How to Rebrand Effectively

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How to Rebrand Effectively

Rebranding a Business

If you’re looking to rebrand, you need to make sure you continue to provide your customers with continuity to ensure there’s no loss of business. Here are a few tips on how this can be done…

I was recently approached by an electronic cigarette company wanting to rebrand their business; this included moving from FruiteCigs.co.uk to LiquideCigsUK.co.uk. In addition, they tried to change their website and product offering to be in line with changing customer demands while addressing the evolving industry.

How to Rebrand Effectively

While overseeing the rebrand, I realized there were some important aspects to address:

First, get the right domain name.
If you’re changing your website, check the availability of the domain name you want as soon as possible. If it’s available, you may want to buy variants of the name, including .co.UK, .com, etc.

Work closely with your web developers.
It’s essential to have a good relationship with your developers and speak with them regularly to ensure any requested changes are done in a timely fashion. They’re communicated effectively – Each party involved must understand what is being asked by the other.

Use your existing content.
Even though you’re rebranding, there’s no point in changing all the content on your website if you’re still offering some of the same products and services. It’s unnecessary. Transfer across any existing content you want to keep, change the company name, or tweak as you see fit. This will also help Google to index and rank your website much quicker.

Update meta.
When you’re creating a new site, you’ll need to add meta titles and meta descriptions to each page. Please make sure they’re reflective of the products and services on that page, as this will help Google understand its purpose and relevance, which will help with your website ranking. If you’re not sure what to write, do a quick Google search for the products or services you supply to see what competitors have written. Don’t copy it, but use it as a guide.

Proofread your content.
You need to make sure your business’ new name is reflected in the content, that any mention of the old brand is removed – Unless, of course, you’re notifying customers of the change (references to your old business can be removed later, once your happy the rebrand is complete). Be sure to check for any spelling errors or punctuation mistakes and write in the correct language. There’s nothing worse than an English website writing in American English and vice versa.

List your web pages.
Any existing pages you want to keep should redirect to relevant new pages to align the websites. First, create a spreadsheet of all web pages on your existing site and where you’d like to point them to on the new site. If there’s a page that is no longer relevant, you may wish to redirect this to the homepage. You can use a tool such as ScreamingFrog to help you pull a list of your existing webpage URLs. Once you have this, send it across to your web developers. They’ll be able to implement the redirects.

Submit your sitemap.
To help Google find your website, index it, and rank it, you can submit your site map. Alternatively, you can wait for Google to crawl your site, but this gives it a helping hand. To do this, you’ll need to sign in to Google Search Console within webmaster tools. There’s more information on how to do this here.

Update your social media profiles.
Contact social media sites to notify them of your company name change, and request they be changed to reflect your new business. Many of the changes you can make yourself, including the imagery, website, and contact details. This way, any customers you interact with via social channels will be updated and aware of the changes you’re making. There will be no loss of trust, and you can continue business as usual. There’s more information on how to rebrand your social media profiles on the Moz website here.

How to Rebrand Effectively

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