Editing your web content

Here’s how I can help to boost the quality and impact of the writing on your website or blog, or in web content that you create for customers.

​Why would we need a web content editor?

Your organisation’s website is its ‘shop window’ to many of the people it wants to engage with.
​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.

Also, many search engine optimisation (SEO) experts believe that good spelling and grammar helps web pages to rank highly in search results: see here, 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 helping to boost its search engine performance) by making sure the writing is of a professional quality, easy to follow, and free of errors and inconsistencies.

Or perhaps 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. The main web editing services I offer are outlined below. If you have something else in mind, I’m happy to consider it, so please don’t hesitate to ask.

Editing 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 glaring errors – perhaps as a ‘quick fix’ if time is tight, with a more thorough copy-edit to come later; this will also 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 English – see here

As an extra part of the service, I can check that the links (in menus, buttons or text, for example) 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 ‘Editing 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.

​Editing downloadable content

​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 documents 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.

Editing 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. This would work best as an ongoing service, with invoicing at the end of each month or quarter, rather than treating each post as a new ‘project’. I can also check posts that you’ve already published.

​Content auditing

​Has your site been growing for quite a while? Maybe it’s got a bit out of hand and you think it’s time for some pruning, but you’re not sure where to start? I can help you by doing a content audit, to quantify and assess what’s on your site and suggest the next steps. I’ll give you a list of pages, organised according to your menu structure, with notes on their contents. This should help you to decide whether some of the pages should be deleted or reorganised.

​I’ll also give you a report with an overall assessment of the writing, and with recommendations and quotes for what I could do for you next – please see the last three sections above for guidance on this.

​Editing 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 a content management system or some other format, I still may be able to help – we can talk about the set-up and try to agree on a way forward.

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 propose a course of action as well as giving you a quote.

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A final note

​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.