Cheez Whiz: Tasty and an inspiration for a blog about misspelled keywords.
I was recently in Philadelphia for a client meeting, and when it came time to find some dinner, the choice was a no-brainer: a real Philly cheesesteak.
To those that don’t know (and I’m sure there will be some debate), but the classic Philly cheesesteak is made with Cheez Whiz, that spreadable processed cheese product.
Notice how I spelled “Cheez Whiz.” That is the “correct” way to spell the brand’s name. Of course, that is not how you spell “cheese.” Although “whiz” was spelled correctly, it wasn’t on the menu from which I ordered my sandwich: They took the liberty to spell it “wiz” (perhaps because they weren’t using real Cheez Whiz, which is kind of frightening because Cheez Whiz isn’t real cheese in the first place!).
Cheez Whiz=Bad for You. Spelling Variations=Good for SEO and PPC/SEM.
No matter how you spell it, one thing is constant with Cheez Whiz: It’s not good for you.
Although it won’t likely impact your health, the way you spell “Cheez Whiz”—or most any word or phrase—does impact search results, both in organic SEO searches and pay-per-click/search engine marketing campaigns.
Top five Google Search results for variations on the “Cheez Whiz” name.
The graph to the right shows the top results for searches on variations of “cheese,” “cheez,” “whiz” and “wiz.” As you can see, the results are mostly inconsistent.
One interesting result is how Wikipedia consistently was both the highest-ranking result and the only to appear in all three searches. But even more interesting is how the link to Kraft (the company that actually produces Cheez Whiz) only appeared once (and not for the product’s landing page, but for a recipe).
Misspelling: Bad for SEO, Good for SEM
Whether through accident or simply not knowing better, you can’t always trust that your audience will type the proper spelling for one or more of your optimized keywords.
Healthcare and medical keywords are difficult to spell no matter how well you spell, and this further complicates suggestions about best practices.
Google and other search engines are sophisticated enough to point misspelling users in the right direction—or even to ask them if they meant to search for the proper spelling. Still, as the Cheez Whiz chart illustrates, results will vary, depending on spelling.
This certainly raises some questions about best practices. We suggest:
• SEO: Don’t Misspell. Although misspellings can give you higher rankings for words that search engines don’t automatically correct, they are problematic for an obvious reason—they result in misspelled words in your content.
Misspellings translate into less credibility. There’s not much credibility in Cheez Whiz, so it can be spelled, misspelled, or mis-misspelled without any harm to its already marginal reputation. But hospitals and healthcare are obviously much more dependent on building trust through credibility, and misspellings can only harm that goal.
• SEM: Optimize for Misspellings. Much like with SEO, promoting your hospital with misspelled words does little to enhance your credibility.
However, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t create PPC ads for misspelled words. But instead of using the misspelled word in your ad copy, write static copy with the correct spelling, but put the misspelled keyword in a bucket that will trigger an accurate ad.
SEM and Typo Generators
If misspelled words are not already appearing in your keyword research for relevant but properly spelled words, consider making your own misspellings.
For example, “rheumatoid”: That’s a tricky word to spell! You can be creative and guess your own misspellings (e.g., “rheumatoid”, “rheumatoid”), or you can use useful online typo generators such as:
• TypoGenerator.com
• SEOchat.com’s Typo Generator
• SEOBook.com’s Typo Generator
Derek Rudnak | Communications Specialist | AVID Design
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