Is it ok to correct someone who spelled and styled our name incorrectly in a blog post?
-
A writer recently recommended my company, Swiftype, in a blog post. However, he called us Swift Type, which adds an additional t, splits our name into two words, and uses an additional capitalization. Would it be out of line to email him and gently correct him? I appreciate the recommendation, and will absolutely focus on thanking him for that, complimenting his content (which is fairly good), and just add the correction at the end of the email. While it isn't a huge deal, a search Swift Type brings up the Swift programming language and SwiftKey as first page results, while Swiftype only displays our content (he also didn't link to us, so a user would have to search to find us - reaching out could also be a chance to spur him to link to us).
-
I agree reaching out is something we do all the time, however we did have a very good link as the DA was high and relevant and all we asked was that they used our named incorrectly, we also pointed out a typo on the article (we put it nicely).
As well as correcting the typo, not responding to our email, they deleted the whole section about us, and in the process removing the link.
So contacting them is something we always do, however sometimes there can be consequences, on this one I wish we had just left the our branding wrong and kept the relevant link.
-
I also agree with Alex, definately reach out to see if it can be rectified, in most cases webmasters/commenters/bloggers are more than happy to perform a quick edit.
At the end of the day you have a brand to maintain and having it mispelt can potentially dilute your credibility and how people search for you.
There is no reason why you cannot request a link but be careful, despite being a recommendation from an external site/person, you want to make sure that google does not class it as a press release. PR page content links now tend to require a no-follow as can be deemed as external advertising. Although I would imagine the language used is much more natural, personal and this will hopefully not be the case.
-
Thanks - that was my feeling as well, but as I'd never done it before, I'm interested to hear others thoughts on it.
-
It is absolutely fine to reach out and gently ask for a correction, in my opinion. I have done it myself several times recently and all individuals contacted were quite happy to oblige me. The important thing is to be sincere and genuine in your message and remember that the person on the other end is likely busy so keep your message to the point and give precise instructions to minimise any need for back-and-forth email clarifications. Be patient - but chase after a month or so, if necessary - and do follow up to thank them for correcting once they have done so.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Can we use Youtube Videos of google webmaster on blog post?
Is it okay to embed YouTube videos of channel which we don't own? For example, I have written a blog on enabling event search in Google Analytics and Google Webmasters YouTube channel has a video based on those steps. I am looking to add that video in my blog.
Branding | | Ravi_Rana0 -
Sometimes I write a post for another site and then post the first 1/3rd on my site to help promote it. Is this a bad idea?
Sometimes I write a post for another site and then post the first 1/3rd on my site to help promote it. Is this a bad idea? When I do that should I be adding a canonical link to the original post? Should I have /make sure the 3rd party site does something? Is there anything else I should do? Thanks in advance.
Branding | | mcarroll0 -
How do I correct the facts in the information boxes to the right of search results for an individual.
Today it looks as if Google has assembled some information about my client keynote speaker Garrison Wynn and made an info box for him on the right of the results. The information is outdated and incorrect as I see it is for several people I looked up. I have a Google + Profile for him that is linked to his site. But Google seems to be ignoring that information and selecting information from various sources that are outdated. (Garrison has not been an ACTOR for over 13 years and the internet is full of relevant sources that give his title as a keynote speaker. How do I show Google the correct information to use. Do I need to create a BUSINESS Google + for him? The search term I used is Garrison Wynn. They have our buddy and fellow PRO MOZ user, social media expert Brian Carter listed as a football player..LOL. c0oUi0F.png eWWX1tg.png
Branding | | gingerwynn0 -
Blog SEO strategy
Hi Moz community, we are looking for some advice on our blog/SEO strategy. I hope to find some people who faced similar challenges in the past. Wishlist currently has one blog (http://blog.enjoywishlist.com/), which has two main focus points. One main focus is to portray and encourage a lifestyle that is conducive with our product offering. The main driver behind the content we post is for SEO optimization for our B2C clients. The other focus for our blog is to target current and potential clients on the B2B side of things. That content is much more driven by a target audience and different topics. It is hard to address two audience in one blog and we are working with the idea of separating the blog into two different host domains. Along with the blogs we will also move the landing pages for B2C and B2B into different domains and link these as appropriate. The challenge we face is understanding if it would benefit us to host these two blogs on different domains. We are also wondering if it would help our hurt our SEO to take the content related to our corporate blog and move it to the new domain? Advice appreciated! Thanks Andreas
Branding | | AndreasD1 -
Rebranding: How Can We Continue to Be Found by Searching the Old Name?
Our company was acquired and we are working toward an entire re-brand, including name change and new url. We plan to appropriately 301 redirect the old site to the correct pages on the news site, etc. The question is, if users continue to search the old company name on search engines, will it appear in SERPs for the new site? I'm guessing that our company name is associated to the old url and will that pass along the branded company name to the new url? My thoughts are to include the old company name in the sitemap.htm file and in the About Us section, particularly in the news release when the change occurs. Aside from that idea is to include social posts on G+, LinkedIn, our Blog, and Twitter as appropriate talking about the name change, all linking to the new website. Any input would be most appreciated!
Branding | | Prospector-Plastics0 -
1 Website, 2 Business Names, 2 Locations
I took on a dentist office as an SEO client. They have 1 website, 2 business names and 2 locations. Each location has it's own business name. They are both within the same city as well. I'm not exactly sure where to start with them since they have 2 different business names. If it were 1 name with multiple locations I would just create a Contact Us page for each one, but is that the best thing to do when the location names are different? Should I create a different website for each location or is that smart because then they are competing against each other? Any help from the community on the direction I should take would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Branding | | SilhouetteBS0 -
One writer, multiple brands - optimizing rel=author across several blogs
Our company has a few different brands, each with their own domain and site. These are not microsites intended to drive traffic to a main site; they all have independent e-commerce functions, full product lines, etc. Imagine we run Plumbing Widgets Inc, Kitchen Remodeling Company, and Springfield Countertops. It's not immediately obvious to surfers that one parent company operates all of these brands, and we're fine with that. Considering that it enables us to own a lot of SERP real estate for some money KWs, we're more than fine with it. We'd like to create a blog for each of these sites/brands. Here's where it gets tricky. After doing some reading, I am persuaded that using rel=author will help us with SERP CTR and possibly rankings themselves. I am going to be writing all of the blog content, at least to start. I don't think I want to rel=author myself on all of these discrete blogs, do I? And surface the fact that one person is the head writer for the blogs of all these brands? Creating blogging pseudonyms doesn't seem like a good idea, since part of the value of rel=author is genuine social engagement, and creating social personas that seem genuine is probably more trouble than it's worth. (Not to mention icky and dishonest.) Should I choose a customer service rep or manager for each brand and use their names and social identities (with their permission, obviously)? It seems like that would involve challenges of its own. I've ghostwritten for one business owner before, but this is on a larger, more complex scale. Any insights are appreciated!
Branding | | CMC-SD0 -
Company name in TITLE tag first have an impact on user behavior?
Does anyone know if there any sort of study or have an opinion on the following: Does the company name appearing the browser tab have any affect on how a user interacts with a site from a branding perspective or a TITLE tag / meta description in SERP "paying off" perspective? That is, optimizing titles COMPANY NAME | KEYWORD instead of vice versa so that when the title shows in the browser tab, the company name is displayed but not much else.
Branding | | hunchfree0