The "Fat Finger" Problem
Mobile traffic now accounts for over 50% of web traffic. Typing an email address on a smartphone keyboard is prone to error. Common mistakes like gmai.com, hotmial.com, or outlook.co happen constantly. In a standard validation setup, these emails are simply marked "Invalid" and the user is blocked or, worse, the form submits and the confirmation email bounces.
This is a leak in your funnel. These aren't bots; they are real humans with high intent who just made a typo. If you block them, you lose the sale. If you accept the typo, you lose the communication channel.
The `did_you_mean` Solution
EmailVerifierAPI.com includes an intelligent suggestion engine in its JSON response. When we detect a domain that is syntactically close to a major provider but invalid, we populate the `did_you_mean` field.
Example API Response:
{
"status": "invalid",
"email": "sarah@gnail.com",
"did_you_mean": "sarah@gmail.com",
"score": 0.1
}UX Implementation Best Practices
Don't just auto-correct the field without asking; that can annoy users if they actually possess a rare domain that looks like a typo. Instead, use a "Soft Block" or a nudge:
- User types: `sarah@gnail.com`
- API Response: Returns `did_you_mean: sarah@gmail.com`
- UI Action: Display a clickable message: "Did you mean sarah@gmail.com?"
- User Action: User taps the message, the field updates, and the status changes to valid.
Recovering 1.5% of Revenue
Analysis of large e-commerce datasets shows that approximately 1.5% of failed signups are due to obvious domain typos. By implementing this simple "Did You Mean" logic using our API, you essentially recover that revenue for free. It is a massive UX improvement that reduces frustration and support tickets claiming "I never got my receipt."