#this is an oldie but i just went back and edited it a bit today so idk here you go

[purgetrooperfox]

exhaustion

rating: T

summary: Fox has been running on fumes for days, counting down the time until he can drop onto the nearest horizontal surface and finally sleep.

characters: Commander Fox, Commander Thorn, Sheev Palpatine, Clone Medic Nocte, background characters

warnings: Palpatine being a bitch, mild language, referenced drug dependence

tags: sleep deprivation, canon-typical mistreatment of the clones, flawed coping mechanisms, way too much caffeine, slice of life (unfortunately)

edit: happy belated birthday to this fic apparently

Ten more hours.

Three more meetings.

One more shift.

Counting down the time remaining until he can collapse onto his bunk - or more realistically, onto his couch - doesn’t help Fox stay alert, but it does give him a light at the end of this tunnel of exhaustion. He’s in a security meeting with Thorn and a handful of the Senate Guard, and all he can think about is getting out and inhaling another thermos of caf. Nocte would have a fit.

Inhaling sharply, Fox narrowly manages to snap awake before he falls asleep on his feet. At his side, Thorn shifts just enough to brush their pauldrons against each other. It’s well-intended, but Fox’s balance isn’t what it should be.

He sways.

The Senate Guard captain notices. Finally. Fox had been concerned by his utter lack of situational awareness. “Are you well, Commander Fox?”

Still, he would rather not have to bullshit an answer. “Of course,” he says. “I’m waiting for the point of this conversation. We’re all aware of the potential ramifications of a leak in your division, and there are contingency plans in place for that very eventuality. My Guard is prepared to implement those plans. Is that what you’re asking of us? Is there some problem in the Senate Guard that would prevent your compliance with established security regulations?”

Thorn tenses. Fox doesn’t. He’s too tired, and he has enough of a reputation to talk down to lower ranking officers. Sometimes. As a treat. And he’s right. This entire meeting could have been dealt with via holo-message.

The captain doesn’t sputter, impressing Fox for the first time since this meeting began. “As I said, the Senate Guard is dealing with a staffing shortage—”

“And you want to supplement your ranks with my men?” Fox interrupts, well aware that he’s treading a fine line, but honestly. “Subcontracting is banned for clone troopers, per GAR Regulation 300.251.34.”

“Does this count as subcontracting?”

Fox’s eye flutters in the privacy of his bucket. “Yes. Per GAR Regulation 300.351.35, clone troopers are prohibited from seeking employment outside of their assigned battalions unless expressly reassigned by a commanding officer or the Supreme Chancellor. That includes unpaid employment and contract work.”

Now, the captain’s expression settles into a glare. Fox wishes he could remember this one’s name, but who can tell nat-born officers apart, anyway. “Then I can—”

“Before you attempt to give that order,” Fox says drily, careful not to yawn, “allow me to remind you that you are not part of my chain of command, and that as Rear Mashal Commander, I would outrank you if I was. Is there anything within the confines of the law that I can do for you, Captain?”

“Evidently not, Commander,” he snaps. Fortunately, this particular officer doesn’t have the pull to make a case to the Chancellor about this meeting. Nothing inspires like fear of ratting oneself out.

Rolling his shoulders, Fox shifts out of parade rest and swears he can hear his joints creak with the motion. “Then we can call this meeting adjourned. Best of luck populating your ranks, Captain. Don’t hesitate to contact me if your leak is not resolved within twelve hours.”

He should wait for the Senate Guards to leave before following suit, but he’s tired and irritated and under-caffeinated. So he goes first with Thorn on his heels.

Three more meetings.

Thorn is practically vibrating in his boots by the time they get to the mess. Fox makes a beeline for the caf machine and thanks all the gods that it’s working today, spitting unappealing sludge into his thermos.

“You’re going to either get yourself decommissioned or give yourself a heart attack,” Thorn informs him when he slides into the seat across from Fox at a table, all but slamming his tray down. “You look like shit. When was the last time you ate? How many of those have you had today?”

Fox shakes his head minutely and regrets it immediately when the motion sends the room around him into a tailspin. “I ate this morning.” He takes a gulp of his drink, ignoring the way it burns. “I need to stay awake and Nocte won’t give me stims anymore. So. Caf it is. Quit worrying.”

“Quit worrying,” Thorn mutters, clearly intending to keep worrying. “The crash will be as bad as the sleep-deprivation itself. Don’t say no one warned you.”

Unfortunately, Thorn isn’t wrong. Fortunately, Thorn’s shift is ending so he won’t be around to keep reminding him.

Nine hours and change.

Stone tentatively offers to trade his rotation in the Senate Dome for Fox’s next meeting. It’s clear that he doesn’t want to offer at all, but Fox can’t quite resist the temptation of being able to lean against a wall instead of standing upright. The CSF commanders aren't terrible, relatively speaking, so he doesn’t feel too guilty sending Stone in his place.

The Senate is debating pumping more money into the Republic war machine. Palpatine is in favor, so the debate itself is mostly about optics. Let the dissenters think they have a voice. Fox doesn’t know much about politics, but he’d figured that democracies would be less rigged than this.

(That’s not strictly true, he thinks, he probably knows more about politics than most civilians. And most of the GAR. And some politicians, for that matter. Proximity goes a long way.)

Crossing his arms and leaning into a back corner of the Dome, Fox lets his mind wander.

Nine more hours.

His vision swims if he’s not careful to blink the fog away. The caf both helped and hurt his situation. He’s more awake, but he’s jittery and anxious. It’s dampened by the heavy weight on his shoulders, in his bones, trying to drag him down to the floor, but his hands shake. His hands never shake.

Despite the churning of his stomach and the fine tremor in his fingers and the raucous shouting of Senators, Fox tilts his head sideways against the wall and drifts. It’s not sleep, but shutting his eyes helps slow the spinning of his head.

Every so often, the sensation of falling jerks his awareness back to his surroundings. It seems cruel. Like taunting. To edge so close to rest only to be yanked back to where he started. He wants to curl up on the floor and give up this fruitless battle against his body’s needs.

He drifts.

“Fox?” A hand wraps around his arm and squeezes, startling him. Fox jerks backwards, but there’s already a wall at his back. He blinks several times, trying to clear the blur from his vision. His eyelids are heavy. One of Thorn’s kids is hovering a hand over Fox’s shoulder. Gab. “You alright, boss?”

Fox grunts noncommittally and pushes fully upright. By some miracle, he doesn’t immediately collapse. The chrono in the corner of his HUD mocks him.

Seven more hours.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Two more meetings.

Palpatine’s voice melts into a droning monotone sometimes. Fox has picked up tensing and relaxing the muscles in his neck and shoulders to keep himself awake. Alert is a tall order at this point, but he’s really trying.

There’s an angsty electro-pop song that Thire’s been playing in the mess looping through his head.

Fortunately, this isn’t a one-on-one meeting. It’s more of an overblown security shift, since there are probably a dozen Senators lounging throughout Palpatine’s office. They're sipping on wine that’s worth more credits than Fox’s entire life and discussing how to best balance the budget for the new year.

All Fox can think about is the absurdity of this war entering its third year. These meetings never address the death toll, but why would they? It isn’t a death toll if the soldiers aren’t sentient. Just like the Seps, the Republic Senate talks about loss of units in terms of the financial risk of increasing or decreasing production.

Deliberately unclenching his jaw, Fox relaxes his shoulders.

Thorn keeps telling him that he should cut some of the ‘better’ Senators some slack. That it’s all relative. Still, even as Organa and Amidala and Chuchi sit in this meeting and argue against funnelling more credits into the GAR, they concede that the Republic can’t fall too far behind when the Separatists are building more battle droids every day. What good is publicly railing against the war when they fan the flames of conflict behind closed doors.

Something something, political pressure, blah blah, playing the long game.

The clones have no long game to play. Not when their life expectancy is thirteen years and dropping as shinies get deployed younger and younger. Surviving two years after leaving Kamino is an accomplishment. It makes them old by comparison. The youngest of Fox’s new batch of shinies is nine and probably won’t live to see eleven. Amidala came by and met them, which is more effort than most Senators make, but it’s still superficial. It’s not enough.

Fox doesn’t have the emotional space to cut slack to politicians who only do the bare minimum.

He flexes his jaw and it pops loudly, thankfully silenced by his helmet. Simmering frustration and helplessness wring him out, leaving his head and limbs aching. He needs another caf. Or a nap.

Four more hours.

That’s manageable. He’ll see the other side of this shift, if not the other side of this war.

His mind wanders.

A delicate hand wraps around his upper arm, squeezing ineffectually against plastoid. Fox lets out a breath and opens his eyes to see Amidala watching him with naked concern. In front of Palpatine and his Red Guard.

He switches his vocoder back on and very carefully doesn’t snap, “Can I help you, Senator?”

Amidala blinks, and Fox isn’t sure what she expected. “I just wanted to make sure you’re well, Commander. I can’t imagine these meetings are particularly interesting or easy to listen to.”

Fox hadn’t been listening. That’s the trick to not going absolutely insane when in proximity to the Senate. “I’m fine, ma’am, it’s part of the job.”

“Still, I was hoping you would join me for a caf in my office. I wanted to get your thoughts on a few potential reforms to procedural treatment of GAR troopers, and the Coruscant Guard in particular.”

It feels like bait. If any other Senator invited him back to their office for a private meeting– Fox shoves that thought away. He starts to politely decline and nearly chokes on the words. Frigid cold spikes up his spine.

No, he neither can nor wants to hear this potential reform.

“To my knowledge, there's no need to address the treatment of the troopers. We’re happy to serve and are treated fairly by the Senate and our superior officers.”

There’s no reason for anything to change. The clones are treated as what they are, weapons to be aimed and fired at the discretion of the Republic.

For a half-second, Fox wonders where that chain of thoughts came from.

“I see,” Amidala says and retracts her hand. For reasons unknown, the loss of contact makes pressure build behind Fox’s eyes. Has any nat-born ever touched him without intent to harm? “Feel free to contact me if you change your mind.” She turns to Palpatine and ducks her head. “Good evening, Chancellor.” And then she’s gone.

Fox ignores the discomfort that always coils around him when he’s left alone with Palpatine.

“I’m pleased to hear that you and your men are being treated fairly,” he says with a smile.

“Yes, sir.”

“I hope you’ll take care to bring any concerns directly to me, Commander.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Dismissed.”

Fox snaps off a salute and lets his legs carry him from the office on autopilot.

Four more hours.

One more meeting.

He can do this.

“We can’t expect you clones to keep us safe!” some Core world Senator shouts, bare inches from Fox’s visor. Fox glances at the spittle flecked across his HUD with disaffected apathy. “If there is truly an information leak in the Senate Guard, the heart of the Republic is in jeopardy! We should issue a state of emergency!”

He’s been on this tirade for a while now and shows no signs of calming. This is really not in Fox’s purview. “I assure you, Senator, the Coruscant Guard is fully prepared for every eventuality. We're very thoroughly trained on the security protocols to be implemented if and when a leak is confirmed.”

That Senate Guard captain didn’t have the authority to complain to the Chancellor, but he did have enough to file one to the war council. Fox can acknowledge that he probably brought this on himself.

“Then why does Captain Braelig tell me that the Guard has been uncooperative with his attempts to bolster security?”

Thirty minutes. Then two hours on patrol.

He can do this. He has to do this.

“The captain’s request was in breach of GAR regulations, sir. I can’t legally rent my troops to the Senate Guard.”

The Senator scowls, rough and ugly. “And I’m to believe your word over his? Is it so incredible to worry that your programming has been tampered with?”

Another Senator, thankfully still seated, nods at that. “It’s not as if we know the details of the clones’ programming. For all his wisdom, the Chancellor is hardly an expert in these matters. Surely there's some risk of interference.”

Fox sighs quietly and it makes his head spin. He doesn’t know how to say that it doesn’t work that way without offending someone, and he can’t offer the Kaminoans’ expertise without risking an impromptu trip back to Tipoca. It’s hard to think through the near-suffocating weight of exhaustion.

Evidently, he takes too long to formulate a response. The spit-spewing Senator snarls and jerks a hand up to take Fox by the brim of his helmet, and it takes every scrap of his self-control not to snap the man’s arm. Programming, his ass.

“Listen, clone. I’m going to need some kind of insurance if the Senate will be relying on you in the case of this security breach.”

Fox goes to offer some empty reassurance, but the Senator is out of patience. Very abruptly, the safety of Fox’s helmet disappears, yanked harshly off his head and flung to the floor. Gone is the chrono he’d been watching for three shifts in a row, and the pending message notification from Thorn, and the noise muffling filter over his ears, and the live update feed from his upper ranks. He watches it roll toward the door and wishes he could follow it.

Clearing his throat against a rising lump, he raises his gaze back to the Senator and pointedly ignores the disgust on his face. He knows he looks like banthashit, thanks. “I’m sure I can get ahold of the Kaminoans’ product quality guarantee and the ongoing quality control measures that have been in place since the beginning of the war. Sir.”

“See to it that you do,” the Senator spits. Fox squeezes his left wrist until he swears he feels his bones creaking, but he doesn’t wipe his face. “I’ll need that by end-of-day.”

Kindly, Fox doesn’t point out that it’s past end-of-day because this meeting was scheduled for karking 2000 hours.

“Gods, are you all so poorly composed under those helmets?” a third Senator asks, probably rhetorically, given that there’s no right answer.

“Unprofessional is what it is,” the one in his face says. “I’ll be informing the Chancellor.”

Fox can’t sigh or squeeze the growing blur from his vision without the privacy of his bucket. He also can’t quite follow the rest of the conversation, sinking down and back into a corner of his head. It’s just about all he can manage to keep his knees locked so he doesn’t drop.

An indeterminate period of time later, the Senators file out of the meeting room. Fox makes the mistake of closing his eyes and nearly topples when his balance is upended. Bending to pick up his bucket adds a swell of nausea to the beaten down ache in his joints. He slots it back on his head and steps out into the halls. The sun has long since set.

Two hours on patrol.

His HUD is out of focus.

He can—

No.

No, he can’t.

His knees buckle underneath him and he collapses, lost to the world before he even hits the ground.

Fox wakes up slowly, feeling like a brand new man.

Nocte notices immediately, which is to be expected.

“Fox,” he says, utterly deadpan, “you’re a fucking idiot.”

Which is fair, but also isn’t really. “I didn’t ask for that many shifts back-to-back,” he tries to defend himself.

“Yeah, but you also didn’t ask literally anyone to cover literally any of it, idiot.” Without preamble, Nocte stabs a hypo into Fox’s thigh harder than seems necessary. “Do I even want to know how much caf you drank? The point of not giving you stims wasn’t for you to try to make up the difference with caffeine. If you come in here with substance-induced heart palpitations again, I swear to the Force I’ll just leave you out in the hall.”

Fox almost laughs out loud at that, feeling lighter than he has in days. “No, you won’t.”

“No,” Nocte agrees with a scowl, “I won’t. What were you thinking?”

He never considered passing his work onto anyone else, but that’s the wrong answer here. “Well, I have a whole rotation off now.” Unless any of the other commanders need a shift covered.

Nocte sighs. He probably knows that unspoken caveat better than most, given how often he steals shifts from his patients. “Do you need the lecture about stimulant use in conjunction with high anxiety and the risk of long-term heart problems? Again?”

“Nope,” Fox says. “You’ve scared me straight. No more stims.”

“Sure. Of course.” He doesn’t sound convinced. Despite feeling more rested than he has in recent memory, Fox’s awareness starts sliding away again. “Are you falling asleep again? Great, I’m putting you on medical leave for an extra rotation. So. Suck on that, Commander.”

[with-love-from-hell]

Pet Names (Part 1)

The Obey Me! Brother’s and dateables pet names for Mc.

Find part two here

For each brother, I gave a three different name types: general, romantic, and teasing. A general name is used on a pretty regular basis (whenever addressing you without using your name).  A romantic name is used in special circumstances- like when they are trying to be more affectionate or comforting. A teasing name is used during times when they are more flirty or playful (or during sexy time).

<<I fully intend on making a part two with Mc’s nicknames for the brothers and dateables! This took a long time and a lot of thought so I hope you all like it.>>

 written for a GN!Mc who has a pre-existing romantic relationship with the brothers or dateables (whichever one is your fav!)

Cw: swearing, somewhat sexually suggestive, maybe spoilers for lessons 16+?

EDIT: fixed this one to be truly Gender Neutral. I went back through it and cringed so here's the updated one

Lucifer

General: Love

Lucifer is a old-fashioned man, and I feel like he would stick with a tried and true pet name daily use. He would probably add “my” from time to time, especially when feeling more possessive or jealous.

“Thank you assisting me with my brothers, love. I know they can be a handful.”

Romantic: Darling

 Again, Lucifer tends to go for the oldies (but fr who wouldn’t love to be called Darling by him? Ugh my heart is melting just thinking about it). He tends to use this pet name when he has been neglecting time with you because of his busy work schedule, or when he wants to do something particularly romantic. As with “love,” he may add a “my” to it.

“Are you ready to go? You look absolutely radiant tonight, my darling.”

Teasing: Angel, Lamb

I know, I know- but bear with me. I feel like it isn't lost on Lucifer that you are the best thing that has happened in his life, and he cant understate the lightness he feels around you. However, because I feel like this man has at least a little bit of a sacrilege kink, he would probably only call you angel when he is being more flirtatious. Obviously, your connection to Lilith is not lost on him and he very much knows that Angel blood runs in your veins. “Lamb” is used in a similar (mildly sacrilegious) way, and is often a teasing reminder of how vulnerable you are here- a sheep amongst wolves. He may add “my,” “little,” or “precious" to the name as well!

“Now, Angel. You know well what your touch does to me.”

“My my, daring today- arent we, little lamb?”

 Mammon

General: Babe

Another guy who goes for the tried and true pet name. Mammon may have even forgotten your name at this point because he calls you babe ALL. THE. TIME. Like it’s never ending tbh. Sometimes he may switch it up and call you “Baby,” but Babe is his usual go to!

“Hey Babe! I got an idea for making some quick Grimm! You in?”

Romantic: Boo

I feel like the first time Mammon calls you "Boo", he runs out of the room in a blushing mess. You probably thought he was corny af, but you’d be lying if you'd say you didn’t feel your cheeks grow warm at the sound of it.. Mammon tends to only bring out “boo” when you had a really rough day and are needing some comfort, or when he does something extra sweet for you.

"M’sorry your day sucked, Boo. I got something for ya to make it all better!”

Teasing: Sexy, Human

Yep. Master flirt Mammon over here. When he is feeling a little restless in the nether region he will switch from “babe” to “Sexy.” You know exactly what he wants when he changes his tune. He will also continue to use "Human" as a teasing way to refer to you like he did before, though you can tell it feels different hearing it now.

“Com’ere, Sexy. Come spend some time with the Great Mammon! Wait...Oi! What do ya think you're doin', Human?!”

Leviathan

General: Player 2, Henry

Levi definitely sticks to the nicknames you had when you guys were just friends, and honestly they fit your relationship perfectly. You love the meaning behind them, and because they really do make you feel important to him. He may add a “my” to the beginning too if hes feeling more jealous.

“Lets go back to my room, Henry! A new episode of [inset long anime title] is on tonight!”

“Are you going to be joining me for a raid later? I need my player 2!”

Romantic: Manami

Levi would definitely have a more unique pet name when feeling more romantic. The name can mean a few different things, depending on how its written in Kanji, but that just makes it all the more special. It can mean beauty, love, sea, or truth- all of which Levi thinks of when he looks at you. He will use this pet name when wanting to express his emotions when words evade him.

