No matter the medium you’re tackling, your copywriting content is intertwined with marketing. Here’s a look at just about everything you need to think about to make sure your copy is hitting all of the key areas of marketing and SEO – from branding, to driving traffic, generating revenue opportunities and ROI. Content Strategy as a Marketing Tool By: Heidi Cohen our online content strategy has a major effect on your marketing. Although content is obviously critical for publishers, it’s also important for anyone with an online presence.... 

What is SMO (Social Media Optimization) you may ask? Ahhhh, yes . . . the cousin to SEO (Search Engine Optimization). (You can thank sites like YouTube and MySpace for this latest innovation in Internet Marketing.) Social Media Optimization is another avenue of search engine optimization that involves making your content – whether written, audio or visual – more readily available in social arenas on the web. The SEO community is all a-buzz with this latest development – and in his article “5 Rules of Social Media Optimization (SMO),”... 

Though there are many different keyword research tools out there, the three most respected are: WordTracker, Keyword Discovery and Overture. While I’m least familiar with WordTracker, I can say that my minimal experience as an SEO copywriter and some research seems to indicate that there is no magical, one-stop shop keyword research tool that’s precise enough to give you everything you want or need. All of the big three have their advantages, with Overture being the most limited. When researching keywords, a range of sources – from SEO for... 

Since there are so many things to remember when doing SEO copywriting for a web page, you may find this checklist helpful to keep yourself organized and make sure that you’ve covered all of your bases. I now use it everytime I write to make sure I haven’t missed anything – because in SEO copywriting, every little bit counts/helps: SEO Copywriting Checklist for Web Page Writing Page name at the top of the page with the URL (if page exists; if page does not exist, write “New Page”) NOTE: THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS THE PAGE TITLE List of... 

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... 

What is Black Hat SEO? What types of sneaky SEO techniques do the search engines frown upon? At Big Oak Inc., we only engage in legitimate search engine optimization strategies that get results for our clients. However, we are aware of the underhanded tactics used by some SEO firms to try and manipluate search engine results, called Black Hat SEO. One of those tactics is keyword “spamming.” When a keyword is repeatedly used on a page so the search engines spiders will find it, but is not readable or makes no sense to the reader of the web page,... 

Web Development plays a key part in taking a website from a home-made hobby into a professional powerhouse for sales. However it is a complex form of marketing that incorporates a wide variety of techniques and strategies, most notably of course, the implementation of good solid, SEO copy. Having to produce web content with SEO in mind is a thought that often scares Webmasters. They fear that it will take up too much of their time with the added risk of producing them little results. However there is a very simple way for Webmasters to get a grasp on what... 

Cover via Amazon Summer’s here, which means it’s time to break out the mojitos and relax by the pool with a good book– but who says you can’t improve your copywriting skills at the same time? From timeless classics to the quirky and unconventional, here’s your ultimate list of must-read copywriting titles. For you digital types, we’ve also included some of the most popular copywriting blogs on the Web. Happy reading! The Classics 1. The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White. Good writing never goes... 

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...