FARUKH SHEHZAD

Munaza Kazmi

Magical wells, Spectacular Jain temples, Gigantic sand dunes hiding several exotic tales, wow…sounds like “Ali Baba and Forty Thieves”. 

I believe readers could only imagine these enchanted tales in Arabian nights storybooks but never heard or thought of those in real world. For living your imaginations Come with me to a mesmerizing journey of magical and undiscovered lands of Pakistan.

Pakistan is not just about the mountains and streams like my friends think it’s far much interesting, full of mysterious stories, adventurous and yeah beautiful indeed.

Today am taking you to Nagerparker. Born from under the sea, Nagarparkar is a beautiful town situated at the base of the dramatic and mineral-rich Karunjharhills and neighbouring the Indian border in Tharparker, Sindh.

The area is surrounded by rocky belts and sand dunes same of that of Aladdin, also it is the home to centuries-old Jain and Hindu temples, a beautiful white marble mosque, a magical well, thousands of resident snakes like you see in National Geographic Channel, memorial stones, granite deposits also rare flora and fauna.

It is said that the Karunjhar hills provide 1.25 kg of gold every day in the form of red granite stone, china clay, and honey.

Nagarparkar is home to almost 200,000 inhabitants, who mostly belong to modest backgrounds. The town is majorly inhabited by Hindus, who have historically lived in harmony with the Muslim minority.

In fact, the famous temples of the area make it mostly a town of the Hindus and Muslim pilgrims who visit each year to perform religious rituals or attend meals at the local shrines.

In the past Nagarparkarwas largely populated by Yogis and Jain Munis, the followers of Lord Mahavira and Parsanatha, some hundreds of years ago. These Jains and Shaivites were known to practice austerities in the hills of Karunjhar.

Stories from the localsrelate that wealthy Hindu merchantsbuilt temples and dedicated them to Lord Parshwanath, the 23rd Jain prophet.

But with hardly any Jains left, these major archaeological monuments lie abandoned, neglected and shrouded in mystery.

Jain Temple

Apart from the golden sand, exotic wild life and rich mineral reserves, Nagarparkaris famous for the Jain history and their remarkable architecture.

There are over twelve Jain temples that you can find in the area. These dates back to as far as the 14th century – the era when the Jain architectural expression was at its ultimate – and are now one of the oldest heritage sites of Pakistan.

Some of the notable shrines include; Karoonjar Jain, Virvah Jain, Gori and a cluster of three temples at Bodhesar etc. These are richly decorated with sculptures and paintings.

The carvings on the pillars and entrances of these temples are magnificent for their intricacy. One of these sanctuaries is believed to have been built by a Jain woman and is locally called, PoniDaharo.

The walls of these abandoned buildings are geometric steps of marble — a particular style that shows up everywhere from the temple’s steps to the frames carved inside some of its walls and are widely seen among Jain constructions.

The canopies at the entrance of these temples are decorated with paintings that represent Jain mythology.

It is believed that the frescoes at Gori temple are some of the oldest Jain frescoes in existence. Unfortunately, not much has been done to conserve these heritage sites and you would find some are merely ruins of what were once considered architectural wonders.

I believe we should not leave everything on government since this heritage is belong to the citizens as well, we our self could preserve our precious heritage for the coming generations.

Bhodesar Mosque

Going furtheralongside the pond at the foothill of the Karunjharyou would discover a beautiful, shining white mosque.

This remarkable structure, built entirely with cold and welcoming marble, is said to have been built by Sultan Mehmood Begra, the ruler of Gujarat.

On a closer inspection you could see an inscription on the mosque lists the year 880/1505, which is also a reminder of the Jain-inspired architecture at the mosque.

Durga Mata Temple

Next, lies on the ChurrioJabal hill, there’s a historic Hindu sanctuary hosts up to 200,000 pilgrims annually on Shivratri.

