To optimise or optimize, that is the question

[Tamaloo]

Apologies if this has been asked before. If it has, perhaps somebody could refer me to the correct thread.

From where I sit, Google returns 217 million results for optimization and 31.5 million results for optimisation (with 79.9 million results for SEO).

When optimising/optimizing a website whose business is SEO, which version of the word would we recommend going with, or do we go with both? Simple maths would suggest that you'd stand more of a chance on achieving a higher position on a SERP (on Google at least) with optimisation than with optimization but then you'd presumably be excluding an American audience which, if searching with that keyword, would be spelling it the "ize" way. The same question arises of course with other words which mean exactly the same but are spelt differently on either side of the Atlantic.

Is it generally recognised that SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization rather than Search Engine Optimisation?

I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Confused of India.

[ctabuk]

Firstly I feel very sorry for anyone in SEO who tries to get high ranking from natural search. Personally I would say it depends where you are looking for business, ie in an English Community or a multi nationality one. For the UK Market optimisation - the other with a z - but I don't think that putting both in the tags would hurt, and I suppose at a push you could create identical pages for the two spelling systems.

But may I also take this opportunity of thanking you sincerely for reminding us of the 1914 - 1918 War and I would recommend that anyone reading this thread visit that sig link.

[alextj]

Hi Tamaloo,
I believe the same problem was discussed and answered, more or less, with centre vs center here http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=64625
Take care

[Tamaloo]

Thanks for the responses chaps. I'm not surprised this was covered in a previous thread so I'll check out the link.