What You’ll Read In This Article:
- Understanding Editing: What Is It Really?
- Do I Need To Hire A Content Editor?
- Why Shouldn’t I Edit My Web and Marketing Content?
- What Kind Of Content Editor Do I Need?
- Hiring a Freelancer Vs. a Professional Content Editor
- Conclusion
The online presence of your business or brand is vital to its success. The internet allows instantaneous worldwide access to your company, but even the best brands can struggle with marketing to their online audience. It’s hard to keep your language, grammar, and cultural knowledge polished enough to appease an international audience. Thankfully, a content editor can make it easier.
In this article, we will show how the presence of a professional content editor is key to your business’s content marketing success. We will be covering:
- Understanding content editing and why it’s necessary.
- The importance of hiring a content editor and the tools they use.
- Why self-editing hurts more than helps.
- Finding the right content editor for the job.
- The difference between freelance vs. professional help.
Learn everything you need to know about content editing here and see how this blog can help your online content reach new heights.
Understanding Editing: What Is It Really?
The term editing is often used interchangeably with proofreading. However, any professional editor will tell you there is more to content editing than proofreading. It’s broken down into two significant types of editing: micro and macro.
Macro editing includes article editorial assessments and development editing. These processes look over your product as a whole, making major edits like paragraph restructuring and adjustments in the narrative flow. Macro editing occurs at the beginning of a project, helping structure your rough draft into workable content. Depending on the editing service you request, pieces can come with detailed suggestions or quick overview tips.
Micro editing is detailed work and includes proofreading, structural editing, and copy editing. In micro editing, your editor focuses on grammatical, spelling, or localization errors. It’s often used at the end of your project, turning your rough draft into a perfect finished piece.
Editing is vital to content marketing success because it goes beyond basic spelling adjustments. A content editor keeps your project relevant to modern localized audiences. They can fact-check your work, get rid of unconscious bias, and keep your work streamlined and honest.
Editors are also valuable teachers, helping you grow as a content creator and see mistakes that went unnoticed before. This makes future pieces stronger, with fewer flaws and macro edits. No writer is ever 100% error-free, but with the help of a content editor, you can see written work perfected in no time.
Do I Need To Hire A Content Editor?
Now that you understand what editing is and what roles editors take in written projects, it’s time to decide if your project needs one. Hiring an editor will never harm your project, but knowing what you are investing in before purchasing is essential.
Below, we cover the specific benefits a content editor can bring to your project outside of grammatical adjustments.
SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the act of priming a piece for search results. With the help of keywords, adjusted meta titles and descriptions, layout adjustments, and more, a content editor can see your work listed at the top of the results page. The better your SEO, the more likely you are to get seen by audiences.
SEO also helps with the readability and comprehensibility of your work. It takes your written piece’s core focus and intention and lays it out in a way made for the online world. This can include hyperlink placement, word density management, calls to action, and more to boost your page results.
Your articles will be better to read, easy to understand, and brought to bigger audiences with SEO.
Topic Expertise
Writing about a topic is one thing, but having a relationship with your content is another. A content editor specializes in research, letting them understand field-specific jargon or complicated content. They aren’t just writers for your product but experts in the field. With an intimate knowledge of your topic, the content editor will see your product truthfully represented the way you desire.
Need an edit for your brewery page? Our ale aficionados are happy to help. Do you need a proofreader for your banking business sales pitch? Our professional business editors are ready to crunch the numbers.
With experts dealing with your work, the content is in capable hands.
Accuracy
Accuracy has many meanings in written work. It covers the description of your product, the quality of facts and statistics used, and the reliability of resources referenced in your article. A content editor keeps your work quality, using only the best, most relevant, and factual resources for your piece. If a fact is inaccurate or outdated, they will replace and update it with the latest intel.
Complete with topic expertise, you will never have to worry about misrepresentation or flawed descriptions.
Boosted Sales and Reputation
The written language is complex and prone to errors, especially when working with audiences outside your localization. Customers have a keen eye for written flaws and will notice any misspellings or improper jargon. Yet even innocent mistakes can harm your company’s reputation and turn customers away.
A content editor will clear all errors and save your work from any embarrassing mistakes. Not only do they offer grammatical revisions and spell checks, but they’ll rework your article for better readability. The content editor will also match the tone to the audience. This ensures your customers never feel alienated or estranged from your brand.
SEO, accuracy checks, and topic experts handling your work will result in a perfectly polished piece. Content editing will grow your site’s online traffic and boost your content marketing success with satisfied clientele, old and new.
Don’t settle for subpar rough drafts. Let a content editor help you become a professionally published piece.
Why Shouldn’t I Edit My Web and Marketing Content?