Visitors bring cremated ashes of their departed beloveds to immerse in the holy water. The valuable and multi-colored hill supporting the temple is mined for its rare and expensive granite, which I believe is posing a serious threat to the foundation of the house of the Hindu goddess, Durga.

By now you are in the thoughts of golden land, and its preservations that’s a great idea work on it. Well I think now let’s move to another totally different view of this beautiful land, something like we use to see in Bollywood movies…yeah, it’s a “Love Story”.

Marvi’s well

Located in the Bhalwa village, this well is regarded as one of the primary cultural standpoints of the Thar Desert and has now been extended into a cultural center.

This complex is a historical reminder of the story of Umar and Marvi. Umar Soomro, a local ruler of the area in the 13thcentury, fell in love with the beautiful Marvi while she was drawing water from this well, same as in films though.

The story, however, takes a bleak turn where after continuous rejection, King Umar kidnapped the girl and kept her hostage for a year in hopes for her to settle one day.

But after realizing that no number of jewels could waive Marvi’s love for her fiancé back in her town, alas, he had to let her go.

Marvi was immortalized because of her strong-will, determined character and her pure love for her homeland. She is remembered today as one of the bravest women in Sindhi history.

Interesting indeed…. hasn’t Pakistan.

However, there are some difficulties in to getting these vivid places reasoning the tough weather and security.

Also, the Lodging facilities have been almost non-existent in the area, except for a few rest houses. However, in 2017, the Sindh culture and tourism ministry opened the ‘RooploKolhi Resort’, in hopes of promoting tourism in the area.

On the other hand, ones with wandering souls can rent a charpai, from any local restaurant to spend the night under the starry skies of Thar.

Indeed, there’s a need to build the hotels in order to promote tourism.

----------------------------------------------------------

Munaza Kazmi has recently done Master of Philosophy from Bahria University Islamabad. Her debut novel is Unrequited Love.

She’s an author, columnist writing in different newspapers and a researcher having seven publications till yet, she’s been writing since 2016.

You can connect to Kazmi at twitter @munaza_kazmi or on research gate as munaza kazmi.

--------------------------------

ISLAMABAD, JUL 2: AAA Markhor champion league, Pakistan’s most distinguished Tape Ball Cricket Tournament, concluded in Jinnah Stadium Gujranwala, in which Striking Panther beats Eagle Eye in the final match to pull off the most coveted trophy.

The Chairman of AAA Associates, the lead sponsor of Markhor Champion League, Shaikh Fawad Bashir distributed prizes among the best performers of the tournament.

Eight Teams entered into a fierce competition to win the Trophy. The winning team, Striking Panther was awarded with prize money of 3 million Rupees and the runner up team, Eagle Eyes was awarded with cash prize of 1 million rupees.

The title of The Player of the tournament was conferred on Akbar Poli, who made 247 runs on the scoreboard by striking a haul of 31 sixes.

Ahmad Kulfi was proclaimed as the best bowler of the tournament for pulling off 10 wickets. Nasir Pathan was declared the player of the match as he trumpeted the highest score in the final battle between Striking Panther and Eagle Eyes.

Markhor Champion league, being consecutively successful for two years, has gained the status of the most distinguished Cricket Champion League, after Pakistan Super League (PSL).

This tournament is also endorsed by Punjab Sport Board to promote professional cricket at grassroots level. It provides an opportunity to the emerging talent of Pakistan to participate at national level tournaments.

Teams from all across Pakistan participate in this tournament with great enthusiasm to showcase their talent which can later be utilized in national and international tournaments. 

The Chairman of AAA Associates, Mr. Shiekh Fawad Bashir commended the efforts put by the management of the tournament and the enthusiasm of the participating teams by saying: “It was an exciting experience to see the potential and talent of the young players.

These tournaments offer great opportunities to fresh players to explore and carve out their space at national and international arena.”

The Managing Director of AAA Associates, Lt. Col (Retd) Shahzad Ali Kiani shared his thoughts: “Tape ball Cricket is a widely played sports format at grassroots level, which enables young players to groom their talent for the bigger tournaments.

