Let’s talk about GoPro 7 first, the predecessor of GoPro hero 8 has amazing super smooth stabilization. However, they got it better with Hyper smooth 2.0. The videos in 4k were amazing. GoPro hero 8 specs have been further tweaked by the action cam makers of GoPro. So finally when the specs are out and they are launching this amazing device. Here I come with a complete review of Hero GoPro 8 Black. The second camera that they launched with a few modifications is the Hero GoPro Max. This is a modified version of GoPro Fusion.
GoPro 8 Black price in India will be around INR 37,000. More or less the same price as GoPro 7 Black when it was launched. The addictive GoPro buyers can still book it online right now the price on the website though in USD is $399. Follow this link to pre-order it right now. Now, if we talk about GoPro max the price of this device is $499.99 on the official website. I loved fusion and I always wanted to buy it, however, it’s good that I waited for some time as now I can get my hands on GoPro max. You can pre-order it now on the official website, just click this link. Enough about the price let’s get down to more serious business.
What’s new in it? GoPro Hero 8 Specs
First, let’s talk about GoPro 8 black. The only bad thing about GoPro 7 is that in case you need to charge it or access a memory card, you need to get it out of its housing. Gone are those days mate. These slots are now placed on the sides and are easily accessible. The new GoPro 8 has an inbuilt mounting system. This means that you do not need to put this camera first in the housing and then attach it to the GoPro mounting accessories.
It has flaps at the bottom that opens up downwards, and when not in use they flip up to lie flush with the GoPro Hero 8 Black body and are held in place by magnets. This is awesome…..! A few amazing things that are now are the shotgun-mic performance, 3.5mm mic and HDMI-out ports, and two cold-shoe mounts—all in one. It has a flip-up screen for video loggers and a flash that can be attached to it. I am flipping already man!
GoPro Max
Now let’s come to GoPro max. I loved Fusion as I mentioned earlier. I used it since my friend had it. However, I got a 7 Black and was waiting if GoPro comes out with another bad fusion looking, bad boy. GoPro retrofitted this beast with some awesome punching features compared to its predecessor fusion. You can now shoot a single-lens hero style video with unbreakable stabilization. You can capture immersive 360-degree footage. Video log to the max with shot-gun mic performance and a front-facing screen. This just keeps on getting better.
Hyper smooth 2.0
Don’t you like the hyper smooth feature of GoPro 7 Black? Well, you will fall in love with Hyper smooth 2.0 of GoPro 8 Black. This Hyper smooth 2.0 is built on the foundation which was laid by the Hyper smooth feature of GoPro 7 Black. Never ever will there be a shaky video ever in the future of GoPro. This feature is available in all the modes available on this device. To add to this, there is something called the beast mode in Hyper smooth 2.0. This mode gives you super duper smooth videos but with a hint of crop video factor. But it’s all good. I can’t wait to get my hands on this device.
GP1 Sensor (The best)
Another modification that is being done to this 8th generation of action camera is the changes to its sensor. The new GP1 sensor is super efficient and works like artificial intelligence. Now, we all know the timelapse feature which is in GoPro 7. Well, thetime-lapse on this device is on steroids, thanks to the GP1 sensor. You can now automatically adjust the speed of the time-lapse footage based on data that is being captured by this sensor. You can tap in the middle of the video to capture real-time footage or focus on something. I am flipping out seriously. GoPro Hero 8 specs are amazing!
Honest Hero 8 review
The interface is being pumped up by GoPro engineers. It has been completely revamped and now you need lesser taps to get things done. Shoot 4k footage at 60 fps and with hyper smooth 2.0 feature, you will never know what is shaky videos. Additional modifications are crazy. You can attach a shotgun microphone for crystal clear audio. Additional LED for making videos in dark. Now everyone can be Bear Grylls. lol! Furthermore, a flip-up screen for video loggers like me. Hey, by the way, check out my YouTube channel mate.
Summing up
GoPro Hero 8 and GoPro max specifications make them the best action ever to be launched in the market. Although these hero 8 and Hero max reviews are written by me are before I could lay my hands on these amazing devices, still I am pretty amazed at what the specs are claiming. I can’t wait to get my hands on them. I am going to pre-book them now. Will you? Let me know what you think in the comment section below.
Welcome to the most discussed topic when it comes to SEO, link-building. This is one of the most important aspects of improving domain & page authority. I am putting together this easy guide for new bloggers who want to get into backlink building for their blog. This by far I would say the most researched topic in SEO.
You do this right, you get amazing results, get it wrong and no one will ever see your website in Google search. Link-building or backlink building is the process of getting links to your site. Do not be under impression that you will get these links automatically, by writing amazing articles.
You will have to work on it. And let me tell you it’s a bit tough. In this article, I will discuss the benefits of link-building and link-building strategies. Getting domain authority links is easy. Just pay attention a little.
This was easy earlier with a bunch of link-building software, however after the Penguin update was rolled out, it became more of a skill. Earlier the quality of links did not matter so webmasters were generating a lot of bad quality links. The quality of these links was not measured by Google earlier. Post Panda update and Penguin update everything changed. Summing up link building is the process of getting links from high-authority websites. The focus is on quality rather than quantity.
