Hi - by making sure that your posts are better than your competitors, who are already ranking on page 1.

More informative, more in-depth, and most importantly, more unique.

What personal experience are you bringing to the internet, that your competitors haven't mentioned?

Keep going, posting new compelling content and sharing onward social media platforms... Posting supplementary content to Medium .com, UGC, Linkedin, etc.

I would continue with Quality, never compromising it. Improving Google Rankings After Taking an HCU Hit (Update) HCU Recovery Update Part II (Did my Rankings Improve?) Strategies to Recover Your Business From The Google HCU Update Abie

Abie answered how to change the categories, which is relatively easy. However, what the categories are are completely up to you. I base mine on the topic of my posts. For example, if I have a website about baking, my main category will be Baking. I make categories under the baking umbrella, like pies, pastries, breads, etc. Then I do sub-subcategories for these like no sugar,
gluten-fruit, vegetables, etc.

I think this is what you meant when you asked what this is based on.

Nancy

You can hover over posts and click categories.

Create as many categories as you like; don't forget to add the slug.

Then, you can head to Appearance > Menus, and provided you create a menu first, you can start adding those categories.

Then, you can head to your posts and assign them to their respective categories. You can assign a post to more than one category.

So, when folks click on a specific category, they can see all related posts.

==
Categories are sub-topics of your focused niche

I like a clean site, i have one image at the top of my posts, you could add a few more, but don't get lost in images and make it take over your content - IMO the image adds to the post, it doesn't distract.
I don't use a background, I keep it clean and white. I don't like busy backgrounds with a lot of noise and clutter lol, so I don't do that on my own site :-) My two cents.

use your judgment, what do you like when you look at other sites, you can take what you like and don't and adapt it to your site.

I don't use backgrounds, but I use images. I use them wherever I think they are most appropriate in my post. However, not all my pictures are the same. For example, I always use a feature image at the beginning of my post, which relates to the entire post. I break it up throughout the post using bullet lists, tables, graphs, infographics, etc., and sometimes more images. The post I am working on right now has a feature image at the top, and so far, I have three HTML tables in appropriate places and a couple of bullet point lists. It is a longer post, about 2,500 words, so there is plenty of space to break it up. Not all my posts contain this much because most of them are not quite this long, but each post I do has a featured image at the top and at least one table or bullet point list somewhere in the content.

Nancy

what about mixing it up with lists - callouts - blocks with another background colour ( but make sure it is readable...)
and vary the length of the endings so you don't end up with a wall of text...
use single sentence paragraphs - even some here really dislike them...
how many of us think in paragraphs...
so...sort of speak to them ..
listen to what is in your head and write like that - if that is what your niche wants...

Hi - as boring as it may seem, black text on a white background will keep readers on your post for longer.

Adding a background image may make it difficult to read and distracting.

However, images within the post are necessary and will break up the text.

There are no rules on how many to add, but they should be relevant and bring something to the posts, not just added for the sake of it.

You can also add bullet points, an FAQ section, infographics, and a YouTube video to add more interest to the post.

While I'm concerned about cluttering up my posts with too many features (images; graphics) on top of the standard text, I'm wondering if it's looking too sparse as it is/

You csn go to Appearance >>customize>>color>>background and select a color for a uniformed look for all pages and posts.

Then select content and make that color a white or off-white color using black text for best look.


Rudy

I found one of Eric's "WordPress Wisdom" lessons where he demonstrates this. How to Change the Color of Text, Headlines, and Highlight Text in Your Posts

Various block types within the WordPress editor (ie. headers, paragraphs, columns, pullquotes, etc) have the ability to change the text and/or background color. You can use this to change the background color on some of those elements in your posts/pages to break up the text a bit and infuse a bit of color and separation. See screenshot example of where to look.

Appearance > Customize and background options.

However, I do suggest you keep your blog as black text on white or shades of white as it converts the best :)

Hi Samuel, If you're following the Hub training, you will see that by the time you get to Phase 4 you should have a minimum of 15 posts with affiliate links and start promoting these on social media. Hope this helps. Jenni.

Definitely on the right track - internal and external links help with credibility and ranking.

Congratualtions on your progress so far.

Once you have adequate content on your blog, programs expect quality posts and traffic before they accept you. They're in business to make money and want folks who can deliver the traffic ultimately, the sales :)