AAA Associates believes in building communities with strong foundation to achieve their dreams. Sponsoring Markhor Champion League is a step towards our goal of developing professional foundation for rising cricket stars, who can further embark on the journey of a bright future of cricket in Pakistan.”

AAA Associate has long been supporting various sports event which are contributing toward nation building process and promoting sports culture among youth.

As part of their corporate social responsibility, AAA will continue to extend support in developing sports facilities across Pakistan and sponsoring sport events in order to project the potential of Pakistani youth  at both national and international platform.

----------------------------------------------

ISLAMABAD, JUL 2: Kashan Hasan has been appointed as the lead for all Pakistan operations at Reckitt – formerly known as Reckitt Benckiser (RB). Previously, Kashan was leading the Health business in Pakistan since January 2020.

During his tenure, the Health business not only achieved double digit growth, but was also recognized as the Market of the Year for Reckitt globally.

Both the Health and Hygiene business divisions in Pakistan will now report into Kashan Hasan to optimize the potential of the complementary nature of products.

It’s the next stage in the journey of transformation, and the commitment to a cleaner and healthier country as the business continues to work towards its aim of Hoga Saaf Pakistan.

Elaborating on this, Kashan Hasan, stated: “This reintegration makes Reckitt Pakistan stronger, more able to leverage our scale, drive synergies, align business strategy and execution; an exciting moment for all of us.

With powerbrands like Dettol, Mortein, Harpic, Veet, Strepsils, Durex, Gaviscon and many others as part of Reckitt Pakistan, the business is fully equipped to achieve its purpose: to protect, heal and nurture in the relentless pursuit of a cleaner, healthier world.”

----------------------------------------------

ISLAMABAD, JUL 2: Huawei Pakistan together with the Higher Education of Pakistan is inviting prospective Pakistani undergraduate applicants to register for the Seeds for the Future program 2021. 

First launched in Pakistan back in 2015, currently, 87 students have benefited and been sent to China by Huawei to learn about Chinese culture and the latest trends in ICT technologies. 

Following last year’s format, given the restrictions placed by Covid-19, an online six-day training course has been organized for 30 excellent students from 9th-16th August. 

The initial period of the learning is about Chinese culture and Chinese language. They will also get technical training from Huawei and industry ICT experts who will share their expertise on a wide range of courses covering 5G, cloud computing, AI, strategic leadership, smart homes, IoT and cybersecurity. 

The selected students will be able to obtain valuable cutting-edge ICT knowledge developed by Huawei's Headquarters and experience a cross-cultural communication virtually. 

The Seeds for the Future program has been Huawei’s flagship CSR program dedicated to top STEM and non-STEM students worldwide for social-enterprise partnership goals in Pakistan, since the first batch of Pakistani students traveled to China in 2015. 

The aim of the program, which has been active in over 130 countries, & regions since its inception in Thailand, has been to nurture upcoming STEM talent from around the world. 

So far 8,774 students are part of the Seeds for the Future alumni, and female participation in the program is almost one-third. 

With 70+ pre-recorded & live courses covering topics such as science & technology, economics, humanities, and CSR, it’s not surprising that over 3000 participants joined last year. 

The ICT industry is one of the fastest growing in Pakistan, and the world. The demand for qualified and market-ready professionals in the field is growing rapidly — it is becoming a need, in our burgeoning online-based globalized reality.

Programs such as Seeds of the Future address this long-term possibility of deficiency with appropriate foresight. 

To register for the program: www.seedsprogramme.hec.gov.pk

----------------------------------

ISLAMABAD, JUN 30: JBS has announced its partnership with WALLIX - global leader in access and identity cybersecurity solutions to protect data from unauthorized access to keep the highest level of data confidentiality and prevent cyber frauds.

