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Writing is a graphical representation system, in which misspellings denote deficiency of some professionals and nonprofessionals in regards of quality control of their work; on Internet, being writing the main communication system, we see how orthographic errors on websites annoy both users and literates.
This time, by the hand of ZARZA Engineers, we’ll discuss this topic in depth, sharing processes to improve this weakness in the web engineering industry.
The Myth: Orthographic errors lower website’s positioning.
We want to start by clarifying that according to Google and other search algorithms, orthographic errors in Web pages do not subtract points in website’s positioning, but instead, writing well, does add relevance, which means that by doing a revision job and implementing professional writing, we will find ourselves benefiting the product or service we’re promoting via Web.
All across the Internet, we find cases that may be compared to opening a vast majority of traditional print newspapers, where not even the journalists (with its very respectable exceptions), nor the editors, fail to filter 100% orthographic errors on their articles and content, and perhaps the vast majority of documents if analyzed by a philologist, may have errors, however, the more we review and use the techniques mentioned below, we will have fewer orthographic errors on websites.
Do Orthographic Errors affect the corporate image in web pages?
Of course they do. Since 2003, when ZARZA
began to develop the first websites of the region, we notice that many users and visitors of the websites were those who were reporting errors in both editorial and writing, many of those errors in the texts supplied by the same clients, pointing out in small texts lots of errors; proving that the educated person, who likes to read and write properly, gets annoyed when finding Orthographic Errors in web pages, getting the impression that the writer may or may not be a good professional, but undoubtedly not perfectionist.
The above is a clear example of what we have to avoid on the Internet as professionals, we must look forward to keep our knowledge in IT by the side of basic quality control principles when doing reviews, and when advising our clients about the importance of correcting Orthographic Errors in web pages.
Correcting Orthographic Errors in Web pages
Many of our colleagues tell us that the texts they receive from clients are plagued by errors on writing, grammar and orthography, undoubtedly ending up on Orthographic Errors in their websites, that’s when we suggest them to talk to their clients, offer them the service of reviewing and correcting their texts, or well fill out the job with a philologist; however, many clients don’t get the reason for this investment, which brings us to a crossroads. In these scenarios since time is money, we should at least ensure that the texts used in common areas of the template are written correctly, which in most cases will not take us more than an hour.
In the event the customer responds affirmatively, wanting us to review the contents, or either reviewing them themselves, we could use the following steps to minimize the number of Orthographic Errors in Web pages.
Step 1: Review via Text Editor
By copying the client’s text in one or several text editors as Microsoft Word or Free Office Writer, you may quickly identify the main Orthographic Error in websites; and so, correct quickly many common mistakes.
Step 2: Read aloud
The brain is made to respond to sounds, in this case since produced by the aloud reading of the client’s contents, it may point out errors on drafting, matching and eloquence between what’s written and what it wants to be communicated. In this respect, we may identify punctuation mark problems as well as context errors.
Step 3: Read silently
After we have reviewed the texts, and have read them aloud, undoubtedly we’ll have been able to correct many Orthographic Errors in web pages, however, the process brings us to the silent reading step, when instead of analyzing tracking ideas aspects, we’ll check the reading background, and what’s intended to be communicated.
Step 4: External Review
The last step is to use another tool for external review. At ZARZA, the Engineers receive training courses taught by professional philologists, so we always have two or three engineers reading the texts to ensure the work delivered to the client is an optimal job. However, the external review can be performed by online tools, Googling according to our requirements and supporting ourselves or applications and/or external services.
Orthographic errors in websites cost millions to companies
On a practical and hypothetical case, if you can choose, you would probably prefer to buy a washing machine rather than something marketed as “washyng machine”. Even if it’s because the first one seems to come from a more serious, reliable store and at least has agents who know how to write. This trend, according to statistics, is precisely the decision thousands of Internet users take every day, when browsing and searching an online service.
Sales are about trust and credibility. Many users get a opinion of the webpage they’re visiting in few seconds, finding an error will not really lead them to stay in that store, being able to find an alternate option in a couple searches, where perhaps, Orthographic Errors in web pages are not the order of the day.
In God we trust