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. Keyword phrasing. Keywords are specific words that describe the service or product presented on the webpage. Designed to attract search engine spiders, keywords allow search engines to categorize and list the website acurately. Keywords and keyword phrases are vitally important to good search engine optimization. There is also tons of information on the web to help you get on top of this important aspect of website promotion.

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. You will then want to write a short, great description for your description metatag. The description is what the search engine lists in the small paragraph accompanying the link and title. A clear, concise description is necessary to get a prospective visitor to click, so you really need to consider carefully and write clearly. Your metatag description should contain your keyword phrase as close to the beginning as you can possibly manage, and keep it short like 20 words or less or about two text lines. This is the introduction of your article.

4. Clear writing with short paragraphs and short sentences is vital for the web. Jakob Nielsen, the great usability guru, long ago stated that people looking at computer screens have much shorter attention spans than those looking at paper. He suggests that paragraphs be kept to about three or four sentences, that sentences be simple in structure, and that text should be broken into bullets and numbers.

If you find yourself writing long paragraphs, shorten them, or break them up. Same with 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.

S&W, available at Bartleby.com provides an excellent reference for this. Read it - it's free and it will present the point clearly and quickly.

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 inverted pyramid structure popular with journalists and newspapers. Just like with newspapers, people seldom read all the way to the end unless it is very, very interesting. Get your facts in upfront. They will be skimming the rest which is why bullet and number lists are so popular - they are very skimmable. If you start with your most important fact first and work downward to the least important, you will be successful in communicating the most essential before the person starts skimming.

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