Benefits of link building
Link building is the most important pillar of getting your website rock-solid domain authority. Again stressing the point that the quality of the link should not be compromised. Always get links from high-authority websites. Focus on quality rather than quantity of links.
To new bloggers, I always advise people to spend some time getting in touch with other bloggers and exchange good-quality links. This will get more exposure to your website on search engines. Let me though list the benefits of link building below.
Once you get linked to another website with link exchange you will receive some traffic from that website. So it’s and an auto boost for your incoming traffic.
This will improve not just your domain and page authority but will improve your website SEO.
High-quality links pointing to your website means your website is a trusted website and will attract more traffic as it will be placed higher in the rankings.
Link building also helps in getting your site index in search results quickly.
Link building strategies
There are a lot of backlink-building strategies, however, I would list the one on which you should pay immediate attention. If you follow the below-mentioned strategy you will get good links pointing to your website in no time.
Write amazing content for your reader. I have stopped writing short content. I always write cornerstone content on my WordPress blog. The articles are filled with minute details and the user does not have to hunt for the same information anywhere else.
Open guest blogging for your users. Anyone, who wants to contribute to your blog, welcomes them. Off-course check the content first before posting.
Be more visual on your blog. Use a lot of infographics, as they are more appealing than boring regular text. I am yet to get someone for this infographic thing.
Make good videos for your YouTube channel and embed those videos on your website. Check out my YouTube channel. ShutterholicTV
Submit your site links to a directory on the web under a particular category. This is called directory submission. This helps in link building.
Dofollow blog comments, these blogs remove the “nofollow” tag, so by commenting on these blogs and embedding your site link in the comment you get a lot of link juice. Read more about link juice here.
Dofollow social bookmarking sites. These sites allow the search engine to follow a website link to crawl a webpage quickly. These help in improving your domain authority and hence the rankings.
Write phenomenal content and invite all bloggers of your niche to comment on it, hopefully, they will leave their site link, and hence more link juice for you.
Summing Up
There are quite a few link-building strategies, however, it depends a lot on your site niche. Always remember which getting domain authority links that our focus should be on quality links rather than quantity links. I hope this article must have clear a lot of doubts. If there are any please leave them in the comments section below.
We saw a lot of drastic steps taken by Google in the year 2011. Panda update was rolled out targetting low-quality link farms. I mean seems like Panda Update from Google was not enough. Google was going hard on webmasters exploiting loopholes. Furthermore, the 2012 update from Google was tough on everybody except the users. This is the first time when Google started integration Google Plus and user profile data in the Google SERPs. They rolled our penguin update, a 2012 update from Google which is also called as Google penguin update. Post this a lot of revised updates came including the most talked-about Penguin 4.0. Penguin algorithm changed the SEO completely.
There were a huge number of changes, starting with one called “search + Your world” in January. This was an aggressive measure by Google to integrate its Google+ and user data into SERP’s. Over the year 2012 Google released a number of updates all aimed at reducing the low-quality pages to appear in the search.
January Pre Penguin Update
In January 2012 Google changed its page algorithm. This was done deliberately to penalize webpages with too many advertisements. After all who wants to view pages full of advertisements. This was specifically to target pages where there were multiple ads “above the fold“. Especially those pages with ads of no value. Now, above the fold is a term used for the page section which you look at when you arrive on the page. The top part of the page. In order words whatever you see when you come on the page without scrolling is above the fold. Some webmasters referred to this as a top-heavy update.
February Pre Penguin Update
In February Google made around 17 changes to its algorithm. Spell check was also introduced, which was a little surprise to me. On the contrary, this suggested that Google is now paying attention to the minutest of things. In the same month, they came out with 40 more changes. SEO was radically changing. In march there 50 more changes including one that made changes to anchor text. (Scoring)
April Penguin Update
In April 2012, the Penguin update was not released rather unleashed. Overnight a lot of websites that were ranking higher in the SERPs came down. Google called this a webspam update, although this was already anticipated by the webmasters. First webmasters thought it was an update to penalize the over-optimization. Google renamed webspam update as penguin update. This penguin algorithm checked for a variety of spam techniques, including keyword stuffing. It also analyzed the anchor text used in external sites pointing towards a specific website. For people who do not understand what is anchor text, it is the clickable text in a hyperlink. This text should be relevant to content rather than any random text. Another set of over 50 update changes were announced in the same month.
May Updates From Google
An interesting update was announced by Google in the month of May. Knowledge graph was introduced by Google. This was a huge step towards semantic search. Semantic search is the technology that Google uses to understand the search happening on the Google search engine. Another Penguin update was launched Penguin 1.1. This update was doing a marvelous job of analyzing a better link scheme. This was happening as Google wanted to know if webmasters deliberately fabricated links to gain better rankings.
