Your website’s words compete with others. Prove your confidence in your product or service by writing assertively; respect your visitor’s time by writing concisely; engage your visitor by writing conclusively.

Two simple examples:

• Write in a positive frame; instead of “The restaurant is not open on Mondays”, write “The restaurant opens every night of the week except Mondays.”
• Turn around passive sentences; instead of “Daily guided tours are operated by our trained naturalists”, write “Our trained naturalists operate daily guided tours.”

Re-read each page of your website’s content and apply the principles of effective writing to turn your spiel into a pedestal on which your product proudly stands.

The editor of any self-respecting printed medium would not dream of confusing the em dash (—), en dash (–) and hyphen (-) within the publication. And while most of us could not articulate the difference, we
would mostly find ourselves using the correct punctuation mark when hand-writing a letter.

But what has happened online?

Most websites have no regard for the distinction between these — any many other — marks of punctuation. Mostly, this is because the standard keyboard does not allow without RSI-inducing keyboard sequences.

If you are the sort who seeks professionalism in everything you do, you can respect the purpose of these time-tested punctuation marks by first understanding when to use which, and then how to actually type them or include them in a website.

1. Em Dash (—): Denotes a pause in thought, a parenthetical statement, or — more casually — an afterthought. In a web page, a web developer can include — to represent the character. When typing, you can input a character by holding ALT and typing 0151 on the numpad.
2. En Dash (–): Denotes a range, especially of numbers, such as $100–150. – in a web page or ALT-0150 on a keyboard.
3. Hyphen (-): Used for the hyphenation of words (co-ordination; able-minded; pre- and post- touring.) Just use the keyboard key for this one.

Now don’t get me started on apostrophes and quote marks being “encompassed” by the tick character on the keyboard…

When you write content for your website, you will find yourself using one particular grammatical person —  singular first-, plural first-, or third-person. (Compare I offer book-keeping… we offer book-keeping… ABC Pty Ltd offers book-keeping.)

The person you choose to write in should match the image you wish to present about your business:

• Singular First Person: I am a micro-business that can offer you personalised, expert service
• Plural First Person: We are a small team of professionals, each with our own speciality
• Third Person: The company is larger, has support personnel, and can offer a wider range of services

Once you’ve chosen the most appropriate grammatical person for your desired business image, make sure you are consistent across your website and other marketing literature. And, above all, ensure your service matches the image you present.