You gotta avoid contractions in content writing - is that a lie?

Most of us have had it drilled into our heads that we should never, ever, under any circumstance, resort to using contractions in our writing. But, should we really follow that rule in our marketing communications? We think not.

Your teachers made your steer clear of contractions because they make your writing seem informal, especially in academic essays. But marketing is not academics, it’s the real world, and in the real world, contractions are used all the time.

If you avoid them like the plague, your readers are going to find your writing terribly robotic. You might even end up sounding like a drill sergeant, rather than a friendly mentor who they are comfortable with.

What are contractions in writing?

In writing, contractions refer to a type of word that combines two or more words to shorten them. These words are usually mashed up through the use of an apostrophe. You can use contractions on words that tend to go together with each other like “Do not” or “I am” and employ an apostrophe to get rid of a few letters across both words to combine them into a single word like “Don’t” or “I’m”.

Usually you’d only find very specific types of words being contracted, generally tiny and common words like “not”, “is” and “are”. You’d commonly find pronouns like “I”,”he”, “she”, and “they” and modal verbs like “must”, “should”, “would”, “can”, “must”, and “will” being combined to form contractions.

But contractions already have well defined spellings, so you can’t go around creating your own contractions as you please.

Can I use contractions in a blog?

Yes, you not only can, you should! When you write an article, you should try to make the reader feel like you’re talking to them. It should flow naturally, so that your readers feel like they’re talking to one of their friends who relates with their problems and understands them.

If you publish a blog that focuses on offering advice or solving a reader’s problems, but you don’t use any contractions in it, the tone would sound commanding. It feels more like their boss is ordering them to do something, it would be much better for you to have them feel like a more experienced friend or mentor is guiding and helping them.

If you’re suggesting that your reader avoids doing something, “don’t” would sound like a suggestion, while “do not” sounds like an order.

Basically, when you’re writing a blog, you should use contractions in it to ensure that it sounds natural, flows easily, and doesn’t seem like you’re ordering your readers around.

Are contractions bad for SEO?

Contractions are not bad for SEO in any way. Search engines like Google aren’t going to penalize you for using contractions. In fact, there’s a way that using the right amount of contractions might actually help you with your SEO.

If you don’t use contractions at all, your writing might seem clunky, boring, and intimidating, which could get people to leave your page real quick. But if you use contractions, visitors won’t get intimidated, and they’ll be more likely to read your copy and explore your website. This would lower your bounce rate and get people to spend more time on your website, which the search engines are going to consider to be a positive signal, leading them to rank you higher.

Basically, if you use contractions right, they could actually be good for SEO.

Should you use contractions in copywriting?

You’d want your copy to flow naturally when someone is reading it. Good copy should feel like the writer is speaking to you, so yes, you should use contractions in your copywriting. But make sure to not overuse them.

That being said, there are a few things that you should keep in mind while using contractions in your copy.

Be careful of making things possessive

If you’re contracting a noun with the word “is”, your readers could assume that you’re using the possessive form of that noun, rather than a contraction. Let’s use a proper noun as an example here, you want to contract “Jason is”, so you write “Jason’s”. A reader could momentarily assume that you’re saying that something belongs to Jason, but you don’t need to worry too much because the rest of the sentence will generally make it clear about whether you’re using a contraction or the possessive form of the noun.

Avoid double contractions

A double contraction refers to a contraction that is made up of three words, as opposed to just two words. It’s basically a contraction of a contraction. These can get particularly confusing to read, and instead of saving time, cause your readers to take more time figuring out what you’ve written.

Here are a few examples of double contractions -

• shouldn't've (shouldn't have → should not have)

• mustn't've (mustn't have → must not have)

• wouldn't've (wouldn't have → would not have)

• mightn't've (mightn't have → might not have)

Figure out how much emphasis you want to place on your statements

If you don’t want to sound like a micromanager, you should use contractions in your “do not” statements. But if you want to warn your readers that they should never, ever do something specific, “Do not” will drive the point home much harder than “Don’t”.

It sounds a bit like a parent mentioning their child’s entire name, as opposed to a pet name or short form when they’re warning or scolding them. Writing the whole word just means that things are getting serious here.

Pay attention to your brand voice

Some writers also say that you should avoid certain contractions like “ain’t” because they’re way too informal. We say that you should pay attention to your brand voice. If your brand voice doesn’t force you to be formal, you ain’t gotta listen to the naysayers.

If you’re still wondering whether using contractions is too informal, just ask yourself whether your customers are more robotic than ‘The Terminator’ - even he said “I’ll be back”, not “I will be back”.

Do you really want to sound more robotic than The Terminator?

FAQs about using contractions in writing

Is it professional to use contractions?

It is professional to use contractions, but you’ve got to use them right. If you’re writing a mutual fund document, or a scientific research paper, using contractions would be a bad idea. But for marketing messages and basic business communications, there’s nothing wrong with them. In fact, contractions shorten the character count and make it easier for people to read what you’ve written. It makes your writing feel more natural. So if it makes life easier for your readers and feels more natural, it should be professional. In fact, completely avoiding using contractions makes life tougher for your readers, so that should be considered unprofessional.

Should I avoid using contractions?

You should avoid overusing contractions, but there’s no reason for you to stop using contractions altogether. That teacher who pretty much took a baseball bat and beat the “Never ever use a contraction in your writing” rule into your head…. guess what, they probably didn’t know much about marketing in today’s world. They knew about the academic world, and sure, using contractions in your writing is frowned upon there, but that most certainly does not carry over to the world of marketing.

What are the benefits of using contractions?

The main benefit of using contractions is that it makes your content flow in an easier, more natural manner. Also, you’d start sounding more like a friendly mentor rather than an overbearing boss when you use them, which would make your readers like you and pay more attention to you. Your content would also look less clunky and intimidating, which would make people more likely to read it instead of giving up and hopping off to another website.