For many professional companies nowadays, the process of content development is crucial to their success across various industries. Whether it be in the economic, educational, or electrical services industries—the role of content and its development is key for not only the actual product or service any industry is providing but to every industry as a whole. That’s why the significance of quality assurance in the process of content development is of the utmost importance in producing high-quality and desirable content, whether that be through the development of educational materials or something as random as a press release for a set of new golf clubs a sports equipment company is debuting. The point is good content equals good quality assurance. But there are the questions of what quality assurance is, how it differs from quality control, and how it’s necessary to the delivery of quality content.

What is Quality Assurance (QA)?

When it comes to content development, it refers to the process by which you research, analyze, produce, edit, optimize, publish, and promote content with the purpose of achieving a specific goal. This goal is different for various fields of study and labor and can range from providing materials for child education to producing niche industry publications. Content development—also known as content strategy—requires you to define who you are reaching out to and determine what types of content you’ll need to motivate them to meet your objectives throughout the customer’s journey. It’s not only about creating content, but measuring, adjusting, and recreating that content with a defined goal, unlike general publishing.[1]

Quality content pushes your brand forward. Part of the process of developing high quality content that will boost your company forward concerns getting the processes in place to ensure you are doing things in the right way before you do them. This is the definition of quality assurance, simplified. Quality control, on the other hand, is where you do everything you can during the developmental process of content to ensure the finished results are what was expected.[2] Although the two are similar, they are separate elements of content development that are essential to producing high quality work. 

How Does Quality Assurance Work?

Quality assurance and quality control are more than simply checking for spelling mistakes or that the language of something is grammatical. Good quality assurance goes beyond that and positions your company as an authoritative source of valuable information for your target audience. This emphasizes that part of quality assurance is making sure content is aligned topically with your audience.[3] When it comes to educational publishing, it’s making sure that what you publish and put out there aligns with not only your personal standards but also the educational standards that are handed down to you from higher up, and the student’s standards. It’s putting yourself back in a student’s shoes and wondering: does what I just created not only make sense to me if I were a student reading it, but also measure where I am in my educational development as a student? This differs wildly from the more popular colloquialism of ‘content creators,’ which usually refers to social media influencers creating entertaining and engaging content online.[4] When these ‘creators’ are at work doing quality assurance, their goal in mind is making sure they get enough likes and reposts. This comparison goes to show how vastly the goals of quality assurance can range when it comes to content development.

When it comes to quality assurance, having a comprehensive methodology in place for the guidelines of content development can provide leadership with the needs to streamline their content operations and governance workflows.[5] It’s essential to those providing quality assurance to document these processes your team must follow to ensure the creation of good quality content, especially when that content is your final product to the customer.

The main benefit of quality assurance, as mentioned above, is the production of content that aligns with both your customer’s needs and your company’s values, synergistically creating quality-focused content. It helps enhance a company’s credibility by providing reliable information, and it improves user experience by making content more engaging and satisfying. Quality assurance can also boost SEO and visibility by promoting positive branded content. Most importantly, (arguably) quality assurance reduces costs and risks associated with creating content that has errors and may damage a brand’s reputation.[6] All in all, it seems that quality assurance is integral to the success of content development.

Publishing Solutions Group

At PSG, we recognize that every step in content development is critical to its success, and quality assurance (QA) is a vital final phase. Our experienced QA team ensures consistency and meticulous attention to detail, facilitated through frequent communication among all team members. PSG’s highly skilled employees have performed QA tasks across various formats, from Word manuscripts to PDF pages, and through numerous content management systems. Corrections and queries are made as directed by the client, or, in the absence of specific preferences, in the most efficient format for the QA medium. Our team is adept at recognizing when changes may require broader discussion, and we carefully assess when it’s appropriate to mark changes or escalate queries to the PSG lead or the client.

[1] https://nytlicensing.com/latest/marketing/what-is-content-development/

[2] https://tallyfy.com/quality-assurance-for-content-marketing-efforts/

[3] https://divvyhq.com/content-operations-governance/the-a-to-z-guide-to-content-quality-assurance/

[4] https://sproutsocial.com/insights/content-creator/

[5] https://divvyhq.com/content-management/creating-a-content-management-methodology/

[6]  https://www.linkedin.com/advice/3/why-content-quality-assurance-critical-successful-y0ffe#:~:text=Content%20QA%20is%20essential%20for,the%20needs%20of%20your%20audience

Photo by John Schnobrich free to use under the Unsplash License