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Be An Authority on Your Blog

Be An Authority on Your Blog

By on Sep 3, 2014 in All Posts, Blogging

Proper Grammar And Spelling Will Help You Be An Authority On Your Blog

Be An Authority On Your Blog

Image Courtesy: Stuart Miles/ Freedigitalphotos.net

Websites need blogs. A good blog will help improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and more importantly, help make you or your business an authority in your field. Your blog is a great way to showcase why customers should choose you, without being a direct, hard sales pitch. However, you cannot be an authority on your blog if your blog lacks basic copy editing.

I read a lot of blogs and am continually amazed at how many people lack a basic command of the English language. I am not suggesting your blog should come off like a research paper in a scientific journal. In fact, I propose the opposite. Your blog should be relatable to your readers and use terminology they would easily understand. That does not mean you can forgo basic grammar and spelling rules when you write your blog. Poor grammar and spelling will undermine any authority you might have or might be trying to get in your field.

I do need to preface the rest of this post by saying that spelling is my Achilles heel. I have been a “creative speller” since I learned to write. I do however have some methods to help reduce my inevitable spelling errors (see my list below).

As a blogger, social media content creator or website updater, you need to make sure you have some checks and balances in place as well to reduce the risks of misspelled posts and posts with poor grammar. Here are some suggestions that I use.

1)      Go back and read it again. After you write a blog post, close out of it and do something else. Go back to that post after a couple of hours or the next day and give it a second read-through. You will be surprised at what you might miss by staring at the same page for a long time.

2)      Read your post out loud. This is a trick I used back in my journalism days to make sure scripts sounded good for air. You don’t have to read it loudly; just loud enough so you can hear yourself. If something doesn’t sound right, make some adjustments.

3)      Have a proofreader. Find someone to proofread your posts before they go live. You never know what someone else might find that you miss.

4)      Use your computer spelling and grammar check. Your computer word processing program has a built-in spelling and grammar checker. It is a great reference that should be used in conjunction with other methods. Spelling and grammar check programs aren’t always accurate, so use your best judgment and make sure another human looks over your work.

5)      Find a different way to say it. If you write something and aren’t sure if the grammar or spelling is correct, find a different way to write that sentence.

In order to be an authority on your blog, your blog needs to appear professional and well-written. You wouldn’t go into an important business meeting in torn jeans and a shredded tank top. That would undermine your authority as a professional. Likewise, you don’t want poor spelling and grammar to impact your online appearance and authority.

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