Misspellings -- without looking illiterit

[tedster]

When I recognize important misspellings of a keyword, can I get enough play from the search engines by just including the wrong spelling in the meta tags? If I include the misspellings in the text, then it makes the site look slightly illiterate.

I just started a site with an essential keyword that probably gets misspelled almost as often as it gets spelled correctly, so I know I want the rankings. Any input woould be appreciated.

[littleman]

One approach would be to keep it off of your main page(s). You could use doorway pages (preferably cloaked) and deliver people to the content pages through them. The benefit of that would be to only have the misspelled pages visible to the people who used them to search - and they most likely wouldn't notice.

[Brett_Tabke]

Be sneaky about it Tedster (duh). Like little says, hide it in a doorway, or buried in content somewhere. Meta keywords are almost useless. I've tried searching for meta kw's in alta for the past couple of weeks, and recent submissions are not showing. I'm beginning to wonder if they are even indexing them now.

[mark roach]

One idea for a doorway page would be to make a humourous "misspellings" page. Make a bit of the joke of the fact that the surfer has spelt the word incorrectly. I have been meaning to do this for ages but still haven't got round to it. There is a lot of cheap traffic to be had with misspellings.

[Brett_Tabke]

I think that is a GREAT idea Mark. I am impressed with that idea. A doorway page specifically aimed at misspellings. Slap forehead, why didn't I think of that ages ago! If they got to your site on a misspelling, then they should have no problem reading a page with misspellings on it. You win both ways. It doesn't even have to be humorous, just a version of a normal page with misspellings.

[tedster]

Mark, thanks a whole lot!

In my case, it's an even better idea, because the keyword has several legit variants as well as common misspellings. I can just do a page about that fact, throw in some basic links and fluff content, and I'm cooking.

So obvious that I couldn't see it.

[Brett_Tabke]

I know Tedster, I don't know why I never thought of just slapping up a second page targeted at the misspelling. I'm always trying to work the misspelling into the main keyword page. As much as I put up pages aimed at single keywords, why I didn't latch onto this is rather embarassing. I am really starting to like this place, I wonder if they are hiring ;)

[rcjordan]

>I wonder if they are hiring
trust me, the dollar payout isn't so hot, but you are allowed 'all you can eat.'

[rpking]

I had a few pages about 2 years ago that were designed to pick up incorrect spellings of very popular search terms. They received a very healthy amount of attention, and were a good source of traffic.

Sadly they were lost in the mists of time so I couldn't tell you if they would still perform.

One way of creating a doorway that doesn't look like a mistake on your part is to make a point of the misspelling ie.

You searched for the term saerch engines.

If you were actually searching for search engines then click here.

Obviously this should all be padded out with relevant content, but it allows you to include the misspelling plenty of times in a legitimate manner.

[Bates]

This is great.. never thought about that either.
these ideas are great..

also have a few keywords that are commonly mispelt (or is it misspelt) and have been adding them into the keyword tags only (useless).
Quite obviously... don't have a 'serious' page with words spelt incorrectly as it doesn't do much for your credibility.. especially if you selling a service or product.

re: hiring... err .. you say all you can eat hey??
:)

[rpking]

All you can eat hey?!?

What is this, an online buffet for horses?

[Bates]

i guess proper grammar would be an added requirement.

[DrCool]

You could also jokingly try to sell the people who visit the misspelling page a dictionary.

[linkshark]

That tactic has worked for me. I just made a page titled "Search Terms that Hit MYSITE" and included many misspellings and other slightly unrelated words. It has paid off big with SE referrals. It is a very long page with a large click to visit graphic that sends visitors to my home page. Most click right through without hesitation, the only people that don't are my competition spying the page for more keywords. I also included a message for them in the list.

[Urus_Hyby]

Why?
Haven't you noticed this method before?

try dearching for 'softwere' and you'll receive results on a pages full of words like 'sofrware, doftware, spftware, sofrrare' etc.

try yourself

[Marcia]

Seams grate two me. A hole sexion four websight speling and grammer. gramaticly corect and making cents at the same thyme.