The importance of good grammar

I'm definitely a broken record when it comes to my giving advice about improving website traffic. What I keep saying over and over is "Write, write, write". That's because if you aren't writing regularly, both Google and your readers will forget about you.

"Oh, but I can't write!", you say. Well, let me put it another way: "Communicate, communicate, communicate". It's not about beautiful writing that will win you a Pulitzer prize - it's really about communication. Can you communicate? Can you tell me what I need to know about you, your business, your industry? Can you tell me what you think about a tool you used, a piece of equipment you bought, a book you read? Can you tell me your opinion on politics, religion, sports or anything else?

Maybe you aren't a great writer - so what? A lot of people aren't good readers, either. There's no reason for bad spelling today, but even if you don't use a spell checker, a lot of your readers don't know how to spell either. Grammar? Same thing - and on top of that, most of the rules your martinet English teacher insisted upon don't even apply to most casual writing today. You can split infinitives, end sentences with prepositions, put commas wherever you feel like and 95% of your readers either will never notice or will not care!

Don't expend any sweat trying to make your communication style conform to rules you don't understand. Writing should be as easy and effortless as chatting with your best friend. If you are getting upset because writing is "difficult", just stop letting it be that. Write as YOU want to write. Yes, your 8th grade English teacher will not like it - does she read your blog now?

Just do it. Doing something a small percentage of readers won't like is a thousand times better than doing nothing at all.