I’ll freely admit that on occasion, I find trying to proofread and edit my blog posts a bit frustrating. To help improve the overall experience I follow some simple, yet essential practices that deliver a more organized and trouble-free experience.
Editing remains an integral part of any writing process; whether it’s for a poem, magazine, book, newspaper, social media post or blog, it shouldn’t be overlooked too often (I’ve definitely been guilty of this).
Rereading our own words can sometimes lead to overcorrection or second-guessing ourselves — in some cases, triggering a mental block or general dissatisfaction with our work. Avoiding this isn’t always possible but there are some things we can implement that will make editing a blog post more practical — even enjoyable.
Why Blog Post Editing Is Important
Checking for grammatical accuracy that corrects syntax, spelling mistakes and typos is what blog post editing is built on. However, an equally significant aspect of it involves making sure we’ve maintained an authentic blogging voice/style while also ensuring readability. It is fundamental visitors to our site can understand what we’re seeking to convey and/or share.
Editing improves the quality of our blog posts; a requisite element that determines what search engines recommend to their users. The likes of Google, Bing, Yahoo!, DuckDuckGo, etc. want to provide the most useful search query answers they can — which won’t be our blog posts if they’re riddled with errors. If we want to produce successful, coherent and engaging content then skipping or cutting editorial corners is not an option.
Give Yourself Time
We shouldn’t try perfecting every sentence as we go or jump straight into editing after completing our first draft. Reworking constantly while we’re in the middle of formulating a blog post is not only inefficient it hinders clarity and purpose by introducing doubt into our creative process. Ideally we should allow for a day or two between writing and editing a finished piece — fresh eyes provide an alternative perspective and read things differently. However, a couple of hours will suffice if we’re in a rush.
Read Your Post Out Loud
One of the most straightforward ways to check readability and spot any spelling mistakes and grammar issues is to recite out loud what we’ve written. This helps highlight sentences that are hard to understand, pinpoints erroneous words and phrases and checks our content for logical order.
Upgrade Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
After reading through a blog post; I’d recommend using a grammar checking program that will look over any problems and catch any errors that may have been missed. These are available as onsite plugins, apps or websites — some even being free to use/only requiring an email sign-up to access them. They can be utilized to evaluate word repetition, offer vocabulary enhancements, identify run-on sentences and highlight/correct general grammatical inaccuracies.
Blog Post SEO
The planning stage is when we should prepare for blog post optimization but editing represents an ideal time to make sure we’ve utilized things like: keywords; post loading speeds; image alt-text and internal linking, etc. There are a number of blogging tools available that will do all the SEO checking we need (most require a fee/subscription to access all features).
Useful Article | Blog SEO: The Complete Guide – Backlinko
Preview Formatting
Another great editing step to take before we publish our work is to preview our posts. Even if we’ve found all the typos, spelling mistakes and problematic sentences in our text editor draft; there may be things to tweak and restructure once we’ve proofread and visualized the final product.
Editing Your Way
The most noteworthy thing to remember about blog post editing is that while authenticity, consistency and engagement are key drivers; it isn’t about being flawless — we can adjust, update and restructure even after publication. What’s important is we do our best to develop something as well-written as we can manage; which depending on any number of factors may well look different from time to time. Be kind to yourself as you figure out what’s going to work best for you; hopefully, the suggestions and reminders in this article provide some guidance and support.
Do you make time for editing? Is it something you find frustrating; do you have any editing tips?
Further Info:
The Top 15 Blog Post Writing Tips – Semrush
transatlantic | notes 
I always edit and preview! For the reason above, that I want google to think it’s legit. Not saying I never make errors. But I try!
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I really like how previewing my post gives me a completely different reading experience from the text editor; I definitely spot things better in preview. Thanks for reading!
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These are all wonderful tips Molly! Editing is my least favourite part of blogging but I find Grammarly helpful. I’m learning more about SEO as I continue to blog but there is so much to learn. I’ll check out the link you provided. Thanks for sharing.
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I have been blogging a long time and I am still learning about SEO so don’t worry if it feels like you’re weighing through a lot of info. Editing it my least favourite aspect of blogging so I’m glad others experience the same issues!
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I like to read my post out load while editing. It really helps me a lot. Thank you for sharing.
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I do too, it really makes a difference and helps me so much too!
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I spend so alot of time editing my posts because I feel it also helps with the anxiety that comes from hitting that publish button. Your list is very helpful. Thank you for sharing!
