#whether it will have you completely misunderstanding it or just being confused is irrelevant but it's like

[mishkakagehishka]

I just . Repeating "characters are tools" you end up erasing so much about arashi's character and motivations and interactions with other characters if you avoid using her pronouns aka avoid showing she's transgender. It's on the same level of frustration with the translators i had when i saw they had Mika speaking standard English, there's a LOT that gets lost if you don't show those little things.

[mae-i-scribble]

My post on How I Attended and All Guys Mixer picked up a few more notes than I was expecting recently and it reminded me that I've been wanting to talk about how appreciative I am about how the series handles sexuality. I'll only be talking about the manga here bc I haven't seen the live action drama nor do I plan to. But I just think it's really neat that with our 3 male protags we get to see 3 very unique reactions to 1) learning that crossdressing is a thing and 2) how they in turn feel attraction wise.

I'll start off with Asagi as I feel his is the most straightforward in that he just takes everything in stride. Literally nothing phases him. Thanks to that he's the most nonchalant of the group, just chatting up and trying to make friends per usual. He's confused somewhat, but doesn't pay it any mind and just tries to get to know everyone as he would any other new friend. Personally, I can really see an aro/ace argument for Asagi due to the way he's just, completely unaffected and uninterested in the romantic ongoings around him. He compliments the girls and such but even when the manga is going pretty hard pushing its other pairings Asagi and Fuji truly just seem like good friends. I'm not delusional, this is a romance manga that from the get-go clearly has these pairings in mind to all get together romantically, but until it happens I can gaslight myself into believing my aroace truth (is coping so bad).

Going from most chill about everything to 2nd most chill we have Tokiwa. Tokiwa is an interesting case in that he's polite to such a degree that he does his best to mask his initial confusion and shock (to the extent that yknow, a comedy manga will allow). Though it doesn't really work because he is very overwhelmed by the situation at hand. However, I don't think this is attributed to the girls' crossdressing alone in the same way that Hagi can't get over his initial shock of the concept. Tokiwa's chief concern isn't the "weirdness" of it all but the fact that he came here expecting a meet cute with a cute girl and instead is getting a meet cute with someone equally as charming but with none of the reserved attitude we see Suo have while she's fem-presenting. My boy is not worried about gender norms he is worried for his sanity due to the attractive person flirting with him.

Honestly, this panel here implies that he finds masc-presenting Suo even more attractive. The fact that he even tries to reassure himself that because Suo is a woman this situation is less flustering is very interesting. Not that it does anything. Pouring one out for Tokiwa for real. As the manga goes on, Tokiwa gives off the vibe of someone who is comfortable with his sexuality enough that the gender presentation of the person he likes is irrelevant, both are attractive to him in different ways. Again, while Suo's crossdressing is a point of interest in the sense that it's not something he understands or gets intuitively, he doesn't have nearly the same level of crisis as Hagi does. His attraction to Suo is never questioned- rather it seems to be a question of whether or not he thinks Suo is genuine in her flirting.

And our last boy is Hagi, poor beloved Hagi who is having the time of his life trying to figure out that hey, sometimes people don't dress or present stereotypically. It's a rough life for you Hagi. However, his inner conflict is very gripping. I find his reaction and subsequent coming to terms with the idea of crossdressing a very realistic take on the subject much more akin to your average person being introduced to everything for the first time. It never feels mean spirited even if Hagi can be offensive in this thoughts and comments at first- it's born from a place of genuine confusion, both towards himself and towards the girls. Hagi falling in love with Kohaku, while a little to rife with misunderstandings for my taste, I think is a wonderful narrative of how even being straight doesn't mean that there is one way to feel attraction. While Kohaku throws around the idea of him being bi due to him being attracted to Kohaku while she's masc-presenting, Suo best sums it up when she says that it's not about the words or the looks, its about who it's coming from. And given that we haven't seen Hagi struggle with this from anyone else, it's a safe bet to say he likes Kohaku as masc-presenting, not necessarily masc-presenting people or men in general. Attraction as a fluid concept is something most straight romance stories, let alone a comedy based one, seldom bother to explore along the gender spectrum. Hagi's struggle to understand himself and what his attraction to Kohaku means to him personally is such an interesting take that it elevates the entire storyline out of miscommunication hell almost (just almost).

Idk idk this feels like a very silly rant to have but I do in fact love this manga more than a reasonable amount and this is definitely one of the top reasons for it. I would love for it to get a bit more attention but I shall settle for rereading it for the 20th time I suppose

[illusionsofdreaming]

Can I order headcanons from the tcf threesome with a sweet demon? She accidentally ran away from the demon world and started crying when the boys attacked her. Have a good day! 👍

Notes: Of course you may! We still don’t know much about the demonic race to be honest so if the novel reveals important information about them later everything here might become completely irrelevant lol. But from what we got so far, demonic race seems to be generalised as a big no-no and inherently evil but what if we have a sweet demon outlier?

These headcanons are written with Fem Reader.

Ft: Cale, Choi Han, Alberu

Cale Henituse

Cale really isn’t the type of person to attack another without good reason to do so - even if they just leapt out of the demonic gate

But expect to be surrounded by open hostility and all weapons bared at you by his protective allies and friends as Cale observes with a frown by the side

Well this is a problem? You don’t exactly fit into the image painted of the demonic race - a race so indescribably and inherently ‘not-good’ that the dragon race was created just to keep them in check

that brings in a lot of problems that Cale honestly doesn’t really want to think about

the possibility that there could be a misunderstanding and that the Gods are yet again fucking with him

Whether or not he believes your story of ‘running away from the demon world’ is 50/50. Of course he’s not going to rule out that you could be a spy sent from the demonic world either

Expect to be under monitor for a long while - either with a dragon placed to watch you, or some kind of device kept on you to keep you in place

You have to prove yourself over and over again to slowly gain his trust, and even then Cale will still have his reservations about you

There will be many tests, some are obvious, others less - Cale will always analyse your responses critically: such as when providing information about the demonic race, answer too quickly and it might seem as if you’re too eager to share, answer too slow then whatever you shared might have been filtered

Anyways, Cale’s an extremely cautious man and despite what everyone thinks, he does not randomly adopt people on a whim until he has some confidence they won’t hurt his family

Cale’s a man who has a very clear idea where he draws his moral lines, if you ever cross them, it’s a big. No. He is not a man who forgives or forgets easily, and to regain his trust anew after betraying it, will be extremely hard

Throughout monitoring though, if you’ve consistently shown good behaviour, Cale does soften slightly

His wariness of you is still evident, but he’ll be more willing to share, more willing to let you participate (and once he starts letting you participate in his plans, be ready to work hard)

Eventually, though it’s never formally addressed, you’ve integrated into part of the family, the transition wasn’t even obvious and no one’s sure when it truly happened. But it just did.

Welcome to the family

Choi Han

The first one with a sword to your neck and would’ve beheaded you if it weren’t for Cale’s timely intervention

Your tears threw him off and does sucker punch his heart with guilt - Choi Han is now thoroughly confused and at a loss as to how he should deal with you

On one hand, all the dragons are bristling at your existence, everything that they’re made of is just screaming to get rid of you, but on the other hand, you look a bit too feeble to look like the big threat you’re suppose to be

He’s confused yes, but his guards are not down

Any suspicious move towards Cale will guarantee that you’ll be sent flying immediately - so if you value your life, you’ll make no sudden movements towards Cale for the time being

He volunteered to be the one who’d monitor you 24/7 

And... it’s surprisingly uneventful because you genuinely have no nefarious intentions

In a way, one can say it’s easier to win his trust compared to Cale because Choi Han really leads with his heart in his palms

After a while of observation in which you have thoroughly melted away his initial wariness he becomes less of a jail keeper and more of a guardian

Still feels a bit guilty for scaring you during your very first meeting

You told him it’s alright since you knew the demonic race never had good reputation to begin with, it was to be expected

Feels even worse after hearing that

With Choi Han vouching for your person even Cale has to concede and shelve his wariness

and well, let’s be honest, with Cale on board, you can expect some kind of movement coming up to clear the horrible misunderstandings on the demonic kind

Alberu Crossman

Like Cale, his trust takes hard work and time to earn

But unlike Cale, his distrust and misgivings are hidden behind an amicable smile

Alberu Crossman is one who’d wear a friendly outgoing nature as a mask to lower other people’s guards so that it’d be easier for him to read them

An innocent naive demon like you would fall easily to his charms and glib tongue

While you receive hostility and wariness from others, Alberu will show sympathy and understanding (and send spies behind his back to investigate the truths of anything you say)

By the time you realise, you’ve already shared your whole family history, background and secrets with him and yet know nothing about the crown prince himself 

Of course, as Crown Prince he does not have all the time to investigate you himself so if anyone he really trusts can vouch for your innocence, then he’ll choose to believe in their judgement

You’ll begin to learn the difference between his ‘public’ smiles and genuine smiles and you’re just glad you receive the latter nowadays

Once you earn Alberu’s trust , he’ll feel a need to protect you since he feels sympathetic and can understand the pain of being judged because of what you were born as

One of his personal goals is to end racism and he is ashamed to admit that he too had made unfair assumptions about your person due to your race

The crown prince falling to his knees shocked everyone and you hurriedly waved off his apologies and asked him to stand 

The public’s opinion on the demonic race had received a blow - after all, if their beloved Sun of the Roan Kingdom had the humility to admit his wrongdoings, shouldn’t they as his citizens also learn from his actions?

It was the first step in breaking free the borders between races

(He’s a little sorry he used you in this way, but his apologies were nonetheless genuine and sincere. It’s just slightly more efficient to kill two birds with one stone correct?)

He’ll treat you like his little sister

Call him older brother and he’ll die of family feels

[thecompleteguidetomisery]

How to Drive Like a Local in Southern California: A Guide for Tourists and Transplants

One of the challenges of getting to know any new city is learning the unspoken rules of its roads. That problem is compounded exponentially by the quirkiness, shall we say, of Southern California (SoCal) drivers. Therefore, in order to reduce the chances of a misunderstanding, visitors and more permanent arrivals would do well to educate themselves as much as possible about how the locals operate. 

Drivers from elsewhere will be used to deferring to traffic laws when deciding who goes first at an intersection (e.g., first to arrive, tie goes to the right, straight before turns, etc.). Visitors and newcomers should know that, as a general rule, traffic laws are only occasionally followed in America’s Finest City. 

For the local, rules of the road really means - only apply these practices if you can remember the rules, and only if you feel like doing so. 

Changing Lanes

Most drivers are accustomed to a predictable practice of changing lanes when travelling on the freeway. For the average transplant or tourist, lanes are to be crossed one-at-a-time, with enough space to do so safely, and only after communicating the intention to do so by using a turn signal.

For the local, though, each of these criterion is optional.

First, SoCal drivers treat their vehicle’s turn signals like EpiPens: they only use them in case of an emergency. 

In other words, to fit in with the locals, avoid your blinkers in all but the direst circumstances. And “dire circumstances” means - you want to get over into an adjacent lane but the butthead next to you either doesn’t care or doesn’t want to make room.

In that case, throw on your blinker as a signal to the butthead that you are about to cut them off.

Then cut them off.

On an unrelated note, San Diegans, and SoCal residents generally, refer to their freeways or highways with the title “The,” as in “The Eight-Oh-Five” or “The One-Sixty-Three.”

As though these are the only entities by those names ever in existence. Or the only ones that matter. The newcomer will be bombarded with references to “The Eight” and “The Five,” and have to resist the temptation to ask, “The Eight? Do you mean the novel by Katherine Neville? Or Quentin Tarantino’s Hateful collection?” or “Which five? The Jackson Five or the Slaughterhouse variety?”

The history is that Los Angeles got the jump on most of the country by building some of their freeways ahead of The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. Southern Californians named the roads according to their location, such as “The San Bernardino Freeway.” So there was a local tradition of giving roads more personal names than, say, “Interstate Ninety-Five” on the East Coast.

By the time California reworked its road number system in 1964, the “The” habit was already established. Each of the previously charming names, such as “The Harbor Freeway,” were replaced by their numbered equivalents, as in “The One-Ten.”

Anyway, back to lane changes.

A common place for lane-crossing commotion, in any city, is when a vehicle enters the freeway from an on-ramp and hopes to accelerate less restrictive speeds as soon as possible (i.e., get into the fast lane). Tourists and transplants will be familiar with using their turn signals and gradually working their way over, one lane at a time, until they reach the far left lane.  

Rather than limit yourself to that inefficient practice, slice across all lanes, from freeway entrance ramp to the fast lane, on a sharp diagonal without stopping or slowing. The only remaining issue is whether the drivers around you will force you to put on your turn signal before you cut them off.

Finally, reasonable drivers, when getting off a freeway, plan ahead and gradually move right from the fast lane to the exit ramp. For example, if you’ve ever been driving in the far right lane at high speeds in another part of the country, and became aware that you needed to take an exit in two miles, it’s pretty likely you immediately started to work your way over to the exit ramp, one lane at a time, and made it onto the exit ramp without ruining someone else’s day.

You will need to forget this habit.

Instead, stay in the far right lane until roughly a quarter of a mile before your exit. Then, throw on your blinker (either the right or left will do in a pinch since no one pays attention to turn signals anyway), make a ninety-degree right turn, and travel perpendicular to traffic until you make it to the ramp.

When others honk their displeasure, toss up a breezy wave to show that you forgive them for being uptight.

Remember, for SoCal drivers, the key is to create maximum chaos with every move.

Forced Courtesy

Imagine this scenario.

You are driving on a busy side street in one of Southern California’s many villages and there are cars behind you. 

You are a little distracted by the condition of the roads and remember seeing a headline in the San Diego Union-Tribune the other day announcing America’s Finest City will spend $700K to assess the condition of its streets. As your right front tire drops into a crater-like pothole, you think to yourself, “Hey, Mayor Gloria, I’ll save you the money and trouble. These roads need A LOT of work.”

And for those of you who don’t know, the City of San Diego’s 2022 Budget includes the phrase: “Each neighborhood in San Diego deserves ‘sexy’ streets…”

Sexy?

I’d settle for smooth. Even silky. In fact, I think I’d prefer smooth or silky road to a sexy one. And why would you want to drive on a sexy street? Wouldn’t it be distracting? What makes a street sexy anyway?

