When the Ranking Gets Tough – The Tough Get Ranking.

The Problem:

First, it was recently brought to my attention that when performing a search for the word “Breht” Google has inserted the words “Did you mean: brecht” at the top of the search results.

bertold-brecht-burri

This above result may or may not be new. The Google result implies my name is a typo.

Second, historically I’ve been able to search for my name and find it near the top of Google search results. However, now that linkedin and facebook pages are being ranked really well with minimal user effort, I have dropped to the second and sometimes third page of Google because of these social/business site pages with similarly named people.

A Further Complication:

People often misspell my first name and/or last name. The name can legitimately be spelled in a variety of ways. Some of the common variations of the “genuine” and “official” spelling of “Breht Burri” are below:

Breht Burri, Breht Buri, Breht Burry
Bret Burri, Bret Buri, Bret Burry
Brett Burri, Brett Buri, Brett Burry
Brent Burri, Brent Buri, Brent Burry
Brecht Burri, Brecht Buri, Brecht Burry

The Possible Solution & My New Motto:

When the ranking gets tough, the tough get ranking.
– Breht Burri, SEO Consultant & Internet Marketing Specialist

I’m performing an experiment with this blog post. By including some of the most common variations of my first name, (Bret, Brett, Brent and Brecht) I hope those typo/misspelled/variation queries will also include results from this particular site. In a few weeks I’ll post some more snapshots to see how this is working. Until then, if you are looking for me on the first page of Google type in “Breht Burri” in quotes. FYI: I’m still number 1 on Yahoo as of 12/14/2008. (See Below)

breht-burri-brecht-photo