There are many aspects to optimizing written content for both customers and search engines. Here, I want to focus on one way of making sure your content is well optimized - correct use of the English language.
Online, where content is king, it is somewhat surprising to discover that many websites are replete with spelling and English grammar errors. This situation may be due to the nature of the Internet as a publishing medium, where texts are published as soon as they are written with little or no proofreading.
However, this is no excuse – English errors on websites are bad for business, both in terms of the customer experience of the website, and the relevancy ranking of the page on Google. Let's consider this further, and look at some simple tips for checking your web content for errors. For instant proofreading and highly optimized web content, a writing tool like
WhiteSmoke will make sure your texts are always error free.
Spelling and grammar errors on a website look unprofessional. They show that small details have been overlooked, and a customer may have less confidence in the product or service being offered. Some of the most basic mistakes in written English appear time and time again on the web, due to a lack of proofreading.
Some rules and tips to keep in mind while producing content:- Rule: i before e except after c – for instance, "receive".
- Do you need to say "it's" or "its"; "your" or "you're"; "their" or "there"? Think about the context of your words.
- Hyphenated words: should you use "email" or "e-mail"; "post-modern" or "postmodern"? Check which form is considered correct, and also check what is mostly commonly used amongst your target audience.
- Punctuation: is your punctuation grammatically correct? Does it read naturally?
- Consider the size and intelligibility of your sentences.
- Capitalization is not important for SEO, as search engines are not case-sensitive. However, you need to pay attention to capitalization standards in the field of business in which the website is operating.
Beyond spelling and grammar, content can be further optimized for the customer and for search engine relevancy by creative use of synonyms. Synonyms give content writers the opportunity to use more keywords in their content, improving search engine relevancy over a wider range of searches.
Remember, these tips will improve the website experience of your real human visitors, and also help you create content that search engines love.
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
Check and Re-Check for Grammar and Spelling Errors!
Quality English grammar and spelling is vital to good web content. A quality software solution for proofreading and editing your writing can help speed up the process and ensure consistency across all your work.
I recommend: WhiteSmoke is a great tool for giving your web content the final touches before publication. As an all-in-one solution, WhiteSmoke features an advanced
grammar checker, a
spell checker, and special
text enrichment features to help your web content stand out.
There are other grammar and spell checkers available, such as
Spell Checker,
Language Tool, and
Grammar Slammer, but I find the results, especially for identifying grammar errors and contextual spelling errors (eg - "there" instead of "their"), to be inferior.
Grammar and spelling solutions in applications like MS Word are also less accurate, and lock you into using the one word processing program: WhiteSmoke will work alongside any application you write text in.
Identify Keywords and Synonyms
You should have a good idea of your important keywords before sitting down to write content. However, I recommend writing naturally first - don't try to make keywords fit just because you "need" them. Once you have written your text, you can then go over it to see if there are places you can add keywords, or replace words with modifiers or synonyms to broaden your reach in the SERPs, as well as make for more interesting reading.
I recommend: Again,
WhiteSmoke is a handy tool for finding great, usable synonyms for words. For synonyms and modifiers that are more specifically search targeted, you will need to use a dedicated keyword research tool. I regularly use the
Google AdWords Keyword Tool and the
Seo Book Keyword Suggestion Tool.
Subscribe to
Try our free weekly WhatWorks newsletter, with business how-to advice
& resources from Work.com.
Comments
Is any content on this page inappropriate? To let us know, please 
