If only I had a dime for every time we are asked about changing a domain name…
Browser Media is rapidly approaching its 20yr birthday and discussions around domain strategy have always been on the agenda. It is often accompanied by some soul searching about one’s brand name.
Before considering the implications of such a change, it is worth reflecting on what a ‘brand’ actually is. For many, a brand is simply a label. A word that is associated with an organisation. Yes, there are logos / colour palettes / fonts / etc that help build up a brand, but most people tend to think primarily of the organisation’s name when they consider a brand.
In my humble opinion, a brand is much more than a word. A ‘brand’ is more about the overall experience of something and a set of expectations that builds up over time.
Your brand is the emotion that someone feels when they hear your name. This sentiment and your brand name are, of course, intrinsically linked but it is important to separate the perception of an organisation and its label.
A successful brand is built up over a long period of delivering a consistently great experience. This positive story is ultimately what makes a brand stand out and sets it apart from the competition. John Lewis, for example, built a reputation for great customer service and its ‘never knowingly undersold’ promise underpinned the sense that the retailer is on your side. It was the service that John Lewis offered that built the brand, however, not just the strapline.
Words are just words – I am sure you have probably eaten at a pub with a proud ‘Good food served here’ sign outside, which proved to be a bit of a lie….. A strong brand has to deliver on its promises and that emotion transcends the brand’s name.
It is also very important to consider that a brand name does not have to reflect what you actually do. Apple, for example, does not sell fruit but I am sure you would agree it is an extremely strong brand and you will think of consumer electronics rather than apples when you consider the brand?
It is often the use of particular words in brand / domain names that usually triggers the discussion around change. All business evolve and it is not unusual for an organisation to find themselves in a situation where their brand name and domain name does not *really* reflect what they do.
Domain names, in particular, can be prone to being descriptive. In the old-school days of SEO, a keyword rich domain was considered to be an elixir and many organisations secured descriptive domain names but now find themselves with a web presence that doesn’t necessarily reflect exactly what they do. This gives rise to some justified consideration of whether it is a good idea to change the domain and, in some cases, the brand name itself.
In most cases, I would suggest that this is a bad idea.
It is no secret that changing domain can have fairly catastrophic implications for organic search traffic as you are effectively starting from scratch and can very easily undo years of hard work. There are, of course, ways to mitigate this risk but it is very rare not to see a period of turbulence, at best, when changing domain even if you follow all the recommend processes. I think that most organisations underestimate the impact that a domain name change can have on their web presence.
If you follow my logic above about a brand being much more than a word / label, then there is a justifiable argument that it should be easy enough to change the name, as the brand experience is separate to the label and this experience will not be undone, but simply associated with a new name. The reality, I am afraid, is that this is not as straightforward as it sounds. A good example would be the Twitter > X rebrand, which I think it is fair to say has not been a seamless transition.
Unless your business name is entirely wrong, e.g. it is ‘Red Widgets Inc’ but you don’t actually sell widgets, let alone red widgets, I would always exercise extreme caution in changing it. The risks typically outweigh the gains.
This is true for domain names – a slightly misleading domain name that has excellent domain authority and years of digital marketing behind it is definitely better than a brand new domain, even if the new domain may be more accurate in terms of suggesting what you do. Anyone using Google to find a product / service, doesn’t actually care what your domain name is and will be lured into clicking through to your site by an enticing page title / text snippet rather than your domain name. If your domain name is recognisable, it is part of the brand heritage and casting that aside (even if it is ‘wrong’) can be a very painful experience.
I am not suggesting that you should never consider changing a brand name or a domain. There are instances where it makes sense.
We did exactly this ourselves when we changed from browsermedia.co.uk to browsermedia.agency. Over 50% of our revenue was international and the UK focussed domain was sometimes an issue. I also wanted to test a hypothesis around having ‘agency’ in the domain name, so it felt like a worthwhile punt. We were incredibly meticulous about handling the migration very carefully from an SEO perspective, but it was still a very rocky road for some time. We were prepared for this turbulence and we were prepared to take the risk as we wanted to analyse the impact without having to risk a client property.
You simply cannot expect a new domain to perform as well as your legacy domain, assuming that you have been doing a good job with your digital marketing and have not engaged with any shady practices that resulted in a manual action. Any consideration about changing your brand should factor in a period of digital wilderness. That can be justified if your brand name or domain are completely wrong, but I would tread very carefully if it is not as cut and dry. I would humbly suggest that you would be better off focussing attentions and energy on delivering an amazing service, further reinforcing your brand, rather than waste time on a potentially disastrous move.
