STV has been developing the online Scottish news offering it delivers and something caught my eye the other day that I thought was very interesting – especially after the recent noises the BBC made about SEO…

I was looking at some of the mentions of the recent story from Whyte & Mackay about whisky being trapped at the South Pole (disclaimer: the story originated with a podcast and blog posting created by Contently Managed) when I noticed something…

As you can see, it switches from whisky to whiskey, which is the more common used phrase in the US. So is this STV starting to get a bit creative with SEO? I’ve already blogged about how some companies use two forms of spellings for SEO.

Anyway, good on STV, be interesting to see how that plays out though they may want to add disclaimers in somewhere so that people don’t think it’s just typos. I don’t think it is though because look at this (active) URL talking about the recent Dalmore Oculus sale – http://news.stv.tv/scotland/east-central/138275-unique-whiskey-sold-at-auction-for-23000/ – and the text in this link where David Hayman talks whisky/whiskey – http://video.stv.tv/bc/madeinscotland-20090625-hayman-bruichladdich-casks/ - where there is a mix of both.

What this does suggest though is this: by using SEO phrases which target Americans are they trying to bring in more US readers and potentially more advertising relevant to the US, which may also be more lucrative? Or will they up their tourism adverts for Americans who follow the links (look at the likes of Bagging Scotland for the growth in whisky tourism) and  book a holiday?

It’s amazing how just one word now – or two rather – can give you insight into potential company plans…