Website rebranding, what should I worry about?

[NextDigital51]

Hey guys,

A client of mine will be doing a rebranding exercise, this include changing their brand name and their domain name. They are considered a well known brand within their industry (Their brand name shows up in Google's "Search Related to..." section)

My question is:

Apart from making sure all 301 are put in place,changing all the links to point to the new domain and doing PR exercise, is there anything else I should keep in mind / be aware of to ensure a smooth transition?

Also can anyone come up with possible issues we might encounter during the move? Apart from having a significant drop in traffic and rankings?

Thanks,

Clement

[damionbrown]

It might be worth spending a little time before the move drawing up a list of the most important sites linking out to the old domain, and contacting them once the new domain goes live to ask them to update their links.

I'm sure that the rebranding will involve some sort of awareness/media campaign so a "link update" message could go out on the back of that.

I would personally be ultra-paranoid about the 301s, but I know Next Digital (awesome work on the MCG site) so I'm sure you guys will have that all taken care of!

[CPU]

Here is an article from Danny Dover, formerly of SEO Moz which although a couple of years old I believe is still relevant as if my memory serves me correct he mentions the same process in his book which was only published a month or two ago.

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/seo-guide-how-to-properly-move-domains

Hope this helps.