SEO and Typos
Did you ever consider the importance of Search Engine Rankings for Misspelt(sp?) Words and typographical errors? Chances are good that as school becomes a distant memory, spelling and/or typing is not what it used to be for most people. Who among us hasn’t taken their best guess at a keyword only to be mildly scolded with the search engine admonition “Did you mean…?” While search engines are getting better at inferring meaning (and correcting our spelling) misspelled words and typographical errors still account for a significant percentage of search engine returns.
In this edition of our newsletter we are going to explore a couple of the often overlooked marketing tools, like misspelled keywords, and provide a few tips on how to leverage the information to get a leg up on your online competition.
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Leveraging Typos for SEO
by Mark Aaron Murnahan (blog)
Without a doubt online marketing has become more sophisticated over the years. Today’s subtly nuanced Web pages complete with flashy images certainly project a professional appearance, but the unspoken question that begs to be asked is this: Is the page reaching all of its intended audience? With a misspelling rate of approximately 20% on all keyword searches, the chances of being seen through search engines is diminished if you haven’t taken into consideration the various typo scenarios. Before we get too carried away with excitement it should be mentioned that the use of misspelled words can come at the cost of credibility. As with many of life’s challenges, there is no silver bullet that will solve all of our problems. The risk/reward scale should be a part of your decision, but if Website traffic is your goal you may do well to consider a careful sprinkling of well chosen words, particularly in the title, alt tags, and internal link tags. One thing to keep in mind is that many people probably will not notice a well placed typo. A 1976 study* on letter position and readability pointed out that as long as the first and last letter of a word are correctly placed, and as long as the letters in between are reasonably close to correct, the human mind more often than not will make an imperceptible adjustment and arrange the letters as it thinks they should be.
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Another occasionally overlooked marketing tool has to do with incoming links, and in this case quality definitely trumps quantity. Many understand the connection between link farms and search engine penalties. What may be less understood is the positive correlation between quality incoming links and high search engine rankings, which when combined with a well written/programmed website and the proper placement in the
Open Directory Project (dmoz.org), combine to produce noticeable results for the vast majority of Website owners/administrators.
There are many factors that contribute to positive ranking among search engines. Just as you wouldn’t consider an advertisement in the Yellow Pages to be a complete marketing plan, likewise you shouldn’t assume that any one tweak will bring instant results to your web page ranking. Though that being said, one of the nice things about the Web is that with the right guidance, you can significantly increase your visibility.
If you are selling the right product, to the right audience, chances are good that your business will be a success on the Internet. For more information on how to be searchable on the Web, give us a call or email us. You can count on not being met with a pre-scripted sales pitch, but rather straightforward talk about utilizing the power of the Internet to grow your business.
*”The Significance of Letter Position in Word Recognition”
by Graham Rawlinson
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