Remote work is increasing in organizations worldwide, creating a need to facilitate secure access to more and more remote users, and making traditional VPN solutions less and less relevant due to their cost and complexity.

Under the partnership agreement, JBS will provide consulting, licensing, implementing and support for PAM solutions and global access and identity security solutions. 

JBS would help users protect their critical IT assets: data, servers, terminals and connected objects, from cyber security threats affecting all companies today, through Privileged Access Management (PAM).

With an annual growth rate forecasted at 20%, the global PAM (Privileged Account Management) market represents a huge opportunity for VARs, SIs and MSSPs in Pakistan channel. 

“The PAM market is seeing an accelerated growth phase; it presents an outstanding opportunity for our partners.

We’re really excited to partner with JBS to make our solutions readily available to organizations in the Pakistani market.” Says Afi Hashim, WALLIX Middle East Business Manager.

“The information stored within business applications and on servers are sensitive and important assets for organizations.

There is high risk of data theft and fraud in the current era of remote access and constant cyber threats and organizations need to have IT security solutions specialized in the governance of privileged accounts for Administrators (PAM Solutions). 

With WALLIX PAM solutions, we have enabled organizations to connect securely from anywhere with secure-by-design capabilities; enabling IT teams to ensure that only the right person can access the right resource for the right purpose.” Says Wajid Ali Khan, General Manager – Services, Jaffer Business Systems. 

With JBS being positioned as the leading independent cybersecurity VAD, and extensive cybersecurity knowledge and experience, the partnership will enable channel VARs and MSSPs to respond to the growing demand for Privileged Account Management, a market expected to reach $3.8 billion in 2021.

---------------------------------------------------------------

ISLAMABAD/TOKYO, JUN 29: The 8th Japan-Pakistan Politico-Military Dialogue was held virtually in Tokyo and Islamabad on June 29, 2021.

KOBAYASHI Kenichi, Director-General, Southeast and Southwest Asian Affairs Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, Additional Secretary (Asia Pacific) who also serves as the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan represented respective sides. 

Officials of the two countries from related Ministries and agencies also attended the dialogue

In this dialogue, Japan and Pakistan exchanged opinions on the diplomatic and security policies of both countries, counter-terrorism measures, and the current regional security developments.

Moreover, both sides confirmed that they would continue to deepen understanding and cooperation in the fields of security and defense between the two countries.

MATSUDA Kuninori, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan, recognizes Pakistan as an important country for the peace and stability in this region, therefore he highly values security dialogues between Japan and Pakistan.

He also emphasized that Japan and Pakistan would continue to work together for strengthening cordial relationship between the two countries, through bilateral dialogues at various levels.

----------------------------------------------

ISLAMABAD, JUN 29: The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Islamabad, in partnership with U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, concluded the seventh edition of the Startup Cup Finale. 

Over 500 startups competed in the various stages of the competition, which included coaching and business readiness workshops.  

From the final 15 startups, the first prize of 1 million rupees goes to Scaryammi, Pakistan’s first mothering community application. 

The second prize of 750,000 rupees goes to mimAR, a building visualization company offering interactive visualization for the real estate industry. 

MeraFuture, Islamabad’s startup offering artificial intelligence-based career counselling for 9th to12th grade students takes the rupees 500,000 third prize.

Regional Winners include: Mobiliti from Lahore, Poulta from Islamabad, Moogle Studio from Peshawar, Kaachi from Karachi, and Edjin Robotics from Quetta.

The Startup Cup is a local business model competition designed to increase the quality and quantity of entrepreneurs in Pakistan. This year’s event promises to show a unique virtual experience to those attending it.

“Our number-one goal for this competition is to encourage and support the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Pakistan,” said Murtaza Zaidi, President of TiE Islamabad. 

“Through this competition, we can help budding entrepreneurs connect with successful businesspersons and prominent members of the startup ecosystem to gain the knowledge and expertise their business requires to prosper,” he added.

