Accents - search engine friendliness (éson vs. eson)

Marketing
1

Hi,

My client has a product which is promoted on the client’s website.

The product brand is “éson” and is featured on its own page.

Most people looking for this product brand will probably type “eson” instead of “éson”. And the search ranking of the client’s website based on either term is very different - “éson” ranking much higher (1st page on Google).

How can I improve the searchability of this page, considering customers will search for “eson” rather than “éson”.

Thanks in advance,
VWD.

PS. the Community Guidelines link doesn’t seem to be working…

2

Change all instances of “éson” to “eson” (without the accent). It will be a bitter pill for your client to swallow but if they want to be found easily in search engines that’s the way it is.

A client of mine recently had the same problem. One of their products has an accent in the name, and the lady that updates their web shop spent ages changing e to é. Then I get a call - “help, all our search listings for [product] have dropped off Google and our sales have totally dried up” - as soon as I saw what she’s done the problem was obvious. I updated the whole site reverting é back to e, and their search listings are now slowly coming back.

3

Edit - Double post, browser timeout while submitting :slight_smile:

4

I 100% agree with bluedreamer! Change everything from “éson” to “eson”. We had a similar experience with BellaCaché™. The client wanted the copy to read “BellaCaché™” but a customer typing into Google would spell it “Bellacache” and they would not be found. Good luck!

5

What about this:

  • for static content of page, use “eson” (search engines will index this; customers will likely search for this)
  • some simple Javascript to convert “eson” -> “éson” (so it will display properly)

That might satisfy both requirements. What do you think about this approach?

VWD

6

The javascript idea might work since search bots don’t usually see javascript output. Why not give it a go, monitor the results and see if it works out?