What you’re doing wrong on your business blog

A couple of years back, I wrote an article about what not to do with your business blog, which focused on content. Today, I’m going to put on my editor’s hat and talk about some of the biggest language and design issues I see on many blogs today.

How to improve your business blog

Language

Not long ago, I was an avid follower of a blogging expert. I loved not just his information but his entire approach. And then he said (paraphrasing): “Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation and grammar. That doesn’t count. All that matters is your content.”

Well, in his specific case, he was correct: I thought his content sucked and I took great pleasure in unfollowing him on social media and unsubscribing from his newsletter.

Because, dear friends, language does count. In every email you write, every tweet you push out, every business letter you compose, every resume or bio you craft or proposal you present requires you to be your best self. And you do that through your writing.

Here are just a few reasons:

• People with good writing skills are more credible.
• You want people to understand what you’re saying, and bad communication skills get in the way of clarity.
• Good writing skills say you’re intelligent, professional and competent. Isn’t this why you’re blogging in the first place?

With that in mind, here are some tips for the most common issues I see in business blogs:

• Punctuation: All punctuation goes inside the quote, except for semi-colons.
  • “Bill and I spent the weekend at the beach,” Amy said.
  • The report stated that “the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog”; many believe it was actually a cat that made the leap.
  • Use exclamation points sparingly! Not every sentence deserves one!! (Or more!!!)
• Spelling: Don’t trust spell check. It’s great as a first defense, but sometimes it doesn’t catch egregious errors. Make sure its suggestions are accurate, and refer to a dictionary if you’re unsure.
• Capitalization: This is as Much a Language Issue as it is Readability. Copy that is Full of Unnecessary Capital Letters is Difficult to Read, not to Mention Distracting. When in Doubt, Use Lower Case.
• Redundancies: How many times have you read a quote from a police officer that said, “The car was red in color.” Umm…hello? What else would red be except a color? Then there’s the sale that’s going on “for the month of May.” As opposed to the week of May, I guess. The most common redundancy I see, however, is in describing times: “10 p.m. at night.” 10 a.m. at night would describe an alternate universe.
• Run-on sentences: If your sentences are consistently longer than 30-40 words, it’s time to use some periods. Change up the length of your sentences, some short and some long.
• Massive paragraphs: Is there anything more daunting than looking at a paragraph that fills the entire screen? This is especially an issue if people are accessing your blog on a mobile device, where a single long paragraph can go on forever.
• Homonyms: I read a book not long ago that drove me nuts. Not only were there consistent spelling errors (as opposed to the more common typos), but homonyms that were hilarious. One of those was using “bear” instead of “bare,” as in: “He ran his hand up her bear thigh.” Oh, the image that brought to mind!Homonyms are words that sound alike but are spelled differently, and mean different things. They are the easiest to slip through spell check because they are spelled correctly. For example, when I came back to this blog to edit, I noticed I had used “your” instead of “you’re” in the headline. How embarrassing! The most common:
  • Your, you’re
  • To, too, two
  • Their, there, they’re
  • Buy, by
  • Here, hear
  • Know, no
  • Site, sight
  • Red, read
  • Lead, led
  • It’s, its
• Modifiers: Speaking of fun mistakes (as long as other people are making them!), misplaced modifiers rank near the top. I read a magazine article years ago about gays in professional sports. The writer said, “Not all gays walk poodles with limp wrists.” Limp-wristed poodles…yes, that image has been stuck in my head for decades.

Read your copy out loud before you publish. Or, as one friend suggested, read it from the bottom up. A second set of eyes is always helpful. Have someone else read your copy or if your language skills are challenged, hire an editor.

Readability

We have so much “form over function” on websites these days. It’s all about how pretty it is, not how reader-friendly, and that drives me crazy. If people are unable to read your blog because of type size, or choice of font or color, you’re wasting your time.

• Text color: I have read some blogs where the type is so faint, I can barely see it. Be sure your type color provides enough contrast with the background to be readable.
• Body copy: There are some beautiful typefaces out there and most of them are illegible except when used in headlines. Use a plain serif typeface (the letters with the little wings or projections on some of the letters). If you prefer san serif, be sure the strokes of the letters are heavy enough to be clearly visible. (My blog uses a san-serif typeface.)
• Display type: Or as we called it in the newspaper business, “headline type.” This can be fancier than body type because it is generally larger and easier to read in a bigger size. Don’t use display type as your go-to body-copy font.
• Emphasis: I have seen blogs that were written entirely in italic. I doubt very much if anyone gets to the end of those posts. Use italic, and bold and ALL CAPS only for emphasis, and then sparingly. TOO MUCH of them – or, God forbid, ALL THREE – in a SINGLE post leaves your reader wondering what is REALLY important. Not only is it DISTRACTING, but exhausting as well. 
• Line length: The optimal length on each of your lines of normal body copy is 3 inches. Much longer than that and the eye gets lost and can’t find the beginning of the next sentence. If you do have a longer line length, use a larger point size. (The type size on this blog is 16 point and my line length is 6 inches.)
• Flush left or justified: Unless you’re doing it for emphasis, in short blocks of copy, do not use centered type.
  Your readers’ eyes will go crazy trying to follow it. I prefer flush left because it leaves white space at the end of some lines, breaking up the grayness of the body.

• Consistency: Make sure all the indents are the same, and have the same style and size of bullets. Use the same spacing between each paragraph.
• White space: White space, used judiciously, can make your copy easier to read because it provides a visual break.
• Artwork: Yes! Use images that are meaningful to your post and put them near the top. Images always attract the eye first.
• Bullets: Bullets are useful for several reasons. Visually, they help break up your text, which makes it easier to read. By “chunking it down,” you also make your copy scannable and easier (and faster) to read and absorb.

Everyone makes mistakes, including editors; I found about 6 typos during my final edit of this article. Even so, errors still creep in. The goal is to minimize them so you can present your best self to the world.

Now it’s your turn: What drives you crazy? Please share in the comments…and I’ll do my best to make sure I don’t get on your bad side! P.S. If you see any issues in my blogs, I’d appreciate a message so I can correct them