Moving to new domain - Social and Branding Questions?

[BeytzNet]

Hi,

We are moving to a new domain because our rankings drastically dropped and we want to "start over".

For example - If my company is called Joes Computers and the domain was JoesComputers.com and the new domain which will hold our e-commerce website will be completely different for example - BestComputers.com - which do I brand?

Which do I put as suffix in all titles?
COOL TITLE FOR PRODUCTS | Best Computers
or 
COOL TITLE FOR PRODUCTS | Joes Computers

Which name do I take for social profiles? Company or Domain?
(We currently have for the company since it was the same).

Please note that our company name is already a little bit known... and therefore inside the website it will be labeled in Logos etc. We would also state "Best Computers by Joes Computers" (as if it is a sub brand or daughter company).

Thanks,

[Chris.Menke]

BeytzNet

I'd say "Joe's Computers" all the way!  I think way too many companies confuse their domain name with their brand name.  Sure it's nice when they are the same, but if they can't be or if you've already built up equity in another name, it's usually far better to emphasize your brand.

I wouldn't just trash the old domain, though.  Move your old site over to the new domain and put a new site on the old one and make it a project to work on trying to pull it out of the penalty. If  down the road, you're successful, you could move back to it.

[BeytzNet]

Thanks.

So what do you think would happen in the future with exact searches? (Joes Computers).
Also, will I need to rebuild the social media channels or keep as is and just point them to the new domain?

About the old domain's material...

We were thinking of redirecting (301) the deep articles and product pages while neglecting the main landing and category pages.

I fear that the penalty is due to bad links (that un-naturally targeted main landing pages).
This is why redirecting articles shouldn't have bad impact. All of our texts are high quality.

[Chris.Menke]

Your branded traffic is typically the easiest and fastest to get restarted to your new domain.  In addition to revising the domain name in all of your social profiles be sure to revise all of your local co-citations with your new website address.

It's worth going on more than just a  "feeling" that your site was penalized when you're considering moving your entire domain because of it. You ought to be close to 100% sure.

Many people feel 301 redirecting will just forward the penalty to your new site.

[YouON]

I have question:
The exit from a penalty needs probably at least 6 months (it depends), instead a new domain how much time needs to start ranking well? Is it not more suitable to clean the old domain and try a reconsideration request?

Bad inbound links? Disavow tool probably can helps. If you are penalized the redirect 301 could be a suicide strategy, no?

My personal point of view

[BeytzNet]

We don't have a manual penalty (we had it revoked).
However, it does not mean that we do not have an algorithmic one.

About the disavow tool - New links keep popping up. We have STOPPED working with ANY company for more than a year now. Nevertheless, we run the same tools of link discovery (majestic, OSE, ahrefs and links from the GMWT) and we keep discovering new links. It is an endless cause...

We did not plan to redirect the main pages of which links point too but rather the articles themselves, several hundred good articles. This way, the bad links won't harm us (I assume).

[YouON]

Ok I understand now, are you probably under attack? I'm sorry for that. But if this is a negative seo activity by an evil competitor, is it probably that he will do the same for your new domain?

By the way I think Chris tip is good, avoiding any redirect for now. You can restart your e-commerce on the new domain and simultaneously try clean your old web site with new content & gwt as you try until now (never give up).