by Lynn Varon, Writer Web
We all know what copy editors do in the context of book publishing. What makes a website editor special? They have the skills to help you reap the greatest benefit from the mass medium that is the internet.
Depending on a client’s needs, the role of a website editor can be very broad: copy editing and proofreading, content creation and management, page design, search engine optimization (SEO), ensuring accessibility, managing social media, tracking, and analyzing website traffic, ensuring maximum uptime, and more.
If you hope to publish a book, you’ll need a website, and a website needs copy. It’s okay to have a static page with basic information. Once your site goes live, however, you’re not likely to go back and review it, so if there are mistakes, they will be there forever, silently judging you. A website editor can ensure your website copy reflects well on you as a writer and as a professional.
How your copy looks on your website is as important as how well it’s written. A website editor will make sure the text fits your site’s design, special characters show up correctly, the same fonts are used throughout, your headline and subhead styles are consistently applied, and menu and button text matches.
The internet gods demand a regular sacrifice of content. To attract new traffic and encourage repeat visits to your site, you’ll have to give readers something new to come back for. To keep your search-engine ranking (i.e., how close you remain at the top of the search results) high, post new website content often. It can be as simple as an update to your resume, a link to an interesting article, or an announcement of an upcoming appearance. At the very least, keep your contact information current.
The demands are greater if you write a blog. Three times a week is ideal. If you’re churning out twelve 500-word blog posts per month, you might not have time to properly edit them all. That’s a need a website editor can fill. They also manage your content, creating blog pages and scheduling posts for automatic publication.
Tip: Make your website content go the extra mile by using (already edited) excerpts on your social-media pages. Point the reader to the complete article on your website, where you can capture their full attention.
Use headlines and subheads effectively to show visitors you have the information they’re looking for. People don’t visit your website to read paragraphs of text, but to find information quickly. Pay attention to your own browsing habits to get an idea of how much time you have to catch a visitor’s attention. A second set of eyes helps determine whether your headers and subheads create the right flow.
If a website editor maintains your content, they look for broken hyperlinks. Linking to other relevant websites boosts your ranking in search-engine results. Links that lead nowhere, however, are a surefire way to make your website appear stale and irrelevant.
Whether you need a review of your existing site or ongoing support, a website editor is a great asset.
Lynn Varon had one job for 18 years. As the managing editor of an 86-page monthly magazine (Queen of Rock & Gem), she edited millions of words, published articles by dozens of first-time writers, developed new features and columns, and revitalized the publication’s website. She survived three changes in ownership and weathered the Great Magazine Die-off of the Early Aughts while building strong professional and personal relationships that last to this day.
