What’s the Deal with All These Mispelings?

by John Greer on 06/29/2009 at 5:01 pm in Analytics & Tracking, Industry News, SEO

If you have an attentive web analytics guru or agency, you may have noticed an odd trend in search engine keyword traffic: misspellings are totally hot right now. If you’re curious, it has a lot to do with Google Suggest, which is Google’s way of guessing what you are going to search for while you type. Formerly a resident of the Google toolbar, Google Suggest has moved on up, having recently leased a spot on your homepage.

You’ve no doubt seen this application, but it does more than finish your sentences. Not only does Google toss out common searches based on your typing, a URL might even appear for the first listing or in a sponsored ad at the bottom. Such is the case in the screen capture below, where all one has to do is type “flic” before a link to flickr.com is shown.

Google search for Flic

Fancy and convenient. But how does this look in your web analytics? The good news is that the click will still appear as a natural search or paid search visit in most services. However, the associated keyword in the case above is simply “flic.” All of a sudden, many sites are going to notice an uptick in misspelled words similar to their brand from Google, and likely a drop in the proper spelling “Flickr.” Take a look for yourself and see if this explains why people might be searching for your “websit.”