“Manami…I...I just cant tell you how much you mean to me.”

Teasing: Normie

Obviously he’d go for the low blow- the name hes been calling you since you met him. He doesn’t see you as a “Normie” anymore though- he just knows it just gets a little under your skin. Levi uses this name when he’s in the mood to tease you- or rather when you’re teasing him and he doesn’t have a comeback. Or when you're flirting with him and he gets too flustered to even move.

"GAh! W-what do you think you're d-doing?! Like I’d even fall for some Normie tactics!”

Satan

General: Hun, Bella/Bello/Bell

Simple man, simple pet names. He doesn’t feel like it has to be anything too extensive- which makes the others he calls you all the more special. He will use “Hun” or an iteration of "Bella" about as often as he uses your actual name, so its not excessive, but it still warms your heart every time you hear it.

“Ah, thank you for joining me today, Bell."

"Hun, don't waste your time entertaining Mammons antics. You'll catch his stupid."

Romantic: My Everything

When Satan has the feeling that you may be experiencing some insecurity, or when you’ve had a really bad day, he will use this pet name. And boy, is it effective. He will hold you close and gently coo to you while you relax into his embrace.

"You mean more to me than the world. You are my everything.”

Teasing: Kitten

(Look i know that yall are probably sick of seeing this one but I totally think it fits with his personality so fight me). Again, simple, but effective. Satan often goes to calling you “kitten” when he is feeling more flirtatious, and will always use it around his brothers when he is feeling a little jealous of you spending time with them. Often it comes out when he’s feeling pent up and impatient for your attention. When you hear this one, you know what he needs, and he needs it now.

“Don’t worry, Kitten. I won't bite...hard.”

 Asmodeus

General: Darling, Doll

Asmo is the king of pet names and he will call you anything and everything that he sees as endearing. His go-tos are usually Darling or Doll- probably because he sees you as darling, and also views you as a doll he can makeover and spoil whoever he wants. Sometimes he will call you both in one go, and will add a “Light of my life”- especially when you’re frustrated with him.

“Darling! Doll! Light of my life!! I’ve missed you so much!”

Romantic: Ma Bella/Bello/Bell

Oh you know Asmo pulls out all the stops when he wants to be romantic. He will even have a little French accent when he coos this pet name at you. He will also use it when he upsets you- like if he is a little too flirty with another demon, or when he's spent a little too much time with his fans during your time together. This is his way of reassuring you are the only one for him.

“Don't you worry your pretty little head, Ma Bell- you are all I want in this world.”

Teasing: Vixen/Vix

Asmo again goes for a pet name from a well-known sensual language when he is feeling more flirty than usual (which you didn’t really think was possible at first). He often will throw out more pet names when he is in the mood, but once he pulls out “Vixen," you know he means business. Get ready for the night of your life.

"Well now, it appears the Vix(en) has bitten off a little more than they can chew, hmm?"

 Beelzebub

General: Sugar

Look, we all know Beel loves food and I promise you he does not only use food to reference you, because frankly you mean MORE to him than that, so he will put some effort into other nicknames. But for generally referring to you, “Sugar” just...feels right. He uses this pet name just about as much as your normal name, making sure not to over do it.

“Oh good, you're home.. Do you want to go to Madam Screams with me, Sugar?”

Romantic: Sunflower

You are probably one of the best things to happen to Beel in this entire world, and the way you make him feel after you entered his life he compares to how the sun light felt in the celestial realm: Warm, inviting, and safe. But you also remind him of a flower with your gentle and delicate nature (plus you smell really good). So he will refer to you as “Sunflower” when you’ve had a particularly hard day, or when he has been really craving your attention. He may toss a “my” before them as well.

“Oh, my sunflower. Do you need a hug? Or maybe a snack? What can I do to make you feel better?”

Teasing: Tiger

Beel often gets flustered and rarely flirts with you intentionally, but he will swallow the nervousness when you flirt with him first. When he is in that special mood, he will often move to call you “Tiger”- a nod to the power you tend to have over him and these feelings he doesn’t quite yet comprehend.

“alright...relax now, Tiger. I'll give you everything you need, and more.”

 Belphegor

General: Baby

Belphie doesn’t get too creative with his general pet name for you, and he will only refer to you as "Baby" when none of his brothers are around. Mostly because one time he used it in front of Asmo and he made a scene about how cute it was. Belphie isn't "cute," you know ):<

"Ugh…Baby? what is it? Why did you wake me?

Romantic: Flower

Belphie has many regrets, and one of them was viewing your delicateness as a weakness. The gentle way you stroke his hair as he drifts off to sleep drives him wild, and when he is feeling especially affectionate, this nickname will come out. He will also use it to soothe you after a nightmare or when you’re upset. Sometimes he will change it up by adding “my” or “precious” to it!

"Shh...come closer, my precious flower. let me take care of you tonight."

Teasing: Dork, Nerd

Yep. Belphie is one of those boyfriends who teases you ALL the time. And I feel like Belphie definitely uses "Dork" or "Nerd" in a mixture of teasing and flirting. He uses it to refer to you with the confidence of a 13-year old boy in the 90s who thinks he just gave the best roast in the world. Honesty, he uses "Dork" enough that it could classify as his general nickname for you.

"Wow, Mc. You are such a Dork."

 Diavolo

General: Darling

Yep, Diavolo is calling you “darling” every second of every hour of every day. Like Mammon, it almost seems like he completely forgot your actual name because he never uses it anymore. His favorite thing is saying it in front of the brothers to make them all jealous.

"Oh, Good morning darling! I hope you slept soundly!”

Romantic: Sweetheart

Simple, yet meaningful. When you’ve had a tough day, he will change up his “darling” chants- using soft coos and gentle shoulder rubs accompanied by calling you “sweetheart.” At first it was a bit odd hearing him call you something other than his trademark, but now its something you almost crave.

“Let me treat you to a massage, Sweetheart. You need it after such a terrible day.”

Teasing: Bae

We all know Diavolo is the KING of being behind on memes and human world trends (after seeing the  “hello fellow kids” meme with Diavolo, I strongly hc that hes like a bad corporate tweet come to life). He doesn’t intend to tease you at first, using it in an endearing way, but after awhile he sees how you cringe and flush bright red when he uses it. When you explain, he thinks it’s hilarious and now he does it on purpose to tease you. He especially uses this around the brothers.

“Ah! Glad you’re finally here! We couldn’t start the meeting without my Bae!”

 Simeon

General: Dear

(Yup I am using this one based on the paws event. But tell me you couldn’t see Simeon calling his s/o “dear” all the time??). Simeon absolutely calls you "dear" all the time and does not give a single shit who is around to hear him say it. He wants the world to know that you chose him. You love the way it rolls off his lips, and the way his eyes sparkle when he calls you "Dear."

"It’s good to see you, Dear. Come, sit next to me. How was your day?”

Romantic: Goddess/Adonis

I think Simeon would definitely use a wayyy over the top romantic pet name for you because he needs it to match his feelings for you. (I also hc that he has a body worship kink and this tracks for that for sure). He often won't call you "Goddess" around anyone else- only in the small intimate moments you share alone together. His cheeks are often hued in bright pink when he uses it.

"You are perfect,  beautiful... A {Goddess/Adonis}, even. Please...let me hold you.”

Teasing: Pookie

He absolutely took notes from the Asmo and Diavolo playbooks in terms of giving you ridiculous pet names to see what will make you cringe when he wants to tease you. You reacted so viscerally to "Pookie" that he just had to keep it around. He doesn’t use it often, but you always find your cheeks reddening and shoot him a soft glare when he does- especially when it’s around others. He always has a sly grin on his face whenever he sees your face flush.

“Oh, wonderful! You're here! Would you mind making some tea, Pookie?"

 Barbatos

General: Precious

I feel like you don’t see Barbatos much because of how often he works, so his pet name for you that he uses on the regular must be special. And I mean, you ARE precious to him, so coming up with this wasn’t super hard. He does make sure to address you as such every time he sees you, no matter who is in earshot.

 “Greetings, Precious. I presume your day is going well?”

Romantic: Darling

When you do get the chance to have some alone time with Barbatos, he ups the anty just a bit to make sure you know he is taking this opportunity to be as attentive to you as possible. “Darling” is his go to for romance because it just fits how elegant you look whenever you both go on a date. He will definitely throw a “my” at the beginning from time to time.

"Oh, my darling. I am elated we get to be in each others company tonight.”

Teasing: Little Rabbit

Barbatos pulls out this one to tease the shit out of you, or to give you warning when you are getting him a bit too hot and bothered. Yep, you bet your ass he I calling you this in order to fluster you when he is down to clown. He absolutely does not use this in front of anyone else though.

"Hmm...perhaps you should think twice before testing my patience, little rabbit.”

 Solomon

General: Dear

Solomon doesn’t care much for pet names usually, so he doesn’t put much thought into calling you “Dear.” However, over time, he felt more and more attached to the word as a descriptor of you- even beginning to attach “my” to it. He calls you “Dear” all the time now, almost never using your name like he did before.

"Would you please hand me that vial over there, my dear?”

Romantic: Mein Stern (german for "My Star")

I feel like after he gets hooked on “Dear,” he would become a little more creative with a more romantic name. Like Levi, his romantic pet name is a bit more unique. He chooses a name reminiscent of the stars because of how brightly you shine above anyone else. I also feel like he would use a different language to convey his affection for you, and since he's lived for so long, there's no way he hasn't learned a ton of different human tongues. He often uses it when he is feeling more affectionate.

“Come closer. I am craving your touch, mein Stern."

Teasing: Vixen/Vix

He got this one immediately out the gate. It almost became your general pet name from him if not for the fact that he gets so turned on just by uttering the name to you. He feels like it describes you perfectly when you both are getting down to it- fierce, determined, and sexy. He may add “my,” “little” or “wild” to it.

“Ah, my little vixen/vix. You are a tough one to tame- not that I'd want to though."

...

Hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading...Stay tuned for part two!

[elsanna-shenanigans]

June Contest Submission #22: Left in the Dark

Words: ca. 4,000 Setting: Modern AU, Airport Lemon: No CW: None

A flash of lightning brightens the whole sky once more. Four seconds later, the low rumbling of thunder pierces the pattering sounds of rain hitting the large windows of the airport. The glass is working especially hard today to keep the raging storm at bay, and it doubles as the only source of light in this massive blackout.

Elsa presses her palm against the cold glass. All around her, people are expressing their fear over how long this blackout will last, calling loved ones to tell them their flights have been delayed, or are meeting this darkness with great indifference. She envies all these people, wishing she could feel something that isn’t gut-wrenching guilt.

When she pulls her hand away from the glass, her imprint from the condensation trickles and fades moments later. The last update they received before the power went out was that the weather conditions would be keeping all planes grounded for at least four hours. If people chose to catch a flight tomorrow instead, they’d be reimbursed for the inconvenience.

A lot of people chose that option, but Elsa decided to wait. She didn’t want to spend any more time in Denver than she needed to.

An hour later, when the power went out, everyone including Elsa who decided to stick around began wondering if they made the right choice. She jumps as she feels the phone in her back pocket vibrate. Hesitantly, she pulls it out and is relieved to see that it’s just a message from her mother, telling Elsa to be safe no matter what she chooses to do.

It’s not like she’s stranded in unknown territory, she still has a couple of friends from college in the city who might let her stay over for a night. And if that fails, she has enough money for an Uber ride and a hotel room. But the stormy skies aren’t the only dark clouds in Denver that she wants to leave behind, so it looks like she’s staying.

Air traffic workers outside are desperately setting up flares and other alternate sources of light on the airfield, and no doubt the airport’s technicians are working to get at least the backup power working. They won’t stay in darkness for too long, she hopes, even if it feels somewhat calming at this moment. But what else can she do to pass the time for the next few hours? Text her friends and hope they’re up for a three-hour conversation? Edit her resume? Take a nap while snuggling her backpack and duffle bag to keep anything from being stolen?

“Wow,” she says, speaking her first word since yesterday. “My life really is just one big pile of nothing, huh?”

Her existential crisis is interrupted by the gentle plucking of guitar strings that cuts through the torrential silence. It’s familiarity compels Elsa to grab her things and find the source of the melody, and though her hearing is heightened by the darkness, she uses her phone’s flashlight to guide her way so she doesn’t step on anyone. The guitar strings guide her along and bring her closer before they’re accompanied by another sound: a sweet, gentle voice comfortably singing the lyrics to the song.

Ooh thinkin about all our younger years There was only you and me We were young and wild and free

The girl singing it sounds far too young for the lyrics to pertain to her, and yet her alto voice still carries a reminiscent feel to what she’s saying. Elsa follows the secret siren up to the aisle she thinks she’s sitting in, just as the girl reaches the chorus. Though she keeps her voice down to a near whisper, Elsa can’t help but sing along as well.

Baby you’re all that I want when you’re lying here in my arms I’m finding it hard to believe we’re in Heaven

However, the music stops before the chorus ends and Elsa is left singing the last three words by herself. She purses her lips, mortified, taking a step back just in case she’s told to get lost.

“Why’d you stop singing? Your voice is really pretty.”

Now, Elsa’s even more embarrassed. She has enough common sense to realize the voice asking that question is the same voice that brought her here, but not enough to keep from shining her phone’s flashlight on her. Fortunately, the light only gets up to the girl’s chest before Elsa yelps and turns it off. Which isn't that much better, but she’ll take any victory she can get right now.

“Sorry, I didn’t think you heard me,” Elsa replies.

The girl chuckles, “Was I not supposed to hear you?”

“No, I mean I don’t know, I-I…” Elsa sighs, “I was embarrassed, I guess.”

“Well how about you stop being embarrassed and sit down?” It’s such a gentle command that Elsa doesn’t realize she could have said no until she’s used her phone’s flashlight to find an open seat right next to the mystery guitar girl. “So are you a big Bryan Adams fan or do you just know that one song?”

Darkness paints the corner they’re in and keeps Elsa from getting a good sense of who she’s talking to. It makes for one of the most interesting conversations she’s ever had. “Oh, I only know a couple of his songs, but I wouldn’t say I’m like a huge fan. A-are you?”

“Not really, but I’m a sucker for those classic love ballads, you know?”

Elsa nods before realizing she’s not going to see that. “Yeah, I know.”

She hears the woman adjust in her chair and the guitar strings squeak as she runs her fingers along the frets. “Alright, let’s see if you know this one.”

Before Elsa can ask what she’s doing, there’s a gentle yet deliberate strumming of the guitar strings unlike the soft fingerpicking from before. And once again, the woman begins to sing a song that Elsa’s quick to recognize.

And I’d give up forever to touch you Cause I know that you feel me somehow You’re the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be and I don’t want to go home right now

“I know this song too,” Elsa interjects with more excitement in her voice than she’s expecting. “It’s by the Goo Goo Dolls, right?”

The woman stops her singing, much to Elsa’s unexpected disappointment. “That’s right, Iris.”

“A-actually my name’s Elsa.”

“What?”

“Hmm?” Elsa cringes, realizing her mistake. “Oh gosh, you weren’t calling me…you were saying the name…of the song.”

She prepares herself for the laughter, but it never comes. “Elsa, huh? That’s a really pretty name, I like it.”

“You do? I- wow, that’s…I mean, thank you. For that.” This is so strange, she’s usually much better at talking than this, she has a degree in it for goodness sakes. But there’s something that’s keeping her tongue-tied and ruining her common sense. Maybe this woman really is a siren. “I’m from Rhode Island.”

“Elsa from Rhode Island,” the woman says like she’s trying to make sense of those words in that order. “Well you’ve got a very pretty voice, Elsa. My name is Anna. From Arizona.”

Anna. The name fits, even though Elsa doesn’t actually know anything about her, not even what she looks like. “Nice to meet you, Anna from Arizona.” Though they’re in the dark, Elsa can feel that Anna’s smiling at her. Maybe because Elsa’s smiling too.

“Alright, you’ve established your knowledge of the oldies…” Anna begins to strum a soft, basic chord progression. “Let’s see if you know something a little more modern.”

Elsa’s not a music expert in the slightest but she still listens intently, if only to hear more of Anna’s beautiful voice. When she begins to sing, they’re lyrics that Elsa doesn’t recognize.

I hear the beast, its awful cry, but never see its face I feel the water coming down, it’s keeping me in place And in this stormy weather, though I should be so afraid I’m with the one who makes it fade away

Anna continues to sing, and Elsa is torn because she doesn’t know what this song is but she feels like she should. The voice accompanying the words make them sound much more beautiful and earnest, but the song is unrecognizable. When Anna begins to hum instead of sing, Elsa admits defeat. “I-I think you win, I’m not sure what this song is.”

“I knew you wouldn’t,” Anna says, abruptly ending the song. “Because it’s one of mine.”

Elsa gasps, “Not fair.”

She can sense the victorious grin on Anna’s face. “Hey, it’s a modern song. I started writing it today actually, well okay maybe writing isn’t the best word for it.”

“You wrote that today?” Elsa asks. “Have you written any other songs?”

“Yeah I’ve written a few, some of them are actually pretty good too, I think: Whenever I’ve got something in my head, I pick up my guitar and record my thoughts. I’m not trying to be the next Taylor Swift or something, but it…yeah it helps.”

A flash of lightning paints the windows and illuminates Anna’s silhouette for a moment, not long enough or bright enough to see any details other than the shape of her hair. It surprises Elsa when she realizes just how much she wants to see what Anna looks like. A minute ago, she didn’t even know this woman existed and now she finds herself considering the stupid idea of shining her phone’s flashlight on Anna’s face. Because nothing says “good impression” like blinding someone.

Another realization hits her, though it’s more of an unhelpful observation: Has it really been so long since she’s been attracted to someone that she’s falling for a random woman at the airport with a beautiful voice and nice…manners? Pathetic, she doesn’t actually know anything about Anna other than she writes songs and is from Arizona.

Hoping to at least remedy that, she searches her mind for something to ask. Something casual but informative. But Anna beats her to it.

“So Elsa from Rhode Island, you’re a long way from home, aren’t you?”

Elsa nods out of habit as thunder roars outside the airport walls, “Uh y-yeah, just a little bit yeah. And you’re…not that far from home, Anna from Arizona.”

Anna giggles like Elsa said something funny. “No, well not yet. I’m actually going to New Jersey and figured I’d save some money by taking a couple of connected flights instead of flying straight there. My parents are renewing their vows and of course they want me to be there for the ceremony. Remember that song I was singing? Heaven? That’s actually their song and I’m gonna surprise them by playing it.”

“That’s really sweet,” Elsa replies, relieved that she bit her tongue before making a joke about New Jersey. She hears a tap on hollow wood and the squeak of guitar strings as Anna slides her hand across them. She eagerly anticipates another song, but instead she gets another question.

“What about you? Any vow renewals waiting for you in Rhode Island?”

Elsa giggles, but it’s not as pretty or confident as her companion’s. “Ah no, there’s nothing…waiting for me back home.” Wow, that answer was much more depressing than she wanted it to be. Even if it’s true. “Well I mean there’s my parents. And my apartment. I guess my job counts too but other than that, there’s nothing else.” She feels like she’s making things worse.

“Oh dear.” There’s a heaviness in Anna’s reply, but Elsa doesn’t hear any pity which she’s grateful for. No one should pity her for the life she’s chosen. “So why’d you come to Denver? It’s not exactly a top vacation destination right now. Unless you like rain.”

“I love rain,” Elsa replies far too excitedly, as if rain is like her favorite thing in the world. “But no, I didn’t come here for a vacation. I…I came here…”

“Hey.”

