[Convergence]

Hello brainiacs!

Get a lot of users who mistype phrases in their search queries. Am trying to use .htaccess to rewrite the mistyped word within the query so the search results have the correctly spelled word and not the typo.

IE:

User types in doubl edged sword or knife with doubl edge

Want to be able to replace doubl with double automatically using .htaccess -

Any clues?

Thanks!

[ladidah]

I would set up canonical meta tags to tell robots which one is the correct query instead of putting in .htaccess.

What if the query has missing letters, but also mistakes? "doble eged swords"
If you set up in .htaccess for all possible corrections, your .htaccess will be looooong.

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Specify your canonical

[Convergence]

Originally Posted by ladidah

I would set up canonical meta tags to tell robots which one is the correct query instead of putting in .htaccess.

What if the query has missing letters, but also mistakes? "doble eged swords"
If you set up in .htaccess for all possible corrections, your .htaccess will be looooong.

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Specify your canonical

Thanks, ladidah -

Don't think that helps. The search query displays in a search results page with anywhere from two to two thousand (paginated) results.

Want to catch the most popular typo search queries - about 40 words before the incorrect results are displayed...

[Jason - CarouselChecks]

I can not think of any good way of doing this without seriously jeopardizing site speed. You would have to set up a rewrite condition and rule for every possible combination.

If you must use .htaccess you may want to look up how to implement a RewriteMap.

This would be best handled on the server side. Here you have lots of flexibility and options but will require programming and probable database work.

[Convergence]

Thanks, Jason!

Will take a gander and try it out...