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Credibility: Yours to Loose
Show of hands: How many people noticed the typo in the title? My guess is that those who did were ready to jump all over my mistake. It was done intentionally to help prove my point: Visitors notice typos. (For those who are still confused: loose = free or released from fastening or attachment; lose = to come to be without.)
These days, most people are less skeptical about the internet. We think little of viewing bank statements, paying utility bills, and entering our credit card numbers online. More often than not, visitors won’t think twice about making an online purchase, that is, until you give them a reason to.
Imagine this scenario: You’re on a site, and you find the perfect TV. You’ve seen it before in stores, talked to sales people, done your research on consumer reports, AND now you’ve found it 45% off and with free shipping! You’re already imagining who you’re going to invite over to watch the big game… until you notice that there are 3 typos on the homepage, including the brand name of the TV you’re purchasing, and there’s no way to enter a shipping address that is different from your billing address. Notice how quickly you’ve gone from ‘cloud nine’ to ‘too good to be true’. Chances are, you are not going to be making this purchase and you rationalize that watching the big game on a little TV isn’t so bad, even if it doesn’t have HD.
Credibility is yours to lose. Visitors will give you the benefit of the doubt until you don’t meet their basic expectations. I often will give our clients little pointers about misspelled words or broken links as part of our efforts to improve their marketing results via an OnTarget subscription. I am always a little surprised when they don’t seem too concerned about it. The truth is, every visitor who notices these little things is less likely to convert on your site, return to your site or recommend your site to someone else.
The 3 most common credibility mistakes I see online:
1. Typos and grammatical errors. Examples: loose/lose; their/there/they’re, its/it’s, a lot (it’s two words, people) etc. Pick up a copy of Strunk and White’s “The Elements of Style” if you want to set yourself straight on what is proper. At 85 pages, it’s the most concise miracle ever written on grammar.
2. Lack of (or un-clickable) security assurances in checkout. I even have a client whose privacy page is the most visited page by visitors who convert. This is not un-likely if you have a very methodically minded product like insurance or software because people come to your site expecting to look for detail oriented information.
3. Un-professional design. Optimization is an ongoing task. What may have been the norm for website design a few years ago is likely to be obsolete now. If visitors come to your site and have to think about what they’re seeing, you’ve already lost.
So, proof-read your site, have someone else (preferably not involved in the creation of the site) go through it and make a purchase online, and remember not to give visitors an excuse to leave!
- Nobody wants to read your sh**!September 21st, 2009
- Redesign? Ask The Right Questions!September 18th, 2009
- Cross-post: How to Improve a Product Page, Part 1September 15th, 2009
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March 5th, 2010
9:49 am
I have 2 programs, one that checks for any mis-spelled words (it also does some spanish too) and the other program checks all the links on the website.
I also set up a 404 custom error page report in Google Analytics to keep track, anytime my custom 404 error page is displayed and what page URL the user clicked on to get there. These suggestions are must do’s now a days.
The only place i do not check for mis spelled words is when customers submit product reviews. I have talked and read other peoples opinions about it and I think it adds credibility to the reviews with original reviews and their mis spelled words left in there.
Just me 2 cents…..
March 5th, 2010
10:33 am
Great points. I used to neglect this on our site. We were too concerned with getting “stuff” out the door rather than delivering quality.
With the last web site overhaul, we cut back the amount of text, simplified the language, and paid more careful attention to spelling, grammar, and voice. I am sure there are still errors.
I’ve used Inspyder Insite in the past to fix links and spelling issues. Takes a while to build your custom dictionary but pretty useful.
http://www.inspyder.com/products/InSite/Default.aspx
Be curious of other tools people use to maintain site quality.
March 5th, 2010
11:25 am
I won’t lie, but I noticed the typo on the title.
March 5th, 2010
11:39 am
*puts up hand* I actually got irrationally angry for a split second there! And its a Friday afternoon… thank God I read on quickly enough. Although I would like to see a hyphen in the middle of proofread…
Good article though, I can’t find an example right now but it’s all too common. And as mentioned above this shouldn’t apply to user-generate content, although I would also add that it should be made very clear on most sites what content is user-generated, as this isn’t always done. If a customer review appears like it might be the product description then this could well cause further problems. Just a thought.
March 5th, 2010
12:35 pm
In addition to spelling errors and grammatical errors, I notice more and more that words are left out of sentences. People are too much in a hurry to read back what they write. Or could it be that text messaging is causing poor writing skills?
March 5th, 2010
1:45 pm
Last week we were informed of a horrible typo in an email that had been sent out and immediately jumped on it. The work accepted was replaced with excepted somehow, and we knew that this could have a detrimental effect on our credibility. Well, it turned out to be a typo made by a user and not the site, and we all breathed a sign of relief. Great post!
March 5th, 2010
2:23 pm
Are you gaming us here Nat?
In your 2nd bullet para, “a client who’s privacy page…”?
Come come, those in glass houses should not throw stones.
March 5th, 2010
3:22 pm
Martin: not gaming. New subtitle for this post “(…or When Three Sets of Eyes Still Aren’t Enough)”…. Thank you!
March 5th, 2010
5:08 pm
I usually pretty good about staying on top of my grammatical errors. Mostly thanks to my firefox spell checker.
However my website does suffer from some broken links now and again, especially since I started using the SEF Urls that are not natural with Joomla.
I’m going to make a renewed effort to correct them after reading this article. Thanks.
March 5th, 2010
5:40 pm
[...] Credibility: Yours to Loose Published: March 5, 2010 Source: Conversion Rate Optimization & Marketing Blog | FutureNow, Inc Show of hands: How many people noticed the typo in the title? My guess is that those who did were ready to jump all over my mistake. It was done intentionally to help prove my point: Visitors notice typos…. [...]
