When optimizing a website for organic search there are several things to consider:

1. What keyword terms would ‘you prefer’ that your prospects type to find you?
2. What keyword terms are your competitors chasing?
3. What keywords have a high-ranking value or are trending?
4. What keywords and phrases are your prospects actually typing to find you?

Alas, #4 represents a vast and too often untapped opportunity!

During the course of my work, I regularly discover many search phrases that are highly ranked and could bring huge numbers of leads but are not chased by my clients because one of the words is misspelled.

Examples: The word equipment spelled equiptment; license is spelled lisense; stilettos is spelled stillettos; or brake is spelled break.

Granted, when someone misspells a term, search engines often compensate for the typo and show results for the correct spelling. However, many times search engines might see so many misspelled queries that they ‘think’ people are really looking for that misspelling.

This is especially true for product names. In 2012, Google received so many queries for “Sony Viao” that the search engine believed it to be a new product from the electronics giant and not a misspelled attempt to find the “Sony Vaio” product line.

It’s understandable that brands do not want to be associated with typos on their online properties. But be assured: you do not have to misspell words on your consumer facing website to take advantage of this opportunity. We will simply tell search engines in the backend of the site what your prospects might be searching for and get you listed in associated with those terms.

Think about it. We’ve all made hunger-induced misspellings. Canada is a British-English country flooded with American-English programming. Furthermore, a recent study from the University of Michigan has shown that up to 15% of the population in North America has dyslexia and therefore prone to misspelling terms.

How many leads are you missing because potential customers are misspelling the keywords you’re chasing? If misspelling words is a mistake, using a typo to let your prospects find you on search engines is not.

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