Here’s the million-dollar question: do Google and other search engine giants assess spelling and grammar in terms of SEO?
Some people will tell you that they don’t. That is partly true. However, spelling and grammar absolutely do affect SEO because they are interictally linked to readability and user experience. These are two incredibly important considerations in terms of page rankings.
Why Readability and User Experience Matter for SEO Purposes
Google’s John Mueller has provided a very relevant quote in terms of the impact of spelling and grammar on SEO. He was asked whether these factors influence the Google algorithm. His answer was enlightening.
“Not really….it is more a matter of how it is received from a user point of view. If you are a banking web site and you have terrible English on it, then I assume users will lose trust in your web site.”
And right there Mueller provides everything that you need to know.
It is well-known that search engine algorithms are not smarter and more adaptable than ever. Long gone are those days when simple keyword stuffing would bump your business up the page rankings. Now there is far from one parameter used, but for those search engines it really all boils down to relevance and user experience.
How is relevance and user experience primarily measured? Well, among other metrics, it revolves around the number of clicks and the bounce rate (a poor bounce rate is immediately going to raise a red flag for the likes of Google and Bing).
One factor that obviously influences a user’s decision to stay on a site or not is the content. That includes the relevance of the content, of course, and the design and layout of that content. But deeply rooted is the bias against typos and incorrect grammatical constructions.
It really all comes down to readability. Is the content easy to read? Does the content speak to me? Poor content – be that one littered with typos and mistakes – is simply not going to maintain the attention of users in a highly competitive space.
More than that, writing littered with mistakes erodes trust. How can you trust a site that cannot even take the time and effort to present its content correctly? And so the user bounces.
But even content that is not, technically, full of mistakes can still be bad from a readability perspective. Long convoluted sentences that don’t provide the information the user really needs, or a text that uses the wrong tone or voice in communicating is simply going to alienate that user. The result? They bounce.
And so, poor user experience results in poor metrics. Poor metrics result in rankings penalties. In short, spelling and grammar affect SEO.
The Solution to Improve Spelling and Grammar for SEO Purposes
So good spelling and grammar does, in fact, make a difference in terms of SEO. But that is no reason to panic.
Even if English is not your native language, or you just feel that your business, for whatever reason, is liable to make a number of typos in terms of written text, be that for SEO purposes or just in communication in general, then there is an easy solution.
Use a tool to help. Let Linguix be that tool.
What exactly does Linguix offer? First of all, it is an AI-powered and intuitive writing assistant, which includes a high-quality spelling and grammar checking tool. That tool covers, but is not limited to, the following kinds of typos and mistakes:
- spelling errors
- incorrect use of grammar
- bad punctuation
- sentences that are too long
- ideas that are poorly communicated
- wrong words
- wrong formality
- wrong feeling to the writing
The tool scans your work and not only highlights related mistakes but then categorizes these so you are not only rectifying them but learning along the way. This is not just a reactive tool, but one that seeks to build your ability in the future.
Linguix offers workable, practical solutions that have been built up by language experts. What is more, you get access to synonyms and definitions of words – tools that continue to build your knowledge and level of skill. You also receive structural alternatives and recommendations related to better style and format correlated to parameters that you set yourself.
Not done there, Linguix provides relevant statistics such as word and sentence count and even suggests an average reading time of your text. Get details about your writing’s average word and sentence length, and then, vitally, a numerical grade based upon the widely used Flesch-Kincaid readability score.
There is that keyword. ‘Readability’. Make your test more readable and trustworthy. See better SEO performance as a result. That’s what a smart tool like Linguix can do.