Elsa’s startled by a hand that lands first on her upper arm and then on her shoulder. It’s soft, gentle, and she hopes it belongs to Anna or else this is getting awkward.

“You don’t have to tell me anything you’re not comfortable with,” Anna continues. But that’s the thing, Elsa feels very comfortable around Anna and she can’t explain why. All she can do is see and now feel her, but there’s something about Anna that makes her feel safe and trusted. Moreso than even her therapist.

Elsa sighs, the heaviness of this weekend’s events once again piling on her, hoping this will help her let it go. “I came here to call off my engagement with my…with my ex-boyfriend.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s- gosh, I’m so sorry that must have been really hard.”

Elsa shakes her head. “Don’t be. You didn’t know.”

“I know, but in my mind I thought you were like running from the law or something.”

“I wouldn’t have told you my real name if that were the case.” And she definitely wouldn’t be out in such a public place for so long, blackout or not.

“Wait so Elsa’s really your name?”

“Yes?”

“Holy shit, that’s pretty. I bet you’re like secretly royalty, aren’t you?”

“Nope, I’m just boring Elsa from boring Rhode Island.”

“Oh please. Boring people don’t get engaged.”

“…”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.”

“No, it-it’s alright. The breakup doesn’t hurt as much as it should, it was a long time coming and I prepared myself for it. But it just happened, I’d feel bad joking about it so soon.”

Though talking with Anna helps, the darkness still plays with her perception. In her mind, she’s constantly playing back the exact moment she took off the ring and gave it back to Hans. She’s remembering the shock and anguish on her ex-fiancé’s face, like she’d just stabbed him in the gut. She hears on loop his last words of “Elsa, what can I do?”

And though the images are shocking, they don’t sting any more than being pinched on the arm.

“Still doesn’t give me the right to joke about it.” Anna sighs, and takes her hand off Elsa’s shoulder. It had been on there for so long that Elsa almost forgot about it, and now she’s disappointed that it’s gone. “I must seem like such a jerk.”

“No, you’re hilarious,” Elsa says truthfully. “I’m not offended, it’s…I got all the bad feelings out of the way a while ago. I only came to Denver to call things off because it’d seem insensitive to do it over the phone.”

“That’s noble of you.”

Elsa laughs pitifully, “No. I led him on in a long-distance relationship for months while I fell out of love with him. That’s not noble at all.” She feels a tingle along her shoulder, like something’s hovering above it. The feeling goes away a second later.

“You can’t do that to yourself, Elsa. You can’t put the whole burden of the breakup on yourself. I mean, what’s the reason you fell out of love with him in the first place?”

Oh that’s a long story that will take up the rest of the word limit. Elsa thinks about the important details, the ones worth sharing, and a silly, unhelpful thought flashes in her mind like the lightning that strikes once again: What would Anna think if she leaned on her shoulder right now? She shakes that thought away and starts with her pitiful monologue.

“We got engaged about a year ago, it was actually the last thing we did before I graduated from college and moved back to Rhode Island. He still had a year left, and the plan was that we’d get married once he graduated. But it’s like…I don’t know, it felt like I was two different people when I moved back. It’s like there’s ‘Elsa from Rhode Island’ who’s calm, quiet, and likes to draw and sing in the shower, and then there’s ‘Elsa from Denver’ who’s energetic and charming, and is always trying to cheer people up with kind words and stupid memes. And I wanted so badly for both of these Elsas to coexist, but the longer I was away from Denver and Hans, the more I realized how exhausting it was trying to be who I always used to be. And when I tried to be 'Elsa from Rhode Island’, Hans wouldn’t respond to that and think I was angry or something, so I had to flip the switch. It took a while to realize that I didn’t want to keep putting on that mask, and if Hans didn’t like who I really was, then…I couldn’t fix that. I cried and panicked and did all that other stuff when I finally decided to break up with him. So much so that when I finally did it, I had already moved on. Breaking up was just a formality, like signing my name on a piece of paper. Even so, I feel guilty for doing this to him and sometimes I wonder if I just wasn’t trying hard enough to be who I needed to be. It’s stressful to think about, and right now all I know is that…I don’t want to set foot in Denver ever again.”

After a long moment of silence, punctuated by the storm outside fighting to punch through the windows, Anna’s hand makes contact with Elsa again. This time on her wrist.

“Elsa…” she starts softly. “I don’t think he tried hard enough.”

Elsa raises an eyebrow, she’s heard this take from her parents and friends, but it hits a little more when Anna says it.

“I mean you weren’t in a relationship with yourself, right? He had to meet you halfway on stuff like this, especially if you’re going to commit the rest of your lives with each other. If he couldn’t accept who you are now, then what would things look like if you got married?”

“But people change in a relationship,” Elsa argues. “What if I was just scared to change? What if I was too comfortable with what was familiar and I was scared about doing something new?”

“Well, how much can change about yourself before you stop feeling like yourself?”

This is the first time anyone’s ever asked Elsa this question before, and it shuts her up quickly. All the while, Anna continues unfettered.

“I’m not trying to be your therapist, so I’m sorry if I cross the line anywhere. But I feel like…the best relationships are the ones where neither of you have to worry about what you look like to the other person. Like you have nothing to prove because you like yourself, and they make you feel comfortable with that. And I think if you get too caught up on the whole 'changing in a relationship’ thing, it means you’ve already lost sight of why you’re in a relationship in the first place. It’s not always about what you do for each other, but what you can do together. That’s…I mean I think that’s the beautiful part of being with someone you love. That you’re you, and that they’re them, and you’re yourselves doing stupid things like eating a grilled cheese sandwich on the balcony at 3 AM.”

Elsa’s so caught up in Anna’s wisdom that her silly joke catches her completely off-guard and she snorts, “What? Where’d that last part come from?”

Anna huffs, “Look, I really want a grilled cheese right now, okay?”

“Well, uh I think I might owe you one.”

“Really? For what?”

“For telling me what I needed to hear.” Boldness overtakes Elsa and she places her hand on top of Anna’s. Though the thunder roars and whines, Elsa swears she hears a hitching of breath. “You’re quite the love expert, Anna of Arizona.”

“Oh, uh…thank you? I don’t think I’m a love expert at all. I’ve never actually…”

She trails off, Elsa leans forward. “What was that?”

“I said I’ve never been in a relationship before.”

“Oh. Wow.” It sounds like Anna’s genuinely embarrassed by this, so Elsa reassures her. “Well, that sounds ridiculous.” Or at least she tries to.

Anna laughs, but in a way that you laugh when your parents are telling stories about dumb things you used to do as a kid. “You don’t have to do that. It’s my fault, I don’t put myself out there that much and it…I don’t know, I think I might be hard to love.”

Elsa gasps, “That can’t be true. I think anyone would be lucky to love you.”

“You don’t even know me,” Anna says in almost a whisper.

“I know enough. I know that you can sing and write songs. I know that you’re caring enough to comfort a total stranger on their breakup. I know that thunder storms don’t scare you.”

“I mean it’s just loud noises and rain,” Anna mumbles.

“And I know you have a beautiful voice. A beautiful mind. A beautiful heart.”

Anna doesn’t respond right away, but she does squeeze Elsa’s wrist in what she thinks is an expression of gratitude. The more they stray down this new path in their conversation, the harder it is to assume what Anna must be thinking. How she must be feeling. Elsa can only hope that she feels the comfort that Anna made her feel just a few short minutes ago.

She hears Anna take a breath like it’s something she’s forgotten to do. “You don’t know what I look like. I could be Medusa. Or a gross, alien thing.”

“I bet you’re a beautiful, gross, alien thing.”

That gets another laugh from Anna, this one with the joy and relief that Elsa was waiting for. “Well, I bet you’re a beautiful, gross, alien thing too.”

And that’s when Elsa feels it. That pull. The daring pull forward that she hasn’t felt in the longest time. In the dark, under stormy weather, and in the quiet of their secluded corner, Elsa admits to herself the bold attraction she feels for a woman she can’t even see. It’s exhilarating and terrifying, and the words she wants to say are on the tip of her tongue. The words “I think I want to kiss you” are ready to escape like a whisper.

But a flash of light hits wall to wall, brighter than the flashes of lightning from before, and interrupts all her thoughts. The airport is finally pulled out of its blackout, and the collective sigh of the remaining hopeful passengers rings through the corridor. Unattended luggage sits on dull, gray seats, people wake violently from their naps, and Anna-

Oh.

She can finally see Anna from Arizona.

She can see her large, forest green raincoat, her guitar on her lap with its polished rosewood and silver strings, her cane resting against her chair, her auburn-colored hair traveling down her shoulders, her freckles accenting her surprised expression…

And her milky, white eyes.

It catches Elsa so off-guard, that all she can do at first is sit up and blink. When words come back to her, she manages to stumble out a “Wow…”

Anna must sense the weight in Elsa’s reaction, and she shuts her eyes. “The lights came back on, didn’t they?”

“Y-yeah, I- they did. They finally did. I mean not finally, but…Anna-”

“No,” Anna interrupts, eyes shut painfully tight. “Please, you don’t have to say anything. I should have told you when we first started talking.”

“You didn’t have to, that’s not…I…this looks bad. Not look! Not- I’m sorry, I’m making you feel worse.”

“You’re not,” Anna protests, now ducking down to bury her face against her guitar. Through the covering, she says with gut-wrenching guilt, “I’m making you uncomfortable.”

“I’m not uncomfortable, Anna, I'm not. I was just surprised.”

“But in a bad way, right?”

“No! Not in a bad way.”

“Ugh, I should have told you. But I was too busy being stupid and crushing on you, and I forgot to just give you a head’s up like 'Hey by the way, I’m blind and have zombie eyes, I hope that doesn’t scare you’. Stupid Anna, stupid stupid-”

Elsa puts her hands on Anna’s shoulders and says her name, which causes the rambling woman to gasp and stop talking. When she’s sure that Anna’s not going to freak out on her again, Elsa says, “Please lift your head up.”

With a little assurance from Elsa, Anna finally sits back up and her hands rest on her guitar.

“Please…open your eyes,” Elsa asks with her hands traveling down to rest on top of Anna’s.

Anna shakes her head, though thankfully her expression has softened and it doesn’t look like she has a massive headache. “I don’t want to scare you.”

“I’m not scared, Anna. And I won’t be. Just please open your eyes.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

After a deep breath, Anna cautiously opens her eyes again, accompanied by another thunder strike. Though Elsa barely registers that, her focus is completely on Anna and the nervousness she can still see through her cloudy irises. At this point, someone much more deep, profound, and better with words would say something that would make Anna’s heart soar. And Elsa’s thinking of what she’d say if she were that kind of person.

But she’s not that kind of person and that’s okay.

Elsa smiles for the both of them and says, “I told you. You’re beautiful.” Expectedly, thankfully, and earnestly, Anna smiles too.

[baeklination]

구름 도시  (Cloud City)  pt.1

Warnings/Contains: None really. Some light cursing. General talk about the case, but nothing explicit.

au: members of the justice system

Characters: Baekhyun, Kai, Suho, Sehun

WC:3400

Date:200523

Masterpost      Part 2

                                           ¤¤¤

APRIL 17th

  Jun-myeon poked his head out of his office.

“Byun, we’ve got a girl reported missing, go talk to her parents will you?”

Baek-hyun grabbed the holster from his chair, out of habit more than anything

“How old?”

“She’s twenty-six, Cho Min-young, lives in Hammer Hill. Her parents are waiting”

Baek-hyun slowed down and raised an eyebrow at his boss.

“Jun, you know I’m not a star case- guy, but a missing twenty-six year-old..? I thought you meant a kid. She’s probably at a boyfriend's house-”

“Nope”

“Girlfriend then-”

“They’ve called everyone they can think of, and she didn’t show up for work this morning. Come on, Byun, as a favour; it’ll be in and out. Take the new guy with you, show him how the pro’s do it”. Jun-myeon shot a wide smile at him, knowing he’d won Baek-hyun over.

  In the middle of the stations commotion sat a young detective, trying his best to look as if he hadn’t overheard the conversation between Baek-hyun and the lieutenant, but he felt like a kid waiting for his fun uncle to collect him.

“Come on, Jong-in, you heard the boss”, Baek-hyun said, approaching him. “Is it alright if we drop the honorifics, can I speak informally to you?”

“Yes, it’s okay, Mr.Byun, you can speak informally.” Jong-in nodded with a slightly nervous smile.

“We, Jong-in. We speak informally. No mr, hyung, or nim, please.”

 Having reached the car, Baek-hyun waited for Jong-in’s reaction( although if anyone asked, he’d never admit to such vanity).

“Shit, this is your car? It’s a beauty!”, Jong-in exclaimed when he realized what ride was theirs. “You’re in to the classics?”

Baek-hyun chuckled and feigned embarrassment.

 “Yeah, this is my Old Betty”, but the charade only lasted a moment. “70’s Coupe Deville - Cadillac, obviously. My father brought it back from the States in the 80’s”. Seeing the question on Jong-in’s face Baek-hyun continued “He went to college over there, and saw this darling; dirt cheap if you ask him - a prettier penny than that if you ask my mother. He retired it a while back, and let me buy it. Actually, he would never let me buy it - I’ve been paying for their weekly grocery shopping without him knowing for the past two years now” he laughed, and Jong-in, now more relaxed, rolled his eyes in a I-know-the-type-way. Reaching in and popping the hood he gestured for Jong-in to follow him.

 “See” he pointed to the machinery “the engine was alright, but I know a mechanic, so I had it fitted with a V8, and the normal updates; better versions of things they had in the original. I know, I know, the original is the soul and all that - but I don’t want my girl going bust when I’m doing 110 on the highway chasing bad guys, you know”. Jong-in nodded, but this part was beyond him. “Now she’s got 600 HP and manages 130 km and hour, easy”, Baek-hyun shamelessly bragged as they got in the car. It wasn’t any wonder really, the car was in top condition; the body a dark, almost black, brown, grill and hubcaps gleaming like they were newly polished, and the inside a creamy dream of tan leather and red details. 

“So, do you also have a classic?”, Baek-hyun’s eyes were shining with anticipation. Jong-in might’ve opened a Pandora’s box here, and he didn’t want to make a bad impression on their first day together, but decided that honesty was always the best route.

“No, I wish..! If I knew anything about cars then maybe I could buy an oldie, fix it up myself, you know, but I’ve never been good at cars. And buying one in good condition…”, he sighed.

Baek-hyun whistled “Hell, I couldn’t afford that, and I’m a couple of pay grades above you..!”.

“Yeah, and with my kid, I think it’s better to save than splurge. Our Honda runs good enough.”

“Oh, I didn’t know you  have a kid. Boy or girl? Give me the deets.”

“Girl, Yong-sun. She’s eight months old, home with mommy - my girlfriend. We’ve been together seven years”, Jong-in said, almost stumbling over the last part, in case Baek-hyun would find it improper that he had a child before getting married.

“That long..! Congrats man, then you know it’s tried, tested and true”, Baek-hyun said, calming Jong-in’s nerves. Driving out of the garage he changed tone to a serious, albeit still relaxed, one “So, what d’you think; girl really missing or just out of reach? Pitch me some scenarios, rookie.”

                                                   ¤¤¤

  Having parked on the side of the street, Baek-hyun stepped out and surveyed the area for a while. Hammer Hill was a nice neighbourhood; not the highest echelons of society, but definitely upper middle-class. 

“Pretty nice place for a single twenty-something to live in, no?”

“Pretty nice for anyone”, Jong-in replied. “But those online stars make a lot of money, you know”.

“This much?” Baek-hyun frowned in disbelief. “You think she’s doing something on the side? Catering to a different audience, so to speak? Wouldn’t be the first time”, Baek-hyun sighed, while he started up the stairs. Jong-in, not wanting to offend anyone, erred on the side of caution 

“I don’t know, anything is possible. But making this much money in a…” he hesitated “...pure way is also possible”.

“First lesson passed, rookie: avoid jumping to stereotypical conclusions”, Baek-hyun said with a dunk on Jong-in’s back, as they walked up to the door. After ringing the doorbell Baek-hyun turned to Jong-in and hurriedly said:

“But don’t mention prostitution to her parents, okay? Don’t say anything to alarm them further. We want them to remain calm, so they don’t forget to mention anything. Besides, she’ll probably pop up in the next day or so. Just try to...get a feel for the situation. You’ll be doing a lot of these house calls, trust me”.

The door was opened by Min-young’s mother, a woman in her fifties, without any especially distinguishing features, except for the worry in her eyes. 

“Mrs. Cho, I’m detective Byu-”

“Oh, finally, thank god, come in”, Mrs. Cho exclaimed with relief, and moved so they could go in. “I apologize, it’s a mess, but I didn’t want to touch anything in case…” her voice faded. She ushered Baek-hyun and Jong-in to the living-room, where an older man - presumably Mr.Cho - and a younger man stood up to great the detectives. Baek-hyun gave it another try.

“Good afternoon, Sir, I’m detective Byun, this is my colleague detective Kim”, he said and took the man’s hand with a warm smile “you must be Mr. Cho”.

“Detective Byun, Kim”, Mr. Cho said with a short nod to them “Thank you for coming.” Gesturing to the young man he continued “this is Oh Sehun, Min-young’s friend”. They exchanged remaining pleasantries and sat down. 

“So, tell us, what’s going on; the lieutenant said you haven’t heard from Min-young - is it okay if I call her Min-young?” he interjected, remembering his manners. After getting the okay from Mr. and Mrs. Cho he continued “So, still nothing new from Min-young since...yesterday evening, was it? Tell us what happened”. Mrs. Cho, with a slight tremble in her voice started 

“Well, it wasn’t anything special yesterday, really. It’s not that we had plans and she didn’t show up. But I tried calling her in the evening, but she didn’t pick up the phone. We tried calling a couple of times, but when it got late we figured maybe she was just really busy, and decided to wait until the morning.” 

“But she hasn’t picked up today either”, Mr. Cho chimed in. “I tried calling at eight thirty, right before she goes to work, but she didn’t answer, so I tried her office...nothing. They still haven’t heard from her” he said, holding his palms up. Baek-hyun sensed Mr. Cho was more perplexed than scared, which would be helpful in locating her, as opposed to Mrs. Cho, who might overlook something because of the stress she clearly was under.

“Excuse me”, Jong-in said in a low voice, and the whole company looked at him with surprise, almost having forgotten about his presence. “You said she went to her office; wasn’t she a social media personality? She didn’t work from home?”

Good catch, Baek-hyun thought.

“Oh, no. She used to, but she felt a bit cooped up working from home, so she moved to a small office space in Rolling Hills; in the Gigamex complex.” 

  Baek-hyun let Jong-in take the lead, try his wings, so to speak, and focused more on scribbling down names and dates in his police issued notepad (he found that it made people feel as if he really listened if he used pen and paper instead of some smart device). This also gave him the opportunity to gauge their reactions to any questions, to make sure they were on the up-and-up. And what of this Sehun character? Up until now he’d been quiet, only a few nods and nervous hands clasped together. Interrupting his train of thought, Jong-in continued

“And who was it you talked to at the office?”

“Michelle. We don’t know her last name, but she’s Min-young’s assistant, she helps her with editing and her calendar, I think”. One could tell that world wasn’t Mr. Cho’s arena, but he was close enough with his daughter to have heard a bit about it. Mrs. Cho picked up her mobile, and after a few scrolls held it out for Baek-hyun to copy

“Here. This is her number. She couldn’t say much, but if you want to talk to her...” Baek-hyun received it with a barely distinguishable bow and took her number down.

