American "z" v Australian "s"

[acheeva]

Yesterdays drops included searchengineoptimiZation com au and there was a post regarding the relative value of "z" & "s"

I will admit that I am basically blind to the issue at 1st glance and spell / read everything as "z" (no I am not a yank)

This promoted me to review my portfolio & I found that "s" has a dramatically higher GKT search in Australia

Then I looked at my 3rd party valuations & parking reports to find "z" was ahead in cases where I had both

I suppose it simply shows that Australia has adopted "z" as an alternate spelling

 

[James]

Do not trust the data from Google Keyword Tool 100%, it is not always accurate from my experience, you need to rely on multiple sources of research.

 

[DavidL]

Results in Google, Australia only - 1.8m for the 's' spelling, 550K for the 'z' spelling.

One other way to compare the domains would be to consider the # results and roughly equate that to ranking competition for whoever ends up developing it. Then consider search volume and combine the metrics.

In this case they are about the same - 1/3rd search volume, 1/3rd competition so there's no 'sneaky' advantage to having the 'z'

 

[Chris.C]

Yeah the z vs s issue is an unusual one, because technically it's a misspelling in Australia, but Google doesn't always automatically suggest the correct spelling when it comes to the z vs s issue, like it doesn't with most other misspellings, and obviously a lot of people make that misspelling so that domain could be quite valuable despite the misspelling, which I normally think ruins a domain.

 

[johno69]

A search of pages from au for that term doesn't see it show in URL or page title on page 1 with z.

So to me it isn't worth going for z at all.

But that's just my uneducated opinion.

 

[Shane]

Looking at it from a CTR perspective rather than SEO, I'm a bit of a language nerd and would never click on an AU domain which incorrectly used a Z in place of an S.

I would see the spelling as a mistake by the website owner and fear further mistakes in the content.

Surely I'm not the only one who thinks this way...?

 

[payattention]

Yeah, I often avoid any American spelling URLS in the SERPS if I'm searching for something in Australia and am rather particular about what I'm after.

I might consider such a domain for a hand reg but not the drops. Really though, thinking about your average searcher, they probably don't realise it's a mistake or depending on the niche, it might have be appealing as cool. Obviously the people making the search don't realise it's a typo so no harm done but I'd take it on a case by case basis.

 

[johno69]

I would see the spelling as a mistake by the website owner and fear further mistakes in the content.

+1

Really though, thinking about your average searcher, they probably don't realise it's a mistake

Yep, as below.

I will admit that I am basically blind to the issue at 1st glance and spell / read everything as "z" (no I am not a yank)