Need the community taught about Rebranding a website.

[DarkShine]

I am working in a company let's call it as A.
Now they are rebranding their site A to B.
Site A will not be redirected to Site B immediately.
But they want people to know that soon Site A will be no longer available.
So on Site A's home page, they are going to completely revamp and show Site B content to people to get comfortable when redirection happens.

Now the issue is that site A is ranking for a keyword that ranks for #1 and most of the conversions are happening for that keyword. If we revamp the site do we lose the ranking for that keyword? and what will happen to the brand keyword? if someone search for the brand does the site will rank #1.

Please I don't need any ideas about the site redirection method or popup methods instead of revamping. I am looking for experts suggestion on this.

 

[DarkShine]

I am working in a company let's call it as A.
Now they are rebranding their site A to B.
Site A will not be redirected to Site B immediately.
But they want people to know that soon Site A will be no longer available.
So on Site A's home page, they are going to completely revamp and show Site B content to people to get comfortable when redirection happens.

Now the issue is that site A is ranking for a keyword that ranks for #1 and most of the conversions are happening for that keyword. If we revamp the site do we lose the ranking for that keyword? and what will happen to the brand keyword? if someone search for the brand does the site will rank #1.

Please I don't need any ideas about the site redirection method or popup methods instead of revamping. I am looking for experts suggestion on this.

can you guys help me on this?

 

[xReminisce]

I am working in a company let's call it as A.
Now they are rebranding their site A to B.
Site A will not be redirected to Site B immediately.
But they want people to know that soon Site A will be no longer available.
So on Site A's home page, they are going to completely revamp and show Site B content to people to get comfortable when redirection happens.

Yes, rankings will be pointed to "Site A" until it's been redirected.
It depends, on how big/influence your website has, once you add the redirection in, you can bet yourself on dropping in rankings.
At times, you may recover it, otherwise, you may be drop to top 10 and u have to work your way back up.
It's very hard to say.
I have not heard of a way to keep 100% of all your rankings.

For example
if your main keyword is "fat fish", it will show Site A but point to Site B (due to the redirection)
It may take a day, or even a few weeks before it will show "Site B" instead of "Site A".
During this time, it's very normal to see your rankings fluctuate or even drop off completely.

 

[CyHead]

They really should do the following:

1. Keep site A as-is, since it ranks for terms - updated the logo & branding on Site A to reflect the new rebrand
2. Put up a message on site A that it is rebranding - it should appear in the header globally and provide a link to Site B
3. Go through all the content on Site A and create a replica of this content on Site B - do it for all content, or all content that brings in traffic or has strategic importance. Keep an inventory list.
4. Over time - create 301 redirects from Site A to the equivalent page on site B - do this in small groupings and monitor the rankings to ensure it's transferring authority correctly.
5. If it's working - escalate the number of pages and do that until you can close down Site A and point to Site B.

Rebranding a company is a multi-year effort - yes there are SEO considerations, but that's just one element of what should be a much bigger marketing strategy and process.

Risk mitigation should be the main strategy here - I've seen too many companies try to do all the redirects at once and lose everything.

 

[DarkShine]

They really should do the following:

1. Keep site A as-is, since it ranks for terms - updated the logo & branding on Site A to reflect the new rebrand
2. Put up a message on site A that it is rebranding - it should appear in the header globally and provide a link to Site B
3. Go through all the content on Site A and create a replica of this content on Site B - do it for all content, or all content that brings in traffic or has strategic importance. Keep an inventory list.
4. Over time - create 301 redirects from Site A to the equivalent page on site B - do this in small groupings and monitor the rankings to ensure it's transferring authority correctly.
5. If it's working - escalate the number of pages and do that until you can close down Site A and point to Site B.

Rebranding a company is a multi-year effort - yes there are SEO considerations, but that's just one element of what should be a much bigger marketing strategy and process.

Risk mitigation should be the main strategy here - I've seen too many companies try to do all the redirects at once and lose everything.

Thank you. I mean it. Because I asked many people about this. No one have a clue about the effects of rebranding. This really helps.
There is one more question left. Now Site A is the brand keyword. If people search for Site A in SERP. Will Site A will stay on top of the result?
This question was asked to me. I said yes because its a brand keyword.
They asked me another question. If the revamp is done there will not be any brand keyword (Site A) in the page then how the Site A will rank? They mean if the page has the brand keyword then only it will rank for that keyword. If we remove the keyword then how the Site A will rank for that brand keyword?
I really have no idea. Can you clarify this doubt as well?

 

[DarkShine]

Yes, rankings will be pointed to "Site A" until it's been redirected.
It depends, on how big/influence your website has, once you add the redirection in, you can bet yourself on dropping in rankings.
At times, you may recover it, otherwise, you may be drop to top 10 and u have to work your way back up.
It's very hard to say.
I have not heard of a way to keep 100% of all your rankings.

For example
if your main keyword is "fat fish", it will show Site A but point to Site B (due to the redirection)
It may take a day, or even a few weeks before it will show "Site B" instead of "Site A".
During this time, it's very normal to see your rankings fluctuate or even drop off completely.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Almost 75% of the the issue got resolved.

 

[CyHead]

The answer is yes, Site A will continue to rank for the brand keyword in the scenario I painted unless:

They 301 redirect the homepage of Site A to Site B and have some mention of the branded term for Site A on Site B (e.g., Widget LLC is now Bridget LLC). Over time site B should rank for the term.

They should take out SEM ads on the Site A brand keyword to mitigate traffic loss and competitors stealing traffic. Because only Site B can use the branded term in the ad, you should be able to keep competitors from using it.

 

[DarkShine]

The answer is yes, Site A will continue to rank for the brand keyword in the scenario I painted unless:

They 301 redirect the homepage of Site A to Site B and have some mention of the branded term for Site A on Site B (e.g., Widget LLC is now Bridget LLC). Over time site B should rank for the term.

They should take out SEM ads on the Site A brand keyword to mitigate traffic loss and competitors stealing traffic. Because only Site B can use the branded term in the ad, you should be able to keep competitors from using it.

I can't thank you enough for the information you just shared. Not everyone have this kind of in-depth knowledge. Again thank you.