July Penguin Algorithm Changes
In July more radical changes were introduced. There was something called unnatural links. Unnatural links were fabricated by webmasters to manipulate rankings. These were low-quality links created by webmasters from spammy sites. Then webmasters used to link these to your good websites linking to potentially bad websites on the internet. Although Google gave the opportunity to webmasters to remove these links, however, it was not an easy task. There was another issue. Consider yourself as a webmaster, now you can remove all the bad links that you created. However, what about those webmasters who strategically placed links on their spammy website linking to your website.
Now if you were to go back to the webmaster who did this and requested him to remove a good quality link of your website, guess what answer you will get. it was never supposed to happen. So it’s not even your fault but then still you were getting penalized as your link pointed to a spammy website.
Google, later on, came up with the idea of not penalizing such website owners. Google said that they will come up with a link profile cleaner for all the webmasters to clean all the spammy links. They had to track back all the links and then they came up with this idea. They, however, did not incur any penalty. There were further 80 plus updates that were launched in the month of July.
August Google Updates
August was another month of fierce activity in Google offices redefining SEO. The update in the month of August came down heavily on website owners who were copying content. Google started penalizing sites that repeatedly violated copyright. DMCA or the digital millennium copyright act was a law in the US formed by then US president Bill Clinton. The idea behind DMCA was to form an updated version of copyright laws.
September Google Update
One major update during the entire year came in the month of September. Yes, the much-awaited EMD update. Domain name match, for which I have written an article earlier. Website using keyphrases was first ranking high in the SERPs. Even though the content was not as per Google standards. EMD update gave a big hit to these sites and overnight a lot of EMD websites lost their rankings. Google Penguin update came on hard on every webmaster who was trying to manipulate SERPs. EMD update launched adding more to Penguin algorithm was actually a good one. A lot of websites taking advantage of EMD got pushed lower in the rankings.
October Penguin Updates
Ok, so the last major update under the Panda algorithm came in the month of October. Since it was a little too tough on good websites using their link on spammy websites, Google came out with a Disavow Tool. This was an interesting tool as webmasters now had the ability to tell Google that they do not want Google to take certain links into consideration while calculating their rankings. So if your website ranking was being harmed by low-quality links, Google will not take them into account while calculating your ranking. But they still advised to clean all the bad links, simple disavowing them is not enough. The message still appears when you click the above line to disavow the links.
2012 update from Google brought a lot of good sites down along with bad ones. I thought that Google’s Penguin Algorithm will stop here and things will continue to sail for a while smoothly. Furthermore, giving time to webmasters to recover. However, then came the Penguin 4.0 update which changed the SERPs totally along with how SEO would be seen in the future.
Google’s Penguin 4.0 Update
Over the years Penguin went through a lot of changes and refreshed the algorithm. However, Penguin 4.0 came out with some important features. This update, first of all, wanted to credit the original content creator and give another opportunity to websites that were pushed lower in the rankings. (Due to anything wrong with anything) Many of the webmasters thought of this as a relief. Let me tell you why.
Penguin 4.0 was a relief to a lot of webmasters. This was because the Penguin algorithm was not running in real-time. This update ran once in a few months. This means that if you were penalized for the spammy link under Penguin, the penalty would be lifted only the next time when Penguin was refreshed. Even if you removed the spammy link, still you would have to wait for months to get the penalty lifted. However, now when the Penguin update refreshes real-time, you do not have to wait for months.
Before Penguin 4.0 update Google did not just penalize one webpage if it found any spammy link. Google penalized the whole website, so ultimately your entire website goes down in search ranking just because of one spammy link on one page. This was not the case after the 4.0 update was rolled out. The latest Penguin update is also more granular, which means Google will penalize individual pages as opposed to your entire website.
Summing Up
So summing up 2012 update from Google got every webmaster on their toes. Now Google was not just looking for links, rather was looking for quality that it can serve its users. That sums up the article even, if you have any comments please leave in the comment section below. I would love to discuss and answer them.
Domain authority is one of the most important factors when it comes to SEO. After the Panda update was rolled out a lot of things changed in SEO. Now we know that this is a major component in pumping up your SEO ranking. I am putting together a small guide on Domain Authority for all the new bloggers.
In old days ranking was generally a combination of a lot of factors. Including the loopholes, which Google fixed over a period of time. However, in today’s era Domain Authority and Page Authority are the two most important factors when it comes to boosting your SERP ranking.
Let me share this in-depth article so that you can build a blog that ranks higher in Google rankings. Let us discuss what is MOZ, MOZ rank, MOZ Trust along with authority metrics.
What is domain authority & page authority?
Domain authority was created by a company called MOZ. Domain authority is calculated on a scale of 1 to 100. 1 Being the lowest and 100 being highest in terms of ranking. In other words, the more closely your website is to 100, the higher will be the SEO ranking.
The lower and the ranking will be lower in SERP. MOZ gives a very accurate domain and page authority.
As for me, I see the MOZ domain and page authority as a metric for comparing my blog with other similar blogs. It is more like a competitive metric.
Let me address domain authority as DA and page authority as PA further. So if my DA is better than my competitors my blog would rank higher in the SERPs.
