How to check an article quality

How is the quality of an article evaluated?

An ideal article should be unique, useful, and understandable to attract an audience, while also persuasive and motivating to drive sales. We provide a list of the main criteria that you should pay attention to when checking article quality.

1. Value

Above all, the text needs to add value to your audience and address their concerns. It should be written for real people rather than search engines. Make sure it includes statistics, research results, surveys, images, not just your copywriter’s personal judgments.

Also, each article should serve a specific purpose. For example, to sell a product or service. Every product and every target audience needs a specific approach. If the web writer can mainstream a potential customer’s needs, highlight the product’s features and explain its benefits, offer the customer a choice and drive them to purchase, you will be able to achieve the desired result.

Therefore, when checking article quality, make sure that the text contains useful information and is persuasive enough to generate sales.

2. Uniqueness

Search engines attach great importance to the uniqueness of the text. This feature is worth considering from two sides: technical and semantic. On the one hand, it is necessary to check an article for plagiarism. On the other hand, the author should present the information in a new light or from a new angle and not simply mix up words by rewriting your competitors’ text.

Users are also wary of unoriginal content as it negatively impacts your company’s image and reputation.

3. Spelling, grammar, punctuation

Check the text for grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors. Any of these will make your article (and work) appear unprofessional and unreliable.

But if you find an extra comma, a typo or even an obvious mistake, do not rush to fire the author. If the overall article quality is satisfactory, consider outsourcing an editor and/or proofreader to ensure that the text is excellent.

The built-in MS Word editor will help you see most errors. But for a more complete and accurate test, use the best online grammar and punctuation checker tools.

4. Keyword placement and density

Content marketing without keywords is indispensable. Their correct use will help:

• Increase the probability of reaching the first page of search results
• Simplify the Google search
• Increase view count
• Achieve your goal: Inform users, convert them into hot leads or sell

Learn how to research keywords for your niche and use keyword ranking checkers to tailor the text to your audience.

Make sure that all keywords are entered in the right amount in the text and distributed evenly at the beginning of the text and in the different levels of headings. Extra keywords should be replaced with synonyms so that the text does not appear spammy. A good density is between 2% and 5% per keyword and no more than 20% for the total content of all keywords in the text.

5. Readability

You can even evaluate an article before reading it. Good text includes a heading and subheadings, bulleted and numbered lists, paragraphs, etc. It will be well structured. It’s great that it has illustrations with subtitles, inserts and graphics. Images help a lot in conveying information.

Next, the text should be coherent so that all the ideas follow one another logically. Make sure a paragraph contains only one thought and ideally no more than 70 words, up to 20 words per sentence.

Another important point is that words and sentences that do not add anything to the value of the text are non-verbal, meaningful and not excluded. It is better to avoid long introductions, repetitions and known facts in the proofreading phase using the readability test.

Read aloud to make sure the text is easy to perceive. Every point you stop will cause your readers to pause too, so rewrite. This criterion is more logically evaluated by feel rather than by precise numerical control.

6. Accuracy

Do not forget to check whether the information corresponds to the actual situation and is up to date. Using 2010 data in a 2020 article is not very useful. For example, the entrance fee to Vienna museums or the intercity train schedule in France has obviously changed during this time, so references should be made only from relevant sources.

If the text contains contact information (phones, email, and other contacts), check their accuracy. Otherwise, potential customers may not be able to reach you and make a purchase.

Best article quality checkers

We’ve rounded up six of the best services to help webmasters streamline their work and improve text quality.

Readable

The tool checks the text for readability, grammar and spelling errors, keyword density and immediately suggests how to fix the situation. You can send the entire website or a specific text. It also has a mobile app.

The service checks for readability with the Flesch-Kincaid formula. A higher text index says it’s easy to read, and lower grades indicate the complexity of the text. The readability indicator is related to the reader’s expected level of education, meaning, and ability to understand the text. The service helps the author stylistically adapt to the target audience.

There’s a free seven-day trial, and subscription costs start at $4 a month.

juicy studio

This online readability checker allows you to evaluate the text quality by adding a link to the page in the specified area on the website. The service evaluates readability based on the Flesch-Kincaid formula, reading ease and grade level, and Gunning Fog Score.

in terms of grammar

This is a great program that can also be used as a browser extension for Google Chrome and Mozilla. The service helps determine:

• Extra and missing articles
• Punctuation, grammar and spelling errors
• Common misprints and “it instead” mistakes
• stylistic errors

Grammar will not only help you find errors, it will also explain them and point out possible corrections.

Grammarly offers a free version and a paid subscription starting at $11.66 per month. Second, it expands functionality by adding 250 rules to help you perform a deep text check, as well as the ability to choose the category and style of the quiz (blog post, newsletter, etc.). In addition, the premium subscription gives you access to the anti-plagiarism system that checks 16 billion web pages.

Language Tool

It is another service that you can install in the browser to check spelling and grammar in more than 10 languages. Grammar errors are highlighted in yellow and style errors are shown in blue.

LanguageTool is available in the form of extensions for Chrome and Firefox, and there is a desktop version and add-on for MS Office. There’s also a plug-in for LibreOffice, Google Docs, and dozens of other programs, including Eclipse and Emacs. You can also check the text directly on the service website.

The service is free to use.

Small SEO Tools

This tool is great for text optimization. The following functions are available:

• Count the words in the text. In addition to words, the built-in program counts the number of sentences, syllables and characters with or without spaces, and shows statistics for long and short words, and even shows the approximate reading time.
• Check for plagiarism. This service determines the uniqueness of each piece. The text limit is 1,000 words.

The tool is free. You can check the text without logging in.

using english

This service allows you to control the following parameters:

• uniqueness
• word count
• Average number of words in a sentence
• word density
• Total number of sentences
• Gunning Fog readability index

To check, go to the site and add the necessary text to the form. A free service option lets you check up to 10,000 words.

How is the quality of an article evaluated?

Content quality is crucial to attracting your audience. Without forgetting literacy and accuracy, it is necessary to make your articles unique, understandable to the user and optimized for search engines.

Therefore, check all aspects of the text before posting it on your site. For convenience, prepare a checklist and use the appropriate services to determine the quality of an article for different parameters.