Blog Archives

Why editing is NOT about being ‘a bit OCD’

24/5/2022

Silhouette of a person's head with scrunched up balls of paper around it

Summary of Episode 92

We explore the term ‘OCD’ and why it has no place as a marker of attention to detail for the professional editor. Listen to find out more about:

The difference between character traits of orderliness and the lived experience of OCD
What is OCD and how does it affect people?
Why OCD is a noun and what that means for how we use the term
How OCD might manifest
How flippant and colloquial references to OCD diminish lived experience
Intention versus perception of harm
Editing text: querying rather than prescribing problems and solutions
Does fiction offer more scope for use of harmful language?
Alternative words and phrases
Helping clients create engaging rather than distracting messages

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Music credit

‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.

Louise Harnby is a line editor, copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in working with crime, mystery, suspense and thriller writers.

She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), a member of ACES, a Partner Member of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.

Get in touch: Louise Harnby | Fiction Editor & Proofreader
Connect: Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, Facebook and LinkedIn
Learn: Books and courses
Discover: Resources for authors and editors

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Is it okay to revise a blog post on your editing or proofreading website?

19/5/2022

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Are you worried about revising blog posts that you wrote a few years back? Think it’s dishonest or underhanded? Read on to find out why you should embrace editing your blog content, regardless of when you wrote it.

Picture of leaves with the word change etched onto bark

What’s included in this post

What a blog is
How the search engines find blog content
Why there’s no such thing as an ‘old’ blog post
Historical record or a reflection of your business’s values?
What about content written by guests?
How you might update your blog content
Might you tag out-of-date posts as archive material instead?

What a blog is

A blog is simply a collection of web pages.

Just like other web pages on your site, blog posts include an H1 heading (the blog-post title) and text. You can add additional headings, buttons, links and other audiovisual material, as well as SEO-friendly meta data and alt-text in images to improve accessibility.

Unlike other pages on your site, blog posts are organized in a way that makes the content more accessible for readers, perhaps via some or all of the following:

A single point of access to multiple pages
A topic-based archive
A date-based archive
A keyword archive
A search tool
The date the content on the page was published
The option for readers to comment on the page’s content

How the search engines find blog content

When a user types a query into the search engines, those search engines scour visible web pages all over the world for signs of relevance.

The likes of Google don’t give a damn about:

when you published the content
whether you’ve changed your opinion since you created the content
or whether the language you’ve used in a ten-year-old post is language you wouldn’t use now because you’re more aware.

What they are interested in is whether you’ve published content that’s relevant to a search query. So a blog post with keywords and phrases that align with a user’s query will rank higher in the search results.

They’re also interested in how long users stay on that page, and what they do when they leave it. When people stick around on a particular page, that’s a signal that you’ve offered a good user experience.

And if you create links from a blog post to other pages on your website (for example, another blog post, a resource library or your editorial services page) that a user finds interesting and so doesn’t bounce out of your website, that’s another indication that you’re providing relevant solutions to the searcher’s problems.

The more relevant pages you have on your site, the more likely they are to be listed higher up the results of a search query, and the more likely you are to be visited by that ideal client who clicks through.

Wall with graffiti painted with the word now

Why there’s no such thing as an ‘old’ blog post

Given that blog posts are just web pages, and that relevant web pages are more likely to be found by the search engines and listed in the search results, a really useful blog post – one that answers a question often posed by searchers – will be visible and valuable even if it was written years ago.

In that sense, there’s no such thing as an ‘old’ blog post. Remember, Google doesn’t care about the date of publication; it cares only about how relevant your content is to a search query.

The question editor bloggers therefore need to ask themselves is: Do you want people finding content on your business website that

is out of date, or makes you appear to be out of step with your profession
uses language that you wouldn’t dream of using now
or offers advice that you’ve long since revised your opinion on?

If the answer’s no, it’s critical that you frame your blogging mindset in terms of ‘what’, not ‘when’.

Historical record or a reflection of your business’s values?

None of us would dream of including an old phone number or email address on our contact page, or an editorial service that we no longer provide on our services page, or a logo we’ve long since abandoned on our home page.

That’s because we don’t consider our contact, services or home pages to be historical records of what once was. Rather, the content on those pages reflects our business as it is now.

The same applies to a blog. This is merely a collection of other web pages on your site, and so it needs to be treated similarly. Every blog post needs to be regarded as if it were published yesterday.

Blog content is therefore current. That content is a reflection of your business and your brand values as they are today.

Even if that content was published ten years ago.

Certainly, some written materials are historical records – a journal article published in 1969, the first edition of a book, the minutes of a meeting – but editors' blogs are not.

And so if you have blog content on your website that doesn’t reflect your business brand as it is now, it’s time to update it.

