As a copy editor who understands the importance of search engine optimization (SEO), it`s important to know about the agreement of time. This grammatical concept ensures that the tenses of verbs match the timeframe of the action being described in a sentence.

When writing content for websites or other digital platforms, using the proper agreement of time is essential for ensuring that search engine algorithms can properly crawl and index your pages. This, in turn, helps improve the visibility and ranking of your website on search engine results pages (SERPs).

For example, let`s say you`re writing a blog post about a recent conference you attended. You might write something like this:

“I learned so much at the conference last week. The keynote speaker talks about the importance of networking and building relationships in business.”

In this sentence, there`s a disagreement in tense. “Learned” is in the past tense, while “talks” is in the present tense. This could potentially confuse search engine algorithms and make it more difficult for them to understand the meaning of your content.

To fix this, you could rephrase the sentence to ensure that the tenses match:

“I learned so much at the conference last week. The keynote speaker talked about the importance of networking and building relationships in business.”

In this revised sentence, both “learned” and “talked” are in the past tense, which provides a clear and consistent timeframe for the actions being described.

Keeping the agreement of time in mind is just one of the many ways that copy editors can help ensure that digital content is optimized for search engines. So the next time you`re reviewing content for SEO, make sure to pay attention to the tenses of the verbs used in each sentence. Doing so can help improve the readability and accessibility of your content for both readers and search engines alike.