Changing Business Names

[PapercutInteractive]

Hi All,

I am working with a client that is changing its business name and website domain. Obviously, they want Google Maps to display their correct information. I know that in order for this to happen, they will need to do some citation clean-up and update their Google+ Local page, but does anyone have any opinions on the order in which these things should be done?

Thanks!

[TimHolmes]

You may not be merging sites like I am contemplating doing but you are looking to change domain names etc and fullfilling a rebrand.

Thomas has provided me with some great points when performing the move to compliment what I already knew. A move does not simply involve changing your Google+ local page, but a whole host more which has to be considered.

Might be worth reading.

http://moz.com/community/q/seo-considerations-for-merging-two-brand-website-into-one

[MonicaOConnor]

I recommend using a program like Moz Local or Yext to help clean up your name, address and phone number all around the web. Your NAP is extremely important for ranking.

[danwebman]

Hi We went from WYKO to ERIKS in 2008.

I created a new site with the new company name and had a banner pointing to the new company name on the homepage of the website for months before the big switch over.

I then began the task of re-pointing all of my pages to the new website using 301 redirect, the content was identical to start off with so that the task was easy http://www.wyko.co.uk/bearings was the same as http://www.eriks.co.uk/bearings

Then marketing made any changes to the new website pages only. (never changing the URL!) This could have been a re-direct to a relevant page. Any content which was no longer relevant also had a redirect setup to the homepage to ensure no old links where broken.

Something else I did which may or may not be a possibility, I created a History Page which contains names of all of our acquisitions and old company names, this way Google picks these up and when people still type in "WYKO" of "WYKO Industrial Services" they still find ERIKS. Old habits die hard we still get allot of traffic from the old company name.

Something else I would consider is getting websites to change the domain listing they may have. We still have allot of sites linking to www.wyko.co.uk today, whilst they 301 Permanent Re-Direct it's much better to get the Google Juice with a direct link, so get those emails sent out.

3 months later the traffic on the new site was greater than the old site and that's when the old domain was redirected and is still in place today,

Good Luck

Dave

[MiriamEllis]

Hey There!

We have another thread going on this topic which might be very helpful to you:

http://moz.com/community/q/transfer-local-seo-rankings-to-another-domain

Please, consider checking out the rebranding resources I've referenced over there. I think they'll help!

[PapercutInteractive]

Thanks for the responses, everyone! And thanks for those resources, Miriam. Very helpful!