While this isn’t a picture of me, it very well could have been. I did the very same thing when putting together the crib for my first child … nearly 17 years ago. Ugh. What seems to be equally frustrating is deciding how to do SEO … when it comes to apostrophes.
What’s the deal? Well, probably out of laziness or out of lack of education, people just aren’t using apostrophes when searching and Google gives different results for each. For example here are the results with the apostrophe:
… and without …
Notice how you have the “spell correction” display, which is clicked often according to test results. And with the advent of more “personalized search” being injected into the SERPs you need to have a solid grasp of what SEO really means … and that is, ranking matters little if the “click” doesn’t happen.
Translation: Stop looking at how often the term gets searched and look at instead, how often the term gets CLICKED and CONVERTS. After all, that’s why you are in this business to begin with, right? To make money.
So, you may wonder, “who cares, the results are the same”. Yes, they are for the top two listings in the SERPS, but the bottom half of the first page is where you start seeing differences. Okay, fine, but the issue still is, clicks and conversion and if you aren’t in the top three, then you aren’t a serious player. And of all the keywords I have checked with apostrophes, the top three were always the same. To me, this whole issue is a non-issue.
Think about it. Is it worth it to be grammatically incorrect on your site? I say it isn’t. What about incoming links? You mean links on OTHER sites pointing to your site? Sure, why not? Since they are off your site and links (anchor text) is one of the key ingredients to a top ranking in Google it makes sense to do a solid link campaign for the non-apostrophe version of the phrase.
So, there you have it. Make sure you test to ensure that the version you are targeting actually converts. When that has been verified and you need to optimize the incorrect spelling or usage, use the power of incoming links to do the trick instead of having it on your site directly.
Joel says
It’s frustrating :) More in French as we use a lot the apostrophe.
Good article,
Thanks,
Steven says
So it is really the same . now I can make up my website without thinking the apostrophe because its same hahaha
Thank you for your article, it was very helpful