Although spell check has become ubiquitous in everything from word processors to web browsers, it seems like the average person has become even sloppier when it comes to written communication. Since things move so quickly on the web, perhaps people figure that quantity is more important than quality, and a typo-laden document is better than no document at all. This may be true in some cases. But more often than not, a single well-placed typo can render your work totally worthless.

Let’s say that you’re creating an ad. It could be for a product or service you offer, or something like an apartment for rent. You’ll want to include keywords that describe the offering, so that prospective buyers can find it. This is pretty obvious, but lots of people forget to spell check their listings, rendering those keywords and descriptions worthless. People may be typing the right words into the search box, but they’ll never see your entry in the results.

But wait, doesn’t Google automatically suggest spelling corrections to people who are searching for something? Sure they do, but that only fixes typos on the prospective customer side of the equation. If your website spells the most common keywords wrong, you’re not giving search engines much incentive to direct people to your page. The situation is even worse on sites like Craigslist and other niche-oriented search engines. These sites often lack any sort of spelling correction. So a single typo in the city or state, for instance, can kill virtually all of the traffic to your post.

In a perfect world, every document would be 100% error-free. But given the limited resources that we all face, the occasional typo may slip through. Nevertheless, it pays to focus your efforts on making sure things like product names, features, and locations are spelled correctly. These pieces of text represent a critical link between your prospects and your offer, and if that link is broken, an otherwise promising campaign can turn into a total flop.