Is it time to invest in gold?

Gold, in addition to being a precious metal highly valued in jewelry and in some branches of the industry for its qualities, is also one of the star assets in the investment world.

The price of gold fluctuates depending on the physical supply and demand of the metal, but also in relation to gold as an investment asset. As a curiosity, gold is quoted in US dollars and its price reflects what you pay for an ounce, which is equivalent to 28.35 grams.

What does the price of gold depend on?

In addition to supply and demand, there are other factors that have a great impact on its price.

Gold is traditionally considered the safe haven asset par excellence. That is why it tends to rise at times of tension in the markets, such as when there is no negative news about the trade war or when a geopolitical conflict breaks out.

Another possible explanation for this rise in the price could be in inflation expectations. Traditionally, the price of sell gold goes in the opposite direction to that of interest rates. A low rate scenario like the current one should lead to rising inflation; so many investors try to avoid losing the value of their money by acquiring gold.

Ultimately, the behavior of gold is different from that of other financial assets, and that is why many investors decide to have gold. In practice, it contributes to the diversification of investment portfolios, given its low correlation with other assets, and some strategies, such as the permanent portfolio , establish gold as a star asset precisely in periods of high inflation, when money loses value.

What characteristics does gold have?

Gold is a very special asset. On the one hand, it has been highly valued since ancient times for its properties, and for a long time, it functioned as money, or as the basis on which the value of money rested.

Although today it no longer has that value in itself, gold continues to be a strategic asset in many cases, and countries often have reserves (such as the famous Fort Knox reserve in the United States). For its part, United Kingdom has sold part of its reserves in recent years (by virtue of agreements signed when the UK Central Bank was established), which currently stand at around 280 tons.

In addition, many people still see it as a tangible value, it is something that can be seen and touched, and that is why they invest in gold bars or jewelry.

Another of its characteristics is scarcity, since there is not a large production (barely 3,000 tons per year worldwide), and there are no substitute products (as can happen, for example, in the case of oil and other alternative energies) .

Most of the production is used in jewelery (around 70%), 20% is dedicated to investment gold and 10% is used for other industrial and medical applications, thanks to its properties (good electrical conductivity, resistance to corrosion…).

How to invest in gold

There are different ways to invest in gold. Some of them are complex and require high financial knowledge.

Physical gold

There are people who physically invest in gold; that is, they buy an ingot, which comes in standard sizes . An ingot weighing just 250 grams (taking into account the density of gold, it is barely the size of a lighter) would currently be around 10,000 Euros, and it is relatively easy to store. But we would be exposed to it being stolen from us, which is why, in general, other ways of investing are more recommended.

Investment funds

There are investment funds focused on the shares of companies that extract gold and other precious metals that can be found, for example, in this list of the Self Bank fund finder. Logically, these investment funds do not have a perfect correlation with the price of gold, but there will be a close relationship between the price of gold and that of the companies that make up the fund.

Certificates

Another possibility to invest in gold (and oil) are certificates . The certificates are listed on the Stock Market, and replicate the evolution of the price of the raw material , with no expiration date, with liquidity (when listed on the market), and with the currency risk hedged.

Warrants and Turbo Warrants

Warrants and turbo warrants are also derivative products, and their performance depends on that of another underlying asset (in this case, gold), as well as other factors, such as volatility or interest rates.

The warrants give the right to buy or sell an asset at a fixed price until a certain date. It can be reversed up (call warrants) or down (put warrants).

CFD

Contracts for difference ( CFDs ) also allow you to take advantage of fluctuations in gold prices. To operate with these products, the broker requires a percentage of the nominal as a guarantee, that is, it is not necessary to disburse the entire nominal value of the investment, so they are products with leverage . This increases the risk of the investment, so it is not a suitable product for all profiles. The CFD allows us to position ourselves both higher and lower on the gold price in UK.

ETF

An investment alternative that is not so common for non-professional investors is that of ETFs , which are investment funds that are publicly traded. In this way, it is simply a matter of looking for an ETF referenced to the asset that interests us, in this case, gold.

