PRstore or PR Store: that is the question.
To put it another way: keyword variations matter when it comes to your company’s online reputation.
Do a Google search for your company name. What shows up in the results? Your web site? If not, you’ve got big problems. What about reviews by your clients? Positive comments? Harsh criticisms? An article about that pesky lawsuit?
This is what online reputation management is all about. There are steps you can make sure top search results are more positive than negative, but this post isn’t about reputation management. It’s about misspelling your name.
Consider PRstore, for example. Officially, our company name is one word, no spaces. We’ve learned, though, that most Google searches for PRstore use the phrase “pr store” with a space. It’s a small distinction, but it has big implications.
Our site, PRstore.com, is optimized to rank highly for the search term "prstore." Our blogs and press releases are optimized the same way. But as I just pointed out, our customers are searching for "pr store." Different search terms yield different results, so it’s important we manage our reputation using both keyword phrases.
Now, back to your company. Do that Google search again, but this time, spell your company name differently. Instead of “Advanced Robotics and Consulting,” search for the phrase “Robotics Consulting,” for example. Does your site still appear in the results? What else do you see?
The lesson here is that customers aren’t always looking for you in ways you’d expect.
Remember, customers don’t just use Google to find a product or service (e.g., “marketing agencies in L.A.”). They also use Google as a reference check, of sorts. Good marketing means making sure they find the good news about you – even if they spell your name wrong.
Or as Shakespeare put it, make sure “that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
