After 21 years Google got our name wrong! What that means for Paperstone
At Paperstone, we’ve spent more than two decades building a name you can trust, supplying office and business essentials to thousands of UK businesses. So you can imagine our surprise when we noticed a sudden drop in our Google search visibility – all because of a quirky autocorrect mistake.
For some reason beyond our control, Google has been confusing “Paperstone” with “Pepperstone,” a multinational financial company. That means anyone searching for us is sometimes being sent somewhere completely different. Not ideal when you’re trying to reach new customers!
“This is extraordinary,” says Jim Brown, Paperstone’s CEO and founder. “We’ve spent 21 years earning the trust of UK businesses. To see Google treat our name as a typo – sending our customers to someone else entirely – is frustrating, to say the least.”
A tricky situation for an established ecommerce brand
The autocorrect mix-up has already caused a noticeable drop in searches for our brand. Even as a long-term Google Ads customer, getting help from Google to fix this SEO issue hasn’t been easy.
Search errors like this usually happen to newer or lesser-known brands, not a well-established company like Paperstone. It does make you wonder how Google’s latest algorithm updates are handling well-known brand names.
Why other online retailers should pay attention to their SEO
- As AI-driven search systems get smarter, even established brands can end up misunderstood.
- Strong SEO doesn’t automatically protect you from these algorithm quirks.
- Keeping an eye on your brand, optimising your structured data, and checking your search results regularly is more important than ever.
“This feels a bit like a David vs. Goliath situation,” adds Jim. “Even as a high-spending, long-term Google customer, we’ve felt invisible. We want other brands to be aware, so they don’t get caught out the same way.”
What we’re doing about it
- Speaking with industry peers and journalists to raise awareness.
- Updating our brand markup and schema data.
- Keeping a closer eye on our branded keywords.
Let’s tackle this Google SEO challenge together
You can help us – if you see Pepperstone results when searching for Paperstone – simply click “Search instead for paperstone” when Google suggests it (like shown); or try searching with extra keywords e.g. “Paperstone UK”.
We’d also encourage other ecommerce and retail brands to check their own branded search results and flag any strange autocorrect behaviour. We’re happy to share what we’ve learned with anyone facing the same issue.
This isn’t just a Paperstone problem – it’s a reminder that no brand, no matter how established, is completely immune to algorithmic changes. As search engines evolve, staying alert, flexible, and proactive is key.
If you’ve experienced a similar issue or would like to talk to us about this please contact us at hello@paperstone.co.uk.
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