March 5th, 2010
9:42 pm
Typos and grammatical errors is a problem for me to make an article caused my mother language is not English. Using grammar software have not help.
March 5th, 2010
11:33 pm
I write, proofread, and edit for a living. Everyone thinks they know how to spell and they know grammar. It’s amazing how many people think they don’t need my services until I point out the five typos and the ten grammatical mistakes on their homepage. A customer will never notice when a site is grammatically and orthographically correct but they will always notice that one typo or that one grammatical error.
March 5th, 2010
11:37 pm
By the way, there’s quite a few errors in the comments above if anyone needs my proofreading services email me lol
March 6th, 2010
1:11 am
if the content is ok and people can understand it i don’t see why it’s such a big deal if you make a grammatical error in one page…
March 6th, 2010
1:22 am
It’s a big deal because when people notice errors in grammar, spelling or anything else on your website, they automatically discredit it as a professional entity. The internet is the most competitive market out there, bar none; any website is competing against hundreds of similar ones. If there’s anything wrong with your website, whether it is grammar, spelling, check out, privacy policy… you’re essentially giving customers to your competitors.
March 6th, 2010
2:05 am
You seem to be reading day and night looking for good stuff to post lol
March 6th, 2010
2:16 am
Nothing worst then trying to read an article with all the spelling and grammar errors. The back button comes in real handy.
March 6th, 2010
4:03 am
I always run a spell checker through my text (in dutch) because I think typos look very ugly.
On the other hand, since English is not my native language, I didn’t notice the “Loose” typo.:)
Good article, thanks.
March 6th, 2010
4:17 am
thanks.it was very helpfull!
March 6th, 2010
6:10 am
I would say that grammatic mistake is something no witter expect in her/his article.
As well as I would never tolerate my writer writing article with spelling or grammatic mistakes.
March 6th, 2010
7:13 am
As NG Tv had shown once that people acutally don´t read all the text it´s just the first 2 and and the 2end if the content is ok and people can understand it if you make a grammatical error in one page
March 6th, 2010
1:47 pm
Thanks for the reminder. So many times you find some information you are so interested in sharing that you forget to double check your spelling.
March 7th, 2010
6:20 am
Thanks .. good pst.. it’s very nice..
March 7th, 2010
6:45 am
I’m such a stickler for typos on sites! I know I make them myself from time to time but if I’m looking at a store online, it comes off as unprofessional and gives me an uneasy feeling about purchasing from them.
The more eyes you have looking over your site and content before publishing it the better!
March 7th, 2010
7:36 am
Natalie. you are so right – BUT!!!
yeah – i know there are no “buts” in this world, and equally right about the details needing to be correct.
My “excuse” is that i come from a bilingual country and slang and other misuses of the English language are so common that we do not notice them anymore.
Worse – i rely heavily on the spell checker, do not really go back to read what i wrote – and it all adds up to sloppiness.
all it( your post) has done to me is make me realize that at the very least i had better read what i wrote here for you “+)
thanks for a heads up.
rob
March 7th, 2010
1:29 pm
Very good point! As a web designer, this is the first thing I can see when entering a web site. credibility.
March 7th, 2010
2:08 pm
Correct spelling and punctuation are absolutely vital. I work in a healthcare environment where to spell badly would create a very poor impression. Those working in healthcare are seen as educated, focused, aware and intelligent. A few apostrophes in the wrong places and their, they’re, your and you’re misspelt and the “esc” button will be pressed and custom lost.
First impressions are very important.
March 7th, 2010
4:04 pm
Credibility is the hardest thing to earn. And it’s made in time.
But probably, the best thing to avoid destroying it, it’s to spell it right.
March 7th, 2010
10:24 pm
it’s important when you running an online business
March 8th, 2010
2:14 am
It’s amazing how you can do so many things perfect, but make one mistake and that is what goes down in history. Nobody remembers the thousands of people who sing the national anthem every year, but they will talk for years about the one who messes up.
March 8th, 2010
2:15 am
Oh yeah and Brusels is right, it (credibility) isn’t something that happens overnight!
March 8th, 2010
3:42 am
People are not perfect and you really cannot please everybody. Personally, I will not say that I am perfect and that I commit no typos but as much as possible, I see to it that what I write has less mistakes and can be understood. I am not really very conscious about typos or something with regards to other blogs I’m reading, as long as I can read and understand it.
March 8th, 2010
6:52 am
You need to shower your audience with trust throughout your entire website. Trust is what gets them to really become good online customers.
March 8th, 2010
7:46 am
Spell-check is not enough. Anyone interested in writing copy for a website should get The Elements of Style (link provided above) and read it from cover to cover.
Good post.
March 8th, 2010
7:51 am
Shattered you stole my spelling correction glory (and reason for my click through). As a copywriter for some major brands, I’m constantly astonished by their lack of care for spelling and grammar on and offline. Worst are the misplaced apostrophes on other copywriters’ sites. Ouch. But the principle applies to all sites – your TV example is great. Love your work.
March 8th, 2010
12:41 pm
It is amazing to me, how many people ask for their work to be corrected, and yet they haven’t done the first bit of proofing themselves. Measure twice, cut once is what dad always used to say.
March 8th, 2010
1:07 pm
Nice picture. Does it mean you don’t have to stop?
March 8th, 2010
4:27 pm
So sad of me. I noticed the typo on the title even in the body of article, again and again.
Thank you for remind
March 8th, 2010
7:03 pm
I agree with this for web content but in an email a typo can make you more human.
March 8th, 2010
7:25 pm
The post is very good, i agree with all this. About 2 months ago we launched our new website.
