There may be a ceasefire in Gaza, but Israel has not stopped killing Palestinian families in 2026. An estimated 1,394 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the ceasefire took place in October 2025, with another 4,991 injured as of September 2026. Today, Gaza has the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world, and both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused Israel of committing genocide since 2024.
Please consider donating to UNRWA, a UN agency providing critical healthcare services and shelter to Palestinian refugees in Gaza.
— Owner of Blurred Bylines
About Shari Rose
I discovered the potential of search engines through my own writing on Blurred Bylines. It’s undoubtedly an ongoing effort, but I believe that SEO can be a force for good. That’s why there are no third-party ads or paywall restrictions on these articles. As the internet has become more corporate, it’s also become less accessible to the average user. I hope Blurred Bylines is a little oasis from the revenue-first, ad-heavy environment that we experience in most other places on the internet.
About
— SEO-Powered Stories
History of Blurred Bylines
I was working as a journalist in Colorado when I created Blurred Bylines in 2016. My goal with this new website was to build a space for myself to write about the communities and issues I felt were overlooked by mainstream outlets. I began writing about issues important to the LGBTQ+ community, people of color and survivors with focuses on social justice, personal identity, democracy and American history.
I soon left journalism and began working at a small digital marketing agency where I learned about search engine optimization and the immense potential that Google offered in reaching thousands of readers all over the country. I quickly transitioned into the role of a SEO specialist and spent the next 10 years honing my skills at different agencies before setting off on my own. The time I spent in journalism showed me how powerful information that’s freely accessible can be in creating positive change, and that has motivated me to cover a wide range of topics impacting marginalized communities that many traditional outlets avoid for fear of upsetting their advertisers (or presidential administrations).
Today, I work as a SEO consultant for businesses, nonprofits and marketing agencies across the U.S. And for those freelancers and small business owners who don’t have the means to hire a marketing professional, I’ve built DIY SEO tools here at Blurred Bylines to give you access to SEO insights and practical strategies at prices starting at $8 per month.
— Stories Fight in the SERPs
Stories at BB
Search engines can be a public resource for trusted information that helps people find exactly what they’re looking for. But there is heavy competition from all kinds of websites in search engine result pages (SERPs), good and bad alike. Quality sources as well as spammy ones, good-faith actors and bad-faith actors, quality research and flat-out misinformation are all competing for your attention in search results (and increasingly LLM answers).
I integrate SEO into my stories so they can compete with (and often outrank) lower-quality sources on the same topics. Some of these articles include:
- Enietra Washington, sole confirmed survivor of the Grim Sleeper
- The bombing of Otherside Lounge, a lesbian bar in Atlanta
- Matt Ingram’s accusation of reckless eyeballing and the fear of Black sexuality
- Jovita Idár’s fight for Mexican-American rights in Texas
- The high rates of sexual assault that bisexual women and men face
- How an iconic drag queen named Crystal LaBeija transformed queer culture
Affordable DIY SEO Tools for SMBs & Freelancers
For the freelancers, SMB owners and solopreneurs who could use support with their own websites but don’t have the budget to afford expensive software or marketing consultants, Blurred Bylines has built fully in-house SEO toolkits that can help. These DIY SEO tools are designed for non-marketers who want to understand and take control of their sites’ performance on Google without the enterprise price tag.
DIY Website Audit
$8 / Month
Uncover what’s broken and unoptimized on your site to improve search performance
Keyword Intelligence
$12 / Month
Identify your website’s current rankings and research keywords that are worth targeting
Competitive Edge
$12 / Month
Find weaknesses in competitors’ SEO efforts to improve your site’s performance on Google
Bundle All 3 Toolkits
SMB SEO Bundle
$24 / Month