Okay, we’ve officially opened Pandora’s celebrated box with THAT question.

So back to your drive. You mentally try not to avoid the question what makes a street sexy when you notice a person standing on the corner of the upcoming intersection. All their body language says they intend to cross the road. They are standing on the edge of the curb, leaning forward, and looking in your direction, obviously waiting for you to pass so they can move forward. Key phrase: waiting for you to pass... as in stationary.

And, finally, in this scenario you do NOT have a STOP sign.

If you are a recent transplant or tourist, you likely watch to make sure the pedestrian doesn’t dart out in front of you and, because the person is not moving and you do NOT have a STOP sign, you don’t stop.

Well, you can only get away with that out-of-town nonsense for so long in SoCal.

In SoCal, the correct procedure, while driving 35mph with cars following closely behind you, upon seeing someone standing on a corner who looks even the least interested in crossing your path, is to abruptly slam on your brakes and wave the now baffled pedestrian across the street.

You might think of this as “forced courtesy.” It’s a way of making yourself feel better by proving to yourself what a considerate driver you are.

Never mind the cars behind you. Expect that they will hit their brakes in time not to collide with your backside. Besides, it’s their job to be on their toes, alert for your capricious whims.

The walker will stare at you with something not far from puzzled annoyance. Being compelled to cross the road when one isn’t prepared is the adult equivalent of a child being shoved into the embrace of a least favorite relative, like that uncle with the bad breath. Or the aunt who is an enthusiastic collector of something boring and insipid, like cocktail napkins.

The pedestrian will freeze, lizard-like, unsure of what to do.

And pause, the way you do when that self-important friend of yours interrupts you to say something so dumb and irrelevant that you have to take a moment to recompose yourself.

The pedestrian will be certain something must be wrong with you, since you’d just stopped for no reason other than to let them, a perfect stranger, walk across your path. Your counterpart will wonder if you are planning to run them over once they step off the curb. Why else would you do something as foolish as this?

What is most important at this point is your commitment. You MUST remain stopped and gently but firmly tell the walker to get moving. This is no longer about courtesy, and was never about safety. This is about satisfying your ego. You decided to be considerate and, damnit, this jerk of a pedestrian had better honor that. And be grateful for it.

And so continue to pressure the passerby to get moving. Don’t be surprised to hear a growing cacophony of car horns as the drivers behind you, not aware of your unilateral decision to disregard traffic laws, pressure you to get moving.

At that point, it will dawn on your counterpart that you are truly a San Diego driver, and that stopping illegally to coerce random pedestrians to cross the street is just one of your quirks.

The pedestrian will give you an appreciative wave and walk in front of your vehicle, looking all the while to their right (i.e., away from you). Don’t be surprised if one of the confused, impatient drivers behind you decides to tear around you just as the hapless pedestrian steps in their path.

The other driver will honk, and because they are busy staring into your vehicle to determine what’s wrong with you for stopping in the middle of the street, they will not see the pedestrian until the last second and only narrowly avoid a needless tragedy.

You and the pedestrian will each look at one another, eyebrows raised to the top of your respective foreheads, puff out your cheeks and slowly exhale as if to say, “Well, that was a close one.”

As you drive off, you can yell to your counterpart, “Some people just don’t know how to drive!”

Four-Way Stop Signs

Southern Californians have evolved a couple approaches, in place of legal ones, to handle when two or more vehicles arrive at a four-way stop simultaneously and need to decide who should go first in order to avoid a collision. 

The first is to slow down enough to give fellow travelers the impression that you will come to a complete stop, only to accelerate and roll through the intersection. The purpose of this maneuver is to save everyone else at the intersection the trouble of determining who has the right to proceed first. What a kind, thoughtful approach. Rather than burdening fellow travelers with another decision, you’ve taken the choice right out of their hands and applied it to your advantage. 

It’s a win-win. 

You will quickly recognize those naïve and foolish drivers who still believe in applying adult standards of behavior to the act of operating a motor vehicle. They will look shocked, even angry, as they slam on their brakes to avoid colliding with you, and might honk in protest as you pass. It is important to have an appropriate hand gesture ready for those instances. 

The most common SoCal response is to give a breezy, passive-aggressive wave. This lets the other driver know that you’re the selfless, laid back type who has already forgiven them for having the temerity to make an unpleasant noise at you. 

The other most popular reaction involves a single extended finger.   

The second approach to four-way stops is both more complicated and commonplace. It involves planning, patience, and persistence. 

The most important step is the first. You must get to your limit line (i.e., the white strip behind which you’re supposed to stop) an instant or two before another vehicle arrives. Then, sit patiently and stare at your counterpart while waiting for them to proceed. 

The other driver will likely be confused that you are not moving and will, in their way, wait for you to go, since you arrived at the intersection first. 

Don’t be fooled. This power struggle has only just begun. 

Remind yourself that your fellow traveler is clearly a tourist who hasn’t yet grasped the SoCal system. 

Wave for them to go ahead. 

And flash your high beams to hammer home the point. Make sure you do this before they do or you’ll be obligated to proceed forward. 

No matter how long you have to wait, keep your foot firmly planted on the brake. Consider putting the vehicle in park. 

Then, the moment the other car begins to pull forward, stomp on your accelerator so that your vehicle violently lurches forward about five feet. Just enough distance to get your counterpart to stop moving. 

Then slam on your brakes. 

Your fellow traveler will, in the interim, have come to an abrupt halt. Feeling shocked and betrayed, they will flash their high beams and wave energetically for you to go ahead. 

Remember that this is not about courtesy or efficiency, it is about you and your point of view. You unilaterally determined that the other vehicle should go first, and damnit, you’re the kind of person who sticks to their decision once they’ve made up their mind. 

Besides, if you were to pull forward at that moment you’d lose face. Wait until your new nemesis begins to move, and lurch forward again. This is just a test to make sure that the other driver will really follow through with their commitment. 

They will, of course, stop again. Finally, in an exaggerated manner, throw up your hands as if to say, “What are you waiting for?!?” 

#howtodrivelikealocal

#maximumchaos

#forcedcourtesy

#whatareyouwaitingfor

[fanfic-inator795]

Oneshot: Movies and Mermaids

((Have some Mikey and Draxum bonding *throws confetti*))

It wasn’t as if Draxum had any genuine interest in human culture, certainly not! He could care less! ...Though, his obvious lack of caring didn’t prevent certain annoyances.

Like how he would be sometimes be completely lost in certain conversations. A member of the faculty at the high school would ask if he had seen the latest film in theaters and if he liked it better than the remake, or how his fellow lunch servers would reference certain shows and encourage him to watch them as well - Gladys especially seemed entranced with a show regarding doctors all dating each other in-between doing their actual jobs, for whatever reason.

The rest of the city seemed to only aggravate him more. From displays and the videos that would play on the large screens on towers, to the advertisements he saw on the television box or in magazines. It just seemed like everything he saw in human culture was a reference to something or someone - a laundry list of names and shows and movies and jokes and even what were supposedly ‘simple’ concepts like technology and brands and lingo and-!

After over two months of living on the surface, Draxum had reached his limit. He was tired of constantly being confused. He was tired of constantly missing or misunderstanding the references.

He was tired of being reminded that this was not his world, that he was still a yokai in human clothing.

So naturally, as a man of science, Draxum thought it only made sense to start with some research. Granted there was an entire pantheon that he would have to go through, and without the power of the ‘internet’ and a television box that only had five channels, it would be a incredibly slow process... At the very least, O’Neil had said that she would help him get a human library card when they both had a free afternoon. 

In the meantime, Michelangelo had plenty of ‘reference material’, and even with the insistence that this was all for education and NOT entertainment, Draxum figured it was as good of a starting point as any, considering how much the humans seemed to admire their on-screen stories and their film stars. (No wonder Lou Jitsu was just as popular as an actor as he was as a warrior...)

It was late Friday night when Mikey showed up to Draxum’s apartment with a backpack full of movies of all different genres and formats and a VHS/DVD combo player tucked under his arm. “Good thing Donnie found this thing a few years ago, huh?” he said as he hooked it up.

Draxum didn’t bother replying. Instead, he was focusing on his choices for that evening - as well as for the rest of the week, since Mikey said he could borrow them as long as he needed to - pulling out each tape or DVD case and examining it carefully. Quite a few of them looked like they were for children, which he probably should have expected, though he didn’t dismiss them immediately.

“Don’t worry,” he heard Mikey said, “I remembered what you said. All of these are super popular ‘staples of human culture’ that practically everyone’s seen.”

“Good,” Draxum mumbled, putting aside a movie about a boat next to a movie about a boy gardener who wore a cloak and was apparently very harry. Picking up the next one, his expression flattened a bit at the cover. “This one you can take back, I don’t need to watch it.”

“Huh? Why- ohhh.” The box turtle chuckled as he took the tape, smiling at the younger version of his dad on the box. “Sorry, guess that one accidentally got slipped in there. Though to be fair, ‘Jitsu for Justice’ is a total classic.”

“Irrelevant,” Draxum huffed, “I have no desire to watch ANY of Lou Jitsu’s films, no matter how popular they may be. Once was more than enough...”

“Alright alright, I’ll- wait,” Mikey paused, “so you DID watch his movies?”

“Er, I- Not because I actually wanted to!” Draxum told him, “It was for research!” Mikey gave him a flat look. “He had stopped fighting in the Battle Nexus and I needed to study his moves! I-I didn’t enjoy doing it, if that’s what you’re implying! His movies were still ridiculous and completely unenjoyable! I would never actually-”

“Whatever you say, man,” Mikey shrugged, ignoring the Baron’s growls at being interrupted, “Though, how’d you watch ‘em anyway? I didn’t think that TV was that big of a thing down there?”

“I used my viewing orb to summon and display them, obviously,” Draxum told him, “Most yokai have them for when they need them, and they’re much more useful and clearer than any television box.”

“If you say so...” “Hmph.” With that settled, Draxum went back to digging through the bag of movies. It didn’t take long for another video to catch his eye, this one in a plastic case rather than a cardboard one, with a picture of a happy mermaid and an equally happy human plastered on it.

“Awwww!” Mikey said suddenly, “That was April’s favorite movie when she was little! Which meant it was one of the first movies she brought over to share with us! Heh, guess we borrowed it so often we forgot to give it back, whoops. But it’s a really good movie! See, there’s this mermaid who wants to live on land as a human, and she’s friends with a crab and-”

Draxum had begun to tune the turtle out as he continued to stare at the VHS case. Mermaids weren’t too common in the Hidden City itself, though that didn’t mean they weren’t there at all. The city was next to water, after all, and some would live on the shore or become part of an air-boat crew - and they certainly didn’t look like this.

He felt his thoughts start to swirl, becoming just as mixed as his emotions as a grimace began to form on his face. On one hand, Draxum supposed he should’ve been grateful that the humans were portraying a yokai positively - as cute and friendly instead of vicious creature that lived to drown humans. 

Centuries ago, before the Great Migration underground, Draxum had heard that and many other similar claims about his people... Baseless claims meant to justify hunts and attacking on sight...

On the other hand, did humans only see them as ‘harmless’ when used for entertainment purposes? Did they only approve of yokai existing when they only existed in fiction, where they could be used however humans saw fit? 

He was briefly reminded of the creatures - the ‘poke-o-mon’ - that he would occasionally see on shirts or on phones, creatures not directly based on yokai, but similar enough. He had to wonder how much other human entertainment was based on so-called fictional creatures and monsters that they never would have even smiled at before.

“-xum... Hey, Drax?” Mikey poked his bicep, making Draxum flinch. “You okay, bud-?”

“Fine,” Draxum snapped, though there was a little actual bite to it, “Just surprised that humans would portray a yokai so positively, even in fiction.”

“Most humans do think they’re just fiction,” Mikey told him. After a moment, his tone became a bit gentler, thinking back to certain points brought up by his father and April. “Though, I can still sorta see why that would feel weird or kinda insulting, seeing a fake version of yourself or your people and not knowin’ how they’d react to the real you, wondering if they would only like the fake you. That probably doesn’t feel the greatest... and I’m really sorry about that.”

Draxum blinked. He stared at the turtle for a few seconds before finally replying with, “You’re a lot more introspective than I would have thought.”

“I get that a lot,” Mikey grinned, “But hey, they don’t call me Dr. Feelings for nothing. So, did you wanna keep this one then, or- I mean, I can understand if-”

Draxum stopped him, looking at the tape again. “...I am admittedly curious,” he said, “You did say this was a movie humans watch as children.” Studying a species’ influences during adolescence could prove to be pretty useful in understanding the adults. “And besides, if the portrayal is truly offensive, I can always send a complaint to this ‘Walt Disney’ and demand certain edits.”

“Riiiiight, though I don’t think you’ll be too mad at this one,” Mikey told him, “Ariel is a great character, and all the other mermaids in the movie aren’t portrayed as jerks or anything. ...Well, one guy kinda is but, uh-”

“Let’s just watch it already,” Draxum told him, shoving the tape into his hand, “The sooner we start it, the sooner I can gauge whether or not it’s actually worth watching.”

Mikey smirked a little. “Heh, alright.” Opening the case, he pushed the tape in while Draxum went over to the couch they had gotten him at the thrift store, briefly checking it for bugs or lumps before sitting down. “Good thing it’s already rewound.”

The only annoying thing about that was that they had to sit through previews, though Mikey used that time to cook up some popcorn kernels that he had snagged on the way out of the Lair, easily cooking it using a pan and the stove top. (No one trusted Draxum with a microwave after That One Time.)

By the time he finished, the movie’s title had just faded onto the screen. Mikey smiled widely, the nostalgia from the music and the memories he had with the movie sending slight shivers up his shell. 

Draxum, meanwhile, was watching the film intently, taking in every detail. The mermaids in the film were still completely different than actual mermaids, but at least they weren’t an insulting caricature (even if they were a bit too human-like for his liking).

As it turned out, the main mermaid character was not only a bit of a collector and explorer, but also a human fanatic. “Ugh,” Draxum grumbled as he grabbed a couple more pieces of the puffed-up corn-snack. Mikey gave him a bit of a look, but he ignored it. Just because he had been able to find a bit of common ground and comradery with his fellow lunch servers didn’t mean he was willing to give ALL humans a pass.

