Your band’s visibility, reputation, and messaging will all improve with a digital rebranding. Unfortunately for your SEO, this is usually not good news. However, is it possible to obtain one without sacrificing the other?

Do you plan to do a digital rebranding? 

It’s true; continue reading! 😉

Particularly when it comes to SEO, a digital rebranding doesn’t have to result in a separation to start again.

You have invested a great deal of time and energy into developing your SEO, after all.

As your company separates from its former self, we can assist you with rebranding your website and maintaining SEO and ranking.

But let’s begin with the fundamentals!

Redesign vs. Rebrand: What’s the Difference?

When you redesign a website, you want it to seem updated but you maintain the same name. Comparable to constructing a new home on the same property. So easy!

Competitor research, SEO and content audits, strategic information architecture, UX and UI design, content assistance, and a unique WordPress website with extensive quality assurance testing are some of the activities that may be included in redesigns.

Remember that not all rebrands involve the removal of the previous creative, despite what the general public may believe.

A minor rebrand would include changing the colours, changing the domain name, or changing the logo without changing any other components.

A complete rebrand, on the other hand, is more akin to a civil separation; everything on your website is the focus, not you. Transferring attributes and changing domains should be the first step. Then give it a new coat of paint by adding a new name, slogan, and logo. Lastly, refresh material to start a rejuvenation process.

Who, though, is the MVP of your website makeover? Naturally, SEO!

You want, after all, your audience to be able to find your website, isn’t that right?

SEO’s Impact on Digital Rebranding

Don’t let anybody convince you otherwise: digital rebranding ALWAYS affects SEO.

The impact can be positive or negative; it all depends on how you do things.

SEO factors that will be affected by your digital rebranding include the following:

• Modifying goods and services can have an impact on keyword ranks, impressions, and clickthrough rates.
• Image editing has an impact on page relevancy, alt text, and title rankings.
• Moving has an effect on search engine visibility and local ranking.
• Changing your domain name resets the authority trust factor and domain age.
• Changes to site URLs might result in a loss or gain of keywords that score highly in the URLs.
• 301 redirects should be used since new pages could not have the same SEO value or ranking as older versions of the website.

SEO Impact of Changing Your Company Name

Selecting a name that is spoken correctly, marketable, memorable, and most importantly, searchable is crucial when it comes to digital rebranding. Searchable means that you don’t already have to contend with a “name twin,” or overly straightforward name, in the rankings; you don’t want to be a Sophie A surrounded by Sophie Bs, Sophie Cs, and Sophie Ds.

Search for the business name or names you are considering using your browser in Incognito Mode. Take note of the results that are shown locally. There’s a limit to how many unique names a firm can have, so you can probably have a name that sounds similar to theirs but not so similar that it competes for searches including your location.

What Happens to SEO When You Tweak Content?

During a digital rebranding campaign, changing your content may result in higher results or new ranks for undiscovered keywords. This makes the material more useful, up to date, relevant, and optimised; on the other hand, if the content is not updated, it may become antiquated, underperforming, and stagnant for the Google crawler.

It is important to keep an eye on how older material performs and to make smart modifications when necessary. Not every content from the past is inherently “bad”; some may continue to score well. Avoid fiddling with them!

Digitally Rebranding Your Website Without Compromising SEO in 6 Steps

We suggest not tackling all these significant changes simultaneously unless absolutely necessary! 

That being said, here’s your rebranding SEO checklist to follow. 📝

1. Update Old Content

Rebranding gives you a wonderful opportunity to boost search rankings, market insights, and content strategies into current material during migration. Freshness is an often neglected feature in Google rankings, and relevancy of your content is vital.

Not only should your content match the impending changes your company will see as a result of the digital rebranding, but you should also take advantage of any SEO opportunities identified.

Do not ignore the possibility that making unneeded or excessively severe adjustments might negatively impact your traffic and rankings!

Whenever you update older content, Google will recognize the updates during its subsequent crawl. Additionally, if you want to expedite the process, you can submit the updated content’s URL(s) through Google Search Console, eliminating the need to wait for Google to automatically crawl the updated content. Ain’t anyone has time for that!

2. Take Care of Broken Links

Don’t forget to search your old content and pages for “broken,” naughty, or out-of-date links! When it comes to SEO, always err on the side of safety.

3. Never (NEVER) Forget About the Redirects

If your digital rebranding involves updating your URLs, redirects are essential. 301 redirects divert visitors to your new page instead of bringing them to an error page.

Redirects assist maintain traffic to your new website and allow you to enjoy your new branding uninterrupted, even if they won’t have the same impact as the previous ranking.

4. Modify Data and Exchange Information on Other Websites

Ensure that your online company profiles (such as those on Google company, Yelp, and Trip Advisor) and social media accounts are up to date.

With Google Analytics on your current website, you may use referral traffic analytics to identify where your business is listed. Along with your remarks, don’t overlook your links on other websites when going through this process.

You want everyone to know about this huge, fancy change you’re working on, after all 😉

5. Google Analytics Update

Your best friend is Google Analytics. 🙌

It is true that the GrowthGirls slogan, “The truth is in the numbers,” therefore while you are digitally rebranding, be sure to update Google Analytics with your new name and URL.

This must come first!

6. Introduce Your Digital Rebranding with a Blog Post

In the title, both your old and new names should appear. You will be able to prove ownership as you rebrand your other online profiles if you do so, as well as inform audiences and search engines of the name change.

Users may verify that your redesigned account remains the same by sharing, pinning, and linking this notice of your rebranding across your posts and profile.

Avoiding Missteps During and After Your Digital Rebranding!

Make sure your new site is flawless and error-free by paying attention to these rebranding dos and don’ts.

Don’t hurry through all the upgrades and adjustments at once throughout your digital rebranding journey; instead, take your time. If you rebrand quickly, you run the danger of making mistakes, forgetting important details, and having your material mistakenly indexed by search engines as having been plagiarised.

Don’t run, just crawl. Unwind and give it some thought.

It is impossible to predict when someone may find or visit the previous URL, so keep redirecting traffic to your new domain name for as long as you can to ensure a smooth transition. Furthermore, don’t undervalue the significance of maintaining your tags and categories. Your sector, niche, and areas of expertise don’t alter even after rebranding, but frequent changes tell Google what’s relevant and contextual, which might lead to a possible crawler reranking.

Finally, but just as importantly, perform a review and tweak session for keyword optimisation. Find the phrases that historically brought in the greatest traffic, then link those terms to pertinent posts and pages. Examine and compare this list to themes and keywords that complement your redesigned content, upgraded products, and rebranding prioritizing as needed.

Good advice is never enough for you, huh? 🤩

We’ve got you covered; contact OctaadsMedia CEO, Abdulla khan, and seek more expert guidance!