Flying Your DJI Phantom 4 Drone in Columbus GA

Flying Your DJI Phantom 4 Drone in Columbus GA

I would highly recommend reading this article if you are thinking of buying a DJI Phantom drone in Columbus GA. This article is a synopsis of my experience after buying a DJI Phantom 4 Advanced drone over a year ago. There was no information on the internet about what problems were in store for me flying this drone in Columbus, GA.

Since I never had any experience flying a drone, there was the obvious learning curve since the app software is very complex.

This Phantom 4 Advanced drone takes beautiful 4K videos and photos. It has 12 automated flight programs and can also fly it manually. Typical flight time is about 25 minutes on a fully charged battery. At about 15% battery, it will automatically fly back where it took off from and land. Also if the signal is lost between the controller and drone, it will also automatically fly back home and land by itself. It happened to me one time when I was flying it down the Chattahoochee River. Scared me because I thought there goes $2,000 flying away. In a situation with no trees or buildings in the way, you are suppose to get about 3 miles range. It also has sensors in the front of the drone so it will not crash into trees or a building. However, there are no sensors on the side or in the back of the drone and could crash into something. I think the Phantom 4 Pro has sensors all the way around it and is more expensive.

The aircraft comes with a remote controller but you need a cell phone or tablet to interface a USB cable with it. The first thing I noticed after powering it on and locking onto several satellites was a message on the screen saying “no fly zone aircraft can not take off”. At this point I’m very confused as to why I can’t even start the motors and take off. I contacted the manufacture and they told me all of Columbus, GA up to part of Harris County GA is a no fly zone. I went online to their GEO map and sure enough a big red circle was all around Columbus, GA. Needless to say, I’m very pissed at this point. I contacted DJI again and they informed me I need to get permission by emailing them my drone serial number, latitude and longitude of area to fly in, altitude and radius in meters, time frame by dates and a scanned copy of picture identification.

I can only guess this situation of a no fly zone in Columbus, GA is due to the military base at Fort Benning, GA. After emailing DJI the information I described above, it took about 2 days before they emailed me back stating it was denied. I’m even more pissed at this point. I asked why I was denied and they stated I requested above allowed altitude and told me I need to email another request with no more than 91 meters altitude which is about 300 feet. So I emailed another request and it was approved. What’s more crazy is DJI is a Chinese drone manufacturing company controlling the drone airspace over Columbus, GA. Yes, you heard me right!

If you are north of highway 315 in Harris County GA, you don’t need to email a request to DJI, just turn on the drone, wait until it lock onto several satellites and take off. The online DJI map shows the edge of the red no fly circle right on the edge of highway 315. Wished I had known this before purchasing such a very expensive drone. I just wanted the best drone on the market. With the extra 2 batteries I purchased, I have about $2,000 invested in this drone.

Several months later a friend of mine told me he has a drone made by MI company and doesn’t have to get permission to fly it in Columbus, GA. The MI drone is half the price of mine and almost as good in features. So If I ever crash mine or it wears out, I will definitely buy a MI drone. You might want to check out an article I wrote on the MI drone.  

Also if you are new to flying drone I have a good article on how to fly your drone.

Conculsion

I hope this article helps anyone who is considering buying a professional drone. I only wished I had read an article like this before I purchased my DJI Phantom 4 Advanced drone. Good luck and happy flying!

SEO 2017

SEO 2017

It was an interesting year looking back at 2016 when it comes to search engine algorithms and SEO.  The emphasis in 2017 will no doubt be web developers and SEO professionals concentrating on mobile responsiveness, page speed, quality content and backlinks from high DA sites.  Each year, Google makes around 500 minor search algorithm changes but occasionally rolls out major algorithm updates like Penguin and Panda that affect SERP in major ways.

