We all know the old adage that “you only get one chance to make a first impression”, right? So what first impressions are you giving to your customers? You may be wondering how you may even know the answer to such a question. Well, ask yourself this question first: how often do you get new customers that were referred to you by your website? Perhaps, the real question is: just how effective is your company website?
These days, it cannot be stressed enough that your company website needs to provide for you a very strong representation of your brand. From its design to its usability, your site needs to be an online entity that people enjoy. How else can you assure yourself that its visitors will return? And more importantly, how does your website help you to secure new customers? One thing is for sure, it’s not through spelling mistakes!
Yes, improper spelling, grammar and punctuation can make all the difference in the world when trying to impress potential customers online. When your website copy looks like it was written by a six year-old, it’s not bound to attract the serious consumer. Believe it or not, there are far too many business websites out there that don’t contain professionally-written content. So, in today’s blog, we offer five ways to make sure that your website reads professionally.
1. Proofread. This may sound like the simplest, most no-brainer type of tip possible. But if it was such an obvious piece of advice, more websites wouldn’t contain the number of grammatical errors that they do. Simply read over your text to be sure that it is written correctly before posting it online. One tip is to read what you’ve written aloud. Be sure that it makes sense when being spoken.
2. Get another set of eyes on it. If you’ve written your own website copy, chances are you may be missing your mistakes no matter how many times you’ve gone over it. Ask a friend, family member or co-worker to read it as well. An extra set of eyes may catch grammatical errors that you’ve missed. Not to mention, you may get a better perspective of the ways in which your writing may impact readers.
3. Don’t use a spell checker. Believe it or not, various spell check programs can cause more harm than good. Especially considering that if you’re writing in Canadian English which incorporates such spelling as “centre” instead of “center” and “colour” instead of “color”, you may want to rely on humans to take care of the task of maintaining grammatical perfection. As well, spell checkers often inappropriately try to correct modern-day words, such as “blog”.
4. Edit your work. It’s one thing to proofread your text, it’s another thing to properly edit it. That doesn’t just mean the correction spelling errors. It also means reforming your sentences so that they make better sense and are easier to read. Many company websites incorporate run-on sentences, improper use of tenses and common errors such as “there”, when it should be “their”. Spell checks don’t always pick these up. Review and edit your mistakes as they come.
5. Hire a professional! Let’s just be honest. Do you really have the time to research, write, proofread, edit, double check and post your website copy on your own? Most business owners are far too busy to even think about it. MeloTel’s Bloggers For Hire team is comprised of professional writers who are as creative as they are articulate. Trust our team with your website copy and you’re guaranteed to have a more professionally readable site in no time!
For more information, call us at 1-888-MELOTEL!