U.S. Embassy Minister Counselor for Public Affairs Raymond Castillo, noted, “It is exciting to see the level of creativity and business drive that the Startup Cup generates.  

The United States has a long and proud history of supporting entrepreneurs, and we are thrilled to be able to share this experience with Pakistan.” 

Senator, Sania Nishtar added, “Initiatives like the Pakistan Startup Cup are so important for Pakistan. 

With such a high percentage of youth in the country, it is important for our young population to entrepreneurial skills that TiE Islamabad that will not only help them but also create opportunities for others as their businesses grow.”

The Startup Cup is Pakistan’s largest startup competition.  TiE Islamabad, in partnership with the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, has increased the initial scope of the competition to include entrepreneurs from across the country, and has already helped over 2,500 startups grow.   For more information, see 

https://islamabad.tie.org/programs/current-programs/pakistan-startup-cup/

----------------------------------------

NEW DELHI – The Twenty20 World Cup will be moved to the United Arab Emirates from India due to the coronavirus pandemic, an Indian cricket board official told on Monday.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said it had told the International Cricket Council, the sport’s world body, of its decision to host the event in the UAE in October and November.

“We have told the ICC about the decision to shift the World Cup to UAE. We were left with no option as the Covid situation is not clear and the travel restrictions remain,” the BCCI’s treasurer, Arun Dhumal, said.

“The dates will more or less be the same and we will work out the details soon.”

The ICC had given the BCCI a deadline of the end of June to decide the host country for T20’s showpiece event due to the high number of Covid-19 cases in India.

BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla said the qualifiers may take place in Oman while the rest of the matches will be at three UAE venues in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.

The BCCI had already moved the suspended Indian Premier League to the UAE in September-October after the T20 tournament was halted on May 4 due to a number of players and team officials being infected with Covid.

The UAE has been a preferred destination for cricket as the Pakistan Super League was completed last week in the Gulf nation. The IPL was also held in the UAE last year.

The pandemic disrupted the global cricket calendar last year and even after the matches resumed in July 2020, players have been confined to strict bio-bubbles and quarantine protocols.

The ICC meanwhile postponed the T20 World Cup originally scheduled to be held in Australia in 2020.

India was handed the hosting rights in 2021 and Australia was chosen as host for the 2022 edition.

India, home to 1.3 billion people, has eased some lockdown restrictions in recent weeks as it emerges from a brutal surge in Covid-19 infections and deaths in April and May.

But health officials fear that a new wave could sweep across the country, the world’s second-most infected after the United States, later this year.

--------------------------------------------

COURTESY dawn news

------

ISLAMABAD, JUN 27 – Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday asked all Pakistanis, especially the youth, to prepare themselves for the “biggest tree planting campaign in Pakistan’s history” ahead of the monsoon season this year.

The premier shared an infographic on Twitter that showed the number of trees per person in different countries. According to the chart, there are 10,163 trees per person in Canada, 699 per person in the United States, 130 per person in China, 28 per person in India and five trees per person in Pakistan.

“We have a lot of catching up to do,” the premier noted in his tweet. “And we will be gearing up this monsoon season for our plantation drive — the biggest in Pakistan’s history.”

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Imran launched the Spring Tree Plantation Campaign 2021, vowing that his government would make a “green Pakistan” by planting 10 billion trees.

According to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2020-21 that was released last month, the target of planting around 350 million trees and 814.6m plants across the country in that time period under the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme (TBTTP) had been achieved.

The success of the Billion Trees Afforestation Project (BTAP) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa encouraged the government to launch the TBTTP across the country; the programme was approved by Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) at a cost of Rs125.1bn.

The programme was launched for the revival of forest and wildlife resources in Pakistan and intended to improve the overall conservation of existing protected areas besides promoting eco-tourism, community engagement and create jobs.

During phase-I of the programme, plantation/regeneration of 3.2bn trees will be completed.

