Digital Writing Column

by Mary Anne Donovan

Greetings fellow writers!

Since I have left you as chief Editor of WriterOnline, I have been working in the new and emerging field of search engine optimization and digital writing.

What in the world am I talking about, some of you may ask.

Well, it’s like this. The world, it is a’changing. As you’ll see in the article below, we have left the Information Age behind and are now in the Attention Age.  The information hasn’t gone away. In fact, there’s more now than ever and it is truly overwhelming. Therefore, as more and more information goes onto the World Wide Web, the challenge is to get and keep the attention of readers and visitors. And when Google has over 7 billion pages indexed, you can see how difficult that might be!

So what’s the next step in a logical progression regarding getting this attention? It’s writing – good writing, persuasive writing, writing that  jumps off the screen and compels the reader, keeping his attention, preventing him from clicking off to surf on other, more interesting information waves.

Starting with this issue, WOL brings you tips and information you can use to explore new opportunities in the field of digital writing. We’ll tell you how to write copy that encourages search engines to rank a web site highly, how to work with web designers to present search engine friendly designs, and how to develop effective keywords using a step-by-step process.

So join us and enter this new world of digital writing. Check out our web site on search engine optimization, and consider adding a new and extremely valuable skill to your writing repertoire.