Dumb SEO Questions

(Entry was posted by Roxanne H on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 08/09/2016).

How much business name change is going to affect Google crawling?

Hi SEO Gurus,
Im building a new web-site. We are rebranding and renaming our company but the name change is just one letter. Tropiholic to Tropaholic. We have been in business 3 + years as Tropiholic and finally ranking (somewhat) on natural key words! Mostly brands. Traffic is slow as it is. We were wondering ... Should we keep Tropiholic afloat while we build up Tropaholic. Or, shut it down, redirect and wait it out... & pump in advertising traffic $$$.
Also, how much do you think the name change is going to affect Google crawling if we do shut it down since we are only changing one letter in our business name?
Thanks in advance. Mahalo!
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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

  • Roxanne H: Hi SEO Gurus,
    Im building a new web-site. We are rebranding and renaming our company but the name change is just one letter. Tropiholic to Tropaholic. We have been in business 3 + years as Tropiholic and finally ranking (somewhat) on natural key words! Mostly brands. Traffic is slow as it is. We were wondering ... Should we keep Tropiholic afloat while we build up Tropaholic. Or, shut it down, redirect and wait it out... & pump in advertising traffic $$$.
    Also, how much do you think the name change is going to affect Google crawling if we do shut it down since we are only changing one letter in our business name?
    Thanks in advance. Mahalo!
    
  • arjun nair: You should properly use your 301 redirect and that should work your way out for retaining your existing traffic. You can very well shutdown the earlier account after this is done. 
  • Jordan Lowry: I agree with the previous post you should certainly 301 redirect and over time Google will de-index the older site over time. Expect a slump in traffic though it will be hard to determine how much but there will be a decline in organic traffic.
    I would pump in relevant PPC and start targeting more long tail keywords especially if you are only primarily ranking for branded terms. It is hard to give more insight than that since I do not know what industry you operate within.
  • Roxanne H: Hi Arjun Nair & Jordan Lowry. Its Tropical clothing retail site. So just go ahead and 301 redirect, shut down old site and run relevant PPC ads. Thanks. Just wanted to verify. Was worried and wanted to keep both sites up. But I guess its best. I think what a lot of people who are not in the retail industry dont really realize is how difficult it is on the retailer when you have to start over with Google. The worry is real.
    Thank you for your input & time. Mahalo!! from Florida.

View original question in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 08/09/2016).