By Karon Thackston

Just for a moment, pretend you're a fly on the wall in my office. I'm on the phone with a prospective client and things are going well. We're talking about their target audience and they seem to have all the right answers. I am confident that these people "get it." Then the conversation takes a sharp left turn.
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Do you have any info on the issue of spamdexing – specifically the practice of adding keywords into text unnaturally and then emphasizing just the keywords (for example, boldfacing and/or italicizing them)? Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Is it OK to have the same articles on your site as you do on your blog? And, if not, is it better to have a blog with a link back to your site, or to put the article directly on your site? Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

I've been SEO'ing websites long before the 21st century began. Sometimes I feel I've been touting the same SEO processes and procedures for the past 10 years. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Sometimes choosing which company to buy from is about like deciding which brand of canned peas is the best. To make matters worse, the copy on most websites doesn't offer any help. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

20% Off All Karon Thackston Marketing Books! Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

SEO Best Principles for Local Service Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Today we have another guest article from SEO copywriter and trainer Karon Thackston. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Have you ever noticed that ecommerce sites have their own set of challenges when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO)? If you're a small ecommerce site owner, I'm sure you have. One reason is that copy plays such a vital role in the optimization process. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

I am doing SEO for a website, and I have tried to persuade the owner to include some copy on the home page to sell their services and for ranking, but they prefer just an image and navigation. Is this going to be a big setback in terms of SEO? Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

To many people, the idea of guest blogging is fresh and new and very "Web 2.0." Personally, I find the discussion to be a rather déjà vu–like experience. In fact, one participant on my blog responded to a post about articles by asking how I would contrast guest blogging with article marketing. He wanted to know how I chose between placing my articles on directories and writing an exclusive blog post. The short answer is: I don't. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

I'm redesigning my website using CSS for the layout. In the HTML code the navigation information comes before the actual page content. What worries me is how I have my navigation set up. I use CSS and span tags to make neat little information boxes appear when my navigation links are hovered over. These boxes will tell the visitor more about what to expect from that particular link. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Karon Thackston and I were discussing copy length the other day (yeah, we're total geeks when it comes to that stuff) and decided to share our conversation via a podcast. You can click to it and listen from Karon's copywriting workshop page. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Forum member "anne999" was wondering how many keywords she could target on her website. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Karon Thackston’s 5th edition of her famous copywriting course is hot off the presses! If you bought your copy of the course more than 30 days ago you can purchase an upgrade to the 5th edition for only $29!  Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Karon Thackston is nearly done with the 2009 edition of her highly acclaimed copywriting course. It's jam-packed with new information and she will be increasing the price accordingly. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

As president of the Karon Thackston fan club <grin> I'm pleased to present another guest article from her about avoiding a common copywriting pitfall. I also wanted to let you know that she has agreed to teach our half-day copywriting workshop on April 2, 2009. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

It's funny how we, as website owners, don't always think like our visitors. A course of action that might seem perfectly obvious to us may stop our visitors right in the middle of their buying process. Take, for instance, e-commerce–type copy. Do you realize that what happens after your customers read your copy could make or break your sale? I'm not talking about shopping cart abandonment. I'm talking about good communication that keeps the buying cycle moving forward. Let me give you a real-world example.
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So, I'm a total toad! In the last newsletter, I mistakenly sent Karon's special discount offer on the latest version of her "Writing With Keywords" book only to the "text-only" newsletter subscribers and not to the HTML ones...duh. Since the HTML readers make up more than 2/3 of the readers, Karon has agreed to extend the offer through this week. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

The question is a rather odd one: "What's your conversion rate?" The correct response would be another question: "Which conversion rate?" What most people are really asking is how many sales have you made? But the sales process – in almost all cases – takes more than one step. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Over the past few weeks, I've had a few run-ins with plagiarism in various forms and thought I'd take the opportunity to have a little rant about it. My hope is that by discussing it, people will become more educated about the issue and perhaps it will become a little less rampant online. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Karon Thackston has a great article on her blog that I highly recommend. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Just wanted to let you know that I've finally updated my "Nitty-gritty Guide of Writing for the Search Engines"! Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Regarding long-tail keywords, I often find it difficult optimizing them in an article, mainly because it can look unnatural if you include them too often. How do you recommend I deal with this problem? Apart from in the headline, at what density do they need to be mentioned in an article in order to maximize our chances of getting good listings? Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

If you know where to look, you can easily find clues about what people are feeling. Once you discover that, making the connection is simple. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

I have a customer who is convinced that for maximum SEO, the page length must be between 450 and 625 words. He has a software program that tells him this. Is there any truth to it?

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I have plain html pages that describe the various health-related products that I recommend. If one of my readers wishes to purchase a product, they click on an "order now" button, which takes them to the desired product at my shopping cart.

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A lot of my clients pull data/products from semi-public databases to populate their websites, similar to how real estate agents show listings of homes on their sites. I've been ensuring that each client has unique valuable and professionally edited content whenever possible on the rest of the site, but I’m afraid that if I make the portions of the site that use the semi-public data accessible to the search engines, they will find duplicate information on other sites and my client site(s) would not be indexed. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

I have a question: I created a site (read a book on HTML, a book on SEO, and a book on globalization of websites). After about 10 months, the site is doing very well and I am pleased with its rankings. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

We have an information site which sells nothing. Our site consists of about 140 articles. I have authored several, and I'm wondering about submitting a couple of my articles to certain type of sites which claim to boost links to your site. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

In Part 1 of this series, I introduced you to Announce It!, an online candy-bar-wrapper manufacturer that was seeking professional help with their search engine copywriting. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

The old cliché is wrong. All our lives we’ve heard, “It’s not what you say, but how you say it.” That may occasionally be true, but for the most part it’s what you say AND how you say it. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Hey everyone! I’m back from vacation and the conference and raring to go. Today’s article is an updated version of one I wrote back in 2004 on the art of SEO. I recently reviewed it and was surprised at how accurate it still is today. I figured there are many of you on the list who never read it the first time around, and for those who did, you’ve probably forgotten it by now. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Forum member “malhyp” asks if there’s a benefit to using both the singular and plural forms of his/her keyword phrases when optimizing. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

We had a very interesting discussion regarding my last Search Engine Land article, "You Can't Fake Real Content." Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

There has been a debate about the use of keywords for years. Many SEO copywriters will tell you that using keyphrases in their entirety is the best practice for getting high rankings. Others insist it really doesn’t matter — that as long as all the individual words within the phrase are used, your copy will do its job. Before we get into whether keyphrases are best used in their entirety or as individual words, let’s sidestep for just a minute to talk about the inner workings of information-retrieval systems (aka search engines). Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

My understanding is, if you have Meta tags with keywords and descriptions, this should also be reflected in your actual page content. But what if you have an ecommerce site and a homepage that displays mostly products and very short descriptions, and a menu with category names, etc.? Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

In Part 1 of this series, we discovered that explaining the value your products offer is only one part of the copywriting process. Creating a visual image is another. While Wholesalers USA knew their target customers better than most companies do, they needed help with two areas: optimizing their copy for the search engines and incorporating visual imagery. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

There’s no doubt. Wholesalers USA knows their customers. They’ve spent the time digging through log files to analyze site stats. They’ve spoken with customers on the phone and emailed with them. They’ve used client feedback to develop new products that have taken off like a rocket. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Great newsletter. My business partner is developing our site and wants to put a list of keywords at the bottom of some of our shop pages (i.e. below the text) in the hopes that this will get the search engines to notice us slightly more. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

My SEO’s Good. Now Should I Work On Conversions? Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

I found out quite by chance. I noticed a research brief in my inbox entitled, “Bad Web Experience Impacts Brick and Mortar Shopping.” Being primarily focused on Internet business, I really didn’t pay it much attention. But then I noticed it made reference to a customer’s online experience, too, so I read on. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Keywords. I have been designing web sites for 5 +/- yrs, so I am aware of what they are and how they are being used / can be used. I’m not saying I am an expert, just that I’m not a novice. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

You have one, whether you know it or not. Everybody does. There is something unique about your business; you just have to discover what it is. And therein lies the problem. Most business owners and managers don’t understand how to create a truly unique selling proposition (USP). There are specific criteria to consider in order to get your message across clearly and succinctly. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Karon's back today to show us the results from the Julie's Jewels copywriting makeover that she wrote about last time. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Time for a pop quiz! Name three products that sell better when a facts-based approach to copy is taken. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Sixty-year-old newbie here with his first e-book! My site is unlinked --
just "up there."   I teach project management for a living -- but ill health
is forcing early retirement, and I have an urgent need to keep paying the
mortgage! Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

It's one of the best pieces of copywriting advice I've ever been given. "As often as possible, start your paragraphs with sentences that hook readers and drive them deeper into the copy." Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

The length of search phrases continues to grow. Back when the Internet was just an upstart, single keywords were the only thing you needed. But in recent years we've seen the number of words used in search phrases triple and quadruple. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

In cases where a client is smarter than you are about SEO, insists on saturating his keyword pages (10 per 200-word page) at 5% (which includes the keyword phrase in two header lines), and currently (without keyword saturation) consistently hits in the top 20 on his Google searches. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

I wonder if you can give me a steer on a particular SEO problem. I have a client who specializes in acupuncture and other alternative remedies in London We would like to optimise for the conditions she treats such as back pain, insomnia, headaches, etc - about 40 different in all. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

The site I'm asked to work on really has no room for keyword rich copy (or any copy in general). Nor do they want it there. They're very much in favor of the current design which is mostly products. They like the way it looks. The copy -- in their opinion and to some degree mine too -- would look odd, even though everyone now understands the value of this copy on the front page. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Shel Horowitz writes today's guest article. I've been a long-time fan of Shel, the author of "Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First" (which I totally agreed with!), "Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World," and 5 other books. He is the originator of the Business Ethics Pledge campaign to change the world. Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

Here’s Karon’s latest and greatest article on…well…writing articles! Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>

I hope you enjoy this brand-new article from Karon...it's hot off the presses! - Jill Read More >> Related Forum Posts >>