At least the mermaid’s father seemed to have some common sense. In fact, Draxum found himself nodding in agreement with nearly every scene the mer-king was in. ...Up until a certain point, at least.

Mikey winced a bit as the scene began. He resisted the urge to go into his shell like he always had when he was little, but he did sink a little in his seat as Triton stepped out of the shadows. When he noticed Draxum glancing over at him, Mikey simply mumbled, “I always hate this scene...”

A couple minutes and a destroyed grotto later, and Draxum could sort of see what Mikey meant, understanding how Triton’s act might have been “harsh”, as the orange-wearing turtle would’ve put it.

As the movie moved onto the next seen, Mikey relaxed a little, though a frown remained on his face... However, his expression of sadness soon became one of confusion as he felt a hand pat the top of his head.

“Uh... there, there,” Draxum mumbled, giving Mikey one more head-pat before retracting his hand. It was awkward as all heck, they both knew it, but seeing the sheepman somewhat care about his feelings still made Mikey smile.

It didn’t take much longer for Ursula to make her appearance, and as soon as the Sea Witch began talking of deals and trades, Draxum gave a small smirk of his own.

“What?” Mikey asked, tilting his head a bit.

“I didn’t realize Big Mama was in this movie.”

Mikey snorted at that. “So what, you tell jokes now?”

The sheep-man shrugged as he grabbed another handful of popcorn. “Just making an observation,” he said simply. As the scene went on though, his mind made another small connection - Ursula’s two eels reminding him of his own pair of pets, even if Flotsam and Jetsam were much more confident than his former goyles.

Even so, the reminder made his chest ache a little... Not in sadness, mind you, or because he actually missed them. No, clearly his chest ached for a completely different reason that he was sure he’d think of later.

Once the little mermaid made the contract and silenced herself, the film very much became a literal ‘fish out of water’ story, complete with plenty of amusing moments featuring misunderstandings and an over-abundance of cuteness, as well as another musical number. Thankfully, before things became too saccharine, Ursula launched the second half of her plan to rule the seas.

After that, the movie moved pretty quickly through its third act. Draxum was a bit annoyed at the human prince being the one to ultimately save the day in the end, but overall he could agree that the ending was a pretty happy one.

As the credits rolled, Mikey looked at him with eyes wide. “Sooooo, what do you think?”

Draxum cupped his chin in thought, staying silent for a few moments before finally speaking. “...If the king’s trident had the power of transformation, why didn’t he just turn the prince into a merman?”

Mikey’s face fell. “...That’s what you got out of it?”

“It’s a valid question!” Draxum argued, “Why should she have to be the one to transform?”

“Because she wasn’t just after the guy!” Mikey told him, resisting the urge to facepalm, “You saw her collection and heard her song, she wanted to be human! She was tired of bein’ stuck in the same ocean and wanted something new - something she thought was cool!”

“Hmph, I suppose that’s true... Plus, she still has the option to turn back into a mermaid later on thanks to her father’s power, so at least there’s that.”

The box turtle slumped back on the couch, disappointed though maybe not too surprised. “I guess that means you didn’t really like it, huh?”

There was a long moment of silence. “I didn’t completely agree with the ending but... the film overall wasn’t too bad,” Draxum conceded, “Not as bad as I thought it’d be, at least?”

“...You really mean that?” Mikey asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I wouldn’t waste my time lying about something as trivial as animated human-entertainment,” Draxum replied, “And... there were high production values. Characters were mostly understandable, and it was... cute. Not too annoying or insufferable. Even if it was still slightly inaccurate to actual mermaids and mermen.”

“...You know what, I’ll take it. And I’m glad you enjoyed the movie, and not just for my sake.” With a bit of a ‘whup’, Mikey sat up and tucked his legs under his body in a sort of lotus position. “Though, now I’m kinda curious. What’d the movie get wrong, and what else can you tell me about merpeople? I only ever saw one, on Hueso’s brother’s ship, but that was only for like a second.”

This time, it was Draxum’s turn to give him a look. “Really... The child who’s always pushing me to ‘embrace humans’ and hide my ‘mystic stuff’ is asking me to teach him about a member of Yokaikind?”

“Hey, I only to tell you to hide your mystic stuff so you don’t get yourself evicted, fired or arrested,” Mikey retorted, “I’m not the one goin’ around mutatin’ kids and/or lunches and making giant stone heads angry.”

“...Fair enough,” Draxum said, only slightly reluctant.

“But as far as I can figure, there’s no harm in just talking about mystic stuff. And as for my actual interest... Yeah, I really do wanna know.” Unable to help himself, Mikey directed his gaze towards the floor - down towards the Hidden City that he knew was there. That he only now knew was there. 

He wouldn’t have traded his life with his dad in the sewers of NYC for anything, but he would’ve been lying if he said there wasn’t a small part of him that wondered what it would’ve been like to grow up around people that looked like him in a city full of magic.

“We protect humans, but we don’t like only humans, you know,” Mikey continued, “We’ve got other mutant friends, and yokai friends too.” His smile softened. “Senor Hueso and Sunita and the chefs I’ve met at Run of the Mill, they’re all so amazing. And I’ve only seen, like, a fraction of the Hidden City but I know that’s amazing too, and I just... This city - the surface - is always gonna be my home, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about the other city or wonder about it.” 

He finally looked back at Draxum, his eyes firm. “So yeah... I wanna know.”

There was another moment of silence between them, though within it, the slightest bit of connection was formed. Small and fragile, but no less noticeable.

“...Fine,” Draxum finally agreed, “But pay attention, I don’t want to repeat myself later. First off, no merperson has the same skin tone as a human. They range between greens, blues and grays to help blend in with oceans. Their eyes are also much wider than a human’s to help them hunt.”

“Makes sense to me!” Mikey smiled, leaning back on his hands a little, though looking no less attentive. Even when the TV turned to quiet static, he kept his focus right on Draxum - a gesture the former warrior-scientist certainly appreciated, even if he didn’t say so outright.

“Merpeople are also able to survive outside of water. While mobility becomes an issue depending on how often they’re moving or traveling, they have no issues living on land - hence why some take to living on air-boats as a sort of compromise, plus it helps them travel across bodies of water in a shorter amount of time. They also don’t eat humans, despite the lies told about them, though they can be territorial when they are in the water - although you can’t blame them, especially if fish start to become scarce. Furthermore-”

It was sort of nice... Sure, Mikey had plenty he wanted to show and teach Draxum about humankind - and if all went well, then maybe there was a chance of Draxum having a change of heart. Maybe their technical creator wasn’t totally evil, and maybe one day, he really would be a better person and would understand what he and his family already knew. Mikey certainly hoped that would end up being the case...

But, in the meantime, maybe Mikey would end up learning a little from Draxum too. And honestly, as long as it wasn’t lecture series about ‘effectively destroying humans’ or anything like that, the orange turtle didn’t see anything wrong with that at all.

THE END

[night-filled-mountain]

So, uh. I wrote a post. About Fjord and Caleb. It is over 3000 words long. I’m not going to make any attempt to justify this as a life decision. All I’ll say is that I am sure as hell putting this under a cut, and I would only venture beneath that cut if you really, really want to read an obsessive analysis of practically every significant interaction Fjord and Caleb have ever had (complete with direct quotes thanks to the light of my life, @crtranscript) that is longer than a goddamn term paper.

So the thing that keeps getting to me is that when Caleb agreed to bleed all over a dark altar to satisfy Fjord’s (and his own) curiosity, and he asked if Fjord would help him with his own goals when the time comes, Fjord didn’t say “Yes” or “It’s a deal” or anything along those lines. He said, “Always.” (This was in episode 44, which we all know, but I’m noting it because I’m going to be talking about a lot of different episodes in this post.)

We all know that Caleb tends to view almost all social interactions as transactional. (I’ve seen people claiming that Nott is the one exception to this rule, and I’d actually argue that Jester is the one exception, but that’s a whole other post.) Fjord, on the other hand, does not view his relationships with the Mighty Nein that way. He never has. In fact, I feel like he, more than any other member, has seen them as a family from the start. Furthermore, I think that this fundamental misunderstanding between Fjord and Caleb goes back almost as far as the campaign itself.

Courtesy of the amazing folks @crtranscript, here’s their famous conversation from episode 4 of this campaign, “Disparate Pieces”:

Caleb: This group seems rough around the edges, but you seem clever. Hopefully we can make this work.

Fjord: I think we should be able to, yeah. I mean, a little guidance goes a long way. You seem to be good at looking out for Nott.

Caleb: I mean, full disclosure, I’m a little rough around the edges, but you catch my drift.

Fjord: I do. You can trust us. You’re safe here. I’m concerned with what happens with Jester and Beau. I think, amongst all of us, we should be fine.

Caleb: Let’s make it work.

Fjord: We’ll make it work.

The thing is, I don’t think Fjord does catch Caleb’s drift, or vice versa. Caleb is talking about practicalities--about his hope for a group that can remain cohesive for a while, protect him from danger, and help him achieve his goals, assuming he does the same for them. His comment that they are “rough around the edges” is an expression of his anxiety that they will not fulfill those criteria, which is why he comes to Fjord, who he sees as the most levelheaded and friendly of the bunch, to try and assuage his fears.

And then there’s his “Full disclosure, I’m a little rough around the edges,” which reveals an alternate anxiety that he struggles with enormously to this day: that he might not be useful to them--or at least, not useful enough to off-set all his baggage. Caleb sees other people as commodities, but he also sees himself that way. Yes, he has considered leaving the Mighty Nein with Nott (or even taking off on his own) when he starts to feel they might endanger his life or hinder his goals...but he is also afraid of being forced out. Of being abandoned by the group if they learn what he’s done, or the fragile state of his sanity, or how much danger hangs over him. From his perspective, his entire relationship with Beau hinges on this fear, and it (along with Beau being...Beau) periodically gets in the way of the genuine friendship they might otherwise develop.

In short, Caleb went to Fjord in “Disparate Pieces” to find out whether he thought that the future Mighty Nein would make a good toolbox, and to pitch himself as a useful tool in that box, despite his shortcomings. Fjord, though, takes things much deeper than that:

He acknowledges friendships and protective urges within the group (“You seem to be good at looking out for Nott” and “I’m concerned with what happens with Jester and Beau”). He’s positioning himself and Caleb as protectors within the group, watching over its younger or more chaotic members, without even considering why they would want to/what they will get in exchange. (Note that at some point in those early episodes, he even offered to protect Frumpkin if that mattered to Caleb.)

He doesn’t offer Caleb any specific skills or services, nor ask what he can give in return. Instead, he makes an unconditional blanket statement: “You can trust us. You’re safe here.” Considering the sum total of Caleb’s life experiences, it seems highly doubtful that Caleb actually believed him. Yet I’m pretty sure Fjord meant every word.

He doesn’t think (like Caleb will in episode 26, “Found and Lost,” after the Iron Shepherds abduction) about what each member of the group might contribute to his goals. He just makes another blanket statement: “Amongst all of us, we should be fine.” In his mind, they’re already a unit. And not just a functional unit like a toolbox, or even a ship’s crew. They’re a family. They’re like two misfit dads with a pack of adopted misfit children. (This also goes a long way to explaining the perpetual tension between Fjord and Nott, but again, that’s a whole other post.)

And to me, that’s it right there, the fundamental divide. Mighty Nein as toolbox vs. Mighty Nein as family. It explains Caleb and Fjord’s one big schism: Scrollgate (episode 12, “Midnight Espionage”). To Caleb, you always use the handiest tools in your arsenal, whether they happen to be your teammates or a magical scroll in a drawer. To Fjord, the safety of the family comes before personal goals, always: “We’re either a team, or you’re working for yourselves. Decide.” And note that a few seconds after Caleb “decided” (by dropping the scroll and walking out of the room), Fjord was hauling an unconscious Caleb out of a burning house and pouring a healing potion down his throat. Their confrontation was irrelevant the moment Caleb confirmed himself as part of the family.

This division doesn’t just explain why they’ve clashed in the past, though, but also why their relationship has improved. When did Fjord’s opinion of Caleb take a turn for the better? When Caleb showed up at the Sour Nest, played a central role in defeating the Iron Shepherds and freeing his kidnapped teammates, and then comforted them and expressed affection for them (episode 30, “The Journey Home”). Travis said on Talks Machina that both he and Fjord were surprised by Caleb’s behavior--he’d expected Caleb to “throw it in their faces” or talk about how they owed him for the rescue. And honestly, is it any surprise he expected this? It would have fit Caleb’s m.o. perfectly. Both the rescue itself and Caleb’s selfless behavior afterward were a major turning point for Caleb, a non-transactional approach to his relationship with the gang. And Fjord fully recognized how huge that was, and took care to thank Caleb specifically for it.

But that brings me to the current Avantika/Uk’otoa arc, and all the fascinating Caleb/Fjord interactions it’s brought us, culminating in the madness that was Thursday night’s “blood pact.” I think that, during this arc, the tables have turned. If the Iron Shepherds arc helped repair their relationship because Caleb began to act more like Fjord, then this arc has complicated their relationship because Fjord (as Caleb sees it) has begun to act more like Caleb.

This, I think, has been the subtext lurking beneath Caleb’s repeated, insistent questioning of Fjord about what he wants, what his specific goals are during this quest, and how he wants the Mighty Nein to help achieve them. It makes perfect sense that Caleb has been so frantic to get to the bottom of that question, and that Fjord’s genuinely confused and non-committal answers have been driving him nuts. Because, from Caleb’s perspective, Fjord is finally utilizing the Mighty Nein for their proper purpose: to achieve personal goals.

Fjord must have goals. He must have a specific design for the thing he wants to build with his toolbox (because Caleb does, and Nott does, and Trent Ikithon did, and that’s pretty much the full range of Caleb’s experience). If he would just say what they are, Caleb could get back on familiar ground and frame the whole quest as transactional, offering to help achieve Fjord’s goals in exchange for the same privilege down the line, or refusing and cutting his losses if the risk is too high (which he threatened to do if Fjord tried to awaken Uk’otoa). If, however, Fjord won’t state his goals clearly, he must be shady, untrustworthy, deliberately hiding something, trying to manipulate his “toolbox” to achieve the desired result. It couldn’t possibly be because he never had a plan beyond “Find some answers and assume my family has my back.” It couldn’t possibly be that he wants the decision process to be collaborative, even during his own personal quest, because that’s how a family gets things done...could it?

