Every website needs to have content on it for various reasons. Consumers need to learn about your products or services, and Google needs to know your website is legitimate to list it in its rankings. If you have the skills and time to create website content, blog posts, and other media yourself as a business owner, you could still benefit from an editing or proofreading service. 

Proofreading and editing are not interchangeable terms, even though they are often used interchangeably. Here’s how you can polish your content with an expert editing and proofreading service.

What Exactly Does A Proofreading Service Do?

Too many business owners believe hiring a proofreading service is not necessary since spell checkers and other online tools can perform the same service for free. However, the difference with a proofreading service is they will check grammar, punctuation, spelling, inconsistent formatting, referencing, terminology, and more. 

You won’t necessarily receive wholesale changes to any document with a professional proofreader, but the content as a whole will flow better. The brain tends to miss mistakes when proofreading your own work, but an expert proofreader can identify those mistakes to strengthen your content. 

Is An Editing Service Valuable?

Working with an editing service will help improve the overall quality of your website content. Some of the things a professional editing service will focus on include:

• Choice of words
• Consistent tone
• Use of active voice versus passive voice
• Wordy sentences

Professional editors will pick apart every sentence to ensure it is as strong as possible. And they will do this while keeping the content as a whole consistent. Each piece of content on your website should have a purpose. A professional editing service will ensure the words stay on topic through every sentence.

View Your Content Individually And As A Whole

Websites might have multiple service or product pages, as well as dozens of blog posts, videos, and more. Each piece of published content is a reflection of your brand and should be treated with high importance. So when a proofreader or editor reviews your work, they will ensure the individual piece is perfect and that it fits in with the rest of the content on your website.

Your Style And Tone Should Be Consistent In Your Content

One of the keys to effective content marketing is being consistent with your style and tone. Consumers choose brands based on many different factors. If they love your style and tone, then you must keep it consistent to keep their trust. A proofreading and editing service will take all of this into consideration to help strengthen your brand. On a similar note, it’s important to take your time when hiring an editing or proofreading service to ensure they prioritize learning about your brand.

Why Online Spell Checkers Aren’t Sufficient

Free online spell checkers are great for catching small and obvious mistakes. However, they are far from perfect and can still leave your content with mistakes. Paying for a spell checker will yield better results, but the quality compared to a human editor and proofreader is night and day difference. Spell checkers don’t evaluate tone as much and they can’t ensure your content is consistent with other pieces. So while you can run your content through a spell checker to catch a missed comma, you shouldn’t rely on them as the last tool to use before publishing it to your website.

Learn Some Tips To Enhance Your Writing

The best editing or proofreading service will show the corrections made to your content to help improve your writing. Particularly when it comes to editing, comments are invaluable so you can understand why certain changes were made. The use of passive voice instead of active voice is one of the most common things editors find since it’s natural to use passive voice. When you take their feedback to heart, you can wire your brain to use active voice more and improve your writing as a whole.

Don’t Let A Mistake Ding Your Reputation

Simple mistakes might seem innocent, but they could damage your reputation if consumers notice them. Grammar, spelling, or punctuation mistakes indicate to consumers that you are careless in your writing, so you will be careless with the other services you provide. It’s worth the time and resources to ensure your content is polished so consumers think more about the quality of your products or services rather than about your writing quality.

Take Your Time When Hiring A Proofreading And Editing Service

Not all editing or proofreading services are equal. Anyone can claim to be a proofreader or editor and change a few words here and there. When interviewing for proofreading and editing services, be sure to get a feel for how in-depth they look at your content. They should learn about your brand values so they can ensure the tone of each piece of content aligns with it. If there are any red flags during the interview process, then it’s best to move to other options.

Our expert editors and proofreaders at iwebcontent can help polish your website content to perfection. We can provide samples of previous work and we’re ready to learn the ins and outs of your business. Start by contacting us today to schedule a consultation with our team and learn more about how we can help your business.

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