If you’ve ever been in the position of finding content for your website, you may have come across these terms: copywriting and copyediting. But like two wads of play dough, the terms have been thrown around so much they’ve become mushed together into a blob that’s hard to separate.

Copyediting and copywriting are in fact two very separate skills: understanding their uniquenesses will allow you to seek the right professional to help you with your written content.

Copywriting is the process of creating original content to appeal to an audience. When nine10 suggests a copywriter, it means trusting a professional to write about your business in a way that will promote your interests to your customers. For websites, the content is specifically designed to compliment the structure of the website as well and help search engines direct traffic to your business (with the integration of search engine optimization).

Check out my recent in-depth article about copywriting to learn more about it.

Copyediting is the process of checking an already-written piece of content for grammar errors, spelling mistakes, and so on. Copyeditors don’t make changes to what you have to say—unlike a friend who may revise an essay for you. They’re there to make sure you’ve said it clearly and concisely. When you create your own content for your website, it’s a good idea to get a copyeditor to catch mistakes you might have made (it may be hard to believe, but there’s no such thing as a perfect first draft). As I’ve said before, no one wants to hire a business that can’t spell.

It’s as simple as that! If you’re a copyeditor and you’re reading this, I apologize for any grammatical mistakes or spelling errors I may have made. 😉