Loading ...The written form of the English language is simply different when it comes to the internet. Offline, there is a definite distinction between business, interpersonal, and friendly forms of communication. You know that when you write up a report for your clients, the language is going to be worlds apart from the language you’d use in jotting a note to a friend. Online, it’s a different story.
Language for the internet can be casual, even for business. This is one of the things that make most business owners most uncomfortable about writing for their websites. A business owner who is used to professional communications is possibly not the best person to write up engaging SEO site content, and you can chat with us at SEO Consult Australia about your content needs. For any business, it’s important to know where the line is between acceptable casual and too casual.
It’s impossible to use your usual interactions on the internet as a guide for what will be acceptable on your business site. For a start, there is no ‘usual’ interaction on the internet. People use the internet for everything from a telephone directory to a bedroom. There is no guide – until now.
Slang: acceptable and unacceptable
Slang terms are acceptable for professional content on the net. There is one simple reason for this. You need to be free to include slang-based keywords in your content for your search engine optimisation plan. At the same time, you don’t want to strew your content with non-stop slang, because this risks losing any readers who aren’t familiar with the terms.
If the tone of your content is casual, you have a lot of room to move. You can lean more toward professional tones when the mood strikes you, and be friendly when you need to. If, however, your content adheres to rigid professionalism, you’re stuck.
Smileys: when : ) will bring a frown
Although it might seem cute to add one or two : ) to your text, these little critters are best avoided on your business site. Smileys are very common, and very popular, but at the moment these little emoticons are strictly for personal use. This means that using them on a business site risks dragging the site down, making it look unprofessional. Like many online creations for displaying emotion, they have more of a place in conversation between friends than in a business blog. Professional writing has no tolerance for using punctuation marks in any manner other than that for which they are intended.
Casual doesn’t mean sloppy
Online writing for business does tend to be a lot more casual in tone than its offline cousin. A lot of site owners appear to believe that this means that they can get away with sloppy writing. Not so. It is just as important for online content to have good grammar and spelling. Without both of these, not only do you risk looking unprofessional, you risk your site users not being able to understand what you’re saying. That’s a risk no site owner wants to take.
Related posts:
- Online Writing Dos And Don’ts
- Why writing for the net is so tricky
- Keep your SEO content human
- Call a spade a spade
- The sticky situation of Australian content
Tags: Keywords, SEO Consult Australia, SEO site content
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