Six Common Internet Writing Mistakes You Can't Afford to Make

Writing for the Web: Online Content Writing Mistakes

Avoid these common writing traps to ensure a successful writing career. Whether you are writing a blog, website copy, or online articles, writing for the web poses unique challenges you may not face in writing for print. Not only must content be compelling and make the reader want to come back for more, it must be discoverable in search engines, too. Web writers often fall prey to these six common mistakes that prevent their content from being found on the web, or fail to meet the needs of the reader.

1. Do you assume that everyone will know what you are talking about and use jargon that no one really understands? Writers are often so involved in their own writing that they forget that not everyone is familiar with the terminology being used. Remember, you are writing for the web. Your readers may not share your background. Take a step back from your work and read it as though you were the average Joe looking for information. As a teacher, I may be comfortable rattling off about No Child Left Behind, content standards, performance indicators, GREs, and levels of proficiency. It is doubtful anyone, other than educators, will have a clear understanding of what I'm talking about. Unless educators are my audience, I need to clean it up a bit and use language that is not filled with educational jargon.

2. Do you write before considering your audience? When writing for the web, your audience comes to you through search engines. You must think like the reader. Who needs your information? Write as though you were talking to them. I made a tremendous blunder when writing Christmas articles for the web. Instead of using a title containing the word Christmas and key wording Christmas, I naively used Holiday. Although holiday may be politically correct, it did not bring in readers. Readers seeking Christmas gift ideas simply did not search the term holiday. My content failed to bring in readers because I didn't take the time to consider my audience and give them a way to find content they may have found beneficial. I may have been politically correct, but no one really cared.