Creating web page copy can be a tedious and time consuming task, whether you are adding a new product page to your website or publishing a new article or blog post.

It is very easy to overlook simple mistakes whenever you publish a new web page. I have identified a simple 7 point checklist that you must follow before you publish content and make it public. This will help you to get more out of your content by creating better copy and making sure the overall quality of your website is not compromised.

Why is this important?

Performing detailed check before you publish a new web page will help you to:

• Maintain quality
• Stay credible and trustworthy
• Create better copy
• Preserve your brand
• Drive more traffic
• Increase shareability
• Reduce Bounce Rate
• Improve Readability and Usability

1. Check Your Links

Links are very important in content. Including relevant links in articles improves the overall quality of content and makes it more valuable for readers. There are sevral aspects of links that you need to consider and check before you hit the publish button.

Following are some aspects of links you can check:

• Check for Broken Links.
• Check for excessive links.
• Check all links are relevant. If not, remove them.
• Check that links are correctly No-folllowed or Do-followed.
• Check for correct anchor text usage

2. Check If There Is Clear Call to Action

Generating leads or sales for the business is one the main objectives for any website or blog. This should apply to every content you publish. Before you publish, make sure you have included a relevant call to action.

3. Check For Supporting Graphics

Images play a key role in improving the quality of content and make it more appealing for readers. As a general rule, try and include at least one image in all your content. However make sure it is relevant to the content. Do not include irrelevant graphics that do not support or complement the content in any way. It does not have to be a colourful photo. Charts and graphs are equally effective.

4. Make Sure to Proofread

It is important to make sure your content is of the highest quality. It is easy to overlook opportunities for improvement when you first write content. Proofreading helps to highlight these mistakes and identifies opportunities for simple tweaks and adjustments that can improve your content. It also helps correct simple spelling and grammatical errors.

5. Check If Images Are Optimised

There are many ways to optimise your images for improved usability and website speed.

Following are some aspects to check:

• Web friendly file format (Jpg, Gif, PNG)
• Correct Web resolution  (72 DPI)
• Images include keyword rich descriptions (ALT Tag)
• Low file size
• Correct captions where relevant

6. Check If Google Authorship is Correctly Implemented

The new authorship feature is a new Google initiative to attribute content to its original author. Adding the correct authorship tag to your content offers several benefits. It adds rich snippets to your search engine listing and builds trust. It also helps to increases click through and drive more traffic to your content.

7. Check Formatting

Good formatting is very important for all content, not just for blog posts or articles. Use paragraphs, bullets, lists, sub-headings, bold text, etc. make the text more legible and easy to read. Furthermore, it ensures content is easily scannable.

8. Check for Copyright Infringements

It is common for publishers to use images from other artists or sources such as Flickr. It is now always possible for use your own images in all your content. Make sure you follow correct attribution and credit the source in line with respective licensing requirements.

It is equally important to credit the source when referencing data, statistics or studies in your article.