Have you ever wondered why bloggers need Grammarly to help them grow their blog?
Bloggers need Grammarly to perfect their blog posts, social media posts, and basically all aspects of writing at a professional level.
Even the best writers make mistakes!
Grammarly is an online grammar checker and proofreading tool to help bloggers avoid embarrassing grammatical errors and typing errors.
We may think it isn’t a big deal when there are errors in our blog posts when in reality this can hurt your blog traffic by losing return visitors and getting fewer referrals.
If you are reading a blogpost with numerous writing errors would you still share it with your friends?
The typical answer from most people is they would likely not share this type of post.
I discovered Grammarly some years ago when I was a university professor.
My students would ask me for a good tool so they could turn in papers with good writing mechanics, and Grammarly was the go-to resource I recommended.
When I started my first blog and clients would have multiple errors on their website pages and posts, I realized Grammarly was not just good for academics, but also an excellent tool for bloggers!
Not only is Grammarly the most widely used spelling and grammar checking available with over 10 million active users but over 6.9 million of these users access Grammarly daily. If there is any validation that this tool is worth its weight in gold, this speaks for itself!
This review includes features of both the basic and premium plans. Keep reading and you will find the differences between the two plans.
The most exciting part of the Grammarly plan options is even the free plan offers loads of value to get your writing on track and make it look like you have been a professional writer all your life!
Why do bloggers need Grammarly, a grammar and spelling checker?
As a blogger, everything you do in your daily business leads back to your blog. After all, that is the whole point, right?
Therefore, the bottom line is this: writing is your job as a blogger. You are sharing a message and the better you write, the more clear your message is to your readers, which directly correlates to the amount of traffic you get to your blog.
This is especially true for returning website visitors.
If your blog posts are not conveyed professionally and they have grammatical errors and spelling errors, it doesn’t matter how good your information is, you will lose blog readers.
As a blogger, your first impression is your blog post. We all know the importance of the first impression.
From there, readers decide if they want to return to read more and if they want to refer your blog post to friends, and possibly even their own audience if they are also a blogger.
How does Grammarly help bloggers?
Grammarly is a tool used to detect different types of writing errors. However, that is not all it will do!
Grammar And Punctuation
Grammarly detects grammar and punctuation mistakes in your blog post, then it offers real-time suggestions on how to correct the mistakes.
Spelling
Grammarly is also a robust spell-checker. This keeps your blog posts error-free of misspelled words.
You can also run your titles for your Pinterest images through the spell checker.
I cringe when I see pins that look like the following actual images I have found on Pinterest, especially when someone is asking for business to build websites for other people like in the first image!
The image in the second row is from a Facebook group. It has a spelling error, comma error AND capitalization errors in the tagline!?
All of these bloggers could have easily fixed these errors with Grammarly – for free!
Can you pick out the misspelled words
How do you spell ‘website’?
Organization spelled with an ‘s’? I don’t think so!?
How do you spell ‘productivity’?
Did you catch the 3 ‘f’s’ in the spelling of ‘affiliate’?
Writing Style
Grammarly also helps you edit your work by providing real-time insights into the overall readability of your blog post.
It evaluates important things for a high readability score such as sentence-length, transitions, word overuse (‘that’ is a common one), comma placement (this is a big one I see lots of errors reading blogs) and run-on sentences and wordiness just to mention a few!
Plagiarism
Another option inside the tool is a plagiarism checker.
If you aren’t aware of plagiarism or what it means, I talk about it in my post 175+ Essential Blogging Terms.
Grammarly compares your writing to billions of websites to detect if plagiarism has occurred.
One of the most important parts of being an ethical and professional blogger is writing your own content, and it is okay to set the expectation that others will do the same and not take your content and claim it as their own!
Different ways to use Grammarly
Grammarly offers numerous ways to use their tool to make it fit into the writing of any blogger!
The best part?
You can have little to no technical knowledge and still use Grammarly successfully! (The same as starting a blog without any technical knowledge, which I share in my post How To Start A Blog And Crush Your Goals even if you aren’t technical savvy!)
In the following image you can see how simple, clean, and self-explanatory the dashboard is for users.
The Grammarly web tool
Using the Grammarly web tool has three simple ways to get your results!
- Simply copy and paste your writing directly into the tool by clicking on ‘New’ in the dashboard, which gives you a blank page. In just a few seconds the magic happens!
- If your document is complete, upload it directly to Grammarly by choosing ‘Upload’ instead of ‘New’ in the dashboard.
- Type directly into the Grammarly website, and your writing will be checked as you type it in!
The Grammarly desktop app
Using the Grammarly desktop app is also a breeze!
If you use Windows or macOS this may be the easiest way for you to use Grammarly.
Download the correct app for your computer system by visiting the download page in your dashboard and download your document. Then simply start using the tool the same as all the other ways to use it.
