Is it ok to correct someone who spelled and styled our name incorrectly in a blog post?
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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).
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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.
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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.
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Thanks - that was my feeling as well, but as I'd never done it before, I'm interested to hear others thoughts on it.
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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.
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