17
SEL highlighted that Google is correcting domain spelling errors. Which works to block some typos, but in some instances is pushing traffic away from smaller domains toward more authoritative websites.
Good Job Google
Here is an example of the spell correction working right...
Lets say you want to go to my blog located at www.seobook.com/node, but misspelled node as nodd. When you search for www.seobook.com/nodd they offer the correct URL as a suggestion.
Bad Job Google
Now lets say that I misspell a filename. What if I typed www.seibook.com/bok (If you add a second o to the word book in the filename this URL exists). What does Google do? Even when I am not signed in, Google STILL recommends people go to SeoBook.com, to the URL www.seobook.com/blog instead of recommending they go to seibook.com/book/
In that last case correcting the URL and keeping the people on the same site only took changing 1 letter, but Google decided instead to change a letter in the domain name, and change 3 in the filename!
Why Not Fix This?
What about errors in the domain extension? If you type in ASP.nt (leaving out the e in net) Google does not correct that spelling error. If you type in ebay.cm (ebay.com leaving out the o) Google does not correct that error. Why launch a feature such as this without correcting the most common errors?
Subscribe to our blog via email or RSS to get more great posts like this one.
comments
New to the site? Join for Free and get over $300 of free SEO software.
Once you set up your free account you can comment on our blog, and you are eligible to receive our search engine success SEO newsletter.
Already have an account? Login to share your opinions.
I wish they'd at least auto-correct extension typos so that when I accidentally type .xom (and I do this a lot), I would be automatically taken to the intended .com.
Since cm is the TLD for cameroon, they might be hesitant to fix that error.
Hi,
When I search for my domain with misspelled "cm", Google corrects it.
I guess Google doesn't(can't?) fix errors because ebay and asp are so popular a word and there are lot of web pages including ebay(asp) + cm.
Its funny that you posted about this because the way i found your site just now was to google you since i am on my apple iphone and it was easier to type seo book in google then your full domain. I misstypsd it and google gave me the right link to click on. Ha!
Hi Aaron,
Might be possible becuase the URL http://www.seobook.com/book
shows no cache
http://72.14.209.104/search?sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&q=cache%3Ahtt...
Ashish Roy
Hi Aaron,
"but in some instances is pushing traffic away from smaller domains toward more authoritative websites."
IMHO, very bad from Google...there are really xy variations of some domain name and/or expression out there, why should google prefer just one infront of everybody else?
Cant see the real reason, but I hope they are still testing this...
good stuff. have you considered that maybe the goo is attempting to prevent typo domain name squatters from succeeding? the goo surely has lots of typo data to analyze for this filter.
Yes, I considered that Corey. But also worth noting that when Google itself is the typosquatter (on searches for stuff like asp.nt, etc.) that they do not correct the spelling error.
When you search seo-book, Google corrects it like that:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=seo-book.com%2Fbok&btnG=Search&lr=l...
New to the site? Join for Free and get over $300 of free SEO software.
Once you set up your free account you can comment on our blog, and you are eligible to receive our search engine success SEO newsletter.
Already have an account? Login to share your opinions.