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Grammar Ninjas
By Daiv Whaley | July 31, 2008
At Fathom, we’ve been repeating our mantra and unofficial search engine optimization slogan for years to all our clients who will listen – content is king when it comes to SEO. After all, those erudite little search ‘bots read whole websites quicker than you can say CliffsNotes and that’s to a large degree how they understand the site - by reading the content.
Besides the content optimization we provide for our clients’ sites to attract search engine rankings, and besides creating bold new pages and themes for our clients in order to attract more visitors, I’ve been thinking about a much-valued service we provide all our website customers on an almost daily basis that we don’t even tout as a service. What’s that, readers may ask. Editing!
I recently had the pleasure of visiting Paul Richlovsky on the set of his Fathom SEO video show, where we both waxed philosophic and utilitarian about the nature of website content and how important good grammar and writing are to a site’s integrity and success. Face it - when you’re reading - or even skimming – the content on a website and you encounter misspellings or glaringly bad grammar, you can’t help but think less of the website and thus less of the business represented by the website. If a business man introduces himself to you and hands you his business card, that card better have impeccable spelling and no typos or you’re likely to think to yourself, “If he can’t get his business card straight, how’s he going to handle managing my 401 K fund or plan my next fund-raising drive?”
Encountering website errors of the grammatical nature produces a similar effect. But the SEO writers at Fathom are continually “cleaning up” the sites we work on - it’s almost second nature at this point - and when we’ve finished with a website, you can bet that it’s going to make better sense and have far fewer errors on its pages. This is certainly a valuable service we deliver freely to our customers, and we don’t even mention doing it!
Like the story of the man who went around polishing his neighbors’ cars at night secretly as they slept, just so he could see all the shining chrome in the morning as he drove down the street, content writers at Fathom SEO are a talented and generous bunch who like to “polish” websites just for the love of good language and grammar. Secretly, as our clients go about their business. I guess you can consider us sweet little grammar ninjas.
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July 31st, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Daiv,
Excellent post. The content team is not only talented, but also the closest things to ninjas I know.
August 1st, 2008 at 12:23 am
Those are some very valid points Daiv. I am glad Fathom realizes the value of content, and more importantly, content that is gramatically well-written.
In the age of IM, texting, email, and shorthand, so many people fall into the trap of assuming that its OK to disregard proper writing sytle and embrace laziness. However; when it comes down to parting with money, users want to feel confident they are giving their hard earned cash to.
Good luck. It sounds that you are very proud of your staff. You must be lucky to be surrounded by talent.
August 13th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Keep fighting the good fight, Daiv. It’s helpful to point out that there is a certain segment of the population (ahem!) that is repulsed by the sloppiness of otherwise professional organizations when it comes to language. There are few things more deflating to me than when I see a reputed organization display “authoritative” web pages riddled with typos, spelling errors, and punctuation problems. It’s times like that where I appreciate Pepto-Bismol.