One of the things you find when you use a tool like 103bees to check your incoming search engine traffic is that some people find your blog as a result of both them and you misspelling words.
I remember early in my blogging that I had one post that was getting quite a few visitors every day and I couldn’t work out why until I looked at my stats and found that one of the people commenting on the post had misspelled Melbourne (the city where I live) and that every person hitting the page had typed the same spelling into Google. I was the one of three search results for that spelling and as a result had a pretty decent chance of getting the visitor.
The poor spelling of the reader leaving the comment drove traffic to my blog.
I’m certain that this happens every day for many bloggers – however I also know some webmasters (and one or two bloggers) who purposely exploit the misspelling of search engine users. They write articles with spelling mistakes in them on the keywords that they are trying to attract traffic for.
This isn’t really my style (my goal is to build quality into my blogs – all misspellings and poor grammar are purely accidental!) but Microsof adCenter Labs have developed a tool that those wanting to explore misspellings might want to use – their Keyword Mutation Detection Tool in which you can input a correctly spelled keyword and find out how readers commonly misspell it.
found via Jake
Did you misspell Microsoft on purpose? :)
:-)
I discovered that a lot of people miss-spell “Adsense” as “Adense” via my site logs. Funny thing is that that page is now my third highest trafficked page.
he he, I thought I was quick to find out the spelling mistake of Microsoft..but it seems to me that people are really quick in finding what they want..he he.
Mis-spelt domains are worth big bucks. This year Mortage.com was sold for $242,400.
Definately a lot of misspellings. Mine are because of fat fingers.
Thanks for the link Darren.
Hey Darren,
Your site did not send a trackback. Just so you know.
I really dig 103bees! Fantastic tool. Speaking of misspellings, I once accidentally typed in my own blogger URL only I transposed a couple letters so it said “blgospot” (or something like that) instead of blogspot (or maybe it was blogpsot). Anyway, it went to some religious site that seemed strangely interested in saving the souls of poor spellers and typists.
Misspelling to get extra people to visit does seem a bit dodgey. It also happens in microstock (I’m a contributor for Istockphoto), where you put the keywords in for people to search for your pics that you’ve got for sale. I’m not sure I’d do it deliberately – based on principle! I’m not the best speller though, so maybe I’d do it accidentally anyway!
Having also reviewed 103bees in my blog, I also found them to be a great source of data regarding organic traffic visiting my site. Regarding the use of spelling mistakes in blog posts or comments I suggest you read SEO tips – avoid spellchecking
I wrote about it a few days ago. Not only the mispelling but all those weird combinations of letters some people think as “cool”.
It’s not the fanciest way, but when a simple typo in a comment brings +40 unique visitors, I can’t say it bothers me.
During the invasion of Iraq I had another blogger posting on my site who consistently mis-spelt Al-Jazeera, so I got quite a few hits for al jezzera, al jeezra etc.
“Keyword Mutation Detection Tool in which you can input a correctly spelled keyword and find out how readers commonly misspell it.”
I have enough misspelt words floating around in my head, confusing my brain, I don’t need to add more :-)
cat
Agreed. Let it to your visitors.
I always advice: Even people who can’t write CAN recognize a well-written text and the credibility it brings. I doubt a MySpace kid would like to learn from a text book using their dialect.
All my typos are real and I’m proud of them.
[…] Enter KMDT – or, the Keyword Mutation Detection Tool (via Problogger) for short. KMDT lets you enter a keyword and shows you common misspellings based on its database generated from search query logs. […]
I think Wordtracker have incorported a misspelling tool for a while now.
All the best.
Pete
can also give http://www.keywordspy.com a try
Great post. Well done!
It is always the same. People are always quick to pick up on a misspelt word (notice this one), as soon as you post a new article.
What some new and inexperienced people do not realise is that some (most) professional website owners actually do it on purpose, so who’s laughing at who!
And here’s a good observation; Have you noticed the results page for the keyword. Wide open for exploitation and making money, and that’s a tip “fpr” (this is a big one) the newcomers.
It makes some website owners a lot of money, including me!
Truly a good post. Wishing you the very best.
Sincerely,
John Adams
I would love to write and say what a great job you did on this, as you have put a lot of work into it.