Better writing: Pronouns are evil (NEW: Now with examples!)

By markusmWriting

Don’t use pronouns – Use nouns

Better writing by avoiding pronouns.

1. The part of speech that substitutes for nouns or noun phrases and designates persons or things asked for, previously specified, or understood from the context.
2. Any of the words within this part of speech, such as he or whom.

Source: pronouns

Cryptic rule

1. Wherever natural, eliminate pronouns and replace with descriptive nouns.

The idea with this tip is to help the search engines identify the semantics of your article. Nouns help specify your article and also reduce the noise-to-signal ratio. For the most part, think of pronouns in the same way as clunky, excessive HTML code -> they keep your article from reaching it’s highest potential.

Source: 7 Easy Tips To Maximize Your Blog Posts

You ask for examples? Here they come:

Examples

It was a sunny day.
The last day in October was a sunny day.

As I said before he is a great guy.
As I said before Markus Merz is a great guy. Read his (oops?) articles and sometimes he (oops!) is doing it (oops!) right. Catchy example, isn’t it (oops?)?

I tested it and it is a really useful product.
I tested that toaster and it is a really useful product.

Got it?
Got the semantic argument?

6 thoughts on “Better writing: Pronouns are evil (NEW: Now with examples!)”

  1. Probably a dumb question. But what the heck we can’t all be rocket scientist. So here goes:

    Would someone please go to Chris Pearson’s Blog (http://www.pearsonified.com) and explain why all the article titles have a number after the title? Thank you in advance for answering my question.

    I only have an entry level blog design and SEO understanding – but wow, are you blown away as me?

    Note: The Blog has an xhtml sitemap and xml sitemap – see bottom of page

    waynesgnc

    Reference Source: Archive Page – http://www.pearsonified.com/archives
    Every post ever in one big list!

    For example for the number 1 – there are 11 different posted articles.
    1 for January 2006 – January 19, 2006
    2 for February 2006 – February 24 and 3, 2006
    5 for March 2006 – March 29, 14, 12, 10, and 8, 2006
    1 for April 2006 – April 12, 2006
    1 for May 2006 – May 27, 2006
    1 for November 2006 – November 15, 2006

    Here are a couple of article title numbered examples:
    November 15, 2006
    How to Implement Post Teasers with WordPress – 1

    November 16, 2006
    Add It to the Portfolio — ReviewMe.com – 2

    April 24, 2006
    Can You Guess What My Problem Is? – 3

  2. As I’ve said to my friends, Performancing is a great website.
    I’ve tried many of their tips, and they are really useful.

    Lesson learned.

  4. Interesting thoughts about using nous to help search engines. Also, using different related nouns (like synonyms) can help your content rank for more keywords.

  6. “I tested that toaster and it is a really useful product.”

    Doing not enough affiliate marketing lately 🙂

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