So we have the two of them constantly, subtly working at cross-purposes. In episode 40, “Dubious Pursuits,” Caleb tells Fjord, “You do what you have to” with regard to the Avantika situation, assuming that Fjord will do the practical, goal-oriented thing: sleep with her to protect himself and the group.

But I suspect what Fjord really wanted in that moment was for someone (or everyone) to offer him help or reassurance, to serve as a buffer between him and this woman he was openly baffled by and terrified of. While Caleb’s go-to strategy when things get tough is to make a plan (often involving “calculated risk”) and implement it without consulting anyone, Fjord’s is to assemble the entire group and solicit their opinions, listening to and weighing every single voice before coming to a consensus. He actually tries to make this very clear to Caleb earlier in the aforementioned conversation: “I need more info, Caleb. I need more data, more knowledge. You read books on this stuff. There has to be someone out there that knows more about this before we just charge in.” When Caleb expresses serious concerns about Fjord’s intentions, Fjord answers, “I have no interest in dealing with matters that predate time as we know it. I’m pretty simple. These days I’ve spent with you are the most exciting of my entire life. I’m not looking to end them, or the world, by frivolously giving up something that I barely understand.” 

This is an answer that Caleb absolutely cannot believe as long as he keeps projecting his own goals and values onto Fjord. Because Fjord is prioritizing his found family over power, over ancient arcane knowledge. Nothing sounds faker to Caleb than the two sentences that might be the most succinct summary of Fjord’s motivations we’ve ever heard: “I’m pretty simple. These days I’ve spent with you are the most exciting of my life.”

What Fjord wanted in that moment was for the M9 to tell him, “We have ideas, we’ve got your back, we’ll stand with you (and against HER) like family should, and you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.” But Caleb couldn’t imagine saying (or hearing) those words. Just imagine for a second if those words had occurred to him or Astrid or Eodwulf sixteen years before our story began.

Instead, Caleb gives Fjord the bleak truth about Avantika: “She’s not going to let go of you. You are a key that she needs.” Sound familiar? Stir up any memories of Caleb’s backstory? Or (even more chillingly) of the way Caleb himself usually views (or at least tries to view) the people he works with?

So Fjord slept with Avantika. Not, as Caleb assumed, because it was “no big deal” in the service of his master plan, but because Caleb implied that he had a responsibility to do so, and Fjord takes his family’s opinions and his responsibilities to them more seriously than anything else. And in episode 43, “In Hot Water,” even Caleb himself figures that out (“He has compromised himself with this woman, for us, for himself, for all of our safety. It is going to be difficult for him”). What made him realize his mistake? Probably the one-on-one conversation he had with Fjord in episode 41, “A Pirate’s Life for Me.” 

I think this conversation is crucial to their relationship. I might go so far as to say that it changes Caleb’s view of Fjord almost as radically as the Iron Shepherds arc changed Fjord’s view of Caleb. Here Caleb is, thinking of Fjord as a levelheaded, competent leader, a friendly guy...but cagey and secretive, potentially dangerous, possibly manipulating them all in the name of his mysterious master plan. And then Fjord pulls Caleb aside and just lays it all out.

“I had to admit I found myself a bit surprised. My initial impression of you was someone a bit timid and maybe reserved; meek even. Your tone, your opinion of what to do with Avantika in order to make sure that we’re okay, it seemed very…calculated. Very…risky. Do you mind me asking if you’ve...have you ever sacrificed anything in order to achieve a greater goal? Because I feel like I am swimming in the deep end and I don’t quite know what I’m doing.”

This little monologue turned Caleb’s entire impression of Fjord and his arc on its head. I think this is when he realized that Fjord isn’t ruthlessly pursuing some deep, dark, secret goal like Caleb himself. Instead, he’s been thrust unwillingly into a situation where he’s suddenly being forced to make the kinds of harrowing decisions that Caleb’s long since conditioned himself to make.

In stark contrast to his confident ultimatums in their previous conversation, Caleb is awkward and skittish, caught off-guard. He dodges Fjord’s question with irrelevant half-truths, but he knows perfectly well how astute it was. And suddenly, he’s not seeing Fjord as a current mirror image of himself, ruthless and calculating; he’s seeing Fjord as a mirror of himself as a child, innocent and uncertain, finding himself in a situation with no right or safe choices, where power and knowledge come with a heavy dose of manipulation and violence.

And who does Fjord come to, with praise for his strategic intellect and keen perception? Who does he trust to fix this fucked-up situation if necessary? Caleb. Because he senses, despite Caleb’s evasions, that he has been in this kind of situation before...and he assumes, in a moment of incredible irony, that this means Caleb is equipped to make the right choice:

Fjord: I think you know what I mean, but in case this thing gets out of hand, can I count on you to right the ship if need be?

Caleb: Keep the group safe?

Fjord: Of course.

Keep the group safe. That’s what Fjord has tasked both himself and Caleb with through the whole damn campaign, and Caleb finally gets it. That Fjord doesn’t want a powerful tool in his arsenal to achieve his own goals; he wants a back-up guardian for the flock of wayward children he’s taken under his wing. This is one of those rare moments (like “The Journey Home”) when Caleb’s brain fully switches from toolbox to family, and the proof is in the way the conversation ends: “I think that woman is going to try to kill you, I really do.”

Why does Caleb hesitate so long and “nervously twiddle” his bit of wire before conveying that message? Because it’s so out of character. Because his own agenda is to use Fjord as a buffer between Avantika and the rest of the group, and this warning directly contradicts that agenda. Because this isn’t an expression of concern about group cohesion or success.

It’s an expression of concern for Fjord.

And at the end of the following episode (episode 42, “A Hole in the Plan,” if we’re still keeping track), Caleb finally does what Fjord wanted all along. He produces a literal manifestation of the thing that Fjord has wanted the M9 to do metaphorically ever since they first encountered Avantika: “I cast Wall of Fire between her and us.” He sends the message, loud and clear, that Fjord will no longer be used as a tool for the protection of the group, because the entire family is worthy of protection. Family, not toolbox.

And Fjord reacts immediately. In episode 43, “In Hot Water,” his focus is on Caleb throughout the fight with Avantika’s crew: moving Caleb out of danger, reviving Caleb when he’s down, and panicking so much that he lets his accent slip because Caleb has done just what Fjord asked, he has kept the group safe, and Fjord, in turn, feels responsible for Caleb, who is part of the family as well.

...And all of this brings me to the most recent episode. To episode 44, which...doesn’t have a title yet. 😛 And to the infamous blood ritual.

Now, there were a million things going on with that ritual (and the spontaneous “pact” that followed). Plenty of people have already written about them more eloquently than I ever could. We had both Fjord and Caleb poking at and manipulating each other, testing each other’s boundaries, each trying to see how far the other would go. We had them acknowledging their shared fascination with power (in a darker echo of Fjord’s constant compliments for Caleb’s magic at the beginning of the campaign), and we had Fjord “7 wisdom” Tusktooth and Caleb “calculated risk” Widogast go into an ill-considered, self-destructive frenzy before Jester’s (and our) horrified eyes.

But to me, for all the common ground they discovered in that scene, for all the “blood brothers” hype of their gory handshake, the fundamental misunderstanding still remains. Caleb, despite all the recent progress he’s made toward understanding and even adopting Fjord’s “Mighty Nein=family” perspective, thinks that he’s finally discovered the real Fjord: reckless, ambitious, willing to trade favors with Caleb in order to pursue knowledge and power, placing the two of them on exactly the same page. He tries to lay this out for Fjord right before the bloodbath, admitting that he has goals of his own and asking if Fjord will be there to help him accomplish them.

And Fjord’s response? “Always.”

It’s a subtle moment. I’m pretty sure Caleb didn’t pick up on it. He still viewed the situation as a trade, and when Fjord ended the ritual prematurely, when he took Caleb’s hand and said, “We understand each other,” Caleb thought they were sealing a pact that was contingent on his willingness to bleed.

In Fjord’s mind? It was the opposite.

This was never about demanding a trade from Caleb (or vice versa). They were both bleeding on that altar. The question they both kept asking each other (“Aren’t you curious?”) wasn’t about pressuring each other into an unwanted situation; it was about acknowledging their shared curiosity and acting on it. It wasn’t Caleb working toward Fjord’s goals so that Fjord will eventually work toward Caleb’s; it was about the two of them working together, in every situation, to accomplish the goals of the group (even when that means backing off from their own ambitions when the risk becomes too great, as demonstrated by the fact that he ended that ritual when the cost became too high).

Fjord didn’t promise to work toward Caleb’s goals if Caleb worked toward his. He promised to work toward Caleb’s goals, full-stop. Always. Always. He’s been working for Caleb--and the rest of the Mighty Nein--since they first became a unit. Barring a blatant betrayal of the group (like he feared during Scrollgate), he’s never had any intention of doing anything else, or any conditions that apply to that assistance. Family, not toolbox.

Caleb has spent the entire campaign trying to bargain for something that has always been offered to him freely. Fjord told him “You’re safe here” before the M9 even hit the road together, and he told him “Always” before a single drop of blood was spilled.

[i-eat-lemons]

The Tone of Abstract Art Throughout History

There is a lot to be said of the first article. Initially, I fundamentally disagreed with it. For roughly the first third of the reading, I understood everything Denson said to be nit-picky or blatantly false; upon finishing the article, I’ve since changed my mind, but I feel my initial reaction was still just and within reason.

To begin with, Denson’s writing was very difficult to read -- his points were far from concise, and made a lot of the arguments he was making hard to understand. This is no present to write a persuasive essay, which is essentially what Denson was writing. I think in this regard, it led to my misunderstanding and consequent overreaction more understandable (still not justified, but eh). My immediate issue lay with the fact that Denson didn’t seem able to distinguish between abstract art and the abstract art movement, which is what the MoMA exhibition was claiming to promote. They are two very separate things. For example, if I made an abstract work today, it wouldn’t be considered a part of the abstract movement, and wouldn’t fit with the category presented by MoMA (abstract works created between 1911 and 1925). Alternatively, if I curated a show titled “Flowers from 1914 to 1918,” I wouldn’t include artwork of flowers from 100BC. That doesn’t mean I’m denying the fact that flowers existed in art prior to 1914, it just means that specific piece of art doesn’t fit the category, perhaps the pattern, I was looking for in my theoretical show. This was my initial issue with Denson’s argument -- he was overly focused on the exhibition’s lack of abstract art prior to 1911 only for the fact that no works dated before 1911 were included -- the issue wasn’t with a denial of the existence of abstraction, it was that the abstract work wasn’t included.

This aspect of his argument didn’t appear until about two-thirds of the way through the article when he began to specifically hone in on the eurocentrism of the MoMA exhibition and the fact that it was titled “Inventing Abstraction” not “Re-inventing Abstraction.” In this aspect, I do agree with his point, and I think it is a big issue in today’s art culture. “Inventing Abstraction” even has in its exhibition description the two quotes -- “Yet when those works first appeared -- quite suddenly, around 100 years ago -- they took many observers by surprise”  and “Beginning in late 1911 and across the course of the next year, a series of artists including Vasily Kandinsky, Fernard Leger, Robert Delaunay, Frantisek Kupka, and Francis Pibcabia exhibited works that marked the beginning of something radically new: they dispensed with recognizable subject matter.” The phrases “quite suddenly, around 100 years ago” and “marked the beginning of something radically new” are fundamentally false, especially in light of Denson’s argument. Abstraction itself isn’t new. I do feel that Denson gets a bit over-exaggerated at times (we can’t look back at every single instance of a circle on a cave from 10000 BC and call it abstract art (ie - sometimes a circle is just a circle, or a representation of an eye or the sun)), but maybe that exaggeration is what the art world needs to look up and push us over the edge into actual global representation of art, as opposed to forced attempts at representation.

The second article was incredibly interesting. As a history nerd, I love the explanation of the political reasons behind the promotion of abstract art. It has always confused me that abstract art is so widespread when the article even made the point that “the great majority of Americans disliked or even despised modern art.” The explanations given, that the CIA secretly promoted abstract art in an attempt to disprove the rigidity of Soviet art of the time makes complete sense -- it explains how a “hated” art form ended up being so widespread, in places like airports and hotels. I think the most interesting part of the article is the inherent juxtaposition between the freedom of expression that is a part of abstract art and the secrecy of control by the CIA. The fact that the artists were able to operate without knowledge of the government’s influence is vastly interesting -- the freedom of art wasn’t knowingly compromised, and yet the reasoning behind that art was actually compromised. It brings up the question of whether or not art can be free of influences, based on the artist knowing whether or not they’ve been compromised. It’s similar to the “if a tree falls in a forest” question, but in terms of creating art.

Also interesting to note (which is irrelevant, but eh) is the fact that the Independent is a British newspaper. While not a big deal, it is interesting in the fact that the CIA is literally part of the American government. It brings to the forefront the fact the CIA deals with international issues, but the fact still remains that this is inherently an American and Russian issue -- it’s just weird to think that a British newspaper reported on a topic that didn’t really involve the British. It makes this piece read more as a gossip rag than it does to an American.

The aspect of potential bias is also interesting to note in the context of the first and second articles together. On the one hand, you have either the inherently ignorant or the blatantly intentional bias of art curators exhibiting the “Western bias” in art. On the other, you have the acknowledged bias of the CIA on abstract art, and yet they admitted to trying to play the least amount of role possible in the actual creation of the art. Despite this, by sponsoring and promoting a specific style, you inherently create a bias in favor of that one kind of art. It’s just interesting to note the different forms of bias that play a role on the same style of art, especially on that same style within the same period of time.

The third article mostly provided an interesting reinforcement of the second article. It was easier to digest and understand, and consequently I feel the points made, while the same, were put more eloquently. There was also further elaboration than in the second article, which focused primarily on the failures of one particular MoMA exhibition and the reasonings behind it, which led into the territory of the third article -- the Cold War and abstract art as a whole. Due to the broader focus, the third article was successful in relating cause and effect more clearly than the second. Within the third article, I enjoyed how it touched upon a “scale of influence” which still appears today -- an individual's influence on art (the artist versus a single billionaire, for example), a museum’s influence on art, and government institutions’ influences.

