If you’ve ever delved a little more deeply into search engine optimisation, you may have come across talk of the ‘passive voice’ in relation to page content. Or more specifically, why you should be avoiding using the ‘passive voice’ too much. For example, one of the most popular and widely used SEO plugins is Yoast which specifically warns against a use of the passive voice in more than 10% of the page text content. Therefore, we thought we’d take this opportunity to discuss exactly what the ‘passive voice’ is, and how to improve your page content for SEO. Don’t forget, Seven Creative is a very well established Sheffield SEO agency providing SEO services for many years. Give us a call if you would like help with your website optimisation
What is the passive voice?
“The passive voice is used to show interest in the person or object that experiences an action rather than the person or object that performs the action. In other words, the most important thing or person becomes the subject of the sentence.” – ef.co.uk
The ‘passive voice’ is a grammatical construction which contrasts with the ‘active voice’ (the standard English sentence structure). A good way to explain this is therefore to contrast the two with examples.
For example, “The man throws the ball at the wall” is active. “The ball is thrown at the wall by the man” is passive. The ball becomes the grammatical subject of the passive sentence; the wall is not the thing being thrown.
So why omit the passive voice?
The active voice often makes instructions easier to follow, but the passive voice is useful when the actor is unknown or the action’s recipient matters most. Yoast’s readability threshold is an editing prompt, not a Google ranking rule. Do not distort a sentence just to meet a percentage.
So how do I swap to the ‘active’ voice?
Almost every example of the passive voice has an active voice alternative so it’s simply a case of spending a little bit more time thinking about what you’ve written and re-writing those sentences that are wordy or more complex than they could be.
When you rewrite your sentence to the active voice, not only will the verb form change, but also the actor and receiver will change places. Here are some examples:
This blog post was written by me > I wrote this blog post (past simple)
The website is being optimised by Seven Creative > Seven Creative are optimising the webpage (present simple continuous)
The page will have been optimised by us > we will have optimised the page (future perfect)
I could go on but I’m sure you get the gist!
Are there exceptions?
Not only is it sometimes just more logical to structure a sentence in the passive voice, but writing is an art, and you may simply prefer the passive voice.
The passive voice can be the right choice. Consider the audience and meaning, then choose the clearest sentence. Yoast’s percentage is a readability suggestion, not a requirement for Google rankings.
A well search engine optimised website means better ranking and more leads
Clear writing helps visitors understand the page. A readability indicator does not guarantee rankings, leads or inclusion in search results. For a wider review, discuss our search engine optimisation service.