Car rental for the wedding: tips for choosing the best one

For many couples it is time to choose the car rental for their wedding and evaluate among the many proposals which is the best and the most suitable for the event. This is not as easy as it may seem, as the market is saturated with careless car rentals, which can jeopardize the success of your big day.

So I decided to offer you a list of things to take into consideration when selecting the car rental, in order to avoid nasty surprises.

How to choose the car rental for the wedding

1) Look for professionalism

First of all I advise you to think carefully before contacting private individuals. There are many people who rent their car for events without having a professional activity behind them. This is not only incorrect from a fiscal point of view (they do it in black, in the face of us honest entrepreneurs), but it is also dangerous for you.

If I am a private individual and I am renting my only car, however beautiful, rare and impeccably maintained, what if that car fails before the wedding? If it gets scratched, if it doesn't start, if I have a mishap and I can't take it to its destination?

Always prefer serious companies in good standing, with a good fleet of cars and with more than one driver, to be able to replace the car or the person in charge of driving it in case of need.

2) Put everything in black on white

All agreements must be in writing. Prices must be clearly defined and specified, as well as payment terms and replacement clauses in the event of failure or unavailability of the driver.

Be wary of those who do not ask you the route before telling you the price, a car rental needs to evaluate the fuel costs and wear of the vehicle, the routes to take and the timing. If he doesn't do it one of two: either he is firing a random price to "attract you" or he doesn't know what he is doing. Either way it could turn out to be a bad deal.

Keep in mind that there are areas (I have in mind some beautiful historic centers of my Paglia and the old city of Montego Bay itself) in which bulky cars such as limousines cannot circulate, they do not have the material space to pass and turn, so the path you must evaluate first.

3) Do like St. Thomas

Go see the car in person, or send us someone you trust (or your wedding planner). Do not trust those who pretend to negotiate only on the internet and are not available to show you their cars, to email you a photo found on Google, everyone is capable.

It should be taken for granted, but I'll tell you anyway: be wary even of those who tell you things like "I don't have a photo of the car, but it's more or less like this" and send you photos of a car that isn't his. There are more than you think...

4) Pay attention to the details

The car must be clean and impeccable, the driver dressed appropriately (jacket and tie are a must, even if there are 40 °!), The budget car rental in Jamaica must be available to agree with you or your wedding coordinator the arrival time and provide you with information on the type of decoration and the characteristics it will have (if they take care of it) or that it must have (if you take care of it).

In any case, privilege the aspects relating to their seriousness and professionalism, rather than being enchanted by gifts and gadgets. It is a very nice gesture, so to speak, if the company offers you sparkling wine with which to toast at the end of the ceremony, but it is MUCH more important that it is up to date with all the insurances and that it offers you this type of serenity.

5) Get advice from a professional

Word of mouth is a double-edged sword. Who got on so well with that gentleman who rents his car for a few pennies is in good faith, but he is not reliable. Ask for advice from a professional wedding planner, who will have evaluated all aspects of many suppliers and will be able to direct you to the most serious and best suited to your needs.

Read also: Car rental for the holidays: useful tips to avoid rip-offs

SEO: why take care of the tree structure of your site?

 The better structured your site is, the more likely you are to achieve higher search engine rankings. Every website has a certain "structure". It can be a rigorous and rational structure, or a disorganized jumble of pages. If you take special care in the tree structure of your site, you will have a site that will achieve search excellence.

In this article, I share some tips on creating an effective site tree. The tips below will help you create a site that users enjoy, is well indexed by bots, and offers the best chance of ranking well in the SERPs .

Why is structure important?

I have worked with dozens of clients over the years, and was surprised at how neglected the site structure I was asked for. On the one hand, this is one of the crucial aspects of a site's SEO performance, but more importantly, few people understand what it means to have a successful and organized site tree, for visitors but also for SEO. .

What is the difference between architecture and tree structure?

The architecture of a site corresponds to the framework on which your site is created, its general organization. Its tree structure is the visible part: it is this which allows the user to navigate on the site.