Editing is an essential skill for any writer or content producer to master. Yet, even the most accomplished editors will run into issues when editing their work. Problems like unconscious bias and content fatigue can easily cause you to miss errors.
The help of a content editor can keep your content clear of the issues that plague the industry.
What is Unconscious Bias?
Unconscious bias, otherwise known as unintentional bias, is the hidden feelings of prejudice we subconsciously hold. They can lessen the credibility of a topic, alienate audiences, and even cause the spread of misinformation. Unconscious biases are normal, but you can’t fix them until you are aware of them.
Your unconscious bias can affect the quality of your content editing. It’s better to hire a professional, removing yourself from the equation.
A content editor brings fresh eyes to your product piece, giving you the advice and feedback you need on what you can’t see. Editors train to recognize these biases and combat them through research and rewrites. Clearing your work of unconscious biases helps content marketing and ensures your business and brand stay true to your mission statement.
Keep your messages clear and your content focused with the help of a content editor.
What is Content Fatigue?
Every day, the internet produces an estimated 1.145 trillion MB of content. Yet, the average adult only spends an estimated six hours online a day. Audiences can’t consume content at the rate it’s being published. This causes audiences to skim and ignore articles until they vanish under a wave of new content. Content fatigue is the burnout of audiences, forcing businesses to be more thoughtful in how they publish their products. Longevity is key.
Editors work to battle content fatigue by streamlining your work into easy-to-read, bite-sized pieces. With the help of the tools we’ve listed below, a content editor helps optimize your articles for tired audiences. This includes revising your content for better SEO results, prioritizing keywords, breaking up word density, and more.
A content editor is a professional and the best resource for getting your pieces noticed through content fatigue. See the tools we use to optimize your products below.
The Tools We Use
We ensure quality through the use of several central editor filters. These tools include Grammarly, Hemingway, SEO book, and plagiarism filters. They ensure the quality of our work, with every written project going through these major filters before hitting your desk.
Here is how these tools help.
– Grammarly
Grammarly is a broad strokes filter used to correct basic language mistakes. Red and green underlines show when a sentence contains a misspelt or misused word. A side tab shows a list of possible corrections, including re-wording sentences for clarity or active voices. Grammarly’s main job comes in localization services.
The localization features give a content editor an extra eye on editing for a worldwide audience. They choose the target region for an article, and Grammarly alerts them to any regional inconsistencies. This can include the use of the wrong punctuation or how certain words have different spellings regionally
– Hemingway Editor
While Grammarly deals with punctuation, grammar, and localization, Hemingway focuses on sentence structure. It grades every filtered piece a basic reading level, with levels 5-9 being the ideal range for accessibility and readability. Hemingway highlights complicated sentences based on readability, showing overdrawn, complicated, or run-on sentences.
Hemingway helps shape every article into something easy for a reader to understand. They offer suggestions to simplify sentences and omit any adverbs. It also works to highlight passive phrases, keeping every sentence active and present.
– SEObook
SEObook ensures written pieces are optimized for the online world. This includes everything from building a sitemap to using the right keywords for the best search engine response. Our editors use the keyword density feature to keep an eye on the language used in eye articles.
We ensure that key points repeat without becoming overwhelming. Managing your keyword density is crucial to content marketing success. It ensures your business will always list in connection to these major buzzwords helping draw customers to your page faster than ever.
– Plagiarism filters
Plagiarism filters help keep your content unique and personalized. It’s easy to reuse popular phrases, and common for two separate people to have the same idea. Yet, even unintentionally plagiarized work can devalue the credibility of your brand of business.
A content editor will see every piece processed through high-quality plagiarism filters like Copyscape. Here, our editors will see sentences that sound similar, the number of potentially copied words, and articles with similar content. Our professionals then re-word and reorganize content to keep it unique and set it apart from the competition.
Finally, all content is reviewed a final time by our editing team, ensuring only the best work gets delivered. That’s what your editor needs to do for you.
Check out our blog for more information on the tools we use to help build your brand.
Why the Expert Touch Matters
Filters and AI suggestions can be an excellent tool for turning a rough draft into a final copy, but even the smartest filters will miss things. Grammarly may check your spelling, but it won’t fact-check your statistics. Hemingway will help keep your sentences clear, but they won’t explain cultural jargon relevant to your audience. This is why the expert human touch is essential.
A content editor will adjust the written product beyond filters. They know when to adjust grammar to fit regional standards and know when to use the controversial oxford comma. They also acknowledge regional and historical significance in any written piece. They know when to add more context and what trusted sources to refer clients to for more information.
Whether you need help with content marketing or just general writing help, a content editor is ready to help you.
What Kind Of Content Editor Do I Need?
We’ve discussed the many benefits and roles a content editor can take but finding the right editor for your project can be challenging. Every project has different needs and can require more than one type of editor to make it shine.