5 Clients called the same day to tell us that we have typos and need to correct them.
March 8th, 2010
10:30 pm
My business partner is an ex-editor for a newspaper. He is super fussy about typo’s, grammar, and general tight writing all around.
I think there is a balance here though. For years I was always aware and he would pull me up on every typo and every sentence that could be improved.
However, as a result, my productivity dropped by 30-50% I would estimate. I was so caught up in perfectionism that it stopped me from doing a massive amount of output.
I would end up spending way to long for every piece of content, and there was no such thing as quickly knocking something out. I knew the process would be scrutinized and it had to be perfect.
Of course I’m still very careful on the copy I write for our main website (so product details etc), however, for blogging and replying to comments etc I’m much looser now. I find I’m freer just to get the ideas out there.
I’ve worked on being prolific, rather than perfect.
March 9th, 2010
2:28 am
Don’t give visitors an excuse to leave is very good remark.
I am always managing my bounce rates and trying to reduce it for every page.
Thanks for a great post.
March 9th, 2010
4:35 am
I wonder, maybe he was drunk?
March 9th, 2010
9:01 am
Whilst I think spelling and grammar are important to stop you looking like an uneducated fool, I believe the old saying that Content Is King applies.
Most people would prefer to read something interesting and entertaining with a few typos than deadly boring perfection.
Get both right and you’re on to a winner, of course!
March 9th, 2010
11:30 am
So whence this ubiquitous typo?
March 9th, 2010
3:54 pm
You’re definitely right about this. People do notice things like typos or unprofessional design and that often results in them losing faith in your business.
March 9th, 2010
4:33 pm
I enjoyed this article and no I did get the typos at first.
Thanks so much!
March 9th, 2010
6:08 pm
You don’t really need to sound very convincing, but you need to appear very convincing to your potential customers. Otherwise, you end up not closing a single deal. Also, you need to carefully cite all benefits from buying the product, useful review.
March 9th, 2010
9:19 pm
Great topic!
I’ll be honest. When i find typos on a website, the first thing I wonder is if it could be a scam look-alike site.
“Welcum to the safe and secure City Bank pin number test center. Please input your bank card number, sicurety code from the rear of your bank card, your pin number and press submit.”
Sadly, the more you look at a page of copy sometimes, the easier it becomes to miss obvious errors.
March 10th, 2010
12:24 am
hi, there are several reasons that way people avoid online purchase.
March 10th, 2010
3:46 am
Andrew is right. People are not perfect and you definitely cannot please everybody. Although I wouldn’t consider upsetting your niche market too much as they are your bread and butter. I saw a post awhile back about a large web site making people upset by asking for too much information up front. Where I disagree is that site gets thousands of hits a day, they can’t worry about upsetting a few hundred people if they are still getting quality leads!
March 10th, 2010
7:25 am
I agree whole heartedly with your comments. My old company spent a moderate sum on some marketing banners with a common ‘ grammar mistake and insisted on using them, much to the amusement of our well-educated target audience.
March 10th, 2010
9:21 am
Great post. I totally agree, it seems you find typo’s all over the place which is a easy fix but a fix that shouldn’t need to be done in the first place.
March 10th, 2010
11:00 am
LOL? That isn real or ?
Is it not a fail?
If it is the true truth thats really really sad! but nice
I have to note that i havn’t against dyslexic!
March 10th, 2010
11:46 am
I find I have to read my articles/posts online – then print them as well. Something about the computer screen makes your eye skip over things that would pop right when they are on paper. Thanks for the tips!
March 10th, 2010
12:47 pm
I totally agree with your post. In the main sections of an ecommerce website, it really needs to be 100% perfect. I can understand seeing typos in the copy for the product (if it’s original). Sometimes people just make simple mistakes. I can see red flags though if the grammar is off (like the copy was translated) or the mistake is something that could not have been easily mis-typed.
March 10th, 2010
11:08 pm
This is so true…I have seen many ads on facebook that have spelling errors. If you are writing something in a format that doesn’t have a built in spell checker, take the time to copy and paste it into word to make sure there aren’t any before you hit the publish button – it does a lot to save face.
March 11th, 2010
12:02 am
Personally, I hate typo’s.
In our company, any staff or employee is commended for pointing out typos on our online store.
March 11th, 2010
2:32 am
I couldn’t understand certain parts of this post, but I assume I only need to learn a bit more regarding this, because it certainly sounds interesting and kind of though-proviking! By the way, how did you first get started with this?
March 11th, 2010
12:50 pm
thanks very much, this is very helpfull
March 12th, 2010
9:46 am
Spelling errors are a pet hate of mine. My spelling can be poor at times but it still gets to me when people can’t get the basics right.
J
March 12th, 2010
12:44 pm
Is there anything worse than leaving a careless spelling or grammatical error on your Website page?
March 12th, 2010
1:52 pm
I didn´t notice the typo in the title, but I´ve noticed the typo on the picture, maybe because it´s so big. But often I notice typos on professional websites, and you´re absolutely right, those little things can be very important. Un-professional design can also be a problem. If a commercial website looks like a private one, I usually don´t buy anything there as I think their products can´t be very good if they can´t even design a professional website.
March 13th, 2010
1:06 am
I was not able to understand the image concept behind this post but interesting post.
March 13th, 2010
1:51 am
I couldn’t agree more. Typos, layout, graphics all play an important role. If your website is an equivalent to a shopfront, then you wouldn’t have a mispelled store sign or tatty exterior. The only place I actually go for typos is in a couple of metatags. Effective? I don’t know but it doesn’t hurt.
March 13th, 2010
6:18 am
Anyone else notice the typo in the title?
