Your Logo on Other People's Websites

A logo you did not put there

Your logo appears on more websites than your own. A supplier lists you as a stockist, a venue lists the suppliers it recommends, and the youth soccer club you sponsor thanks you on its home page.

Nobody asked you for the file. Someone found a copy, usually years ago, and put it up.

So the logo people meet on those pages is often an old version, a stretched one, or a small image blown up until it blurs.

For many customers, those pages are where they first come across your business, before they ever see your own site.

Where your logo turns up

• Supplier and manufacturer sites, in dealer lists and where-to-buy pages.
• Associations and chambers, in member directories.
• Teams, festivals and charities, on pages thanking their sponsors.
• Venues and partners, on lists of suppliers they recommend.
• Customers' own sites, showing who they work with.

The fourth is the one that sends work. A venue's list of recommended suppliers is read by people about to book, and a blurry logo there sits beside competitors whose files are crisp.

How the wrong copy gets there

Most organisations take the logo from the easiest place: your website's header, your Facebook profile picture or an email signature. Each was made for its own spot, not theirs.

A header logo is often small, sometimes with the background colour built in, and it goes soft at the edges when enlarged.

A profile picture is square, cropped and compressed. A logo saved as a JPEG carries a white box around it, which shows on any page that is not white.

And whatever they took, they kept. A logo changed two years ago is still the old one everywhere it was copied before the change.

Why it matters more than it looks

People recognise a logo before they read the name. An old mark on a partner's page and a new one on your sign make them wonder whether it is the same business.

A blurry logo says something as well. Beside sharp ones, it suggests a business that does not mind the details, an awkward message for anyone whose work is all details.

Sharper screens make it worse. Many phones and laptops now show images at twice the density of older screens, and a small logo that once looked passable now looks fuzzy.

A page of current logo files

The fix starts on your own site: one page, not necessarily in the menu, at a plain address such as /logo that fits in an email.

Offer a large PNG with a transparent background, which works on most websites, plus a version for dark backgrounds if the lettering is dark.

Add a square version for profile pictures and map pins, and a vector file, usually EPS, SVG or PDF, which stays sharp at any size for print.

Put the date it was last updated at the top, with the business name written exactly as it should appear and a one-line description. Without a description, partners write their own.

A worked example

A wedding cake designer works by appointment from a small studio with a tasting room on the edge of a suburb. Most of her bookings come through venues and planners.

Two years ago she replaced a pale pink script logo with a cleaner mark in charcoal and gold. Her website, cards, boxes and sign changed together.

This month, between tastings, she opened the eleven venue and planner pages that list her as a recommended supplier.

Five still showed the pink logo. Two showed her Facebook profile picture stretched into a rectangle, one showed the new logo inside a white box on a black page, and one showed a broken image.

That venue had linked straight to the logo file on her previous website. When the site was rebuilt the file was deleted, and the venue's page lost its picture without anyone noticing.

She added a logo page to her site and emailed each venue's events office the link, with the files attached and one line about the change. Most pages were updated within a fortnight; two needed a second note.

Asking partners to update

Make the request easy to say yes to. Attach the files and include the link, so nobody has to go looking.

Write to a role address where there is one, such as the events or membership office. Whoever added your logo years ago may have moved on.

Keep it short and friendly: what changed, what is attached, and thanks. Mention your website address too, in case their link points at an old page.

Keep a list of every page that shows your logo, what was wrong and when you asked. When the logo changes again, the same list says exactly who to write to.

Files borrowed from your site

Some partners do not copy your logo at all. They point their page at the image file on your website, so their page loads it from yours every time.

That works until the file moves. A redesign that renames or deletes old images breaks every page that was borrowing them, and nobody tells you.

Ask partners to keep their own copy from the logo page. Before a redesign removes old image files, ask whoever runs the hosting to check the logs for other sites loading them.

The counter-case

Not every listing deserves the effort. A directory nobody visits, or a page for an event long past, can be left alone or removed if the organisation will do it.

Some organisations show every logo at one small size, or in one colour, or not at all. Accept their format and make sure the name and link are right.

And a business whose logo has never changed, with partners who took good files at the start, may only need the page ready for the next request.

For the pages people actually read, especially those that recommend you, current files and a polite request are worth the hour.

Before the new year

1. Search for your business name on partner sites.
2. List every page that shows your logo.
3. Note what is wrong on each one.
4. Build a logo page with current files.
5. Send each partner the link and the files.
6. Follow up after a month.
7. Add the link to every new sponsorship.

Step four makes everything after it quick. Once the files live at one address, every request becomes a two-line email rather than a hunt for attachments.

What a logo change costs across signs, vehicles and listings is covered in when a famous app changes its logo.

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.