24 November 2006 | Author: M. Thomson SEO & Affiliate Consultant

Optimising for keyword variations: how fat fingers can influence SEO

You're probably wondering what fat fingers and search engine optimisation have in common. For starters, have you ever noticed that when you misspell a keyword search or provide a spelling alteration in a search engine, such as Google, you often incur a Did you mean: message and a link to the term the search engine thinks you're actually searching for?

Many people don't realise it, but there is a whole other market out there for keyword alterations. Bigmouthmedia, for example, provide a perfect example of how regional variations in spelling can alter your search; that is, people in the United Kingdom are more likely to search for the term "search engine optimisation," whereas people in the United States would probably search for "search engine optimization". Both mean the same thing, but they qualify as two totally different keywords.

Another example can be found in common misspellings. People who have poor spelling usually rely on spell check to get them through life; and that's precisely the sort of tool Google had in mind when they came up with a page for Britney Spears spelling corrections - a website targeting over 40,000 people searching for "brittany spears".

This leads us to keyword research and the extent of its importance. We'd all like to believe we're fairly savvy when it comes to finding information on search engines; but there's no denying that there is a large audience out there that isn't - as is evident in Google's Britney Spears spelling corrections page.

When doing keyword research, try to put yourself into one of three "searcher" categories:

The Savvy Searcher: someone who uses very few search words, such as "music books".

The Intermediate Searcher: someone who doesn't quite have a grasp of good search practice, but knows what they want. The Intermediate Search will use phrases such as "buy music books online" to search.

The Novice Searcher: someone who has seen the old Ask Jeeves adverts on television, and types "I want to buy music books online" into search engines.

And just how would you conduct a successful keyword research campaign? That's simple - you'd have to be all three of these searchers put together.