Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content

51Fact-Check

Fact-checking sounds about as much fun as matching a laundry basket full of socks. But, really, it's at the root of your credibility. You want your readers to trust your content, and (importantly) to share it with all the confidence that what you say is true.

I'm imagining your retort: But we aren't a news site.

It's not just news sites that need to get the facts straight. Mistakes undermine your brand's credibility in the eyes of any reader, no matter the subject.

When I say fact-check, by the way, I'm talking about obvious things—like the spelling of proper names or company names or titles and the rest (like making sure links point to where you expect them to). It pains me to have to say this, but my name gets botched all the time in social media, and I see others suffering a similar fate. (I've seen references to Slideshare, Slide Share, and Slide share all within the same article. I've had our company called MarketingProfs, Marketingprofs, and Marketing Profs all within the same article, too. And one time, a writer called us Marketing Land. Which was just puzzling.

So double-check proper names and company names and use them consistently and correctly. Not to do so is just sloppy.

At the same time, think beyond the obvious spelling errors, and make sure all of the facts in your content can be backed up by reliable sources. Question every statistic, number, or bold fact, and make sure you can back it up.

You need to fact-check even if you are just curating information ...