Your website may look professional, but if it contains spelling errors, clunky sentences, or inconsistent formatting, you’re losing trust and traffic.
Proofreading isn’t just about catching typos. It improves how people experience your website, which directly affects how long they stay, what they click, and whether they convert. User behaviours also influence your search engine rankings as Google weighs user signals quite heavily today compared to 10 years ago.
In other words: Good writing improves both SEO and UX.
Here’s a practical website proofreading checklist that helps you improve both, with clear steps and useful tools you can start using today.
Why proofreading matters for SEO and UX
Google – and other search engines – want to send users to websites that offer a good experience. That means fast loading, mobile-friendly design, and – often overlooked – clear, high-quality writing.
When visitors find content that is easy to read, they stay longer.
They click more.
They’re more likely to trust your business.
That lowers bounce rates and increases engagement, which are both positive signals to search engines.
So, when your writing is clean, correct, and easy to follow, it helps users and boosts your site’s performance in search results.
Website proofreading checklist
Use this checklist to improve your site’s clarity, credibility, and SEO value.
1. Check for spelling and grammar errors
Misspellings make your site look unprofessional and untrustworthy. Consumers get the feeling of a scam website quite fast if your website contains misspellings.
Grammatical errors make your message harder to follow as well. Both can reduce trust and hurt your credibility.
What to do:
Read your content out loud to spot awkward phrasing. Use a tool like Grammarly for a first pass, but always follow up with human proofreading if possible.
2. Fix inconsistent punctuation and formatting
Inconsistent use of punctuation, spacing, or fonts can confuse readers and create visual clutter that distracts visitors and weakens the user experience.
What to do:
Keep punctuation styles consistent. For example, if you’re using serial commas, stick with them throughout. Standardise things like heading sizes, bullet points, and how you write dates or measurements.
3. Review sentence structure and tone
Long, complicated sentences are hard to read. Especially on mobile. Passive voice, vague phrases, or filler words can also reduce clarity.
What to do:
Aim for short, clear sentences. Use an active voice. Keep the tone consistent with your brand whether that’s formal, friendly, or somewhere in between.
4. Double-check important pages
Service pages, pricing pages, contact forms, and landing pages must be flawless. These are high-stakes areas where small errors can affect conversions.
What to do:
Proofread these manually, or hire a professional proofreading service for an extra layer of review. Even minor issues on high-traffic pages can cost you trust.
5. Check internal links and anchor text
Links should work, make sense in context, and guide visitors clearly. Broken links or misleading anchor text frustrate users and hurt your SEO as well.
What to do:
Review your anchor text. Make sure it reflects the page it leads to. Keep it descriptive and avoid vague phrases like “click here.” Use a tool to check your websites health and check for broken links and other technical issues across your site.
6. Proof meta titles and descriptions
Meta titles and descriptions are what users see in search results. Mistakes here reduce your click-through rate and make you look careless and uninteresting.
What to do:
Check that every page has a unique, correctly written title and meta description. Include your main keyword, keep it under the character limit, and avoid spelling errors.
7. Update old or outdated content
Old blog posts, news updates, or service descriptions can go stale. Outdated content creates confusion and may hurt your rankings.
What to do:
Review your content quarterly. Update old stats, reword time-sensitive references, and refresh your formatting. Morningscore can help you track which pages are losing traffic or visibility, so you know where to focus first.
Bring it all together: SEO + proofreading = performance
SEO isn’t just about keywords and backlinks. UX isn’t just about design. Both depend on clear, correct, and easy-to-read content.
Your website is often your first impression. Make sure it’s clean, confident, and clear.
Start with this checklist. Then give your content a proper review, or send it to professionals who can do it for you.
You can’t control Google’s algorithm, but you can control your words. Make them count.
