Question

Topic: Branding

Establishing A Brand Different To Url

Posted by Anonymous on 4/18/2013 at 11:29 AM ET 100 Points
I have a dilemma - I've been running my business for ~12 years, it's still very small but showing potential. As it was formed around the days when a URL meant a lot, I'd not really given much thought to branding, and operated and promoted the business under the URL (which is descriptive but bland, with little recognition factor). Further damning, was the fact there was never a logo per se.

The site ranks very well in SERPS and I've spent a lot of time on it, so ditching it isn't an option (I won't risk redirect either, so it'll always be the gateway from Google). I started 'playing' around with a different brand name (complete with logo!) but, as I wasn't really confident on how to run the brand alongside the different URL, I didn't really promote/emphasise the brand. I featured it on some brochures etc but it was alongside the URL name and I still used the URL name for answering phone, emails etc.

So, what are the thoughts? Customer retention isn't great in my industry (it's a once-a-year product), so I think it's important to get it right. Do I promote the new brand (with new URL) but make that re-direct to the old URL (and put the new logo etc on the existing site)? And not mention/promote the old URL in future?

Whilst retention isn't high, we do have a reasonable number of loyal customers, so to ease transition, we could do a letter/email notifying of the re-brand.









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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 4/18/2013 at 12:34 PM Member
    Descriptive URLs help with search engine optimization, so can be useful. I know there are examples where the company name is different than the URL, but can't think of any off the top of my head.

    But let's say you are selling Japanese ceramics, but have some Japanese name (say <i>Tanaka Yakimono</i>, which is Japanese for Tanaka Ceramics). If they used the URL japaneseceramics.com, they would automatically get better search engine results. But they can keep their company name the same (so brand name is different than URL).
  • Posted by Moriarty on 4/18/2013 at 12:54 PM Member
    My suggestion is from a very different angle. Because content has always been Google's watchword. Whatever else it has (or hasn't) done, it has always been with the intention of improving the searcher's results.

    Which means everything is now focused on content - and URLs whilst still important are of lesser importance. Less also is the age of the domain, which was extremely important way back when.

    So keep the URL; just have a different banner and logo (have this as an image and Google won't know the difference as computers can't decipher images). I really can't see it being of any harm.

    What will help you immensely is to ASK THE QUESTIONS THAT YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE ASKING. Because Google can't answer questions with its algorithm, it can only reflect the search query. If people are seeking answers to questions, all they get is their question back! The point is that this is frustrating for the searcher, and there's nothing Google can do about this.

    This is straying away from your question - however it will bring you good traffic. Because if you have pages that are asking the questions your searchers use and have a few of these on your site, you'll get good traffic since so few people actually do this.

    Hope this helps.

  • Posted on 4/19/2013 at 2:55 PM Author
    Thanks for the replies. I do know a fair bit about SEO but I take your point Moriarty.

    KSA, I think you have it - until recently our URL, name, communications etc were all ABC Co. I tested the water slightly on the brochure & product by using the new branding on there, but ran them alongside the old URL. At the moment the site doesn't feature the new brand but I would add a new banner along the lines of your suggestion.

    I've just got a slight niggling concern over the new name - I sell personalised products and the new name I tested was e.g. ABC Design (where 'ABC' is related to the industry) but I don't know if loosing the exact product type from the name will be harmful. I don't think there's a way to work it in and keep a snappy name though. I also don't want confusion from a new brand popping up every year!
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