We all know that Google will penalize us for spelling errors, especially in forums because it keeps the fast tying spammers in check. However, I wonder what kind of spell check they use because the words that they created are questionable, like:

backlink
pagerank

I use Firefox with some add ons and they are both underlined as spelled wrong. I know there are a few other but I can't think of them.

I have not heard about anything like that infact for typos you can rank higher as competition will be less.

penalty for wrong spells...? I don't agree with it. Its true that some get higher SERPS with mis-spells.

The great irony pertaining to "We all know..." SEO theories? is that hey're never accurate or true, so no one ever knows them.

This is a classic example. This is the first time I've heard anyone mention that Google penalizes for misspelling. The only way they could do that is if they had a correct and accurate dictionary to work from in the first place, including all spellings of proper nouns, slang terms, and other non-standard words.

Even if this were true (which it's not), it really doesn't matter. The question I have is why anyone would worry about a misspelling factor in a search engine algorithm to the point where it merits discussion. While we all make the occasional typo, anyone that would worry about this or intentionaly misspell something to try and attract people who can't spell a certain word is someone who eventually will sink his/her business due to a less than optimized user experience.

Originally Posted by lakelandprint

We all know that Google will penalize us for spelling errors, especially in forums because it keeps the fast tying spammers in check.

U realise now that uve leeked that information, all the spamers are reeching for there dictionarys. They always find a way to beet the sistem.

Eye half a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

LMAO @ gringo & Forrest

You have to love the "everybody knows" posts/threads, especially for the comedy value

Actually I worded that wrong. Penalty is the wrong word, I guess they would "ignore" it. I agree with the fact that the thousands of different theories we read are mostly bogus, but this one wouldn't surprise me at all. Matt Cutts and other reputable people have been hinting this for a while. I'm not 100% sure, but I either read this on his blog or an interview he did.

There was an article a few years ago about spam filtering by analyzing the text content of an email and matching the individual words to calculate a "trust score." I think Google places ads pretty similarly - if someone emails me about computer parts I see ads for TigerDirect, and if someone emails me about politics, all the ads are for political sites or parties. ( I use gmail. )

The idea wasn't that spammers are bad spellers, but that certain words are dead giveaways ( p0rn, pen1s, things like that are trying to get around spam filters, and would almost never be used in a real conversation ), some are questionable, and some are trustworthy. It's not that disagreeing with the dictionary is a red flag, although the paper suggested that words the filter had never encountered before would be suspicious.

That might or might not be what they're hinting at, but they seem to have the capability. Also, everyone is buzzing about "personalized search," and the idea would work much better in this realm.

Let's take me as an example: I live in Seattle, within walking distance of downtown. That means I rent an apartment. I also own my car outright, and have an ATM but no credit card. Between my email, my zip code for their personalized home page, and my search history, Google could know a lot of this about me. So, when I do a search that returns millions of results, it would be a pretty safe assumption that any page optimized for "mortgage" is something I won't be interested in.

On the other hand, the "housing bubble" is still going on, at least around here, so mortgage isn't a term they can just ignore totally and treat as spam. It would be the same algorithm, but it would need more personal data to know how much trust to give different terms. They seem to be tracking a lot of this about us already, by javascript injected into their SERPs, by cookies and probably by IP address.

So I have a feeling that's what you're talking about. But remember Google has plenty of other algorithms, and if they're adopting a new one, it will change their system, but not completely replace it. More like another piece of the puzzle.

Originally Posted by ForrestCroce

Eye half a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.

I'm sorry -- I was LMAO too hard to answer the original question ... HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Just for the record, I didn't write that. It's anonymous, but titled "Ode to a Spelling Chequer" and all over the web. It just seemed really appropriate. It's hilarious, I just don't want people to think I deserve credit for it...

On misspelling;
A former client of mine had a 75% conversion on SE traffic for an misspelling that was in a testimonial on one of his product pages.

Looks like one wrong spelling and you are out of race. I just hope google rests few of its rules, its starting to get on every ones nerve.

They aren't penalizing you for bad spelling, But if someone searches "London florists" why should they show a site which is optimised for "London florrists"? That isn't what the person searched for.

Simple way round it, Use a spell checker. If you want to have a site that ranks well then at least have the decency to spell words correctly.

My guess would be that if a site has enough spelling errors to effect how it ranks in Google then it's not good enough to rank well anyway.

Filtering for spelling errors is going too far! we are only human.

Originally Posted by Smaaz

Looks like one wrong spelling and you are out of race. I just hope google rests few of its rules, its starting to get on every ones nerve.

What on earth are you talking about?

Google does not de-index people for a single mis spelling. Sorry to be so "loud," but it's important no one is fooled by this misinformation. Google has annoyed low-rent webmasters by implying they won't count paid links that exist only to cheat their system, and now you're announcing that because of a spelling rule that DOESN'T EXIST, Google is "starting to get on everyone's nerve?"

No need to be sorry, Forrest. That needed to be said, and the louder the better as far as I'm concerned.

I heard (myself say) that Matt Cutts is interested in collecting information about misspellings and wants people to use the spam report form, including the word “misspelling” in the text area of the spam report.

I'm not not joking.

You see what you guys are forgetting is that Google is a malevolent, all powerful, vengeful deity, that is stalking unsuspecting webmasters, just waiting for an unguarded moment, or one stray step away from the righteous path and


ZAP!!!!!

Your site is banned for all eternity.

Thus forcing you to buy adwords

Hirst is right. Just the other day, I was walking home, when the clouds opened up and Google started throwing lightning bolts at me. Let me tell you, those things hurt like a four-letter-word. I filed a report asking what I'd done, using the webmaster control panel, and Google told me it was a case of mistaken identity, some other guy who I resemble had typed "colour" into a forum, and that I'd better be careful who I look like or they might kill me next time. So there you have it; Google is worse than the LAPD.

</sarcasm>