December 12, 2022

Introduction

These days, anyone who owns and operates their own business knows how important it is to have an online presence. When it comes to having an online presence, it’s all about turning up in search results for Google.

Love or hate Google, almost all business owners will eventually have to spend some time analyzing how their business’s online presence is being treated, ranked, and evaluated by Google and its infamous algorithms.

Those infamous algorithms are constantly being updated. Google recently rolled out the “helpful content” update that sought to prioritize content that was actually helpful and written for humans and by humans. This update hoped to devalue content that had simply been put together in order to “game the system” and be favored by the algorithms.

Google’s Algorithms and Spelling and Grammar

“Helpful content” is an admittedly broad term. What does it mean? Here at English Outsourced, we were wondering if this update results in Google now favoring websites with high-quality spelling, grammar, and readability scores, thus pushing websites that don’t meet those standards toward the bottom of the search results.

So will Google’s mysterious and almighty algorithms negatively affect websites that have too many spelling and grammar mistakes?

Google’s John Mueller had this to say:

“With regard to spelling errors… I think that’s something that’s a bit more of almost like a grey zone in that on the one hand, we have to be able to recognise what a page is about. If we can’t recognise that because there’s so many errors on the page in the text, then that makes it harder.”

(Source)

When your potential clients and customers hop onto Google to search for a solution to their problem, ideally you want your business to turn up in the search results. But in order for Google to determine that you belong in those search results in the first place, the algorithms need to understand what your business is all about. If the algorithms can’t understand what your business is about due to poor spelling and grammar, then chances are that your website won’t make it into the search results.

Mueller continues:

“It is more a matter of how it is received from a user point of view… if you are a banking website and you have terrible English on it, then I assume users will lose trust in your website.”

That makes sense to me. After all, I wouldn’t want to store my money in a bank that had a web presence filled with spelling errors and grammar mistakes.

You can easily swap out the word “banking” for any number of important businesses, and the sentiment still applies. Do you run a small medical clinic? Or a consultancy practice? Or a technology company? These are all serious and important businesses. You don’t want potential customers to lose trust in you because of something as simple—yet important—as spelling and grammar mistakes.

Readability and The User Experience

Google has stated time and time again that they are striving to improve the user experience. That is the main goal of their updates to their algorithms.

The same article linked above goes on to say that while poor spelling and grammar aren’t specifically targeted and penalized, they do reduce the overall readability of a website, and that is what causes the algorithms to not favor these websites.

After all the work you’ve put in to your business and your website, poor spelling and grammar seems like such a silly way to make things unnecessarily harder for you and your business.

The Solution

When reviewing what John Mueller had to say about Google’s recent update, I couldn’t help but think of business owners who speak English as a second language. While you might reasonably expect a handful of spelling and grammar errors on their business websites, it still seems unfair that Google would penalize their websites for this. After all, it’s perfectly reasonable for someone who speaks English as a second language to make a few mistakes here and there.

But it is what it is. Like I said at the beginning of this article, we all must eventually dance to Google’s tune.

Keeping in mind what Mr. Mueller said, the importance of quality spelling and grammar cannot be overstated. Google’s algorithms are constantly evolving, and they are now favoring websites with high-quality spelling, grammar, and readability scores. Poorly written content could potentially drive potential customers away, and you don’t want to be the business left behind because of something like spelling and grammar mistakes.

Here at English Outsourced, it’s our job to enhance the written content in all aspects of your business. We specialize in serving business owners who speak English as a second language.

If you’d like to enhance the written materials in your business—website copy, email campaigns, social media posts, blogs, contracts, etc.—to a native English speaking level, then let’s get in touch. Click here to learn more about how English Outsourced can help your business survive the Google algorithm updates—the most recent one and all the ones to come in the future!