Get Your Brand Past the "Did you Mean" in Search

We've all typed something in a search engine and the first thing we see is "did you mean" and then an alternative to what we typed. Obviously it can be helpful, unless of course it gets in the way of your branding.

we have lots of misspellings, or words that are offshoots of other words (1. Presence When you outmatch the total results for the "did you mean", that may be a definite pass. Compare "dig" to "digg", and interestingly "digg" has more results. Perhaps though, this is because "dig" is so general and "digg" is not, so they actually include all content that points to "digg" but only the "top" few million content/links that use the word "dig". "Topic" wins out in results over "Topix", as do all the others from the example above, so "digg" may be just special. Could it be there is some threshold of "presence", even if it doesn't outnumber the "did you mean"? 2. Link Juice If you have enough links to your site with the "branded" name included, this may set you free. The majority of links coming to SoloSEO right now (mostly from our launch) is with the anchor text "SoloSEO", so it hasn't worked yet, but maybe it will later. 3. Content and Topic Obviously your own content (and thus topic) includes your name, but what about those who link to you? My guess would be that the aggregate power of those who link to you within the same topic would produce an effect that would be able to overpower the "did you mean" syndrome. 4. Popularity and keyword searches Google (et al.) knows when people are coming to your site, and what keywords it takes to get there. Give it time and traffic, and my guess is you'll overcome the "did you mean" virus. If people start typing "soloseo" and then click on "soloseo.com" instead of the "colosseo" link, my guess is we will be closer to removing that. Search engines are the new "interface", we don't even have to remember domains anymore, just search what you think and you should find it. To sum it up, I don't know. But my guess is 1) Presence, 2) Links with your brand in anchor text, 3) Topic/Content group linking to you, and 4) Traffic from keywords. How do you get past it? Have a better product that naturally produces online word of mouth, increase your link building, produce great content (even Web 2.0 user-generated content), and use other marketing (online and off) strategies to pull in traffic and search queries. Nothing too new, but it is certainly important to remember all of these components. If you have more suggestions, please comment below. And, if you have found some interesting "did you mean" cases, I'd love to hear about those too. SoloSEO.com, an online service for SEO project management and do-it-yourself SEO tools. SoloSEO.com allows web marketers of any skill level to manage keywords, content tracking, link building, and competitor data.

Michael started as a web application programmer, and has since managed, developed, and co-founded several web technology companies. His applications are providing document and workflow management solutions to businesses in various industries, from small businesses to large corporations, including several Fortune 500 companies.