How do I account for alternate or misspellings when people search for my product??

[Reflo Ltd]

Ok, I am getting some media recognition for my product.... Reflo Smart Cups

however, when someone hears the product name, the common mistake is to spell it Reflow instead of Reflo.

If I search for Reflow or worse yet Reflow Smart Cups, my site doesn't even show up in any of the first pages at all. One would think that a misspelling of one word grouped with the other relevant words would still point people in the right direction but that is not the case at all.

Any tricks for getting a search for Reflow Smart Cups to find Reflo Smart Cups???

Thanks in advance.

[vangogh]

I assume reflow.net isn't available for purchase, but if it is i would grab it. You should probably also grab reflowsmartcups.net and the .com version as well. Redirect those to your main domain. They probably won't help with searches, but they will help for people who directly type the domain into their address bar.

Since the word reflow is the proper spelling why not use it in your copy. You can still use reflo whenever specifically referring to the smart cups, but find ways to get reflow on the page. You can also add it to page titles. Your current home page title is:

Reflo Ltd - a smart alternative to sippy cups

(by the way the code appears way down on the page. It should be above all the css and javascript)

How about a page title like:

Reflo Smart Cup reflows beverages to eliminate spills | Reflo.net

Probably not the best title, but hopefully you get the idea. Be creative and find a way to get reflow on the page. You don't have to do it on every page. Target one page for reflow smart cup. You might even go as far as calling it the reflow smart cup on that one page or maybe just in the page title.

Off the page use reflow in anchor text. For example, your signature here could read reflow smart cups instead of simply being your domain. Naturally if you use reflow too much in links you run the risk of people associating reflow with your brand instead of reflo, but you could selectively use reflow with certain links and use reflo most of the time

[Spider]

I would be inclined to add a page to your site with Reflow where you would otherwise use Reflo. I'd make it a sort of minimalized index page with no links TO it but two or three links FROM it to other pages on your site.

I'd make the URL of that page ..../reflow.html

I'd use words on this page like "reflow" "refow smart cups" "reflow cups" "childrens cups" "drinking cups" "sippy cups."

I'd optimize for REFLOW and SIPPY CUPS -- because I suspect people will still search for you using "sippy cups" because that is a name they will associate with you (because you use it so much.)

I also remember (and others might, too) you using the term "steady stream" so make sure that term is used, also.

[Reflo Ltd]

Reflo.com, reflow.net and reflow.com are not available. The first two are simply owned by someone but unused and finding ownership info is tough. reflow.com is owned and used by an investment company of some sort.

When I first looked into naming my product and company, I checked trademarks and available web names to be sure I could have a name that was available in some other fashion of web presence. I didn't want to get into complicated web names with hyphens or long, hard-to-recall spellings.

Personally, I am worried that people will be confused when hearing my name and not realizing the correct spelling, which will dramatically affect a web search. However, I have had zero feedback to that effect. I even called the news station and asked if they had calls and they said there were none. The news coverage showed my product and a shot of my website so maybe people saw the spelling and caught on but I have to believe there are those that still mixed it up because of the audio interpretation of the spelling and just gave up.

I still cannot believe that a search for "reflow smart cup" doesn't even attempt to find "reflo smart cup"... damned google!

I have since added a variation of "reflow" terms to my keywords in the meta tags.... and I added a variety of the same misspellings in white text at the bottom of my home page so they are invisible but hopefully detectable by search engine bots. All this in an attempt to increase my visibility to searchers of the wrong spelling.

[vangogh]

Search engines don't read meta keywords, at least Google and Bing don't so placing reflow there isn't going to help.


Personally, I am worried that people will be confused when hearing my name and not realizing the correct spelling

That's the issue when choosing a name with a misspelling. Part of your job is going to be to promote your brand so people do know how to spell your name. To get search traffic for the word reflow and phrases with reflow in it you'll need to use reflow on your pages. It's a real word so you can find ways to use it. You'll also want to use reflow in links pointing back to your site. See if you can come up with a phrase that makes sense using reflow and use that in links at times when you can control the anchor text of the link.

You can also use reflow in urls, in the alt attribute behind images, and especially in page titles.

Use reflow where you can to attract search traffic and also make it clear your product is called reflo. Feature reflo visually on the site like you currently do with the logo.

[Harold Mansfield]

I would optimize for the mispelling. Plain and simple. You can't rely on brand recognition while you are trying to build brand recognition. How may times have you mispelled something in Google and what you wanted still comes up? This is also the reason people buy common mispellings of their brand.

I would add "reflow smart cup" to my list of keywords and phrases and optimize for it as well.

[Spider]

reflo.com IS available. Goto reflo.com (http://www.reflo.com) and click on the link - "Make an offer on this domain name."

reflo.org is owned by Sutton Place Management of San Fransisco, CA - created in 2000, last updated in 2009, expires 14 Nov, 2011. But there's nothing showing webwise. Maybe it's not in use and they are open to selling it to you.

reflo.us is available from your favorite registrar.

reflo.us.com is also available from your favorite registrar.

reflo.tv is still available - and I would think this is an essential one for you to purchase and display your recent tv interview, plus all future tv appearances.


reflocups.com and all the other tld's are totally available. And so is--
reflowcups.com ... and so is
reflosippycups.com ... and so is
reflosmartcups.com and all the other tld's.

Plenty there to choose from, I would think.

[tylerhutchinson]

I would purchase all the urls that you can to catch this issue and link them to your web page.

Other then that you can try to use SEO keywords to help with the misspelling also.

[Reflo Ltd]

I've contacted that website for reflo.com numerous times and I have had no reply.

As for the other .coms I am thinking about registering a variety of them.

[Reflo Ltd]

I am not familiar with SEO keyword use but I will look into it... thanks

[vangogh]

Keywords are simply the words or phrases people are likely to use when searching. For example with your site "sippy cup" is probably something people will search for that's a good match for your product.

What you want to do is first brainstorm a list of possible words or phrases that might be used to search for your product or other information on your site. You can probably generate a list of 50-100 phrases easily enough. Then you want to take those phrases into keyword tools that will expand your list and ideally give you some idea of which phrases are searched for more often.

You use sippy cup across your site, but maybe people search for sippy glass. Maybe some people search for sipping cup. Others might search for kids cup or kids drinking cup. Most likely all of them are probably searched for by different people. The point is you can't possibly know all the different words people might use to search for you so you want to do some research.

With a list of words and phrases you then have to decide what people are looking for when they use those words. Are they looking for a product to buy? Are they looking for information? You then want to create content that matches well with what people are looking for and use the keywords you found on the page.

It can get complex, but the basic idea is you're trying to discover what words people use to look for what you have and then use those words. You're not going to be able to force people to use the words you want so you need to write with the words they use.

[Reflo Ltd]

Lets say I have all the keywords I want... what do I do with them? Do I add them to tags in my html code? on the site text? in some sort of submission to google and other search engines?

[vangogh]

First there should never be just one keyword you want. I'm assuming you're question is more to do with what to do with keywords and phrases once you've identified them, but I do want to make it clear if you're only going to optimize for one keyword you've already lost.

There's no need to submit your site to any search engine. Search engines follow links so as long as there are web pages search engines already know about linking back to your site the search engines will follow those links. Once they've reached one page of your site they'll follow the links within your site to find the other pages. your signature link here will be enough to get search engines to find your home page.

As for what to do with the keywords that's really a question about how to optimize for search engines. On your site the most important things to do are use the word or phrase. You're not trying to stuff in as many occurrences of the keywords as you can, but it certainly makes sense to use the words within your page copy. The most important place to add them is the page title. In between the <title></title> tags.

You can add the keywords in other places too, however again you aren't trying to stuff them everywhere. You can name pages with keywords so the keywords appear in URLs, you can add them to alt attributes on images. The biggest impact at the moment when it comes to seo is links back to the page. Ideally you'd have some links using the keywords as anchor text on the link. Anchor text is the clickable words.

Before you go trying to optimize all your pages I'd suggest reading up on seo basics. I think the Beginner's Guide to SEO (http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo) from SEOmoz is a good place to start. The SEO Fast Start Book (http://www.seofaststart.com/download) is another good intro read. You'll have to sign up for the mailing list to get it, but otherwise it's free as is the SEOmoz guide.

