Hi,

All well?

​​Inspired? Busy?

Smile.

😄

Awesome.

What’s new? Amazing shortcuts…

How do you create a new Google Doc? Search Google for “Google docs”, click the link, then click the big plus button?

There’s a much better way.

Sathish shared this in our weekly meeting this Monday.

• If you type “docs.new” in your browser’s address bar, it will create a new Google Doc
• You can use “sheets.new” for spreadsheet and “slides.new” for presentations.
• Yes, go ahead try it!
• And it’s not limited to Google. You can do “design.new” to create a new design within Canva. “link.new” for a new Bitly link. And much more…

When I saw him demonstrate this, I went “wow”. It’s one of those things that you learn once and save time again and again with.

Visit whats.new to learn about all these shortcuts

Search intent and on-page SEO

You’ve heard it, maybe you’ve been at the receiving end of it…

Google changes its search and ranking algorithms regularly. They want to “show the most relevant content to users based on their search queries.”

When you search for ‘best mayo sandwiches’, you may be looking for a nearby restaurant or recipes. Maybe you want to order something right away.

The search query has multiple search intents. So Google shows some how-tos recipes, a list of restaurants, some food delivery apps, videos…

What if you added content for multiple search intents – with a spin to make it all relevant?

It can work quite well – as we found out.

We tried this idea on this blog post about “woocommerce subscriptions”. And it started showing two pages ahead very quickly.

What did we do?

We saw that the top-ranking results for those keywords were plugin landing pages and listicles.

So we clubbed together those into a single page and added our own spin of why to do subscriptions, how to manage subscriptions and how to use subscriptions with memberships to make our content more relevant.

The page improved its search engine rank quickly.

What can you do to improve your SEO rank?

Here’s an excellent guide on content writing and on-page SEO that will help you craft unique content.

It covers:

• On-page SEO basics
• How to create SEO content
• How to optimize your content (this can be great for content you’ve already published)
• Advanced On-Page optimizations
• On-page SEO tools

Do try it. I’ll be happy to answer any SEO questions you may have. Just reply to this email and ask.

Do it or regret it

World War I, in a high-bloodshed battle.

Jim saw his best friend, Miles lying on the battlefield, wounded. Jim was caught in a trench with continuous gunfire over his head.

Jim asked his lieutenant to get Miles back from “No Man’s Land”. The lieutenant reluctantly said: ”It won’t be worth it. He’s probably dead and you may also throw your life away.”

Miraculously, Jim reached Miles, escaped gunshots and brought him back on his shoulders.

The lieutenant checked Miles and angrily looked at Jim. “I told you, it wouldn’t be worth it. He is dead and you are wounded too.” To which Jim responded: “It was worth it sir.”

The lieutenant couldn’t believe what he just heard and demanded an explanation.

Jim answered: “It was worth it because Miles was alive when I got to him. I had the satisfaction of hearing him say – I knew you’d come, Jim”.

Whether a thing is worth doing or not really depends on how you look at it. Muster the courage and do what your heart says. And you won’t regret it later.

Heard of passive income, how about passive productivity?

When you hear “experts” talk about productivity, it’s about time blocking, morning routines and to-do lists. Yet, there are so many things we can do or learn once that will save us time over and over again.

Like typing faster. Or speed reading, keyboard shortcuts and searching better.

Jaakko has written about passive productivity: getting more done, by default; and it’s worth following.

Writing to engage readers

Much of the content online isn’t well-written – sometimes it’s downright boring. I’m sure we’ll have some boring content on our sites too!

So if we want to make our content clear and interesting, we can try the inverted pyramid principle. Start with what people need to know, then follow with nice to know. This strategy helps you present the main point quickly – and gain the reader’s attention – as you unpack all the details and other relevant information through the rest of the writing.

“Start content with the most important piece of information so readers can get the main point, regardless of how much they read.”

Read the complete inverted pyramid principle on Nielsen / Norman website.

Did you miss the “writing prompt” this time? If you did, do reply and let me know. Will resume it next week!

What piece did you enjoy the most in this email? Reply and share!

Take care,