You might have the most interesting or entertaining blog posts on your website. However, one simple error can be the difference between a returning visitor and someone who will simply click off your website and find another blog post to read. It is sad to say how judgmental web users are online. However, it is due to the fact that the next best alternative, with regards to blog posts and websites, is always one click away. This makes it adamantly clear that having blog posts that are error-free and have been proof read correctly is key to making sure you don’t lose any traffic ‘cheaply’. For this reason, here are 4 proofreading tips you can implement when it comes to checking your blog posts before scheduling or publishing.

#1 Re-read First, Preferably a Day Later

The first thing you should always do when you proof read and edit a blog post before publication is re-read the whole thing. You can do this as soon as you create the post. However, you might not pick up on some errors if you ‘scan’ the blog post. Instead, come back to it in a day and you are likely to find more typos and errors than if you read the post straight after creating it.

#2 Check Headings/Lists etc.

It is quite easy to use the wrong heading or list, if you are using the likes of WordPress for creating blog posts. Using the wrong heading (such as Heading 3 instead of Heading 1) will have an impact on the SEO of that blog post, since heading 1s carry with it more weight to the SEO of the article than, say, heading 3s. Therefore, by clicking onto each heading/list and making sure the correct heading/list is used will help the post’s SEO efforts.

#3 Spell Check

WordPress has a spell checker tool which will highlight any occurrences where the software feels there is a typo, or the wrong use of grammar. Although this does not pick up on all vocabulary and grammatical errors, it can be useful to double check against your proof-reading. It takes an extra 20-30 seconds and can potentially highlight several mistakes within your post. For example, a common one for me is ‘color’ and ‘colour’. The UK spells color as ‘colour’. But, since I am appealing to a predominantly US audience, it is useful to know when I spell it incorrectly in the eyes of the US way, for which the Spell Checker picks up on.

#4 Always Preview

Before finally publishing a post, it is an absolute must that you preview the post. Previewing the post allows you to view the article as if it was published live on your website. Therefore, it gives you a general sense as to how your blog post will look on your website. From this, you can address any structural problems, such as different fonts used, double spacing and more to make sure it is visually consistent with the structure of the rest of your blog posts on your website.