As a business owner, sometimes a rebrand is your next best move company. But you want to tread cautiously when doing so online because a poorly executed switch could be a costly ordeal.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is everything because it makes you visible in Google and accessible to your target audience.
So, what are some things to remember during domain migration?
1.Send signs in Advance
In your present website, start informing your users that you’ll be upgrading to a new brand name or service.
Use your current internet presence to send signs of an imminent switch a few weeks or a month to the official transition.
This can be done (1) Within the website by changing content and metadata or (2) Outside the website via old-school marketing and Public Relations.
Lastly, retain some components of the old brand on new-fangled metadata.
2.Seek to Retain URL structures
Rebranding means upgrading to a new name and offering better products, but you might want to retain your existing domain and website.
Changing the posting of web content and URL structures may confuse users and compromise the effectiveness of your upgrade.
Retaining URL structures makes it easier to redirect users just by a simple edit the htaccess file.
Still, you must remember to carry all your history with you, which is why you must create a detailed “redirect list” to keep benefitting from your previous rankings.
3.Think about your Previous Brand Users
Perfect as the switch may be, the news of a new brand won’t reach all your users.
So, think, “what happens if a searcher comes looking for your previous brand?”
Well, it’s better to engage them and address their concerns in your FAQ areas, self-help sections, through blog posts, and so on.
Failing to attend to this traffic can mean losing lots of traffic.
4.Generate fresh Signals for your new-fangled domain
Ranking and traffic is priority number one for most business rebranding or shifting to a new domain.
Many forget the importance of generating new signals for the new-fangled domain via link-building, Digital Public Relations, or old-school marketing.
Final Words
The takeaway here is that the shift must be systematic both for you, your users, and Google. Failure to consider these three parties may mean an ineffective rebranding process.
Author Bio: Blair Thomas has been a music producer, bouncer, screenwriter and for over a decade has been the proud Co-Founder of eMerchantBroker, the highest rated SEO merchant account provider in the country. He has climbed in the Himalayas, survived a hurricane, and lived on a gold mine in the Yukon. He currently calls Thailand his home with a lifetime collection of his favorite books.
