We spend a lot of time here at SEO-e thinking about web copywriting and website content development without ever mentioning grammar…well this post is intended to make up for lost time.
As a professional web copywriter, I often find minor mistakes when editing a piece. No big deal – in the rush of trying to prepare a magnificent article or blog post, I’m often in a race to get my thoughts down before my brain turns to other things.
You may be thinking that grammar in the online environment isn’t too important. After all, there are little grammar rules here and there, like beginning a sentence with “and” that we can ignore. Sometimes bending the rules makes our copy flow much better than it would otherwise.
But that doesn’t mean it’s okay to completely ignore grammar rules.
The first reason should be obvious – bad grammar makes you look unprofessional. Many readers probably have a basic understanding of English grammar. Using “there” when you should use “their” is a common mistake that’s easy to pick up on.
Most of us probably haven’t been in an English class in many years. Especially writing professionally, it’s easy to forget about good grammar. After all, I don’t exactly think about why a comma should go somewhere, I just know it does.
Nevertheless, it can be helpful to take a few minutes to review basic English grammar. DON’T RELY ON SPELLCHECK AND GRAMMAR SUGGESTIONS IN MICROSOFT WORD OR OTHER WORD PROCESSORS. For one, they are often wrong and it’s better to know yourself anyway.
One resource I have found to be very user-friendly and easy to understand is The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation from Jane Straus. Her site has some great tips and sample quizzes you can take to assess your skills. And you can even sign-up to have her newsletter delivered right to your inbox.
Another resource we use to ensure proper grammar, etc. is the Chicago Manual of Style, which is by far the most extensive resource. If you’re mainly focusing on press releases, the Associated Press Stylebook is a great resource to ensure your press releases are correctly formatted.
Pay attention to your formatting and grammar. While one or two minor mistakes isn’t anything to get worried about, you need to ensure that content you put on your site is by and large grammatically correct.