Browser extension for Grammarly
This is one of the easiest ways to use Grammarly! (I love browser extensions because they make things so simple and quick by being easily accessible.)
Another excellent feature of the browser extension is it also works automatically to check your social media posts and emails (awesome!!)
If you use Gmail and Google Chrome, the browser extension also assists when you are typing your emails. It even works for Google Docs if that is your preference for word processors!
I use Google Chrome so I have included information on how to install Grammarly into the browser. However, it is also available in other browsers such as Firefox.
When you sign up for Grammarly, there is an option to add the browser extension. However, if you miss that or want to add it later, it is super easy to add any time you want.
Here is a quick video on how to add it to Google Chrome as an extension.
Grammarly as a Microsoft Word add-in
Grammarly can easily be added to Microsoft Word as an add-in.
Be sure you are using the most recent update in Office (you need at least version 16.0.4266.1003 or higher). If you aren’t sure you can get instructions on how to find the version you are using on the MS Office Support Page.
Once the correct version is verified, download Grammarly for Microsoft Office and follow these steps (source):
- Close all Word and Outlook instances (documents), also making sure the Outlook icon doesn’t appear in the Windows tray area.
- Enable Grammarly by clicking the round Microsoft Office button (or File) > Word Options > Add-ins > Under Manage select COM Add-ins > Go > Check Grammarly > Click OK.
- Your Grammarly tab should have appeared in Word and Outlook (if you checked this option at the download screen) and you are ready to go!
Here is a quick video to walk you through this process.
Grammarly for IOS and Android
If you use your smartphone for many of your blog tasks (as most bloggers do), Grammarly has a specialized keyboard for use on a smartphone for both iOS and Android.
The app works the same way as the other options for using it, simply by checking your writing as you compose an email or text message. It also checks your social media spelling as you are writing, such as on Facebook or Twitter.
It is so easy to make mistakes and miss them when quickly typing from a smartphone, making this a huge asset for bloggers that need to look professional at all times!
It isn’t like we can type in “Oh, and sorry for the typos, I am on my iPhone” every time! ?
It also offers ways to fix the error the same as in the other options for using it.
The app has to be downloaded from the App Store or Play Store, then activated.
Done!
Grammarly Basic (free) vs. Premium (paid)
Another great kudos for Grammarly is it comes in a free version so you can use it without paying anything AND there is no time limit or trial period!
However, there is also a paid version (called the premium version) which offers several upgrades outside of the free version. (Zoom in your screen and you can read the upgrade options.)
Grammarly free version
Many tools widely used by bloggers offer a free version (often called the ‘lite’ version), but they are just that – super lite! ?
This is not the case with Grammarly.
The free version provides users with the necessary basics to make the writing in their posts professional. It includes comprehensive checks for grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
When mistakes are found, they are underlined in red so the user can easily see them and make corrections.
The free version also catches basic writing errors that make the overall ‘sense’ of the post not make sense by suggesting words that would be better and that the user may have meant to use.
Another useful feature of the Grammarly free version is the ability to select goals for your writing.
Things like what you want your style to relay, level of emotion, intent, and audience. This information allows Grammarly to provide relevant feedback for the suggestions it makes for possible changes.
The Blogging Wizard has an excellent post on the importance of your blog writing style that fits perfectly with why Grammarly is an excellent choice for bloggers.
A feature that is super useful to bloggers is once you have your written document in Grammarly, you can see your word count.
Many bloggers shoot for cornerstone posts of 1500-2000 words minimum. It is also known that the more in-depth blog posts with high word count are more likely to rank in Google, which is another great way to increase your blog traffic (think organic traffic!)
It is nice to be able to see exactly where you are at with meeting a word count goal.
Grammarly premium version
The premium version of Grammarly adds on features such as seeing the total number of issues found in a written document, writing inconsistencies, overuse of words, wordiness (a big one many bloggers need), inappropriate tone, and the plagiarism checker.
A survey was completed by Grammarly and the premium users believe the upgrade is well worth the small exchange in expense.
One last note about the paid version of Grammarly is that it also comes in a business version if you want to use Grammarly for your team.
It includes everything in the free and premium version, plus you get an admin panel, team statistics, priority support, and a centralized billing option.
How can Grammarly help you build a better blog?
Grammarly is an excellent tool for a blogger’s toolbox.
Everything a blogger does is centered around writing, whether it is writing blog posts, creating digital products and eBooks, or posting on social media. Even the best writers get in a hurry and miss errors when they are proofreading!
Grammarly makes it painless to detect and fix the errors which can make a blogger look less than proficient and even unprofessional, even if the content is super awesome.
Many readers won’t see how awesome the content is because they leave the website before they get that far when errors slow down the reading.