March 14th, 2010
4:06 am
Surfing, that is what this whole article is about haha…
March 14th, 2010
1:28 pm
Thank you so much for writing an article like this! I cannot tell you how frustrating it is when I visit a site that has typos and grammatical errors. That is by far the #1 reason for me not coming back to that particular site. If you cannot take the time to make sure your site is grammatically correct and free of typos, then you most certainly cannot expect purchases and recommendations!
And it is such a simple fix too..
March 15th, 2010
8:14 am
A lot of folks take typos very seriously.
When i am reading a text on a webpage or email and it makes sense, i don’t hold it against anyone if there is a couple of grammatical mistakes.
after all we are only humans.
March 17th, 2010
9:10 am
thanks for informative article. I will use spell checker.
March 17th, 2010
2:26 pm
Probably he don’t use Google translate
)
March 17th, 2010
8:26 pm
I am very thankful I came across with your blog because this made me realize that I have to be more conscious with what I am writing. Thank for the words of wisdom.
March 17th, 2010
8:26 pm
well written! i could become a fan! it is amazing to me how many people ‘give themselves a break’ for their own website that they certainly wouldn’t for others. God IS in the details!
March 17th, 2010
10:54 pm
nothings worse than blatant misspellings
March 17th, 2010
11:21 pm
Hmm that’s very interessting but actually i have a hard time understanding it… wonder what others have to say..
March 18th, 2010
6:21 am
Yeah, I got a very important letter from an old teacher of mine, that she had send to many people…. and it was full of typos, so much that I could not take it seriously – it definetely counts!
March 18th, 2010
6:28 am
The credibility means “The quality of being believable or trustworthy”
March 19th, 2010
2:30 am
@ Used
If you can’t trust somebody to spell, who can you trust them with your credit card?
March 20th, 2010
11:57 pm
I’ve heard that squeeze pages for information products tend to do better when they are uglier… although I haven’t seen definitive split testing to prove this. I think there’s definitely a correlation between reader trust and site design.
March 21st, 2010
2:23 pm
very well written,i really love to read your all post..thanks
March 22nd, 2010
9:00 pm
Since reading this article I have started using a spell checker program to proof all my articles before I publish them. Thank you guys so much for constantly pushing us to be better.
March 23rd, 2010
7:27 pm
It’s amazing how easily regular web surfers can sniff out shoddy design. They might not even know what puts them off their ease, but thier spider-sense goes haywire.
March 25th, 2010
12:47 pm
What credimilibility? See I just lost all of it
My blog app just added a new updated spell checker. Just goes to show how in demand proper spelling, etc. is today.
March 26th, 2010
8:42 am
I think the importance of typos is over egged, often a typo will make you raise a wry smile, but if it’s on site you know and trust it’s not a problem. For example Jalousie-Plantation St Lucia is often mis-spelt as Jaloosie Plantation or Jallousie Plantation, it doesn’t matter to a customer, it’s only the brand owners and marketing mangers who are too retentive about these things. I have never heard a client say I didn’t buy a product from X store because it was spelt incorrectly, that kind of thing just doesn’t happen.
March 27th, 2010
8:46 am
yeah your right a site must be almost perfect to increase its conversion rate and to have more sales.
April 3rd, 2010
8:08 pm
nice update
April 3rd, 2010
10:11 pm
I saw a post awhile back about a large web site making people upset by asking for too much information up front. Credits Finance food Restaurant Grill Home Improvement Real Estate
April 3rd, 2010
10:34 pm
Thanks for great post
regards,
April 5th, 2010
9:49 am
You need to shower your audience with trust throughout your entire website. Trust is what gets them to really become good online customers
April 5th, 2010
5:01 pm
I definitely agree that typos are something that should always be avoided on a website but at the same time, I will sometimes come across typos on my own site which has been live 4+ years and is very successful. Of course I am always quick to fix the typos but I guess it’s not the end of the world if you have a few.
April 5th, 2010
7:48 pm
If you make many mistakes it just shows people how unprofessional you really are. I even edit comments to make sure people leave comments that are grammatically correct.
April 5th, 2010
7:51 pm
I could become a fan! It is amazing to me how many people give themselves a break for their own website that they certainly wouldn’t for others.
April 6th, 2010
8:11 am
That is by far the #1 reason for me not coming back to that particular site. If you cannot take the time to make sure your site is grammatically correct and free of typos
April 7th, 2010
3:40 am
“Credibility: Yours to Loose”
As the credibility of this site when people read the header but not the explanation? lol..
Good post, it is so hard to take websites serious when they seem to have been written by a drunk 9 year old blind kid.
April 7th, 2010
4:51 pm
You will be surprised that even published books need to be run through spell check. We have run into a few issues with that and try help authors see that they “loose” credibility. LOL
April 7th, 2010
6:50 pm
I hate it when I find out about my typos from visitors to my site that take the time to email me and point them out. I’m glad to find out about it so I can make the changes, but it just makes me feel stupid.
April 7th, 2010
7:13 pm
Especially when in the title of the website =)
April 7th, 2010
10:48 pm
There are many tools that you can use to prevent spelling errors or typos. Firefox has a built in spell check. Very nice!
April 8th, 2010
5:43 am
Nobody remembers the thousands of people who sing the national anthem every year, but they will talk for years about the one who messes up.
April 8th, 2010
6:09 pm
So true! Correct spelling is especially important when dealing with dentistry. If you misspell a single letter, you could end up with a patient getting a filling when they weren’t supposed to. Not good.
April 10th, 2010
7:21 pm
It’s amazing what a massive difference like a mis-spelt word can make. Keep things simple – there are plenty of spell checkers available and if all else fails use the good old fashioned dictionary! heat resistant tape
April 12th, 2010
7:20 pm
HA! I admit I clicked on your article with the intention of correcting your “mistake.” Very clever.
