I promised not to include the term “facesquatting” in this post, for fear of cheapening our brand. But it’s too late now. Well I didn’t coin the phrase, so that should buy me some dignity.
For those who don’t know, “facesquatting” is term recently given to one person holding a Facebook vanity URL, that another deems does not belong to them.
I’m being facetious, but it brings up an interesting subject around personal brands online.
I own the URL www.jeremyjacobs.co.uk; I don’t own www.jeremyjacobs.com. I was doing a little SEOing on my own website when I came across an article from the people at Morgan PR. Someone has posted a comment mentioning my URL. For an instant I thought, is someone accusing me of cybersquatting on a URL of my own name? It got me thinking about cybersquatting on personal names.
Now, if a person buys a domain with the knowledge that a brand will want to purchase it in the future, I believe this is wrong. There has to be some governance. It makes the web easier to navigate and use. If I type in www.itunes.com, I want to go to iTunes, not a website knocked together by a 12 year old filled with Adsense ads.
What about personal brands?
So you have two people with the same name. Who gets the online brand?
Personal brands are not as widely trademarked as business brands, but is there going to be a shift? Personally, I was tempted to fight Paris Hilton over the “That’s Hot” trademark, but soon gave up…
Reviewing many legal cases, people who have tried to trademark and protect their name have found it difficult to do so. Unless you have a rare name, that is strongly associated with a product or service, then it is unlikely to sit well in court. With more people trying to sell themselves online, this could become a contentious issue with more legal battles over the ownership of a personal name. So how can you prevent this?
How to manage multiple personalities on search engines
If you notice that there are other people coming up in search results against your name, you will want to manage this relationship. It may be that this person is totally unaware and if you are happy to leave things be, then do. If not:
Get in contact – introduce yourself and explain what is occurring. If they are optimised for their own name, then chances are they will be aware of how they got themselves there, making the conversation easier. Reference this article in your email. Above all be friendly.
Remember - search engines are online reputation management systems. If they deem that your website is relative to your name, then there is no point trying to knock the other person off the listings. This is egotistical.
Page titles – ensure your pages have a succinct description of your name and what you do. Mine would be “Jeremy Jacobs – Online marketing expert and amateur photographer”. Then people can see easily from the listings who is who, making it easy for them to navigate around.
Write a good description – ensure the meta descriptions on your pages clearly explain who you are and what you do. These will be used in the search results as the text below the blue title. This will reduce any confusion.
Relax - unless the other person does exactly the same profession as you, then there is little to worry about. People searching for that person may have a look around, but they’ll know what they are looking for.
More often than not, there is little reason to rock the boat. If you are having problems, then try the friendly approach to try and resolve any issues amicably.
FYI, I have been in contact with the owner of www.jeremyjacobs.com and we’ve agree that we operate in separate fields, so we’ll continue on as is.
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