The government is confident that a target to plant one billion trees will be achieved by June 2021 and this project is expected to deliver an environmental dividend in preserving atmospheric health, reducing greenhouse gas effects, lowering cases of random floods, lowering rains, droughts and enhancing other biodiversity supportive actions.

The federal government also plans to incentivise students to plant trees by offering 20 extra marks to students who plant at least 20 saplings. Legislation to this effect is being introduced in parliament and is aimed at integrating youth in the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami plantation project, according to Minister for Climate Change Zartaj Gul.

The minister said the unique effort was being developed to require each university graduate to plant at least 20 trees during the course of their education, in accordance with the prime minister’s vision of a clean and green Pakistan.

---------------------------------------------------------

COURTESY DAWN NEWS

-----------

ISLAMABAD, JUN 26: There will be 75 paisas charged on phone calls exceeding five minutes starting July 1, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin announced Friday.

These 75 paisas will be charged for every minute if a phone call continued for more than five minutes.

On the average, 33 paisas are charged on every mobile phone call in Pakistan. Telecom operators receive Rs1.65 on every five-minute call.

The government charges 19.5% Federal Excise Duty on these calls. Mobile phone users will now be paying these 75 paisas in addition to the 19.5% FED.

From July 1, the overall tax on mobile phone calls lasting more than five minutes will reach Rs2.72 or 65%.

The government hasn’t imposed any new tax on internet and SMS services, according to Tarin.

Telecom sector has emerged as a prominent contributor to Pakistan’s economy. Its contribution to the national exchequer increased by 129% in 2020, compared to 2019, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sector contributed Rs278 billion in FY 2020 as compared to Rs121 billion in FY 2019, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said in its annual report in January 2021.

The use of data stands at 4,498 Peta Bytes that shows a growth of over 77%, according to the PTA.

The country has international bandwidth connectivity of 3.1 Tera Bytes and around 47,000 cell sites, of which 90% are 4G-enabled sites.

Telecom networks are currently available to 87% of the population, according to the PTA. It is working with operators to increase their network coverage for the remaining 13% people of the country.

Local manufacturing of handsets has enlivened the telecom ecosystem, with growth in local 4G device manufacturing crossing 34%, the report said.

Pakistan experienced trials of 5G services that were one of the few firsts in South Asia.

--------------------------------------------------------

COURTESY Samaa

-----------

Believe it or not, you don’t have to be a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert to be a good content creator. However, it’s super-valuable to know some tips and tricks to improve your rankings on Google and user experience.

Here are five useful tips that you won’t read elsewhere. Since Google has many updates each year, you have to keep up with your SEO game in 2021.

Let’s start!

1. Look for questions people are searching on Google

In October 2020, Google improved BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) with their research in AI (artificial intelligence). BERT is language understanding systems that understand users’ written queries on Google Search, thus providing more relevant results.

This update improved Google Search in a way that now the systems can understand:

• misspelt words, thanks to the new spelling algorithm;
• the context of misspelt words.

Now it’s possible to provide a user’s requested information in under 3 milliseconds.

How is this related to questions asked on Google?

The BERT improvement allows Google to capture and understand the context of the article and page itself, making long-tail keywords more important than ever.

Let’s take the example of the keyword ‘rich media’.

The term ‘rich media’ is a short keyword with less volume and higher keyword difficulty compared to the long-tail keyword that’s also a question ‘how are rich media ads different from other ad formats?’.

This long-tail keyword provides even more significant search volume and a lower keyword difficulty level.

This particular case proves that people search more and more by typing specific questions and looking for direct answers.

But how do you find the right questions?

You should focus on checking broader terms (short keywords) when doing keyword research because the questions will appear as a suggestion.

Then check pages that rank in the first positions and answer those questions better.

Remember that this question has to be included in your article as one of the headings or titles. Keep the answer to the question sweet and straight to the point!

So how to find those top pages?

If you use Ahrefs, scroll down in the keyword explorer, and you will see them. And in this particular case, the featured snippet for the long-tail keyword ranks Setupad.

