The Pen is Mightier than the Sword…

As an experienced writer in the world of academia and business, I am constantly astounded by the abundance of sub-standard writing that seems, somehow, to get published on the internet. It would appear that when it comes to writing websites, the literary standards are treated with a liberal disdain. Far be it from me to flounder against the seemingly unstoppable tide of grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and other literary mishaps that are apparently acceptable, but this is something which needs to be addressed.

When I browse any given website, I look for acceptable usability and well written copy. Naturally, some sites require more copy than others, but a glaring absence of good writing cannot and must not be defended, regardless of the number of words or pages that appear. Purely from an SEO perspective, top quality writing is pivotal. Well written copy does not have to be bland, inane or put together in a slapdash fashion just to incorporate the essential key words and phrases. Given the right author, website copy can be interesting, informative and entertaining as well as effective in the world of SEO.

On many websites that I have frequented, I am painfully aware of the fact that the standard of the writing has been diluted at best or worse, utterly ignored as something of importance. Mistakes happen, of that I am fully aware and perfectionism is not the point here. Allowing your website to be vandalized by copy so awful that it makes me want to leave your site in disgust is unacceptable.

More people than you would think are distinctly unimpressed by copy that can only be described as outstandingly mediocre. Trust me, when it comes to good copy on a website, it is not something to take lightly. Your writing does not have to be lengthy or require the reader to have a dictionary to hand, it just has to observe good literary standards, reflect honesty and stay true to the rules of grammatical conventions.

As Joseph Pulitzer intoned so beautifully, “Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by it”