Best of 2008: Web & SEO Copywriting
January 3, 2010Any type of marketing copywriting is a blend of art and science. Writing for the web involves requires as much art as any other form, plus another level of science.
Here are some tools, tips and guidance for crafting more effective and compelling web copy, from among the best articles and blog posts on web and SEO copywriting from last year.
12 Tips for Writing Effective Internet Marketing Copy (Keywords are King) by Internet Marketing Post
Jennifer Norene provides an excellent set of tips for newbies and reminders for experienced copywriters for writing effective web copy, such as focusing on 2-3 keywords per page, using your customers’ language, breaking up long blocks of copy with subheads, and aiming for about 500 words per page.
Small Business Marketing Unleashed: Keyword Balance by WebProNews
Doug Caverly provides some brief but helpful reminders about effective web copywriting from Heather Lloyd-Martin at the Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference, like don’t overdo keyword stuffing; write with the buying cycle in mind (awareness, research, purchase); and using FAQ pages, how-to articles, blog posts and archived newsletters to extend your SEO potential.
Ten Copywriting Tips for B2B SEO by Search Engine Land
Galen DeYoung offers tips for meeting the unique challenges faced by B2B copywriters, such as watch the lingo, don’t be afraid of long copy, and use image “captions as another opportunity to sell to the prospect and another opportunity to influence search results.”
SEO Copywriting Tools and Resources by Internet Marketing Blog
Following up on his earlier post about 10 favorite free keyword tools, Frank Levert presents eight “free online SEO copywriting tools and resources that can help you write content with more style and vocabulary,” including Readability Test (a tool to help determine if you’ve written at the right level for your intended audience), Synonym.com (free online thesaurus) and Rhymer (a rhyming dictionary).
Discover The Top 3 Crucial Tips You Must Know To Create Powerful Headlines and Stop Losing Sales by SiteProNews
Noting that “With only a few seconds to grab the attention of your site visitor and pull them into your site, your headline is the most important element of your website,” Jennifer Horowitz lays out a three-step process to produce headlines that grab readers’ attention and compel them to read your body copy.
Master the 4 Cs of Quality Content to Create Sparkling Results by Copyblogger
Sonia Simone has written a beautifully crafted piece correlating the 4Cs “that differentiate a fabulously expensive, brilliant diamond from an industrial-grade one” with great writing: clarity (content must be clear in order to be persuasive), cut (judicious editing is critical), color (use stories and details to add life to writing) and carat (real value, not lightweigth fluff).
Seven Building Blocks of a Destination Website: #6 Voice by Search Engine Guide
The prolofic Stoney deGeyter explains how voice gives your website a unique personality, the different types of voice and examples of each: humorous, thoughtful, down-to-earth and others.
25 Random Points about Copywriting by Conversation Marketing
And finally, in possibly one of the most useful and certainly one of the most entertaining posts written about writing last year, Ian Lurie supplies both guidance and inspiration with tips and observations such as:
- Great internet marketing starts with copy that’s concise.
- You can make great stuff happen with great writing and a lousy web site. Try the opposite, though. I dare ya.
- The best way to cultivate that skill, next to writing for 3 hours a day, is to read. Watching TV with subtitles does not count.
There you have it, the best writing on writing from 2008.
Tags: Conversation Marketing, CopyBlogger, Doug Caverly, Galen DeYoung, Heather Lloyd-Martin, Ian Lurie, Search Engine Guide, Search Engine Land, Sonia Simone, Stoney deGeyter, tips for writing effective web copy, WebProNews
One Response
Per H. Jørgensen
Thanks for a comprehensive list of resources – I especially like the article on Ten Copywriting Tips for B2B SEO