Teh instead of The.
Then instead of Than.
Innovasion, entreprener, and busness instead of innovation, entrepreneur, and business.
Making a mistake isn’t the problem. Especially when English is not a company’s first language.
Leaving a mistake in published material is a choice. Especially when English is the language of business.
There are companies that understand the importance of a proofreader.
Credibility.
Brand.
Web analytics.
There are too many companies that still think it’s not that a big deal to have a spelling or vocabulary mistake in a published document or marketing text.
Sloppy spelling and using the wrong words shout out that a company just doesn’t care enough.
Knowingly publishing marketing literature – from websites to advertisements, pamphlets to business plans, blogs to social media – replete with errors is a turnoff for many potential customers.
And SEO will not work in a company’s favor if there are typos.
“It’s crystal clear that bad spelling and grammar can have a powerful impact on a company’s bottom line,” Shira Stieglitz, head of content and research, Website Planet, a global web services comparison site, told Business NH Magazine. “The fact that businesses lose nearly nine in 10 more visitors to their websites because of typos should be a serious shot across the bows to bosses around the US. To make matters worse, visible typos make a site less visible on Google because it lowers their position in the search engine results pages.”
Typos will continue to sneak into your texts. There are some that are more cringe-worthy than others.
The person on staff who speaks English, if not trained to catch the errors, won’t see them.
So, here’s the kicker: proofreaders are easy to find.
It takes time. It takes skill.
The CEO doesn’t have to do it. The marketing department doesn’t have to do it.
There are proofreaders who do it. People who are happy to scrutinize a company document and rectify any punctuation, spelling, vocabulary, or grammatical errors.
So, why do companies still choose to skip or skimp on this important part of the editorial cycle?
I’m still trying to figure that out.
Viva Sarah Press is a journalist, proofreader, writer and editor.