On the whole, all three of this week’s readings focused on how abstract art was viewed across different historical contexts. There were similarities in all the articles, with the primary tie-in being the MoMA. I enjoyed how the topics touched upon are still relevant today -- museum and wealthy singular persons influences upon how art is created. It raises the question of bias, whether intentional or not -- or even inherent. Also important is the questioning of whether or not this is an issue to be fixed in the present, and how it may compromise “art for art’s sake.”

[conceptsnest]

PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION

Think back to a time when you learned a new skill quickly. Now, consider what was going on in your life at that time. Were you in good physical, mental, and emotional health? Was life just going your way? Your mood, attitude, and motivation can affect how easily you can pick up a new skill- for example., learning a new language:

Definition: Psychological Barriers

The psychological barrier of communication is the influence of psychological state of the communicators (sender and receiver) which creates an obstacle for effective communication.

Causes of Psychological Barriers

Lack of Attention:

When a person’s mind is distracted or preoccupied with other things, the person is not able to form proper messages, listen to what others tell him/her, interpret the message as required and give proper feedback. The communication will face problems and becomes ineffective. Examples:

1)      A person in tragedy, for instance, does not want to listen to other people giving advice.

2)      A person might be preoccupied by the problems of his/her professional life or personal life, which affects both.

Poor Retention:

Retention of information is the capacity of the memory of the brain to store information. The Brain does not store all the information it comes across, but only the ones it deems useful for future. So, half the information is lost in the retention process.

Similarly, brain also loses information that is old and not taken as useful with time. Extracting the information is also a process in the formation of message. Here, the brain tries to remember the required information, the fragments of which have already been lost.

For example, you were told about a friend coming to meet you before a month and had been given the person’s name, address, phone number, etc. Now, you have to communicate the information to somebody else. At the time, you only remember the name and address and forget the phone number. The truth can change or distort due to poor retention which acts as barrier to communication.

Distrust and Defensiveness:

Communication is successful when the communicators trust each other. Lack of trust makes them derive negative meaning of the message and they ignore the message. When a person tries to force his/her own ideas and opinions, then receiver does not listen. If the receiver does not agree to the message provided or thinks of it as a threat, he/she will not listen to it. Similarly, when the message is not transferred across to the receiver, the communication fails. For example, I don’t trust a friend, I will only give the details, of what is happening in my personal life which I think are harmless.

Perception, Viewpoint, Attitudes and Opinions:

Perception is the mindset using which people judge, understand and interpret everything. Each person has his/he own perception of reality which is shaped from mental and sensory experiences.

Likewise, viewpoint is also a mindset to look at the world. Sender might have a particular viewpoint that is not shared by the receiver. The sender does not explain the viewpoint but takes the viewpoint as granted. The message is not understood by the receiver as must have been understood, creating a barrier to effective communication.

Attitude is the established way in which we think and feel about things and ideas which also creates a psychological communication barrier. For example, a person takes females to be weak which is the person’s perception. He/she tells that to someone who does not think so. This causes a misunderstanding between the two. Everything they communicate after that becomes unsuccessful that the view of the person is already set.

Emotions:

Anyone who isn’t in a good mood is likely to talk less or talk negatively. A preoccupied mind is not good at communicating. For example, when a person is angry, he/she might say things they regret later. Even when listening to someone else speak, an angry person might easily misinterpret the message.

Various other emotions like fear, nervousness, confusion, mistrust and jealousy affect communication process. For example, a person having extreme moods of happiness will laugh at anything at all said to him/her. The same person when sad will cry or get angry at insignificant situations.

Closed Mind and Filtering:

Man is selfish by nature and put his own needs and problems above all else. This sometimes leads people to filter information that someone is trying to convey to them. This might be due to mistrust, competition, jealousy, or the view that the message is insignificant.

For example, a senior in a company does not want the junior to do better at work, the person filters the information and does not provide crucial information that could help the junior. The junior therefore will not be able to complete the work properly and progress in ranks. Similarly, when a person is close minded, the person will have fixed opinions on many things which the person believes resolutely. The person will interpret any information in a negative way.

For example, a sexist person does not accept the suggestions of a female colleague in a meeting that affects the communication flow in the meeting. It is difficult to argue with such close minded people and give proper information.

Premature Evaluation:

Some people are always in a hurry by habit. These kinds of people most likely make quick judgments and jump into conclusions. They do not consider all aspects of the information such as social, cultural, economic, etc., and often end up taking quick and wrong decisions.

It is important to hear the whole message to make proper judgments because they are not changed easily after they are once made.

 For example, a person who is in a hurry and is talking on the phone does not listen to half the message and makes the decision which is wrong in the situation.

 Psychological barriers affect communication more as information is formed in the brain and is sent by people with various psychological condition which differs from one moment to another. Information is as effective as the people involved make it. Similarly, the psychological condition of the receiver also has as much importance as the sender’s. Communication is ineffective if psychological aspects of communication acts as a barrier to communication.

Effective Communication is King in a Crisis:

Communication is a crucial aspect of our lives whether that be personal or professional and although it is common to believe that communication is simply the exchange of words, it is much more than that.

A speaker’s words only account for a fraction of the information being transmitted, 7% to be precise. Your non-verbal cues such as your facial expressions, tone of voice and body language have much more of an influence on how the message will be received.

Often in interactions, when verbal and nonverbal massages fail to align, it can decrease clarity, rapport and most importantly trust. As such, the importance of effective communication skills must not be overlooked. 

In the world of business, communication is regarded as an essential skill; one that can always be improved and one that is pivotal to the success of organisational process. Increased productivity, reduced conflict and greater job satisfaction are just a few of the positive outcomes associated with effective communication in the workplace. Yet it continues to remain a key challenge for many businesses and a lack of communication within and across teams can result in poor customer experience. 

As challenging as it may be, it is essential that effective internal and external communication be the norm within your organisation. This goes beyond putting processes in place, it should be part of the organisation’s DNA. The right people should be communicated to at the right time to ensure customers are being helped efficiently and to present a united front. 

Of all the key stakeholders we communicate with, in our daily working practices, there is little denying that the customer is king. How we communicate with our customers directly impacts upon the quality of the customer experience, which in turn influences satisfaction and the likelihood of repeat business. But how exactly can we enhance the quality of our customer communication processes?

Here are the seven C’s, which is a great tool to ensure effective business communication:

Clear Ensure there is clarity in the message you are delivering so that it can be interpreted the way you intended it to be.  You must have a clear understanding about the purpose and goal of the message and what you hope to accomplish in the exchange.

Complete

The message must hold all the information and facts needed by the audience in order for them to make an informed decision or take action. Incomplete messages can significantly breakdown communication and open the doors for misinterpretation.

Concise

Brief, succinct messages that are to the point are crucial as it shows your clarity of thought. Minimise irrelevant information and unnecessary details to avoid misunderstanding, instead focus on the key points you want to highlight.

Credible

This implies being transparent in communication and including supporting facts from credible sources to support your message, as it will strengthen the message and build confidence.

Considerate

Showing compassion and politeness in verbal exchanges creates for a respectful dialogue, one where both viewpoints are considered. Demonstrate that you are not just hearing but listening to what is being said. Simply showing empathy and attempting to understand the receiver’s needs can go a long way in building that lasting relationship. Correct The information you communicate should be free from error including language and grammatical mistakes, this essentially supports the credibility of the information being delivered and makes you appear knowledgeable and professional.

Confidence

To get your message across effectively you need to exude confidence. This means displaying positive body language, breaking down complex concepts in a simple and engaging way and responding proactively to unexpected situations. Consider things such as eye contact, hand gestures and your stance. For example, a relaxed, open stance, and a friendly tone can make a big difference in others seeing you as approachable.

 Content Curated By: Dr Shoury Kuttappa

[pickingstars-blog1]

moffat said once that a scandal in belgravia, which is def worth watching-he & others rightly consider it one of the finest things he's written- is not about sherlock holmes in love but about sherlock & love. that's a crucial observation cuz there's a subtle undercurrent about john & sherlock's relationship here too. basically it's all about how love & sexuality are fluid & complex. irene's gay & john isn't but they both love sherlock in their own way. there's actually a good point of comparison

pro scandal anon cont’d: between the key conversation john & irene have wrt to their relationships w/ sherlock and the conversation ianto has w/ his sister in children of earth about his relationship w/ jack. but irene in scandal is where the moffat is a terrible sexist backlash really began to get into full swing so lots of interesting analysis was ignored in favor of poorly reasoned criticism 

This is incredibly insightful thank you so much!

I have to say none of this surprises me in the slightest. The notion of Steven Moffat writing something emotionally complex teeming with unique thematic subtext and commentary, and the majority of tumblr users either ignoring it, misrepresenting it, or totally misunderstanding it, is unfortunately the most predictable notion ever.

And you’re absolutely right about Ianto/Jack gosh! Pretty much all my knowledge of Torchwood comes from Children of Earth (it’s, with a few sporadic episodes here and there, the only Torchwood I’ve seen…oh god call me a bad fan already I know im awful, I should really give it another go…) but I do remember that Ianto was dating women before his relationship with Jack - and I remember that conversation with his sister in Children of Earth very clearly, (Mostly because I watched Children of Earth as an in-denial gay twelve-year-old and so a scene in which Ianto comes out to his sister sort of…profoundly lodged itself into my brain…) and you’re totally right. Did anyone find that offensive at the time? The notion that Jack was an exception to his sexuality? Of course not because that’s the point! It was a testament to the strength of his feelings for Jack, the fact that despite him being straight, he finds himself totally whole-heartedly in love with him. It’s the same with Irene, I’m guessing. The fact that she prefers women and yet in spite of this finds herself falling for Sherlock in whatever confusing, bizarre, intense way she does is presumably the entire narrative point!

I’m looking forward to watching it now, especially if it’s something Moffat is proud of. I’ll try and make time tomorrow!

How frustrating though that some people are so averse to thinking about text and about writing in any way other than critically. Critical analysis is wholly worthwhile, and completely vital for the longevity and progression of literature and drama and film, but it’s all the more important to think of text as the complicated, infinite, enriched, immeasurable, sometimes-faltering, phenomenon that it often is. Taking writing at face-value is almost always a mistake. Being ‘out-to-get-it’ at all times is almost always a mistake. What makes writing exciting, what makes it prolific, is it’s detail, and it’s depth. Tumblr making the mistake of doing bare-minimum critical analysis is why we all have to debunk utter shit like “Clara Oswald is just a plot-device puzzle to be solved” as if like…thats 👏 not 👏 the 👏 entire 👏 point 👏 of 👏 the 👏 meta-narrative 👏

What is putative is not gospel. And even though the “Steven Moffat is sexist and homophobic because Irene Adler” is a popular argument to make, I’m pretty convinced that it’s predominantly caused by, deliberate or not, a refusal to engage with his writing on anything beyond your basic GCSE English Literature Class level. Whether that’s because these people in question are actually only 15 years old themselves (in which case like everything I’ve said is utter rubbish and totally irrelevent), or if it’s out of spite and/or pettiness I don’t know, but if it’s the latter, as I suspect, it’s super frustrating.

x

[a-alex-hammer]

7 Proven SEO Reporting Best Practices That Boost Client Retention

“Let’s hop on a call to go over this report.”

Did you hear that?

That was the collective sigh of SEOs everywhere.

If we’re being honest, most of us probably view reporting the same way we view taking out the trash or folding the laundry. It’s a chore that robs us of time we could have spent on more important or enjoyable things.

Adding to the frustration is the reality that many clients don’t even read their reports. That’s right. All that time you put into pulling together your data and the report might be forever resigned to the dusty corner of your client’s inbox.

In the words of Mama Boucher, reporting is the devil.

Hear me out though… have you ever thought of reporting as a client retention tool? While reporting is something that takes your time away from SEO work that moves the needle, reporting is also critical if you want to have a campaign to work on at all.

In other words, no reporting = no value communicated = no more client.

The good news is that the reverse is also true. When we do SEO reporting well, we communicate our value and keep more clients, which is something that every agency and consultant can agree is important.

That all sounds nice, but how can we do that? Throughout my six years at an SEO agency, I picked up some reporting tips that I hope you’ll be able to benefit from as well.

P.S. If you haven’t seen it already, Moz’s own Meghan Pahinui wrote an amazing post for the Moz blog on creating relevant and engaging SEO reports using Moz Pro Campaigns. Definitely check it out!

1. Report on what they care about

I’ve seen my share of reports that highlighted metrics that just didn’t reflect any of the client’s main objectives. Your clients are busy — the first sight of something irrelevant and they’ll lose interest, so make your reports count!

My process for determining what I should report on is fairly simple:

Identify the business objective

Create an SEO plan that will help achieve that goal

Execute the plan

Report on the metrics that best measure the work I did

In other words, choose appropriate KPIs to match their business objectives and your strategy, and stick to those for your reporting.

2. Set specific goals

You: “Good news! We got 4,000 organic visits last month.”

Client: “Why wasn’t it 5,000?”

If that’s ever happened to you before, you’re not alone.

This simple step is so easy to forget, but make sure your goals are specific and mutually agreed upon before you start! At the beginning of the month, tell your client what your goal is (ex: “We hope to be able to get 4,000 organic visits”). That way, when you review your report, you’ll be able to objectively say whether you missed/hit/exceeded your targets.

3. Eliminate jargon

Your clients are professionals in their own fields, not yours, so make sure to leave the shop-talking to Twitter. Before sending out a report, ask yourself:

Have I defined all potentially confusing metrics? I’ve seen some SEOs include a mini-glossary or analogies to explain some of their charts — I love this! It really helps disambiguate metrics that are easy to misunderstand.

Am I using words that aren’t used outside my own echo chamber? Some phrases become so ubiquitous in our immediate circles that we assume everyone uses them. In many cases, we’re using jargon without even realizing it!

Simply put, use clear language and layman’s terms in your client’s SEO reports. You won’t serve anyone by confusing them.

4. Visualize your data in meaningful ways

I once heard a client describe a report as “pretty, but useless.”

Ouch.

They had a point though. Their report was full of pie charts and line graphs that, while important-looking, conveyed no meaning to them.

Part of that “meaning” comes down to reporting on the metrics your client cares about (see #1), but the other half of that is choosing how you’ll display that information.

