Getting your blogs checked and will it make a difference to your search results. Google wants perfection and this one idea may help
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Table of contents
- That which is not checked is not done
- Does Google care about your writing mistakes?
- Being confused with English/ American spelling
- Broken links are a Killer
- Using page builders and not WordPress direct
- Writing about yourself is not a good policy
- Did you answer a question or solve a problem?
- Consider your images and their effect on the page
- Who is best to check your work?
- Authors generally use several sources of editing
- Conclusion
That which is not checked is not done
In my late youth, I had a sales manager that would teach me the hard way. If you made an error it was returned to you to fix. Even simple issues were sent back.
One of these was my expense account. Being young I was always waiting anxiously on the return Of money I had to outlay. When this would bounce the delay would be a couple of weeks as I lived out of town. All my protests were met with the saying.
” That which is not checked is not done”
To this day I am not sure whether I love him or hate him for instilling in me a degree of perfection.
Does Google care about your writing mistakes?
He sure does. Google absolutely loves good grammar and spelling. Poorly written work will never rank and will reside at the end of many pages, never to be read.
Indeed, the use of word check, or Grammarly helps however they are far from perfect and need to be revisited. I find Grammarly sometimes fails to make the changes as you write so you end up with a lot of bad words.
One of the word tools is essential unless you are up in the excellent class a place where not many of us reside.
Check your spelling several times and make sure it is correct
Being confused with English/ American spelling
As an Australian, I use English, English however, I market in THe US so I have a dilemma with many words. They are not misspelled, as such, and I think the Americans take the easy road to spelling. Example Color, Colour. Both are the same but different.
Most of the programs are US-based so they demand you follow their protocol.
Generally, I have given in however your predominant market should be the one used although in my case US spelling has won the race.
Broken links are a Killer
Links change, become obsolete, and companies make alterations all of which will affect your page. There are many plugins and programs to keep a check on these and it is imperative that you keep up to date.
I use a LINK management tool to monitor my pages. If a change is needed you do it in one place and it changes every page. Pretty Links will also monitor your traffic giving you ongoing statistics. I recently had a Supplier sell out the business and close it down. Having nearly a thousand blogs and their link spread throughout a whole range really blew up the system
Using page builders and not WordPress direct
This is an easy way to get better results because the programs are designed to help you. This would include Hemmingway an easy program to use. Wealthy Affiliate has a built-in writer as do so many other similar plans.
I prefer a more direct approach however using these page builders teaches you a bit about English as you plod through the exercise.
Certainly, something that should be tried by all new users.
You may find it very hard to get past a lower grade however that reflects easy-to-read material.
Getting your blogs checked and will it make a difference but forget self.
Writing about yourself is not a good policy
When readers are looking for answers or solutions they don't really care about you and what you do. Therefore filling pages with your wonderful exploits and how well you have achieved them does not grab the readers' interest.
Yes, you can use examples and I am guilty of this from time to time to show what can happen however you should keep it limited and focus on the reader.
Did you answer a question or solve a problem?
You are writing a blog to answer a question, solve a problem or settle a dispute. You are not writing a book of fiction so think about your structure.
The answer may come early in the writing or well toward the end and it relates to the question.
What year was Elvis born? Answer 1935 on the Eighth of January
A simple easy answer.
What was Elvis'd best work?
Some will say it is early Jailhouse rock others his movies and some even the later crooning. We are building a story around Elvis and will come up with a summary at the end.
A product review may compare several products and make a buying suggestion at the end something else may have an opening image.
Getting your blogs checked and will it make a difference with images
Consider your images and their effect on the page
This is an important part of your page audit.
1) Do the images relate to the writing if not get rid of them?
2) Are they the correct size and will they work on a Mobile device?
3) Do they take over from the article and downplay the writing?
4) placed in the center or sides of the writing. ( personal issue)
Images are there to draw attention and not form a major role in your writing.
Page speed on opening is a major SEO implication. In fact so much so I stopped using a leading image as suggested by WordPress. The images slowed the page down and served no other important role
Getting your blogs checked and will it make a difference depends on the Who.
Who is best to check your work?
None of us can afford high-priced audits so we need to go with someone that has a reasonable grasp of the language. However not everyone makes a good writing auditor. For instance, I tend to speed read so I don't pick up many spelling mistakes. However, my wife a perfectionist combs through the material with a sharp eye and makes changes as she goes.
However, when my wife wrote a book Her daughter took the aggressive role and found things we would never see.
You can find people on places like Fivver that will do it for just a small fee but do they understand your writing. It may just be too hard for them.
It is not a big job. A typical 1500-word post is read in under 10 minutes by the slowest of us. Add a few alterations and it is not all that time-consuming, unlike the original construction.
Of course, you can review your own work and I have done this for many years. I need the help of a program that highlights the errors and provides me with change options so it is not all that tedious.
Getting your blogs checked and will it make a difference with Authors
Authors generally use several sources of editing
A book needs to be correct to take a life of its own. Mistakes are simply not allowed and therefore several different auditors may play a part in gaining a finished product.
This checking is not taken lightly and needs to be thorough and accurate down to the smallest detail. As a blogger, I use general punctuation. Just enough to get my message across but not down to the finest detail. In a book, you must adhere to all the rules and do it properly.
Pick up a book now and read the writing, follow the punctuation and see just how much you are missing.
Research is another area of specialty. Are your links going to the correct location, is your reference material current could you have used something else. All relevant questions to achieve a high-quality production.
Keywords should also get a word in here. Have you chosen the correct keyword or phrase that will get you a first-page position? If not make your changes early so as to not disrupt the passage to the top.
Conclusion
I hope you found very few errors whilst reading this summary. We try hard for perfection however it does come with time and effort. We are taught to churn out material as fast as possible and ignore quality for some time, however that theory does not hold forever.
There comes a time when quality is everything and nothing else matters. So if it is not checked it is not done.