is the decision of the judges final?

So Stephanie Ciccarelli, of Voices.com, wrote a blog post which was supposed to end for all time the debate regarding how to “properly” spell voiceover (or maybe that spelling is wrong).

So according the M-W, the answer is: voice-over.

But for me and my SEO, I care more about how Google spells it than how Merriam-Webster spells it.

So let’s do a quick check. Here are the results:

voice-over: About 75,600,000 results
voiceover: About 44,300,000 results
voice over About 74,200,000 results

This here is scientific and indisputable fact-like information indicative of…nothing.

But I’m not one to let facts (or non-facts for that matter) get in the way of a plan.

So I guess I’ve got to start adding dashes or hyphens to my voice-over business.

No wait, is it dashes or hyphens? Crap! Here we go again!

3 Responses to “is the decision of the judges final?”

  1. Clearly, Merriam-Webster is fond of hyphens.

  2. Lee-

    I am in agreement. Some-what.

    Thank-you.

    Best-always,
    -P-e-t-e-r

  3. Very interesting, thank you! I think an increasing number of talents (artists? voice over folks?) are using voiceover, and English does love to mush words together (like in German, also). However, if voice (-) over wins the day, I’ll go with that…but I also need to see which people are searching for which variant spellings. If the best clients to go after are seeking voiceover…go for voiceover! I try to cover both, but I hate writing sentences where I change the spelling in mid flow (unless I’m writing to Canadians or Europeans).