28 Apr

Small Business Owners: Are You Making These 3 Deadly Website Copywriting Mistakes?

By Karon Thackston © 2010, All Rights Reserved

It’s a common question.  “What copywriting mistakes should I avoid?”  There are many, but the 3 I chose might surprise you.

Why?  Because while these can potentially cause the greatest amount of damage they are not ones most copywriters talk about.

Why?  Because these aren’t the “sexy” copywriting mistakes.  They aren’t the quick-fix aspects. They require thinking and judgment and… <gasp!>… work!  However, they are the ones that – when implemented correctly – can drastically boost the performance of your copy and content whether that be a blog post, article, web page, email or other forms of text.… Read the rest

16 Mar

Continuity in SEO Copywriting Improves Rankings & Conversions

By Karon Thackston © 2011, All Rights Reserved

It has become a fundamental principle of Internet marketing. When sending a prospect from some form of trigger (banner ad, pay-per-click ad, tweet, etc.) to the landing page, there must be continuity: the message must flow.

For example, when constructing pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, there has to be continuity between the ad and the landing page. The use of the same keyphrases, copy that flows seamlessly from ad to landing page and other factors can make or break your campaign. If these elements aren’t in place the disconnect your visitors will suffer will confuse them and send them packing.… Read the rest

04 Mar

Think Keyword Density is Still a Factor? Prove It!

By Karon Thackston © 2011, All Rights Reserved

As I read her email I could literally feel my blood pressure rising.  She’d heard me speak at a webinar I did for Wordtracker about ecommerce copywriting where I said keyword density hadn’t been a factor in SEO copywriting for years.  The lump in my throat got bigger as Zoe (not her real name) explained why she thought the myth about keyword density simply wouldn’t die.

“Keyword density is going to remain a hot (contentious) topic. I just read an article in the “New Yorker” yesterday about the new AOL CEO: “Can Tim Armstrong save AOL?”… Read the rest

16 Sep

IE9 Beta First Impressions

After following the IE Blog for months about how great their new browser is they finally announced an open Beta. As I develop for the Internet I can’t install on my work machine as it might interfere with my testing of code on IE8 so last night I installed on two machines at home.

My main problem currently is the lack of speed in IE8. I run IE8 on a 2 year old laptop with 2GB RAM and it can take 30 seconds to start. The Javascript performance is appalling. The built in debugger is confusing. I generally work in Firefox 3 with Firebug which in comparison starts in less than 5 seconds, Firebug is really intuitive too and with the Web Developer plugin I get control of CSS on the fly – and ideal development environment.… Read the rest

30 Jul

New Case Study Proves No One’s Reputation is Safe Online

The SEO community is buzzing about Elixir Interactive this week.  The company released their long-awaited online reputation management case study which documents in detail an ongoing attack on Elixir’s own reputation.  Usually ORM companies are hired to help clients with negative results showing up in search engines.  In this case, the ORM company is the target of someone (or some company) that wants to hurt Elixir’s search results.

Back in 2009 a number of ORMs came under limited attack, as false reviews were published on a number of complaint sites.  Elixir first noticed they were under attack in March.  Rather than quietly correct for the attack, CEO Fionn Downhill used her blog to expose the tactics being used against all the top ranked online reputation management companies. … Read the rest

16 Jul

Money Back Guarantees

I was doing an SEO workshop in OMS  New York and one person asked me about guarantees. Their idea was to force the  person to sign up for a service for a year and they could only ask for a refund when the year was up. I said this was at best deceptive and that if they were offering a guarantee it should be as easy to apply for as possible and should be as easy to receive as it was for them to sign  up in the first place. I said if they offered me this guarantee and I tried to claim on it I would be furious I had to wait 1 year to get my money back.… Read the rest

18 Jun

Elixir Interactive – Fionn Downhill feautured speaker on OMS 23 city tour 2010

Fionn Downhill CEO of Elixir Interactive an internet marketing agency specializing in Online Reputation Management and Search Engine Optimization Services is a featured speaker at the OMS 23 City tour this summer.  Fionn will present a session in Phoenix, New York, Atlanta and Charlotte.    You can read more about the tour and see an interview with Aaron Kahlow CEO of OMS here.… Read the rest

02 Jun

Avoid Inmotion Hosting

We have now had a site down since Friday and have still not managed to get it back up and today is Wednesday. This all started when our account was allegedly sending spam. Instead of informing us there was a problem so we could fix it they suspended the account. Now 6 days later and we have still not been able to get them to turn back on the account. Calling them results in being put on a queue forever. Chat with the support staff and they can’t re-enable the account. The problem is until the account is back on we can not go in and check what went wrong and why it was sending spam.… Read the rest

24 May

Who Can Benefit from SEO?

The information super highway. The World Wide Web. Cyberspace. While there are many different names, it all boils down to one thing — the Internet. It is through all of these names that we begin to realize what a large part the Internet plays in our lives. Most of us in Western culture use it on a daily basis for correspondence, information, and entertainment. We would be disoriented and disconnected if the Internet were suddenly unavailable.

One of the key components of the Internet is search engines. Search engines can provide answers to nearly every question in a matter of seconds, from fashion and trivia to weather and services.… Read the rest