“Do you know if anyone was...less than nice to her online? Did she ever mention anything specific?” Jong-in knew the price of putting yourself out there often was people being rude, nasty, or worse, so he wanted to make sure he covered at least some of the bases. And to be honest, as distasteful as it may sound it was exhilarating; his first interview in the field. And he seemed to know a thing or two more than Baek-hyun about this topic, so he got to shine a little. But her parents were adamant about her job not being an issue here. 

“Her channel is about arts and crafts, making things from scratch, baking and those kinds of things. The people who write her are kind. Sure, there are a some rude people, but most of them are so sweet”, Mrs. Cho said.

“What about a boyfriend, was she seeing anybody?”, Baek-hyun asked and looked at Sehun, as did her parents “Are you..?”

For the first time Sehun let go of his hands, and waved no. 

“No, no. We’ve been friends since middle school, she’s like my sister. And jogging buddy. We go running a couple days a week, have dinner or coffee after. We were supposed to go yesterday evening, but she cancelled”, Sehun explained.

“When was that?” Baek-hyun recognized the sign of voluntary M.I.A. Sehun unlocked his phone and showed the caller log to Baek-hyun “17.12. We usually meet up around five thirty, so it’s odd that she cancelled with such little notice”.

“Did she say why, or sound different in any way?”

“No. She said it wasn’t anything special, she just had something to do. But when I asked her again she wouldn’t say. I was kinda annoyed, but now...” Sehun shrugged his shoulders and looked so hopeless he almost made Baek-hyun think something had happened to Min-young. But being the veteran he was he knew the majority of these cases ended happily - a lost phone, a drunken night, or a secret boyfriend - so he composed himself and gave them a smile.

“I know you’re all very worried right now, but trust me when I say we get a lot of calls like these, and it almost always ends up being some kind of misunderstanding. But we’ll follow up on these tips you’ve given us when we get back to the station, of course. Could we just have a quick look around the apartment, to see if anything seems amiss?”

                                           ¤¤¤

  Having seen nothing suspicious in Min-young’s apartment they assured the Cho’s that they would call them the next day, and said their goodbyes. 

“You did good up there, Jong-in”, Baek-hyun complimented his partner for the day. “What are your thoughts?”

“Thank you, Byu-Baek-hyun” Jong-in stuttered, making Bae-hyun laugh.”I feel bad for them. But like you said, they almost always come back. So...do we talk to her assistant, get phone records from Min-young’s cell provider?”

“Phone records takes more than...” Baek-hyun looked at his watch “than the two hours we have left. Let’s call the assistant, and you can run down locations of CCTV in the area”.

“To see when she left the apartment and which way she went…”

“We’ll take a closer look tomorrow morning if she’s still not back. So her friend, Oh Sehun…” Baek-hyun let the question hang in the air.

“Yeah. Do you usually see friends joining this early? He’s probably telling the truth, but…” 

“But..?” Baek-hyun echoed for Jong-in to continue.

“Well, he was the last one to talk to her. And did she really not say anything to him?”

“Exactly. I don’t think he’s hurt her, but it’s possible - likely even - that he might know more than he’s telling. Remember what I said about catering to a different audience? Let’s do a quick background check and talk to him tomorrow. Maybe he’ll be more open when the girl’s parents aren’t around.”

  Back at the station Jong-in started working on the CCTV footage while Baek-hyun went to update Jun-myeon.

“Hey, boss...”, he knocked on the frosted glass window, but didn’t wait for a reply before he opened the door. Jun-myeon was on the phone, but gestured for Baek-hyun to come in.

“...twisted baguettes, not ordinary ones, got it. Bye, love” he said, hung up and shared one of his life lessons with Baek-hyun “happy wife, happy life. Now, how’d it go?” Baek-hyun ran his fingers through his hair and sighed.

 “As expected, I’d say. They were worried, but it hasn’t been that long. We’re gonna run down some leads they gave us before calling it a day”.

“Okay, sounds good. And Jong-in?”

“Yeah, he did good, boss. And he likes my girl”, Baek-hyun smiled.

“Ah, Byun-ah..!”, Jun-myeon exclaimed “That’s why you like him, ‘cus he likes your car..!”

Baek-hyun choked a smile “No, he’s good, honestly. But why does he get to be “Jong-in” while I’m still my surname?”, he asked, raising an eyebrow. Jun-myeon countered by raising both brows.

“Because I don’t want nine guys in my office every time I ask for Kim, is why he’s “Jong-in”...”. Baek-hyun clicked his tongue and pointed at Jun-myeon.

“Got it. Well, I’m gonna do some digging with the time I’ve got left”, he said and stood up.

“You’re a star player, Byun. Fighting!”, Jun-myeon said jokingly as Baek-hyun closed the door.

                                           ¤¤¤

  Baek-hyun and Jong-in had punched out after checking off their list. There wasn’t much to see, really; the assistant, Michelle, hadn’t seen Min-young so she couldn’t offer much assistance, ironically enough. And as far as Sehun goes, he seemed to be harmless; no citations, no odd-ball photos or rants on the internet...just a guy. Nonetheless, Baek-hyun had begun to feel a touch uneasy about the whole thing, so after shutting the engine off in the driveway he called the precinct and asked the officer on the night shift to send a request for Min-young’s  phone records. 

Better safe than sorry, he said to himself. Locking the car door was his queue to give his work mind a rest, and it wasn’t hard to do when he saw the note on his front door: 17.25 You have a houseguest, B!(Cover shift) It was signed with a winking smiley inside the O of the name “Veró”. Baek-hyun chuckled, spirits lifted. He had barely opened the door before a little corgi was upon him, tap-dancing around his feet with bright eyes. Baek-hyun put his blazer on a valet stand and bent down to greet his guest.

“Well, hi there, Mongi..! What are you doing here?” he said while playfully wrestling with the dog “Did you tell mommy to drop you of at the fun house?” He looked at his watch; an hour ago. “We might as well go out now, nugget. And then it’s dinner for the both of us - I’m famished!”. 

  With his parents living a couple of hours away, having Veró and Mongi was a real blessing to him. It’s not every day you meet someone you’re almost a hundred percent comfortable with; may it be in silence, changing clothes, physical interaction, crying or ugly laughing. Veró (short for Verónica) had moved in next door almost three years ago, and they instantly hit it off. Well, it wasn’t the right hit at first. They had dated for about four months when they both realized that they weren’t lovers’ material. The reason they felt exceedingly comfortable with each other was because they were best friends. They called it quits on the romantic part and now hung out as just friends; dinners, talks through the night, even sleepovers - and of course the semi-shared custody of Veró’s dog Mongi. Baek-hyun had fallen in love with him the first time he saw him, and insisted she name him Mongryong, but Veró was dead set on “Miguel”, a latin singer, or “the sun of Mexico” as she called him. They ended up having a marathon of games and soju to decide who would get the honours, and to Veró’s dismay Baek-hyun won, and the rest is history. 

  Since Veró left so late he knew she was covering for someone from the night shift and therefore didn’t expect her to be back until early morning at best, so after dinner they both curled up in bed: Mongi with a bone and Baek-hyun with the latest issue of Journal of Forensic Sciences.

“The things they can find out with forensics these days, Mongi, I tell ya...” Baek-hyun sighed, and Mongi looked at him, breathing heavily from his ferocious battle with the bone. “That’s right, pay attention, so you don’t go out in the streets acting like a fool.” He put the magazine on the nightstand as well as taking off his t-shirt before turning off the light - the queue for Mongi to curl up in the crook of Baek-hyun’s knees. 

“Good night, nugget.”  

APRIL 18th

  Baek-hyun was the quintessential morning person, so when the alarm went off at 06.00 he immediately got up. The same could not be said about Mongi.

“Rise and shine, Mongi. Time to do some laps”, Baek-hyun cooed while putting on his sweats. But it would take the sound of food being prepared for Mongi to bounce out in to the kitchen. 

“You try it every time, and I tell you every time: walk, then food.” 

  The air was chilly, a typical late spring morning, and there was an overcast hinting rain would come before long. He may not look it, but the dog was a top runner, so Baek-hyun could jog at a pace that made his heart rate go up a few notches, all the way down to the river, about twenty minutes away. He stopped by a drinking fountain, giving Mongi a few palms of water and splashed his face and water-combed his hair back. The clouds had lifted by the horizon, and the sunrise stained the clouds a yellowy apricot and Baek-hyun took it all in; these precious still and silent mornings were the favourite part of his day. He felt a tug on the leash, so he snapped out of it and they started back home for breakfast and a shower.

  He wrapped a towel around his waist, draped a second one over his shoulders and made his way to the kitchen. A lot of Baek-hyun’s colleagues ate at work, but he preferred to have a quiet breakfast at home before all the hustle and bustle, so he sat down with his cup of black coffee and rye porridge. He was halfway through his meal when his phone rang, so his slippered feet shuffled to the bedroom:

“A call this early is never good, boss.” He sat down on the bed with a sinking feeling.

“Sorry, Byun. We’ve got a body, female. Under Pioneer’s Bridge. She hasn’t been identified, but…” Jun-myeon paused.

“You think it might be her.”

[monst]

T’is the season Day 24

Day 24 Christmas Carol's

Ngl I drew a blank with this one for a moment since I was busy with all the fics I'm posting on Christmas 😅 But then I was like oh shit this is my first time writing for these beans👀 Lemme have some fun anyways Enjoy?

Jirou Kyouka 

She was pacing. Your eyes watched as she walked back and forth, forth and back. It was obvious to you that she had hit a snag. You could hear her muttering lyrics to herself. When she didn’t like it she’d make a frustrated noise and continue her fruitless walk. You had wanted to say something but, you feared that your intrusion would kill her creative vibe. However, after the minutes turned to hours you figured she needed a break and that she could come back to it with a fresh and clear mind. 

“Are you trying to burn a hole into the ground?” You intruded in probably the worst way possible. 

“Not now (Name) I’m not in the mood to hear your snark.” She huffed. “I need to get this carol done before ten today. If I don't, we'll never have time to learn it for tomorrow.”

“So? Your still missing a couple of hours just leave it and come back to it later.” You shrugged knowing that your words were going to get under her skin. 

“So?! So?!?! (Name) are you serious!?! People are counting on me to write this!!” She fumed narrowing her dark eyes at your languid form. From your spot on the bed you shrugged once more.

“And?” You sat up to give her the blankest stare in existence. “Tell me do you like writing songs?”

“Of course!! What type of question is that??” She raised her tone. 

“You sure? Cause for the past three hours you’ve been tearing out your hair in frustration. I was under the impression that if your passionate about something it wont stress you out as much as it’s stressing you.” You scoffed. 

“It’s not…That...That’s totally different!!” She protested. “Your allowed to get frustrated with your passions!! I just want this to be perfect…..”

“Which is why all your lyrics are sucking ass right now.” You added. “Your focusing on the wrong thing. Don’t make something everyone will like make what you like.”

“But..” She paused to think of your words. 

“What is Christmas to you?” You asked. 

“It’s music, presents, spending time with your loved ones, a time for coming together, it’s warm and filling.” She answered her eyes suddenly lighting up. “Thank you (Name)!” 

She rushed towards her desk to pour out all her sentiments of the holiday. After editing it she had her carol. When she sung it for you, you smiled in approval mostly because of the happy smile on her face as she sang. She was singing what she felt and you couldn’t be prouder of your girlfriend. After all what was creation without meaning? 

“I love it!” You chimed.

“It’s thanks to you (Name)!” She beamed.

“Nah it was inside of you and in front of you the whole time you just needed a shift in your priorities.” You grinned asking her to sing it for you again. 

    Yamada Hizashi

He wouldn’t lie he was a bit peeved that he had to host the show on Christmas eve. Especially since you were due to come back that day. He hadn’t seen you for about two weeks as you had been working in another district with a couple of other heroes. He had pushed to cancel the show but the demand was high and they had roped him in by saying that the earnings for the night would go to charity. He couldn’t refuse not only would that make him look bad but he would feel extremely guilty. 

Maybe there was a way you could take a cab to the studio? Just as he was about to dial you he realized how awful that would sound. You were probably tired. Wanting nothing but to go to sleep. And, he should have been there to welcome you. He sighed and settled on calling you to at least tell you about the changes. When he tried he went straight to voicemail. He was beginning to worry as it was his tenth call and nothing….

Just as he was gonna ring again the countdown for the start of the show ran out. He clicked his tongue in annoyance but unmuted his mic “Hey! Hey! Listeners how are ya doin’ on this fine night? I’ve got a lot of oldies' for ya! I’m gonna rock your bells tonight!” he chimed. He said some more nonsensical words before playing a Christmas song. He sighed in disappointment. This was the first time he had ever not wanted to be at his second job. 

“Yo! Yo! Yo! Lines are open for ya! Call in to request some of your favorite holiday tunes!” He knew he’d receive calls from worried listeners in the morning. He wasn’t talking nearly as much as he usually did. That and he sounded drained. In fact he was he had tried your number countless times while the songs played. He was getting nothing. He tried calling the heroes you were with and they all told him the same thing. You had already set off home or that they couldn’t reach you either. 

He was ready to cancel the show. Hell he didn’t have fingernails anymore! He bit them to nubs as he texted and called. He felt bad for waking the hero but he didn’t know who else to call. “Shouta! I’m so sorry for waking ya but have ya heard from (Name)??” He panicked. The tired hero replied with a goggy no.

“Maybe shes ashleep.” He slurred. 

He hadn’t thought of that possibility. “See your probably worried over nothing.” Aizawa mumbled sleepily. With that he wished him a good night and Yamada calmed down a bit. That was until he called his next door neighbor and, she told him that she hadn't seen you come in. 

“Listen guys.” He sighed into the mic. “I haven’t been honest with ya but my I was supposed to be with my songbird tonight! Ya see she just came back from a tough job and I haven’t seen her in weeks. My darlin’s incredibly understandin’ but I haven’t been able to reach her all night- 

Yamada stopped speaking when he heard a knock on his studio door. He heard voices from the other side and when he opened it his jaw dropped. There at the door were his two best friends and most importantly you! You and Shirakumo were singing one of his favorite Christmas songs and when guys finished the last note of winter wonderland he pulled you into a hug. He shot Aizawa a glare but the man just gave him a lazy grin and went to put on the next song. Yamada screeched happily spinning you in circles. When he stopped he cupped your cheeks and began to pepper your face with kisses.

“I missed ya so much!” He signed resting his forehead on yours giving your lips one last smooch before looking into your eyes. 

“I missed you too zashi.” You smiled wrapping your arms around the tall man. 

“And that’s all the time we have for today folks!” You both heard Shirakumo say into the mic. “As you guys can see our two love birds have reunited so Present Mic will see all you lovely listeners on the 26th! Or well maybe not see.. Speak! He’ll speak to y’all soon!”

Yamada didn’t even bother scolding his friend he was just glad you were home for Christmas. “Songbird~.” He hummed. 

“Yeah?” You replied. 

“Wanna sing that carol again?” 

🔥 👶 🎶 🌟 ❄️ 🔔 ⛄️ 👼 🦌 🍪 🥛 🎅 🤶 🧝‍ 🎁 ⛪ 🕯 👪 ✝️ 🎄 🍷 🍴

I had fun writing for Jirou and I really like Present Mic o//////o Tomorrow we’ll have two TDS posts you guys don’t wanna miss it. Merry Christmas with the league and, grinch with the main three!! TodoDekuBaku!!! That and five other fics…..

[acloading322]

Best Pc Character Creation Games

Rpg Games With Character Creation

Best Pc Character Creation Games Unblocked

Character customization is an integral part of the MMORPG genre. Being able to create a character that fits a specific persona can help players immerse themselves in the game. Limited customization may not be a deal breaker for everyone, but I know many people who won't even play a game if classes are gender locked or if they can't customize their character in a certain way. Every MMORPG has a character creation menu with some customization, but some games take character creation a bit more seriously. I personally don't think character creation makes or breaks a game, but it can be incredibly fun fiddeling around on a game's character creation menu, especially when there are tons of sliders and customization options. https://acloading322.tumblr.com/post/656066514641977344/sri-venkateswara-songs-download. I personally spent over an hour creating the perfect Victoria Secret hottie in Black Desert Online and I have no regrets. Anyway, whether you're looking to fiddle around or genuinely interested in playing games with only the best character creation systems, check out the list below:

MMORPGs with Great Character Customization

Black Desert Online

Normally these lists save the best for the last, but I'm going to go ahead and start this list off strong with what I consider to be the MMORPG with the best character creation system in the world. Black Desert Online is a gorgeous fantasy action MMORPG by the South Korean developer Pearl Abyss. Its character creation system is incredibly in-depth and allows players to customize everything from hair strands to eyeliner in incredible detail. Simply put, Black Desert is the gold standard of character creators in MMOs. Just check out the video above, which starts by showing off the game's character creator. Even if you have no interest in playing Black Desert, the character creator alone makes it worth the download in my opinion. The only downside here is that classes are gender locked.

Best Character Creation Games (Good Character Customization) Have you ever wanted to create your very own anime hero/heroine? Well, Jump Force is the game for you, if so. The game’s character. Nonton drama korea couple or trouble subtitle indonesia. Browse the newest, top selling and discounted Προσαρμογή χαρακτήρα products on Steam. Blender is a free and open source character creator software for Windows. It is quite a popular and advanced software which is used in 3D Modeling, 3D animation, 2D animation, Simulation, VFX, Game Creation, Video Editing, Rendering, Scripting, etc.

Perfect World

Games which offer more limited customization might simply let players choose from a set number of variables (Tony Hawk's American Sk8Land, Halo 3 multiplayer or Lego Star Wars 2 for instance). Non-Player Character Creation This is where the player is creating a character with whom they will be interacting or meeting, rather than playing as.

Singleplayer games featuring character creation, allowing you to customize the physical appearance of your character(s). Recent Reviews Top Sellers New Releases Discounts Review Type All 0 Recommended Informational 51 Not Recommended 0. Filter to All 393 Action 26.

It may be odd to see such an old MMORPG make it to this list, but despite originally launching in 2005 (in China) and 2008 in the West, Perfect World has an in-depth character creation system that goes above and beyond what most games offer. While most games allow reasonable levels of customization, Perfect World allows players to create absurd looking characters, from tiny heads and huge bodies to characters with glowing pink skin. Obviously players don't NEED to make absurd looking characters, but the fact that the game allows this shows off the extent of the game's customization. Even if you're not looking to make a Frankenstein style character, Perfect World has A LOT of customization sliders for everything from eye size to arm length.

This one is a bit of an oldie, as it released back in 2004, but Eve Online still has some of the best customization in any MMO. Even though there are a ton of options, players never really get to see much of their customization, as the game takes place almost exclusively in your ship. Still, if you want to see an awesome character creator at work, check out Eve Online. Especially since it went free to play in November, 2016.

Aion

Aion originally launched as a buy to play subscription game by NCSoft, but later went free to play. Despite originally launching in 2008, Aion still looks quite beautiful even today and features some of the best character customization I've seen in an MMORPG. Just take a look at the video above to see what the game's character creator offers.

Despite never launching in the West officially, the Japanese version of the game is playable by anyone from the West without any IP restrictions. The sci-fi MMORPG from Sega features one of the most in depth character customization systems of any MMO. Interested in checking the game out? See our guide on how to install and play PSO2 in English.

Champions Online

Rpg Games With Character Creation

Champions Online is a unique game on this list because it's not another fantasy themed MMORPG. Instead, it's a superhero themed MMORPG, which means players get to create their very own superheroes. The game originally launched back in 2009 as the successor to City of Heroes and one of the game's most prominent features is its in-depth character customization system. Given the nature of superheroes, the developers wanted every player to have a truly 'unique' character. Not only do players get to customize their character's body, but they get to create their own unique costume as well.

