I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve heard statement, “I get tons of traffic, but no sales.” It’s normally followed by comments like: “My site is highly optimized for engines and my rankings are great. I don’t understand why no one is buying.” Let me shed some light on this mystery.

Most often, when site owners (or professional copywriters for that matter) write “search engine optimized” copy, they develop tunnel vision. They are so focused on placement of keyphrases throughout copy that they neglect something very important… customer!

Because immediate task at hand “seems” to be getting site ranked high, writer neglects to take out his or her crystal ball and gaze into future. What should you be asking crystal ball? “What happens when customer gets to my site?”

Oops! Didn’t think of that? Don’t feel embarrassed. Many people don’t. Developing SEO (search engine optimized) copy is like creating a complete circle. You have to have good keyword saturation in order to get ranked in those prime spots. You have to have keyword-rich title and description tags (mostly title tag) to land in top 10. Once you achieve that your site starts drawing in surfers. Now that they’ve clicked to your site, what happens? The copy has to give them what they want/need. That’s missing piece to puzzle and factor that causes so many people to scratch their heads in disbelief.

When writing SEO copy, you have to think of beginning AND end of process. You have to create copy that satisfies both engine and customer. Once you do, you’ll not only have boatloads of traffic, but you’ll have sales that go along with it. So, there… mystery solved! Or at least part of it.

We’ve covered “why,” now let’s look at “how.”

1. Know Your Target Audience

But in these digital days, software and Internet can help a tech-savvy writer be a better writer and make getting job done easier. While writing every day is still best practice for improving your writing skills, there are programs and Web sites available today that can really help your writing along.

Here are 18 digital tools you can use to research, brainstorm, organize, compose, communicate and bring out better writer in you.

Wordsmithing Grammar and Style

Cliché Finder. You've always been told to "avoid clichés like plague." But sometimes there's no other way to write or talk your way out of a sticky situation. This site lets you search for just right cliché, by entries that include a specific word. | www.westegg.com/cliche |

Common Errors in English. This is a useful list of words often misused. Plus an interesting list of usages people keep telling you are wrong but which are actually standard in English. Links to other grammar resources as well. | www.wsu.edu/%7Ebrians/errors/errors.html |

Dictionary of Difficult Words. Do you aim to become a member of literati, or do you wish to be a savant? Do you want to avoid being verbigerative and be succinct instead? Search this list of over 13,900 difficult words to increase your vocabulary or just find out what those words really mean. | www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/difficultwords |

fun-with-words.com. Everything you want to know about amusing quirks, peculiarities, and oddities of English language. Stuff like palindromes, spoonerisms, oxymora, and more. | www.fun-with-words.com |

Word Play. A list of links to dictionaries, foreign language translations, word games and wacky sites like The Apostrophe Protection Society, Burma Shave Signs, The Country & Western Song Generator and The Klingon Language Institute. | www.wolinskyweb.com/word.htm |

The Word Spy. This site is devoted to recently coined words and phrases, old words that are being used in new ways, and existing words that have enjoyed a recent renaissance. | www.wordspy.com |

Word Menu. This software version of Random House's printed Word Menu blends all best features of a dictionary, thesaurus and encyclopedia into one-easy-to-use reference. Words are organized by subject rather than alphabetically. Windows and Mac. Available from www.wordmenu.com.