(Entry was posted by Beret Loncar on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 02/18/2021).

Has anyone gone through a rebrand name change?

Has anyone gone through a rebrand name change that was not an seo disaster for a local brick and mortar biz? I have wanted to change our name for years and I am just scared of the damage it could do.

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YOUR ANSWERS

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

George G.: if you do all the redirects and migrations properly, yes, in the beginning there could be a decline, but google ll catch up. it is very important to do it incrementally tho. dont change too many things at the same time. ideally just change the domain name and let it stay until google can make the connection with the new name.
Beret Loncar: George G. Uggg that sounds like $$$ problems. Sigh. I wish we had known what we wanted to be when we grew up!
Richard Hearne: Rebrands almost always come with some redesign. If you try to keep content and URL parity, a redesign shouldn`t cause much problem. Being honest, if your online presence generates a significant portion of your income, with most of that coming from organic search, you should probably take some professional advice. It`s usually more expensive to fix things than to avoid breaking them.
Beret Loncar: Richard Hearne oh yes. I would not do it my self. My god. I rally just want a new logo and name: our name is too common, it was not trademarkable and now a few yahooâ€™s have also used the name in the same city...that opened later
Richard Hearne: Always keep your old domain. Forever. Makes sure users who visit it end up on your new site (301 redirects are your friend here). The smaller your site, the less chance of any significant problems, generally. Use the tools and best practice - Change of Address, 301 redirects etc. - and you should be fine.Did I mention to keep your old domain forever?
Beret Loncar: Richard Hearne lol I would never get rid of it. I just have to figure out how to do this. What if we kept the old domain if the name was similar enough?