Devote more real estate to your strengths. If you are a recent graduate, the core of your resume should be the education section. Conversely, if you have a strong professional background, the education section is not as important, so you should focus on the professional experience section.
Use descriptive words from the job posting. Your resume should contain all the major skills, descriptions, and verbs from the job posting. Make it easy for the reader to see why you qualify for the position.
Avoid over-used words such as: performed, helped, did, ran, made, built, etc. Instead, use descriptive words. A helpful list of descriptive words can be found here.
Avoid listing hobbies or interests for two reasons: (1) employers do not care and (2) it seems like you are just trying to fill empty page space. If you cannot fill a whole page with professional experience or education, add some community service experience; however, you must relate your experiences to the position. Do not add irrelevant experiences just to fill space.
Check, double-check, and triple-check spelling and grammar. Nothing will make a reader put your resume into the reject pile faster than poor grammar or misspelled words. Spell-checker is not good enough. Have two or three people review your resume for errors.
Create custom resumes for each job posting. Since each position you apply for is unique, your resume should be, too! Because you will be using direct wording and language from the job posting, you should not try to re-use the same resume for different jobs. It is smart to have a ‘master resume’ that you can tweak and change depending on the position you apply for.