On the other hand, PA or page authority is the measure of individual pages you have on your website. In short, DA is for the domain and PA is for the page.
How to check DA & PA?
If you check online, there are many DA & PA checking sites. However, the one who started the concept of DA & PA is what I trust. If you go to the MOZ DA checker tool. This is an online tool and it gives you a bunch of SEO metrics that can help you in ranking your site better. Off-course you need to make a free account before it shows you any data.
If you use chrome or firefox as your browser, I would highly recommend integrating the Mozbar extension. Now MOZ calculates and analyzes over 40 signals to determine your DA and PA.
You can not improve this metric all of a sudden, however, let us pay attention to some easy fixes to pump up your DA & PA.
Moz analyzes 40 ranking signals to measure DA & PA like the number of links pointing to the site and the number of linking root domains – essentially the number of other sites linking to your site.
What is MOZ rank?
MOZ rank is calculated on the number of links pointing towards your domain. This is calculated for every page that exists on the web. The more the number of links, the more is the MOZ rank. The scale of MOZ ranking is between 1 to 10.
However, I would also like to state that MOZ also looks at the quality of links rather than quantity. So 10 good links are far better than 100 bad links to your site. The average rank for a webpage is generally 3. SO always, remember to share backlinks with the websites which have high DA in order to boost your DA.
What is MOZ Trust?
Now, this is very interesting. MOZ trust again is calculated on the links. However, MOZ trust measurement depends on how close is your website affiliated to the high-ranking website. Let me give you an example.
Consider a high-ranking & trusted website. Generally, government websites with extensions like .org and .edu have higher DA & PA. If you are linked in one hop (a .edu site links to a site called “A” and site “A” links to you), then you are more likely to have a better MozTrust ranking.
Now if you were to share links with these sites, you will get an immense boost in your MOZ rankings. MOZ trust is basically the ranking of your link and how far it is from a higher ranking DA website.
MOZ trust is also measured on a scale from 1 to 10. Try to get backlinks from government sites. This certainly gives you an added advantage in terms of DA.
Let us look at the factors which affect MOZ trust.
Link to quality websites: Always make sure that you are linking to quality websites and not spam and illegal websites.
Domain registration information: So, if you own multiple domains with the same registration information like on your name and same email ID, and out of 10 domains that you own 8 are bad domains then automatically your other two good domain rankings will go down. This was suggested by RAND. Rand is an American-based think tank.
Digging further down!
User Interaction: This means that how many users are interacting with visiting your website or blog by different means and sources. Sources like WiFi, Google search, Google toolbar, etc. In other words, where is the user coming from and how are they interacting.
Age of your domain: This is something that is not under your control. The more the domain ages the more MOZ trust it gets. Unfortunately, you can not magically increase your domain age. Just relax and sit back. MOZ took this factor under consideration because they want to check if you are in the market for the short term or long term. SO if you buy the domain next time buy it for 5 years or more. Also, do not change your domain and again and again.
Improving DA & PA
As I mentioned earlier, that if you improve your website’s DP, you have a chance of ranking higher in Google SERPs. Similarly, even if you have competitors, it will be difficult for them to outrank your website if you have high DA and high PA. Try to get links to websites with higher DA, this way you will be able to improve your score.
When I started blogging I paid attention to two things.
Increasing the domain authority of my blog.
Getting links and mention from websites which have high DA
Link building is something that you should work on for a few weeks after you start a blog. Read more about link building here. Now, let us look at the factors which affect authority.
Domain Age (Days to expiry)
As discussed earlier, the domains which are renewed or purchased for a longer period of time tend to have a better ranking in MOZ. So try to get a domain for a long period, at least 5 to 6 years.
This is not a terribly strong factor but still, adds up to the ranking. It tells the search engines that the domain is here for a long time and not for a short period. So invest a little more. It will hardly cost you a few bucks more.
Good Quality Backlinks
Building backlinks is one of the tasks that a new blogger should pay attention to. However, just make sure that you have backlinks from good and trusted websites. Do not try to get more backlinks in a jiffy from illegal websites. This would do more harm than good. (For more read my article on Panda Update) Also, try to get links from diverse sources like from different geo-locations, different domain extensions, etc.
Internal linking
Try to get more internal links on the page or a post. Like I do. A classic example is Wikipedia. They have tons of internal links on each page that they have. Their linking is very powerful.
While you are building new links also keep your eyes peeled for any broken or bad links to your site. You can use a variety of online link checker tools to check the bad links pointing to your domain. I use the monitor backlinks tool.
The good thing that this tool does is that it sends an email notification whenever there is a bad link pointing to your domain. So be on the lookout for these links and remove them or use the Google Disavow Tool to ignore those links.
Just make sure that this tool should be used very cautiously. This might affect your website performance if a good link is disavowed. Also, check out LinkPatrol plugin if you are running a WordPress website.
Publish Quality Content
Google always pays attention to the quality of the content. Ensure that your content is amazing and adding value to Google’s users. Someone coming to your page and not getting impressed with your content is a big problem.
