5. Are you using little modifiers excessively?

Nouns and verbs that are specific give good writing toughness and color. So use adverbs and adjectives sparingly. And remember what your Strunk&White says about modifiers like "rather," "very," "little," and "pretty" -- "...these are leeches that infest pond of prose, sucking blood of words."

6. Is your phrasing too fat?

Vigorous writing is lean writing. Put your sentences on a diet by cutting unnecessary words: reduce your paragraphs by eliminating unnecessary sentences. Get rid of expressions like "the fact that," especially when "since" or "though" will do. Look for places where you can express a thought in one sentence instead of two.

7. Does your beginning lead to an end?

All copy should have a clear beginning, middle and end. The shortest pieces as well as longest. Begin with a lead sentence that captures essence of piece, then jump right into action. Make sure middle section is tight and well organized. Keep like items together. If you're comparing cars and trucks, describe cars first, then trucks. The end of your piece should have a crisp closer or zinger and contain a call to action or quote. For instance, an apt ending here might be something like this from Dickens: "All writing is misery."

© Burek Group 2003

Thank you for your intrerest in this article. You may freely publish it in print or on Web as long as you include byline and credits. Also, please advise me of publication by mailto: walter@walterburek.com

See how list uses keyphrases within headers and again within list description itself?

Using keywords in carefully chosen places allows you to have more freedom with your copy itself. So now, instead of forced, unappealing copy we read in first example, you can have something more relaxed like this:

Quality Silver Jewelry Is A Rare Find!

If you’ve been looking for quality silver jewelry long, you know that quality is, in fact, a major issue. Unfortunately, many companies combine low-cost metals with their silver. That compromises quality and appearance. That’s a practice we never participate in!

How To Recognize Quality Silver Jewelry

When shopping for best, look for these tell-tell signs of excellence.

·Quality silver jewelry that is truly created of pure silver will display a radiant sheen. ·When you touch surface, quality silver jewelry will immediately show a fingerprint. ·Breathing on finish of quality silver jewelry will produce a fog, while breathing on finish of poor-quality silver will not.

And so on, and so on.

So you see, you can have copy that makes sense, provides solutions for your site visitors, and ranks high with search engines. It’s not impossible… it just takes a bit of training and practice. Before long, you’ll be tucking keywords in all right places!