Tenses

In general, use simple verb tenses: past, present, and future. Use simple future tense to describe the result of an action or instant process that's happening now, or something that will occur in the actual future.

Why use simple verb tenses

• They use fewer words and are more concise.
• They can make content easier to scan and faster to read.
• Simple tenses are easier to understand — more than 20% of U.S. residents speak a language other than English at home.
• Present tense improves readability scores.

What's not simple tense

If any of the following comes before the verb in a sentence, it's not simple tense:

• Was/wasn't, were/weren't
• Has/hasn't, have/haven't
• Is/isn't, are/aren't
• Be
• If the verb in a sentence ends in "-ing"

Active and passive voice

Use active voice in most cases and use passive voice sparingly.

Active voice

In an active sentence, it's clear who's doing what. The actor is the subject, and the subject of the sentence is doing something.

✗

You were invited to a workspace by John Smith.

✓

John Smith invited you to a workspace.

Passive voice

At times, active voice can sound too harshly or keep focus on something that's less important in the context. In these cases, switch to passive voice. This separates the actor from the action to soften a sentence.

✗

We declined your payment.

✓

Your payment has been declined.

Avoid passive voice by reframing the focus

You can usually reframe a message to focus on the object, or on the actions someone could take, as another way to avoid passive voice.

✗

An error was made. We couldn't find any data.

✓

Something went wrong. Nothing found.

Spelling

Always use American English (AmE) spelling unless localizing content for specific regions.

• "yse"/"ise" → "yze"/"ize": analyze, not analyse; organize, not organise
• "our" → "or": color, not colour; humor, not humour
• double L → single L: traveled, not travelled; canceled, not cancelled
• "ence" → "ense": defense, not defence

Pronouns

Referring to the user

Avoid calling users "users" when talking to them.

Second person

Most of the time, use second person (you, your, you're) to address users and services.

First person

Use first person (me, I, my) only in these situations:

• User takes the action in the interface or answers a question they've been asked directly. Imagine you are the user "saying" these lines. Does a CTA feel natural ("Go to my profile" ✓) or not ("Start your free trial" ✗)?
• When additional sensitivity is necessary, or to indicate privacy.
• When there's a legal need to use first person to ask for consent.

✗

You agree to the terms of service.

✓

I agree to the terms of service.

Sometimes it's okay to use "we" or "us" to mean "Semrush":

• "We're sorry" (for a critical error)
• "Help us improve this feature" (requesting feedback)

Singular they

Usually, we don't need to specify the gender of our users. Do not use "he/she", "(s)he". Use "they" in proper grammatical form (they, them, their, theirs, themselves, themself).

Numbers

• Use numerals rather than spelling out numbers — except for years.

Good examples: Succeed in SEO in 7 steps. / 2015 was a standout year for the company.

• For numbers above 999, use commas between each set of three digits.

Good examples: 10,000 / 5,999,999

• For decimals, use periods.

Good example: 39.99

• Use the percent symbol (%) rather than spelling out the word "percent." Don't add a space before the character.

Good example: 25%

• Spell out large round numbers. Abbreviate to K, M, and B only when space is extremely limited, like display ads or email subject lines. Always capitalize them. Don't include a space between K, M, or B and the number.

Good examples: 4 thousand / 81 million / 2.5 billion / 90M

• Keep numbers spelled out where it's common usage.

Good example: Connect third-party apps

• For a range of numbers, use the en dash.

Good example: 3–5 days

• For a range with a number sign (#), omit space.

Good example: #4–9

• When a number is used as an adjective, use a hyphen.

Good example: 7-day trial

Dates and time

Dates

Writing dates using only numbers causes readability problems across regions. Use words for months.

• Uppercase AM and PM and do not use periods.

Good example: The session will run from 10 AM until 2 PM.

• Do not abbreviate the month in text.

Good example: We saw a large traffic spike in January 2023.

• Do not add ordinals (st, th, nd) to dates.

✗

Join us on March 10th, 2025, for our webinar.

✓

Join us on March 10, 2025, for our webinar.

Time

• Do not use :00 with whole numbers.
• For a range of time, use an en dash without spaces. Omit AM/PM on the first time if it matches the last.
• When translating to 24-hour time, omit AM and PM (e.g., 17:15).
• Adjust time zone for daylight savings and standard time changes.

Good examples: EST (during standard time) / EDT (during daylight savings time)

• Specify the time zone and use abbreviations after first reference.

Good examples: 11 AM EST (Eastern Standard Time) / After first reference: 12 PM EST

Avoid time zones unless absolutely necessary — dynamically convert to the user's time zone if possible.

Elapsed time

Just now → 1 sec ago → 5 sec ago → 1 min ago → 5 min ago → 1 hour ago → 5 hours ago → 1 day ago → 5 days ago → This week → Last week → 2 weeks → 1 month ago → 5 months ago → 1 year ago → 5 years ago

For constrained space

{1}s   {1}m   {1}h   {1}d   {1}wk   {1}mo   {1}yr

File extensions

Use uppercase and no period in:

• buttons
• checkboxes
• radio buttons
• menu items

✗

[Export to .PDF]

✓

[Export to PDF]

Use lowercase and specify a noun in full sentences in:

• messages
• notices
• tooltips

✗

Save your file in the pdf file format.

✓

Save your file in the .pdf file format.