Since Google’s mobile friendly update called “Mobilegeddon” rolled out April 21, 2105, a lot of websites that are not mobile friendly are taking a hit on mobile searches but remain the same on desktop searches.  So it is clear the mobile friendly Google update has increased the difference between smartphone and desktop rankings.  There are more smartphone than desktop searches world wide so mobile searches will be more geared toward mobile friendly websites giving the user a better experience.

Google AMP

Most SEO experts and web developers are aware in 2016 Google included AMP (Accelerated Mobile Page) listings in mobile searches which allows AMP generated pages to load much faster than conventional mobile responsive websites.  For more information about the AMP project, visit the website.  http://searchengineland.com/get-started-accelerated-mobile-pages-amp-240688

AMP is essentially a subset of HTML5 with some custom tags, properties and restrictions such as third party Javascript and form elements.  This means you will not have on page comments, lead forms and other elements you’re accustomed to on standard mobile responsive designs.

SEO For Video Content

Congradulations to Youtube which is now the second largest search engine.  A lot of content written by bloggers and SEO experts is mostly still word content while video content is rapidly gaining popularity all over the internet.  You may have noticed Youtube videos showing up in SERPs while surfing.  Mainly this is because videos can show your products or services in action better than text and images alone.

When putting a video on Youtube, don’t forget to put your long tail keywords in the title, description and tag areas.

Can Social Signals Help SERP?

In January 2014 Google’s Matt Cutts stated it’s algorithm does not take into consideration how many likes or followers you have on social media sites.  This confusted many SEO experts and marketers since this statement conflicted with his previous statement that “social signals do play a role in organic SEO”.  Researching this more, I found that Cutt’s statements are not in conflict with each other because social signals are a sign to Google your site is getting plenty of increased referral traffic from the social shares which correlates into more quality backlinks and better SERP.

In order for social signals to be an effective SEO campaign and help your brand’s visibility in search results, you need a strong clear plan for sustainable traffic flow and lead management. 

Quality Relevant Backlinks From Trusted DA Sites

Before starting an off page SEO campaign you must have already implemented on page SEO, strong site architecture with internal linking and valuable quality content the user is looking for.  A lot of backlinks won’t help you if your site has thin content.  Chances are your website will never get penalized if you have 100% relevant tier one backlinks from trusted DA sites which are not spammy.

Anchor text links done incorrectly could possibly land you a penalty so keep the exact match anchor text below 2%.

On most SEO forums you can purchase backlinks on public networks but you run the risk of Google penalizing every website using these networks.  Google finds these PBN easily because there is an excessive amount of outbound links on their home page which are completely irrelevant to each other.  These posts have thin content which Panda’s algorithm does NOT like.

One thing to remember is 302 redirects block authority flow to your site so use Screaming Frog to find 302s and change them to 301s.

Backlinks that are from trusted high DA sites will improve your site’s trust rank and increase your chances of performing well in search engines.

Google Business Listing / Citations

Google values business listings to the point they are a part of the local search algorithm and should be utilized for any SEO campaign.  The most important part about these profile listings is that around 60% of them give you a DoFollow link.  This is another way to build trust for your site and backlinks from these don’t need to be relevant because Google trusts these platforms and knows most businesses will be using them.

Schema Markup Structured Data Code

Schema markup is code that you put on your website that helps search engines understand what your site content is about and search visibility using rich snippets which can indirectly impact search rankings.

JSON-LD is a new schema markup data linking format which makes it easy to embed structured data markup code in the head section of your web page using a script tag.  There is no need to tweak HTML elements like Microdata and runs in the background creating a much faster experience.  JSON-LD is a more simple and streamline way to implement schema markup code. It allows search engines to crawl the code and understand more easily what the page content is about.

For more information visit https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/

Conculsion

Undoubtedly the SEO trend for 2017 is about proving to Google your website is an authority for your niche.  In other words, you will need more quality content, more quality backlinks and better on page SEO than your competitors.  Google likes new and updated old content so pull up those old blog articles and add some new valuable content.