A good tree structure is synonymous with a good user experience.

If you remove the colors, fonts, images, and negative spaces, all that's left is the site structure.

The human mind needs cognitive balance - to be able to put things together logically, to find things where they are expected, and to be able to easily locate what it is looking for. Thus, a strong and logical tree structure is cognitively satisfactory for users.

As you know, the more attractive your site is to visitors, the better it will be for search engines. Google's algorithm uses the information provided by searchers to rank your site.

If your site has high bounce rates and low consultation time, it won't perform well in the SERPs. On the other hand, when a user finds a site they like, they don't bounce back and stay longer. A precise site structure can drastically reduce bounce rate and improve reading time, which in turn helps improve rankings.

A good site structure allows it to obtain "sitelinks".

Site links appear as a list in the SERPs, and show the main page of your site as well as several internal links indented just below. You know what I'm talking about.

Sitelinks are a huge advantage for SEO:

1. they improve the navigability of your site,
2. they direct users to the most relevant information,
3. they strengthen the reputation of your brand,
4. they improve user confidence,
5. they help you dominate the SERPs,
6. they increase the click-through rate
7. they shorten the conversion funnel. 

But how do you get sitelinks?

It's not enough to go to the Google Search Console and fill out a few fields on a form. You cannot apply. Google's algorithm automatically assigns sitelinks to websites. And they do this based on the tree structure of the site in question.

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If your site is poorly structured, it is very likely that it will never receive sitelinks. Lack of sitelinks could cost your site more targeted traffic, a higher bounce rate, and lower conversions.

A good tree structure means better crawling.

Crawlers like Googlebot analyze the structure of a website. Their purpose is to index all content in order to return it in search results. The better the structure of your site, the easier it is for crawlers to access and index content.

It can be deduced from this that crawlers have a much easier time accessing, browsing, indexing and returning to the pages of a site with a solid structure.

In addition, the “crawl budget” is invaluable and should not be wasted on unimportant or relevant pages: by structuring your site you guide the robots to the pages that matter to you, the ones that you want people to see.

Conclusion

Organizing your site sets the stage for best SEO NYC in New York success. In fact, you could say that without a good site structure, you will never have SEO success. An organized site structure gives your site an unwavering SEO foundation that will allow you to attract a large number of organic searches.

All you have to do is build the tree structure of your site by following these 6 steps or post your ad on best SEO NYC to find the freelance web designer who can help you redesign your tree structure.

Machine learning and waste management 4.0

 The advent of new technologies has profoundly changed the waste collection service, allowing operators in the sector to adapt and fully enter the world of waste management 4.0. Today we talk about how to optimize these processes with the help of machine learning.

Before continuing, it is necessary to fully understand what Machine learning is , why it is so important and how much it can improve waste management in a 4.0 perspective.

What is Machine Learning?

Machine learning in practice is what we can define as "automatic learning" , the ability of a software to learn specific tasks for which it has not been programmed through the recognition of certain patterns within the processed data.

This definition is due to the American scientist Arthur Lee Samuel, the pioneer of what we know today as Artificial Intelligence.

Currently the fields of application of Machine learning have become increasingly greater, especially thanks to the technological evolution known as Industry 4.0 which has definitively revolutionized the industrial world as we are used to knowing it.

Going into more detail, Machine learning algorithms use mathematical models to learn directly from the information they have available, without the need for predetermined equations and / or algorithms.

In the field of waste management, the interaction between man and machine allows software to manage and process a large amount of data with extreme precision, managing to foresee and coordinate the various activities.

Machine learning and waste management: the benefit of performance

The exchange of information we talked about earlier is one of the key points on which the current technology of a 4.0 waste management software is based. In this sense, Machine learning is able to further amplify the concept of performance in the waste collection and disposal service.

This happens because by integrating the two components we are able to process a lot of information thanks to which it is possible to suggest better interactions in an automated way. By improving performance.

