by: C David
The importance of editing online content cannot be underestimated. The internet is a rapidly crowding marketplace. Every day thousands upon thousands of new sites are created, and many of them may hope to become your top competitor.
You may have a great design, a perfect product or service, the right price and plenty of information. However, if your presentation suffers from sub-par editing, your efforts are sure to fall short.
In a rapidly expanding arena, it is an absolute necessity to stand out and to separate your site from the competition. Perfect editing is one important way to make sure you create that separation.
There are at least three overwhelming justifications related to sales success that underline the need to make sure your words are presented flawlessly.
Editing Provides Maximum Credibility:
Your commercial venture requires customers who are willing to trust you. In order to convince anyone to part with their money in exchange for your product or service, they must feel comfortable dealing with you.
The anonymous nature of the internet prevents you from utilizing many of the traditional “brick and mortar” trust-building strategies. You are, in essence, reduced to your web site. As such, your site must exude professionalism and credibility.
Errors in presentation can kill consumer confidence. The internet marketplace is viewed with a great deal of skepticism by many. If a visitor finds errors in your text, they are likely to wonder if you are legitimate and serious about your offerings.
Whether accurate or not, errors create the perception that your site was built in haste and without great care. This raises warning flags to potential customers that you may be out only to turn a quick buck and may not be a credible seller.
In a relatively anonymous setting, consumers would prefer to deal with businesses that appear to be established, professional and credible. A simple error could result in countless lost opportunities.
Editing Reduces Misunderstanding and Confusion:
Poorly or inaccurately worded content can create confusion for visitors. This confusion may prevent purchases altogether, or may create misunderstandings that lead to subsequent customer service issues.
Those who stop at your site should be presented with a clear understanding of what you are offering, what it accomplishes, and your policies and prices. Failures of explanation inevitably lead to problems that cost both time and money to repair.
Careful editing and clearly-worded text screen out potential problems before they happen, resulting in fewer customer service issues and more sales.
Editing Increases Stickiness:
You installed content on your site for a reason. You want a lot of qualified traffic and you want return visitors.
Astute surfers are likely to click away from your site quickly if they are not presented with helpful information. Confusing or inaccurate text turns readers off immediately. Instead of being perceived as a quality resource, you site is viewed as an online junk collection. Few are willing to spend the energy required to sort through what they believe to be a junk pile.
Errors destroy the credibility of your content and become a reason for surfers to stay away from your site, rather than to return. Poor content is hard to read and is simply too difficult to trust.
Well-edited materials encourage repeat visitors and increase a site’s perceived value.
In the rush to produce an operable site, editing often is overlooked or is performed haphazardly. This mistake can lead to incalculable losses. As such, anyone seeking to turn a profit online must place great focus on content editing.
Checking for spelling and grammatical errors is only the beginning of a successful editing campaign. Flawless presentation requires adherence to appropriate style guidelines combined with a keen understanding of how readers use and interpret information presented on the internet.
High-quality editing is a labor-intensive and potentially time-consuming task, but the rewards certainly justify making sure your content is offered flawlessly.