To add to the discussion, I’d say I am more annoyed by grammatical errors than obvious typos. I wish people would know the difference between “it’s” and “its,” for example.
April 12th, 2010
11:49 pm
Good article. I will belive this.
April 13th, 2010
2:17 am
When taking over my website I redesigned the website to increase the appeal. After doing this my conversion rate tanked. So I restored the website to the original design and simply tweaked a few things and the conversion rate went back up. Any insight on this?
April 13th, 2010
2:20 am
I’ve experienced this as well, but it’s more about making the site easy to use. The less page views to get a conversion, the better. That’s my two cents.
April 13th, 2010
2:21 am
Thanks for your input, I’ll have to take a look at this.
April 17th, 2010
4:18 am
Thanks for the tips!
It is real eye opener for many website owners.
April 17th, 2010
11:03 am
Hmm that’s very interessting but actually i have a hard time understanding it…
Thank You.
April 22nd, 2010
7:33 am
Correct spelling and punctuation are absolutely vital I had a site selling very expensive brand watches centered on only 1 model of watches that was the site title. For 6 months haven’t made a sale didn’t know why till one day a friend told me I had a letter inversion typo in the site title. Fixed it and now I get 1-2 sales/weekly that is good for a site selling $5k+ watches. The explanation I think is that visitors thought I sell replica watches that to avoid trademark problems add typos to the brand title.
April 26th, 2010
7:01 am
according to my knowledge Typos and grammatical errors are critical. Google always consider those mistakes.
May 1st, 2010
12:55 am
You are brought good attention regarding spelling and punctuation. some time a single punctuation mark will change the whole meaning of sentence
May 1st, 2010
2:14 pm
After saying that I agree about the dangers of spelling mistakes….I had the pleasure of having quite a few pointed out on my own website! AAArrrgh! I’m on the spell check warpath now!
May 2nd, 2010
10:33 pm
Most writers hire an editor for their work to correct the mistakes done in the article. Having mistakes can’t be remove to a writer so the secret to prevent mistakes is to read once or two the article you wrote.
May 4th, 2010
3:18 pm
Hey you have written a detailed analysis about this topic,I wonder how and where you get this information from. I would like to know more about the same . Would really appreciate if I could get more insights about this.
May 5th, 2010
11:17 pm
@Audio Bible:
What programs do you used?
May 6th, 2010
3:44 pm
I think this article is spot on. Anytime I write postings for my subscribers, I always do spell checks and re-reads to make sure everything is correct. I find it so unprofessional when I see things unpolished. And, it’s so easy, yet so important.
May 10th, 2010
10:46 am
I use the ‘spellchecker’ application in the Google Toolbar before I publish anything.
May 12th, 2010
11:51 am
The only place i do not check for mis spelled words is when customers submit product reviews. I have talked and read other peoples opinions about it and I think it adds credibility to the reviews with original reviews and their mis spelled words left in there.
May 14th, 2010
8:54 am
The only place i do not check for mis spelled words is when customers submit product reviews. I have talked and read other peoples opinions about it and I think it adds credibility to the reviews with original reviews and their mis spelled words left in there.
May 16th, 2010
4:17 am
nice one… thx alot bro
May 16th, 2010
4:18 am
thx broo
May 16th, 2010
6:29 am
In writing it is really important that you give enough attention to the grammar and spelling because people usually lost trust to the business when there are lot of typos.
May 16th, 2010
11:28 am
As NG Tv had shown once that people acutally don´t read all the text it´s just the first 2 and and the 2end if the content is ok and people can understand it if you make a grammatical error in one page
May 16th, 2010
2:31 pm
I am agree with you but in todays life people follow some shortcut while using chatting.
But According to organization point of view it is neccessary to follow rule of grammer and other things to give satisfaction.
May 17th, 2010
3:03 am
I’ve got fond memories of the sales guys always saying “I can sell, but can’t spell” and absolutely revelling in the fact that sales skills not necessarily equates to being “clever” in the conventional sense.
When it comes to websites you need lots of clever though, as you will not sell if you can not spell!
I thoroughly enjoyed your example, and have taken good note of your points.
May 19th, 2010
2:09 am
For less grammatical mistakes i used Google toolbar on which having a option of spelling checker tool. This tool help me for identifying my mistakes or for proper check i also use a different spelling checker which are available on net who show every little mistakes.
May 19th, 2010
11:34 am
You were right about me wanting to jump all over you for the spelling. But then I thought, this is grokdotcom.com. There must be something about that spelling…
May 19th, 2010
2:00 pm
There are plenty of unreliable information on the web that discovering mistakes in the real world is frustrating. What is becoming of us?
May 20th, 2010
12:32 am
Poor attention to details or poor education: a combination of both? It really makes me wonder. Because it seems that just about anywhere, you will find mistakes such as these.
May 20th, 2010
4:39 am
Nice information.
Thanks.
May 20th, 2010
6:50 am
Credibility statements can refer to
+your extensive research on a topic,
+your life-long interest in an issue,
+your personal experience with a thing, or
+your desire to better the lives of your listeners by sifting through the topic and providing the crucial information.
May 20th, 2010
7:31 am
Credibility means the objective and subjective components of believable sources.
May 21st, 2010
1:06 am
I agree with your opinion
that credibility will depend on the confidence of our people
and I think many people forget it
May 21st, 2010
1:15 am
credibility is very important thing if we know…
cause we can’t make a good reationship without trust each other….
May 22nd, 2010
9:30 pm
[...] View full post on Conversion Rate Optimization & Marketing Blog | FutureNow, Inc [...]
