{"id":6711,"date":"2022-01-26T08:29:51","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T08:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/01\/26\/protecting-rankings-traffic-during-a-rebrand-seo-expert-tips\/"},"modified":"2022-01-26T08:29:51","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T08:29:51","slug":"protecting-rankings-traffic-during-a-rebrand-seo-expert-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/01\/26\/protecting-rankings-traffic-during-a-rebrand-seo-expert-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Protecting Rankings & Traffic During A Rebrand: SEO Expert Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\n
<\/p>\n

\n

What SEO considerations should you factor into your rebrand planning process?<\/p>\n

This question comes from Tyler, who attended a recent SEJ webinar<\/a> and asked,\n<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cRecently, we had a client rebrand and change their brand name and URL. We saw an absolutely massive fall off with rankings and traffics.<\/p>\n

Could you give some insights into why specifically changing the brand name\/URL would affect all of these pages that essentially didn\u2019t get changed content-wise and had the appropriate redirects in place?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Doing The Prework For A Successful Site Rebrand<\/h2>\n

\u201cChanging a URL\/domain means a completely new page or website for Google. This is a classic challenge in a website migration,\u201d says Ludwig Makhyan<\/a>, Co-Founder of Mazeless \u2013 Enterprise SEO.<\/p>\n

He suggests, \u201cYou have to take some crucial steps to ensure your migration process runs smoothly. If you do everything right, you\u2019ll avoid losing your rankings and will save a lot of revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suggested Solutions:<\/h3>\n

\u201cFirst things first, there is a ton of prep work to be done,\u201d says Makhyan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe easiest way to play this will be to follow a good website SEO migration checklist. In general, the whole process will be broken down into the following main stages: Pre-Migration, Launch, and Post-Migration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the most important things you have to do at the Pre-Migration are the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that, you have to run a bunch of tests on the staging environment. You have to make sure that all the redirects are set up properly. Some important mistakes to avoid are broken redirects, redirect chains, and loops. In a perfect world, you want to make sure each 301 redirect<\/a> has no more than one hop,\u201d reminds Makhyan.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo recap, after the migration you have a brand new page for Google. Now you want to transfer all the pre-existing page values here. To do this, you have to let Google know that this new URL is the logical new version of the old one.\u201d<\/p>\n

See Mahkyan\u2019s \u2018Site Migration Issues: 11 Potential Reasons Traffic Dropped<\/a>\u2018 to learn more.<\/p>\n

Resist The Urge To Execute All Changes At Once<\/h2>\n

Harpreet Munjal<\/a>, Founder of LoudGrowth, says that the biggest mistake that many businesses make is not due to a technical error, but a process error: executing all changes at once.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis can make things complex and reduce efficiency, especially if you have a large website,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

Suggested Solution:<\/h3>\n

To avoid this, Munjal advises that marketers \u201cdivide your rebranding and domain changing process into different steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, first tackle website design changes<\/a> without changing your content, web hosting, or anything else. Then give it some time to see any effects. If everything looks okay, move forward with other changes,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Make sure you keep a backup of your older website, he adds. In case of serious site issues, you can always revert back.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have to recover by using your backup, determine which issues were affecting rankings and traffic. Then, start over by planning the right strategy and implementing changes one at a time. Track changes and give each enough time to evaluate the results,\u201d Munjal explains.<\/p>\n

Get Your Redirects In Order<\/h2>\n

Adam Riemer<\/a>, CEO of Adam Riemer Marketing, recommends that when rebranding and changing a URL, \u201cYou must always set up all redirects properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this case, Tyler is certain his redirects were done correctly \u2013 but it never hurts to double check.<\/p>\n

Suggested Solution:<\/h3>\n

Riemer emphasizes that, \u201cAll pages \u2013 especially those with quality backlinks<\/a> and that get traffic from social media \u2013 need 301 redirects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, he notes that, \u201cIt\u2019s also important to update your sitemaps, and point all canonical links from the old URL to the new URL, so as Google is crawling, it will see the new URL and where the page now exists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNext, contact any relationships you have backlinks with and ask them to change out the old link for the new one. Then, send an email blast to customers letting them know about the new brand and begin building buzz,\u201d suggests Riemer.<\/p>\n

Keep Optimizing & Monitor For Traffic Changes<\/h2>\n

Himani Kankaria<\/a>, Founder of Missive Digital, shares her insights on why specifically changing their brand name\/URL would affect these pages.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually, the authority is attached to each domain name so even if you have the redirection done right, with all the canonical and internal linking in place, the site can lose traffic because of the lost domain authority,\u201d she advises.<\/p>\n

Suggested Solutions:<\/h3>\n

What can be done in this case? Kankaria recommends the following:<\/p>\n