Watch our Measurable Marketing Minute episode on this topic, or read the full blog post below.
In the effort to create valuable, relevant content, we all know SEO and the key words that drive it are incredibly important. But what about grammar? Do typos and bad sentence structure really matter?
Yes! The best keyword-rich content quickly becomes the worst keyword-rich content when it’s filled with typos, bad grammar and hard-to-read sentences.
Why? Because users are human. They’re quick to judge (typos and bad grammar mean low quality and unreliability). They’re in a hurry (readers don’t want to work through clunky sentences to find what’s relevant). And they’re fickle (once they leave your site, they might not come back).
But wait…how can grammar really matter when:
Maybe so, but search engine spiders are continually crawling your site. And they’ll be quick to penalize you if your content is stuffed with keywords. “I like ice cream. Ice cream is yummy. Chocolate is my favorite flavor of ice cream. Which ice cream parlor is your go to to get ice cream?” If Google and other search engines detect an uncommonly high number of keywords on a page, you may be penalized.
While Google and other search engines may not have an exact algorithm to assess spelling and grammar, they do have algorithms that detect bad user experiences. Users will quickly leave your site if your content is full of typos, spelling errors and bad sentences. If Google sees users stopping and not staying, it’s a huge red flag that your site isn’t credible or worthy of top search engine ranking.
While that’s mostly true, you do have complete control over how your content is written. Proper grammar and well-written typo-free sentences signal high-quality, credible content. Don’t let something as easy to fix as keyword density, spelling and grammar be the cause of a bad user experience.
And yes, it is easy to fix with proofreading, proofreading and more proofreading. Try these three sure-fire proofing methods for error-free content:
