Strunk and White's Elements of Style is perhaps the most widely known prescriptive treatment of English grammar and usage. Often these standards for good writing synchronize seamlessly with the major principles of Search Engine Optimization (or SEO). Though sometimes, the principles of SEO and english usage come into conflict with each other.
Strunk (1919): "Do not break sentences in two."
SEO Best Practices: Shorter sentences can increase readability and ranking in search results.
Search engines may use readability formulas to determine which webpages are easier to read. In other words, if one of these search engines find two webpages on two different websites that share similar content, the page with more readable content may be ranked higher than the other page. Many readability formulas consider the [# of words]/[ total # of sentences] as a factor in this readability (in which case, the lower the number, the more readable the text). Therefore, multiple shorter sentences instead of compound or complex sentences are typically more appropriate for content on the web.
Strunk and White (2000): Do not draw attention to colloquialisms.
SEO Best Practices: Draw attention to colloquialisms correctly
The web has it's own colloquialisms. These colloquialisms become hashtags and internet buzzwords like design-thinking and social media. Strunk and White (2000) argue that using quotation marks before and after a colloquialism will draw attention to its colloquial nature. I partially agree with Strunk and White– be professional and reserve quotation marks for quotations. But if a reader doesn't know what a colloquialism means, make sure you provide a link to a trusted, easy-to-read resource for learning more about that resource. For example, I'm not certain that all of my readers understand the term term "hashtag," so I provide a link to an article in Wikipedia. These links not only increase the SEO but also the the clarity and authority of your content.
Strunk and White (2000):"Use Orthodox spelling"
SEO Best Practices: Use the spelling appropriate for your audience.
If you are a vendor of "lite" soda or "nite-time" medication, do not alter the spelling. Your customers more often than not search for you based on the name they see and not the name you spell. However, make sure your web development team is correctly filling in the necessary HTML metadata to catch those customers searching for "light soda" or "lite soda."
Strunk and White (2000):"Choose a suitable design and hold to it"
SEO Best Practices: Ditto, but ensure you are using code to enforce a suitable design
Search engines rely on the content (text, images, videos, titles, etc.) and the code (HTML, CSS, etc.) of a web page to determine what is important for a user on each webpage. Coding tags allow browsers to know that bold statements are important statements or that all hyperlinks need to be a certain color. If all of this sounds overly techie, remember this: make sure your web development team is utilizing best practices in HTML tagging and CSS design.
There is one place where Strunk, White and SEO get along quite perfectly. . .
Strunk and White (2000): "Be clear"
SEO Best Practices: "Be clear"