Marketing in an international medium like the Internet can be challenging. Since late 1995 when I first began on the Web – as opposed to the likes of using Fido and Usenet – I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been corrected for “spelling errors”. Now, I’m just as prone to making them as the next person, especially when I’m typing flat out as one does writing web copy, emails and blog articles. But some folks are what are termed “Spelling Nazi’s”. They’ll jump in and ride rough shod over you with jackboots red ink and berate you for your “high spelling crimes”.
On Usenet and in email it was generally considered poor form to comment on spelling errors simply because the medium requires fast responses and typos are inevitable. Everybody was given the benefit of the doubt in respect of being able to spell. But then in those days most computer users had an average education level of at least Tertiary (US College level and above). Where as now it’s estimated that 30% of Web users have low literacy.
However. On our web copy there is no question spelling errors are a blight that should be stamped out with gusto and attention to detail. But even then – there can be issues, even when your spelling is actually 100%.
Across on the blog for our product MixAction I posted an article detailing with the issues of spelling “Theater” and “Theatre”. You can read it by Clicking Here.
You see, since I launched the MixAction website I’ve had a number of emails from people correcting me on my use of spelling there for “theater/theatre”. The problem stems from the way the USA spells it “theater” and the United Kingdom tends towards the original English spelling which is “theatre”. To make things convoluted as only Australian’s and New Zealanders can, here we spell it both ways. 
It’s not just theater/theatre either. It’s color vs. colour. Using a “z” and not an “s” in a variety of words.
For MixAction and it’s website, as I explain in the blog post:
It’s tough though, because the word is fundamental as one of the primary search phrases for the product and site. People are searching for both and because of this you can easily get buried by sites spelling it one way or another.
There are ways around this, the blog article is one of them, the nature of WordPress as an SEO tool is another and of course some content dealing with the “other” method of spelling is another option again. But it’s something to be wary of and something that is a little harder to tackle than most SEO efforts. So heads up to ISV’s who need to target keywords that have different English spellings. As I said on the MixAction blog:
You could probably have a great deal of fun with “color”, “color” and substitute for “culla”, but when it comes to pronunciation there is no way I’m going to stop pronouncing the letter “Z” as “Zed” rather than the accepted American “Zee”!
Scott Kane
Quote of the day:
The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence. – H. L. Mencken
