Poor grammar on your website may be costing you
The words on your website are as important as the images. They tell a story about you, your work, and your customers. If you rush to publish your website pages and blogs without proofreading, those missed grammar and spelling mistakes can lead visitors to question if you will rush through your customers' work also.
Errors may be costing you
Thanks to my reader Jane for pointing me to this study on websiteplanet.com that showed in real terms that error-free writing pays off. The content team at the company won its bet against the marketing team and showed that paying writers higher salaries results in better writing and more subscribers.
Finding grammar and spell checking help
These days you can find grammar help from many sources. You still have the options of asking your keen-eyed grammar-geek friend to proofread your blog, checking spelling in online dictionaries, and composing in Microsoft Word to take advantage of its spelling and grammar checkers. But there are other online sources of help too.
Grammarly is a popular grammar checker that you can install in your browser. It proofreads your social media posts as you're typing and suggests changes. I tried it, but it slowed me down too much, so I'm still counting on my eyes to catch mistakes.
Find punctuation help
I recently found The Punctuation Guide, which is more to my liking. I tend to have questions about the use of punctuation marks, especially commas and quotation marks. The guide is organized by types of punctuation marks and has clear, succinct instructions. You'll also find answers to those tricky questions about apostrophes with possessives ("its" or "it's"?) and answers to questions you didn't know you had (hyphen, en dash, or em dash?).
Use only one space after a period
If you grew up in the age of typewriters, you should know about a new rule in Grammar Town about spaces after a period. Use just one space at the end of a sentence, not two. That's the new standard for online posts. And The Punctuation Guide will back me up on that; check it out!
I hope these tips motivate you to double-check your website for spelling errors and grammar bloopers. And if you find any errors on mine, I'll be pleased to have you correct me.
Adding links to your website gives people a convenient way to learn more about a subject that interests them. Links can be built into text, buttons, or images. Learn more about the guidelines I go by when deciding which type of link to use.
Writing, styling, and placing headings on a website page takes planning and intention. Use readable headings with just one Heading 1 per page and then Heading 2 and 3 as needed to outline the content.
Whether your website is new or has been around a while, decluttering the content to encourage visitors to browse is always a good idea.
Whether you want to archive a page for posterity or for your future use, here are the instructions for properly archiving the page without causing 404 Page Not Found errors on your Squarespace website.
The clickable image that shows up on social media posts is called a link preview image. In Squarespace and other website editors, you can designate a specific image to show up when you share a website page on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter/X.
Being able to preview your website live without logging out of Squarespace is a convenience for testing and proofreading before you launch.
You can add a Social Sharing image to Squarespace to be shown as a link preview for your website when you share a URL on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The size of 1200x628 pixels works best for those platforms. You can also set custom images for specific website pages or blog posts to draw extra attention to them.
A footer is the last section of information at the bottom of a website page. Use this valuable area to show contact information, add links to website pages, and ask visitors to take action on their way to becoming loyal customers.
Here are my 10 favorite text tips to help you create a modern and professional-looking website on Squarespace or any other website platform.
As you start a blog, first determine the focus of your blog. Then choose topics that are relevant and that are in your area of expertise. Blog posts can contain text, images, videos, links to other blog posts, links to podcasts, and personal or creative endeavors. Each blog post adds content to your website and gives you cumulative client-attracting and SEO benefits.
Before you can choose individual topics to write about in your blog, first define the strategy for your blog as a whole. Knowing who your audience is and what they want to know will be the foundation for the content. It will also help you choose topics that fit the goals of your blog.
When you were in school, did you learn to put that extra Oxford comma in your lists? The choice is up to you, the style guides tell us, but to help your readers, keep your decision consistent throughout your website, your blog posts, and your social media.
Adding a blog to your website and keeping it updated is a great way to publicize your business. Search engines like Google reward websites that produce fresh content. Employing SEO best practices to add keywords to your blog posts increases the likelihood that potential customers will find you in online searches.
PDFs are a useful addition to your Squarespace website if you want to provide information that isn’t for general use or is too lengthy to add to a website page.
Whether you want to add a little emphasis or a bit of lightheartedness to your website, emojis give you another choice for adding a graphic touch that stands out.
Keep the text on your website looking professional and easy to read by avoiding these text mistakes.
Need to create short lines of text with tighter line spacing between them? There’s one simple trick that you can use on your keyboard to force website text to the next line without creating a new paragraph.
Kerry A. Thompson
You don’t need a big agency to get your website done. You just need the one right person. I offer Squarespace website design and content development services for creatives, coaches, and healers. Learn more in a free 30-minute consultation.