Blade and Soul

Blade and Soul originally released in South Korea back in 2012 but didn't launch in the West until early 2016. While the game doesn't offer nearly as much character customization as Black Desert, the game has a lot of sliders to play with. Blade and Soul also has a unique art style, which makes character models stand out a bit more too.

APB Reloaded

Although not an MMORPG, APB Reloaded features a surprisingly in-depth character creation system. I mean, just take a look at the video above and see for yourself. For those that haven't heard of APB, the game originally launched as simply 'APB All Points Bulletin' with a buy to play model, but after bankruptcy it was acquired by GamersFirst and relaunched as a free to play game and was renamed APB Reloaded.

There are obviously many more MMORPGs out there with 'good' character customization, but am I missing any games with 'great' customization? If so, let me know in the comments below and I'll update this list!

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While not completely necessary - as games such as The Witcher 3, Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War have shown - having the ability to customise your playable character adds a whole new layer of immersion everything on-screen. By creating a protagonist to represent you, you enable a strong emotional connection between you and your character, enjoying the journey just that little bit more.

There are so many games out there that offer fantastically expansive character creation tools, but some stand head and shoulders above the rest. For the purposes of making things fair, we will not be counting customisation available through mods, so unfortunately for all you Skyrim enthusiasts, that one is out.

For those of us who just love to spend a solid couple of hours playing around in the character creation screen, these are the best that video games have to offer.

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You can choose from tons of examples for voice, too, picking the exact right pitch of scream for when you inevitably fall to some of the game’s toughest beasties.

Best Pc Character Creation Games Unblocked

Not to mention, there are options to customise your cat-like Palico as well. It’s like 2 character creators rolled into one.

Stick that beautiful face into some of the beautiful armour sets available in the game and you’ve got levels of customisation the likes of which are rarely seen in such an action-focused game.

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7 SEO Title Tag Hacks for Increased Rankings + Traffic - Best of Whiteboard Friday

Posted by Cyrus-Shepard

We're bringing back an oldie but a goodie this Friday! In today's highly popular throwback, Cyrus Shepard calls out seven super-easy and timeless hacks to keep your title tags clickable in the SERPs. Check them out and share your own with us in the comments below!

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. I'm very excited to be here today. My name is Cyrus. I'm a Moz associate. Today I want to talk you about title tags, specifically title tag hacks to increase your traffic and rankings. Now, you may be asking yourself, "Are title tags even still important today in SEO?" You bet they are. We've done a lot of correlation studies in the past. Those correlation studies have shown different things sort of decreasing in the past years. But we've also seen a lot of experiments recently where people have changed their title tag and seen a significant, measurable increase in their rankings. Now, the other aspect of title tags that people sometimes forget about is the click-through rate that you get, which can measurably increase your traffic if you get the title tag right. Now, what's neat about increasing your traffic through click-through rate is we've seen a lot of experiments, Rand has experimented a lot, that if you can increase this, you can measurably increase this. Traffic through increased clicks can seem to increase your rankings under certain circumstances. So you get the dual benefit. So that's what I want to talk to you about today — increasing those rankings, increasing that traffic by changing the first thing that your visitor is going to see in the SERPs. So the important thing to remember is that these are things to experiment with. Not all of these hacks are going to work for you. SEO is founded in best practices, but true success is founded when you experiment and try different things. So try some of these out and these will give you an idea of where to get started in some of your title tag experiments.

1. Numbers

Numbers kind of pop out at you. These are examples: "5 Signs of a Zombie Apocalypse" or "How Mutants Can Save 22% on Car Insurance."

Cognitive Bias - Standout specific – When you see these in SERPs, they tend to get a slightly higher click-through rate sometimes. This works because of a cognitive bias. Our brains are trained to find things that stand out and are specific. When you're scanning search results, that's a lot of information. So your brain is going to try to find some things that it can grasp on to, and numbers are the ultimate things that are both specific and they stand out. So sometimes, in certain circumstances, you can get a higher click-through rate by using numbers in your title tags.

2. Dates

Rand did an excellent Whiteboard Friday a few weeks ago, we'll link to it below. These are things like "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2017" or even more specific, you can get the month in there, "Top NFL Fantasy Draft Picks September 2017."

Now, Rand talks about this a lot. He talks about ways of finding dates in your keyword research. The key in that research is when you're using tools like Keyword Explorer or Google AdWords or SEMrush, you have to look for previous years. So if I was searching for this year's, we don't have enough data yet for 2017, so I would look for "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2016."

Leverage your CMS – If you use WordPress, if you use Yoast plugin, you can actually have your title tags update automatically year-to-year or even month-to-month leveraging that. It's not right for all circumstances, but for certain keyword queries it works pretty well.

3. Length

This is one of the most controversial, something that causes the most angst in SEO is when we're doing audits or looking at title tags. Inevitably, when you're doing an SEO audit, you find two things. You find title tags that are way too short, "Pantsuit," or title tags that are way, way, way too long because they just want to stuff every keyword in there, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit with Line Color, Midrise Belt, Hook-eye Zipper, Herringbone Knit at Macy's."

Now, these two, they're great title tags, but there are two problems with this. This is way too broad. "Pantsuit" could be anything. This title tag is way too diluted. It's hard to really know what that is about. You're trying to scan it. You're trying to read it. Search engines are going to look at it the same way. Is this about a pantsuit? Is it about herringbone knit? It's kind of hard.

Etsy study – So Etsy recently did a study where Etsy measured hundreds of thousands of URLs and they shortened their title tags, because, more often than not, the longer title tag is a problem. Shorter title tags, not so much. You see longer title tags in the wild more often. When they shortened the title tags, they saw a measurable increase in rankings.

50–60 Characters – This is one of those things where best practices usually is the best way to go because the optimal length is usually 50 to 60 characters.

Use top keywords – When you're deciding what keywords to put it when you're shortening this, that's where you want to use your keyword research and find the keywords that your visitors are actually using.

So if I go into my Analytics or Google Search Console, I can see that people are actually searching for "pantsuit," "Macy's," and maybe something like that. I can come up with a title tag that fits within those parameters, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit," "pantsuits" the category, "Macy's." That's going to be your winning title tag and you'll probably see an increase in rankings.

4. Synonyms and variants

Now, you'll notice in this last title tag, the category was a plural of pantsuit. That can actually help in some circumstances. But it's important to realize that how you think your searchers are searching may not be how they're actually searching.

Let's say you do your keyword research and your top keywords are "cheap taxis." You want to optimize for cheap taxis. Well, people may be looking for that in different ways. They may be looking for "affordable cabs" or "low cost" or "cheap Ubers," things like that.

So you want to use those variants, find out what the synonyms and variants are and incorporate those into your title tag. So my title tag might be "Fast Affordable Cabs, Quick Taxi, Your Cheap Ride." That's optimized for like three different things within that 50 to 60 word limit, and it's going to hit all those variants and you can actually rank a little higher for using that.

Use SERPs/keyword tools – The way you find these synonyms and variants, you can certainly look in the SERPs. Type your keyword into the SERPs, into Google and see what they highlight bold in the search results. That will often give you the variants that people are looking for, that people also ask at the bottom of the page. Your favorite keyword tool, such as Keyword Explorer or SEMrush or whatever you choose and also your Analytics. Google Search Console is a great source of information for these synonyms and variants.

5. Call to action

Now, you won't often find the call-to-action words in your keyword research, but they really help people click. These are action verbs.

Action words — buy, find download, search, listen, watch, learn, and access. When you use these, they give a little bit more excitement because they indicate that the user will be able to do something beyond the keyword. So they're not necessarily typing it in the search box. When they see it in results, it can create, "Oh wow, I get to download something." It provides a little something extra, and you can increase your click-through rates that way.

6. Top referring keywords

This is a little overlooked, and it's sort of an advanced concept. Oftentimes we optimize our page for one set of keywords, but the traffic that comes to it is another set of keywords. But what's very powerful is when people type their words into the search box and they see those exact same words in the title tags, that's going to increase your click-through rate.

For an example, I went into the analytics here at Moz and I looked at Followerwonk. I found the top referring keywords in Google Search Console are "Twitter search," "search Twitter bios," and "Twitter analytics." Those are how people or what people are looking for right before they click on the Followerwonk listing in Google.

So using that information, I might write a title tag like "Search Twitter Bios with Followerwonk, the Twitter Analytics Tool." That's a pretty good title tag. I'm kind of proud of that. But you can see it hits all my major keywords that people are using. So when I type in "Twitter analytics" into the search box and I see "The Twitter Analytics Tool," I'm more likely to click on that.

So I've written about this before, but it's very important to optimize your page, not only for the traffic you're trying to get, but the traffic you're actually receiving. When you can marry those two, you can be stronger in all aspects.

7. Questions

Questions are great tools to use in your title tags. These are things like, "Where Do Butterflies Migrate?" Maybe your keyword is just "butterflies migrate." But by asking a question, you create a curiosity gap, and you give people an incentive to click. Or "What is PageRank?" That's something we do here at Moz. So you get the curiosity gap.

But oftentimes, by asking a question, you get the bonus of winning a featured snippet. Britney Muller wrote an awesome, awesome post about this a while back about questions people also ask, how to find those in your keyword research and claim those featured snippets and claim "people also ask" boxes. It's a great, great way to increase your traffic.

So these are seven tips. Let us know your tips for title tags in the comments below. If you like this video, I'd appreciate a thumbs up. Share it with your friends on social media. I'll see you next time. Thanks, everybody.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

#túi_giấy_epacking_việt_nam #túi_giấy_epacking #in_túi_giấy_giá_rẻ #in_túi_giấy #epackingvietnam #tuigiayepacking

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7 SEO Title Tag Hacks for Increased Rankings + Traffic - Best of Whiteboard Friday

Posted by Cyrus-Shepard

We're bringing back an oldie but a goodie this Friday! In today's highly popular throwback, Cyrus Shepard calls out seven super-easy and timeless hacks to keep your title tags clickable in the SERPs. Check them out and share your own with us in the comments below!

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. I'm very excited to be here today. My name is Cyrus. I'm a Moz associate. Today I want to talk you about title tags, specifically title tag hacks to increase your traffic and rankings. Now, you may be asking yourself, "Are title tags even still important today in SEO?" You bet they are. We've done a lot of correlation studies in the past. Those correlation studies have shown different things sort of decreasing in the past years. But we've also seen a lot of experiments recently where people have changed their title tag and seen a significant, measurable increase in their rankings. Now, the other aspect of title tags that people sometimes forget about is the click-through rate that you get, which can measurably increase your traffic if you get the title tag right. Now, what's neat about increasing your traffic through click-through rate is we've seen a lot of experiments, Rand has experimented a lot, that if you can increase this, you can measurably increase this. Traffic through increased clicks can seem to increase your rankings under certain circumstances. So you get the dual benefit. So that's what I want to talk to you about today — increasing those rankings, increasing that traffic by changing the first thing that your visitor is going to see in the SERPs. So the important thing to remember is that these are things to experiment with. Not all of these hacks are going to work for you. SEO is founded in best practices, but true success is founded when you experiment and try different things. So try some of these out and these will give you an idea of where to get started in some of your title tag experiments.

1. Numbers

Numbers kind of pop out at you. These are examples: "5 Signs of a Zombie Apocalypse" or "How Mutants Can Save 22% on Car Insurance."

Cognitive Bias - Standout specific – When you see these in SERPs, they tend to get a slightly higher click-through rate sometimes. This works because of a cognitive bias. Our brains are trained to find things that stand out and are specific. When you're scanning search results, that's a lot of information. So your brain is going to try to find some things that it can grasp on to, and numbers are the ultimate things that are both specific and they stand out. So sometimes, in certain circumstances, you can get a higher click-through rate by using numbers in your title tags.

2. Dates

Rand did an excellent Whiteboard Friday a few weeks ago, we'll link to it below. These are things like "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2017" or even more specific, you can get the month in there, "Top NFL Fantasy Draft Picks September 2017."

Now, Rand talks about this a lot. He talks about ways of finding dates in your keyword research. The key in that research is when you're using tools like Keyword Explorer or Google AdWords or SEMrush, you have to look for previous years. So if I was searching for this year's, we don't have enough data yet for 2017, so I would look for "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2016."

Leverage your CMS – If you use WordPress, if you use Yoast plugin, you can actually have your title tags update automatically year-to-year or even month-to-month leveraging that. It's not right for all circumstances, but for certain keyword queries it works pretty well.

3. Length

This is one of the most controversial, something that causes the most angst in SEO is when we're doing audits or looking at title tags. Inevitably, when you're doing an SEO audit, you find two things. You find title tags that are way too short, "Pantsuit," or title tags that are way, way, way too long because they just want to stuff every keyword in there, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit with Line Color, Midrise Belt, Hook-eye Zipper, Herringbone Knit at Macy's."

Now, these two, they're great title tags, but there are two problems with this. This is way too broad. "Pantsuit" could be anything. This title tag is way too diluted. It's hard to really know what that is about. You're trying to scan it. You're trying to read it. Search engines are going to look at it the same way. Is this about a pantsuit? Is it about herringbone knit? It's kind of hard.

Etsy study – So Etsy recently did a study where Etsy measured hundreds of thousands of URLs and they shortened their title tags, because, more often than not, the longer title tag is a problem. Shorter title tags, not so much. You see longer title tags in the wild more often. When they shortened the title tags, they saw a measurable increase in rankings.

50–60 Characters – This is one of those things where best practices usually is the best way to go because the optimal length is usually 50 to 60 characters.

Use top keywords – When you're deciding what keywords to put it when you're shortening this, that's where you want to use your keyword research and find the keywords that your visitors are actually using.

So if I go into my Analytics or Google Search Console, I can see that people are actually searching for "pantsuit," "Macy's," and maybe something like that. I can come up with a title tag that fits within those parameters, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit," "pantsuits" the category, "Macy's." That's going to be your winning title tag and you'll probably see an increase in rankings.

4. Synonyms and variants

Now, you'll notice in this last title tag, the category was a plural of pantsuit. That can actually help in some circumstances. But it's important to realize that how you think your searchers are searching may not be how they're actually searching.

Let's say you do your keyword research and your top keywords are "cheap taxis." You want to optimize for cheap taxis. Well, people may be looking for that in different ways. They may be looking for "affordable cabs" or "low cost" or "cheap Ubers," things like that.

So you want to use those variants, find out what the synonyms and variants are and incorporate those into your title tag. So my title tag might be "Fast Affordable Cabs, Quick Taxi, Your Cheap Ride." That's optimized for like three different things within that 50 to 60 word limit, and it's going to hit all those variants and you can actually rank a little higher for using that.

Use SERPs/keyword tools – The way you find these synonyms and variants, you can certainly look in the SERPs. Type your keyword into the SERPs, into Google and see what they highlight bold in the search results. That will often give you the variants that people are looking for, that people also ask at the bottom of the page. Your favorite keyword tool, such as Keyword Explorer or SEMrush or whatever you choose and also your Analytics. Google Search Console is a great source of information for these synonyms and variants.

5. Call to action

Now, you won't often find the call-to-action words in your keyword research, but they really help people click. These are action verbs.

Action words — buy, find download, search, listen, watch, learn, and access. When you use these, they give a little bit more excitement because they indicate that the user will be able to do something beyond the keyword. So they're not necessarily typing it in the search box. When they see it in results, it can create, "Oh wow, I get to download something." It provides a little something extra, and you can increase your click-through rates that way.

6. Top referring keywords

This is a little overlooked, and it's sort of an advanced concept. Oftentimes we optimize our page for one set of keywords, but the traffic that comes to it is another set of keywords. But what's very powerful is when people type their words into the search box and they see those exact same words in the title tags, that's going to increase your click-through rate.

For an example, I went into the analytics here at Moz and I looked at Followerwonk. I found the top referring keywords in Google Search Console are "Twitter search," "search Twitter bios," and "Twitter analytics." Those are how people or what people are looking for right before they click on the Followerwonk listing in Google.

So using that information, I might write a title tag like "Search Twitter Bios with Followerwonk, the Twitter Analytics Tool." That's a pretty good title tag. I'm kind of proud of that. But you can see it hits all my major keywords that people are using. So when I type in "Twitter analytics" into the search box and I see "The Twitter Analytics Tool," I'm more likely to click on that.

So I've written about this before, but it's very important to optimize your page, not only for the traffic you're trying to get, but the traffic you're actually receiving. When you can marry those two, you can be stronger in all aspects.

7. Questions

Questions are great tools to use in your title tags. These are things like, "Where Do Butterflies Migrate?" Maybe your keyword is just "butterflies migrate." But by asking a question, you create a curiosity gap, and you give people an incentive to click. Or "What is PageRank?" That's something we do here at Moz. So you get the curiosity gap.

But oftentimes, by asking a question, you get the bonus of winning a featured snippet. Britney Muller wrote an awesome, awesome post about this a while back about questions people also ask, how to find those in your keyword research and claim those featured snippets and claim "people also ask" boxes. It's a great, great way to increase your traffic.

So these are seven tips. Let us know your tips for title tags in the comments below. If you like this video, I'd appreciate a thumbs up. Share it with your friends on social media. I'll see you next time. Thanks, everybody.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[xaydungtruonggia]

7 SEO Title Tag Hacks for Increased Rankings + Traffic - Best of Whiteboard Friday

Posted by Cyrus-Shepard

We're bringing back an oldie but a goodie this Friday! In today's highly popular throwback, Cyrus Shepard calls out seven super-easy and timeless hacks to keep your title tags clickable in the SERPs. Check them out and share your own with us in the comments below!

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. I'm very excited to be here today. My name is Cyrus. I'm a Moz associate. Today I want to talk you about title tags, specifically title tag hacks to increase your traffic and rankings. Now, you may be asking yourself, "Are title tags even still important today in SEO?" You bet they are. We've done a lot of correlation studies in the past. Those correlation studies have shown different things sort of decreasing in the past years. But we've also seen a lot of experiments recently where people have changed their title tag and seen a significant, measurable increase in their rankings. Now, the other aspect of title tags that people sometimes forget about is the click-through rate that you get, which can measurably increase your traffic if you get the title tag right. Now, what's neat about increasing your traffic through click-through rate is we've seen a lot of experiments, Rand has experimented a lot, that if you can increase this, you can measurably increase this. Traffic through increased clicks can seem to increase your rankings under certain circumstances. So you get the dual benefit. So that's what I want to talk to you about today — increasing those rankings, increasing that traffic by changing the first thing that your visitor is going to see in the SERPs. So the important thing to remember is that these are things to experiment with. Not all of these hacks are going to work for you. SEO is founded in best practices, but true success is founded when you experiment and try different things. So try some of these out and these will give you an idea of where to get started in some of your title tag experiments.

1. Numbers

Numbers kind of pop out at you. These are examples: "5 Signs of a Zombie Apocalypse" or "How Mutants Can Save 22% on Car Insurance."

Cognitive Bias - Standout specific – When you see these in SERPs, they tend to get a slightly higher click-through rate sometimes. This works because of a cognitive bias. Our brains are trained to find things that stand out and are specific. When you're scanning search results, that's a lot of information. So your brain is going to try to find some things that it can grasp on to, and numbers are the ultimate things that are both specific and they stand out. So sometimes, in certain circumstances, you can get a higher click-through rate by using numbers in your title tags.

2. Dates

Rand did an excellent Whiteboard Friday a few weeks ago, we'll link to it below. These are things like "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2017" or even more specific, you can get the month in there, "Top NFL Fantasy Draft Picks September 2017."

