Content Marketing

During the editing process, most writers reveal their mind's machinations. If a person is an organized thinker, their sentences easily arrange themselves into sections that turn into obvious subheads and paragraphs. If someone is more free-form, they may struggle to create order as they move from thought to thought. Encapsulating ideas and putting them into an easy-follow format is a way I assist my clients as a Virginia website content editor. Adding Transition Words Into Your Content Improve your writing by adding transition words to your content. You can plan for it while you are writing or add it in [...]

Businesses and professionals aim to exude confidence in their audience. From doctors giving advice to patients to retailers persuading customers, language choices influence the level of trust people place in the words. My clients work with me to improve the tone of their writing — especially when they aim to persuade someone to action. In these instances, I search for two frequently-used words believe and think. Finding them in client's text has become part of my editing process as a VA web content writer. Using Believe in a Statement When someone says, "I believe that..." the phrase infers opinion. The [...]

Sometimes, you don't have time to do a deep dive into SEO research before creating content. However, most people want some insight into what keywords to include in their titles, descriptions, and content. Below are the top ways I use Keyword Planner to get quick content ideas. How to Pull Keywords from Competitor Websites: You can pull keyword inspiration from your competitor's websites. All you need to do is load their URL into Google's Keyword Planner Tool and look for areas of opportunity. 1. If you don't have one already, create a Google Adwords account. You'll need to connect a [...]

I hate to say that some people underuse "said" in their writing. Most of the time, writers intentionally choose to swap out this word to improve their text. But, swapping it out can actually have the opposite effect. Why? The switch up becomes distracting. After the first few lines of dialogue, the reader will absorb the tone of the conversation. Unless there is a shift in the way people are speaking, there is no need to keep defining the dialogue. Instead, you can use the word said and allow people to glaze over it. Also, imprecise use of dialogue tags [...]

When I edit website content for my clients, I search for common writing offenses. These aren't simple grammatical mistakes or spelling errors. Instead, I mark style infractions that impact the readability of a piece. I have developed a practical list that I reference when I edit content as a Virginia web content writer. I apply this list to my client's website text. First, I use the "find" function to identify and highlight the issues. Then, I read the document and adjust the issues while maintaining the tone of the piece. Often, I see writers using not to hedge a thought. [...]

I maintain a personal vendetta against the backslash. In fact, it's on my hit list whenever I edit content as a freelance writer and editor. I open the document and use the "Find + Replace" function to search for backslashes. Then, I remove every single one. Why? The backslash (\) is only meant to be used for computer coding. Yet, people drop it into sentences to divide lists, combine ideas and replace other, more appropriate punctuation. Using the Forward-Slash While the forward-slash (/) may be used in writing, it often works against the style and tone. It can be incredibly [...]