We are often asked about the results when a domain name is typed directly into a Google search box. It’s helpful to understand a little bit about how Google searches work. It’s a gigantic topic and we’re only dealing with one small corner of it here.
What Google tries to do first is find things other people have searched for. When you click on a particular result, they record the click. The idea is that since you clicked on it, the description probably was a match for what you wanted. Next time a similar search is done, your click tends to move that result up to a higher position.
Next, people often make typing mistakes and Google attempts to correct them. In theory, this saves the customer from wasting time and needing to re-type and saves Google from wasting resources on bad searches.
It gets a lot more complicated than that, but that’s the beginning of how it works.
When you type a domain name into a search box, Google is likely to recognize it as a domain name. But the same logic will be applied, with results you may or may not like. I was just asked about the domain name miniatureangels.com. Google returned, “Showing results for miniature-angel.com” – NOT what was wanted. Apparently that’s a popular site.
Unfortunately there is nothing to be done about this. We sometimes hear from customers who are upset that something like this is happening to them. There isn’t anything magical or mystical going on and it wouldn’t matter where or how your site is being hosted. Website content may have some effect. It has nothing to do with hosting at all.
I tend to regard typing a domain name into a search box as a dumb thing to do. After all, if you are looking for the web site for a domain there is no need for a search. Just go there. The trouble is, huge numbers of people where introduced to the Internet by simply sitting down at a computer with a Google search box in front of them. They typed in what they wanted and found it and that is the end of that. The principles of least thought and least resistance have coincided and that is what they will do evermore.
Our customer who owns miniatureangels.com wants to replace that with miniatureangelsfarm.com. Probably a good idea.