 | April 10, 2013Is it OK to do basically the same content on multiple pages but change up maybe heading titles for those pages? Read More >> |
 | April 10, 2013Is it okay to have the same few sentences on every page of your website? Read More >> |
 | April 10, 2013Do I need to work on optimising "and" and "&" and "amp"? Read More >> |
 | March 26, 2013I've known Dianna Huff since at least 2007, but she's been helping B2B companies get their websites in good order since 1998. From the best way to market your content via mobile devices to how to write content that appeals to a B2B target audience, Dianna has got it nailed down. Read More >> |
 | January 30, 2013Our site has been affected by Google's Penguin update. Our website traffic and search queries are down almost 80%.
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 | January 30, 2013Everywhere I have read that title tags should be no longer than 65 to 70 characters. Is this true?
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 | January 16, 2013In my "18 SEO Killers" article from the end of last year, I mentioned footer links as a potential SEO problem. I know this confused many people because I didn't explain what I meant by them. This article takes an in-depth look at footer abuses. Read More >> |
 | December 5, 2012As part of my SEO for 2013 and beyond series, I promised to provide more in-depth information about the "SEO killers" I mentioned last time. Today I'm delving into duplicate content as it relates to SEO. Read More >> |
 | December 5, 2012What sorts of duplicate content do you see frequently on websites which cause SEO issues? Read More >> |
 | November 14, 2012There's a lot of talk lately of Google having finally killed SEO through their Panda and Penguin algorithms, which continue to ensnare more and more websites with every new update. So is SEO really (finally) dead?
Read More >> |
 | November 14, 2012What are the top 3 website / SEO issues you've seen that were likely to have caused traffic losses from any of the Google Panda / Penguin updates? Read More >> |
 | October 31, 2012Karon Thackston provides you with some easy and valuable ways to achieve desired conversion rates is through copy optimization. Read More >> |
 | October 31, 2012What's the biggest copywriting / content writing mistake you see websites make? Read More >> |
 | October 3, 2012Karon's Kindle Book for Free (Today Only!) Read More >> |
 | August 22, 2012Karon's been noticing for quite some time that the top sites in Google didn't always have the exact keyphrase used multiple times within their copy. So she went to Matt Cutts from Google to confirm her suspicions--that we no longer need to use keyword phrases as a whole, but should use the individual words contained within the phrases. Read More >> |
 | August 22, 2012How (if at all) have you changed your SEO copy/content writing strategy in light of Panda/Penguin? Read More >> |
 | July 11, 2012SEO Chat With Jill and Karon Read More >> |
 | July 11, 2012Re-Purposing Content. How Far Is Too Far? Read More >> |
 | June 27, 2012What are you supposed to do if there aren't any long-tail keywords for your niche?
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 | June 13, 2012I recently did a site audit for a client who was wondering why they were having a hard time showing up in Google. When I read through the information they sent me and took a quick look at their website, it was obvious to me what the problem was: They simply didn't deserve to be there. Let me explain... Read More >> |
 | May 30, 2012This post provides 5 mistakes I've seen often enough to warrant a mention so that you can learn from others who weren't so lucky. Read More >> |
 | May 30, 2012How Correcting 3 Common Copywriting Mistakes Increased Sales 86% Read More >> |
 | May 2, 2012Today I browsed through the 3,500 or so SEO questions people asked at Google and chose the most common ones to answer. Read More >> |
 | February 22, 2012Does your marketing lead anywhere? Is there a plan and a purpose behind your content, or do you just toss something out there and see what happens? Read More >> |
 | February 22, 2012Do you have a content marketing funnel or plan? Read More >> |
 | February 8, 2012You're likely sick of hearing about the importance of having great blog post content. But you know you need it in order to have something to promote via social media. And you know that great blog posts can bring in lots of long-tail search engine visitors. What you may have trouble with is what to write about in your blog. Read More >> |
 | January 11, 2012If you're thinking that implementing the Rel-Author tag on your content isn't worth the trouble, Jill Whalen provides 5 6 reasons why it's super important. Read More >> |
 | January 11, 2012To go along with this week's article on Rel=Author, I asked my social media followers if they've implemented Rel=Author on their content yet, and if so, was it showing in Google's search results? Read More >> |
 | December 14, 2011We were wondering which types Title tags would potentially rank higher in the search engines.
Read More >> |
 | December 14, 2011What's your recommended Title tag length? Read More >> |
 | November 16, 2011What's your formula for writing Meta description tags? Read More >> |
 | November 2, 2011You know you're supposed to get on Twitter to somehow promote your website. So you start randomly tweeting out links to a product or service page on your website. But who is going to care? Read More >> |
 | September 21, 2011Can I use a splash page to direct two different target markets to the appropriate sections of my website? Read More >> |
 | August 24, 2011What's the first thing you think of when writing with keywords? Probably one of the first is that keywords and phrases are descriptive of the products and/or services you're writing about. But what happens in those circumstances where you can't (or don't really want to) use your chosen keyphrases descriptively? Read More >> |
 | August 24, 2011What's your 1 tip for naturally working keywords into content? Read More >> |
 | July 13, 2011Today's feature article is a guest post from my friend and B2B marketing consultant Dianna Huff. If you're a B2B company in need of online content writing and marketing, you'll be in good hands with Dianna! In addition, she’s also hosting local, low cost, lunch time web marketing seminars in the MA-NH Merrimack Valley area. Read More >> |
 | June 29, 2011As you try to choose the best keyword phrases for each page, you will have to work them into the content of that page. They absolutely must be highly relevant so that you don't drive your copywriter crazy when s/he sits down to do the writing.
