A Business Name Spelled Two Ways

One business, several names

The sign over the door says Smith & Sons. The website says Smith and Sons. The Google listing says Smith and Sons Ltd., the invoices say Smith & Sons Plumbing Ltd., and the van says SmithSons.

Nobody chose this. Each version came from a different person, years apart: the sign maker, the accountant, whoever set up the listing, the designer who needed a domain name without an ampersand.

Customers mostly cope. Search engines, directories and accounts departments cope less well, because they match names more literally than people do.

Every variation raises a small question about whether two things are the same business, and some people answer no.

Where the variations creep in

• The ampersand or the word and, decided by whoever typed it.
• Ltd., Inc. or nothing after the name.
• One word or two, often copied from the domain.
• The trade word: Plumbing, Plumbing and Heating, Mechanical.
• Capitals copied from an all-capitals logo.
• Old versions on listings nobody remembers creating.

The third is the one that spreads. Domain names cannot contain a space or an ampersand, so the address becomes one run-together word, and people copy what they see in the address bar into listings, emails and paperwork.

Why search engines care

Google builds its picture of a local business partly by matching the name, address and phone number it finds on your site, your listing and other websites.

When those match, they reinforce one another. When the name differs from place to place, the match is weaker, and sometimes a directory's version becomes a separate listing in Google Maps with its own reviews.

Reviews split between two listings make each look thinner than the business really is.

Why customers and bookkeepers care

People search for the version they saw last: the van next door, the sign on the highway, the name on a friend's invoice.

Accounts departments are stricter. An invoice from a name that does not match the supplier on file, or the name the cheque is made out to, gets set aside while someone checks.

Fake invoices have taught bookkeepers to be careful, and a business whose name changes from one invoice to the next looks, for a moment, like one of them.

Choose one written form

Decide, once, exactly how the name is written in public: the words, the spacing, ampersand or word, the capitals, and whether Ltd. appears.

Choose the version on the most expensive thing to change. That is usually the sign or the vehicle lettering, not the website, which can be updated in an afternoon.

Keep the full legal name for the places that need it, such as contracts, and ask your accountant or lawyer where those are. Everywhere else, use the public form.

Write it down in one line, with an example, and give it to anyone who prints, paints, types or registers the name for you.

A worked example

A signwriter has painted shop windows, gold-leaf lettering and van doors for other businesses for twenty years. The business's own name drifted the whole time.

The hand-painted sign over the workshop used an ampersand. The website, named after its domain, spelled out the word.

The Google listing added Ltd., an old directory used the founder's surname alone, and the van said Sign Co. instead of Signs.

The cost showed up in the listings. A second Google listing had appeared under the directory's version, carrying reviews the business had never seen, and people searching the wording on the van sometimes found that one instead.

The owner kept the form on the workshop sign, since repainting it was the largest job, and brought everything else into line over a month: the website, the listing, the van door, the invoice template and the email signature.

The duplicate listing was reported through Google Maps, and the old directory entry was corrected by asking the directory.

Where to look

Start with what customers and search engines read most: the header, footer, contact page and page titles of your website, your listings on Google My Business, Bing Places and Apple Maps Connect, and the name on your Facebook page.

Then the directories: trade associations, the local chamber of commerce, review sites and any dealer locator on a supplier's website.

Then everything physical and printed: signs, vehicles, uniforms, invoices, quotes, business cards, email signatures and the voicemail greeting.

Fixing the copies you do not control

Most directories and review sites let a business claim its entry and correct the name. Some take weeks, and a few never answer.

Keep a simple list: every place the name appears, the version used there, and the date you asked for a change. It turns a vague worry into a job with an end.

Some platforms limit how often a name can be changed, so make each change once, straight to the final form.

The domain is allowed to differ

A domain name cannot hold an ampersand or a space, so the website address will always differ slightly from the sign. That is normal.

What matters is that the name shown on the site, in the header, the page titles and the footer, matches the sign exactly.

Do not change a working domain to match a new style. The name on the page changes in an afternoon; a new address touches every link, listing and email address you have.

The counter-case

Some variation is harmless. Customers will say Smith's when the sign says Smith & Sons, and nobody needs correcting.

A logo can set the name in capitals or with a decorative ampersand, provided the text everywhere else follows the chosen form.

And chasing every obscure directory is rarely worth the time. The places customers and search engines actually read come first.

Pick one written form of the name, write it down, and make every sign, listing and page match it.

Where to start

1. Search your own name in several forms.
2. List every version you find.
3. Choose the form on your sign.
4. Write it down in one line.
5. Fix the website and listing first.
6. Report duplicate listings to Google.
7. Change the rest as each item is reprinted.

Step four is the one that keeps it fixed. Without a written version, the next sign maker, designer or new employee types the name the way they assume it goes, and the drift starts again.

Making a name findable when it is also an ordinary word is covered in a business name that is also a common word.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.