Your website is your business shop front, the digital land that you own and control. And you have a duty to preserve its integrity.

Several cups spelling out the word welcome

What about content written by guests?

When you offer guests the opportunity to write for your blog, you're giving them access to your platform.

YOUR platform.

It’s still your land, your business shop front, and it’s you, not your guest, who is responsible for that space. You therefore still have the right to preserve your website’s integrity. And if that means some sort of intervention, so be it.

If you’re now uncomfortable with the content – even though you weren’t when you published it – decide on the most appropriate way to ensure it reflects your business’s brand values.

How you might update your blog content

The decisions you make about your blog content are the same as those you’d make for the content on any other web page on your site.

Revision
You might choose to edit existing content so that it’s up to date and accessible.

Revision’s a great option for posts that rank high in the search engines for particular queries, and drive potential clients to your website. You get to keep your findability but ensure your existing brand is intact.

Do make sure these valuable posts link to other relevant content on your website.

Deletion
You might decide to delete entire posts, thereby removing those web pages from your site.

Deletion’s a good option for the following types of blog content:

Posts that are never found and never read.
Posts that are so out of date that they could damage your business brand.
Posts that are no longer relevant, for example a review of a book, course or piece of software that’s no longer available.

Repurpose
You might decide to rewrite, using the same theme but bringing your current experience into play.

Repurposing’s a good option for when your original blog post tackled a theme that’s relevant to the kind of people you want to visit your website, but you need a complete rewrite to ensure the content’s bang up to date and reflects your editorial business’s brand values.

Might you tag out-of-date posts as archive material instead?

Tagging blog content as archived material rather than updating it is not a solution because it’s still visible.

And website visitors often scan content, and so likely won’t notice the date or an archive marker. Instead, they’ll search for the solution they originally came to the post for.

If that material’s out of date, the damage is done because what they're reading isn't reflecting your current brand values.

There are online online archives, and those serve a purpose, but that’s not the purpose of your editorial blog. Your blog posts, like every other page on your website, should show potential clients why you’re a great fit for each other now.

Summing up

Edit your blog content with alacrity! It’s not just okay to do so; it’s essential to do so. Editorial business websites tell our potential clients:

who we are
what we do
what we stand for
and how we can help them.

Every single web page on our site needs to reflect that messaging. And since blog posts are just web pages, they should be current and relevant. Out-of-date blog content screams out-of-date business. That has no place in any editor’s marketing strategy.

And the date a blog post was published is irrelevant because that’s not what determines its findability. It’s relevance to a search query is what makes it visible. And if it’s visible, it’s visible now.

Happy revising!

Related training resources

Editor Website Essentials: Find out how to craft a visible, loveable editorial website with this 10-step framework that takes you through the essentials of SEO, navigation, structure, visitors, UX, branding, web page copy, home page design, content and analytics. Find out more about the course.

Blogging for Business Growth: Learn how to create a discoverable, captivating and memorable blog that drives website traffic, increases visibility in the search engines, and generates editing work. Find out more about the course.

Get in touch: Louise Harnby | Fiction Editor & Proofreader
Connect: Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, Facebook and LinkedIn
Learn: Books and courses
Discover: Resources for authors and editors

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Editing the language of illness: With Louise Bolotin

12/5/2022

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Summary of Episode 91

Should editors be interrogating the language of illness? We chat with Louise Bolotin about challenging normative narratives around cancer and terminal illness. Listen to find out more about:

Louise Bolotin's cancer diagnosis
Why the language preferences of those with terminal illnesses aren't homogenous
Terms in the language of illness that can hurt and harm
Why editors have a duty to challenge normative narratives that sugarcoat dying and death
How asking how a person wants to talk about terminal illness is better than assuming

Louise Bolotin's Facebook and LinkedIn statements

If you want to see how our guest and edibuddy talks about her cancer diagnosis and the language that surrounds it, or follow her Last Hurrah, take a look at these announcements, threads and pics on social media.

Facebook: The Last Hurrah album
Facebook: Statement about cancer diagnosis and language
LinkedIn: Announcement about cancer diagnosis and language

Join our Patreon community

If you'd like to support The Editing Podcast, thank you! That means the world to us.

SUPPORT THE EDITING PODCAST

Music credit

‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.

Get in touch: Louise Harnby | Fiction Editor & Proofreader
Connect: Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, Facebook and LinkedIn
Learn: Books and courses
Discover: Resources for authors and editors

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What is subediting? With Louise Bolotin

11/5/2022

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Summary of Episode 90

Want to add subediting to your editorial skillset? Louise Bolotin has been subbing for 17 years and knows the job inside out. In this episode, she shares her knowledge and experience. Listen to find out more about: