How to check the quality of your ordered articles: Free and Efficiently?
So, you ordered a couple of articles for your website or blog. You got them back. You're about to pay or you paid already. At the first glance, it looks as it supposed to be. An army of letters ready to follow your marketing commands. Now, here's a question. How to make sure you got what you wanted, in a free, simple and not particularly time-consuming way? If you're planning to read them all from A to Z, then you have editorial ambitions. That's good for you, but it can end up badly for your Internet marketing business. There are some tools that can save you both time and money.
#1 Plagiarism
If it isn't original, then it's useless. Copyscape Premium is arguably the most reliable plagiarism tool you can possibly use. This tool comes with a new price. If I'm not mistaken you have to pay 5 cents per search, which is quite an affordable price. You can check 100 pages for $5. Yet, if you have the strict no-pay-but-still-want-to-play policy, there are some free alternatives. I've been all over the Net and the best thing I could possibly find is the SmallSEOTools' Plagiarism Checker. The great thing about it is that you get the percentage of the original content in your final report. With all due respect to all plagiarism this and that checkers out there, you should stick to these two.
#2 Grammar & Spelling
To be quite honest, there's no machine that can match an editor of flesh and blood. However, are you willing to spend your time and money when it comes to proper editing job? I recommend you to use a free version of Grammarly software. This green grammar checker has both changed and improved a lot. The free version will check your articles' contextual spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and style. If you want to get "advanced improvements," especially in terms of vocabulary, then you'll have to pay. I believe it was around $30 on a monthly basis. It wouldn't be fair not to mention Ginger software, as well. Yet, this grammar checker is obviously more focused on its mobile app than the desktop version. Compared to Grammarly, Ginger is considerably more time demanding option, because it scans your text a sentence by sentence, rather than the whole text at once, which is the case with Grammarly. You shouldn't rely completely on any grammar and spelling checker. However, in the real-life, you need an efficient tool, which will identify obvious mistakes and help you decide whether or not your ordered article is worth paying, in the first place.
#3 Keyword Density
When it comes to the density of keywords used in your articles, you should leave it to the SEO pros to take care of it. Yet, you don't have to be an SEO rocket scientist to know some basics. For example, a certain keyword should be used 3 to 5 times in an article. A keyword density tool can help you determine how many times a targeted keyword is being used in your ordered article. In a matter of seconds, you can determine if your writer has overreacted or used to write in an "economic" mode regarding your keywords. There's abundance of free keyword density checkers you can use online. If you're asking me, I'm recommending the SEOBook's Keyword Density Analyzer. Of course, the more you know about SEO, the more complex and demanding the tools you need to use will be.
#4 Readability
Probably, the most important checker you should use first, comes last. Why? Well, for some quite an unexplainable reason people are still unfamiliar with this very useful concept. My advice is, before you use plagiarism, grammar, or keyword density checker, you should check readability. If your ordered articles aren't simple to read and understand, then what's the use of checking the other elements? Again, we are still not fully aware of readability's importance. That's why, I've met only a handful of clients, who were readability-aware.
My first recommendation is the Writer's Readability Checker. All you have to do is to copy/paste your ordered article and the Writer will tell you how readable it is. There's also Webpagefx Readability Test Tool, which can tell you how old and educated your readers have to be in order to understand and enjoy articles. Readability checkers are free to use. Unfortunately, they're neglected and undermined. In case you're wondering why you just can't stop reading a certain article over and over again, and with some articles at the same time, you can barely "digest" a sentence or two, now you know the answer. Readability is to blame.
The New Writing World Order Check-Read-Pay-Play
Before you decide to order a dozen articles, asking for a test article isn't a bad idea. Even if you have to pay for it, this is still an excellent strategy. It's better to pay for one lousy article, than 10 or 20 of them, isn't it? If your writer is serious about the job and a true pro, then he/she won't mind a one test article demonstration.
Then, if the test is OK, you can order all articles you need. However, this doesn't mean you're in the safe zone. You want to check, what you bought or about to buy, but you don't want to waste too much time, either. This is the moment these tools come in handy. If all four of them are OK, then there are slim chances that something is wrong with the articles you ordered. Of course, the best possible thing you can do is to read all articles carefully from A to Z. For what is worth, don't forget that a combination of these tools and your willingness to be a thoughtful reader can match any professional proofreader and editor. Good luck and enjoy your reading!
#1 Plagiarism
If it isn't original, then it's useless. Copyscape Premium is arguably the most reliable plagiarism tool you can possibly use. This tool comes with a new price. If I'm not mistaken you have to pay 5 cents per search, which is quite an affordable price. You can check 100 pages for $5. Yet, if you have the strict no-pay-but-still-want-to-play policy, there are some free alternatives. I've been all over the Net and the best thing I could possibly find is the SmallSEOTools' Plagiarism Checker. The great thing about it is that you get the percentage of the original content in your final report. With all due respect to all plagiarism this and that checkers out there, you should stick to these two.
#2 Grammar & Spelling
To be quite honest, there's no machine that can match an editor of flesh and blood. However, are you willing to spend your time and money when it comes to proper editing job? I recommend you to use a free version of Grammarly software. This green grammar checker has both changed and improved a lot. The free version will check your articles' contextual spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and style. If you want to get "advanced improvements," especially in terms of vocabulary, then you'll have to pay. I believe it was around $30 on a monthly basis. It wouldn't be fair not to mention Ginger software, as well. Yet, this grammar checker is obviously more focused on its mobile app than the desktop version. Compared to Grammarly, Ginger is considerably more time demanding option, because it scans your text a sentence by sentence, rather than the whole text at once, which is the case with Grammarly. You shouldn't rely completely on any grammar and spelling checker. However, in the real-life, you need an efficient tool, which will identify obvious mistakes and help you decide whether or not your ordered article is worth paying, in the first place.
#3 Keyword Density
When it comes to the density of keywords used in your articles, you should leave it to the SEO pros to take care of it. Yet, you don't have to be an SEO rocket scientist to know some basics. For example, a certain keyword should be used 3 to 5 times in an article. A keyword density tool can help you determine how many times a targeted keyword is being used in your ordered article. In a matter of seconds, you can determine if your writer has overreacted or used to write in an "economic" mode regarding your keywords. There's abundance of free keyword density checkers you can use online. If you're asking me, I'm recommending the SEOBook's Keyword Density Analyzer. Of course, the more you know about SEO, the more complex and demanding the tools you need to use will be.
#4 Readability
Probably, the most important checker you should use first, comes last. Why? Well, for some quite an unexplainable reason people are still unfamiliar with this very useful concept. My advice is, before you use plagiarism, grammar, or keyword density checker, you should check readability. If your ordered articles aren't simple to read and understand, then what's the use of checking the other elements? Again, we are still not fully aware of readability's importance. That's why, I've met only a handful of clients, who were readability-aware.
My first recommendation is the Writer's Readability Checker. All you have to do is to copy/paste your ordered article and the Writer will tell you how readable it is. There's also Webpagefx Readability Test Tool, which can tell you how old and educated your readers have to be in order to understand and enjoy articles. Readability checkers are free to use. Unfortunately, they're neglected and undermined. In case you're wondering why you just can't stop reading a certain article over and over again, and with some articles at the same time, you can barely "digest" a sentence or two, now you know the answer. Readability is to blame.
The New Writing World Order Check-Read-Pay-Play
Before you decide to order a dozen articles, asking for a test article isn't a bad idea. Even if you have to pay for it, this is still an excellent strategy. It's better to pay for one lousy article, than 10 or 20 of them, isn't it? If your writer is serious about the job and a true pro, then he/she won't mind a one test article demonstration.
Then, if the test is OK, you can order all articles you need. However, this doesn't mean you're in the safe zone. You want to check, what you bought or about to buy, but you don't want to waste too much time, either. This is the moment these tools come in handy. If all four of them are OK, then there are slim chances that something is wrong with the articles you ordered. Of course, the best possible thing you can do is to read all articles carefully from A to Z. For what is worth, don't forget that a combination of these tools and your willingness to be a thoughtful reader can match any professional proofreader and editor. Good luck and enjoy your reading!
Andrew Gould