Misspell Your Way to Better Web Site Traffic

There are some words that I continue to misspell despite my efforts to practice and memorize.

San Francisco

Exercise

Questionnaire

These three words are great examples of tricky spellings that I just can’t seem to get right on the first try. I know I’m not alone, we all have a mental block on certain words, right?

Here’s a writing tip for you, don’t just depend on spellchecker. Keep a list of your commonly misspelled words handy and refer to it on your final proofread.

AskOxford.com has its own set of commonly misspelled words that the No. 2 Pen refers to often. Yes, it’s a helpful resource for proofreading, but using the wrong spellings of these words can be helpful when it comes to writing Web site content for search engines too. In fact, we actually used the wrong spelling in some of our own Web site content.

For example, on our copy editing services page we use both “copy edit” (two words) and “copyedit” (one word) throughout the text of the page.

This misspelling is all for the sake of search engine traffic.

Through keyword research we learned that Internet users are using both spellings (one word and two words) when searching for copy editing resources. Instead of ignoring all those searches with the incorrect spelling, we chose to use both to ensure we reached more potential customers.

When writing your own Web site content, take misspelling into consideration. Use Oxford’s common misspellings as a guide and have keyword research completed so you know the right words to target.

Of course you want to create Web site content that is powerful and correct, but don’t neglect to write content that search engines will index in your favor — even if it means saying: The best location for excersise, according to the questionairre results, is San Fransisco.

The No. 2 Pen is a full-service writing and communications company. Contact us to discuss your writing projects and editing needs.