Take everything you read about seo with a grain of salt. Unfortunately there's just as much misinformation online as there is information. There's no secret formula to seo, no special places to add keywords or special tags to use. Mostly it's just plain old marketing with an eye toward what search engines are looking for and how people search.

I also wrote a post here a couple years ago on how to approach seo (http://www.small-business-forum.net/search-engine-optimization/7-how-approach-search-engine-optimization.html) with some basic thoughts to set your learning on the right path. And here's a series of 3 posts on seo (http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/beginners-guide-to-seo-best-practices-part-33/) I wrote for another site about a year ago. The link is to part 3, which contains links to the first 2 posts at the top. You should read them in order if you read them.

[Reflo Ltd]

Thanks, I appreciate the advice and help.

[vangogh]

Glad to help. SEO will probably be very confusing at first. It really isn't as confusing as it seems, but I think people approach it too myopically looking for some magic formula or secret sauce. There's no magic or secrets. It's really just marketing, with some specialized technical knowledge in how search engine algorithms work.

For the most part if you create quality content that people want, include the words people might use in a search for that content on the page, and promote the content in some way, much of seo will happen automatically.

[Spider]

I'll second what VG said, Pete, but just want to add to it, especially regarding, "I think people approach it too myopically looking for some magic formula."

SEO is one thing - search engine optimization - but it comprises of many things. I feel one can only go through the process of optimizing one's pages for the search engines by focusing on each of those many things in turn - by working on the details. Therefore, one is forced to approach it myopically. Not searching for a magic formua, not ignoring everything else in favor of the one thing you are working on. Everything is tied to everything else. But I have found it best to work on individual elements, one step at a time, rather than try to work on everything at once.

Some of the things to start have already been mentioned. These are some of the things I focus on --

Page titles
Page urls
meta tags
alt tags
keyword mention in content
keyword density
supporting keywords
wrong keyword elimination
on page 'snippet' creation
inbound links
outbound links...

One could work on all of these elements on one page before going on to the next page. I like to work on one element at a time on many pages before going on to the next element. Whatever floats your boat!

[C0ldf1re]

It is now a major part of planning a new company or product name, to see what domains are available with an exact name match and likely mispellings match.

[Reflo Ltd]

For starters I created this page to help with the potential problem.... do you think this will be an effective idea? Reflow Smart Cups alternative to sippy cups (http://reflo.net/reflow.shtml)

any suggestions on how I might improve this particular page or other specific things I can do?

[Spider]

I don't think drawing attention to peoples' errors is a good idea. And it's not necessary. Just give an explanation that shows their choice of words to be correct---

"Our Restricted Flow (ReFlow) cups are a more healthy alternative to sippy cups blah..blah...blah.."

Then link through to the rest of your site as you have done.

This would be the index page of a new reflowcups.com URL, right?

And, of course, you would optimize this one for reflow and reflow cups, not reflo.

[Spider]

I was thinking that most of your product information and talk on this forum have been about children. There are occasions when adults can use a non-spill or limited-spill cup. I went to your site and saw just a brief mention of this. You might want to consider a separate page about adult non-spill cups.

However, I also noticed that your cups are only suitable for cold drinks, not hot drinks. This is a perfect item to sell to Starbucks, McDonalds, and every other provider of hot drinks at drive-thru windows. Imagine getting an order from McDonalds and BurgerKing, et al! Is there a hot cup on the way?

I am also aware that most establishments serve their coffee in paper cups. Could you make a hot paper cup version?


Oh, the possibilities!!!

[Reflo Ltd]

A few thoughts on this.. and yes, I've put a LOT of thought into it.

We know that there are potentially huge markets in nursing care, disabled users, rehab facilities, etc. However, I am hesitant to associate our product on the website with various types of disabled users creating the impression that if your child uses our product, they must be disabled.

We are also working on an insulated mug for hot drinks and yes. I have even worked up ideas for disposable versions.

We have additional ideas for products beyond the drinking usage.