How can we explain it better? With an example: imagine having to manage the waste collection service of hundreds of bins located within the same city. These are the factors to consider:

·         Different distances between the different collection centers

·         Timing and displacements not homogeneous

·         Staff organization

·         Management of collection vehicles

Starting from these elements, we must also consider that each single container will have a different performance depending on the number of users who use it. As a result, some bins will fill earlier and others less.

How to proceed? Thanks to the technology present in each of them that allows you to keep filling levels under control by communicating independently to the waste management software where and when to intervene, the emptying carried out and the necessary interventions.

 Related Post: Waste traceability: technology at the service of management software

In this case it is also possible to trace the best route for the vehicles by actually intervening in the optimization of the costs of the vehicles and personnel.

All this is possible thanks to an automatic learning system which, based on the management of each single information, establishes the best solution to apply to improve performance.

The automation of these digitized processes allows the waste management software to offer high performance by optimizing services and simultaneously guaranteeing precision and punctuality.

7 tips for optimizing the SEO of your Youtube channel

 Do you want your brand to gain visibility and are you looking for new opportunities? Now is the time to integrate Youtube into your marketing strategy.

With more than 2 billion monthly users, the video platform represents a real boon for many companies. Not to mention that Youtube is the second search engine after Google! But we still have to manage to find a place on the most famous video platform in the world.

Fortunately, we are here. Here are 7 tips to increase the natural traffic of your Youtube channel.

1. Understand the Youtube algorithm

It is common knowledge now that Youtube's algorithm creates a stream of personalized recommendations, depending on the level of user satisfaction. For optimization, the algorithm takes precedence over the search engine.

Did you know ?

70% of the traffic would come more from recommendations made by the platform than from direct search.

It is therefore essential to understand how this algorithm works to extend your visibility.

Here are the user behavior metrics to consider in statistics:

·         Duration of user viewing.

·         Percentage of video watched.

·         Click rate.

2. Keywords

Like written content, keywords are essential for organic SEO optimization on Youtube.

To search for the relevant keywords associated with your videos, it is recommended to use Youtube's automatic suggestion. You just have to type a query in the search bar to see all the associated keyword suggestions appear . Exactly like on Google.

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Our advice

Make sure to place your main keyword in your file name before uploading to your channel. It's simple but effective SEO advice!

3. Add links to your Youtube channel banner

You can customize your Youtube channel and add links to your website or social networks. You then increase your chances that the user will be interested in your brand.

To do this, click on “customize the channel”, go to the “Links” section and click on the edit icon to add the desired links.

. Add subtitles to your videos

Adding captions is a great way to increase the natural traffic of a Youtube channel. Subtitles are indeed taken into account by search engines. Activating this function on your channel is an asset for your SEO.

Warning

However, make sure the video captioning is accurate, automation can hold some surprises!

The addition of subtitles facilitates the work of the algorithm and increases your chances of visibility on 

Youtube.

5. Structure your channel

Once you've uploaded a few well-optimized videos, you can organize your channel to improve the user experience. Youtube organizes videos by default by popularity or in order of publication.

Our advice

Put yourself in your audience's shoes for a moment and think about how they'll navigate your channel.

To organize your video content, you can create playlists . All you have to do is select “customize channel”, click on the playlists tab and then create a new one.

6. Optimize the tags and descriptions of videos

Describing your videos is a step that should not be overlooked in order to optimize SEO. The first 100 words are the most important because they are the ones that show up in Youtube search results.

Your keywords should be integrated into the content as naturally as possible. Most of the time, this is done automatically if you make a detailed and precise description of your video. Optimizing your description is the best way to appear in the Youtube video suggestion sidebar.

Think about it

Do not forget to integrate your keywords in the tags, they will be very useful in optimizing your SEO NYC.

7. Add the integration function

Want people to share your videos in bulk? Also, don't hesitate to integrate them on your website or blog and encourage users to do so on their own website. You can even embed your videos in your newsletters!

Make it easier for them by activating the embed feature on Youtube. To activate it, go to the “video manager” of your Youtube account then select “modify” under the video on which you want to activate the integration. Finally in “advanced settings”, check the option “integration”.

