Guess what? You’re not the only one struggling to keep your website error-free. We faced similar challenges, leading us to develop the TripleChecker tool. Interestingly, even Fortune 500 companies with extensive content management and quality control teams and various SaaS tools encounter similar issues.
In early September, we analyzed over 75% of all Fortune 500 company websites and discovered some intriguing statistics:
Indeed, companies like PayPal, McDonalds, Nvidia, and Hilton all feature a variety of silly and unprofessional typos.
Here’s a list of some of our favorite typos. Trust me, it was hard to choose just five:
| Fortune 500 company | Typo | Correction | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nvidia | technolgies | technologies | Of all the innovative companies pushing technology forward, you’d think Nvidia would spell “technologies” correctly. |
| Cisco | acccount | account | Never seen “account” spelled with that many C’s. |
| M&T Bank | Andorid | Android | It’s misspelled on their homepage. We plan to let them know as soon as possible. |
| Microsoft | employes | employees | Come on, Microsoft. You have like 200,000 of them. |
| CenterPoint Energy | histroy | history | This typo might actually go down in histroy. I mean history. |
Disclaimer: We include these only to add a bit of light humor to the post. These are all obviously highly successful companies. The typos mentioned were visible as of September 23, 2024. Perhaps they’ll be fixed by the time you view this blog post; one can dream.
None of the common tools used by companies are foolproof. Here are two situations where errors are often introduced:
When writing new content:
In order to prevent typos from being introduced, every single user with access to adding content (i.e., writing blog posts) would need to utilize the same proofreading tool (e.g., Grammarly, Language Tool). In reality, even with the best internal processes and workflows, it’s unrealistic to expect that they will be followed 100% of the time by 100% of all users. What actually happens is that some, but not all, users take advantage of those tools. Some tools require users to copy and paste the content into their spelling and grammar checker, which, given the manual nature of this task, results in inconsistent use. Furthermore, not all default browser-based editors catch issues like homonyms (‘their’ vs. ‘there’) or duplicate words (‘the the’) since both of those are not spelling mistakes but are contextual errors.
Some companies do employ quality control (QC) teams to double-check new content before it’s published and available to the masses. Wired had a great article explaining why manual reviews are often insufficient—it all comes down to how efficient our brains are.
When editing content:
Let’s assume, for example, that your team is in the 99th percentile of following internal workflows and every single content writer diligently uses the same tool when adding new content. Firstly, I just want to say well done to you, and perhaps you can show us your tricks. Now, what do you think happens when a developer, designer, or another user needs to make a tiny edit to the blog post (e.g., adjusting anchor text on some link) or privacy page? How confident are you that they will use one of the same proofreading tools or copy and paste ALL of the content into some spell-checking editor? I know from personal experience that this is often when processes break down. It’s happened even to us, a company whose sole existence is to catch errors. One of our developers made a small edit and somehow introduced an ‘is is’. If not for us dogfooding and using our own tool to catch mistakes on our websites, we’d also be looking a bit foolish walking around with typos.
These challenges exist regardless of the platform you use to design and develop your website, whether it’s WordPress, Wix, Shopify, Squarespace, or Webflow. Errors are likely to be introduced throughout the process.
Aside from the scenarios above, there’s another category of site errors that is either partially or completely out of your control: broken links.
Internal links: Imagine a developer restructures the site architecture, moving pages to different directories without informing the content team. As a result, many internal links that previously worked might now lead to dead ends. While you have some control over this—ideally, developers should coordinate with the content team—sometimes these changes slip through.
External links: There’s no manual way to track when an external page you’ve linked to either goes out of business or changes its structure, leading your link to suddenly point to a 404 error page. When you initially made the link, everything was fine, but the web is dynamic, and content moves or disappears without notice.
These types of errors can occur through no fault of your own, and while they’re frustrating, they’re also a common part of managing a dynamic website.
We wrote a lengthier article on the potential damages and costs associated with website mistakes. The gist of it is summarized below:
It’s a valid question: If behemoths like McDonald’s and Hilton can succeed despite typos, why sweat the small stuff on your own website? The key difference lies in their established reputations. These brands have been around for decades, or even a century in Hilton’s case. They have become household names, and most consumers are familiar with their products and services through multiple interactions. This level of familiarity and trust means that their customers are less likely to be turned away by a few typos—they have already had many positive experiences that overshadow minor errors.
But can the same be said for your brand? If you are still building your corporate identity and reputation, every detail counts. Unlike these established companies, you might still be working to gain the trust of first-time visitors who have no prior engagement with your brand. For new or growing businesses, a professional and error-free online presence is crucial. Typos and grammatical errors can detract from your credibility and might lead potential customers to question the quality of your offerings. In competitive markets, maintaining a polished, professional image could very well be the factor that tilts the scales in your favor, helping you stand out from competitors and win over new clients.
Therefore, while Fortune 500 companies may weather the storm of a few spelling errors, newer companies do not have this luxury. Your website is often the first impression potential customers have of your business. Ensuring it is flawless not only reflects your attention to detail but also reinforces the professionalism that customers expect from a reliable business.
Let us summarize the conclusions from above:
Assuming you’re still with us, the final piece of the puzzle is how to effectively proofread your website so that your quality control (QC) processes are foolproof, helping you avoid costly mistakes.
We believe the only solution that addresses both human fallibility and inconsistent usage across organizations, as well as issues outside your control (like external broken links leading to dead pages), is an automated solution.
Our automated proofreading and spell checking tool at TripleChecker does just that. It also includes a broken link checker.
We consistently scan your entire website to detect spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, typos, and broken links. We can perform these scans daily, weekly, or monthly. Due to the recurring nature of the scans, we are able to identify and alert you to new errors before your customers encounter them. Best of all, you do not need to overhaul your workflows or internal processes, nor do you need to expect your employees to become Scripps National Spelling Bee champions. So, what are you waiting for? Give it a try today.