We've added a new word to the American lexicon!

I doubt this word will ever appear in Merriam-Webster's dictionary anytime soon. Just in case Webster is reading and needs some hints - this is what we put on the back of our T-shirts when we first opened. I think it would make a superb dictionary entry!

No, what I am talking about is Google's suggestions when you search for a term.

When we set out to create Bigwag - we chose a made-up word, partly because we didn't want to blend in with everyone else, partly because we wanted a unique, short URL for our website. We didn't want to be a 2 dog bakery, or another pampered puppy, or a smoochie pooches. Something short and sweet, and we tried to come up with something that was descriptive of what we set out to accomplish with our store and concept. We thought it was simple - a happy dog has a big wag - bigwag.

The pitfall of taking this route over "Arkansas' Dog Bakery" or the "Rogers Dog Bakery" is that every search engine thinks that someone typing this in is making a typo, and tries to correct you with the "Did you mean..." text at the top of their site with some links that will take the searcher away from your site. In our case, Google was forever trying to ask us if we were searching for Bigwig instead of Bigwag.

That has changed as of today. Not only do we bounce around as the number 1 or number 2 result for the generic search term "Dog Bakery", if you search for Bigwag, there are no longer any suggestions.

It's only taken three years as we roll into our third birthday party in July 2009, but it has finally happened. I know this might be a little webophile for most of our customers out there, but this is a huge accomplishment for a little ol' dog bakery in Rogers Arkansas. If you are starting a business and decide to make up a word for your name and URL, be prepared for the long haul before Google accepts your new name or spelling. Personally I had given up thinking we'd never get out of that suggestion. I finally get to check that one off of the to-do list.

(Did you catch that last one Webster? Webophile - you should look at that one too. Call me and I'll help you out)