Presented By

Angie Albright@AngieAlbright

Writing in WordPress: Strategies and Tools

August 1, 2015

Writing for Two Audiences• Online writing is for two audiences: – Reader of that particular site/your blog – Search engines • External and internal links• SEO plugins like Yoast SEO• Keywords

– Google Adwords– Keyword Tool - http://keywordtool.io/– Uber Suggest - http://ubersuggest.org/

FormattingFormatting creates better SEO and meaning • Break up the copy into sections using subheads (use keywords!)• Use bold print and at least one of the headline options for

subheads. Don’t just increase the font size and use bold. • Use number or bulleted lists instead of long sentences. Use

numbers when the order matters, bullets when it does not.

How do we read online? • The standard for understanding how people

read and see online content is Jakob Nielsen’s 2006 study.

• He formulated the oft-cited theory that we read in an F-pattern online.

What Do We Read Online?• Apparently we read

very little! Studies indicate that viewers read approximately 18-28% of web page content.

• Much of that “reading” is actually just skimming.

• Readers use hyperlinks most frequently, followed by buttons, and then the “back” button.

So What’s a Writer to Do?

• Use strong, active sentences– Cut out “there are” and “it is.” – Make sure the subject of the sentence is a noun

doing the action indicated in the verb. (This forces the writer to find interesting verbs!)

For example: Okay: There are very few people in this room. Better: Few people attended the session.

So What’s a Writer to Do? (cont.)• Cut out wordiness, which is sometimes hard

to spot.

For example: Okay: The website content writers are accustomed to

writing for search engines and robots.

Better: Content developers often write for search engines.

What’s a writer to do? (cont.) • Get rid of the passive voice– Passive voice construction pushes the subject to

the end of the sentence.– Active voice keeps the subject at the beginning of

the sentence. For example:Passive: The website was monitored by the tech

company. Active: The tech company monitored the website.

What’s a Writer to Do? (cont.) • Ditch the qualifiers and be assertive.– Consider the difference between these three

statements:• We believe that customer service is our most

important value. • Customer service is our most important value.• Our company values customer service.

So What’s a Writer to Do? (cont.)

• Punctuate effectively– Do not use semi-colons (this one hurts)– Journalism rule of commas applies online: do not

use a comma before the last item in a series• For example: I like trees, butterflies and flowers.

– Exclamation points – perhaps the most overused punctuation mark online. Very few occasions actually call for an exclamation point.

– Contractions: not acceptable in formal writing; acceptable for less formal, especially in a personal blog or writing that sounds personal

So Why Bother If No One is Reading?• So you stay out of trouble:• Avoid plagiarism (even copying and

pasting your own work)• Represent yourself or your company

professionally• Avoid vague or false claims

So why bother if no one is reading?• Good writing still matters! – Good writing should go relatively unnoticed. – Bad writing stands out and diminishes the

company’s/writer’s credibility. – A few people will read a good bit of the content. – Google recently changed its algorithms to make

legitimate content rank higher in its search results.– To save our society from complete devolution into

monosyllabic utterances.

Distraction Free Writing Mode

Plugins• Sharing Externally– MyBookTable– Starbox– Click to Tweet– Simple Pull Quote– Revive Old Post

• Collaboration– EditFlow– Editorial Calendar

Plugins• Internal Tools– ImageInject– Compfight– Editorial Calendar– WP External Links– Good Writer Checkify

• Backing Up– UpDraft– WP Google Drive

Resources• The Grammarist – www.grammarist.com• “Lazy Eyes. How we read online.” By Michael Agger, June 13,

2008. Slate: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/the_browser/2008/06/lazy_eyes.html

• Grammar Goddess – www.grammargoddess.com• “Writing Online: Best Practices.” Groundwire:

http://groundwire.org/resources/articles/writing-online-best-practices

• “The 2015 SEO Checklist.” January, 2015. ClickMinded: http://www.clickminded.com/seo-checklist/