How to proceed after accidentally misspelling a domain name

[DanielBMarkham]

Hi guys,

I was looking to create a nice microsite and was using the Keyword Analysis tool to help find some good ideas.

The problem is that I didn't know how to spell the item I was curious about. When I typed in the wrong spelling, it gave a pretty good result, so I went ahead and bought the domain and started thinking about content.

Now I have a domain with a bad name. The correct spelling domain is ranked through the ozone and there's no chance I can compete with those guys.

What do I do? Give up on the domain? I'm thinking to go ahead and continue outlining my site as if the domain had the correct spelling all along. But I confused over whether the home page should rank for the correct or incorrect spelling.

Any help would be great.

[DanielBMarkham]

Thanks!

That's what I was thinking. The pages should rank just the same as always. But the domain name will probably never rank, even though SEOMoz shows 18K people searching for it under the misspelling every month.

Perhaps other search engines besides Google might pick it up. Never know.

[jeffreytrull1]

If you're going for an exact match domain but you misspelled the keyword, I don't really see the point of continuing to use it.

Are there people still searching for your misspelling? Does Google autocorrect the misspelling? (chances are it does) These are factors to consider. It also might deter people from visiting your site if the fact that it's a misspelling makes it look like spam.

Of course you can still rank for the keyword your targeting. Exact match domains are no sure bet anyway, plus any domain can theoretically rank for any term.