Most of the time, bad spelling is attributed to people with inadequate education and websites that were not carefully planned, designed, and evaluated. Other times, bad spelling can be one of the major reasons why your business is doing great!



Spelling Errors Generally Spell Disaster

Generally speaking, yes, spelling errors spell disaster especially if those misspelled words are found in the most popular categories of your website and in important links. If you have badly misspelled a link, you are misdirecting traffic and hits that were supposed to go to your site are directed to someone else's! Also, spelling errors aren't looked upon kindly by search engine spiders and they can definitely take away your brownie points if they notice that you've been failing in spelling one time too many.

The following are specific cases where spelling errors can definitely spell disaster for your website:

Serious Topics - Selling commodities and providing entertainment are definitely not serious topics. If, however, you are talking about subjects such as law, business, or science then your credibility and ultimately your website's popularity will definitely diminish if you have committed too man spelling errors.

Intellectual Readers - If majority of your readers are intellectually inclined or possessing advanced college degrees, your website will surely suffer a lot if you neglect to take care of your grammar and spelling. Solecisms are immediately noticed with this type of reader so if you are not sure about the spelling of a particular high-falluting word, don't bother using it!

Affiliates - If you badly need links from reputable sources such as librarians, universities, business magazines and other professionals, your dismal talent in spelling may force them to refuse linking to your site.

Spelling Errors Can Spell Fortune

Of course, spelling errors are not unwelcome all the time. In numerous cases, it has in fact caused traffic and profit as well to increase for a particular website. If none of the cases mentioned above apply to you then you can very well make use of spelling errors for your website!

Commonly Spelled Words - If your website's URL or any of its keywords or key phrases features commonly spelled words, make sure that you include the misspelled versions as well in your SEO keyword list. Think of words like "your" and "you're" or "their" or "there". Of course, those are just pronouns and unlikely to be part of your keyword list but they are commonly spelled, right? So the trick is finding those that are relevant to your website!

Commonly Spelled Names - Names are often misspelled as well. If your product has the name "Marian" in it, you should be aware that there are other acceptable ways of spelling that name such as "Marianne" or "Mariane". Misspelled versions are harder to determine when it comes to proper names because there's no limit to the spelling creativity of people. To help you on this, use keyword tracking software and tools to learn about the most common misspelled versions of your keywords.

Similar Sounding Words, Names, and Terms - Let's go back to our previous example and tackle the name "Marian" once more. This name sounds like "Marion", doesn't it? So if a person has simply heard about your website and decides to type it in his browser, he may end up typing "Marion" instead of "Marian", isn't it?

You have to understand that misspelled versions are not the exclusive product of bad spelling. Spelling errors can also be committed unintentionally and unconsciously due to inaccurate information.

Evaluating the Profitability of Spelling Errors

Not all of your deliberate attempt to misspell errors will bring luck and fortune to your website. Some will just end up irritating your readers. Use a keyword tracking software or tool to see which spelling errors brought money and retain them. Spelling errors that brought your website nothing but headache should of course be removed from the list!

A word warning however when using spelling errors: do not overdo it. Majority of your content should of course be spelled rightly and is grammatically correct. Too much errors of this ilk can turn off your readers completely never mind if they are not the intellectual sort. Limit your spelling errors only to what you truly believe will generate traffic and profit for your website!