When it comes to producing quality content, it’s important to have proper spelling and grammar in your work. These aspects show professionalism, credibility, and quality. 

Depending on the search engine, grammar and spelling can affect SEO. Bing was one of the first search engines where bots scanned content to look for mistakes when determining the quality of the work. If you have a lower ranking on Bing, it could be due to errors and typos. 

Google claims that they do not care about grammar and spelling as much. However, although Google doesn’t penalize spelling and grammar outright, the bots that scan your webpage, blog, or articles may find it harder to understand what the page is about, which could result in lower page rankings and perceived credibility.  

If your content is full of errors, it will be harder for your audience to trust you as a brand. 70% of website visitors said they are less likely to click on an ad if it has a spelling error. Webpages with spelling mistakes have a higher bounce rate and that can negatively affect other domains backlinking to your work. Even if Google can forgive some content quality issues, readers will not. 

What is SEO? 

SEO is short for search engine optimization and is a process of streamlining the quality and content of your web pages to make it easy to be found on search engines. Some of the measures that improve SEO are optimizing your performance, targeting keywords, using backlinks within your content, decreasing website loading time, and improving content readability.  All these SEO strategies help search engines rank you higher amongst competitors. Content readability and grammar/spelling go together. The more painstaking something is to read, the lower its readability ratings. 

With voice search becoming increasingly popular, it’s important for your content to read as clearly as possible. Readability specifically affects SEO since voice search is becoming useful for readers. Bots look for content that is easy to pull from for voice search. If the content is too complex or nonsensical, it will be overlooked by these bots.   

How Spelling and Grammar Issues Affect SEO  

For a start, poor grammar and spelling look unprofessional. Not only will these issues cause poor responses, but they will also affect your SEO. If a visitor is not finding what they are looking for, that will impact your bounce rate, which hurts SEO long-term. It's important to make sure all your work is accurate. This includes backlinks in your articles. Providing clean, error-free content to your readers and ensuring your backlinks are credible is crucial for SEO longevity.  

5 Tips to Improve Your Grammar and Spelling for Better SEO 

Tip #1: Improve Readability 

Readability refers to how easy your page is to understand. When your content is easy to read, you are appealing to a larger audience. To improve readability, look at two aspects of a sentence: length and language. Longer, more complex sentences should be broken apart into shorter ones. Also, simpler language makes your content more readable. Take this example: 

Original Text: To re-focus on the importance of ROI when it comes to selecting your CRM solution, ample data storage is another feature that offers a lot of tangible upfront value. If we look at a simple data storage problem like the natural expansion of a small business: it can be costly if you find yourself finally ready to open additional locations after years of successful operation, only to find out that your IT solutions aren’t fit for having multiple storefronts or twice as much sales volume. 

Text Revised for Readability: A CRM’s data storage capacity contributes to its long-term value. Say, for instance, you’re looking to expand your small business by opening new locations. If your CRM doesn’t have the capacity to handle an increased volume of data for multiple storefronts, the cost of that expansion could be more than you bargained for. 

See the difference? Shorter sentences and less verbose language make it easier for your reader to understand what is being said.  

Tip #2: Use an Outside Tool to Check Spelling and Grammar 

There are many online tools to check your content, two popular applications being Grammarly and ProWritingAid. These proofreading tools help improve your content’s quality and provide more readable text for your viewers. Plus, the more often you see the tools repeating the same edits, the more likely you are to pick up on the trends and improve your own writing skills. For a quick fix, a tool like these can double check your work for better search results. 

Tip #3: Ask a Friend to Proofread 

The best piece of advice before posting content is to have someone else’s eyes read over your work. Ideally, this is an individual who you know has strong writing and editing skills, like a marketing team member or someone in a customer-facing role. A second set of eyes from a friend or colleague will allow you to catch any last-minute mistakes that will help your readability even more.  

Tip #4: Hire an Editor 

If you’re fortunate enough to have the budget for it, you may consider hiring a professional editor to assess your work. Using a professional editor will be more costly but can be worth it. An editor will catch all mistakes and improve the quality of your work, which will increase your SEO rankings. 

Tip #5: Practice Your Skills 

There are grammar websites that allow you to practice your skills so you can teach yourself the best ways to write and create content. If you use these tools each day and read examples daily, you will improve in writing. Popular free grammar websites include Oxford Practice Grammar Online, EnglishGrammar’s Online Exercises, and Perfect English Grammar

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