What happens when you change the domain name for your website? It seems like it might be simple but there really are plenty of snags and mistakes you can make when doing this. We'd like to point out a few, at least on a high level.

Even if you're not actively planning a domain name switch, we think this information here might be informative for any tech savvy folks. And more informative for people in an organization that's considering a name change.

We recently executed a business name switch (and a change in domain name) for a longtime client. There was a lot to consider. We'll walk you through it in broad strokes.


Early Planning Stages

Picking Your Name - First ask yourself why you're changing your name. If you don't think this really improves your image, visibility or quickly expresses what you're all about, then perhaps you don't want to be doing this.

Obviously, being "on brand" is a good thing. If you make sewing machine covers but your company name was Thompson & Sons then yes, changing from www.thompsonandsons.com to www.sewingmachinecovers.com makes a lot of obvious sense.

There are plenty of tools out there to find if the domain name you want is available (such as WHOIS and GoDaddy). But don't just leap at it if your first choice is available. Do your due diligence for seeing if you can get the same social media handles across multiple platforms. Look to see if you can get @sewingmachincovers as your Facebook, Instagram and any other relevant social media network handles. If you can't, take a beat and see if there are better options.

Set A Date - Ideally, give yourself 2 months, that will help with building credibility for the new domain in advance. If you don't get to do that, it might set your current SEO success back a little bit

Make sure to plan for the actual server switch to be over a weekend. The reasons should be obvious. Unless you have a site that is more heavily trafficked on the weekend (like an NFL football site), schedule the changes to be initiated on a Friday after 5pm at least in your time zone. That gives you and your team all weekend to test, fix and re-test. Seriously, you'll miss SOMETHING, so you'll want the weekend.


As Soon As You Decide On The Name

Bank Accounts - This goes beyond web advice. And if you're in a large organization this is obviously being taken care of everywhere. But if your business is small, I urge you to get on the new bank account name and any "Doing Business As" (DBA) changes as soon as you've definitely decided on a name change. This can take a while to kick in, so get on it.

Logos & Images - You are definitely rebranding at this point. A great time to rethink your logos, I mean more than just a name change or font change. Get the new artwork as soon as possible

Site Design - Now that logos, artwork and some screen captures are changing, if there are new colors, then it's really time to at least adjust the site's design to match the new logo colors. Furthermore, it's a great chance to change the site in general. Your going to be putting up a new version of the site at the new server location soon & I can tell you that it only helps your SEO to have differences in text and design between the old site and the new.

Site Copy - Scour all of your text and replace the old company name with the new company name. Make sure to search all of your web copy for multiple variations of the name. If the old business and site name is Thompson & Sons, don't just search for "Thompson & Sons" but "Thompson" to find everything.

New Social Media Handles - In most cases you will be able to keep the same account and followers and simply change your handle name. Check in specifically on each to make sure you can get the new handle.


2 Months Before Switch

Put Site At New Location ASAP - As said above, get the new content up as soon as you can. Your old domain has credibility from being up on the web for a while. The new one is starting from scratch which is a big backwards SEO and Google move. So, get new content up on the new domain immediately. That will give it time to "warm up". The new front page can and should mention that your company is changing its name. As long as something like that is up, don't worry about people stumbling onto the new site too early. Since you're mostly replicating your existing/current website, it's fine for them to see anything.

That code being up at the new server location and domain name acts as a staging site for you to review the new content, design, copy, etc.

New Email Server - You'll want to set up some new email addresses at the new domain. Let's say you're moving from thompsonandsons.com to sewingmachinecovers.com. If your previous email was frank@thompsonandsons.com then create the new one of frank@sewingmachinecovers.com and have it forward to the old email. Frank will be checking his same old email until the big weekend of the server switch.

Warm Up Email Domain - Just like the new site content has to warm up Google, it's even more important to build up trust for your email servers. There are many very important blacklist and email validation services that are used by companies large and small who give the thumbs up or thumbs down about your particular email, your email domain and your IP address. Use the new emails in as places as you can to build credibility. A new email domain starts its trust value at 0 and many blacklist services require a number larger than 0 to get their seal of approval and allow your emails to be delivered.

Advance Announcement Of Name Change - Announce the coming change on your website. Also mention the name change on social media; it's at least good content that will get engagement.



Good Place To Stop

OK, let's pause here. Next week in Part 2 (starting Dec 12, 2023) we’ll cover the tasks for the all importnat week of the comapny switch..