There are several different types of content editors. Ensure that you get the correct specialist for your needs.
They work from big-scale edits to minor adjustments and feedback. Check out the detailed list of content editor specialties below, and find the perfect fit for your team.
Article Editorial Assessment
Article assessors will be the first type of editor to see your project. They work at a macro-level but leave only quick notes and editorial suggestions. These editors will give valuable feedback on your work and assess if it meets quality standards and fulfills your desired requirements. They are also referred to as Beta readers.
An article editorial assessment will give you:
- Quick overview.
- First-look feedback.
- Notes and suggestions.
- Minor adjustments.
Development/Substantive Editing
Development editing, also known as substantial editing, is a major rework of your rough draft. This is macro work, focusing on content, clarity, and consistency. At this stage, editing isn’t focused on grammar or spelling but the flow of the draft.
Does the article make sense? Is it laid out in a logical order? Are important facts emphasized or buried in the paragraphs? Do your ideas, and tonation match your audience? Development editing will ask these questions and more to see that your piece works professionally.
A development editor will identify these aspects when editing and leave detailed notes and revisions:
- Article flow.
- Narrative pacing.
- Formatting.
- Clarity.
- Consistency.
- General layout.
- Tonation.
- SEO
Structural Editing
Structural editing is similar to development editing but is micro-level work instead of macro. This is where editors check the quality and pacing of your piece. Now that your working copy is appropriately laid out with its primary writing done, structural editors will do a paragraph-by-paragraph analysis to check your content.
Major revisions are still made at this stage, focused on seeing that your work reads well, looks good, and is factually accurate. Structural editors will overview and send suggestions back on the following:
- Content overview.
- Fact/source accuracy.
- Paragraph by paragraph analysis.
- Overall readability.
- Paragraph/sentence density.
- Produce major structural revisions.
Copy Editors
Copy Editing is microwork on a macro scale. They pour over an entire written piece, evaluating each sentence for accuracy and grammatical correctness. Contrary to proofreaders who work at the end of a project to make sure it’s error-free, copy editors are mid-project, detailed workers. Their focus is on the core of your work, making any final large-scale edits before the proofreader sees it.
Work brought to a copy editor is a functioning rough draft. It’s fully fleshed out but needs a professional eye to restructure and re-word it for better audience reception. They adjust and make revisions, last-minute reworks, and outline changes at this stage.
Their editing focuses on:
- Major spelling issues.
- Major grammatical mistakes.
- Punctuation errors.
- Language and localization.
- Readability and density.
- Case consistency.
- Final revisions if needed.
Proofreaders
Proofreaders are editors who help cross your t’s and dot your i’s. It’s micro-editing work that acts as a final clean-up for missed errors before distribution. A proofreader will be the last editor to see your work but will only focus on surface-level mistakes. All major edits and reworks are cared for at prior stages.
Hiring a proofreader to edit your content before it goes live can save you from publishing simple mistakes. A proofreader will focus on these aspects of your piece to get it ready for publishing:
- Missed spelling or grammatical errors.
- Awkward sentence wording.
- Typographical errors.
- Formatting inconsistency.
- Having a second set of eyes to look over your project is never a bad investment.
Hiring a Freelancer Vs. a Professional Content Editor
When hiring an editor, you have many options to choose from, but no service will offer you the same flexibility and variety as us.
At this blog, we employ seasoned professionals to match all your editor needs. With worldwide experience, our teams can match any localization market and grammar style. Our trusted team can edit at large capacities, with faster turnarounds than freelance writers.
A content editor is vital to your marketing success. They ensure your articles and posts are correctly structured, well-formatted, and read correctly.
Our editors will revise your work promptly and give you detailed reviews and revisions you can’t get anywhere else. Our extensive quality pre-checks and attention to detail will make your work error-free in no time.
We prioritize your privacy. Confidentiality is key, ensuring your work will stay secure through the entire editing process. Whether you want a one-time proofreader or a team of editors to process your project from beginning to end, we’ve got you covered.
Freelancers are expensive, with varying quality and vague timelines. With us, you are a part of the team. Whether you need a fast revision, outline adjustment, or detailed overview, we are here for you.
Fast, affordable, and detailed we are ready to serve. Sample our work with a free demo today for a firsthand look at our unbeatable quality.
Conclusion
Content editors perform a vital service to blogs, websites, and digital content creators. They’re the eagle-eyed watchers that ensure only the finest content makes it to the publishing stage. However, it’s a challenging and time-consuming process that most content creators just don’t have time for. Luckily, you don’t have to waste precious project time self-editing; hire a professional to do it for you. Our specialty team of content editors is ready to get you the help you need, fast. Request a free demo today, and let us turn your rough draft into a final copy.
