Solid Research: Spelling Counts for Credibility

For years I've been looking for solid proof that spelling mistakes truly reduce a site's credibility. Now I've got it.

The Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab together with Makovsky & Company conducted a study called "Investigating what makes Web sites credible today."

Here's what they found:

"It’s clear from the data that Web users do not overlook simple cosmetic
mistakes, such as spelling or grammatical errors. In fact, the findings
suggested that typographical errors have roughly the same negative impact on
a Web site's credibility as a company's legal or financial troubles."

Wow, that's strong stuff.

So if you've ever thought that spellchecking and editing were simply fluff that you could ignore and that only content counted, think again.

Would you do business with a company that had legal or financial troubles?

Enough said. To read the whole report, click on the title of this blog.