Editing or proofreading web content

Here’s how I can enhance the quality and impact of the writing on websites.

Why you need an editor or proofreader for your web content

Your organisation’s website is its ‘shop window’ to many of the people you want to engage with. But people are notoriously fickle when they’re browsing online. They often quickly lose interest in the site they’re on, and move on to another. (Are you still here? Good!) To keep your visitor’s attention, it’s important that the written content on your site is clear, concise and readable.

Many search engine optimisation (SEO) experts believe that good spelling and grammar helps web pages to rank highly in search results: see this article by Digital Channel, for example.

All of the above is also true if you’re a blogger. You can make your blog stand out from others –  also probably boosting its SEO – if the writing is of a professional quality, easy to follow, and free of errors and inconsistencies.

Or maybe you’re a web design agency. You might have great ideas and design skills for making your clients’ sites look good – but are you sure the writing will be in good shape?

​Whichever of these roles you’re in, I can help. Here are the main web editing services I offer. If you have something else in mind, let me know and I’ll gladly consider it.

Web pages

I can improve the content of your website’s pages in various ways, according to your needs and how much scope there is for improvement:

• Basic proofreading, just to pick out errors; this will be a good choice if your text has been written by a skilled copywriter
• Thorough copy-editing, to enhance the text’s readability and make sure it has the right tone
• Editing into plain language – see my web page on this.

As an extra part of the service, I can check that the links in menus, text and buttons are working correctly.

I can do the editing or proofreading using Word or PDF documents, or in the content management system that you use.

Does your site have a lot of blog posts or news items? We can discuss how to deal with these. For example, I could just edit or proofread the more recent items to begin with, and we could make an ongoing agreement for me to check future ones. Please see ‘Blogs’ below.

​To help make sure your site’s content has a consistent style that reflects your brand image, I can also create a style guide for it. You can get the most out of this if I create it before editing or proofreading the content.

Downloadables

Your site may have some documents that visitors can download as Word or PDF files. I can check these for you in the same way that I normally check documents. Please see my Business editing page for details.
​
Downloadable files can easily become out of date – so, as an optional extra, I can check that yours are consistent with the information on the related web pages.

Blogs

Each time you write a new blog post, I can check it for you in a Word or PDF document, or in your content management system. I can also check posts that you’ve already published.

Content that you create for your customers

If you’re a web design agency, this is the service for you. After you’ve written the content for your client’s site and before it goes live, I can edit or proofread it, at least if it’s in Word or PDF format. If it’s in some other format or in a content management system, I still may be able to help.

When asking me for a quote, please give me a description of the site, a list of pages (with relevant details for each page, such as its purpose and word count), and at least a sample of the content. I’ll then assess the type of editing that’s needed, and suggest a course of action as well as giving you a quote.

---

Final notes

Please bear in mind that I specialise in words and how they’re used. I’m not an expert on web design, user experience, website performance or search engine optimisation (SEO). However, if I do find any problems when navigating your site, or if I have any observations about things like layout, structure, formatting and usability, I will report these to you and make recommendations if appropriate.

This post is an update of one that appeared in May 2022.