There are some great resources on Moz about data visualization such as Demystifying Data Visualization for Marketers, a video of Annie Cushing’s talk at MozCon 2014, and A Visualization Prescription for Impactful Data Storytelling, a Whiteboard Friday video by Lea Pica.

Resources like that will help you transform your data from metrics into a story that conveys meaning to your clients, so don’t skimp on this step!

5. Provide insights, not just metrics

I remember the first time someone explained to me the difference between metrics and insights. I was blown away.

It seems so simple now, but in my earliest days in digital marketing, I basically viewed “reporting” as synonymous with “data.” Raw, numeric, mind-numbing data.

The key to making your reports more meaningful to your clients is understanding that pure metrics don’t have intrinsic data. You have to unify the data in meaningful ways and pull out insights that help your client understand not just what the numbers are but why they matter.

I find it helpful to ask “so what?” when going through a report. Client’s ranking on page 1 for this list of keywords? That’s cool, but why should my client care about this? How is it contributing to their goals? Work on answering that question before you communicate your reports.

6. Connect SEO results to revenue

I’m going to be honest, this one is tricky.

First of all, SEO is a few layers removed from conversions. When it comes to “the big three” (as I like to refer to rankings, traffic, and conversions), SEOs can:

Most directly influence rankings

Influence organic traffic, but a little less directly than rankings. For example, organic traffic can go down despite sustained rankings due to things like seasonality.

Influence organic conversions, but even less directly than traffic. Everything from the website design to the product/service itself can affect that.

Second, it can be difficult to connect SEO to revenue especially on websites where the ultimate conversion happens offline (ex: lead gen). In order to tie organic traffic to revenue, you’ll want to set up goal conversions and add a value to those conversions in your analytics, but here’s where that gets difficult:

Clients often don’t know their average LCV (lifetime customer value)

Clients often don’t know their average close rate (the rough percentage of leads that they close)

Clients know, but they don’t want to share this information with you

Everyone has a different reporting methodology, but I personally tend to advocate for at least trying to connect SEO to revenue. I’ve been in enough situations where our client dropped us because they saw us as a cost-center rather than a profit-center to know that communicating your value in monetary terms can mean the difference between keeping your client or not.

Even though you can’t directly influence conversions and even if your client can only give you a rough ballpark figure for LCV and close rate, it’s better than nothing.

7. Be available to fill in the gaps

Not everything can be explained in a report. Even if you’re able to add text commentary to elaborate on your data, there’s still the risk that a key point will be lost on your client completely. Expect this!

I’ve seen plenty of client reporting calls go well over an hour. While no two situations are alike, I think starting with a report that contains clear insights on the KPIs your client cares about will do wonders for shortening that conversation.

Your clients will be able to understand those insights on their own, which frees you up to add context and answer any questions without getting bogged down with back-and-forth over “red herring” metrics that distract from the main point.

I want to hear from you!

What about you? Every SEO has their own reporting best practices, wins, and horror stories — I want to hear yours!

What reporting trick do you have up your sleeve that could help your fellow SEOs save time (& their sanity)?

What’s your biggest reporting struggle and how are you trying to solve it?

What’s an example of a time when reporting played a role in salvaging a client relationship?

We’re in this together — so let’s learn from each other!

And if you want more where this came from, please consider downloading our free whitepaper: High-Impact SEO Reporting for Agencies! It’s full of advice and helpful tips for using reports to communicate value to your clients.

Read the whitepaper

Source link

Source/Repost=> http://technewsdestination.com/7-proven-seo-reporting-best-practices-that-boost-client-retention/ ** Alex Hammer | Founder and CEO at Ecommerce ROI ** http://technewsdestination.com

[gamebazu]

7 Proven SEO Reporting Best Practices That Boost Client Retention

Posted by KameronJenkins

“Let’s hop on a call to go over this report.”

Did you hear that?

That was the collective sigh of SEOs everywhere.

If we’re being honest, most of us probably view reporting the same way we view taking out the trash or folding the laundry. It’s a chore that robs us of time we could have spent on more important or enjoyable things.

Adding to the frustration is the reality that many clients don’t even read their reports. That’s right. All that time you put into pulling together your data and the report might be forever resigned to the dusty corner of your client’s inbox.

In the words of Mama Boucher, reporting is the devil.

Hear me out though… have you ever thought of reporting as a client retention tool? While reporting is something that takes your time away from SEO work that moves the needle, reporting is also critical if you want to have a campaign to work on at all.

In other words, no reporting = no value communicated = no more client.

The good news is that the reverse is also true. When we do SEO reporting well, we communicate our value and keep more clients, which is something that every agency and consultant can agree is important.

That all sounds nice, but how can we do that? Throughout my six years at an SEO agency, I picked up some reporting tips that I hope you’ll be able to benefit from as well.

P.S. If you haven’t seen it already, Moz’s own Meghan Pahinui wrote an amazing post for the Moz blog on creating relevant and engaging SEO reports using Moz Pro Campaigns. Definitely check it out!

1. Report on what they care about

I’ve seen my share of reports that highlighted metrics that just didn’t reflect any of the client’s main objectives. Your clients are busy — the first sight of something irrelevant and they’ll lose interest, so make your reports count!

My process for determining what I should report on is fairly simple:

Identify the business objective

Create an SEO plan that will help achieve that goal

Execute the plan

Report on the metrics that best measure the work I did

In other words, choose appropriate KPIs to match their business objectives and your strategy, and stick to those for your reporting.

2. Set specific goals

You: “Good news! We got 4,000 organic visits last month.”

Client: “Why wasn’t it 5,000?”

If that’s ever happened to you before, you’re not alone.

This simple step is so easy to forget, but make sure your goals are specific and mutually agreed upon before you start! At the beginning of the month, tell your client what your goal is (ex: “We hope to be able to get 4,000 organic visits”). That way, when you review your report, you’ll be able to objectively say whether you missed/hit/exceeded your targets.

3. Eliminate jargon

Your clients are professionals in their own fields, not yours, so make sure to leave the shop-talking to Twitter. Before sending out a report, ask yourself:

Have I defined all potentially confusing metrics? I’ve seen some SEOs include a mini-glossary or analogies to explain some of their charts — I love this! It really helps disambiguate metrics that are easy to misunderstand.

Am I using words that aren’t used outside my own echo chamber? Some phrases become so ubiquitous in our immediate circles that we assume everyone uses them. In many cases, we’re using jargon without even realizing it!

Simply put, use clear language and layman’s terms in your client’s SEO reports. You won’t serve anyone by confusing them.

4. Visualize your data in meaningful ways

I once heard a client describe a report as “pretty, but useless.”

Ouch.

They had a point though. Their report was full of pie charts and line graphs that, while important-looking, conveyed no meaning to them.

Part of that “meaning” comes down to reporting on the metrics your client cares about (see #1), but the other half of that is choosing how you’ll display that information.

There are some great resources on Moz about data visualization such as Demystifying Data Visualization for Marketers, a video of Annie Cushing’s talk at MozCon 2014, and A Visualization Prescription for Impactful Data Storytelling, a Whiteboard Friday video by Lea Pica.

Resources like that will help you transform your data from metrics into a story that conveys meaning to your clients, so don’t skimp on this step!

5. Provide insights, not just metrics

I remember the first time someone explained to me the difference between metrics and insights. I was blown away.

It seems so simple now, but in my earliest days in digital marketing, I basically viewed “reporting” as synonymous with “data.” Raw, numeric, mind-numbing data.

The key to making your reports more meaningful to your clients is understanding that pure metrics don’t have intrinsic data. You have to unify the data in meaningful ways and pull out insights that help your client understand not just what the numbers are but why they matter.

I find it helpful to ask “so what?” when going through a report. Client’s ranking on page 1 for this list of keywords? That’s cool, but why should my client care about this? How is it contributing to their goals? Work on answering that question before you communicate your reports.

6. Connect SEO results to revenue

I’m going to be honest, this one is tricky.

First of all, SEO is a few layers removed from conversions. When it comes to “the big three” (as I like to refer to rankings, traffic, and conversions), SEOs can:

Most directly influence rankings

Influence organic traffic, but a little less directly than rankings. For example, organic traffic can go down despite sustained rankings due to things like seasonality.

Influence organic conversions, but even less directly than traffic. Everything from the website design to the product/service itself can affect that.

Second, it can be difficult to connect SEO to revenue especially on websites where the ultimate conversion happens offline (ex: lead gen). In order to tie organic traffic to revenue, you’ll want to set up goal conversions and add a value to those conversions in your analytics, but here’s where that gets difficult:

Clients often don’t know their average LCV (lifetime customer value)

Clients often don’t know their average close rate (the rough percentage of leads that they close)

Clients know, but they don’t want to share this information with you

Everyone has a different reporting methodology, but I personally tend to advocate for at least trying to connect SEO to revenue. I’ve been in enough situations where our client dropped us because they saw us as a cost-center rather than a profit-center to know that communicating your value in monetary terms can mean the difference between keeping your client or not.

Even though you can’t directly influence conversions and even if your client can only give you a rough ballpark figure for LCV and close rate, it’s better than nothing.

7. Be available to fill in the gaps

Not everything can be explained in a report. Even if you’re able to add text commentary to elaborate on your data, there’s still the risk that a key point will be lost on your client completely. Expect this!

I’ve seen plenty of client reporting calls go well over an hour. While no two situations are alike, I think starting with a report that contains clear insights on the KPIs your client cares about will do wonders for shortening that conversation.

Your clients will be able to understand those insights on their own, which frees you up to add context and answer any questions without getting bogged down with back-and-forth over “red herring” metrics that distract from the main point.

I want to hear from you!

What about you? Every SEO has their own reporting best practices, wins, and horror stories — I want to hear yours!

What reporting trick do you have up your sleeve that could help your fellow SEOs save time (& their sanity)?

What’s your biggest reporting struggle and how are you trying to solve it?

What’s an example of a time when reporting played a role in salvaging a client relationship?

We’re in this together — so let’s learn from each other!

And if you want more where this came from, please consider downloading our free whitepaper: High-Impact SEO Reporting for Agencies! It’s full of advice and helpful tips for using reports to communicate value to your clients.

Read the whitepaper

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/2WXvHw3

[tbvsgrohe]

7 Proven SEO Reporting Best Practices That Boost Client Retention

Posted by KameronJenkins

“Let’s hop on a call to go over this report.”

Did you hear that?

That was the collective sigh of SEOs everywhere.

If we’re being honest, most of us probably view reporting the same way we view taking out the trash or folding the laundry. It’s a chore that robs us of time we could have spent on more important or enjoyable things.

Adding to the frustration is the reality that many clients don’t even read their reports. That’s right. All that time you put into pulling together your data and the report might be forever resigned to the dusty corner of your client’s inbox.

In the words of Mama Boucher, reporting is the devil.

Hear me out though… have you ever thought of reporting as a client retention tool? While reporting is something that takes your time away from SEO work that moves the needle, reporting is also critical if you want to have a campaign to work on at all.

In other words, no reporting = no value communicated = no more client.

The good news is that the reverse is also true. When we do SEO reporting well, we communicate our value and keep more clients, which is something that every agency and consultant can agree is important.

That all sounds nice, but how can we do that? Throughout my six years at an SEO agency, I picked up some reporting tips that I hope you’ll be able to benefit from as well.

P.S. If you haven’t seen it already, Moz’s own Meghan Pahinui wrote an amazing post for the Moz blog on creating relevant and engaging SEO reports using Moz Pro Campaigns. Definitely check it out!

1. Report on what they care about

I’ve seen my share of reports that highlighted metrics that just didn’t reflect any of the client’s main objectives. Your clients are busy — the first sight of something irrelevant and they’ll lose interest, so make your reports count!

My process for determining what I should report on is fairly simple:

Identify the business objective

Create an SEO plan that will help achieve that goal

Execute the plan

Report on the metrics that best measure the work I did

In other words, choose appropriate KPIs to match their business objectives and your strategy, and stick to those for your reporting.

2. Set specific goals

You: “Good news! We got 4,000 organic visits last month.”

Client: “Why wasn’t it 5,000?”

If that’s ever happened to you before, you’re not alone.

This simple step is so easy to forget, but make sure your goals are specific and mutually agreed upon before you start! At the beginning of the month, tell your client what your goal is (ex: “We hope to be able to get 4,000 organic visits”). That way, when you review your report, you’ll be able to objectively say whether you missed/hit/exceeded your targets.

3. Eliminate jargon

Your clients are professionals in their own fields, not yours, so make sure to leave the shop-talking to Twitter. Before sending out a report, ask yourself:

Have I defined all potentially confusing metrics? I’ve seen some SEOs include a mini-glossary or analogies to explain some of their charts — I love this! It really helps disambiguate metrics that are easy to misunderstand.

Am I using words that aren’t used outside my own echo chamber? Some phrases become so ubiquitous in our immediate circles that we assume everyone uses them. In many cases, we’re using jargon without even realizing it!

Simply put, use clear language and layman’s terms in your client’s SEO reports. You won’t serve anyone by confusing them.

4. Visualize your data in meaningful ways

I once heard a client describe a report as “pretty, but useless.”

Ouch.

They had a point though. Their report was full of pie charts and line graphs that, while important-looking, conveyed no meaning to them.

Part of that “meaning” comes down to reporting on the metrics your client cares about (see #1), but the other half of that is choosing how you’ll display that information.

There are some great resources on Moz about data visualization such as Demystifying Data Visualization for Marketers, a video of Annie Cushing’s talk at MozCon 2014, and A Visualization Prescription for Impactful Data Storytelling, a Whiteboard Friday video by Lea Pica.

Resources like that will help you transform your data from metrics into a story that conveys meaning to your clients, so don’t skimp on this step!

5. Provide insights, not just metrics

I remember the first time someone explained to me the difference between metrics and insights. I was blown away.

It seems so simple now, but in my earliest days in digital marketing, I basically viewed “reporting” as synonymous with “data.” Raw, numeric, mind-numbing data.

The key to making your reports more meaningful to your clients is understanding that pure metrics don’t have intrinsic data. You have to unify the data in meaningful ways and pull out insights that help your client understand not just what the numbers are but why they matter.

I find it helpful to ask “so what?” when going through a report. Client’s ranking on page 1 for this list of keywords? That’s cool, but why should my client care about this? How is it contributing to their goals? Work on answering that question before you communicate your reports.

