Apostrophe's in Keyword List's

[nesystem]

I have an interesting problem with one of my websites. The specific problem is with search engines and using the Apostrophe Character. If someone searches for the name of the company for this particular web site and uses an Apostrophe as it appears in the company name (a family name like "The Smith's") they do not get the website listed in the search results at all!

If the apostrophe is omitted then the webpage shows up one the first page of the search results!

Does anyone have an idea as to what is going on here and what can be done to correct it. I have tried using "'" and & #39; (Iknow there is no space betwwen & and the # sign but it is the only way I could get it to display the string correctly) without any success. I am also somewhat confused as to the syntax of using special character in text strings like Keyword Lists. Would "The Smith's" be "The Smith's" or "The Smith's.

Is it possible this is an Encoding issue?

I have tried all of the major search engines and they all fail to search correctly with an apostrophe in the search string.

[lnxcode]

It almost sounds like the search engine hasn't found the site with the " ' " yet, but it takes time since no one normally would do:

Apple bee's

They would do:

apple bees

As you will find out that 100% correct English grammar doesn't apply on the web.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by lnxcode

It almost sounds like the search engine hasn't found the site with the " ' " yet, but it takes time since no one normally would do:

Apple bee's

They would do:

apple bees

As you will find out that 100% correct English grammar doesn't apply on the web.

Or anywhere else anymore. Think Different.

[nesystem]

I thought I would update you folks about what I did to resolve this issue. I've been very dismayed that no one else out there has had to address this issue. The responses on this Forum have not been useful in any way. I find it curious that those who have responded were willing to waste their own time.

Those of you that are interested in this issue please read further.

1. The URL address of the web site DOES NOT have an apostrophe in it.

2. The Company Name is a Family Business and the name of the company uses the family's name.

3. The URL address is the actual name of the company. The actual company name (without apostrophe) is used on the homepage of the website.

For example if the company name is "Smiths Pieshop" and the URL is http://www.smithspieshop.biz. Now here is where the monkey wrench comes in, all of the packaging used by the company has the grammatically correct name "Smith's Pieshop" printed on it.

Wouldn't a person familiar with the company wanting to buy goods online be inclined to search using the text string "Smith's Pieshop"?

If you do this you might find that the search results to be too nebulous and you would need to drill through 10, 15 or 20 search results pages to find what your looking for.

I have spent a lot of time communicating with the search engine providers and none of them had a solution! I gave up after about a week of getting nowhere and had an idea for a work around.

This issue could not be ignored and WAS a real problem for my customer. They were getting far too many emails and phone calls complaining about not being able to find their website.

The WORK-AROUND/SOLUTION to this was to hide a string of text on the home page containing an apostrophe for instance "Smith's Pieshop". The color and placement of the text done in such a way as to hide it in front of the background color of the homepage. I did this so that both search strings "Smith's Pieshop" & "Smiths Pieshop" would give the same results!

After corresponding with the search engine providers, modifying Key Word Lists and using various promotion techniques this was the best and quickest solution I was able to come up with. Now when people search for the company's web site it shows up as the 4th, 5th and 6th item on the first page of the search.

All complaints about not being able to find my customers website have been eliminated.

I hope this information is useful.