Lauren
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I spend quite a lot of time on it too (I’m even going to make some revisions on this post too, haha) so I hope these reminders/tips ease the whole process for anyone who needs it. Thanks so much for reading!
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I find reading out loud helps me the most too, and of course, using Grammarly helps too aha!
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I often switch between Grammarly and Scribens as they are both so useful!
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These are such great and useful tips! Thanks so much for sharing!
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Thanks for reading!
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Useful tips. Thanks for sharing
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Thank you!
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Thank you, Molly, for this wonderful and well-written post. Editing is a big part of creating content. It is difficult to get through a texr riddled with mistakes or lack of flow. I always reread my work and besides grammar and spelling, I see if it flows nice. If I can read it again and find that there are litte to no stumbling blocks I’m fine with it. Moreover, I question the points I’m making. I put on the critic hat and see if my text holds. Which sometimes causes rewrites.
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This is very similar to the process I go through with editing; it’s something worth doing but can get a little frustrating at times. Thanks for reading!
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Blogging is a learn in progress, each and everyday..
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I agree with 100%
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These are really great tips. I admit I end up getting lazy but it’s definitely worth just setting aside even ten minutes to proof read makes a world of a difference!
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I can sometimes try to cut corners and it never works out too well for me, haha! Proofreading is a must as it’s so good at helping to spot any issues.
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These are great tips for blog editing. Grammarly and other spell check programs have been super useful to me, I’d also still recommend reading it aloud because sometimes these programs may miss stuff. Another thing is to have an outline done, that way you’re not stuck trying to write a single paragraph for so long.
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I agree, proofreading aloud is a must and shouldn’t be skipped; I usually do it before and after using any grammar programs as it’s such a useful way to check for errors and ensure that flow/voice is maintained, etc. Thanks for reading!
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thanks for these wonderful editing tips, molly! 🙂 i’ll def be using them for my future blog posts.
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I am so glad these reminders and tips were useful!
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Reading blog posts aloud is helpful. Thanks for sharing these tips.
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I agree — it’s so useful!
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Editing and giving yourself time are so important! These are all great tips.
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I agree; having time to do it properly is a great idea!
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Thank you for sharing these. I try really hard not to make mistakes but sometimes they slip through. I find the preview option really helps. If someone else is home I also have them read it for me. 🙂
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Mistakes are perfectly okay and they definitely slip through (this happens to me too); I love the idea of having someone else read the preview too — that’s really useful!
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Reading my post out load has helped me so much. It helps me to realize how much editing need to happen. I used to just post and tweet without re reading my writing. Now I re read constantly and make sure I edit everything.
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I find it so helpful to do that too; it really does help to catch any issues. Thanks for reading!
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These are great tips on editing posts! It is definitely a process, but I do find reading my post out loud and using a grammar check helpful! Also, I do make sure to preview my posts to make sure my post is structured right and pictures are in the correct place.
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I agree; it can be quite frustrating at times but it’s good that there are a number of things we can do that help us out.
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When I’m writing a blog post, I usually start by just getting my ideas down and arranging them into the right order, even if I can’t think of the best wording right away, and I know the sentences aren’t quite coherent. Once I’ve got a draft written, I’ll go through and write it properly with better wording and sentence structure. It often takes me several read-throughs before I get to a final version I am happy with. I have a grammar-checking plugin which definitely helps pick up some errors that I might otherwise miss!
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That sounds like a great writing routine; it’s so important to find what works for us and has a natural flow to work through. I use grammar checkers to make sure I haven’t missed anything — they are so useful!
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Some great tips! Thanks : )
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Thanks for reading!
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Hey Molly, really great post. As marketeers and blog writers, this post does resonate with us. I think your point about it not being flawless is absolutely spot on. It’s never going to be perfect and you can save a whole bunch of time and hassle the sooner you come to that realisation as a writer. I’m reminded of one of my fave quotes Art is never finished, only abandoned – Da Vinci
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I am so glad that this post connected with you; it’s always tough when we think we have to strive for perfection all the time. Accepting that sometimes our best may look different or changes from one piece to the next is a great first step. Thanks so much for sharing that great quote!
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These are great tips, Molly, thank you for sharing. Every now and then I try to go back to the old post and do some editing. Now that I also schedule content I allow time to write, edit, and review with more care. Makes a huge difference.
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I’m happy to hear these were useful; it’s always tricking editing older content so it’s good to have a few tips and tricks to use!
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