May 27th, 2010
10:20 pm
typo in a particular word used to happen to me when typing a word which has similar spelling but different sound of the letter composition. Especially the English words which I have not learned much about this one foreign language. many of which provide a solution to install a software that can correct the grammar mistakes and typos, even ms office capable of doing it
May 29th, 2010
6:52 am
Thanks brother.I have learnt many thing within few minutes. try to avoid all those things in futures.Thanks again for guiding us.
May 29th, 2010
8:28 am
You are absolutely right. You can lose credibility quickly. When you avoid the 3 common mistakes it will definitely help your website convert better.
June 2nd, 2010
6:55 am
Don’t hesitate to tell us about our web site specialized in short term rental of apartments. As people are accustomed to read and write the english all over the world I think that the standard is getting far much loose that it can be in french for exemple. Indeed a wrong typo melted with bad configuration give rapidly anyone a good reason to think, that is to leave.
June 2nd, 2010
11:21 am
Excellent post showing some simple and yet common mistakes many people make.
I’ve noticed others such as not cross browser checking sites to ensure compatibility across multiple platforms/resolutions.
Another common one is ecommerce sites not putting images into the right setting to ensure they are accessed via https:// when the user adds to basket/checks out. Getting the message from ie ‘some elements on this site are not secure’ is a righ turn off for the security concious.
June 3rd, 2010
4:27 pm
We have run into a few issues with that and try help authors see that they “loose” credibility. LOL
June 5th, 2010
9:09 pm
Perfect article. This is the first thing i can see when entering a website. The credibility.
June 6th, 2010
1:52 pm
SOTP.
) cool picture
June 6th, 2010
2:00 pm
In any type of writing any have use good puctuation and grammer to use because it give more readability option
June 8th, 2010
4:44 am
Those working in healthcare are seen as educated, focused, aware and intelligen
June 9th, 2010
8:03 am
It’s a big deal because when people notice errors in grammar, spelling or anything else on your website, they automatically discredit it as a professional entity. The internet is the most competitive market out there, bar none; any website is competing against hundreds of similar ones. If there’s anything wrong with your website, whether it is grammar, spelling, check out, privacy policy… you’re essentially giving customers to your competitors.
June 9th, 2010
6:36 pm
Hokey sites with no credibility always bother me. You get only a few good sites that look bad… like ezinemagazine but other than that most credible sites look good.
June 10th, 2010
7:21 am
I see this quite often and it puts me off rather fast.
June 10th, 2010
4:35 pm
I really love this article. It drives me crazy when I see sites with typos or grammatical errors.
To the credit of e-commerce sites, these errors are not always their fault. They get a portion of their data from feeds and other UGC (user generated content) that they don’t themselves write and thus should not be held accountable for. I’ve seen some typos on this site ShopAtHome.com but it’s still my favorite shopping site!
Thanks again for the great article!
June 11th, 2010
4:02 am
I agree that many of the website owners are making these type of error including myself. I will try to minimize these from now. Thanks for this quality article.
June 11th, 2010
8:32 am
Im assured every webmaster makes a minor error in their lifetime
June 11th, 2010
8:33 am
thanks for writing this interesting article and dont worry about the typo, I didn t notice
June 12th, 2010
1:08 am
they automatically discredit it as a professional entity.
June 13th, 2010
3:58 pm
This is one of the dangers of the seller on the internet. it can go so fast to lose years of industry credibility
June 25th, 2010
10:26 am
yes,you’re right,every visitor who notices these little things is less likely to convert on your site, return to your site or recommend your site to someone else.
June 26th, 2010
8:54 am
Thank you admin. teşekkür ederim.
June 28th, 2010
7:03 am
very great point, i never get attention on the miss-speeled words
July 16th, 2010
12:35 am
i use google toolbar to check spelling and found it good
July 17th, 2010
3:25 pm
I think that if the spelling mistakes were on a well known site, like Amazon, the customer may over look it, but if they have not heard of the site before, they would be very weary.
July 19th, 2010
1:53 pm
yes,you’re right,every visitor who notices these little things is less likely to convert on your site, return to your site or recommend your site to someone else.
July 21st, 2010
6:03 am
One of the best bloggers is a Philippine young boy.
He might make a lot of typos and grammatical errors but he still gets tons of traffic because they way he writes is unique.
So this isn’t true for every site.
July 22nd, 2010
5:00 am
Believe it or not spelling & grammar is most important thing.I always use spellchecker application in the Google Toolbar even after my editor proof read the whole content,before I publish anything.
July 25th, 2010
9:04 am
This is a great article. As someone who SUCKED in English class(s) because I was more interested in the girls doing my work, than learning something myself. Strunk and White’s “The Elements of Style” has been a life saver.
This is still a weakness I am working through, but thank God, I married one of those pretty girls who went on to become a best selling romance author!
Talk about a life saver!
Living An Epic Adventure,
Troy
July 26th, 2010
2:46 am
Hahahha.. that’s funny…
I like this post. Most people do not know how to use anchor text the right way. They use same term over and over or even name and it makes no sense.
July 28th, 2010
6:05 pm
whether it is grammar, spelling, check out, privacy policy… you’re essentially giving customers to your competitors.
July 29th, 2010
1:59 pm
You need to shower your audience with trust throughout your entire website. Trust is what gets them to really become good online customers.
August 1st, 2010
2:22 pm
Last week we were informed of a horrible typo in an email that had been sent out and immediately jumped on it. The work accepted was replaced with excepted somehow, and we knew that this could have a detrimental effect on our credibility. Well, it turned out to be a typo made by a user and not the site, and we all breathed a sign of relief. Great post!
August 3rd, 2010
10:04 am
Hi Natalie,
You are right in your opinion that peoples are loosing their credibility by doing repeatedly minor mistakes in their job or on something else. Actually i am wondered why they repeat such mistakes again and again instead of correct those mistakes, well i can only suggest them to focus on small thinks first rather than running behind big things.