Related Post: Main digital marketing strategies for your industry

 

SEO ON Page and OFF Page: which is more important?

 

Behind the search engine optimization work there are two groups of activities concerning the internal environment of the site and the external one, for this we speak of SEO On Page and SEO Off Page .

The debate on which is more important is always open and sees supporters on both sides, but the reality is that both must be known and mastered by those who want to position a web page as high as possible in the SERP.

Before starting the hostilities it is better to know the characteristics of the two challengers.

SEO On Page: A brief summary

The SEO On Page activities are essential to optimize a web page that you want to make known to the search engine and, above all, that must climb the SERP arriving , at best, in the first non-paid position .

The goal of this side of Search Engine Optimization is to create organic traffic on the site made up of target users with the topics that are covered or with the products that are sold.

To do a good job you need to know the factors that affect the ranking of the site . Let's see which are the main ones.

Find the insights on all the elements of On Page SEO in this article.

SEO Off Page: what is it and what is it about?

The actions that are done outside the site to optimize a page are called SEO Off Page or SEO Off Site and also serve to improve the positioning in the Search Engine Results Pag, better known as SERP.

 Read also: New Digital Marketing Strategies through Mobile

The heart of this activity is Link Building , that is the methodology that aims to obtain back links from sites to which Google attributes a certain authority.

 The characteristics of a valuable link are:

·         The popularity and page authority of the domain from which the link comes

·         The consistency of the web page from which the link comes with the target one

·         The reliability of the link domain

·         The anchor text from which the link starts

Now let's see how you get quality back links that increase PageRank.

 Spontaneous links

In this case, links are obtained from authoritative sites because they create excellent quality content that is taken up by other authors to give further information on a specific topic.

There are no strategies in place to induce someone to link to your content, which is why we speak of natural linking.

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For example, while I write this paragraph dedicated to backlinks, they can spontaneously insert a link to the Wikipedia page where the definition and some more in-depth information are reported.

Manual Link Building

You can force your hand a little in Link Building, while remaining on the white hat side, weaving fruitful relationships online.

To get links you can:

Ask collaborators and people in your sector with whom you have good relationships to share content

Establish an agreement for mutual sharing with other sites

Ask for collaboration from influencers

Publish guest posts

Links inserted independently

To get links to your own page you can act by inserting the link from a still optimized in comments on blogs in line with the content treated in the content, in specialized forums , in web directories .

These activities are considered black hat, so they are considered illegal by search engines which, in fact, can also penalize the sites that use them.

 Social sharing

The social signals are not considered direct ranking factors by search engines, but they are important elements that help a brand to be known and to contribute to the active community creations.

Sharing a web page on social networks is not considered a useful activity to get back links, but it is certainly a method for making brand awareness and for giving visibility to a site and its contents.

Bottom line: is On Page SEO or Off Page SEO more important?

As often happens in web marketing, the answer is: it depends .

Both are fundamental to better position a web page and / or a website, but it is necessary to discriminate between an old and a new domain .

A newly opened site with a specially created domain can only start from the SEO On Page , because if it does not have the technical characteristics useful for positioning and quality content, there is nothing that can be linked from another site.

We must always return to the motto " Content is King" and base the construction of a site on the quality of the information that is made available to users and, only after that, will the back links arrive.

 Read also: Digital Marketing: communication channel in business promotion

If, on the other hand, the site to be optimized is old, it is necessary to evaluate whether the domain already has a thriving profile of active links or has few back links.

In the case of a domain that has been active for several years that has gained several back links, but with not particularly well- content, it is always the On Page SEO that is more important to achieve even better results.

Obviously, if the site already has valuable content, but a Link Building strategy has never been activated, is appropriate to use the SEO Off Page to increase the ranking of the web pages and climb the SERP.

At the end of this long article it is now clear that you cannot choose a priori whether to throw yourself into the optimization on or off the site, but it is necessary to carefully analyze the web pages and plan the activities to be carried out, always aiming to improve the positioning on Google.