"Mispelled" Keywords and Niches - Your Take?

[sgoerger]

Hi all,

In doing some keyword research for a client today, I came a lot of keywords that, from purely a numbers perspective, would be great for us to try and rank for. However, some of these are going after keywords which are misspelled - in particular, keywords like "mortgage calculater" or "mortage calculator".

Now obviously these misspelled keyword phrases are quite a bit easier to rank for than their correctly spelled counterparts. And in general I would discard these from my research and move on with things that are correctly spelled. But I am wondering if anyone has any insight into working with keywords like this - Can you actually go ahead and try and rank for these? Would you buy a misspelled EMD? Google usually asks you if you 'meant to search for' the correct spelling, so does that render the whole idea moot, as well?

Just wondering if there are any takes on this, or any actual experience getting SEO traffic from a misspelled keyword. Thanks!

[Tony Marriott]

I suggest you read Googles webmaster quality guidelines
Webmaster Guidelines - Webmaster Tools Help
and note the first paragraph

These quality guidelines cover the most common forms of deceptive or manipulative behaviour, but Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here (e.g. tricking users by registering misspellings of well-known websites). It's not safe to assume that just because a specific deceptive technique isn't included on this page, Google approves of it

You may also find this blog post useful (my blog nothing for sale!)



Ever Been Tempted To Rank Misspelled Keywords? | Marriott's Ramblings

[InHwan Park]

yeah... i don't aim for any misspelling with my clients...
google shows the results for the correct spelling, even if the user makes a typo.which mean the amount of time spent ranking the misspelled words will not show.
also, i cannot ethically tell a client... "i'm an expert..but i can't get you ranked for that keyword...but if you give me money and we lose a letter i think i can do it...."

[Charles Washington]

Yup. You wouldnt get rankings if some one typed in the misspelled keyword. They default to the correct spelling. If the person wants to see the mispellings on purpose, they then have to click the "did you mean" link in the results.

That is not a good plan, especially with client work.

[sgoerger]

Thanks guys. I know it isn't a good plan and I wasn't going to do recommend to him we go that route...I was just curious to get more information about how it all would shake out if you did go down that road. Tony, your blog post sure hit that nail on the head, so thanks!

[bostoncitymass]

I don't know if I would do it for a client.
But I have done that for a launch jacking and it worked pretty good.
The product owners name was searched alot with a misspelling. So I targeted that keyword and got good results. Should you do it? All depends on the situation and what you are willing to test.

[sal64]

Awesome if your buying on ebay. Just sayin'...

[onSubie]

Originally Posted by bostoncitymass

I don't know if I would do it for a client.
But I have done that for a launch jacking and it worked pretty good.
The product owners name was searched alot with a misspelling. So I targeted that keyword and got good results. Should you do it? All depends on the situation and what you are willing to test.

Yes, that would work! As someone pointed out above, Google 'spell checks' searches so misspellings wouldn't really be effective for SEO except in the case of people's names or trade names.

Sites that use this domain 'trick' usually get traffic from people typing the url directly into the browser and misspelling there. And the sites are rarely "real" businesses, usually just landing pages with ads and/or affiliate links to sites the user probably really wants.

Mahlon

[EugeneA]

I thought of this before, but not using Google or any search engines as a traffic source, but relying on the fact that a people will mistype the domain address in their browser.

I've never tried it, but I'm guessing if you find something with a decent amount of exact searches, offer something incredibly nice, then it could possibly convert. Plus, it would be effortlessly driven traffic.

Your thoughts?

[russkampmann]

As I recall, even if you type in a misspelled word, Google asks you if that's the spelling you really want to search for. If I don't know the correct spelling, I often times stay with my original choice (like a lot of people do). Bwala, I might end on on your page.

I have one site about bonsai plants, and it's often spelled (or rather misspelled) 'bonzai'. I pick up a few 'viewers' with that as one of my keywords. It's never misspelled within the body of the site, however.

Would I do it for a client? Probably not.

[Tony Marriott]

Originally Posted by sgoerger

Thanks guys. I know it isn't a good plan and I wasn't going to do recommend to him we go that route...I was just curious to get more information about how it all would shake out if you did go down that road. Tony, your blog post sure hit that nail on the head, so thanks!

No problem, just glad to be of help.

Originally Posted by onSubie

Yes, that would work! As someone pointed out above, Google 'spell checks' searches so misspellings wouldn't really be effective for SEO except in the case of people's names or trade names...

Mahlon

You are still going to fall foul of Google webmaster quality guidelines and will likely get penalized or de-indexed. Google specifically quote

"..deceptive or manipulative behaviour, but Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here (e.g. tricking users by registering misspellings of well-known websites).."

Originally Posted by EugeneA

I thought of this before, but not using Google or any search engines as a traffic source, but relying on the fact that a people will mistype the domain address in their browser.

I've never tried it, but I'm guessing if you find something with a decent amount of exact searches, offer something incredibly nice, then it could possibly convert. Plus, it would be effortlessly driven traffic.

Your thoughts?

As my comments above. To get enough traffic from a directly typed misspelled domain name then it will certainly be falling into the ""misspellings of well-known websites" category.

[acharyachemtech]

mispelled keyword can act as good factor for SE ranking

[outwest]

I think google USED TO
pull up misspelled sites

example

Lesbain Girls (for Lesbian girls)

now it pulls up the CORRECT SPELLING sites
and then asks
Did you mean blah blah?

so it defeats the purpose of using misspellings
they used to be useful

[UMS]

Originally Posted by outwest

example

Lesbain Girls (for Lesbian girls)

OMG! What an example and an oxymoron.

[outwest]

I used to concentrate a lot on misspellings it was worth your time a few years ago

now that google instead pulls up the correct spelling, (assuming thats what you meant)
it defeats the purpose