There are plenty of ways to improve your online reach, but targeting misspelled keywords isn’t one of them—at least when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) . An outdated tactic of clandestine SEO, misspelled keywords do more harm than good to your SEO efforts. Read on to learn more!
What is a misspelled keyword?
Misspelled keywords are keywords that contain overseas data typos, such as “search engine” instead of “search engine.” In the past, SEOs targeted misspelled keywords because search engines focused on returning content that used those exact phrases rather than recognizing the misspelling and returning relevant content.
Why Target Misspelled Keywords for SEO?
Initially, misspelled keywords were targeted for SEO because of the way search engines work.
In the early days of the internet, search engines couldn’t detect and correct typos. When someone searched for “cd playre,” that’s what they saw and searched for in their indexes. So SEOs responded by creating content that targeted the most common misspellings.
Of course, that’s not how search engines work today.
Now, they can detect typos and assess what the user is actually searching for, such as “cd player” instead of “cd playre.” In addition to suggesting the corrected keyword, search engines will also display correctly spelled search results, a significant change from previous years.
Here’s why people used to target misspelled keywords — and why they shouldn’t anymore.
Should You Target Misspelled Keywords for SEO?
No , you should not target misspelled keywords for SEO.
While some SEOs may disagree, we have found, after over 25 years in the industry, that targeting misspelled keywords does not work for today’s search engine optimization. In our view, it is an underground practice , and has been since the beginning.
Future prospects
“Our systems start by deciphering or five great android apps for movie lovers trying to understand your entire search query. From there, we generate the best replacements for misspelled words in the query based on our overall understanding of what you’re searching for. For example, we can infer from the other words in the query “average home coast” that you’re likely looking for information about “average cost of a home.”
Additionally, search engines like Google have pushed for the improvement of the following concepts in content:
- Quality
- Authority
- Reliability
- Expertise
This trend stems from the acronym EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), a ranking factor in Google’s search engine eu phone number algorithm. Publishing content riddled with spelling mistakes does not demonstrate experience, expertise, authority, or trustworthiness.
In addition to being outdated and ineffective, typos affect your brand perception, especially when trust is key, such as in the case of a healthcare facility or a franchise business .
