a man from the outer side of island called Surabaya came with a boat. He was a wanderer. For a week he stayed in the village, talked about the outer island, and of course, The Annual Royal Competition.

The Royal Competition was held in the far island in the East called Papua. The citizens there were of many races and cultures. The diversity was vast, while the safety was guaranteed by the kingdom. Every people from the world dreamt of living there, yet the requirement were so much they can't. The competition itself consists of many adventures; surviving a river full of meat eater fish, taming and riding monstrous creatures, battling with every competitors from various races … it all sounded like a fairy tale indeed.

The villagers didn’t believe in magic, that’s why they didn’t take the man’s information seriously. Ken believed him, though. His own mother always told him that magic existed. She said magic was wonderful. In the last days before she died, she often talked in her sleep. ‘I wanted to see your magic,’ she said. Thus he trusted the man and he challenged himself to go there one day. However, it was when he was only 7. He didn’t know how hard life was until he got to his 13. People in the village didn’t provide him food anymore; he should find it for himself. Moreover, the men in the village were not many, thus all men from the age of 13 and more had responsibility to hunt. As time passed, he started to forget that dream.

The woods were not an easy place to hunt, but the river was not an option either. Every morning he went into the woods with dagger tied to his waist, bow across his torso and a couple of arrows on his back. Sometimes he caught rabbits or deer, some other times he didn’t find anything at all. Today was one of his unfortunate day. The pouring rain developed into a strong storm. Lightning exploded in the high sky, and Ken had no other choice than to take a shelter. He didn’t see any cave on his way to the woods, thus he decided on going deeper.

Some half an hour later he came across a big cave beside a river. He saw a light coming from it. He wondered who could have lighted fire in it, so he hurried to come inside. The light turned out to be farther than he had expected. As he came nearer and didn’t feel any heat, he realised it wasn’t fire. The source of the light was an egg-shaped thing lying on the ground.

“Is this a forest’s monster’s egg?” he wondered to himself. But there is no footprint at all, or… could this thing be… Ken barely touched it when he fell backwards as if he was electrified. “Wow…” he whispered in amazement. His mouth shaped a bright smile. “So, you’re really something ‘magic’, aren’t you? Alright, let’s see how you could be broken—or used, whichever is cool.”

Ken started a fire as near as possible to the thing, thinking the thing might react to heat. It didn’t budge. He also took some water; half is used to make tea, half to splash it to the egg (he had come to decision that it was an egg). It also didn’t make the egg react at all.

“Ahhh… I give up. Even if you really are an egg, I can't make you hatch, and if you are a magic vessel of sort, I couldn’t use you because I’m not a wizard or sorcerer or magician or whatever. But you have light! It’s a news, isn’t it? I mean, how many people out there have a light source like you? I think I still can make use of you. Hmm, I’m pretty smart, aren’t I?” he kept talking those nonsense while the storm raged until he fell asleep and woke up the next morning. As he gained consciousness, he realised that the egg was already gone.

“That’s unfortunate…” he grunted as he walked out of the cave. The rain was light on the soil. Wind didn’t rage anymore. Ken could say that this was the brightest morning this year.

 “You… Wet.”

Ken turned fast on his heel, looking for the source of the voice. He found nothing around him; just trees and trees.

A laughter rang in the air.

Now Ken was highly alarmed. “Who is there? Show yourself, coward!” he traces every tree, hoping to find some movement behind.

“Coward…?” the voice came again, now with a curious tone.

“Where are you, loser?!” Ken shouted. Fear began to creep along his marrow. What is it? The jungle’s ghost? I can't be frightened now, can I? There’s no one around here, no one can help me. I walked at least 20 km from the village, no one ever got this far, and if I run now, he would catch up before the villagers could hear my voice. At this rate…

“Up,” the voice said.

Ken gazed upwards. A giant black bird –if it is a bird—flying around without sound. Its size was as big as a sheep and its wings as wide as his hut’s roof. Something in its head was glowing blue like a sapphire stone; yes, he knew how sapphire looked like, he got one at home.

The big bird landed its feet on the ground. He looked at Ken with keen interest. “You… Wet. You… Know… Magic.” And it talked.

It talked! “You talk!” Ken couldn’t help himself to remark.

“I talk. You talk too.”

“Wow… am I dreaming? Are you some kind of the soul of the jungle? Or, are you the seiren… ahh... I don’t know anything…”

“You okay?”

“Will you attack me?” Ken asked.

“Attake?”

And that was when Ken realised the bird couldn’t really talk yet. “Have you never talked before?”

The bird shook its head. “You first.”

“Wow…” Ken observed the bird more closely. “Can I touch you?”