Now, Rand talks about this a lot. He talks about ways of finding dates in your keyword research. The key in that research is when you're using tools like Keyword Explorer or Google AdWords or SEMrush, you have to look for previous years. So if I was searching for this year's, we don't have enough data yet for 2017, so I would look for "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2016."

Leverage your CMS – If you use WordPress, if you use Yoast plugin, you can actually have your title tags update automatically year-to-year or even month-to-month leveraging that. It's not right for all circumstances, but for certain keyword queries it works pretty well.

3. Length

This is one of the most controversial, something that causes the most angst in SEO is when we're doing audits or looking at title tags. Inevitably, when you're doing an SEO audit, you find two things. You find title tags that are way too short, "Pantsuit," or title tags that are way, way, way too long because they just want to stuff every keyword in there, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit with Line Color, Midrise Belt, Hook-eye Zipper, Herringbone Knit at Macy's."

Now, these two, they're great title tags, but there are two problems with this. This is way too broad. "Pantsuit" could be anything. This title tag is way too diluted. It's hard to really know what that is about. You're trying to scan it. You're trying to read it. Search engines are going to look at it the same way. Is this about a pantsuit? Is it about herringbone knit? It's kind of hard.

Etsy study – So Etsy recently did a study where Etsy measured hundreds of thousands of URLs and they shortened their title tags, because, more often than not, the longer title tag is a problem. Shorter title tags, not so much. You see longer title tags in the wild more often. When they shortened the title tags, they saw a measurable increase in rankings.

50–60 Characters – This is one of those things where best practices usually is the best way to go because the optimal length is usually 50 to 60 characters.

Use top keywords – When you're deciding what keywords to put it when you're shortening this, that's where you want to use your keyword research and find the keywords that your visitors are actually using.

So if I go into my Analytics or Google Search Console, I can see that people are actually searching for "pantsuit," "Macy's," and maybe something like that. I can come up with a title tag that fits within those parameters, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit," "pantsuits" the category, "Macy's." That's going to be your winning title tag and you'll probably see an increase in rankings.

4. Synonyms and variants

Now, you'll notice in this last title tag, the category was a plural of pantsuit. That can actually help in some circumstances. But it's important to realize that how you think your searchers are searching may not be how they're actually searching.

Let's say you do your keyword research and your top keywords are "cheap taxis." You want to optimize for cheap taxis. Well, people may be looking for that in different ways. They may be looking for "affordable cabs" or "low cost" or "cheap Ubers," things like that.

So you want to use those variants, find out what the synonyms and variants are and incorporate those into your title tag. So my title tag might be "Fast Affordable Cabs, Quick Taxi, Your Cheap Ride." That's optimized for like three different things within that 50 to 60 word limit, and it's going to hit all those variants and you can actually rank a little higher for using that.

Use SERPs/keyword tools – The way you find these synonyms and variants, you can certainly look in the SERPs. Type your keyword into the SERPs, into Google and see what they highlight bold in the search results. That will often give you the variants that people are looking for, that people also ask at the bottom of the page. Your favorite keyword tool, such as Keyword Explorer or SEMrush or whatever you choose and also your Analytics. Google Search Console is a great source of information for these synonyms and variants.

5. Call to action

Now, you won't often find the call-to-action words in your keyword research, but they really help people click. These are action verbs.

Action words — buy, find download, search, listen, watch, learn, and access. When you use these, they give a little bit more excitement because they indicate that the user will be able to do something beyond the keyword. So they're not necessarily typing it in the search box. When they see it in results, it can create, "Oh wow, I get to download something." It provides a little something extra, and you can increase your click-through rates that way.

6. Top referring keywords

This is a little overlooked, and it's sort of an advanced concept. Oftentimes we optimize our page for one set of keywords, but the traffic that comes to it is another set of keywords. But what's very powerful is when people type their words into the search box and they see those exact same words in the title tags, that's going to increase your click-through rate.

For an example, I went into the analytics here at Moz and I looked at Followerwonk. I found the top referring keywords in Google Search Console are "Twitter search," "search Twitter bios," and "Twitter analytics." Those are how people or what people are looking for right before they click on the Followerwonk listing in Google.

So using that information, I might write a title tag like "Search Twitter Bios with Followerwonk, the Twitter Analytics Tool." That's a pretty good title tag. I'm kind of proud of that. But you can see it hits all my major keywords that people are using. So when I type in "Twitter analytics" into the search box and I see "The Twitter Analytics Tool," I'm more likely to click on that.

So I've written about this before, but it's very important to optimize your page, not only for the traffic you're trying to get, but the traffic you're actually receiving. When you can marry those two, you can be stronger in all aspects.

7. Questions

Questions are great tools to use in your title tags. These are things like, "Where Do Butterflies Migrate?" Maybe your keyword is just "butterflies migrate." But by asking a question, you create a curiosity gap, and you give people an incentive to click. Or "What is PageRank?" That's something we do here at Moz. So you get the curiosity gap.

But oftentimes, by asking a question, you get the bonus of winning a featured snippet. Britney Muller wrote an awesome, awesome post about this a while back about questions people also ask, how to find those in your keyword research and claim those featured snippets and claim "people also ask" boxes. It's a great, great way to increase your traffic.

So these are seven tips. Let us know your tips for title tags in the comments below. If you like this video, I'd appreciate a thumbs up. Share it with your friends on social media. I'll see you next time. Thanks, everybody.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[thanhtuandoan89]

7 SEO Title Tag Hacks for Increased Rankings + Traffic - Best of Whiteboard Friday

Posted by Cyrus-Shepard

We're bringing back an oldie but a goodie this Friday! In today's highly popular throwback, Cyrus Shepard calls out seven super-easy and timeless hacks to keep your title tags clickable in the SERPs. Check them out and share your own with us in the comments below!

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. I'm very excited to be here today. My name is Cyrus. I'm a Moz associate. Today I want to talk you about title tags, specifically title tag hacks to increase your traffic and rankings. Now, you may be asking yourself, "Are title tags even still important today in SEO?" You bet they are. We've done a lot of correlation studies in the past. Those correlation studies have shown different things sort of decreasing in the past years. But we've also seen a lot of experiments recently where people have changed their title tag and seen a significant, measurable increase in their rankings. Now, the other aspect of title tags that people sometimes forget about is the click-through rate that you get, which can measurably increase your traffic if you get the title tag right. Now, what's neat about increasing your traffic through click-through rate is we've seen a lot of experiments, Rand has experimented a lot, that if you can increase this, you can measurably increase this. Traffic through increased clicks can seem to increase your rankings under certain circumstances. So you get the dual benefit. So that's what I want to talk to you about today — increasing those rankings, increasing that traffic by changing the first thing that your visitor is going to see in the SERPs. So the important thing to remember is that these are things to experiment with. Not all of these hacks are going to work for you. SEO is founded in best practices, but true success is founded when you experiment and try different things. So try some of these out and these will give you an idea of where to get started in some of your title tag experiments.

1. Numbers

Numbers kind of pop out at you. These are examples: "5 Signs of a Zombie Apocalypse" or "How Mutants Can Save 22% on Car Insurance."

Cognitive Bias - Standout specific – When you see these in SERPs, they tend to get a slightly higher click-through rate sometimes. This works because of a cognitive bias. Our brains are trained to find things that stand out and are specific. When you're scanning search results, that's a lot of information. So your brain is going to try to find some things that it can grasp on to, and numbers are the ultimate things that are both specific and they stand out. So sometimes, in certain circumstances, you can get a higher click-through rate by using numbers in your title tags.

2. Dates

Rand did an excellent Whiteboard Friday a few weeks ago, we'll link to it below. These are things like "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2017" or even more specific, you can get the month in there, "Top NFL Fantasy Draft Picks September 2017."

Now, Rand talks about this a lot. He talks about ways of finding dates in your keyword research. The key in that research is when you're using tools like Keyword Explorer or Google AdWords or SEMrush, you have to look for previous years. So if I was searching for this year's, we don't have enough data yet for 2017, so I would look for "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2016."

Leverage your CMS – If you use WordPress, if you use Yoast plugin, you can actually have your title tags update automatically year-to-year or even month-to-month leveraging that. It's not right for all circumstances, but for certain keyword queries it works pretty well.

3. Length

This is one of the most controversial, something that causes the most angst in SEO is when we're doing audits or looking at title tags. Inevitably, when you're doing an SEO audit, you find two things. You find title tags that are way too short, "Pantsuit," or title tags that are way, way, way too long because they just want to stuff every keyword in there, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit with Line Color, Midrise Belt, Hook-eye Zipper, Herringbone Knit at Macy's."

Now, these two, they're great title tags, but there are two problems with this. This is way too broad. "Pantsuit" could be anything. This title tag is way too diluted. It's hard to really know what that is about. You're trying to scan it. You're trying to read it. Search engines are going to look at it the same way. Is this about a pantsuit? Is it about herringbone knit? It's kind of hard.

Etsy study – So Etsy recently did a study where Etsy measured hundreds of thousands of URLs and they shortened their title tags, because, more often than not, the longer title tag is a problem. Shorter title tags, not so much. You see longer title tags in the wild more often. When they shortened the title tags, they saw a measurable increase in rankings.

50–60 Characters – This is one of those things where best practices usually is the best way to go because the optimal length is usually 50 to 60 characters.

Use top keywords – When you're deciding what keywords to put it when you're shortening this, that's where you want to use your keyword research and find the keywords that your visitors are actually using.

So if I go into my Analytics or Google Search Console, I can see that people are actually searching for "pantsuit," "Macy's," and maybe something like that. I can come up with a title tag that fits within those parameters, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit," "pantsuits" the category, "Macy's." That's going to be your winning title tag and you'll probably see an increase in rankings.

4. Synonyms and variants

Now, you'll notice in this last title tag, the category was a plural of pantsuit. That can actually help in some circumstances. But it's important to realize that how you think your searchers are searching may not be how they're actually searching.

Let's say you do your keyword research and your top keywords are "cheap taxis." You want to optimize for cheap taxis. Well, people may be looking for that in different ways. They may be looking for "affordable cabs" or "low cost" or "cheap Ubers," things like that.

So you want to use those variants, find out what the synonyms and variants are and incorporate those into your title tag. So my title tag might be "Fast Affordable Cabs, Quick Taxi, Your Cheap Ride." That's optimized for like three different things within that 50 to 60 word limit, and it's going to hit all those variants and you can actually rank a little higher for using that.

Use SERPs/keyword tools – The way you find these synonyms and variants, you can certainly look in the SERPs. Type your keyword into the SERPs, into Google and see what they highlight bold in the search results. That will often give you the variants that people are looking for, that people also ask at the bottom of the page. Your favorite keyword tool, such as Keyword Explorer or SEMrush or whatever you choose and also your Analytics. Google Search Console is a great source of information for these synonyms and variants.

5. Call to action

Now, you won't often find the call-to-action words in your keyword research, but they really help people click. These are action verbs.

Action words — buy, find download, search, listen, watch, learn, and access. When you use these, they give a little bit more excitement because they indicate that the user will be able to do something beyond the keyword. So they're not necessarily typing it in the search box. When they see it in results, it can create, "Oh wow, I get to download something." It provides a little something extra, and you can increase your click-through rates that way.

6. Top referring keywords

This is a little overlooked, and it's sort of an advanced concept. Oftentimes we optimize our page for one set of keywords, but the traffic that comes to it is another set of keywords. But what's very powerful is when people type their words into the search box and they see those exact same words in the title tags, that's going to increase your click-through rate.

For an example, I went into the analytics here at Moz and I looked at Followerwonk. I found the top referring keywords in Google Search Console are "Twitter search," "search Twitter bios," and "Twitter analytics." Those are how people or what people are looking for right before they click on the Followerwonk listing in Google.

So using that information, I might write a title tag like "Search Twitter Bios with Followerwonk, the Twitter Analytics Tool." That's a pretty good title tag. I'm kind of proud of that. But you can see it hits all my major keywords that people are using. So when I type in "Twitter analytics" into the search box and I see "The Twitter Analytics Tool," I'm more likely to click on that.

So I've written about this before, but it's very important to optimize your page, not only for the traffic you're trying to get, but the traffic you're actually receiving. When you can marry those two, you can be stronger in all aspects.

7. Questions

Questions are great tools to use in your title tags. These are things like, "Where Do Butterflies Migrate?" Maybe your keyword is just "butterflies migrate." But by asking a question, you create a curiosity gap, and you give people an incentive to click. Or "What is PageRank?" That's something we do here at Moz. So you get the curiosity gap.

But oftentimes, by asking a question, you get the bonus of winning a featured snippet. Britney Muller wrote an awesome, awesome post about this a while back about questions people also ask, how to find those in your keyword research and claim those featured snippets and claim "people also ask" boxes. It's a great, great way to increase your traffic.

So these are seven tips. Let us know your tips for title tags in the comments below. If you like this video, I'd appreciate a thumbs up. Share it with your friends on social media. I'll see you next time. Thanks, everybody.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[gamebazu]

7 SEO Title Tag Hacks for Increased Rankings + Traffic - Best of Whiteboard Friday

Posted by Cyrus-Shepard

We're bringing back an oldie but a goodie this Friday! In today's highly popular throwback, Cyrus Shepard calls out seven super-easy and timeless hacks to keep your title tags clickable in the SERPs. Check them out and share your own with us in the comments below!

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. I'm very excited to be here today. My name is Cyrus. I'm a Moz associate. Today I want to talk you about title tags, specifically title tag hacks to increase your traffic and rankings. Now, you may be asking yourself, "Are title tags even still important today in SEO?" You bet they are. We've done a lot of correlation studies in the past. Those correlation studies have shown different things sort of decreasing in the past years. But we've also seen a lot of experiments recently where people have changed their title tag and seen a significant, measurable increase in their rankings. Now, the other aspect of title tags that people sometimes forget about is the click-through rate that you get, which can measurably increase your traffic if you get the title tag right. Now, what's neat about increasing your traffic through click-through rate is we've seen a lot of experiments, Rand has experimented a lot, that if you can increase this, you can measurably increase this. Traffic through increased clicks can seem to increase your rankings under certain circumstances. So you get the dual benefit. So that's what I want to talk to you about today — increasing those rankings, increasing that traffic by changing the first thing that your visitor is going to see in the SERPs. So the important thing to remember is that these are things to experiment with. Not all of these hacks are going to work for you. SEO is founded in best practices, but true success is founded when you experiment and try different things. So try some of these out and these will give you an idea of where to get started in some of your title tag experiments.

1. Numbers

Numbers kind of pop out at you. These are examples: "5 Signs of a Zombie Apocalypse" or "How Mutants Can Save 22% on Car Insurance."

Cognitive Bias - Standout specific – When you see these in SERPs, they tend to get a slightly higher click-through rate sometimes. This works because of a cognitive bias. Our brains are trained to find things that stand out and are specific. When you're scanning search results, that's a lot of information. So your brain is going to try to find some things that it can grasp on to, and numbers are the ultimate things that are both specific and they stand out. So sometimes, in certain circumstances, you can get a higher click-through rate by using numbers in your title tags.

2. Dates

Rand did an excellent Whiteboard Friday a few weeks ago, we'll link to it below. These are things like "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2017" or even more specific, you can get the month in there, "Top NFL Fantasy Draft Picks September 2017."

Now, Rand talks about this a lot. He talks about ways of finding dates in your keyword research. The key in that research is when you're using tools like Keyword Explorer or Google AdWords or SEMrush, you have to look for previous years. So if I was searching for this year's, we don't have enough data yet for 2017, so I would look for "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2016."

Leverage your CMS – If you use WordPress, if you use Yoast plugin, you can actually have your title tags update automatically year-to-year or even month-to-month leveraging that. It's not right for all circumstances, but for certain keyword queries it works pretty well.

3. Length

This is one of the most controversial, something that causes the most angst in SEO is when we're doing audits or looking at title tags. Inevitably, when you're doing an SEO audit, you find two things. You find title tags that are way too short, "Pantsuit," or title tags that are way, way, way too long because they just want to stuff every keyword in there, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit with Line Color, Midrise Belt, Hook-eye Zipper, Herringbone Knit at Macy's."

Now, these two, they're great title tags, but there are two problems with this. This is way too broad. "Pantsuit" could be anything. This title tag is way too diluted. It's hard to really know what that is about. You're trying to scan it. You're trying to read it. Search engines are going to look at it the same way. Is this about a pantsuit? Is it about herringbone knit? It's kind of hard.

Etsy study – So Etsy recently did a study where Etsy measured hundreds of thousands of URLs and they shortened their title tags, because, more often than not, the longer title tag is a problem. Shorter title tags, not so much. You see longer title tags in the wild more often. When they shortened the title tags, they saw a measurable increase in rankings.

50–60 Characters – This is one of those things where best practices usually is the best way to go because the optimal length is usually 50 to 60 characters.

Use top keywords – When you're deciding what keywords to put it when you're shortening this, that's where you want to use your keyword research and find the keywords that your visitors are actually using.

So if I go into my Analytics or Google Search Console, I can see that people are actually searching for "pantsuit," "Macy's," and maybe something like that. I can come up with a title tag that fits within those parameters, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit," "pantsuits" the category, "Macy's." That's going to be your winning title tag and you'll probably see an increase in rankings.

4. Synonyms and variants

Now, you'll notice in this last title tag, the category was a plural of pantsuit. That can actually help in some circumstances. But it's important to realize that how you think your searchers are searching may not be how they're actually searching.

Let's say you do your keyword research and your top keywords are "cheap taxis." You want to optimize for cheap taxis. Well, people may be looking for that in different ways. They may be looking for "affordable cabs" or "low cost" or "cheap Ubers," things like that.

So you want to use those variants, find out what the synonyms and variants are and incorporate those into your title tag. So my title tag might be "Fast Affordable Cabs, Quick Taxi, Your Cheap Ride." That's optimized for like three different things within that 50 to 60 word limit, and it's going to hit all those variants and you can actually rank a little higher for using that.

Use SERPs/keyword tools – The way you find these synonyms and variants, you can certainly look in the SERPs. Type your keyword into the SERPs, into Google and see what they highlight bold in the search results. That will often give you the variants that people are looking for, that people also ask at the bottom of the page. Your favorite keyword tool, such as Keyword Explorer or SEMrush or whatever you choose and also your Analytics. Google Search Console is a great source of information for these synonyms and variants.

5. Call to action

Now, you won't often find the call-to-action words in your keyword research, but they really help people click. These are action verbs.

Action words — buy, find download, search, listen, watch, learn, and access. When you use these, they give a little bit more excitement because they indicate that the user will be able to do something beyond the keyword. So they're not necessarily typing it in the search box. When they see it in results, it can create, "Oh wow, I get to download something." It provides a little something extra, and you can increase your click-through rates that way.

6. Top referring keywords

This is a little overlooked, and it's sort of an advanced concept. Oftentimes we optimize our page for one set of keywords, but the traffic that comes to it is another set of keywords. But what's very powerful is when people type their words into the search box and they see those exact same words in the title tags, that's going to increase your click-through rate.

For an example, I went into the analytics here at Moz and I looked at Followerwonk. I found the top referring keywords in Google Search Console are "Twitter search," "search Twitter bios," and "Twitter analytics." Those are how people or what people are looking for right before they click on the Followerwonk listing in Google.

So using that information, I might write a title tag like "Search Twitter Bios with Followerwonk, the Twitter Analytics Tool." That's a pretty good title tag. I'm kind of proud of that. But you can see it hits all my major keywords that people are using. So when I type in "Twitter analytics" into the search box and I see "The Twitter Analytics Tool," I'm more likely to click on that.