There are many factors by which Google will come to know that your content is mediocre and this will result in poor ranking in searches. So, I would suggest publishing two to three good-quality articles in a week, rather than a bunch of badly written content. Do not go for quantity, rather go for the quality.
Make sure that your readers are happy with your content. If the reader is happy, Google is happy and if Google is happy your DA will improve over time.
Website Speed
Google now takes the load time of a page as an important factor while calculating the page ranking. The simple concept is that google does not want a user to wait on a webpage for long to find the information. So please ensure that your website is loading in under 3 seconds because if it’s not then there is a problem.
I run a WordPress website. In order to make my load time under 3 seconds, I used different methods. I am sharing these with you.
Use a good hosting company. I prefer Bluehost, they are affordable and their servers are amazingly fast and efficient.
Compress images and then upload them. I use photoshop to optimize images for the web. Please do not upload images with sizes in MB’s, rather stick with KB’s.
Use a CDN to serve your content to your user. I use Cloudflare, as it’s now been given by all the hosting companies. Furthermore, guess what it’s free for one blogger site.
Complete Onsite SEO
Another important task to do your onsite SEO. Now, I know there are a lot of things when we talk about on-page SEO. However, let us pay attention to the most basic one and important one.
Sitemap file (Have a sitemap file link in your footer and in your robots.txt file).
Ensure that your sitemap is submitted to Google and other search engine consoles.
Optimize meta title and meta description of homepage
Maintain proper heading hierarchy in your blog post.
In order to increase your authority ensure that the above tasks are done.
Social Media Shares & Marketing
In one of my articles, I shared how Google started taking into account the social interaction of content with the user. In this section, I want to talk about the same. To be quite honest this is an important factor when talking about page authority.
Make sure your brand and your blogs have a presence on all major social media platforms. Also, try to ensure that your readers are sharing your content on social media platforms. This helps to boost ranking and improves indexing.
Summing Up
When I started my blog the DA of shutterholictv.com was about 5, slowly and gradually my scores are getting better, however, there is still a long way to go. I hope this article would add a lot of value to your SEO knowledge. In case I have not included any important details related to the page authority, please let me know in the comments section. I would love to talk about it more.
Now, this is actually simple yet tough for the people heading to Ladakh for the first time. I will try to keep this simple but also will be elaborate a little. In this article, I will clear all the doubts related to the permits that you require. Including the Rohtang Pass Permit Fee. Permits from Manali to Ladakh and then the permit from Leh city to move around other Ladakh areas. As you guys know that I recently went to Ladakh on my bike, an online permit for Rohtang is the facility that I opted for. But, do you also know that there is a mobile application for Rohtang permit as well.
Everything that you need to know about the permits in Ladakh
Check out my YouTube channel for my video logs from Ladakh. Now, let’s get to the point here. All tourists traveling to Rohtang and beyond will require a permit. Although, the first checkpoint is at Gulaba. So ideally without a permit, you can go till Marhi. Firstly, you need to get a permit to cross Rohtang. Secondly, you would need an inner line permit to travel around Ladakh.
The NGT (National Green Tribunal) has made it mandatory from April 2017 for all people traveling beyond Rohtang to get permits. If you are wondering that is NGT, well it’s a government body that works for the preservation of the environment.
It seems like a great idea to pose a heavy transit fee, else we humans won’t even leave the mountains alone. The ecosystem here is already in a critical stage.
Rohtang Pass Permit Fee
S.No
Vehicle Type
Permit Fee
Congestion Charges
1
Motor Bike, Car & Jeep
INR 500
INR 50
2
MUV’s
INR 500
INR 50
3
Buses & HMV
INR 500
INR 100
Fee structure for the permits
When you travel just to Rohtang pass for tourism purposes then you need to pay both the Rohtang pass permit fee and congestion charges. However, if you travel beyond Rohtang La, you just need to pay the congestion charges and not the Rohtang pass permit fee. Let me show you how the permit looks like.
Permit from Manali to Leh city
CUNNING PEOPLE: How about I take the permit for beyond Rohtang in INR 50 and return from Rohtang. This will save me 500 bucks.
Don’t do that. The first checkpoint at Gulaba and the second checkpoint at Kohksar especially check this to avoid misuse of permits. Both checkpoints work on the same permit platforms.
So, the permit gets verified on the same day at Kohksar, they check the system and see if you were cleared from the Gulaba checkpoint.
Hence, my cunning friend if you applied for a permit to go beyond Rohtang La and return from Rohtang to Gulaba, then you will be caught at Gulaba checkpoint as there is no exit recorded at Khoksar for your permit. This will incur a penalty and your vehicle will be blacklisted. Bruh…..! Permits from Manali are a little tricky, thanks to the Kullu administration.
Documents required by the authority
You need to carry your vehicle’s registration certificate. Age of vehicle not to be more than 10 yrs, Pollution check is mandatory, without PUC you will not get the permit. You also need a photo ID, I would say keep your driver’s license handy. Aadhar card works, but if you are driving or riding I reckon you will have your license with you. Passport & Visa (For foreigners) is a must. This will be verified at all the checkpoints post-Rohtang pass.