The bird nodded enthusiastically.

Ken carefully touched its head, rubbed its feathers, and he came to the stone. “Can I?”

“No sure… people say magic…”

“People? Where are you from?”

“Far… no rain… it wet here…”

“You really need to learn more about how to talk. When will you go back to your land?”

The bird stared upwards. He looked kind of cute like that. “No sure…”

“Well, in that case, what about learning to talk with me? I can go back here every day and teach you.”

The bird, again, nodded enthusiastically. “Promise?” the bird asked.

“Hn! Of course,” Ken ensured him.

The bird bowed down and told Ken to touch the sapphire on his forehead.

“But you said you’re not sure! What if I die after I touch it?”

“It okay.”

“How do you know it?!”

“Just know. Then,” the bird kept giving his forehead.

As Ken touched the sapphire, he could feel some strange electricity running through his fingertips. And it was in a good way. He didn’t feel like being electrify at all just like yesterday…

“Haaahhhh?” Ken was surprised by his own train of thought. Is he really…

“What?” The bird tilted its head.

Ken looked at the bird as detailed as possible. “Are you the egg in the cave yesterday?!”

The bird nodded. “You slow.”

“I can't just guess you hatched from a mysterious egg, can I?”

“You can.”

“Moreover, why can't I take my hand off of your head?”

“Wait for a moment.”

That ‘a moment’ was more than 10 minutes. Ken’s hand was already stiff when he could remove it. He inspected his hand and found a gash across his palm.

“Whaa… wow… What is this?!” Ken showed his scarred palm to the bird. “It doesn’t hurt nor bleed, but it looks deep.”

The bird turned his head. “I remembered. Contract. No know to take it off.”

“What are you talk—whatever.” His stomach went noisy all of sudden. “Now, are you hungry? What do you eat? I can find some rabbit or deer, for sure…”

“I eat just now.” The bird nodded its head towards remain of a cow of sort.

Ken was flabbergasted and then gulped. He can actually eat me. Savagely. I’d better not make him angry.

“It wet. I go to cave.” With that, the bird went inside the cave.

Strange creature.

Since that day over, Ken always went to to the cave whenever possible. He taught him many things, including the magic his mother told him, the adventure of the wanderer, also the myths of the village. He also told the bird about the villagers, the people of the shores, the Royal Competition. The bird seemed so fascinated.

In his own gain, he noticed the rapid change of the bird. Its feathers began to disappear, he thought that the bird was a bit ill or something and it would came out again; but it didn’t. His skin became thicker. His wings became a lot like a bat’s wings. There came his curiosity.

“You haven’t told me what you actually are,” Ken said.

“I haven’t?”

Ken shook his head.

“I’m a dragon.”

…

"WHAT?!”

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Blog isn't that Famous Anymore

I had a blog long time ago. When I was a student in vocational high school. I wrote stories, all of them never had an ending. All because I never had the confident that my story was worth continuing. However, I still write yet another story. I never stop creating new ones and never stop cutting in the middle. This is probably millennial problem. Maybe not. What I knew is I should stop thinking low of my own stories and just get them all out.

Now, there were such a few option to publish a story. Wattpad wasn't there. Instagram wasn't there. Oh, my bad, we cannot write a lot in instagram. That is not the point of course. What were there, really, were blog and  fanfiction.net, which is super difficult to access nowadays, and fictionpress.com, its sister. I had published my works in those two platforms, and since blog was popular back then, I thought, why not?

Of course I was too lazy to promote my own writing and soon after I forgot that I even have one xD

It was obvious too why I forgot. No one talked about having a blog. No one even had a blog. Come on, I came from a village like the rest of Indonesian kids. Most of us didn't even have internet in our phone or our home. Internet cafe was too precious to waste on looking some blog we didn't really need to read (oh we opened blog alright, if we have group task and the like).

Now, compare it to the nowadays kids and teenagers. Most have phones. Most have internet. They are free to explore the world far away from the small village with the busy farmers they come from. And again, since they do not have to worry about how precious 'money for their internet' are, they are free to choose what to read too--or watch.

It all actually begun with facebook, kids learn to read statuses, posts in it and they then knew the term 'social media'. 4G came and with it the internet became even cheaper. Internet cafe has gradually gone, substituted by cafe providing WiFi, where you can just buy a cup of coffee and you are then welcome to unlock the WiFi using the password given.

Now, with all of that, kids chose to watch youtube instead of reading online blogs. Teenagers chose to play online games than opening up social media.

You see, blog is not famous. Ask kids in the street and tell them to mention a blog they know of, Tell me what they say :)