Google Revamps Spell Check in Search
So not everyone is a spelling bee champion these days, which is to be expected since boasting prodigious spelling skills just isn’t as cool as it once was. There was a time when those with superior vocabularies were publicly lauded and given access to corners of society unknown to those with minuscule lexicons.
Alright, that’s a tall tale. However, its core point still holds true: namely that poor spelling is running rampant these days. In fact, the emphasis on accurate spelling has diminished to the point many adults likely couldn’t compete with the brightest of fifth graders in a spell off. If not for spell check in Microsoft Word and most email programs, misspelled words would riddle American prose to such a dire extent as to make many passages utterly unreadable.
And yet some words are misspelled so often that the alternative variations have essentially become acceptable, if not because of indifference then because the reader has seen the misspelled version so many times that he or she cannot even identify the error. They inexorably ask themselves, “Is it ‘I’ before ‘E’ or ‘E’ before…Ah, screw it, I’m moving on.”
Indeed, misspelled words – whether they be unwitting mistakes or intentional usages of slang - have become so commonplace that some SEO professionals have capitalized on it by optimizing pages for frequently misspelled words. “Ah, I can’t get my client ranked for “Los Angeles landscaping company,’ but I can get them ranked for ‘Los Angelas landscaping company,’ and there’s a great deal of traffic to be had there!”
Without offering any concrete statistics to support my claim, I believe it’s reasonable to contend some misspelled words are searched in such great volume that targeting those phrases is a beneficial strategy for the cutthroat SEO pro. Should I buy Golf Lessons for Amateurs or Golf Lessons for Amatures? Should I buy my girlfriend Jewelry for Christmas, or would she prefer some Jewlry or Jewellry instead?
Whether this falls under the brim of black or white-hat SEO is debatable, but the ethical implications are of such equivocal nature that most reputable search engine marketing companies refrain from employing this strategy. For while increasing website traffic for your clients is always the primary goal, what internet marketing company has the slogan “We’ll get you ranked for all the rong things!”
Fortunately, the strategy will soon become defunct. Google is now taking strides to eliminate the debate altogether, announcing last week that the Automatic Spelling Correction mechanism has been revamped. Now, when your search query contains a common spelling error, Google will not ask “Did you mean…”, but instead will make the correction for you. Sadly, many will not even notice that the correction has been made.
For reputable SEO firms that scrupulously abide by industry ethics, this change will be welcomed with open arms. It eliminates temptation and makes it a fair game for all. For those who employ questionable tactics to generate traffic by any means possible, this change will send them back to the drawing board, searching for new ways to game the system with underhanded tactics.
But more than anything, it affords search engine users of all varieties some insight into the future of search. As search engines continue to enhance their systems to provide users with the most accurate results possible, it will be incumbent upon web designers, editors and internet marketing firms alike to be as meticulous as possible.
As search engines continue to strive for perfection, it’s perfectly reasonable to assume they will come to expect the same of the indexed websites. Is it out of the question, for example, to think search engines will soon punish web pages that contain an unacceptable number of spelling and grammatical errors? We cannot say for sure. But just in case, be wise and make sure to use your spellcheck…Or is that spell check?