6. Connect SEO results to revenue

I’m going to be honest, this one is tricky.

First of all, SEO is a few layers removed from conversions. When it comes to “the big three” (as I like to refer to rankings, traffic, and conversions), SEOs can:

Most directly influence rankings

Influence organic traffic, but a little less directly than rankings. For example, organic traffic can go down despite sustained rankings due to things like seasonality.

Influence organic conversions, but even less directly than traffic. Everything from the website design to the product/service itself can affect that.

Second, it can be difficult to connect SEO to revenue especially on websites where the ultimate conversion happens offline (ex: lead gen). In order to tie organic traffic to revenue, you’ll want to set up goal conversions and add a value to those conversions in your analytics, but here’s where that gets difficult:

Clients often don’t know their average LCV (lifetime customer value)

Clients often don’t know their average close rate (the rough percentage of leads that they close)

Clients know, but they don’t want to share this information with you

Everyone has a different reporting methodology, but I personally tend to advocate for at least trying to connect SEO to revenue. I’ve been in enough situations where our client dropped us because they saw us as a cost-center rather than a profit-center to know that communicating your value in monetary terms can mean the difference between keeping your client or not.

Even though you can’t directly influence conversions and even if your client can only give you a rough ballpark figure for LCV and close rate, it’s better than nothing.

7. Be available to fill in the gaps

Not everything can be explained in a report. Even if you’re able to add text commentary to elaborate on your data, there’s still the risk that a key point will be lost on your client completely. Expect this!

I’ve seen plenty of client reporting calls go well over an hour. While no two situations are alike, I think starting with a report that contains clear insights on the KPIs your client cares about will do wonders for shortening that conversation.

Your clients will be able to understand those insights on their own, which frees you up to add context and answer any questions without getting bogged down with back-and-forth over “red herring” metrics that distract from the main point.

I want to hear from you!

What about you? Every SEO has their own reporting best practices, wins, and horror stories — I want to hear yours!

What reporting trick do you have up your sleeve that could help your fellow SEOs save time (& their sanity)?

What’s your biggest reporting struggle and how are you trying to solve it?

What’s an example of a time when reporting played a role in salvaging a client relationship?

We’re in this together — so let’s learn from each other!

And if you want more where this came from, please consider downloading our free whitepaper: High-Impact SEO Reporting for Agencies! It’s full of advice and helpful tips for using reports to communicate value to your clients.

Read the whitepaper

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 Proven SEO Reporting Best Practices That Boost Client Retention

Posted by KameronJenkins

“Let’s hop on a call to go over this report.”

Did you hear that?

That was the collective sigh of SEOs everywhere.

If we’re being honest, most of us probably view reporting the same way we view taking out the trash or folding the laundry. It’s a chore that robs us of time we could have spent on more important or enjoyable things.

Adding to the frustration is the reality that many clients don’t even read their reports. That’s right. All that time you put into pulling together your data and the report might be forever resigned to the dusty corner of your client’s inbox.

In the words of Mama Boucher, reporting is the devil.

Hear me out though… have you ever thought of reporting as a client retention tool? While reporting is something that takes your time away from SEO work that moves the needle, reporting is also critical if you want to have a campaign to work on at all.

In other words, no reporting = no value communicated = no more client.

The good news is that the reverse is also true. When we do SEO reporting well, we communicate our value and keep more clients, which is something that every agency and consultant can agree is important.

That all sounds nice, but how can we do that? Throughout my six years at an SEO agency, I picked up some reporting tips that I hope you’ll be able to benefit from as well.

P.S. If you haven’t seen it already, Moz’s own Meghan Pahinui wrote an amazing post for the Moz blog on creating relevant and engaging SEO reports using Moz Pro Campaigns. Definitely check it out!

1. Report on what they care about

I’ve seen my share of reports that highlighted metrics that just didn’t reflect any of the client’s main objectives. Your clients are busy — the first sight of something irrelevant and they’ll lose interest, so make your reports count!

My process for determining what I should report on is fairly simple:

Identify the business objective

Create an SEO plan that will help achieve that goal

Execute the plan

Report on the metrics that best measure the work I did

In other words, choose appropriate KPIs to match their business objectives and your strategy, and stick to those for your reporting.

2. Set specific goals

You: “Good news! We got 4,000 organic visits last month.”

Client: “Why wasn’t it 5,000?”

If that’s ever happened to you before, you’re not alone.

This simple step is so easy to forget, but make sure your goals are specific and mutually agreed upon before you start! At the beginning of the month, tell your client what your goal is (ex: “We hope to be able to get 4,000 organic visits”). That way, when you review your report, you’ll be able to objectively say whether you missed/hit/exceeded your targets.

3. Eliminate jargon

Your clients are professionals in their own fields, not yours, so make sure to leave the shop-talking to Twitter. Before sending out a report, ask yourself:

Have I defined all potentially confusing metrics? I’ve seen some SEOs include a mini-glossary or analogies to explain some of their charts — I love this! It really helps disambiguate metrics that are easy to misunderstand.

Am I using words that aren’t used outside my own echo chamber? Some phrases become so ubiquitous in our immediate circles that we assume everyone uses them. In many cases, we’re using jargon without even realizing it!

Simply put, use clear language and layman’s terms in your client’s SEO reports. You won’t serve anyone by confusing them.

4. Visualize your data in meaningful ways

I once heard a client describe a report as “pretty, but useless.”

Ouch.

They had a point though. Their report was full of pie charts and line graphs that, while important-looking, conveyed no meaning to them.

Part of that “meaning” comes down to reporting on the metrics your client cares about (see #1), but the other half of that is choosing how you’ll display that information.

There are some great resources on Moz about data visualization such as Demystifying Data Visualization for Marketers, a video of Annie Cushing’s talk at MozCon 2014, and A Visualization Prescription for Impactful Data Storytelling, a Whiteboard Friday video by Lea Pica.

Resources like that will help you transform your data from metrics into a story that conveys meaning to your clients, so don’t skimp on this step!

5. Provide insights, not just metrics

I remember the first time someone explained to me the difference between metrics and insights. I was blown away.

It seems so simple now, but in my earliest days in digital marketing, I basically viewed “reporting” as synonymous with “data.” Raw, numeric, mind-numbing data.

The key to making your reports more meaningful to your clients is understanding that pure metrics don’t have intrinsic data. You have to unify the data in meaningful ways and pull out insights that help your client understand not just what the numbers are but why they matter.

I find it helpful to ask “so what?” when going through a report. Client’s ranking on page 1 for this list of keywords? That’s cool, but why should my client care about this? How is it contributing to their goals? Work on answering that question before you communicate your reports.

6. Connect SEO results to revenue

I’m going to be honest, this one is tricky.

First of all, SEO is a few layers removed from conversions. When it comes to “the big three” (as I like to refer to rankings, traffic, and conversions), SEOs can:

Most directly influence rankings

Influence organic traffic, but a little less directly than rankings. For example, organic traffic can go down despite sustained rankings due to things like seasonality.

Influence organic conversions, but even less directly than traffic. Everything from the website design to the product/service itself can affect that.

Second, it can be difficult to connect SEO to revenue especially on websites where the ultimate conversion happens offline (ex: lead gen). In order to tie organic traffic to revenue, you’ll want to set up goal conversions and add a value to those conversions in your analytics, but here’s where that gets difficult:

Clients often don’t know their average LCV (lifetime customer value)

Clients often don’t know their average close rate (the rough percentage of leads that they close)

Clients know, but they don’t want to share this information with you

Everyone has a different reporting methodology, but I personally tend to advocate for at least trying to connect SEO to revenue. I’ve been in enough situations where our client dropped us because they saw us as a cost-center rather than a profit-center to know that communicating your value in monetary terms can mean the difference between keeping your client or not.

Even though you can’t directly influence conversions and even if your client can only give you a rough ballpark figure for LCV and close rate, it’s better than nothing.

7. Be available to fill in the gaps

Not everything can be explained in a report. Even if you’re able to add text commentary to elaborate on your data, there’s still the risk that a key point will be lost on your client completely. Expect this!

I’ve seen plenty of client reporting calls go well over an hour. While no two situations are alike, I think starting with a report that contains clear insights on the KPIs your client cares about will do wonders for shortening that conversation.

Your clients will be able to understand those insights on their own, which frees you up to add context and answer any questions without getting bogged down with back-and-forth over “red herring” metrics that distract from the main point.

I want to hear from you!

What about you? Every SEO has their own reporting best practices, wins, and horror stories — I want to hear yours!

What reporting trick do you have up your sleeve that could help your fellow SEOs save time (& their sanity)?

What’s your biggest reporting struggle and how are you trying to solve it?

What’s an example of a time when reporting played a role in salvaging a client relationship?

We’re in this together — so let’s learn from each other!

And if you want more where this came from, please consider downloading our free whitepaper: High-Impact SEO Reporting for Agencies! It’s full of advice and helpful tips for using reports to communicate value to your clients.

Read the whitepaper

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!

[bfxenon]

7 Proven SEO Reporting Best Practices That Boost Client Retention

Posted by KameronJenkins

“Let’s hop on a call to go over this report.”

Did you hear that?

That was the collective sigh of SEOs everywhere.

If we’re being honest, most of us probably view reporting the same way we view taking out the trash or folding the laundry. It’s a chore that robs us of time we could have spent on more important or enjoyable things.

Adding to the frustration is the reality that many clients don’t even read their reports. That’s right. All that time you put into pulling together your data and the report might be forever resigned to the dusty corner of your client’s inbox.

In the words of Mama Boucher, reporting is the devil.

Hear me out though… have you ever thought of reporting as a client retention tool? While reporting is something that takes your time away from SEO work that moves the needle, reporting is also critical if you want to have a campaign to work on at all.

In other words, no reporting = no value communicated = no more client.

The good news is that the reverse is also true. When we do SEO reporting well, we communicate our value and keep more clients, which is something that every agency and consultant can agree is important.

That all sounds nice, but how can we do that? Throughout my six years at an SEO agency, I picked up some reporting tips that I hope you’ll be able to benefit from as well.

P.S. If you haven’t seen it already, Moz’s own Meghan Pahinui wrote an amazing post for the Moz blog on creating relevant and engaging SEO reports using Moz Pro Campaigns. Definitely check it out!

1. Report on what they care about

I’ve seen my share of reports that highlighted metrics that just didn’t reflect any of the client’s main objectives. Your clients are busy — the first sight of something irrelevant and they’ll lose interest, so make your reports count!

My process for determining what I should report on is fairly simple:

Identify the business objective

Create an SEO plan that will help achieve that goal

Execute the plan

Report on the metrics that best measure the work I did

In other words, choose appropriate KPIs to match their business objectives and your strategy, and stick to those for your reporting.

2. Set specific goals

You: “Good news! We got 4,000 organic visits last month.”

Client: “Why wasn’t it 5,000?”

If that’s ever happened to you before, you’re not alone.

This simple step is so easy to forget, but make sure your goals are specific and mutually agreed upon before you start! At the beginning of the month, tell your client what your goal is (ex: “We hope to be able to get 4,000 organic visits”). That way, when you review your report, you’ll be able to objectively say whether you missed/hit/exceeded your targets.

3. Eliminate jargon

Your clients are professionals in their own fields, not yours, so make sure to leave the shop-talking to Twitter. Before sending out a report, ask yourself:

Have I defined all potentially confusing metrics? I’ve seen some SEOs include a mini-glossary or analogies to explain some of their charts — I love this! It really helps disambiguate metrics that are easy to misunderstand.

Am I using words that aren’t used outside my own echo chamber? Some phrases become so ubiquitous in our immediate circles that we assume everyone uses them. In many cases, we’re using jargon without even realizing it!

Simply put, use clear language and layman’s terms in your client’s SEO reports. You won’t serve anyone by confusing them.

4. Visualize your data in meaningful ways

I once heard a client describe a report as “pretty, but useless.”

Ouch.

They had a point though. Their report was full of pie charts and line graphs that, while important-looking, conveyed no meaning to them.

Part of that “meaning” comes down to reporting on the metrics your client cares about (see #1), but the other half of that is choosing how you’ll display that information.

There are some great resources on Moz about data visualization such as Demystifying Data Visualization for Marketers, a video of Annie Cushing’s talk at MozCon 2014, and A Visualization Prescription for Impactful Data Storytelling, a Whiteboard Friday video by Lea Pica.

Resources like that will help you transform your data from metrics into a story that conveys meaning to your clients, so don’t skimp on this step!

5. Provide insights, not just metrics

I remember the first time someone explained to me the difference between metrics and insights. I was blown away.

It seems so simple now, but in my earliest days in digital marketing, I basically viewed “reporting” as synonymous with “data.” Raw, numeric, mind-numbing data.

The key to making your reports more meaningful to your clients is understanding that pure metrics don’t have intrinsic data. You have to unify the data in meaningful ways and pull out insights that help your client understand not just what the numbers are but why they matter.

I find it helpful to ask “so what?” when going through a report. Client’s ranking on page 1 for this list of keywords? That’s cool, but why should my client care about this? How is it contributing to their goals? Work on answering that question before you communicate your reports.

6. Connect SEO results to revenue

I’m going to be honest, this one is tricky.

First of all, SEO is a few layers removed from conversions. When it comes to “the big three” (as I like to refer to rankings, traffic, and conversions), SEOs can:

Most directly influence rankings

Influence organic traffic, but a little less directly than rankings. For example, organic traffic can go down despite sustained rankings due to things like seasonality.

Influence organic conversions, but even less directly than traffic. Everything from the website design to the product/service itself can affect that.

Second, it can be difficult to connect SEO to revenue especially on websites where the ultimate conversion happens offline (ex: lead gen). In order to tie organic traffic to revenue, you’ll want to set up goal conversions and add a value to those conversions in your analytics, but here’s where that gets difficult:

Clients often don’t know their average LCV (lifetime customer value)

Clients often don’t know their average close rate (the rough percentage of leads that they close)

Clients know, but they don’t want to share this information with you

Everyone has a different reporting methodology, but I personally tend to advocate for at least trying to connect SEO to revenue. I’ve been in enough situations where our client dropped us because they saw us as a cost-center rather than a profit-center to know that communicating your value in monetary terms can mean the difference between keeping your client or not.

