Optimizing terms with accents/tildes in Spanish

[CuriosityMedia]

Hello all, quick question.  We are optimizing for a keyword that includes an accent in Spanish.  Is it better to use the accented or regular form (i.e. inglés vs. ingles)?  Also, is there any distinction between accents (áéí...) and the ene (ñ) in terms of strategy/best practices?  Does this accent issue have a huge impact on ranking?

[SL_SEM]

I don't have a lot of experience with this, but here is my 2 cents for what it is worth.

Obviously if you are running a multi-lingual site you would want to use the correct characters for the corresponding language on that version of the site.

If you are however running an english site, and writing an article on why it is important to learn to say "Donde esta el baño" then I suggest doing some quick research.

Going to google I can see that the suggested searches it shows as I type in the query don't use the "ñ" character. If you look at the results for the search without the "ñ" character the first set of results do  have that character in them. This suggests to me that Google will recognize either as the same thing for this specific word.

I recommend doing research like this for your specific situation as you might have a conflicting word (e.g. the word changes meaning depending on the use of the character). In which case hopefully the engine can pick up on the context of its use.

Also try multiple engines and match up your strategy to what engines your market tends to use.

Sorry I couldn't be more specific as I haven't had this problem.

This is how I would go about testing, and planning for a solution though

[CuriosityMedia]

Thank you for the helpful response Charles, I will definitely run the experiments you suggest.

Even though the correct spelling would have an accent, many native speakers of Spanish search for the keywords we're targeting without the accents.  Sometimes it can be hard to type the correct characters for the average user or they just want to save a few seconds by skipping the extra keystrokes.

It seems to me this is like misspelling strategy in English-language SEO.  While there many be a big market for "Sapnish" instead of "Spanish", Google's auto-correct and contextual clues compensate for the slight advantage of having the exact query which is misspelled (the "Did you mean Spanish?" tool tip will bring them to your properly spelled page).  Proper spellings make your brand look good and are ultimately what Google is shooting to deliver.  I just wanted to make sure this was the case in Spanish language SEO (I know changes to Google's international properties can sometimes lag behind its U.S. page).

Another benefit of having the accents, I would think, would be local relevancy.  I'm guessing Google.mx in Mexico or Google.es in Spain would prefer a site with the proper accents for users in those countries than it might in the U.S.

Does this sound right?  Thanks for your help!

[SL_SEM]

That all sounds about right.

Google will try it's best to deliver to the user what Google thinks the user is searching for since that will keep them as a customer.

Assuming you can do it with accuracy it is better to aim for what the user was intending rather than what their actions depict.

You really should just hire a mind reader