Is there a limit on the number of permits and days in a week?
Of course, there is. They don’t want to flood the mountains with vehicles. Let me share a few pointers on rules and regulations to help you understand better.
No Vehicles are allowed on TUESDAY as the day is marked for maintenance of Rohtang Pass.
Congestion fees can only be paid for the next 3 days from the current date.
Printout is compulsory for all permissions.
Vehicles having wrong information on CONGESTION FEES SLIP as compared to valid proofs will not be allowed to cross the barrier.
In a week (Tuesday to Monday) only 2 permits can be obtained for each vehicle.
Daily permit limit for vehicles. Petrol vehicles: 800 & Diesel vehicles: 400
Permits can be obtained in two-time frames. 10:00 HRS (200 Diesel & 400 Petrol) & 16:00 HRS (200 Diesel & 400 Petrol)
In a week (Tuesday to Monday) only 3 permits can be obtained for each vehicle.
So I had two choices to get the first permit to cross Rohtang. Either I get to the SDM office which is at Mall road Manali, or I could get it online. So if you are moving from Manali, there are basically two types of permits from Manali. One permit is the till Rohtang and allows you to return on the same day. The other one is for crossing Rohtang La and head towards Leh city. Now let’s discuss how can you actually get these permits and what are the ways.
The first way is standing in the line at the SDM office at Mall Road Manali.
The most preferred way of getting to Rohtang La and till Leh is applying online. Click here to apply. This permit website is hosted by the Kullu administration.
The second way again is digital. In the year 2018-19 Kullu administration launched a mobile app. You can apply for the permit on this app. This app is available on Play Store and iOS both.
The fourth way is to give money to local tour operators who will get you the permits to Leh without hassle. They of-course will charge you a bit more than the actual permit fee though.
Let me explain this a bit more extensively.
ROHTANG PERMITS FROM SDM OFFICE MANALI
SDM or sub-divisional magistrate office is at Manu market, near Mall Road, Manali. Below is the location.
Till the time you are ok to stand in line and wait for a few hours, please choose this method. You will have to carry proof of ID, vehicle registration certificate, PUC along with your driving licence. You will have to submit the documents along with the fees and then again visit the SDM office after 2 to 3 hours to collect your permits. Yes, it’s not a 5 to 10 minutes job. They will not give you the permits at the same time. Now, since we are talking about the permits to Leh here, let me also include the price associated with these permits.
All vehicles will be required to pay a sum of Rs. 500 as permit fee and Rs. 50 congestion charge, so a total of Rs. 550 per permit. Buses and Heavy motor vehicles will have to pay Rs. 100 for congestion charge so a total of Rs. 600 per permit. These charges are however applicable only for tourism purpose permits. For traveling beyond Rohtang (travel permits), you will only have to pay a congestion charge of Rs. 50. There will no refund if you do not use or try to cancel your permit.
ONLINE PERMIT FOR ROHTANG & BEYOND
This is by far the easiest way of getting the permits. You just need to go on the permit portal which is maintained by the Kullu administration and apply. Once you are on the home page of this portal. It will look like below.
Different permit options on the Kullu permit portal
Once you apply for the permit post the payment you get the link to download the permit page. Download it and make 2 copies, it’s going to be enough for the rest of the route.
You can check the complete procedure by clicking the button below.
PERMITS TO CROSS ROHTANG THROUGH MOBILE APPLICATION
This was recently introduced in the year 2018-19. I mean whoever, thought of this in the Kullu administration is a mere genius. Furthermore, with this app, you can not just apply for a permit. You can check the availability of the permit since there is a capping. You can validate the permit by scanning the barcode. The application screen looks like this.
Mobile application for Rohtang permit
As you can see with this mobile application for Rohtang permit you can check availability, validate the permit by scanning the barcode and keying in the relevant information, you can download the permit & there is a separate section for FAQ. Let me share the important points for this mobile application.
Mobile application for Rohtang permit is available for android and iOS both.
Check the permit validity by scanning the bar code on the permit, alternatively, you can also use the permit number.
The permits to cross Rohtang have to be applied within the same time slots as mentioned before. 10:00 HRS and 16:00 HRS.
You can directly download the permit from this application.
Once the permit is issued it can not be canceled. Please be cautious as there is a cap limit. If you are unable to go please cancel your permit as other tourists might get delayed.
Most noteworthy is that you can apply for a Rohtang permitted only twice a week per IP address. If using a Hotel WiFi you might get a notice saying quota full, this is because other guests in the hotel might have used the same WiFi for getting the permits.
GETTING PERMIT VIA TOUR OPERATORS
If you are lazy to the core and do not like technology, you can opt for this method. A lot of people do this who do not have any clue about how the permit system works online or from the SDM office in Manali. However, be cautious as they might charge you extra for this. Somewhere from 50 bucks to 100 bucks. Although it is not worth paying this money when you can do this yourself. My friends who were not aware of this went through a tour operator and that guy cost them 400 per permit till Leh. Can you imagine a 350 RS margin on each permit?
