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Punctuation Overuse
Leave excess punctuation out of sentences that are intended for the web. When visitors see sentences with more than one comma it turns them off. It’s too much for them to read.
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Never Start a Sentence With “Yet, “But”, or “And”
This happens a lot, from reputable writers too. These words are typically used when someone is challenging a concept in a prior paragraph; however you want to steer clear of these words. When starting that next paragraph use “However” or “Nevertheless,” it will get the same point across without using those three “bad” words.
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Headlines Should be Capitalized
All words apart from “of”, “is”, “for”, “and”, “to” and “the” should be capitalized in a headline. More commonly than not only the first word of the headline is capitalized.
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Than and Then
Two words that are frequently misused in sentences. Than is a quantitative term, which can follow the use of “more”, such as “I would rather go here than there.” Then is indicative of a place in time, such as “it was a simpler time back then”.
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Be Consistent
If you start your paragraph by using “I” to refer to yourself keep it that way. Do not change the “I” to “we” in the middle of the paragraph. Keep it consistent.
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Its and It’s
Another common mistake that people make is the differentiation between the words its and it’s. Its is a term of possession for example, “the hair on its back is black as night” where it’s is a short form of “it is” so “it’s that time of day again” is accurate.
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Overusing the word “Also”
When you finish writing an article, read over it and circle how many times you use the word “also”. I bet you it’s a lot more than you realize.
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Serial Comma
The whole premise of writing for the web is to keep it simple. Used before a grammatical conjunction, such as “and” for the last item in a list of commas, the serial comma is a huge topic of debate in the publishing industry. Unfortunately, with occupations where there is a more formal language, for example the medical industry, clients prefer to use the serial comma.
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Use Tons of Headlines
Site pages preferably should be set up in this fashion, with a headline and then a paragraph or two, keeping it simple and easy for the visitor to read. Keep in mind that the headline should describe the subject as to what the paragraph is about.
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Inside Joke References
These may work perfectly with people who know a lot of what you are talking about but to a regular viewer it might not fly so well. Making a comment regarding something that Spok said in an episode of Star Trek would work well on a Trekkie blog but not so much in a regular article on science fiction.
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Overusing Literary Devices
This is a tip for writing in general. You may look pompous and take away from any point that you are trying to make if you use too literary devices such as metaphors. Only use them when it is absolutely necessary to get your point across.
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One Space After a Period
Everyone learned this in school. There are two spaces after a period, not one. This is not true for web writing. One space after a period is needed and that’s that. Period.
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Keep Sentences Short
Sentences shouldn’t be any longer than a line. When listing things, use bullet points or graphics.
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There, Their and They’re
Keeping it simple. Here are definitions and examples. There indicates the whereabouts of something, such as “the museum is located there”. There is a term used to illustrate possession, such as “their jeans are quite tight”. There is a contraction of “they are”. For example, “they’re going on a trip to Cuba tomorrow.”
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Don’t Just Use Spell Check
You always need to read over anything you write after you do spell check. It won’t pick up certain things and this can mess up your article. Say you spell “someday”, “some day”, spell check will not see that as a mistake and therefore not correct it. The last thing that you want is to have grammatical errors or spelling mistakes. To a visitor it will look as if you didn’t take the time out to make sure your product is well done, so why would they trust you to make their product look good either?
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Convenience Writing
This is when the author is writing more for their convenience of them, not the potential visitors. They may write something like “most people feel that the blackberry is the most functional phone out today”. In reality they should be writing “80% of people feel that the blackberry is the most functional phone out today, while 20% feel that the I phone is the most functional phone out today”. It doesn’t matter to a reader what the author’s opinion is, just truth.
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Apostrophe Use
You have to base whether or not to use an apostrophe on whom or what you are writing for. For instance, if you are writing for someone who needs content that is quite professional like a lawyer, don’t use apostrophes. If the content is a little more causal though, feel free to use them.
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Use of Acronyms
Try to limit the use of acronyms to a minimum. You never know who will and will not know what it stands for. This can result in visitors leaving your site because they can’t understand what you are talking about. However, if there is an acronym that is to be used throughout the article, define it the first time it is used and then move on. For example, “The Canadian Health Network (CHN) is hosting a private event at Casa Loma”.
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Use Hyperlinks
You want visitors to be able to interact with your page. Linking pages together will make it that much easier for visitors to find what they are looking for on your site. If they have to look around too much you may loose them. Just remember, don’t use too many and regardless of it being an inbound or outbound link, they have to be relevant to your site. People don’t have time for fluff.
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Avoid Regardless and Just
Regardless can be considered a fluff word if used incorrectly. For example, “regardless, they have to go tonight” or “they have to go tonight”. It is really just a filler of space because the point is still the same any way you say it. Just is a word that can insult your readers unintentionally by implying that the action is easier than it actually is. “My mom says that I should just go out and get my pilots license.” “My mom says that I should go out and get my pilots license.” See what a difference it makes to leave the word “just” out.
