Blog
Here's an archive of blog posts I've shared since 1999, including articles, interviews, books, and news. Topics include marketing, digital marketing, copywriting, communications, and business.
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These days, I do a lot of SEO consulting and content strategy work. But a big part of my career was in copywriting. And when I write copy, some tools help me tremendously. Whether it's doing research, writing the copy itself, or working with my clients, there are certain resources that help.
I previously shared tools I use for SEO work. I use some of them for copywriting, too. Below are some extras that I specifically use. You don't need to be a copywriter. But these resources may help you either write your own copy or, when you outsource it, know what to look for or how to fix it.…
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If you've been a follower or subscriber for some time, you likely know that I often talk about SEO and the fact that it really boils down to two things:
- The quality of your content, and
- The quality of your user experience.
In other words, provide good content on a good website. What's “good” is relative. It's content that's relevant and valuable to your users (i.e., it matches their search intent and it's helpful to them), and delivered on a website that's fast, secure, and easy to use (i.e., the content is easy to find and consume).
Focus on those two things and you're golden.…
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Search intent is something that a lot of SEO professionals talk about. And the reason is, search intent is more important than keywords.
Essentially, ranking well on the search engines is no longer as important as it used to be. Otherwise, chasing high rankings alone will only result in useless traffic that never converts. Targeted traffic comes from a lot more than just matching what people are looking for.
Back in the mid-2000s when I was mostly writing copy, someone on Twitter asked me what keywords should a content writer or online copywriter target. We began tweeting back-and-forth in an effort to help him with his keyword selection for his niche.…
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A lot of people ask me about my blogging strategy. They want to know, for instance, how I post articles, build a list, and drive traffic to my blog. More importantly, they want to know what I do for my own SEO.
Those are good questions.
The short answer, of course, is to post good content — content your audience will find valuable and helpful. You can do some simple keyword research — not to find specific keywords to add to your content but to learn about topics of interest to your audience and the kinds of questions they're asking.
But here's something you might find surprising.…
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You've heard of this before. There are two kinds of people in the world. This is true in almost every major area of life, really. There's the efficient person and the effective one. One focuses on doing things right (efficiency), the other on doing the right things (effectiveness).
For example, you have some people who become wealthy by investing money and spending strategically. Others become wealthy from saving money and spending frugally. The two can work equally well.
But which one is the better strategy?
I know someone who was a pharmacist. He and his wife bought a small-town pharmacy. It was located in a tiny strip mall in a rural part of Canada.…
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You may have been the victim of “question tagging” on social media.
That's when you're typically tagged by someone else, where the tagger was initially tagged by someone else, must answer a question, and gets to continue to the trend by tagging someone else.
It's like a stadium wave. Or an illegal chain letter. But for fun and curiosity, not for money. (Curiosity has a lot more to do with it than you think, and it's actually quite powerful. I'll come back to that later.)
The point is that you tag other people to ask them a question, the answer to which you're curious about.…
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Recently, Michael Fulwiler tweeted something that I agree with. He said:
Unpopular opinion: SEO is overrated.
— Michael Fulwiler (@MichaelFulwiler) November 20, 2020
If you post quality content and your website has a quality user experience, you'll be fine.
To which several SEO pros rebutted. And some make some great points. For example, after Michael added that “good SEO is an outcome of good content and a good website,” SEO expert Tyler Lane said:
… Read More →“Good content” is derived and formatted from contextual based keyword themes. Without proper knowledge of how users search, it becomes difficult to create and fully optimize “good content” that is appealing to users and search engines alike.
Back in 2006, I wrote about my favorite copywriting blogs. It's still one of my most popular blog posts, even though it desperately needs an update since some of those blogs no longer exist or have moved.
But until then, however, I'd like to share some of my favorite SEO experts. This time, I won't say “blogs” because some of them have email newsletters, too, while others have YouTube channels. I tend to be subscribed to all of them.
While the main link goes to their YouTube channels, I recommend you visit their websites, and subscribe to their blogs or email newsletters.…
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Preamble: This post was originally written in late 2006. It's my answer to a common question I get quite often. It needed an update, so here it is.
Someone recently asked me this question: “I was wondering, ‘What keeps Michel Fortin writing?' I mean, Michel, what is your 3, 5, or 7-point formula to get an article on paper? What are some of the specific steps you follow?”
1. I Subscribe to Stuffs
I try to stay on top of my industry.
I'm subscribed to many newsletters and blogs, and I read every day. The wonderful byproduct of being immersed in my industry is that something I've read will stir a few ideas in my mind about something worth writing.…
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Yesterday, I completed several SEO audits. I really love doing them because they fire both sides of my brain: the analytical and artistic sides.
Some have said that it's the ADHD brain. Others, the marketer's brain. Either way, one client was specifically looking to get a leg up on its competitors who seem to be doing well organically. So I conducted a competitive scan.
I want to share it with you as it might be useful to you.
An SEO audit analyzes a number of factors to see if a website is properly optimized. It looks at a number of ranking signals, both internal and external, to help determine if the content is visible, relevant, and desirable.…
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