What are the essential points to work in the world of professional writing?
It's hard to make a complete list of rules, which is why it might be useful to have a copywriting checklist infographic at hand.
It is no coincidence that, while writing this article, I have identified and marked all the key steps that a good web copywriter should and must respect in order to complete a noteworthy job on the page of a website, an ecommerce or a corporate blog.
SEO checklist for copywriters
The first step: has there been maximum attention to all the decisive steps of SEO copywriting? I mean, before publishing a web page you need to make sure that the meta tags and HTML elements have been checked. Here, then, are the essential steps of a copywriter checklist declined in the SEO field:
- Have you created a title tag suitable for communicating the main topic?
- Is this title tag clear, simple, and informative?
- Are you under 65 bars in the title tag?
- Are there any useless keywords? Can you simplify this title?
- Is the photo alt tag inserted correctly?
- Does the meta description help clarify the SEO headline?
- Are you under 140 lines in the description tag?
- Is the URL centered on the main topic?
- Seeing typos, spelling, and punctuation errors in the URL?
- Is the web page permalink simple, clear and readable?
The same can be said for the H1 tag even if in this case we are between two different sectors: this micro-text concerns both SEO and persuasive copywriting since it is an integral part of the web page layout.
Online style, language and writing
It is not easy to write well for every client and proposed project. For this you must first of all be able to refuse customers who do not reflect you. Then you have to respect the rules of copywriting, checking before delivering.
- Did you use appropriate language for your target audience?
- Is the tone of voice the one used by the brand?
- Have you simplified the syntax and vocabulary as much as possible?
- Was the call to action written using the imperative verb?
- Are the subject and verb always the reference point of the sentence?
- Has the inverted pyramid model been respected?
- Have you used, where, necessary, the levers of social proof?
- Is there a concordance of style and language in the content?
- Are you giving the reader what they want at the right time and in the right form?
- Is there perhaps a medium other than text to communicate better?
As you can clearly see, in this case the copywriter's job is not only about good writing but also the decision in terms of good visual communication. In a perfect world you would be alongside an art director or a creative director but you can't have everything.
Formatting checklist
Every self-respecting copywriter makes sure that he has published content with an adequate form. The substance is important, this is clear, but there is also a need for a good presentation of the work done. What is the checklist to respect ?
- Does formatting help reading or just get in the way?
- Is the first paragraph a manifesto of clarity and simplicity?
- Is there a title and subtitle in your web page?
- The italics have been used correctly.
- Did you delete unnecessary acronyms, uppercase and small caps?
- Did you divide the text into easy-to-read chunks?
- When necessary, have you used bulleted lists?
- Do headings (H2,H3) introduce chapters clearly?
- Did you respect the hierarchy of the various H2, H3 and H4?
- Are photos necessary or do they become a problem for reading?
The scrupulous copywriting checklist also has this in mind: Does your blog or web page have proper font and flag alignment?
For new projects this is a step that should be handled by the UX specialist with microcopy skills. But a good web copywriter always knows how to make himself indispensable in the control phase to layout an article.
Usability and copywriting checklist
We always come back to the same question: why put points in a copywriting checklist that should be taken care of by other figures? Simple, because a good writer of texts for the web knows how to be indispensable to the production process.
- Are the links you have inserted necessary or do they add weight to the text?
- Did you add the alt text and caption to the images?
- Have you uploaded the right format for images and photos?
- Do the files to be downloaded have information on weight and format?
- Does the anchor text of the links describe the content of the landing page?
- Are the images and videos descriptive or just fillers?
- Have you added all the necessary sources to the player?
- Does the headline communicate the theme and topic immediately?
- Have you reduced or explained acronyms that no one knows from the text?
- Underlined text: Did you get rid of this formatting that gets confused with links?
When you write a blog article, or maybe a press release, you have to consider a number of aspects that go beyond pure and simple writing. A web copywriter who understands how and when to use UX rules has a bright future ahead.
Proofreading, checking and proofreading
If you want to do good text editing online you need to focus. Let the work done decant and dedicate yourself to something else. Then after a few hours, even better if the next day, you dedicate yourself to re-reading the copy in order to avoid errors, typos and typos .
- Did the re-reading highlight typos, typos and grammar errors?
- Have you simplified the form as much as possible without affecting the substance?
- Have adjectives and adverbs been streamlined as much as possible?
- Have you checked that there is no comma between subject and verb?
- Are the verbs inflected correctly?
- Have you checked for phonological errors?
- Accent and apostrophe: was everything written correctly?
- Does punctuation convey the meaning of the sentence?
- Are there sentences that are too long that need to be broken with a full stop?
- Do colons introduce concepts or are they used at random?
There are many more points to highlight in this balanced copywriting checklist . Just remember this: Simplicity is the friend of good writing.
Infographic: the copywriting checklist
I've rounded up the copywriter checklist points here. And to wrap up the work, I've decided to hand you the complete version of this checklist.