August 7th, 2010
5:41 am
whether it is grammar, spelling, check out, privacy policy… you’re essentially giving customers to your competitors.
August 7th, 2010
4:37 pm
I agree with this for web content but in an email a typo can make you more human.
August 8th, 2010
6:30 am
Nothing worst then trying to read an article with all the spelling and grammar errors. The back button comes in real handy.
August 10th, 2010
7:10 am
To me errors are part of a first impression. If that first impression in writing has errors then I may question that person’s credibility. Considering the increasing number of errors I am finding in the books I read, this would be a fascinating study.
August 11th, 2010
5:21 am
Totally! I can’t stand it when people in important roles at big companies or institutions can’t even take the time to learn proper grammar and practice proper spelling. Ticks me off.
August 11th, 2010
6:35 am
I agree Creditibility is a must, take an online shopping store for example. The Payment gateway must be well known, or people will apply no credibility to the organisation by a large percent of potential buyers.
A Bike or Bedroom furniture item to a Bank account, the security features such as SSL are also a Must.
August 13th, 2010
6:19 am
I have just finished an overhaul of the company website and assigend a few pages to every one of my colleagues to check over. Even each one did this and quite a few mistakes came back it wasn’t until a few weeks later that someone noticed that there was a glaring error in one of the page titles. The word should have said “claims” but infact it said “cliams”, over 40 different people must have looked at this but they read what they expected to read rather than what was actually written.
What a gaff eh? At least it did get noticed sooner or later though. I can’t imagine the business that may have been lost as a result of this.
August 16th, 2010
5:47 am
Credibility is important, but far too much time is spent agonising over ridiculous details and products and services loose out as they fail to actually get to market on time.
If you’ve done your research and deliver something of real value then people will forgive those typos, in fact they probably wont even see them.
Ever read a good book with a typo ? I have… Did you care ? Nope, it was an excellent read….
September 2nd, 2010
10:42 pm
In addition to spelling errors and grammatical errors, I notice more and more that words are left out of sentences. People are too much in a hurry to read back what they write. Or could it be that text messaging is causing poor writing skills?
September 13th, 2010
4:50 am
It takes a long time to build credibility-and so little to degrade or destroy it. It takes only one tiny inconsistency or inaccuracy for people to question everything else you say and do.
September 15th, 2010
7:35 am
I do not completly agree. Most people nowadays skim through your website and they won’t even notice if you make spelling mistakes.
I think there are many different factors when it comes to customer trust. But you do need to have a certain standard on your site, if it looks terrible and is very user unfriendly, you will have a big problem
September 24th, 2010
5:30 pm
A customer will never notice when a site is grammatically and orthographically correct but they will always notice that one typo or that one grammatical error.
October 11th, 2010
5:51 pm
As a copywriter for some major brands, I’m constantly astonished by their lack of care for spelling and grammar on and offline. Worst are the misplaced apostrophes on other copywriters’ sites. Ouch. But the principle applies to all sites – your TV example is great. Love your work
October 12th, 2010
10:10 pm
#
You need to shower your audience with trust throughout your entire website. #
Ever read a good book with a typo ? I have… Did you care ? Nope, it was an excellent read….
October 13th, 2010
5:21 pm
@buy trazodone: you may be willing to let a typo slide, but there are others who are not. Communication style affects the way a person interacts with a website, including what they are and are not willing to put up with. It is important not to get stuck creating your site around your own preferences. Check out…
- http://www.grokdotcom.com/2007/09/20/why-we-compete-reward-and-buy/
- http://www.grokdotcom.com/topics/copywritingforbeginners.htm
- http://www.grokdotcom.com/2008/10/30/presidential-candidates-temperament-website-copy/
… to learn more about the 4 types we use, their preferences, and the implications for your pages.
October 13th, 2010
6:15 pm
I remeber when some sites actualy made spelling errors because so many people did. They used to get alot of traffic this way untill search engines listed correct spelling instead. I agree people want easy to navigate sites that look professional with security before they ever will buy anything.
October 22nd, 2010
5:37 pm
like this post. Most people do not know how to use anchor text the right way. They use same term over and over or even name and it makes no sense.
October 26th, 2010
2:19 am
Unfortunately, too many people don’t care about their own credibility anymore.
October 26th, 2010
7:21 am
Its pretty important that anyone who writes or sign writes to atleast have that basic distinction between the different spellings of words. I see people constantly using spelling from the United States here in Australia, and say writing things like this is you’re chance etc… a little education would be good!
October 27th, 2010
5:30 pm
I agree that the website needs to be convincing enough for someone to buy from it. I think appearance is very important and the security assurances. If anything looks different than the usual, I will start to doubt it and not buy from it.
October 30th, 2010
2:10 am
Totally agree. You will lose credibility if your design is not professional, if you have typos or grammar errors.
You will also have to update your site on a regular basis. It will increase the trust.
October 30th, 2010
5:32 am
Natalie – that’s quite an effective and aggressive picture you’re using with your article – it actually inspired me to read this article with greater insight.
I agree 100% with Allen – and I think most experienced bloggers and internet marketers would. It’s all about what you put INTO your website that will ultimately convince others how real you are or how far you are from it.
It thus takes a big fat lot of hard work to work at gaining credibility online.
But ultimately it takes the strain of sacrificing your time CONSISTENTLY with having and maintaining an internet presence.
November 5th, 2010
3:07 pm
In addition to spelling errors and grammatical errors, I notice more and more that words are left out of sentences. People are too much in a hurry to read back what they write. Or could it be that text messaging is causing poor writing skills?
