Guide to creating quality website content (full sample)
Copy editing and proofreading of a guide to developing great website content that will attract readers and encourage sharing.
An example of my editing and proofreading services.
It can be useful to understand exactly how my proofreading and editing services can help you. Below, you’ll find an article that I copy edited and proofread to give you an idea of how I can enhance your content. Please have a read, and if you like the content then please get in touch or get a quote.
About this content
Great content is essential to the success of your website. This article explores some simple steps you can take to enhance your content. It includes advice on meeting the needs of your audience, getting their attention, being relevant and timely, and encouraging people to share. The article is written in an easy to understand way that lets you quickly create content that works.
Editing services provided
The success of your website depends on clear, relevant, useful content meeting the needs of your audience. It's the main factor search engines use when ranking websites, and good content will keep your visitors coming back. The best content:
Meets your audience's needs.
Grabs their attention.
Is easy to read and understand.
Stays relevant and timely.
Encourages people to share it.
Informs, educates, entertains, or inspires.
Great content meets the needs of your audience
Think about why visitors are coming to your website and what you offer. Provide clear, useful content to meet their needs, solve a problem, or provide help. Good content should inform, educate, entertain, or inspire your readers.
You need to get and hold your visitors’ attention
With so many competing websites, it's important to grab your visitors’ attention. Good design can guide your readers to your best content. Combine this with clear headings, a logical structure, and concise text to add value for your audience.
Ensure your content is easy to read and understand
Always create content with your audience in mind, and never assume they have the same level of knowledge as you. Your words should be easy to read and understand, so they're accessible to every visitor.
Keep your content relevant and timely
The best content is "evergreen." This means it's relevant whether a visitor is reading it now or a year or two in the future. It's important to update your website regularly and schedule new articles to publish. One of the signals search engines use is recency, so publishing often will help your search engine results.
Encourage people to share your content
After search engines, social media is the main way many websites get traffic. Make sure every page on your website has social media sharing buttons for the most popular social networks. A good headline and thumbnail image can increase the chances of your content getting shared.
Always include a privacy policy and terms
If you offer products or services to your customers, make sure you have comprehensive terms and conditions in place. Every website should also have a privacy policy explaining how you collect and use data from your visitors.
Inform, educate, entertain, or inspire.
One of the ways to create compelling content is to ask the question, "Will this inform, educate, entertain, or inspire my audience?" Good content should always achieve one of these goals, great content might achieve two or more.
Informative content
This type of content shares advice and information with your visitors. It's designed to increase knowledge and helps your audience explore different topics. This type of content often includes news, research, places, resources, products, services, and tools.
Educational content
Educational content often takes the form of "how to" guides and tutorials. It's designed to help people learn new skills and achieve specific tasks. This type of content often includes support articles, knowledge bases, online courses, and reviews.
Entertaining content
This type of content helps your visitors pass the time in an interesting and fulfilling way. Quizzes, games, humor, stories, videos, memes, and apps are all good examples of entertaining content.
Inspirational content
Finally, inspiring content often creates some type of emotional change in your visitor. This type of content is the most difficult to write, but it's also responsible for some of the most popular and shared stories. Inspiring content often takes the form of personal stories, opinion pieces, and creative writing.
It's worth spending time and resources to source and create great content. Search engines scan your content so they can show the most relevant websites to their visitors. Regularly publishing high-quality content is one of the best ways to get good rankings in search results. This will drive more visitors to your website.
Content originally written by Paul Maplesden, a freelance writer, and edited by me.
Guide to the right programming platform for your website (full sample)
Copy editing and proofreading of a guide to choosing the right platform to host or develop your website.
An example of my editing and proofreading services.
It can be useful to understand exactly how my proofreading and editing services can help you. Below, you’ll find an article that I copy edited and proofread to give you an idea of how I can enhance your content. Please have a read, and if you like the content then please get in touch or get a quote.
About this content
Choosing the right programming platform is one of the most important decisions when you're building a new website. This article explores several options, frameworks, and languages for web development. It covers areas including blogging frameworks, online website builders, locally installed software, and various programming languages.
Editing services provided
Building a great website - Choosing the right programming platform
Choosing the right programming platform and language for your website is vital. The approach affects the functions, technology, and many other aspects of your website. There are dozens of platforms and programming languages available, depending on your needs. Your options include:
Blogging frameworks like WordPress and Blogger.
Online website builders.
Locally installed website building software.
Custom languages and development platforms.