Summing Up
With the new technological advancements, the move of creating a mobile application for Rohtang permits and an online permit portal is a welcome move for all travelers. A big thanks to the Kullu administration and SDM office Manali. These methods are helping travelers to be sufficient rather than being dependent on others.
Also, with the Rohtang pass permit fee explained clearly on their permit portal, people now know what they have to pay to get permits to cross Rohtang without tour operators taking advantage of these travelers. This was a pretty extensive article, I hope I have answered all your questions. In case there is a question, please leave it in the comments and I would try to get back to you ASAP.
The year 2011 was when everything went ballistic in terms of SEO. The SEO we see today is the result of numerous Google’s updates. These updates were necessary as search is based on realtime factors. Google rolled out the Panda update in the year 2011 targetting low quality high ranking websites. They also introduced Query Encryption. Let’s talk about it more. Meanwhile, please check my SEO category. This will help you to learn the SEO for Google.
Why was there a need for an update?
Panda SEO Update was rolled out to grab and penalize webmasters who were taking advantage of Google Search loopholes. They were making a low-quality website rank on top with SEO malpractices. This was creating a bad experience for users when they were searching for their interest online. Help me in keeping this web blog up. Subscribe to my YouTube channel. In the beginning, Google tried to hit the spam and scraper sites. These sites were actually stealing that content from other websites using bots and other third party software. The idea was to give the credit back to the original content creator and have his ranking higher up in the SERP’s.
Panda SEO Update rolled out on February 23rd 2011
Panda SEO Update was first launched only in the USA. The other word for Panda google update is also known as farmer update. This because Google was trying to hit low-quality blogs and link farms. Link farms are basically a collection of the low-quality blogs which had links to spammy sites. The term thin content came up at this time. Thin content meant that pages which had to relevant or much content for the user but was mainly created to host advertisements. Google was on a lookout for these sites and was squashing them. In this process, a lot of good sites also took a hit.
More Panda Updates
The was a flurry of Panda updates in the same year. IN April 2011, there Panda 2.0 update was unleased and was running throughout the world. Not just in the USA but in all countries. Though it was targetting only pages which were in English, still users had the option to block pages in SEPR’s which they did not like. After these two updates, Google went on and released Panda update 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5 and 3.1. If you note closely you will find that panda update 3.0 is missing. There was an update between 2.5 and 3.1 but it is referred to as Panda flux. Rach new update build on the previous one. They helped to eliminate low-quality content sites from SERP’s.
Google Plus is Born
In June 2011 Google plus is born. This was google first social networking project. It was actually good as Google was now thinking of including their own social signals in calculating the ranking of the web pages.
Query Encryption
Out of all the changes that Google did the webmasters were not happy with the query encryption. Let me explain what is query encryption. Whenever someone was searching for anything on Google, the webmasters were able to find what were the users searching. This way webmasters were able to identify the keywords which were being searched. Google put a halt to this. They said that they were doing this for maintaining user privacy, however, this was a big bump to webmasters. They were no longer able to see what users were searching. However, this was applicable only when a user was logged in to their Google account. Since webmasters were not able to see the search term they were becoming increasingly unhappy with Google.
Freshness Update
There was another update launched in the same year by Google. This was called as the freshness update. As per this update, time-sensitive websites like news sites were given preference and were rewarded. In other words, time-sensitive information websites were given preference.
So these were few updates given in the year 2011 by Google. However, since they were radically changing things there was a lot to come. In coming few years SEO was totally changed. I would share what happened in the year 2012 in my next article.
If you have any question please leave them in the comments below. I would love to answer them.
Welcome to another article in my SEO series of 2019. No really. Let us first try to understand what is the exact domain match and partial match domain. EDM & PMD respectively. Google works really hard to fill up all the intelligence gaps. So does the webmaster, who do exactly opposite.
They want to get the maximum out of the loopholes from Google. Let me explain this with an example. Supposing you run a business. let’s say you are into gems and jewelry. Furthermore, the base of your operations in Jaipur. Which happens to be my town. If you pick a domain that has gems and Jaipur, your website would rank higher in Google SERP. This was what was happening before when Google realized its loopholes. Then came the Google update for EMD and a tweet by Matt Cutts.
An exact match domain (EMD) is a domain name that exactly matches the keyword you want to rank for. If you’re trying to rank for the keyword “Jaipur SEO firm,” your EMD would be www.Jaipurseofirm.com. Around 10 years ago Google used to give a huge rank boost to EMD websites that exactly matched the keywords. most noteworthy, if you were not able to get an exact domain match, you can strive to get a partial match domain. (PMD)
What is Partial Match Domain or PMD?
A partial match domain (PMD) is a domain name that contains part of the keyword phrase you’re aiming to rank for. If you’re trying to rank for the keyword “Jaipur gems exports,” any domain with “Jaipur” or “gems export” in it would be a partial match domain. That would include domains like “Jaipurexports.com” or “jaipurgems.com”.
