Your blog post should be engaging, easy to scan, and fun to read (on top of providing valuable information and being optimized for SEO). However, even if it is all those things, a simple misspelled word or confusing sentence can deter your audience from engaging further with your small business. To ensure that doesn’t happen, learn how to edit a blog post using four blog editing tips to self edit your writing.
Why You Need to Learn How to Edit a Blog Post
Blog posts serve many purposes for small businesses. They increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, and turn site visitors into paying customers and clients. But they also establish you as an industry expert.
While nobody is perfect when it comes to spelling and grammar, it is vital to make an effort when it comes to blog editing. Every error–whether small, like incorrect punctuation, or big, like an incomplete sentence–increases the chances that your readers will discredit you, even if your business doesn’t have anything to do with writing.
Any content you publish is a representation of your business, so it’s important to represent yourself as best as possible. A blog post ridden with errors speaks volumes (and not in a good way). It says you ignore details and aren’t concerned about producing quality work. That’s why it is essential to learn and follow these editing tips to help you self edit your writing before you hit publish.
4 Blog Editing Tips to Improve Your Writing
You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who can write a perfect blog post on the first draft. Even professional writers go through multiple versions of their content before publishing it for the world to see. So, follow these editing tips to learn how to edit a blog post that will impress, entertain, and educate your readers.
1. Read Your Blog Post Out Loud
Once you write a blog post, the first step is to read it out loud to yourself. This will help you identify issues such as run-on or incomplete sentences, awkward or confusing paragraphs, and overuse of certain words or phrases.
A good blog post is concise and easy to read. If you find yourself stumbling over a sentence or confused by your content when reading your blog post out loud, there’s a good chance your readers will do the same. Good blog writing is engaging and conversational (unless you are writing for a scientific or scholarly audience). When your audience reads it, they should feel like they’re receiving great advice from a wise friend. So, when you read your blog post out loud, consider if it reads as you would naturally talk.
Another option is to use text-to-speech tools or ask a friend or colleague to read the blog post to you. Keep your ears open for similar issues with sentence structure, clarity, and overall readability, organization, and flow.
2. Edit Your Blog Post Sentence-By-Sentence
Going through your blog post slowly and line-by-line helps you slow down and actually read the words on the paper. Because you wrote the blog post, you know what you intended to say. Even if a word is misspelled or missing, your brain will automatically include it in the sentence as if it were there or correct. But when you slow down and read each sentence slowly, paying attention to each word, you can catch these mistakes that would otherwise slip by you.
3. Take Breaks and Edit in Stages
When editing your blog post, it is essential to take breaks and edit in stages rather than trying to perfect it in one sitting. Personally, when I write blogs for my clients, I rarely ever write the blog, edit and proofread the blog, and submit the blog in one sitting. In fact, I try to schedule my work so that I write the blog one day and edit and submit it to my client on a completely different day. That way, I have a chance to come back to the content with fresh eyes. I almost always find errors I missed while writing the first draft. Sometimes, your brain just needs a break, so don’t rush the process. Give yourself time to produce your best work by taking breaks.
4. Use Free Blog Editing Tools
Even as a professional writer, I use editing software to help me catch errors I may have missed. My favorite editing tool is Grammarly. I use it when writing any and all content. Some writing rules are confusing or hard to follow, like active vs. passive voice and the correct use of affect vs. effect. Grammarly catches these mistakes for you and offers suggestions to improve your writing. The free version is a great starting point, but the paid version provides even more recommendations, such as ways to condense and clarify sentences or choose better words to engage your audience.
I highly recommend using software like this, but know it is not a substitute for self editing your writing. Sometimes the Grammarly suggestions are not the best options for my blog post, so I dismiss them. Because of this, I self edit my writing first, then use Grammarly, then read it through one more time to ensure nothing is missed.
Blog Editing Tips from Start to Finish
The best way to edit your blog post is to focus on the overall content–editing for clarity, organization, understanding–before proofreading the details–editing for sentence structure, spelling errors, incorrect punctuation. That way, you don’t duplicate your work by proofreading first draft content that you’ll later change to clarify your writing.
At Synergy Content Marketing, we offer unique blog post auditing and editing services. If you want a professional writer to read your blog post for understanding, readability, and grammatical rightness, we can help. Contact us today to learn more about our blog editing services.
