Rebranding can open new doors and help your business stay competitive. Sometimes, it’s the only way to survive in a crowded market or recover from a PR disaster. However, this process can be challenging, especially if you plan to relaunch your site under a different domain name.
Simultaneously rebranding and migrating a website requires a complete overhaul of your marketing strategy.
For example, you must redefine your brand identity and update all digital assets, including logos, banners, and social media graphics. Plus, it’s essential to choose a domain name that reflects your new direction.
One aspect to be aware of is that the transition to a new domain has SEO implications. If done wrong, it can lead to a significant drop in search engine rankings and website traffic.
Here’s how to mitigate these risks and ensure a smooth transition.
A domain name change can impact your SEO and marketing efforts, and, in some cases, it may have legal consequences. That’s why it’s important to plan things out and take the steps needed for a successful migration.
From an SEO standpoint, switching to a new domain name will change all your URLs.
For instance, FitClub.com/blog/yoga-classes will become KeepFit.com/blog/yoga-classes.
Google and other search engines have already indexed your old URLs, meaning that:
These issues will cause a temporary decline in traffic and rankings, but you can reduce their impact. One solution is to set up proper redirects to maintain SEO authority (more on that later).
As far as marketing goes, you’ll have to plan a website relaunch and keep your customers in the loop. Otherwise, you risk losing traffic and sales.
Ready to take the plunge? Use these strategies to rebrand and relaunch your website with minimal SEO impact.
First, conduct a website audit to identify and address duplicate content, missing meta tags, and other SEO issues. Doing so will ensure you don’t transfer these issues to your new domain.
The audit will also reveal your top-performing pages, keywords, and backlinks. Based on this data, you can determine which pages are worth keeping, which ones need an update, and which ones to remove when migrating your site.
This is also a perfect time to map out the redirects. Simply put, you’ll document the URLs you want to redirect to the new domain to preserve your SEO.
As Google notes, server-side redirects, such as HTTP 301 or 302, don’t affect a website’s search engine rankings. Any decline in traffic or rankings should be temporary.
You can update the existing content before or after switching to a new domain, but, generally, it’s better to do it prior to the migration.
This approach will allow you to optimize the content for search engines and ensure it aligns with your new brand voice. Plus, you can check how these changes impact page load speed, usability, and other SEO metrics before you make the switch.
For example, some of your old blog posts may no longer be accurate or relevant, so it’s best to remove them. Others may require small tweaks, such as adding new sections or fixing broken external links.
Back up your old site so you can restore it if something goes wrong during the migration. Most web hosts provide automated backups, allowing users to revert to a previous version with just one click.
If that’s not an option, you can manually back up a website via FTP or from your cPanel. Alternatively, look into managed backup services like CodeGuard or BackupMachine.
Next, decide how you want to go about the migration. For example, you can create a staging website and, once it’s ready, move its content to the new site. Another option is to use FTP to transfer your files.
This process is rather complex and requires technical know-how, so it’s best to contact a developer. They will set up the new domain and hosting environment, set up 301 redirects, update all internal links, and check for errors.
Also, it’s important to audit your new website before it goes live. Look out for common issues like:
For instance, you may find multiple versions of the same page. In such cases, you must add canonical tags to let search engines know which version to index and rank.
If everything looks good, create a new sitemap and submit it to the search engines. Make sure you also use the Change of Address tool to notify Google about the migration.
Most search engines will index your site within a few days to a few weeks, depending on its structure, size, crawlability, and other factors. That’s why you should closely monitor its SEO performance and look out for potential issues.
Pay attention to your traffic numbers, bounce rate, and search rankings. Track these metrics (and others) over several weeks. Again, it’s normal to see a drop in traffic after switching domains, but this issue shouldn’t persist for longer than a month or so.
Transitioning to a new domain name is more or less difficult, depending on your website’s size and complexity. If you have a one-page site, this process shouldn’t take longer than a few hours. But if you run an online store with hundreds of products, the migration can take days or weeks to complete.
The best website builders can make your job a lot easier. These platforms feature drag-and-drop editors and other tools that allow you to quickly design, edit, and customize your new site. You’ll still need to handle the technical part, such as moving your content from one domain to another, but you’ll save time and effort.
Lastly, update your domain name on social media and other platforms to avoid customer confusion. Let your audience know about the “why” behind the rebrand and encourage them to explore your new website. Meanwhile, keep an eye on its SEO performance and make changes as needed.
