The Names Locals Use That Your Site Never Mentions

The name people actually say

Ask around town where people take their car, and many answer with a first name: the owner's, not the one on the sign. Others still use the garage's old name, six years after it changed.

Newcomers hear those names from neighbours and type them into Google. If the business's own site never mentions them, the results may show an old directory entry, a closed listing or another business entirely.

The business has done nothing wrong. It describes itself in its own words, and the town uses different ones.

How search matches names

Search engines match the words someone types against the words on pages and in listings. A name that appears nowhere on the site gives Google little reason to connect it with the business.

Google handles spelling mistakes and obvious variations well. It cannot know that a nickname or a former name belongs to a business unless something on the web says so.

Old directories, newspaper stories and reviews may still mention the former name. The business's own site is the one place where it can say so clearly.

Names worth finding

Start by listing every name people use. The staff at the counter hear them daily:

• The owner's first name, or the founder's, said as a place.
• The former business name, from before a sale or a change of name.
• The old location, as in the shop that used to be downtown.
• A short form of the name, or its initials.
• Common misspellings of an unusual name.

Ask whoever answers the phone too. They hear the version customers use when nobody is trying to be correct.

Where those names belong on the site

Start with the about page. Tell the history plainly: who founded the business, what it was called, when the name changed and why.

The home page can carry one line saying formerly known as, followed by the old name. The footer can repeat it in small type on every page, where it is visible without crowding anything.

Where customers use the owner's first name, a short introduction to the owner with a photograph gives that name a natural place.

Keep it natural

Mention each name where it makes sense to a reader, once or twice. Repeating it in every paragraph, or in a block of names at the foot of the page, reads as manipulation and can count against the site.

Hidden text, such as names in white type on a white background, breaks Google's guidelines outright. Every mention should be readable by the customer who searched for it.

The test is simple: read the page aloud. If a sentence sounds odd to a customer, it was written for a search engine.

Short forms and misspellings

Google catches many misspellings on its own. For an unusual surname it may not, and a plain sentence on the about page explaining how the name is said and spelled covers both.

Initials and short forms work the same way. If customers call the business by three letters, use those letters somewhere a reader would expect them, such as the opening line of the about page.

What the listing must keep as it is

The business's Google listing is different. Its name must match the name on the sign and the paperwork, exactly, with nothing added.

Adding a nickname, an old name or keywords to the listing's name breaks Google's rules for local listings and can get it suspended. The old name belongs in the description, as a sentence.

An old listing under the former name should not simply be left. Report it as a duplicate or as closed through the listing's own process, so searches lead to the current business.

A worked example

A piano store in a mid-sized town sells new and used pianos, tunes them across the region and rents practice instruments to families whose children are starting lessons.

A piano technician founded it decades ago, and for years it carried his name. When he retired, his apprentice bought the store, moved it two streets over and named it after the new street.

Ten years on, locals still call the store by the founder's first name, and parents looking for rentals search the old name. The site mentioned neither.

Searches for the old name showed an old directory page with the former address and a disconnected number.

The about page now tells the history, naming the founder and the old name, with a photograph of him at his bench. The footer says formerly known as, and the listing's description mentions the old name in a sentence.

The listing's name still matches the sign. The words people type now appear on the store's own pages, while the listing stays within the rules.

Other places the old name helps

Email signatures, invoices and the voicemail greeting can carry the same line for a year or two after a change: formerly known as, with the old name.

Ask directories and associations that still list the old name to update their entries, keeping a mention of the former name where their format allows.

The counter-case

A business whose old name is tied to something it would rather leave behind, such as poor service under a previous owner, may not want to mention it at all.

That is a fair choice. One factual line on the about page, saying the business took over the location under new ownership, still helps people searching the old name find the right place.

For most businesses, though, the old name and the owner's first name carry goodwill. Mentioning them costs nothing and connects the town's words to the business.

Giving every name its place

1. List every name customers use for the business.
2. Ask the front counter what callers say on the phone.
3. Tell the history on the about page, with the old name.
4. Add a formerly known as line to the footer.
5. Introduce the owner by name, with a photograph.
6. Keep the listing's name exactly as the sign reads.
7. Report old listings under the former name.

Step six is the rule not to bend. The site's text can carry every name the town uses, but the listing's name has to stay exactly as it is, or the listing itself is at risk.

People who hear about a business on the radio search for whatever name they heard, and preparing for that evening is covered in the day after your business is on the local news.

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.