5 Quality checks that your content needs to pass
Updated on 3rd July 2020
“Good content is not storytelling. It’s telling your story well.” – @MarketingProfs
Quality and uniqueness are the two key elements that separate your content from the crowd. What is quality content, you ask? “A grammatically correct piece of content that addresses a specific issue or topic and provides a solution to the reader”, is the most common answer you will get.
Though this is correct; there’s more to the story. Your content must clear the following quality checks before it leaves your desk:
1. Plagiarism
The act of copy-pasting someone else’s work or idea in your piece of content is plagiarism. Besides being unethical and a punishable offense, plagiarism affects SEO ranking adversely and can result in dire repercussions. To avoid this, you can use several tools available online to ensure your content is original and unique. Copyscape, Unicheck, DupliChecker, Plagiarismhunt, Plagramme are a few top online plagiarism detection tools that can help you create and publish plagiarism-free content.
2. Brand consistency
Every brand that’s creating content is doing so with a goal in mind. They might want to educate their target group or wish to promote a new product or service. Depending on their objective, they might want to keep their tone of voice casual, conversational, actionable, or quirky. But this should be consistent across all communications, including the content that you create. Therefore, as a content writer, aligning your writing with a brand’s preferred voice becomes a mandate. Following a content style guide is your best bet to ensure uniformity in your content.
3. Fact check
Providing accurate information in your content is crucial as it will have a direct impact on your credibility as a writer/brand. So, you must source statistics or any other facts from reputable and credible sources such as newspapers, journals and research papers, blogs of well-known organizations, etc.
Pro Tip: Add the links as footnotes, so the readers know where the information has been sourced from.
4. Grammar and spell check
Typos and grammatical errors are not uncommon while writing, so it is even more essential to revisit your content. The availability of online tools has made checking grammar and spelling an effortless task. Grammarly, Ginger, ProWritingAid, WhiteSmoke are some excellent grammar-checking tools you can use to create content with confidence.
5. Keywords to improve content quality
Keywords are a crucial part of any content, especially if SEO is the sole objective of content creation. But keywords should be incorporated mindfully; excessive usage of keywords leads to keyword stuffing, which impacts the SEO ranking negatively. Online tools such as SEMrush offer you an SEO score after carefully analyzing your content. Following an SEO checklist and using online SEO tools ensure you deliver quality content, that is SEO-friendly.
How does a content quality check benefit you?
Keeping these five things in mind when you write and edit can save both you and the editor a lot of time. This also reduces the number of feedback and iterations, which leads to quicker approval of the content. All this goes a long way in creating a positive image of you as a content creator and helps you stand out from the crowd of writers.