5 Reasons Why You Need a Website Content Editor
I’ve seen many clients, who with the best of intentions fall into the same rut year after year. There are certain universal truths about successful websites; one of them is that on website projects that include a quality content editor as part of the dedicated team, the process is smoother, stays on schedule and client satisfaction is high.
Here’s a common scenario. Insanely busy client initiates website project and can’t wait to get the new site up — the current one is five years old (give or take a couple), which is three technology generations ago, and the company is looking tired.
The writing and other content development is divided among topic leaders around the company and a schedule is distributed. We provide guidance on writing and desired word count and counsel brevity. One of the company’s writers gets called out of town. Another goes on vacation. Copy trickles in from others, some of which seems novel length long. Other copy switches from third person to second person in the same paragraph. An engineer writes in the passive voice with all the details of a product spec, and so forth.
So, how can a content editor help?
5 Benefits of a Content Editor
1. Understanding the Web Reader
“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” This quote attributed to Mark Twain, holds true in the Internet Age and even more so as we morph into the Mobile Age. The most prevalent mistake people make when writing for the web is to tell a story in microscopic detail.
The Jakob Neilsen Eye Tracking Study tracks web readers’ viewing habits, which can take a distinctive “F-shape” pattern indicating that people read the header, skim the first few lines of a web page, skip down to the next subhead and skim some more. The implications of this are for the writer to craft copy that one can skim in this way and still glean key concepts.
Keeping the reader’s viewing habits top of mind effectively and consistently requires expertise, training and the ability to pare back detail — skills the Web Content Editor has honed through experience.
2. Objective Perspective
A content editor will begin by asking about website objectives, key audiences, messaging and tone. S/he will come to the assignment with a fresh perspective, without preconceived notions, or the inherent need of an insider to spell out every last detail for fear that something is missed. S/he will assume of the audience either too much knowledge or not enough.
The content editor will objectively evaluate the internally created content, based on stated site objectives. A good copy editor will continually challenge the inside team to focus on the value the company provides rather than the details of how something works or that it is great.
Providing consistent reminders that a website is about the audience and not the company is arguably the greatest value of having an objective resource.
3. Messaging Expertise
Bringing a consistent “clarity of purpose” to the content is something a good editor keeps top-of-mind. From the inception of a web project, s/he will glean key messages and brand attributes that are necessary to convey in the content. With each piece of content, s/he will ask, is the key message coming through? Are the details overwhelming the main point? Is it clear to the reader?
Content editors understand the power of cohesive messaging, consistently executed, and will cut through the clutter to simplify and promote the right ideas.
4. Single Voice
With the number of participants and various backgrounds of team members writing for the web, it’s no surprise that copy is widely uneven in quality and consistency of message. The website is not only an educational and marketing tool, it is a representation of a company’s culture, which is a reflection of the brand.
Reading the work of a single, objective, professional content editor is not unlike using an app to create a playlist of one of your favorite artists, versus listening to an uneven conglomeration of songs grouped into one “radio station” that ostensibly delivers the same sound as your chosen artist.
5. Maintaining Schedule
When a client has a new product launch, various events to prepare for, client management and website writing on his/her plate, guess which one tends to fall lowest on the list of priorities?
While writing for the web may be something a company executive feels the team should do, the reality is that the website falls to a “when I can get to it” status. I can’t think of a website project where a missed schedule wasn’t the result of client produced content not being ready.
In our experience, there is no question that having a dedicated content editor is most important for keeping the web project on schedule. Building it into the initial project from the start removes the greatest impediment to launching on schedule.
What are your thoughts on having a dedicated content editor?