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 | June 29, 2011Any tips for choosing keyword phrases? Read More >> |
 | June 1, 2011One of our connections came across a horrible website that copied our homepage and used it for their "About Us" page. What can we do about it?
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 | February 16, 2011Hi, my name is Jill, and I’m a %#@$ stirrer! Read More >> |
 | January 19, 2011Karon is trying something new to go along with her copywriting course -- personalized copywriting coaching sessions.
Read More >> |
 | November 17, 2010Last week I was speaking with a potential client in need of SEO consulting who told me that they had been working on their product part e-commerce website over the past few months by adding "SEO articles" to it on a regular basis. Read More >> |
 | November 17, 2010What's the most creative content you've added to a website that enhanced its value? Read More >> |
 | November 3, 2010I have a couple of questions regarding Title tags and Meta descriptoin tags. Read More >> |
 | October 20, 2010Do You Have a Long-Tail Keyword Strategy? Read More >> |
 | September 8, 2010It's somewhat late, but I have free passes available to Karon Thackston's SEO copywriting telesummit this Thursday, September 9, 2010. Read More >> |
 | September 8, 2010Keyword Phrases in Product Listings Read More >>
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 | September 8, 2010That's all for today! Read More >> |
 | August 25, 2010When you review the keywords from which people clicked to your site, are they only peripherally related to what you offer? If so, your website is likely suffering from BlindWebsititis!
Read More >> |
 | June 2, 2010My client has a local shop. Should every keyword phrase contain the locale, such as Denver, Arvada, Westminster, etc., and then just change up the item?
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 | April 7, 2010What do you feel is THE most important SEO tactic for any website? Read More >>
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| March 24, 2010Duplicate content has been and always will be a natural part of the Web. It's nothing to be afraid of. Read More >> |
| March 10, 2010By 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. Read More >> |
| January 20, 2010Do 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 >> |
| January 20, 2010Is 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 >> |
| January 6, 2010I'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 >> |
| October 28, 2009Sometimes 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 >> |
| October 28, 200920% Off All Karon Thackston Marketing Books! Read More >> |
| October 28, 2009SEO Best Principles for Local Service Read More >> |
| September 16, 2009Today we have another guest article from SEO copywriter and trainer Karon Thackston. Read More >> |
| June 24, 2009Have 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 >> |
| April 1, 2009I 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 >> |
| February 18, 2009To 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 >> |
| February 4, 2009I'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 >> |
| February 4, 2009Karon 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 >> |
| February 4, 2009Forum member "anne999" was wondering how many keywords she could target on her website. Read More >> |
| January 7, 2009Karon 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 >> |
| December 17, 2008Karon 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 >> |
| December 3, 2008As 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 >> |
| October 8, 2008It'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. Read More >> |
| August 13, 2008So, 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 >> |
| July 30, 2008The 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 >> |
| July 2, 2008Over 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 >> |
| June 11, 2008Karon Thackston has a great article on her blog that I highly recommend. Read More >> |
| May 28, 2008Just wanted to let you know that I've finally updated my "Nitty-gritty Guide of Writing for the Search Engines"! Read More >> |
| April 30, 2008Regarding 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 >> |
| April 30, 2008If 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 >> |
| January 16, 2008I 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?
Read More >> |
| January 16, 2008I 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.
Read More >> |
| January 2, 2008A 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 >> |
| October 3, 2007I 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 >> |
| October 3, 2007We 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 >> |
| September 18, 2007In 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 >> |
| September 4, 2007The 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 >> |
| August 29, 2007Hey 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 >> |
| August 29, 2007Forum 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 >> |
| June 20, 2007We had a very interesting discussion regarding my last Search Engine Land article, "You Can't Fake Real Content." Read More >> |
| June 6, 2007There 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 >> |
| May 22, 2007My 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 >> |
| April 17, 2007In 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 >>
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| April 3, 2007There’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 >> |
| February 28, 2007Great 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 >> |
| February 28, 2007My SEO’s Good. Now Should I Work On Conversions? Read More >> |
| February 14, 2007I 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 >> |
| January 17, 2007Keywords. 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 >> |
| January 17, 2007You 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 >> |
| November 29, 2006Karon's back today to show us the results from the Julie's Jewels
copywriting makeover that she wrote about last time. Read More >> |
| November 8, 2006Time for a pop quiz! Name three products that sell better when a
facts-based approach to copy is taken. Read More >> |
| October 25, 2006Sixty-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 >> |
| October 25, 2006It'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 >> |
| October 11, 2006The 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 >> |
| September 27, 2006In 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 >> |
| September 20, 2006I 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 >> |
| September 20, 2006The 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 >> |
| September 6, 2006Shel 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 >> |
| August 30, 2006Here’s Karon’s latest and greatest article on…well…writing articles! Read More >> |
| August 16, 2006I hope you enjoy this brand-new article from Karon...it's hot off the
presses! - Jill
Read More >> |