So I've written about this before, but it's very important to optimize your page, not only for the traffic you're trying to get, but the traffic you're actually receiving. When you can marry those two, you can be stronger in all aspects.

7. Questions

Questions are great tools to use in your title tags. These are things like, "Where Do Butterflies Migrate?" Maybe your keyword is just "butterflies migrate." But by asking a question, you create a curiosity gap, and you give people an incentive to click. Or "What is PageRank?" That's something we do here at Moz. So you get the curiosity gap.

But oftentimes, by asking a question, you get the bonus of winning a featured snippet. Britney Muller wrote an awesome, awesome post about this a while back about questions people also ask, how to find those in your keyword research and claim those featured snippets and claim "people also ask" boxes. It's a great, great way to increase your traffic.

So these are seven tips. Let us know your tips for title tags in the comments below. If you like this video, I'd appreciate a thumbs up. Share it with your friends on social media. I'll see you next time. Thanks, everybody.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

http://bit.ly/2wENvR5

[ductrungnguyen87]

7 SEO Title Tag Hacks for Increased Rankings + Traffic - Best of Whiteboard Friday

Posted by Cyrus-Shepard

We're bringing back an oldie but a goodie this Friday! In today's highly popular throwback, Cyrus Shepard calls out seven super-easy and timeless hacks to keep your title tags clickable in the SERPs. Check them out and share your own with us in the comments below!

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. I'm very excited to be here today. My name is Cyrus. I'm a Moz associate. Today I want to talk you about title tags, specifically title tag hacks to increase your traffic and rankings. Now, you may be asking yourself, "Are title tags even still important today in SEO?" You bet they are. We've done a lot of correlation studies in the past. Those correlation studies have shown different things sort of decreasing in the past years. But we've also seen a lot of experiments recently where people have changed their title tag and seen a significant, measurable increase in their rankings. Now, the other aspect of title tags that people sometimes forget about is the click-through rate that you get, which can measurably increase your traffic if you get the title tag right. Now, what's neat about increasing your traffic through click-through rate is we've seen a lot of experiments, Rand has experimented a lot, that if you can increase this, you can measurably increase this. Traffic through increased clicks can seem to increase your rankings under certain circumstances. So you get the dual benefit. So that's what I want to talk to you about today — increasing those rankings, increasing that traffic by changing the first thing that your visitor is going to see in the SERPs. So the important thing to remember is that these are things to experiment with. Not all of these hacks are going to work for you. SEO is founded in best practices, but true success is founded when you experiment and try different things. So try some of these out and these will give you an idea of where to get started in some of your title tag experiments.

1. Numbers

Numbers kind of pop out at you. These are examples: "5 Signs of a Zombie Apocalypse" or "How Mutants Can Save 22% on Car Insurance."

Cognitive Bias - Standout specific – When you see these in SERPs, they tend to get a slightly higher click-through rate sometimes. This works because of a cognitive bias. Our brains are trained to find things that stand out and are specific. When you're scanning search results, that's a lot of information. So your brain is going to try to find some things that it can grasp on to, and numbers are the ultimate things that are both specific and they stand out. So sometimes, in certain circumstances, you can get a higher click-through rate by using numbers in your title tags.

2. Dates

Rand did an excellent Whiteboard Friday a few weeks ago, we'll link to it below. These are things like "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2017" or even more specific, you can get the month in there, "Top NFL Fantasy Draft Picks September 2017."

Now, Rand talks about this a lot. He talks about ways of finding dates in your keyword research. The key in that research is when you're using tools like Keyword Explorer or Google AdWords or SEMrush, you have to look for previous years. So if I was searching for this year's, we don't have enough data yet for 2017, so I would look for "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2016."

Leverage your CMS – If you use WordPress, if you use Yoast plugin, you can actually have your title tags update automatically year-to-year or even month-to-month leveraging that. It's not right for all circumstances, but for certain keyword queries it works pretty well.

3. Length

This is one of the most controversial, something that causes the most angst in SEO is when we're doing audits or looking at title tags. Inevitably, when you're doing an SEO audit, you find two things. You find title tags that are way too short, "Pantsuit," or title tags that are way, way, way too long because they just want to stuff every keyword in there, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit with Line Color, Midrise Belt, Hook-eye Zipper, Herringbone Knit at Macy's."

Now, these two, they're great title tags, but there are two problems with this. This is way too broad. "Pantsuit" could be anything. This title tag is way too diluted. It's hard to really know what that is about. You're trying to scan it. You're trying to read it. Search engines are going to look at it the same way. Is this about a pantsuit? Is it about herringbone knit? It's kind of hard.

Etsy study – So Etsy recently did a study where Etsy measured hundreds of thousands of URLs and they shortened their title tags, because, more often than not, the longer title tag is a problem. Shorter title tags, not so much. You see longer title tags in the wild more often. When they shortened the title tags, they saw a measurable increase in rankings.

50–60 Characters – This is one of those things where best practices usually is the best way to go because the optimal length is usually 50 to 60 characters.

Use top keywords – When you're deciding what keywords to put it when you're shortening this, that's where you want to use your keyword research and find the keywords that your visitors are actually using.

So if I go into my Analytics or Google Search Console, I can see that people are actually searching for "pantsuit," "Macy's," and maybe something like that. I can come up with a title tag that fits within those parameters, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit," "pantsuits" the category, "Macy's." That's going to be your winning title tag and you'll probably see an increase in rankings.

4. Synonyms and variants

Now, you'll notice in this last title tag, the category was a plural of pantsuit. That can actually help in some circumstances. But it's important to realize that how you think your searchers are searching may not be how they're actually searching.

Let's say you do your keyword research and your top keywords are "cheap taxis." You want to optimize for cheap taxis. Well, people may be looking for that in different ways. They may be looking for "affordable cabs" or "low cost" or "cheap Ubers," things like that.

So you want to use those variants, find out what the synonyms and variants are and incorporate those into your title tag. So my title tag might be "Fast Affordable Cabs, Quick Taxi, Your Cheap Ride." That's optimized for like three different things within that 50 to 60 word limit, and it's going to hit all those variants and you can actually rank a little higher for using that.

Use SERPs/keyword tools – The way you find these synonyms and variants, you can certainly look in the SERPs. Type your keyword into the SERPs, into Google and see what they highlight bold in the search results. That will often give you the variants that people are looking for, that people also ask at the bottom of the page. Your favorite keyword tool, such as Keyword Explorer or SEMrush or whatever you choose and also your Analytics. Google Search Console is a great source of information for these synonyms and variants.

5. Call to action

Now, you won't often find the call-to-action words in your keyword research, but they really help people click. These are action verbs.

Action words — buy, find download, search, listen, watch, learn, and access. When you use these, they give a little bit more excitement because they indicate that the user will be able to do something beyond the keyword. So they're not necessarily typing it in the search box. When they see it in results, it can create, "Oh wow, I get to download something." It provides a little something extra, and you can increase your click-through rates that way.

6. Top referring keywords

This is a little overlooked, and it's sort of an advanced concept. Oftentimes we optimize our page for one set of keywords, but the traffic that comes to it is another set of keywords. But what's very powerful is when people type their words into the search box and they see those exact same words in the title tags, that's going to increase your click-through rate.

For an example, I went into the analytics here at Moz and I looked at Followerwonk. I found the top referring keywords in Google Search Console are "Twitter search," "search Twitter bios," and "Twitter analytics." Those are how people or what people are looking for right before they click on the Followerwonk listing in Google.

So using that information, I might write a title tag like "Search Twitter Bios with Followerwonk, the Twitter Analytics Tool." That's a pretty good title tag. I'm kind of proud of that. But you can see it hits all my major keywords that people are using. So when I type in "Twitter analytics" into the search box and I see "The Twitter Analytics Tool," I'm more likely to click on that.

So I've written about this before, but it's very important to optimize your page, not only for the traffic you're trying to get, but the traffic you're actually receiving. When you can marry those two, you can be stronger in all aspects.

7. Questions

Questions are great tools to use in your title tags. These are things like, "Where Do Butterflies Migrate?" Maybe your keyword is just "butterflies migrate." But by asking a question, you create a curiosity gap, and you give people an incentive to click. Or "What is PageRank?" That's something we do here at Moz. So you get the curiosity gap.

But oftentimes, by asking a question, you get the bonus of winning a featured snippet. Britney Muller wrote an awesome, awesome post about this a while back about questions people also ask, how to find those in your keyword research and claim those featured snippets and claim "people also ask" boxes. It's a great, great way to increase your traffic.

So these are seven tips. Let us know your tips for title tags in the comments below. If you like this video, I'd appreciate a thumbs up. Share it with your friends on social media. I'll see you next time. Thanks, everybody.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[lakelandseo]

7 SEO Title Tag Hacks for Increased Rankings + Traffic - Best of Whiteboard Friday

Posted by Cyrus-Shepard

We're bringing back an oldie but a goodie this Friday! In today's highly popular throwback, Cyrus Shepard calls out seven super-easy and timeless hacks to keep your title tags clickable in the SERPs. Check them out and share your own with us in the comments below!

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. I'm very excited to be here today. My name is Cyrus. I'm a Moz associate. Today I want to talk you about title tags, specifically title tag hacks to increase your traffic and rankings. Now, you may be asking yourself, "Are title tags even still important today in SEO?" You bet they are. We've done a lot of correlation studies in the past. Those correlation studies have shown different things sort of decreasing in the past years. But we've also seen a lot of experiments recently where people have changed their title tag and seen a significant, measurable increase in their rankings. Now, the other aspect of title tags that people sometimes forget about is the click-through rate that you get, which can measurably increase your traffic if you get the title tag right. Now, what's neat about increasing your traffic through click-through rate is we've seen a lot of experiments, Rand has experimented a lot, that if you can increase this, you can measurably increase this. Traffic through increased clicks can seem to increase your rankings under certain circumstances. So you get the dual benefit. So that's what I want to talk to you about today — increasing those rankings, increasing that traffic by changing the first thing that your visitor is going to see in the SERPs. So the important thing to remember is that these are things to experiment with. Not all of these hacks are going to work for you. SEO is founded in best practices, but true success is founded when you experiment and try different things. So try some of these out and these will give you an idea of where to get started in some of your title tag experiments.

1. Numbers

Numbers kind of pop out at you. These are examples: "5 Signs of a Zombie Apocalypse" or "How Mutants Can Save 22% on Car Insurance."

Cognitive Bias - Standout specific – When you see these in SERPs, they tend to get a slightly higher click-through rate sometimes. This works because of a cognitive bias. Our brains are trained to find things that stand out and are specific. When you're scanning search results, that's a lot of information. So your brain is going to try to find some things that it can grasp on to, and numbers are the ultimate things that are both specific and they stand out. So sometimes, in certain circumstances, you can get a higher click-through rate by using numbers in your title tags.

2. Dates

Rand did an excellent Whiteboard Friday a few weeks ago, we'll link to it below. These are things like "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2017" or even more specific, you can get the month in there, "Top NFL Fantasy Draft Picks September 2017."

Now, Rand talks about this a lot. He talks about ways of finding dates in your keyword research. The key in that research is when you're using tools like Keyword Explorer or Google AdWords or SEMrush, you have to look for previous years. So if I was searching for this year's, we don't have enough data yet for 2017, so I would look for "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2016."

Leverage your CMS – If you use WordPress, if you use Yoast plugin, you can actually have your title tags update automatically year-to-year or even month-to-month leveraging that. It's not right for all circumstances, but for certain keyword queries it works pretty well.

3. Length

This is one of the most controversial, something that causes the most angst in SEO is when we're doing audits or looking at title tags. Inevitably, when you're doing an SEO audit, you find two things. You find title tags that are way too short, "Pantsuit," or title tags that are way, way, way too long because they just want to stuff every keyword in there, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit with Line Color, Midrise Belt, Hook-eye Zipper, Herringbone Knit at Macy's."

Now, these two, they're great title tags, but there are two problems with this. This is way too broad. "Pantsuit" could be anything. This title tag is way too diluted. It's hard to really know what that is about. You're trying to scan it. You're trying to read it. Search engines are going to look at it the same way. Is this about a pantsuit? Is it about herringbone knit? It's kind of hard.

Etsy study – So Etsy recently did a study where Etsy measured hundreds of thousands of URLs and they shortened their title tags, because, more often than not, the longer title tag is a problem. Shorter title tags, not so much. You see longer title tags in the wild more often. When they shortened the title tags, they saw a measurable increase in rankings.

50–60 Characters – This is one of those things where best practices usually is the best way to go because the optimal length is usually 50 to 60 characters.

Use top keywords – When you're deciding what keywords to put it when you're shortening this, that's where you want to use your keyword research and find the keywords that your visitors are actually using.

So if I go into my Analytics or Google Search Console, I can see that people are actually searching for "pantsuit," "Macy's," and maybe something like that. I can come up with a title tag that fits within those parameters, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit," "pantsuits" the category, "Macy's." That's going to be your winning title tag and you'll probably see an increase in rankings.

4. Synonyms and variants

Now, you'll notice in this last title tag, the category was a plural of pantsuit. That can actually help in some circumstances. But it's important to realize that how you think your searchers are searching may not be how they're actually searching.

Let's say you do your keyword research and your top keywords are "cheap taxis." You want to optimize for cheap taxis. Well, people may be looking for that in different ways. They may be looking for "affordable cabs" or "low cost" or "cheap Ubers," things like that.

So you want to use those variants, find out what the synonyms and variants are and incorporate those into your title tag. So my title tag might be "Fast Affordable Cabs, Quick Taxi, Your Cheap Ride." That's optimized for like three different things within that 50 to 60 word limit, and it's going to hit all those variants and you can actually rank a little higher for using that.

Use SERPs/keyword tools – The way you find these synonyms and variants, you can certainly look in the SERPs. Type your keyword into the SERPs, into Google and see what they highlight bold in the search results. That will often give you the variants that people are looking for, that people also ask at the bottom of the page. Your favorite keyword tool, such as Keyword Explorer or SEMrush or whatever you choose and also your Analytics. Google Search Console is a great source of information for these synonyms and variants.

5. Call to action

Now, you won't often find the call-to-action words in your keyword research, but they really help people click. These are action verbs.

Action words — buy, find download, search, listen, watch, learn, and access. When you use these, they give a little bit more excitement because they indicate that the user will be able to do something beyond the keyword. So they're not necessarily typing it in the search box. When they see it in results, it can create, "Oh wow, I get to download something." It provides a little something extra, and you can increase your click-through rates that way.

6. Top referring keywords

This is a little overlooked, and it's sort of an advanced concept. Oftentimes we optimize our page for one set of keywords, but the traffic that comes to it is another set of keywords. But what's very powerful is when people type their words into the search box and they see those exact same words in the title tags, that's going to increase your click-through rate.

For an example, I went into the analytics here at Moz and I looked at Followerwonk. I found the top referring keywords in Google Search Console are "Twitter search," "search Twitter bios," and "Twitter analytics." Those are how people or what people are looking for right before they click on the Followerwonk listing in Google.

So using that information, I might write a title tag like "Search Twitter Bios with Followerwonk, the Twitter Analytics Tool." That's a pretty good title tag. I'm kind of proud of that. But you can see it hits all my major keywords that people are using. So when I type in "Twitter analytics" into the search box and I see "The Twitter Analytics Tool," I'm more likely to click on that.

So I've written about this before, but it's very important to optimize your page, not only for the traffic you're trying to get, but the traffic you're actually receiving. When you can marry those two, you can be stronger in all aspects.

7. Questions

Questions are great tools to use in your title tags. These are things like, "Where Do Butterflies Migrate?" Maybe your keyword is just "butterflies migrate." But by asking a question, you create a curiosity gap, and you give people an incentive to click. Or "What is PageRank?" That's something we do here at Moz. So you get the curiosity gap.

But oftentimes, by asking a question, you get the bonus of winning a featured snippet. Britney Muller wrote an awesome, awesome post about this a while back about questions people also ask, how to find those in your keyword research and claim those featured snippets and claim "people also ask" boxes. It's a great, great way to increase your traffic.

So these are seven tips. Let us know your tips for title tags in the comments below. If you like this video, I'd appreciate a thumbs up. Share it with your friends on social media. I'll see you next time. Thanks, everybody.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[drummcarpentry]

7 SEO Title Tag Hacks for Increased Rankings + Traffic - Best of Whiteboard Friday

Posted by Cyrus-Shepard

We're bringing back an oldie but a goodie this Friday! In today's highly popular throwback, Cyrus Shepard calls out seven super-easy and timeless hacks to keep your title tags clickable in the SERPs. Check them out and share your own with us in the comments below!

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. I'm very excited to be here today. My name is Cyrus. I'm a Moz associate. Today I want to talk you about title tags, specifically title tag hacks to increase your traffic and rankings. Now, you may be asking yourself, "Are title tags even still important today in SEO?" You bet they are. We've done a lot of correlation studies in the past. Those correlation studies have shown different things sort of decreasing in the past years. But we've also seen a lot of experiments recently where people have changed their title tag and seen a significant, measurable increase in their rankings. Now, the other aspect of title tags that people sometimes forget about is the click-through rate that you get, which can measurably increase your traffic if you get the title tag right. Now, what's neat about increasing your traffic through click-through rate is we've seen a lot of experiments, Rand has experimented a lot, that if you can increase this, you can measurably increase this. Traffic through increased clicks can seem to increase your rankings under certain circumstances. So you get the dual benefit. So that's what I want to talk to you about today — increasing those rankings, increasing that traffic by changing the first thing that your visitor is going to see in the SERPs. So the important thing to remember is that these are things to experiment with. Not all of these hacks are going to work for you. SEO is founded in best practices, but true success is founded when you experiment and try different things. So try some of these out and these will give you an idea of where to get started in some of your title tag experiments.

1. Numbers

Numbers kind of pop out at you. These are examples: "5 Signs of a Zombie Apocalypse" or "How Mutants Can Save 22% on Car Insurance."

Cognitive Bias - Standout specific – When you see these in SERPs, they tend to get a slightly higher click-through rate sometimes. This works because of a cognitive bias. Our brains are trained to find things that stand out and are specific. When you're scanning search results, that's a lot of information. So your brain is going to try to find some things that it can grasp on to, and numbers are the ultimate things that are both specific and they stand out. So sometimes, in certain circumstances, you can get a higher click-through rate by using numbers in your title tags.

2. Dates

Rand did an excellent Whiteboard Friday a few weeks ago, we'll link to it below. These are things like "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2017" or even more specific, you can get the month in there, "Top NFL Fantasy Draft Picks September 2017."

Now, Rand talks about this a lot. He talks about ways of finding dates in your keyword research. The key in that research is when you're using tools like Keyword Explorer or Google AdWords or SEMrush, you have to look for previous years. So if I was searching for this year's, we don't have enough data yet for 2017, so I would look for "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2016."

Leverage your CMS – If you use WordPress, if you use Yoast plugin, you can actually have your title tags update automatically year-to-year or even month-to-month leveraging that. It's not right for all circumstances, but for certain keyword queries it works pretty well.

3. Length

This is one of the most controversial, something that causes the most angst in SEO is when we're doing audits or looking at title tags. Inevitably, when you're doing an SEO audit, you find two things. You find title tags that are way too short, "Pantsuit," or title tags that are way, way, way too long because they just want to stuff every keyword in there, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit with Line Color, Midrise Belt, Hook-eye Zipper, Herringbone Knit at Macy's."

