Does bad spelling make you look stupid? In certain circumstances, yes...
You don’t have to be a good writer to produce good content. You don’t need to have a beautifully designed website either.
But what you write has to be spelt correctly, the information should be correct, the links need to work, the facts should be checked and the headline needs to deliver on what it promises.
It’s important to check what you’ve written. Accuracy matters.
The most efficient approach is to write everything down into a rough first draft. Then go through it with an editor’s hat on, applying the core elements of web writing – tightening up the sentences and paragraphs, obliterating unnecessary words, cutting out the fluff and formatting for skim-reading by using subheadings.
If you have the luxury of time, leave what you’ve written for a few hours (or a day) and come back to it with a fresh eye. You can often spot mistakes after letting your brain switch off or think of extra information that you want to add.
It often helps to print an article out so you can check it on paper rather than onscreen. You can also try reading it aloud to get a feel for the pacing and the rhythm of the words, sentences and your article’s general flow. You could even have your computer read it out aloud for you – both Windows and Mac OS X feature Text To Speech functionality.
Finally, do all of your editing and structural tweaking BEFORE you run a spellcheck. That way you can catch any lingering errors.
Next: Good content writing tips: “Try to be timely”
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