Keyword mis-spelling - a good idea?

[IanGibson]

I have just been doing some keywording on some new images and adding some more keywords to images which are already on sale.  During this, I accidentally mis-spelled Mediterranean.  The spellchecker picked it up, but it started me wondering whether it might be a good idea to deliberately add common mis-spellings.  If I can make a spelling mistake, surely a buyer might do the same; or would this be a complete waste of time and effort?

[dustydingo]

Point 1: you misspelled misspelled :-)

 

Point 2: It's not hard to check Measures to see if misspellings are used as search terms. I did . . . thought of four commonly misspelled words (including Mediterranean) and each one was used as a search term at least 2 times in the past year.

 

So maybe it is worth the time and effort . . . maybe . . .

 

dd

[York Photographer]

I reckon they are if they are common mispellings, more important are american spellings (colour/color) etc etc, not only for american buyers but international buyers whose english is more yanky doodle, than queens

[Phil Robinson]

I have done it on occasions. I recently did a search to see what Alamy already had and misspelled/mis-spellt the search word - I got over 250 results. I can't remember the actual term, but I did include the ronglee spelt one on that occasion. I often do it with hyphenated words where nobody seems to be sure what's right - double-handed / double handed / doublehanded.

 

I wouldn't bother wasting time wondering how people might misspell something unless I'm unsure myself.

[dustydingo]

Agree re: all the words Americans misspell . . . . . . although my experience in both Hawaii and parts of Massachusetts showed me that the American misspellings of some words is not even consistent across the whole US, just to further confuse the rest of the english-speaking world.

 

Hyphenated words yes, and <doublebarrelled> <double-barrelled> <double barrelled> words too.

 

dd

[losdemas]

+1 to all comments above really.

 

I, too, have had a sale that I directly attribute to deliberate addition in my keywords of a commonly misspelt word.  It was a UK sale, so make of that what you will.

[Doc]

Agree with above - the American spellings are the most common - I always put in both "centre" and "center" and "color" and "colour".

 

Some place names can be a problem - I put in both "Marrakech" and "Marrakesh" for example - that one is so commonly used in both spellings that I am not sure which is correct, and putting them both in the Esskeys takes up a lot of letters when only 50 are allowed....

 

Kumar

[IanGibson]

Point 1: you misspelled misspelled :-)

 

 

dd

 

Clearly a malfunctioning smell chucker.  It will be replaced. 

 

Agree with above - the American spellings are the most common - I always put in both "centre" and "center" and "color" and "colour".

 

Some place names can be a problem - I put in both "Marrakech" and "Marrakesh" for example - that one is so commonly used in both spellings that I am not sure which is correct, and putting them both in the Esskeys takes up a lot of letters when only 50 are allowed....

 

Kumar

 

That's a good point. I've taken to spelling Andalusia as Andalucia also.  I suppose Rome should also be keyworded as Roma, etc.

[Ed Rooney]

Let's remember that English is the language of the Internet.  I've lived in Rome and have never known a Roman who did not know that the world calls his home town Rome. Should we put in Rooma too? That's Finnish. Now with Mallorca/Majorca or (the worst) Livorno/Leghorn putting both in would be sensible. And there are the many terrorist group names and spellings. Keywording is making many small decisions . . . but being obsessive is not helpful and leads to spamming. 

[Michael Ventura]

Yes to common misspellings and try to make sure I have both the American English and British English spellings. And also different words for the same thing, such as soccer and football.

[Ed Rooney]

Having been diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of eight, and it being the bane of my existence all my life, I'm not given to "common" misspellings. My spelling can run from creative to bazaar. Before spellcheckers I had a wife and girl friends who were good spellers. During my school years, I was forced to be an autodidact. The only thing I learned at school was how to play hooky (be truant).  Yet I'm a published writer and even worked as a magazine copy editor during the years of my early retirement from assignment photography.   There are many strange things under the sky.

[John Mitchell]

Canadian spelling is a mixture of British and American with a drizzle of French added to the soufflé, so I use it all in my keywords. I also include the occasional common alternate spelling or misspelling. Pourquoi pas?

[dov makabaw]

I tend to check what buyers have used,, particularly for place and country names, also check UK and US variants. Have also found the odd funny like sonnenschirm which is a lot longer than parasol.

 

dov

[Phil Robinson]

I tend to put place names in English and the local language. I'm sure most people do know the English names but I can imagine a citizen of Rome typing in Roma by force of habit and I have certainly had images of Venice come up in searches for 'Venezia' before now. I wouldn't go mad though - the Italian name for Munich is Monaco, things could get confusing.