Paperstone faces brand visibility challenge after Google autocorrect error which raises questions for established eCommerce brands

Paperstone, one of the UK’s leading online business supplies companies, has reported a sudden and significant drop in visibility on Google Search after recent changes to how search results are displayed and interpreted.

For over two decades, Paperstone has built a trusted name in office & business supplies, serving thousands of UK businesses and individuals. However, recently Google’s search engine has begun autocorrecting “Paperstone” to “Pepperstone”, an unrelated multinational finance company – dramatically affecting how customers find the Paperstone website.

“It’s an extraordinary situation,” said Jim Brown, CEO and founder of Paperstone. “We’ve spent 21 years building a respected online brand in our industry. To wake up and find Google treating our name as a typo – and sending our customers somewhere else – is both frustrating and concerning.”

Paperstone, an award-winning ecommerce business and long-time Google Ads customer, has seen a noticeable decline in impressions for its branded search terms since the autocorrection began. Despite multiple attempts to report the issue, the company says it has struggled to gain a response or resolution from Google.

While Google regularly updates its search systems, this appears to be a unique case affecting an established brand. Typically, these issues are more common for new or lesser-known brands still building online recognition. Paperstone’s team believes the problem could be related to changes in Google’s query interpretation and clustering – and may have wider implications for other online retailers.

“This feels like a ‘David and Goliath’ moment,” added Brown. “Even though we’re a high-spending Google customer, we’ve been left feeling invisible – literally. We want to raise awareness, so other trusted brands don’t face the same issue.”

Paperstone continues to work on technical SEO and communication solutions and is encouraging other ecommerce businesses to monitor their brand search visibility closely.

The company is open to sharing data, insights, and findings with industry peers and journalists covering the evolving relationship between retailers, search visibility, and customer trust.