How can I keyword optimize for slight spelling variants, while maintaining consistency?

[RyanWhitney15]

If my audience searches both "theatre" and "theater", how can I keyword optimize for both terms while maintaining consistency on my site?

Does google at all see these as interchangeable, or are they treated as completely different words?

city] theater and [city] theatre are our 3 and 6 best performing keywords, with theater getting roughly twice as many hits.

[SWKurt]

If your page content supports using UGC (reviews, comments, etc), this is an excellent way to get different spellings and vernacular of users into content organically. If it is written by users, then it's a very natural part of your content. As a member of the Bazaarvoice Advisory board, I see evidence of the great organic lift from reviews/customer posts over and over related to words and spellings that only UGC generates. Through this content, you optimize easily and have a chance to rank on numerous variations.

[DavidLenehan]

Hi Ryan

Not sure if this is the correct answer but we have had some success optimizing for spelling mistakes and american/English/Scottish spellings. I would pick the word which is searched the most as your main keyword and then use the variant as your second word on the same page.

i.e.

Keyword 1:  Theatre (use 3 to 4 times on page)

Keyword 2:  Theater (use 2 - 3 times on the page)

Title:  Blackburn Theatre | Top Theater Shows in Blackburn

Description: Voted best Theater shows in Blackburn. See gandhi on ice at Blackburn Theatre.

url: YOURURL/Blackburn-Theatre

Make sure you get both variants in the H1 or H2 tags

Hope that helps