Blogging frameworks
There are two main blogging frameworks: Blogger and WordPress. Blogger, by Google, is an online-only platform designed around content creation. It lets bloggers and writers create content quickly, upload images, and design beautiful blogs with a minimum of fuss. Google hosts all blogs created on the platform. You don't need to worry about web hosting, speed, or anything besides creating great content. Customization on Blogger is limited, and you will need to use various widgets for any advanced functionality.
WordPress is the most popular website technology platform in the world. Over 75 million websites publish on WordPress, and half of the world's top blogs use the technology. WordPress isn't limited to blogging, though. The platform is used by many businesses, membership websites, and online stores. WordPress has a vast amount of community support, together with templates, tutorials, and plugins. This makes the platform highly customizable, and it's a good choice, whether you want to build a website yourself or hire a developer.
Online website builders
Another popular option for designing and publishing a website is to use an online website builder. These solutions are focused on the pages, themes, and structure of your website. You can drag and drop various elements onto your pages and create content.
These website builders are easy to use, inexpensive, fast, and functional. The four most popular website builders are Squarespace, Weebly, Jimdo, and Wix. Each has a free trial, so you can try them out and see if they work for you. You can set up shops, membership programs, and more, but they are best for simple websites without unusual requirements.
Locally installed website building software
Locally installed software is often used by professional web developers to create a website on their local machine. They can then upload it to a hosting service. Popular solutions include Adobe Dreamweaver, Aptana Studio, and Microsoft Visual Web Developer.
The software supports many types of programming languages. One of the main features is a "What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG)" editor, which shows you exactly how your website will look. The software lets web developers customize websites to a high degree, and allows for great flexibility in web design.
Custom language and development platforms
There are many specialized programming languages used to build websites. These include:
Simple languages such as HTML and CSS.
Intermediate languages such as JavaScript and Python.
Advanced languages such as Drupal or Joomla.
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
HTML is the standard language used to build the vast majority of websites. HTML code tells your web browser about the content of your website and where to display it. If you look at the source code of a website, most of what you see will be HTML.
CSS affects the visual elements of your website. The styles in CSS tell your web browser how to display the fonts, colors, spacing, borders, navigation, and other parts of your website. This makes it easy to change styles and colors across a website without having to edit the HTML on each page.
JavaScript and Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP)
After HTML and CSS, JavaScript is the most popular web programming language. It's often used to add interactive widgets, quizzes, and other functions to a website. A good JavaScript developer can create entire apps and games.
PHP is another popular choice for web development and runs on a web server (where your website is hosted) rather than in a browser. PHP is a flexible language allowing a website to interact with databases, membership sites, logins, and much more. There's lots of community support and tutorials for the language, although it needs a professional developer to make the most of it.
Python and Ruby
Python is a multi-purpose programming language used for many different types of development. One of its main advantages is a wide variety of pre-coded functions that make writing complex web applications a little easier.
Ruby is a programming language that's growing in popularity due to its ease of use. It's also good at handling large volumes of website traffic, so if you're expecting lots of visitors, it's a good choice.
MySQL
MySQL is a relational database platform designed to allow websites to store and retrieve information. It's an open-source platform, so using it is free. Many websites use MySQL to provide personalized information, products, and services to customers.
Joomla and Drupal
Joomla is a language developed for content management systems (CMS). It specializes in allowing people to create, upload, and share content. Consider using Joomla if you have multiple contributors to your website.
Like Joomla, Drupal is a CMS. It's also extremely customizable, allowing professional developers to create websites to exacting standards. Drupal is specially designed for web developers who want to customize every piece of their code.
Many of these programming languages require specific expertise. If your website needs a more customized approach, think about hiring a professional web developer. The right programming and technology makes a big difference to the functionality, usefulness, and success of your website. If you're not sure what you need, speak to an expert to learn about your options.
Content originally written by Paul Maplesden, a freelance writer, and edited by me.
Medical and nursing wound care articles
Copy editing and proofreading of wound care articles, monographs, reports, abstracts, protocols, and studies for a telehealth company specializing in wound care.
Information on various types of copy editing and proofreading projects.
Brief description
Copy editing and proofreading of wound care articles, monographs, reports, abstracts, protocols, and studies for a telehealth company specializing in wound care.
Approximate length of content edited
10,000 words or more
Notes on copy editing and proofreading this content
Worked closely with the two company directors to edit wound care content.
Helped them to launch a new nursing consulting website.
Worked on reports, online content, abstracts, protocols, and more.
HR recruitment, assessment, and management content
Copy editing and proofreading of manuals, training materials, and assessments for an HR recruitment and training business.
Information on various types of copy editing and proofreading projects.
Brief description
Copy editing and proofreading of manuals, training materials, and assessments for an HR recruitment and training business.
