Copywriting is the art of creating clear nonfiction prose for specific business and communications purposes – like advertising, sales copy, press releases, and similar items. Much of the writing you’ll find online is simply copywriting that has been adapted to the special needs of the Internet.

For the best web copywriting, follow these guidelines.

1. Have a keyword phrase in mind. Without knowing exactly what you want the search engines to target, you don’t even have a plan. Everything else hinges upon this critical phrase.

2. The title can make or break you. Your title needs to contain your keyword or keyword phrase first. An example of this would be: Widgets: Everything You Wanted To Know About Widgets. Note that the word Widgets is the first thing the search engine spider will fine. It will expect that the rest of the article to revolve around your keyword.

3. Write a great short description for the metatag. Sure, metatags aren’t used anymore for listing placement, but they are used in determining what your page is really about and to insert a description for many different search engines. Your description metatag must contain the keyword phrase, and give a short (less than 20 words or two text lines) introduction of your article.

4. Clarity in writing is necessary. Short paragraphs with clear, concise sentences is vital for a good web presentation. Jakob Nielsen, the usability guru, stated a long time ago that looking at computer screens can be maintained by people for short periods of time. It is not like reading a book. He suggested that paragraphs be kept to about three or four sentences and that sentences be simple in structure. Bullet lists are very popular on the web.

If you find that you are writing long paragraphs, stop and make them shorter. The same thing applies to sentences.

5. The greatest copywriting book ever, Strunk & White’s Elements of Style, says it all in Rule #13: Omit needless words. Online, people want the facts. Get to them. Don’t try to be artsy, and don’t write a bunch of fluff.

Come to think of it, S&W is a perfect reference for style in web copywriting. Read it. You can find a free copy at Bartleby.com.

6. Standard rules of grammar and spelling apply. No kittehspeak, no hacker, no text shorthand. Proofread everything, preferably reading backward line by line to catch all your errors, and for goodness sakes spellcheck. You’ll probably have an occasional mistake, but minimize them by editing well.

7. Use the journalistic inverted pyramid structure. People do not read to the end online. They read the beginning and skim the rest. (The skimming habit, by the way, is why Nielsen recommends lots of bullets and numbers – very skimmable.) If you start with the most important chunk and work downward to the least important details, you’ll be able to communicate the core of your work to your reader.

8. With sales copy, start with a compelling question that will encourage the person to keep reading. Get the benefits of continuing out there first, because you must capture their attention in about 30 seconds maximum. Fiction writers employ the teaser – asking a question that they don’t answer until the very end. It works. Present a problem, then write to lead up to the conclusion which solves it. Remember, though, to get the problem and enough facts in before the skimming starts. Many visitors will read the beginning, skim a bit and go to the end.

Learn tips for marketing an online business, or how to start a home based internet business. Visit the website marketing tips blog at http://www.nitromarketing.com/blog

- Kale McClelland

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