How To Retain SEO Rankings When Rebranding Your Website

Rebranding Your Website? Here’s How To Maintain Your SEO Rankings 

Rebranding a website is not a decision that’s taken lightly. Not only does it require content and design changes, but structural web changes too. At the same time, rebranding can be an effective way to increase your long-term brand value. And if you have just bought a website, a rebrand may be necessary to bring the brand in line with your goals for it.

However, if you do not give any consideration to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) when rebranding your website, its reach and search rankings are likely to take a knock. But that doesn’t have to be the case. By following a number of tried-and-true strategies, you can maintain your search engine position and generate new leads at the same time. 

In this article, we’ll take you through the steps you should follow if you’re planning a website rebrand. Whether you are planning a change in the website name or the products sold, these tips can help keep your reach and search rankings intact.

Preserve As Much Content As Possible

One of the most effective ways to maintain organic search rankings during a rebranding process is to keep the same domain name. However, this is not always practical advice. A total rebrand may require a change in company or website name, which will require a change in the domain name.

If keeping the same domain name is off the table, another way to maintain your spot in the search engine results pages (SERP’s) is to preserve as much of the original website’s content as possible. Your content is what builds up your rankings over time, so wherever you can, replicate it on your new website. This applies not only to the actual words written but to fonts and headers, too. 

Of course, a rebrand with no design changes or added content is not really a rebrand. But that doesn’t mean everything has to change. The more content you can preserve on your new website, the less your SEO rankings will suffer.

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Use Redirects Effectively

Another crucial step to take if changing your domain name is to use redirects properly. Most fundamentally, you will need to create a list of the URLs for all your old pages and 301-redirect them to the corresponding new content pages. It’s also a good idea to keep your old website up for a few days after launching your new one, as it might take time for the search engines to realize they are visiting a site on your new IP address.

In addition, make sure you change your name and URL on any and all search directory listings as well as the URL that your social media links to. It’s also important to communicate your name and domain change to key partners and stakeholders. 

Create A Dedicated ‘Bridge’ Page

It’s important to create a page in the new domain about your old website. This will serve as a ‘bridge’ to target and rank for the old branded queries. Here you should also explain the website’s rebranding details and link to the home page by using the new brand name as anchor text. Then on the new home page, add a section explaining the rebrand that links to the old brand page that will explain further. Customers tend to be wary of change, so it’s important to hold their hands every step of the way.

Try Not To Change Your URL Structure

Maintaining the same URL structure is useful because it minimizes human error. If you’re manually changing internal links, you might otherwise forget to redirect, a similar URL structure just means less frustration and fewer avoidable mistakes.

If this is not possible, it isn’t a train smash if you have implemented your redirects meticulously. Another important consideration is to make sure your URL structure is SEO-friendly. Lastly, if there are links that will no longer direct anywhere, this traffic should get redirected using 404 redirects. 

Publicize Your New Name

Don’t forget that what really drives search traffic is content and keywords. Your aim is for your page to appear when people type certain keywords into the search engine. The best way to make it easy for customers to find you after a name change is to make sure they know about your new name. There are a few important steps to take to do this:

• If you have employees, make sure they have all the tools they need to support the rebrand, from changing email signatures to new business cards.
• Let new customers know about your rebrand through whatever means you have to reach them. This includes social media, company listings, and dedicated information on the website. 
• Reach out directly to important referral traffic services to let them know of the change in your company or domain name. While a redirect takes care of your URL change, your website name will still appear as it is on other websites unless you take the time to change it.
• Turn your rebranding into a marketing opportunity. Why are you changing your name? What is the story behind it? A good brand story can get you more coverage if you reach out to media contacts who can publicize your rebrand. You should aim for as much publicity as possible.
• Add lots of content on your new website that includes both your old and your new company name together. This doesn’t have to be complicated. For example, it could just be a banner that says, “Company X is now company Y!” Make sure this gets included in both the home page and about page, and make a dedicated blog post or information page as described above.

Optimize Your New Website For Performance

Even if you are utterly scrupulous when it comes to a URL change, rebranding can affect your SEO rankings if you have not put enough thought into website performance. 

For example, your rebranded website might include a lot more graphics that you think will grab potential customers’ attention and get them to stay on your website. However, more graphics means a larger page size, which means slower loading time, which weakens performance. Lower website performance increases the “bounce rate”, which just means that people are more likely to leave your website if a page takes too long to load.

But there’s more to it than that. Google’s search engine ranks pages based on load time, so weak website performance can damage your SEO rankings directly. If your website design is optimized for performance, you will see less of a dip in your reach and search rankings. It is important to include website performance in your project goals to make sure this crucial element is not overlooked. Optimizing performance means paying attention to details and auditing your site to check its functionality. For example:

• Choose the right format for images (JPG or PNG) and do not add too many. Make sure that all images have alt text.
• Select popular, easy to read fonts that do not change cross-browser. Also, keep the number of fonts on your website to a minimum.
• Make sure all the design elements on your website reflect your new brand, while still optimizing performance.

Product Change

A rebrand does not have to be as drastic as changing the website or domain name. It could simply refer to changing certain products and services. Essentially, whatever pages affected by the change must get addressed in the same way as though you’re changing your whole website. That means using 404-redirects for products that no longer exist, and 301-redirects for those that have changed.

Using 301-redirects for new products is crucial if you want customers to see them. If you aren’t using the old page’s popularity to benefit the new one, you are throwing away potential customers. In addition, internal links should be updated to go to the new page. It is also important to add information to the new page that explains the rebrand or the new product. This should also link to the ‘bridge’ page which answers all the questions loyal customers may have.

In your quest to grow your customer base, do not allow yourself to become alienated from established customers. This is why it is important to specifically target old brand queries. Customers will want to know why you have rebranded, what exactly has changed, and what has happened to the old product or service. They will want to assess whether your updated brand still aligns with their desires. If you keep your customers informed and let them know that the rebranding does not mean the quality of your products has changed, you won’t lose too much of your existing customer base. 

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Conclusion

The bottom line is that a slight dip in reach and search rankings after rebranding your website is inevitable. However, by maintaining SEO best practices and avoiding Google penalties, you can ensure this dip is temporary. 

Following the above tips will help you maintain search traffic and your hard-earned SEO rankings and ensure that customers can always find you. An effectively managed and well-publicized rebrand can help grow your business without having too much of a negative effect on your search traffic.