Approximate length of content edited
10,000 words or more
Notes on copy editing and proofreading this content
I worked for this business for five years and edited hundreds of pieces of work.
They worked with financial businesses including banking and insurance.
Ares of expertise required included HR, sales, recruitment, insurance, law, personal assessments, reports, PowerPoint, workbooks, website, communications skills, course outlines and notes, research, and networking.
Edited all work to meet extensive style guide requirements.
Outdoor adventure company brochures and website
Copy editing and proofreading of brochures for an outdoor adventure company leading tours of young people on expeditions.
Information on various types of copy editing and proofreading projects.
Brief description
Copy editing and proofreading of brochures for an outdoor adventure company leading tours of young people on expeditions.
Approximate length of content edited
5,000 - 10,000 words.
Notes on copy editing and proofreading this content
Copy edited and proofread content for multiple parts of the business.
Worked on leaflets, brochures, and the business website.
Ensured an appropriate approach and tone of voice for children and parents
Worked on consistency across multiple platforms.
Proofread for online, documents, and PDF content.
Areas of expertise
Business intelligence software website
Copy editing and proofreading of a website for a new business intelligence and analytics software product.
Information on various types of copy editing and proofreading projects.
Brief description
Copy editing and proofreading of a website for a new business intelligence and analytics software product.
Approximate length of content edited
5,000 - 10,000 words.
Notes on copy editing and proofreading this content
Copy editing and proofreading of extensive software product website.
Included translating technical terms into language anyone can understand.
Ensured consistency across multiple formats, marketing materials, and other media.
Editing services provided
Real estate marketing materials
Copy editing and proofreading of all promotional, marketing, and related materials for a real estate business.
Information on various types of copy editing and proofreading projects.
Brief description
Copy editing and proofreading of all promotional, marketing, and related materials for a real estate business.
Approximate length of content edited
10,000 words or more.
Notes on copy editing and proofreading this content
Copy editing and proofreading of all real estate marketing literature including housing descriptions, marketing, internal memos, emails, direct mailings, contracts, T&Cs, postcards, website, and letters.
Included working with their style guide and improving tone of voice to connect with high-end clients.
Areas of expertise
Creole art, history, and culture online magazine articles
Copy editing and proofreading of magazine articles on Creole art, history, and culture.
Information on various types of copy editing and proofreading projects.
Brief description
Copy editing and proofreading of online magazine articles on Creole art, history, and culture.
Approximate length of content edited
10,000 words or more.
Notes on copy editing and proofreading this content
Proofreading of articles about Creoles around the world.
Editing for a more cohesive, journalistic feel to very personal articles.
Areas of expertise
Local interest, health, and fitness online magazine articles
Copy editing and proofreading of fitness, health, and personal interest articles for an online magazine.
Information on various types of copy editing and proofreading projects.
Brief description
Copy editing and proofreading of fitness, health, and personal interest articles for an online magazine.
Approximate length of content edited
10,000 words or more.
Notes on copy editing and proofreading this content
Copy editing of articles on fitness, health, and personal interest.
Included advice on journalism and research.
Areas of expertise
Movement and health blog articles
Copy editing and proofreading of various blog articles on movement, wellness, and reducing stress.
Information on various types of copy editing and proofreading projects.
Brief description
Copy editing and proofreading of various blog articles on movement, wellness, and reducing stress.
Approximate length of content edited
1,000 - 3,000 words.
Notes on copy editing and proofreading this content
Rewrote parts of content for clarity and consistency.
Extensive collaboration to understand client’s needs.
Provided ongoing support and reassurance to client.
Areas of expertise
Self-help and empowerment website
Copy editing and proofreading of website copy and content for a self-help and counselling service.
Information on various types of copy editing and proofreading projects.
Brief description
Copy editing and proofreading of website copy and content for a self-help and counselling service.
Approximate length of content edited
3,000 - 5,000 words.
Notes on copy editing and proofreading this content
Complete editing, proofreading, support, and aftercare.
Advice on copyright and avoiding plagiarism.
Checking direct quotes for accuracy.
Areas of expertise
Photography software FAQ
Editing and localization of frequently asked questions and terms and conditions for a stock photo app.
Information on various types of copy editing and proofreading projects.
Brief description
Copy editing, proofreading, and localization of frequently asked questions and terms and conditions for a photography application. The content was published on the client’s website.
Approximate length of content edited
5,000 - 10,000 words.
Notes on copy editing and proofreading this content
Clarified the process with the client to allow for editing of FAQs.
Formatted FAQs to allow for easy scanning and comprehension.
Localized content for a British audience.
Ensured copy was ready for publication on the web.