Common mistakes made by Indian content writers

If I say two out of every three content writers of web space are Indians, it will not be an exaggeration of fact. Being a content coordinator for more than three years and a freelance writer for last five years, I have rather become confident that search engine crawlers love to index Indian content. Indian content writers with their impeccable hold over English, analyzing aptitude and quick summarization trait have emerged as the leaders. Still some where I find struck. It was last weekend. One of my clients of US returned a bunch 100 articles and blogs on quality issues. I was really upset as I am more than 500% confident of my team. I asked Tom (my client) regarding the feedback and it was a shocking but eye-opening one.

When I went through the write-ups( to be honest enough it is next to impossible for any coordinator to scan all write-ups before sending to client), and feedback sent by tom, I realized what should be the ideal(according to the need of client) way of story telling. Most of the write-ups were developed by warriors of words. But, the balance between algorithm of search engine and emotion of human mind was some how missing. And some expressions like ‘very very true’, ‘really very cold’ were points of worry for Tom.

And then only I thought regarding the tips for Indian content writers.

As a writer, I know the very fact that every creative person has his/her own way of story telling. That can not be and should not be altered. But, when we are working for client and money, the golden rule of business “Client is god” comes to force. The tips below are directives in nature and only confined to Indian web writing styles for SEO articles and blogs. They are

Ø Do not get emotional- Just recall Boman Irani in the movie Munna Bhai MBBS and his famous words- patients are on for treatment not for emotional attachment. It is a fact. Articles and blogs are our patients. We need to make them both search and user friendly. Who are we to confuse users with our own biases? Viagra might be an ethical taboo for me but is it fair to undermine its importance and portray a negative view that can hamper the business of client? We are getting paid because we know words not for our personal feelings. Hence never be emotional while writing as it can create biases.


Ø Avoid unnecessary superfluous adjectives- May be it due to the legacy of Monarchy or due to 300 years of colonialism, our writing heart is filed with blood of adulation. That is the reason why unnecessary use of adjectives is rather a rule than exception for Indian web writers. Take the example highlighted by Tom- “It is really very very cold”. Something frozen outside is frozen, not very frozen. Avoid such things. The best way for improvement as far as SEO copywriting is concerned is that never use a word or sentence until and unless you are 100% sure about its relevance.

Ø Stop thinking in your mother tongue- It happened to me too. Indian content writers, whose second language is English first think in their mother tongue, develop their ideas through this language and translate it to English. However, translation at sometimes may lead to disastrous sentence formation. We as content writers are earning life depending on our hold on English. Hence while writing, think in English and give your thoughts the final shape without translation. It is difficult and I was also a patient witness for this transformation I know that it took two long years to come out of “ think in mother tongue and translate” practice. In my next postings this moth, I will talk more about this.

Ø Take the help of internet- Before writing any article or blog make proper research on internet. While searching, search it in the geographically specific search engines. It means, if the production URL is in .UK domain, take help of Google.co.uk. Some luxuries for India are necessities for developed and European countries. Country specific search not only helps you to be free from contextual errors but also help you to be informed regarding the latest way of writing for the target audience of that country.


Keep writing, keep reading, all the best.