A new thread at Google Webmaster Help asked a question that Matt Cutts of Google has a video answer on. The question was, is spelling and/or grammar a ranking factor used by Google?
The direct answer is, no. Matt Cutts said, last time he looked, spelling and grammar is not a direct signal used in search quality.
But he also added it would be something fair to use and based on studies they've done, pages that are higher quality, more reputable (i.e. higher PageRank) tend to use better spelling and grammar.
Here is the video answer from Matt:
Google reading level was launched back in December 2010, and you may want to check that out as well.
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
Note: This story was written earlier this week and scheduled to be published today.
