Why You Need to Edit Your Blog Posts
Editing your blog posts is of the utmost importance. However, very few people actually edit their blog articles before they post them. Perfect shows attention to detail and high-quality work.
It is not good enough if you just have good ideas. You need to be able to express those ideas well. The expression is a close second to the ideas themselves. It is generally a good idea, if possible, to have another person edit your content in addition to you. As good as the writing may be, the writer will inevitably miss something in his or her blog content because he or she knows what the content is supposed to say and may miss errors.
The following are important reasons why you need to edit your blog postings:
- Correcting typos: Correcting typos is obvious for most people. If you leave typos in your blog content, you will start to lose a large percentage of your audience and you will also lose your credibility with those visitors who don’t leave right away. Those visitors who decide to stay and thus, remain loyal to you, deserve better than content that is less than perfect.
- Writing with your readers in mind: Once you have written your blog post, step back from it for a day and then read it again. There are always ways that you will be able to improve upon what you wrote yesterday.
- Adding more images: Sometimes it is difficult to find the perfect image for your content. Images are really inconsequential when it comes to rankings in the search engines and thus does not really affect your volume of traffic. However, images really help to make blog postings attractive to visitors, which will make them want to keep reading.
- Only regenerating old blog postings: It is understandable that constantly writing original (and fresh) content can be difficult, depending on how often you post. It is acceptable to recycle content sometimes (of course, you need to make sure that the articles that you are recycling haven’t been used in several months) but you also need to make the effort to come up with new ideas to incorporate into your blog postings.
- Optimizing search engine visibility: It is probably safe to assume that one of your goals in business is to drive more traffic to your website. That certainly is a great argument for editing your blog postings before you publish them. You can track the reason why people visit your blog through analytics. Your keywords are essential and if you have errors, the visitors will not be able to find you.
- Incorporating feedback from your visitors: If you write interesting and quick (and error free) blog postings, you will eventually get comments from some of your visitors. You may want to include the comments that you receive from your visitors in subsequent blog postings. Sometimes, your visitors’ comments may inspire a whole new blog posting. In other cases, you may want to incorporate visitors’ comments into already-existing blog postings.
- Creating permanently valuable blog content: Once you have created blog content, it will exist forever. Although online content can be edited or tweaked as much as you like, if well written, it should have a lasting effect on those who read it. Enticing visitors to visit your website is the most difficult part of the process so you want to make sure that once the visitors decide to spend the time on your website; their visit is as wonderful as possible. Additionally, it is very important to make sure that your visitors see relevant content if they are directed to any material that has been archived from links on your website.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you now understand why editing your blog postings before you post them or going back and carefully editing older blog postings is so important. It strengthens your credibility and reputation online and makes a strong statement on how much you care about the quality of what you are sharing with others.
Please remember that editing is necessary for all writing. It doesn’t matter if you are an experienced writer or a new writer. It doesn’t matter if you write technical papers or novels. All types of written word must be edited.
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Couldn't agree more. Thanks for the excellent article. I've been editing a few blogs for old and new friends and would eventually like to expand my services. There certainly is huge need.
Susie
Hey, pay attention, this is really good, basic stuff. You can look loose and sloppy, or tight and well thought out. Spelling actually matters. Yes, all writers need editing, even self-editing. At first, you should look at your stuff a day or two later. The world will wait. Editing yourself sharpens your thoughts. Never get so attached to a paragraph that you can't delete it. Let someone else read your pieces before publication. That's at least approximating an editor.
I believe that one reason bloggers post blog entries with errors has to do with the incredible demand blogging can place on an individual author. It is difficult to churn out quality content on a regular basis. I have learned the hard way that quality is more important than quantity.
Keeping your readers in mind and well as having the search engines best interests in mind is almost an oxymoron in my mind. Your readers are looking for answers and the search engines are looking to understand which search quires your posts answer bests. With google analytics and you revising your posts for optimal optimization, one might be able to achieve perfection, whatever you define that to be. Just my thoughts.
I thoroughly enjoyed your discussion. One of my businesses is editing text. So, you know I am always horrified when I read a post on my blog with any type of error – HORRIFIED!
AP:
Just because bloggers work with a large volume of content does not mean that they don't need to make the content perfect from an English language perspective. The problem with errors in content is that it can be so distracting to the reader that they may not be able to concentrate on what is being said after that. In that case, you haven't accomplished anythng of value in your posting.
I disagree that fulfilling the readers' needs and satifying the search engines cannot happen simultaneously. One has nothing to do with the other. If you have pride in the quality of your content, you will either look at it very carefully from an editorial perspective before you publish it or ask someone else who has a strong editorial sense to do it for you.
I do agree that quality is more important than quantity.
Carolyn,
I was merely empathizing with the bloggers who find it hard to write error free since I've been in their shoes and offering a reason as to why some blog posts offered by some bloggers are not error free.
Writing is not the only medium available to social media content producers or bloggers. Podcasting and videos might be a better medium for people who struggle like me.
I find that after posting a blog entry and using Google analytics I CAN optimize my entry after receiving actual traffic. I too agree that it (writing for readers and the search engines) can be done but for me it’s only after I can analyze actual reader traffic. Just my take on what you stated above.
Angie,
You have a very unusual way of improving your writing and editing skills by using SEO and Google Analytics. This is the first time that I heard about this approach.
SEO and Google Analytics have nothing to do with writing and editing skills. I don’t think your approach will work. You may want to consider taking some creative writing and editing classes instead or hire a professional.
Yes Michael, I wait for actual traffic, comments and feedback before I go back and edit. I only use this approach for optimization and search engine visibility after the fact!
I sometimes have undeveloped ideas and my readers are ok with this. Sometimes they offer feedback that eventually goes into the blog post. Or, I notice that the search engines picked up my blog post for a different keyword phrase.
Try using semrush of your site and see what keywords you are ranking for. Not sure if semrush is reliable, but interesting nonetheless.
Revision, Revision, Revision. No matter how many times I revise an article, I still find things I want to change the next time I read it. Because I try and post to my blog everyday, the amount of time I have to edit and revise is limited. I think this is one of the big differences between blogging and traditional media, less time for editing and revision.
Frankly, it takes me forever to get out of the wordpress editor, after spending a good 30 minutes in Word to start the process. 🙁
However, patience is important and getting it right before hitting publish button is essential–correct.
2 steps I have found helps my editorial process.
1. schedule the post for the next day, gives me several hours to walk away and come back and take one last look before it hits the home page.
2. Subscribe to your own blog, I also archive my feed emails and go back and read them weeks later, and I often find a word or two that is a"poor" choice of words to get my point across.
thanks, informative read