A partial match domain does not have the same ranking power as an exact match domain, but it was way better than a domain without any target keyword in it. Think about it!
Then came along the Google update for EMD in the year 2012.
Google with a lot of research and development wing came out with a Google update for EMD. A solution to webmasters exploiting this loophole. They started giving more attention to the quality of content rather than EDM making it to the top with poor content.
Google update for EMD stated that even though you might get an edge if you have the desired keywords, your ranking will not be as high if you have poor content quality. Matt Cutts who was former Google chief of webspam announced something in particular which upset a lot of EMD websites.
Matt announced that the free ride Google had been giving to exact match domains was about to come to an end.
Cutts the current administrator of the “United States Digital Service” in Google tweeted this in the year 2012.
So does EMD or PMD hurts?
The answer is quite simple. They don’t! It is not about the domain here. It is about content quality. If your content does not provide adequate value to the user, even though you might have an EMD or PMD domain, sooner or later Google will pull it down on their ranking matrix. Google’s Gary Illyes has said that he is actively hunting for spammy Exact Match Domains or EMD’s that are ranking in Google Search. However, if your domain is giving value to user it stays in the top ranking.
Gary very effectively said in his tweet that using EMD or PMD domain is not a problem. The problem is when it is used with other spam tactics. Spammy sites set up for the purpose of ranking, generating huge amounts of traffic, and making quick money is something that Gary Illyes along with Matt Cutts is on the lookout for.
Why is branding important?
Think about a company that did not use any keyword in its domain and still became a giant. For e.g., if you take a look at the Indian e-commerce sites such as Jabong, Myntra, or Amazon for that matter, these are not EMD domains. However, they are doing pretty well in terms of business.
Using a branded domain gives the impression that you’re serious, big-time and here to stay. It’s easier to remember and find online. Like for e.g. my Blog Shutterholictv.com. Branding is important as it differentiates you from other competitors and is easier for people to remember your domain.
Summing up
EMD & PMD does provide a little advantage when it comes to SEO. Provided that their motto is to provide exact and meaningful information to the user. However, in the end, I would like to quote that do not be dependent on the EMD’s or PMD’s. Work on quality content and optimization, the rest will come by default. Exact and partial domain do provide some edge, but it is always the quality content that win’s in the end.
I recently purchased Royal Enfield Bullet 350 Standard for my bike trip to Ladakh. I am a die-hard fan of this brand when it comes to motorcycles. I had a bullet 350 before unfortunately had to sell it off. I was eyeing this particular model for a long time, finally got hold of it. Thanks to my blogging business which is going quite good now. You can also start your own blog and start earning through it. Now before I tell you more about my experience on my new Bullet 350, check this video. I uploaded this video on my YouTube channel and went through some basic features.
Why Royal Enfield Bullet 350 is the best bike in Royal Enfield line up?
This bike lacks self-start and rear disc brake. Still this the most preferred bike for old Enfield lovers. It has a retro look and sure can turn few heads around. Let me list down the reason why this bike such an iconic bike in RE line up.
The name is enough. This is the flagship bike of Royal Enfield. They have recently induced modern features like electric start, disc brakes, etc. But there is nothing like kick-starting a Bullet 350 Standard. The feel is different and it surely makes you a bike connoisseur rather than a biker.
This bike is very comfortable for long rides. The saddle is good, your bums don’t hurt and with little handle adjustment, it is comfortable for your hands. Some people advise to change the thin tyre at back with a little thick tyre, however, let me tell you I had no issues with thin tyre in Laddakh.
This bike is more stable than other models like classic 350. The reason being is’ heavier crank. Most noteworthy, that because of heavier crank this motorcycle has the old thump and driving slow in high gears is easy.
Now, remember, this is a cruiser bike and not a racing bike. I went little over 130+ km/hour on the freeway, but slowly and gradually. You cannot expect this bike to go from 0 to 100 in 10 seconds. (No fast and furious bro)
Let’s talk about issues now.
There were a couple of issues I could identify in the bike.
Before the first service, I took this bike from Jaipur to Pushkar (140km and back). Unfortunately, the silencer bolts came out and silencer was hanging without the bolt support. When inquired, I got to know that this was the dealer’s fault. They did not get my bike ready in a proper way before delivery. Ideally, they need to check every screw and bolt. This was not the case with me.
I tested this bike to the core on my trip to Ladakh. While riding at high altitude the pick up of Bullet 350 Standard dies. I know there is less oxygen and fuel must not be burning properly, but the pickup and performance are like literally poor. I had my bike serviced recently and the technician advised that this would not happen as he made certain adjustments. I am yet to test this, probably next year when I return to the mountains again.
Even though I went with a group which had Bullet 350 and Himalayan, in the mountains, I did not find significant difference in 350 and bullet 500. However, Himalayan does have an edge as it’s 650cc. However, with the investment on around 1.4 lacs, bullet 350 still rules.
If you have any questions about my trip of the bike, please leave them in the comment section below. I would love to answer them.