Check the answer to a particular question on the search by typing the question in a Google Search.

As you can see from the image below, this particular site includes the question in its title plus the short keyword in the description. By this Google understands that this site’s article includes the information that users are actually searching for.

Remember to focus more on long-tail phrases because your competitors might be focusing on short keywords. Also, there is less competition, leading your article to rank in the first position on Google Search.

2. Add internal and external links

Yes, internal and external links are still important for SEO in 2021.

Here are ways to use them effectively:

Internal links

1. Don’t add random links that don’t explain specific terms or add additional value for the user. For example, adding an internal link under the term ‘SEO tips’ takes the user to another article on the page ‘5 SEO Tips for Your Site’.
2. If the internal link is reasonable, your article builds up a great user experience. By having internal links, you allow the user to spend more time on your site.
3. Internal links increase the other page rankings too.
4. If the user visits more than one page on your site, it increases engagement and lowers the bounce rate.

External links

1. Add external links only if necessary.
2. Link to pages that have high domain authority scores.
3. If you have used some data, citation, or you see that this particular other site’s article will add value to your reader, link the page to it!
4. By adding external links Google and other search engines understand what your article is about.

It helps to increase your rankings if your article is linked with the most valuable external sources.

Google’s algorithm follows the content that is linked. The first thing you can do is go through your articles and check if there is a possibility to link them. If yes, then great. If no, you can find a piece that’s related to it. And add it as a related article (the title of the article).

Example:

3. Entity based SEO

Many SEO specialists now emphasize that content marketers should focus on entity based SEO.

Entity based means one word that can be captured in the whole article. It’s more like a context-based word that can define the article. The keywords within the article allow the search engine to give the best possible results for a specific entity.

For example, the user types in the word ‘ROSE’ (entity), and the search automatically provides several ideas of what the user wanted to look for –plant, actress, or song. The entity gives ideas for users to jump into the right category and find the information they were looking for easier.

Simply speaking, Google emphasizes entities over keywords, which has helped provide more precise results for users.

Keywords and entities go hand in hand. Keywords help entities to be defined. So, before conducting big keyword research, focus on finding the right entity and then do the keyword research.

4. Optimized URLs

Each year you should go through your blog articles and see if your URLs are optimized.

Shorter URLs rank better on search results, and it’s way easier for users to understand what your article is about. And this improves user experience.

Here are some useful tips on how you should optimize them.

For example, if your blog contains articles that have to be updated each year, don’t mention the year in the URL; it will make your life easier in the future. When you decide to improve or update the content, you should only change Meta Title where you include the new year, but the URL won’t change.

Example:

• Non optimized URL

example.com/blog/top-trends-2021

• Optimized URL:

example.com/blog/top-trends

Long URLs make it harder to share on social media because the entire URL cannot be visible and could feel fake or scammy for some users.

Another tip is to use hyphens instead of underscores because Google robots read the URL by hyphens.

• Hyphens: –
• Underscores : _

Example:

Hyphens: example.com/blog/top-trends

Underscores: example.com/blog/top_trends

Don’t use capital letters in the URL, because it can confuse search engines.

5. Focus on user experience

In June 2021 Google will roll out an official ranking factor update called Core Web Vitals. This update will affect sites with bad user experience, so make sure your content is easy to read and is user and mobile-friendly. Make sure you use images, videos, and infographics, maybe some animations.

Check how fast your site loads, how fast it interacts with the user, and whether it is responsive.

SEO works hand in hand with user experience; if SEO is more for search engines, UX is for your site’s users. Both of them have the same goal of providing the most relevant information for users.

Keeping an eye on UX helps searchers to find the information they are looking for, thus increasing your organic traffic.

Final thoughts

As a content creator, use the tips mentioned above to improve SEO and UX. Make sure you are on your content marketing game in 2021 and optimize your content frequently.

-------------------------------------------------

COURTESY jeffbullas

-------------------