Domain Name Change

[David-Kley]

Hello fellow Mozzers!

Quick question:
We have been looking into changing our domain name into something a bit easier to read and recite. I think that we have found one, and it has a very long history.

The issue is that the new domain name removes one of our keywords.

Example, current domain name:
webdesignandcompany.com
We have built a lot of branding around this name.

Example of domain we are considering:
BLANKdesign.com (blank is to protect the domain name we are considering)

The new domain is over 20 years old, whereas ours is only around 7 years. I am wondering if we are shooting ourselves in the foot by removing the word "web" since that is a primary focus of our business.

The issue is that the current domain and business name are not very catchy, and hard to say in a phone call and remember. Feels keyword heavy and generic, but it ranks well. Really well. We would be doing a 301 redirect if we decide to change it, and we have Yext and Moz to help clean up all the listings.

My question is: Is it worth it to switch? Would the removal of the word web make it harder to rank number 1 or two, since people search for web design? Or since we would be leaving all the titles and meta the same, and that the domain is older than ours make that not an issue?

THOUGHTS?

[Joe.Robison]

It's awesome that you have such an aged domain, but I would agree that it sounds like a mouthful and it's hard to get strong branding around it. If you're planning to be around for awhile, I'd recommend making the change from a brand standpoint.

In order to tell if you'd lose rankings on the "web design" types of keywords, I'd recommend doing an analysis of how much your keyword in your domain might be helping over not having it. You might do this by pulling the page authority of your pages ranking for competitive keywords and compare those to your competitors' page authority scores for the same page type competing for the keywords and check if it seems that you have the advantage boosted by the domain.

You could also analyze the anchor text profile used to help rank your pages and see if it's strongly positively influenced by your company name to help rank.

Even if you do find additional boosts from your domain name, I'd recommend making the change!

[David-Kley]

That is good advice, thank you. I would still want to hear from a few more people just so we have a variety of opinions. It's a big and expensive switch, so all advice is helpful.