In my never-ending quest to soak up the never-dormant volcano of information flowing about SEO and SEO copywriting, I came across this article from Matt Cutts. It’s a few months old, but still has good info: “SEO Advice: writing useful articles that readers will love.” One of the best parts of the article is his paragraph on “niches”. it’s a short read, so, you don’t have to take much time. Karon Thackston offers her take on what Cutts had to say in her article “The Purpose and Practice... 

ClickZ recently posted the Top 10 Search Terms in 10 Categories. Data is for the four weeks ending January 31, 2007. It may be one of the only places where you’ll find Lexapro, Domino’s Pizza and the Saddam execution video on the same list. The results are evidence that cross-medium promotion remains effective for several industries – movies, food & beverage and travel – but not all. Honestly – when was the last time you saw an ad on TV for Paypal (if you have, please let me know)? If you’re new to Internet marketing... 

I love putting a bit of fun in my day’s work and I tend to do this by adding some little games into my article writing. I think that it is time to share my favourite ways of doing this with other writers. While I can’t guarantee that everyone will get the pleasure from these pastimes that I do while I write, I hope that at least one of them strikes a chord with you. Maybe you already play some of them anyway or you have variations on these ideas. This might let me see whether we all do the same sort of thing or whether I am maybe going a little bit loopy... 

Most copywriters are aware that their headlines are given only a few seconds to make an impression on the reader. And in those few seconds, the reader decides if they are going to continue reading the copy you’ve written, or move on to reading something else. It is the responsibility of the copywriter to make every effort to keep the reader’s interest in their copy. So, how do you create copy that grabs the reader’s attention and heightens their curiosity to encourage them to read more? Karon Thackston offers some examples of reformed headlines... 

When doing keyword research and SEO copywriting, have you ever wondered if those little insignificant words – “in,” “the,” “to,” etc. really counted? Here’s a pretty comprehensive list of unsearchable terms from Wikimedia, (subsidiary of Wikipedia), referred to as “stop words.” These are the words such as “the” that aren’t really considered part of the keyphrase – the search engines’ spiderbots simply look over these words. So the phrase “fishing in the river”... 

As the mother of a near-11-month old, Winnie-the-Pooh is a constant presence in my life these days. The other day, as I listened to my husband read The Tao of Pooh to my daughter, I came across a concept that I found could help the often deadline-pressured copywriter. In The Tao of Pooh, author Benjamin Hoff discussed “the uncarved block.” And he equated Pooh to the uncarved block – unrefined, simplistic and solid. Pooh, unlike the very “wise” owl (another Winnie-the-Pooh character, for any of you who are not familiar), does... 

So many of us get so engrossed in trying to write copy that is fresh and inventive, and trying to meet deadlines and hit big picture goals, that we forget about the very basics that make marketing or SEO copy work in the first place. I found this handy little article by Laura Lake with five basic questions to ask yourself when doing any type of persuasive copy. It’s real basic stuff, but here’s a suggestion: before sending that well-polished draft to someone else in your organization for review, take 5 minutes to consider the questions she poses. Do... 

I’ve lately come across several articles written by other copywriters that I, quite frankly, have a major issue with. Clearly targeted toward small business owners with miniscule budgets, the articles that some of our fellow copywriters are crafting encourage John Q. Small Business Owner to write their own copy because it’s so incredibly “easy,” and good writing is just a matter of “practice” and misleads these poor souls into believing that writing is almost as easy and methodical as brushing your teeth. I doth protest.... 

Too many times, whether the text is written for SEO marketing, general marketing, or even entertainment, I come across copy with the main idea or message so buried that I have to read it more than once to figure it out. Here’s an awesome article by Karon Thackston on making sure your copy gets to the point and evokes emotion in the reader. Is Your Copy Upside Down? By: Karon Thackston As a professional copywriter, I’ve seen my share of copywriting mistakes. One that seems to be particularly common is writing copy that’s... 

Anyone tackling SEO copywriting faces the same hurdle as most writers do – getting started. In her article, “Creating A Search Engine Copywriting Plan,” Karon Thackston with Marketing Words Inc. offers some guidelines on how to do just that to maximize SEO efforts. It’s all pretty common sense, but good to keep around as a checklist for reference. 1) Use Three Keyphrases Per Page – Not a carved-in-stone rule, the guideline of three keyphrases per page gives good variety and helps keep the copy from sounding too repetitive....