Even though you can’t directly influence conversions and even if your client can only give you a rough ballpark figure for LCV and close rate, it’s better than nothing.

7. Be available to fill in the gaps

Not everything can be explained in a report. Even if you’re able to add text commentary to elaborate on your data, there’s still the risk that a key point will be lost on your client completely. Expect this!

I’ve seen plenty of client reporting calls go well over an hour. While no two situations are alike, I think starting with a report that contains clear insights on the KPIs your client cares about will do wonders for shortening that conversation.

Your clients will be able to understand those insights on their own, which frees you up to add context and answer any questions without getting bogged down with back-and-forth over “red herring” metrics that distract from the main point.

I want to hear from you!

What about you? Every SEO has their own reporting best practices, wins, and horror stories — I want to hear yours!

What reporting trick do you have up your sleeve that could help your fellow SEOs save time (& their sanity)?

What’s your biggest reporting struggle and how are you trying to solve it?

What’s an example of a time when reporting played a role in salvaging a client relationship?

We’re in this together — so let’s learn from each other!

And if you want more where this came from, please consider downloading our free whitepaper: High-Impact SEO Reporting for Agencies! It’s full of advice and helpful tips for using reports to communicate value to your clients.

Read the whitepaper

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!

[localwebmgmt]

7 Proven SEO Reporting Best Practices That Boost Client Retention

Posted by KameronJenkins

“Let’s hop on a call to go over this report.”

Did you hear that?

That was the collective sigh of SEOs everywhere.

If we’re being honest, most of us probably view reporting the same way we view taking out the trash or folding the laundry. It’s a chore that robs us of time we could have spent on more important or enjoyable things.

Adding to the frustration is the reality that many clients don’t even read their reports. That’s right. All that time you put into pulling together your data and the report might be forever resigned to the dusty corner of your client’s inbox.

In the words of Mama Boucher, reporting is the devil.

Hear me out though… have you ever thought of reporting as a client retention tool? While reporting is something that takes your time away from SEO work that moves the needle, reporting is also critical if you want to have a campaign to work on at all.

In other words, no reporting = no value communicated = no more client.

The good news is that the reverse is also true. When we do SEO reporting well, we communicate our value and keep more clients, which is something that every agency and consultant can agree is important.

That all sounds nice, but how can we do that? Throughout my six years at an SEO agency, I picked up some reporting tips that I hope you’ll be able to benefit from as well.

P.S. If you haven’t seen it already, Moz’s own Meghan Pahinui wrote an amazing post for the Moz blog on creating relevant and engaging SEO reports using Moz Pro Campaigns. Definitely check it out!

1. Report on what they care about

I’ve seen my share of reports that highlighted metrics that just didn’t reflect any of the client’s main objectives. Your clients are busy — the first sight of something irrelevant and they’ll lose interest, so make your reports count!

My process for determining what I should report on is fairly simple:

Identify the business objective

Create an SEO plan that will help achieve that goal

Execute the plan

Report on the metrics that best measure the work I did

In other words, choose appropriate KPIs to match their business objectives and your strategy, and stick to those for your reporting.

2. Set specific goals

You: “Good news! We got 4,000 organic visits last month.”

Client: “Why wasn’t it 5,000?”

If that’s ever happened to you before, you’re not alone.

This simple step is so easy to forget, but make sure your goals are specific and mutually agreed upon before you start! At the beginning of the month, tell your client what your goal is (ex: “We hope to be able to get 4,000 organic visits”). That way, when you review your report, you’ll be able to objectively say whether you missed/hit/exceeded your targets.

3. Eliminate jargon

Your clients are professionals in their own fields, not yours, so make sure to leave the shop-talking to Twitter. Before sending out a report, ask yourself:

Have I defined all potentially confusing metrics? I’ve seen some SEOs include a mini-glossary or analogies to explain some of their charts — I love this! It really helps disambiguate metrics that are easy to misunderstand.

Am I using words that aren’t used outside my own echo chamber? Some phrases become so ubiquitous in our immediate circles that we assume everyone uses them. In many cases, we’re using jargon without even realizing it!

Simply put, use clear language and layman’s terms in your client’s SEO reports. You won’t serve anyone by confusing them.

4. Visualize your data in meaningful ways

I once heard a client describe a report as “pretty, but useless.”

Ouch.

They had a point though. Their report was full of pie charts and line graphs that, while important-looking, conveyed no meaning to them.

Part of that “meaning” comes down to reporting on the metrics your client cares about (see #1), but the other half of that is choosing how you’ll display that information.

There are some great resources on Moz about data visualization such as Demystifying Data Visualization for Marketers, a video of Annie Cushing’s talk at MozCon 2014, and A Visualization Prescription for Impactful Data Storytelling, a Whiteboard Friday video by Lea Pica.

Resources like that will help you transform your data from metrics into a story that conveys meaning to your clients, so don’t skimp on this step!

5. Provide insights, not just metrics

I remember the first time someone explained to me the difference between metrics and insights. I was blown away.

It seems so simple now, but in my earliest days in digital marketing, I basically viewed “reporting” as synonymous with “data.” Raw, numeric, mind-numbing data.

The key to making your reports more meaningful to your clients is understanding that pure metrics don’t have intrinsic data. You have to unify the data in meaningful ways and pull out insights that help your client understand not just what the numbers are but why they matter.

I find it helpful to ask “so what?” when going through a report. Client’s ranking on page 1 for this list of keywords? That’s cool, but why should my client care about this? How is it contributing to their goals? Work on answering that question before you communicate your reports.

6. Connect SEO results to revenue

I’m going to be honest, this one is tricky.

First of all, SEO is a few layers removed from conversions. When it comes to “the big three” (as I like to refer to rankings, traffic, and conversions), SEOs can:

Most directly influence rankings

Influence organic traffic, but a little less directly than rankings. For example, organic traffic can go down despite sustained rankings due to things like seasonality.

Influence organic conversions, but even less directly than traffic. Everything from the website design to the product/service itself can affect that.

Second, it can be difficult to connect SEO to revenue especially on websites where the ultimate conversion happens offline (ex: lead gen). In order to tie organic traffic to revenue, you’ll want to set up goal conversions and add a value to those conversions in your analytics, but here’s where that gets difficult:

Clients often don’t know their average LCV (lifetime customer value)

Clients often don’t know their average close rate (the rough percentage of leads that they close)

Clients know, but they don’t want to share this information with you

Everyone has a different reporting methodology, but I personally tend to advocate for at least trying to connect SEO to revenue. I’ve been in enough situations where our client dropped us because they saw us as a cost-center rather than a profit-center to know that communicating your value in monetary terms can mean the difference between keeping your client or not.

Even though you can’t directly influence conversions and even if your client can only give you a rough ballpark figure for LCV and close rate, it’s better than nothing.

7. Be available to fill in the gaps

Not everything can be explained in a report. Even if you’re able to add text commentary to elaborate on your data, there’s still the risk that a key point will be lost on your client completely. Expect this!

I’ve seen plenty of client reporting calls go well over an hour. While no two situations are alike, I think starting with a report that contains clear insights on the KPIs your client cares about will do wonders for shortening that conversation.

Your clients will be able to understand those insights on their own, which frees you up to add context and answer any questions without getting bogged down with back-and-forth over “red herring” metrics that distract from the main point.

I want to hear from you!

What about you? Every SEO has their own reporting best practices, wins, and horror stories — I want to hear yours!

What reporting trick do you have up your sleeve that could help your fellow SEOs save time (& their sanity)?

What’s your biggest reporting struggle and how are you trying to solve it?

What’s an example of a time when reporting played a role in salvaging a client relationship?

We’re in this together — so let’s learn from each other!

And if you want more where this came from, please consider downloading our free whitepaper: High-Impact SEO Reporting for Agencies! It’s full of advice and helpful tips for using reports to communicate value to your clients.

Read the whitepaper

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 Proven SEO Reporting Best Practices That Boost Client Retention

Posted by KameronJenkins

“Let’s hop on a call to go over this report.”

Did you hear that?

That was the collective sigh of SEOs everywhere.

If we’re being honest, most of us probably view reporting the same way we view taking out the trash or folding the laundry. It’s a chore that robs us of time we could have spent on more important or enjoyable things.

Adding to the frustration is the reality that many clients don’t even read their reports. That’s right. All that time you put into pulling together your data and the report might be forever resigned to the dusty corner of your client’s inbox.

In the words of Mama Boucher, reporting is the devil.

Hear me out though… have you ever thought of reporting as a client retention tool? While reporting is something that takes your time away from SEO work that moves the needle, reporting is also critical if you want to have a campaign to work on at all.

In other words, no reporting = no value communicated = no more client.

The good news is that the reverse is also true. When we do SEO reporting well, we communicate our value and keep more clients, which is something that every agency and consultant can agree is important.

That all sounds nice, but how can we do that? Throughout my six years at an SEO agency, I picked up some reporting tips that I hope you’ll be able to benefit from as well.

P.S. If you haven’t seen it already, Moz’s own Meghan Pahinui wrote an amazing post for the Moz blog on creating relevant and engaging SEO reports using Moz Pro Campaigns. Definitely check it out!

1. Report on what they care about

I’ve seen my share of reports that highlighted metrics that just didn’t reflect any of the client’s main objectives. Your clients are busy — the first sight of something irrelevant and they’ll lose interest, so make your reports count!

My process for determining what I should report on is fairly simple:

Identify the business objective

Create an SEO plan that will help achieve that goal

Execute the plan

Report on the metrics that best measure the work I did

In other words, choose appropriate KPIs to match their business objectives and your strategy, and stick to those for your reporting.

2. Set specific goals

You: “Good news! We got 4,000 organic visits last month.”

Client: “Why wasn’t it 5,000?”

If that’s ever happened to you before, you’re not alone.

This simple step is so easy to forget, but make sure your goals are specific and mutually agreed upon before you start! At the beginning of the month, tell your client what your goal is (ex: “We hope to be able to get 4,000 organic visits”). That way, when you review your report, you’ll be able to objectively say whether you missed/hit/exceeded your targets.

3. Eliminate jargon

Your clients are professionals in their own fields, not yours, so make sure to leave the shop-talking to Twitter. Before sending out a report, ask yourself:

Have I defined all potentially confusing metrics? I’ve seen some SEOs include a mini-glossary or analogies to explain some of their charts — I love this! It really helps disambiguate metrics that are easy to misunderstand.

Am I using words that aren’t used outside my own echo chamber? Some phrases become so ubiquitous in our immediate circles that we assume everyone uses them. In many cases, we’re using jargon without even realizing it!

Simply put, use clear language and layman’s terms in your client’s SEO reports. You won’t serve anyone by confusing them.

4. Visualize your data in meaningful ways

I once heard a client describe a report as “pretty, but useless.”

Ouch.

They had a point though. Their report was full of pie charts and line graphs that, while important-looking, conveyed no meaning to them.

Part of that “meaning” comes down to reporting on the metrics your client cares about (see #1), but the other half of that is choosing how you’ll display that information.

There are some great resources on Moz about data visualization such as Demystifying Data Visualization for Marketers, a video of Annie Cushing’s talk at MozCon 2014, and A Visualization Prescription for Impactful Data Storytelling, a Whiteboard Friday video by Lea Pica.

Resources like that will help you transform your data from metrics into a story that conveys meaning to your clients, so don’t skimp on this step!

5. Provide insights, not just metrics

I remember the first time someone explained to me the difference between metrics and insights. I was blown away.

It seems so simple now, but in my earliest days in digital marketing, I basically viewed “reporting” as synonymous with “data.” Raw, numeric, mind-numbing data.

The key to making your reports more meaningful to your clients is understanding that pure metrics don’t have intrinsic data. You have to unify the data in meaningful ways and pull out insights that help your client understand not just what the numbers are but why they matter.

I find it helpful to ask “so what?” when going through a report. Client’s ranking on page 1 for this list of keywords? That’s cool, but why should my client care about this? How is it contributing to their goals? Work on answering that question before you communicate your reports.

6. Connect SEO results to revenue

I’m going to be honest, this one is tricky.

First of all, SEO is a few layers removed from conversions. When it comes to “the big three” (as I like to refer to rankings, traffic, and conversions), SEOs can:

Most directly influence rankings

Influence organic traffic, but a little less directly than rankings. For example, organic traffic can go down despite sustained rankings due to things like seasonality.

Influence organic conversions, but even less directly than traffic. Everything from the website design to the product/service itself can affect that.

Second, it can be difficult to connect SEO to revenue especially on websites where the ultimate conversion happens offline (ex: lead gen). In order to tie organic traffic to revenue, you’ll want to set up goal conversions and add a value to those conversions in your analytics, but here’s where that gets difficult:

Clients often don’t know their average LCV (lifetime customer value)

Clients often don’t know their average close rate (the rough percentage of leads that they close)

Clients know, but they don’t want to share this information with you

Everyone has a different reporting methodology, but I personally tend to advocate for at least trying to connect SEO to revenue. I’ve been in enough situations where our client dropped us because they saw us as a cost-center rather than a profit-center to know that communicating your value in monetary terms can mean the difference between keeping your client or not.

Even though you can’t directly influence conversions and even if your client can only give you a rough ballpark figure for LCV and close rate, it’s better than nothing.

7. Be available to fill in the gaps

Not everything can be explained in a report. Even if you’re able to add text commentary to elaborate on your data, there’s still the risk that a key point will be lost on your client completely. Expect this!

I’ve seen plenty of client reporting calls go well over an hour. While no two situations are alike, I think starting with a report that contains clear insights on the KPIs your client cares about will do wonders for shortening that conversation.

Your clients will be able to understand those insights on their own, which frees you up to add context and answer any questions without getting bogged down with back-and-forth over “red herring” metrics that distract from the main point.

I want to hear from you!

What about you? Every SEO has their own reporting best practices, wins, and horror stories — I want to hear yours!

What reporting trick do you have up your sleeve that could help your fellow SEOs save time (& their sanity)?

What’s your biggest reporting struggle and how are you trying to solve it?

What’s an example of a time when reporting played a role in salvaging a client relationship?

We’re in this together — so let’s learn from each other!

And if you want more where this came from, please consider downloading our free whitepaper: High-Impact SEO Reporting for Agencies! It’s full of advice and helpful tips for using reports to communicate value to your clients.

Read the whitepaper

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!