November 14th, 2010
3:06 am
Unfortunately, too many people don’t care about their own credibility anymore. They use same term over and over or even name and it makes no sense.
November 15th, 2010
12:45 am
Very good article. It is very easy to get caught up in the services being provided customers, and forget about the copy being used to sell to them. Combed through the site after this read, and found a couple errors!! Silly oversight, but nonetheless, important to fix.
November 15th, 2010
5:19 am
I totally agree with your post. In the main sections of an ecommerce website, it really needs to be 100% perfect. I can understand seeing typos in the copy for the product (if it’s original). Sometimes people just make simple mistakes. I can see red flags though if the grammar is off (like the copy was translated) or the mistake is something that could not have been easily mis-typed.
November 16th, 2010
3:42 pm
Its pretty important that anyone who writes or sign writes to atleast have that basic distinction between the different spellings of words. I see people constantly using spelling from the United States here in Australia, and say writing things like this is you’re chance etc… a little education would be good!
.
November 19th, 2010
2:18 am
Great post! I agree with your opinion.though credibility can not be seen, but it is very important to everyone.
November 19th, 2010
4:48 am
I can’t stand it when people in important roles at big companies or institutions can’t even take the time to learn proper grammar and practice proper spelling. Ticks me off.
November 19th, 2010
2:47 pm
I agree with your opinion
that credibility will depend on the confidence of our people
and I think many people forget it
November 20th, 2010
7:25 pm
There are some sites that are not in understandable English, it obvious unless you have good grammar and spelling people will be turned off.
November 24th, 2010
9:16 am
Whilst I think spelling and grammar are important to stop you looking like an uneducated fool, I believe the old saying that Content Is King applies.
Most people would prefer to read something interesting and entertaining with a few typos than deadly boring perfection.
Get both right and you’re on to a winner, of course!
.
December 6th, 2010
6:41 am
also set up a 404 custom error page report in Google Analytics to keep track, anytime my custom 404 error page is displayed and what page URL the user clicked on to get there. These suggestions are must do’s now a days.
December 10th, 2010
8:11 pm
I see people constantly using spelling from the United States here in Australia, and say writing things like this is you’re chance etc
December 14th, 2010
1:30 am
I agree that grammatical error will affect our reader. I understand that because I also facing this kind of problem.
I am Asian. Only know la little about English. I know that I cannot write proper English, but I will not stop build my site.
From time to time I will improve my English. I just can’t resist not to write because it is very profitable.
Thanks.
December 23rd, 2010
9:13 am
my big problem is typos and grammatical errors, not familiar with English Languange, need more practice
January 13th, 2011
5:18 pm
if the content is ok and people can understand it i don’t see why it’s such a big deal if you make a grammatical error in one pge
January 25th, 2011
6:00 am
True that, taking only 2 min to read again content is vital not to lose a client.
January 31st, 2011
7:21 pm
I really appreciate your articles! I have lost count of how many times I personally have misspelled words. I tend to rely too much on spellcheck, and no, spellcheck does not catch everything!
March 25th, 2011
9:35 am
Proper spelling is very important to get customers to your online store.You better hire a professional
April 11th, 2011
4:40 pm
I have done this several times myself the strange thing is that unless you read you post (even after you post it).
Ninety percent of the time you will never know what is wrong.
May 2nd, 2011
11:31 pm
I have lost count of how many times I personally have misspelled words. I tend to rely too much on spellcheck, and no, spellcheck does not catch everything!
May 25th, 2011
12:07 am
True that, taking only 2 min to read again content is vital not to lose a client.
June 7th, 2011
2:05 am
It’s a big deal because when people notice errors in grammar, spelling or anything else on your website, they automatically discredit it as a professional entity. The internet is the most competitive market out there, bar none; any website is competing against hundreds of similar ones. If there’s anything wrong with your website, whether it is grammar, spelling, check out, privacy policy… you’re essentially giving customers to your competitors.
June 12th, 2011
5:31 am
hey first of all thanks for sharing this information..
it is very important to write correct spelling ..when people notice error then they fear that it might be somehting missleading
July 1st, 2011
12:19 pm
I agree that the website needs to be convincing enough for someone to buy from it. I think appearance is very important and the security assurances. If anything looks different than the usual, I will start to doubt it and not buy from it.
July 8th, 2011
5:46 am
While surfing web this type of broken link are a common error.Most pages provide links in their 402 error page but those links are useless too.Some of them only redirect to the main page.Can you suggest some measures on how to make your page more apprehensive and create no broken links.
November 8th, 2011
9:56 pm
Typos and grammatical errors. Examples: loose/lose; their/there/they’re, its/it’s, a lot (it’s two words, people) etc it’s problem to me. because i’m still learn english. my english is bad….
November 23rd, 2011
10:45 pm
Typos and transposed words do happen from time to time. Amazon, the leading seller of electronic books actually has a page setup solely for the purpose of reporting errors within Kindle Book works. In recent years there have been several published books including one from the Harry Potter series actually pulled because of the large number or errors. I think with the vast amount of information at our fingertips nowadays we as a society don’t put the same level of importance on quality work that we once did. It is a shame.
December 2nd, 2011
10:52 pm
Great points. I used to neglect this on our site. We were too concerned with getting “stuff” out the door rather than delivering quality.
December 10th, 2011
3:39 pm
I agree with your opinion …
Provided that the site does not affect the appearance of the site is loading the page …
And thank you for the information that you provide …
December 14th, 2011
10:33 pm
Great information, appearance of the website should be user friendly & SEO oriented. content must be provide high quality text that inform useful news
December 19th, 2011
9:37 pm
Great articles… Design is one of the important thing in Site Development. And Of course .. the most important thing is content of each page …
Thanks for the info