Now, these two, they're great title tags, but there are two problems with this. This is way too broad. "Pantsuit" could be anything. This title tag is way too diluted. It's hard to really know what that is about. You're trying to scan it. You're trying to read it. Search engines are going to look at it the same way. Is this about a pantsuit? Is it about herringbone knit? It's kind of hard.

Etsy study – So Etsy recently did a study where Etsy measured hundreds of thousands of URLs and they shortened their title tags, because, more often than not, the longer title tag is a problem. Shorter title tags, not so much. You see longer title tags in the wild more often. When they shortened the title tags, they saw a measurable increase in rankings.

50–60 Characters – This is one of those things where best practices usually is the best way to go because the optimal length is usually 50 to 60 characters.

Use top keywords – When you're deciding what keywords to put it when you're shortening this, that's where you want to use your keyword research and find the keywords that your visitors are actually using.

So if I go into my Analytics or Google Search Console, I can see that people are actually searching for "pantsuit," "Macy's," and maybe something like that. I can come up with a title tag that fits within those parameters, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit," "pantsuits" the category, "Macy's." That's going to be your winning title tag and you'll probably see an increase in rankings.

4. Synonyms and variants

Now, you'll notice in this last title tag, the category was a plural of pantsuit. That can actually help in some circumstances. But it's important to realize that how you think your searchers are searching may not be how they're actually searching.

Let's say you do your keyword research and your top keywords are "cheap taxis." You want to optimize for cheap taxis. Well, people may be looking for that in different ways. They may be looking for "affordable cabs" or "low cost" or "cheap Ubers," things like that.

So you want to use those variants, find out what the synonyms and variants are and incorporate those into your title tag. So my title tag might be "Fast Affordable Cabs, Quick Taxi, Your Cheap Ride." That's optimized for like three different things within that 50 to 60 word limit, and it's going to hit all those variants and you can actually rank a little higher for using that.

Use SERPs/keyword tools – The way you find these synonyms and variants, you can certainly look in the SERPs. Type your keyword into the SERPs, into Google and see what they highlight bold in the search results. That will often give you the variants that people are looking for, that people also ask at the bottom of the page. Your favorite keyword tool, such as Keyword Explorer or SEMrush or whatever you choose and also your Analytics. Google Search Console is a great source of information for these synonyms and variants.

5. Call to action

Now, you won't often find the call-to-action words in your keyword research, but they really help people click. These are action verbs.

Action words — buy, find download, search, listen, watch, learn, and access. When you use these, they give a little bit more excitement because they indicate that the user will be able to do something beyond the keyword. So they're not necessarily typing it in the search box. When they see it in results, it can create, "Oh wow, I get to download something." It provides a little something extra, and you can increase your click-through rates that way.

6. Top referring keywords

This is a little overlooked, and it's sort of an advanced concept. Oftentimes we optimize our page for one set of keywords, but the traffic that comes to it is another set of keywords. But what's very powerful is when people type their words into the search box and they see those exact same words in the title tags, that's going to increase your click-through rate.

For an example, I went into the analytics here at Moz and I looked at Followerwonk. I found the top referring keywords in Google Search Console are "Twitter search," "search Twitter bios," and "Twitter analytics." Those are how people or what people are looking for right before they click on the Followerwonk listing in Google.

So using that information, I might write a title tag like "Search Twitter Bios with Followerwonk, the Twitter Analytics Tool." That's a pretty good title tag. I'm kind of proud of that. But you can see it hits all my major keywords that people are using. So when I type in "Twitter analytics" into the search box and I see "The Twitter Analytics Tool," I'm more likely to click on that.

So I've written about this before, but it's very important to optimize your page, not only for the traffic you're trying to get, but the traffic you're actually receiving. When you can marry those two, you can be stronger in all aspects.

7. Questions

Questions are great tools to use in your title tags. These are things like, "Where Do Butterflies Migrate?" Maybe your keyword is just "butterflies migrate." But by asking a question, you create a curiosity gap, and you give people an incentive to click. Or "What is PageRank?" That's something we do here at Moz. So you get the curiosity gap.

But oftentimes, by asking a question, you get the bonus of winning a featured snippet. Britney Muller wrote an awesome, awesome post about this a while back about questions people also ask, how to find those in your keyword research and claim those featured snippets and claim "people also ask" boxes. It's a great, great way to increase your traffic.

So these are seven tips. Let us know your tips for title tags in the comments below. If you like this video, I'd appreciate a thumbs up. Share it with your friends on social media. I'll see you next time. Thanks, everybody.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[noithatotoaz]

7 SEO Title Tag Hacks for Increased Rankings + Traffic - Best of Whiteboard Friday

Posted by Cyrus-Shepard

We're bringing back an oldie but a goodie this Friday! In today's highly popular throwback, Cyrus Shepard calls out seven super-easy and timeless hacks to keep your title tags clickable in the SERPs. Check them out and share your own with us in the comments below!

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. I'm very excited to be here today. My name is Cyrus. I'm a Moz associate. Today I want to talk you about title tags, specifically title tag hacks to increase your traffic and rankings. Now, you may be asking yourself, "Are title tags even still important today in SEO?" You bet they are. We've done a lot of correlation studies in the past. Those correlation studies have shown different things sort of decreasing in the past years. But we've also seen a lot of experiments recently where people have changed their title tag and seen a significant, measurable increase in their rankings. Now, the other aspect of title tags that people sometimes forget about is the click-through rate that you get, which can measurably increase your traffic if you get the title tag right. Now, what's neat about increasing your traffic through click-through rate is we've seen a lot of experiments, Rand has experimented a lot, that if you can increase this, you can measurably increase this. Traffic through increased clicks can seem to increase your rankings under certain circumstances. So you get the dual benefit. So that's what I want to talk to you about today — increasing those rankings, increasing that traffic by changing the first thing that your visitor is going to see in the SERPs. So the important thing to remember is that these are things to experiment with. Not all of these hacks are going to work for you. SEO is founded in best practices, but true success is founded when you experiment and try different things. So try some of these out and these will give you an idea of where to get started in some of your title tag experiments.

1. Numbers

Numbers kind of pop out at you. These are examples: "5 Signs of a Zombie Apocalypse" or "How Mutants Can Save 22% on Car Insurance."

Cognitive Bias - Standout specific – When you see these in SERPs, they tend to get a slightly higher click-through rate sometimes. This works because of a cognitive bias. Our brains are trained to find things that stand out and are specific. When you're scanning search results, that's a lot of information. So your brain is going to try to find some things that it can grasp on to, and numbers are the ultimate things that are both specific and they stand out. So sometimes, in certain circumstances, you can get a higher click-through rate by using numbers in your title tags.

2. Dates

Rand did an excellent Whiteboard Friday a few weeks ago, we'll link to it below. These are things like "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2017" or even more specific, you can get the month in there, "Top NFL Fantasy Draft Picks September 2017."

Now, Rand talks about this a lot. He talks about ways of finding dates in your keyword research. The key in that research is when you're using tools like Keyword Explorer or Google AdWords or SEMrush, you have to look for previous years. So if I was searching for this year's, we don't have enough data yet for 2017, so I would look for "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2016."

Leverage your CMS – If you use WordPress, if you use Yoast plugin, you can actually have your title tags update automatically year-to-year or even month-to-month leveraging that. It's not right for all circumstances, but for certain keyword queries it works pretty well.

3. Length

This is one of the most controversial, something that causes the most angst in SEO is when we're doing audits or looking at title tags. Inevitably, when you're doing an SEO audit, you find two things. You find title tags that are way too short, "Pantsuit," or title tags that are way, way, way too long because they just want to stuff every keyword in there, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit with Line Color, Midrise Belt, Hook-eye Zipper, Herringbone Knit at Macy's."

Now, these two, they're great title tags, but there are two problems with this. This is way too broad. "Pantsuit" could be anything. This title tag is way too diluted. It's hard to really know what that is about. You're trying to scan it. You're trying to read it. Search engines are going to look at it the same way. Is this about a pantsuit? Is it about herringbone knit? It's kind of hard.

Etsy study – So Etsy recently did a study where Etsy measured hundreds of thousands of URLs and they shortened their title tags, because, more often than not, the longer title tag is a problem. Shorter title tags, not so much. You see longer title tags in the wild more often. When they shortened the title tags, they saw a measurable increase in rankings.

50–60 Characters – This is one of those things where best practices usually is the best way to go because the optimal length is usually 50 to 60 characters.

Use top keywords – When you're deciding what keywords to put it when you're shortening this, that's where you want to use your keyword research and find the keywords that your visitors are actually using.

So if I go into my Analytics or Google Search Console, I can see that people are actually searching for "pantsuit," "Macy's," and maybe something like that. I can come up with a title tag that fits within those parameters, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit," "pantsuits" the category, "Macy's." That's going to be your winning title tag and you'll probably see an increase in rankings.

4. Synonyms and variants

Now, you'll notice in this last title tag, the category was a plural of pantsuit. That can actually help in some circumstances. But it's important to realize that how you think your searchers are searching may not be how they're actually searching.

Let's say you do your keyword research and your top keywords are "cheap taxis." You want to optimize for cheap taxis. Well, people may be looking for that in different ways. They may be looking for "affordable cabs" or "low cost" or "cheap Ubers," things like that.

So you want to use those variants, find out what the synonyms and variants are and incorporate those into your title tag. So my title tag might be "Fast Affordable Cabs, Quick Taxi, Your Cheap Ride." That's optimized for like three different things within that 50 to 60 word limit, and it's going to hit all those variants and you can actually rank a little higher for using that.

Use SERPs/keyword tools – The way you find these synonyms and variants, you can certainly look in the SERPs. Type your keyword into the SERPs, into Google and see what they highlight bold in the search results. That will often give you the variants that people are looking for, that people also ask at the bottom of the page. Your favorite keyword tool, such as Keyword Explorer or SEMrush or whatever you choose and also your Analytics. Google Search Console is a great source of information for these synonyms and variants.

5. Call to action

Now, you won't often find the call-to-action words in your keyword research, but they really help people click. These are action verbs.

Action words — buy, find download, search, listen, watch, learn, and access. When you use these, they give a little bit more excitement because they indicate that the user will be able to do something beyond the keyword. So they're not necessarily typing it in the search box. When they see it in results, it can create, "Oh wow, I get to download something." It provides a little something extra, and you can increase your click-through rates that way.

6. Top referring keywords

This is a little overlooked, and it's sort of an advanced concept. Oftentimes we optimize our page for one set of keywords, but the traffic that comes to it is another set of keywords. But what's very powerful is when people type their words into the search box and they see those exact same words in the title tags, that's going to increase your click-through rate.

For an example, I went into the analytics here at Moz and I looked at Followerwonk. I found the top referring keywords in Google Search Console are "Twitter search," "search Twitter bios," and "Twitter analytics." Those are how people or what people are looking for right before they click on the Followerwonk listing in Google.

So using that information, I might write a title tag like "Search Twitter Bios with Followerwonk, the Twitter Analytics Tool." That's a pretty good title tag. I'm kind of proud of that. But you can see it hits all my major keywords that people are using. So when I type in "Twitter analytics" into the search box and I see "The Twitter Analytics Tool," I'm more likely to click on that.

So I've written about this before, but it's very important to optimize your page, not only for the traffic you're trying to get, but the traffic you're actually receiving. When you can marry those two, you can be stronger in all aspects.

7. Questions

Questions are great tools to use in your title tags. These are things like, "Where Do Butterflies Migrate?" Maybe your keyword is just "butterflies migrate." But by asking a question, you create a curiosity gap, and you give people an incentive to click. Or "What is PageRank?" That's something we do here at Moz. So you get the curiosity gap.

But oftentimes, by asking a question, you get the bonus of winning a featured snippet. Britney Muller wrote an awesome, awesome post about this a while back about questions people also ask, how to find those in your keyword research and claim those featured snippets and claim "people also ask" boxes. It's a great, great way to increase your traffic.

So these are seven tips. Let us know your tips for title tags in the comments below. If you like this video, I'd appreciate a thumbs up. Share it with your friends on social media. I'll see you next time. Thanks, everybody.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[paulineberry]

7 SEO Title Tag Hacks for Increased Rankings + Traffic - Best of Whiteboard Friday

Posted by Cyrus-Shepard

We're bringing back an oldie but a goodie this Friday! In today's highly popular throwback, Cyrus Shepard calls out seven super-easy and timeless hacks to keep your title tags clickable in the SERPs. Check them out and share your own with us in the comments below!

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. I'm very excited to be here today. My name is Cyrus. I'm a Moz associate. Today I want to talk you about title tags, specifically title tag hacks to increase your traffic and rankings. Now, you may be asking yourself, "Are title tags even still important today in SEO?" You bet they are. We've done a lot of correlation studies in the past. Those correlation studies have shown different things sort of decreasing in the past years. But we've also seen a lot of experiments recently where people have changed their title tag and seen a significant, measurable increase in their rankings. Now, the other aspect of title tags that people sometimes forget about is the click-through rate that you get, which can measurably increase your traffic if you get the title tag right. Now, what's neat about increasing your traffic through click-through rate is we've seen a lot of experiments, Rand has experimented a lot, that if you can increase this, you can measurably increase this. Traffic through increased clicks can seem to increase your rankings under certain circumstances. So you get the dual benefit. So that's what I want to talk to you about today — increasing those rankings, increasing that traffic by changing the first thing that your visitor is going to see in the SERPs. So the important thing to remember is that these are things to experiment with. Not all of these hacks are going to work for you. SEO is founded in best practices, but true success is founded when you experiment and try different things. So try some of these out and these will give you an idea of where to get started in some of your title tag experiments.

1. Numbers

Numbers kind of pop out at you. These are examples: "5 Signs of a Zombie Apocalypse" or "How Mutants Can Save 22% on Car Insurance."

Cognitive Bias - Standout specific – When you see these in SERPs, they tend to get a slightly higher click-through rate sometimes. This works because of a cognitive bias. Our brains are trained to find things that stand out and are specific. When you're scanning search results, that's a lot of information. So your brain is going to try to find some things that it can grasp on to, and numbers are the ultimate things that are both specific and they stand out. So sometimes, in certain circumstances, you can get a higher click-through rate by using numbers in your title tags.

2. Dates

Rand did an excellent Whiteboard Friday a few weeks ago, we'll link to it below. These are things like "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2017" or even more specific, you can get the month in there, "Top NFL Fantasy Draft Picks September 2017."

Now, Rand talks about this a lot. He talks about ways of finding dates in your keyword research. The key in that research is when you're using tools like Keyword Explorer or Google AdWords or SEMrush, you have to look for previous years. So if I was searching for this year's, we don't have enough data yet for 2017, so I would look for "Best Actress Oscar Nominee 2016."

Leverage your CMS – If you use WordPress, if you use Yoast plugin, you can actually have your title tags update automatically year-to-year or even month-to-month leveraging that. It's not right for all circumstances, but for certain keyword queries it works pretty well.

3. Length

This is one of the most controversial, something that causes the most angst in SEO is when we're doing audits or looking at title tags. Inevitably, when you're doing an SEO audit, you find two things. You find title tags that are way too short, "Pantsuit," or title tags that are way, way, way too long because they just want to stuff every keyword in there, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit with Line Color, Midrise Belt, Hook-eye Zipper, Herringbone Knit at Macy's."

Now, these two, they're great title tags, but there are two problems with this. This is way too broad. "Pantsuit" could be anything. This title tag is way too diluted. It's hard to really know what that is about. You're trying to scan it. You're trying to read it. Search engines are going to look at it the same way. Is this about a pantsuit? Is it about herringbone knit? It's kind of hard.

Etsy study – So Etsy recently did a study where Etsy measured hundreds of thousands of URLs and they shortened their title tags, because, more often than not, the longer title tag is a problem. Shorter title tags, not so much. You see longer title tags in the wild more often. When they shortened the title tags, they saw a measurable increase in rankings.

50–60 Characters – This is one of those things where best practices usually is the best way to go because the optimal length is usually 50 to 60 characters.

Use top keywords – When you're deciding what keywords to put it when you're shortening this, that's where you want to use your keyword research and find the keywords that your visitors are actually using.

So if I go into my Analytics or Google Search Console, I can see that people are actually searching for "pantsuit," "Macy's," and maybe something like that. I can come up with a title tag that fits within those parameters, "Tahiti ASL Red Pantsuit," "pantsuits" the category, "Macy's." That's going to be your winning title tag and you'll probably see an increase in rankings.

4. Synonyms and variants

Now, you'll notice in this last title tag, the category was a plural of pantsuit. That can actually help in some circumstances. But it's important to realize that how you think your searchers are searching may not be how they're actually searching.

Let's say you do your keyword research and your top keywords are "cheap taxis." You want to optimize for cheap taxis. Well, people may be looking for that in different ways. They may be looking for "affordable cabs" or "low cost" or "cheap Ubers," things like that.

So you want to use those variants, find out what the synonyms and variants are and incorporate those into your title tag. So my title tag might be "Fast Affordable Cabs, Quick Taxi, Your Cheap Ride." That's optimized for like three different things within that 50 to 60 word limit, and it's going to hit all those variants and you can actually rank a little higher for using that.

Use SERPs/keyword tools – The way you find these synonyms and variants, you can certainly look in the SERPs. Type your keyword into the SERPs, into Google and see what they highlight bold in the search results. That will often give you the variants that people are looking for, that people also ask at the bottom of the page. Your favorite keyword tool, such as Keyword Explorer or SEMrush or whatever you choose and also your Analytics. Google Search Console is a great source of information for these synonyms and variants.

5. Call to action

Now, you won't often find the call-to-action words in your keyword research, but they really help people click. These are action verbs.

Action words — buy, find download, search, listen, watch, learn, and access. When you use these, they give a little bit more excitement because they indicate that the user will be able to do something beyond the keyword. So they're not necessarily typing it in the search box. When they see it in results, it can create, "Oh wow, I get to download something." It provides a little something extra, and you can increase your click-through rates that way.

6. Top referring keywords

This is a little overlooked, and it's sort of an advanced concept. Oftentimes we optimize our page for one set of keywords, but the traffic that comes to it is another set of keywords. But what's very powerful is when people type their words into the search box and they see those exact same words in the title tags, that's going to increase your click-through rate.

For an example, I went into the analytics here at Moz and I looked at Followerwonk. I found the top referring keywords in Google Search Console are "Twitter search," "search Twitter bios," and "Twitter analytics." Those are how people or what people are looking for right before they click on the Followerwonk listing in Google.

So using that information, I might write a title tag like "Search Twitter Bios with Followerwonk, the Twitter Analytics Tool." That's a pretty good title tag. I'm kind of proud of that. But you can see it hits all my major keywords that people are using. So when I type in "Twitter analytics" into the search box and I see "The Twitter Analytics Tool," I'm more likely to click on that.

So I've written about this before, but it's very important to optimize your page, not only for the traffic you're trying to get, but the traffic you're actually receiving. When you can marry those two, you can be stronger in all aspects.

7. Questions

Questions are great tools to use in your title tags. These are things like, "Where Do Butterflies Migrate?" Maybe your keyword is just "butterflies migrate." But by asking a question, you create a curiosity gap, and you give people an incentive to click. Or "What is PageRank?" That's something we do here at Moz. So you get the curiosity gap.

But oftentimes, by asking a question, you get the bonus of winning a featured snippet. Britney Muller wrote an awesome, awesome post about this a while back about questions people also ask, how to find those in your keyword research and claim those featured snippets and claim "people also ask" boxes. It's a great, great way to increase your traffic.

So these are seven tips. Let us know your tips for title tags in the comments below. If you like this video, I'd appreciate a thumbs up. Share it with your friends on social media. I'll see you next time. Thanks, everybody.

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