When phrases become overused, hackneyed and clichéd, they become gobbledygook.
And when you use gobbledygook, your writing becomes meaningless.

What are the worst offenders? Marketing strategist and author David Meerman Scott analysed all 711,123 press releases distributed in 2008 by North American companies through Business Wire, Marketwire, GlobeNewswire, and PR Newswire to find the most overused words and phrases.

The worst offenders were:

Rank Word/phrase Uses
1 Innovate 51,390
2 Please to 48,762
3 Unique 48,095
4 Focused on 40,964
5 Leading provider 33,101
6 Commitment 29,621
7 Partnership 28,969
8 New and improved 20,167
9 Leverage 19,243
10 120 percent 16,916
11 Cost effective 15,454
12 Next generation 15,371
13 110 percent 13,659
14 Flexible 13,656
15 World class 13,407
16 Robust 13,309
17 High performance 13,049
18 Scalability 11,929
19 Proud to 9,877
20 Optimise 9,547
21 Outcomes 9,329
22 In terms of 9,217
23 Value added 8,725
24 Easy to use 8,398
25 Metrics 6,851

Warning bells should ring when you read guff like: We are pleased to announce our new and improved commitment is 120 per cent more cost effective and will deliver world class outcomes that optimise scalability and leverage value-added metrics.
So how do you avoid gobbledygook? As Meerman Scott says, just use words your customers use.
• Gauge the gobbledygook content of any piece of writing, go to the Gobbledygook Grader
• Find out more about gobbledygook, go to Meerman Scott’s website
• Read Meerman Scott’s Gobbledygook Manifesto