There are incredible possibilities with our product and I am extremely excited.... but one thing at a time.... especially because of the money involved in creating additional product lines. I have a feeling we will get there soon enough.

[Reflo Ltd]

I don't think drawing attention to peoples' errors is a good idea. And it's not necessary. Just give an explanation that shows their choice of words to be correct---

"Our Restricted Flow (ReFlow) cups are a more healthy alternative to sippy cups blah..blah...blah.."

Then link through to the rest of your site as you have done.

This would be the index page of a new reflowcups.com URL, right?

And, of course, you would optimize this one for reflow and reflow cups, not reflo.

This is just a page within our site with a different title and alternate keywords included in the body. I don't think I've done it in an offensive way to those who erroneously search for a common misspelling. Also, I think that pointing it out for those who find the page, helps to reinforce the correct spelling. There are no links to that page, consider it an entry page for alternate spellings and searches.

[Reflo Ltd]

It is now a major part of planning a new company or product name, to see what domains are available with an exact name match and likely mispellings match.

You are dead on. This was a large part of my name choice. I wanted something short and easy to recall (hard to find in today's web name availability). And of course I needed something that wasn't trademarked for another similar product.

[nealrm]

One thing I would do is to change your signature on this and other sites. Instead of using your URL I would use anchor text of "Reflo cups" for one link and "Reflow cups" for a second link. That combined with a mention of "Reflow" in the text of your site should do the trick.

[Reflo Ltd]

I am not sure I understand exactly what you mean. I made some changes... is this what you meant?

[billbenson]

You could also use an adwords ad to drive traffic to a few different pages that have Reflow on them or are optimized for Reflow. You will find people that think Adwords and natural G SERPS aren't connected and I believe G states that. However, in my experience this isn't true and it would be really stupid for G to throw away data they can use. A few ads with Adwords might help G connect the dots that Reflow = Reflo. If you do it right it won't cost much. Might get customers directly that way as well.

[nealrm]

Reflo - No that is not what I meant. Look at the 3 links at the bottom of my sig (Jackson MO Real estate, Cape Girardeau Missouri Real Estate, Festus Missouri Real Estate). The text you are seeing is the anchor text, they each link to a page on my site. When the spiders scan the SBF site they will see a link pointing to HouseViewOnline Online Real Estate for Southeast Missouri, including Cape Girardeau & Jackson MO (http://www.houseviewonline.com) with the anchor text "Jackson MO Real Estate". They will then record that Houseviewonline.com has something to do with "Jackson MO Real Estate". When the spider follows the link to the HouseView site, it will see more references to Jackson Mo Real Estate. That cements the relationship in Googles eyes.

In you case, I would develop links using "Reflow" in the anchor text and add references to "Reflow" in the text of your website.

[Reflo Ltd]

Good news, the keywords I added to my homepage must be working. When I type reflow cups or reflow sippy my site comes up 2nd or 3rd in google.

Now I need everyone here to search those terms and click my site to increase relevance... lol

[vangogh]

Pete with the new page I agree with Frederick that you shouldn't put the mistake on your customers. The page is essentially saying you got here because you made a mistake. That's not a good way to start a relationship with someone. There are better ways to work in the misspellings than to point out someone made a mistake, especially when you want that someone to do business with you.

[Reflo Ltd]

Ok, I will find an alternate way of making that page relevant or perhaps eliminating it altogether at this point being that I am now showing up in search engines under the alternate spellings.

[vangogh]

Just try to find a way to use the words naturally on your pages. With a word like reflow you should be able to mix it in with you're already existing copy.

[Reflo Ltd]

here's the "error" page now..... better? :)

Reflow Smart Cups alternative to sippy cups (http://www.reflo.net/reflow.shtml)

[vangogh]

Definitely better as far as not putting the error on the visitor. I'm not sure you need the stuff at the bottom with common misspellings. Why not add some content to the page. You don't have to send people to the home page.

All you really need to do is use this title on your existing home page

Reflow Smart Cups - An alternative to sippy cups | Reflo LTD

You could even use

Reflo (Reflow) Smart Cups - An alternative to sippy cups | Reflo LTD