We have recently had experience of a business wanting to change their name & rebrand their business. They wanted a better URL address to improve online search results and a name more relevant to their business. When naming your business it’s wise to try & include keywords relevant to your business, this will improve your SEO.
When changing your business name you need to consider the following:
Website
- Research your new URL thoroughly, make sure the .com or .co.uk (or both) is available. Use related keywords if possible.
- Before purchasing your new URL check your social media sites to make sure the name is available there.
- Consider whether you need to rebuild your website from scratch or whether you can update the content of your current site & move it to the new URL.
- Redirect your current URL to the new one so ensure you don’t lose an existing customers.
- You will need to update all your social media accounts with new social media URLs.
Social Media Accounts
- Twitter. It is very straight forward to change your name on twitter, you can easily update your twitter name & you are automatically given a new URL.
- Facebook. This is much trickier. It is straight forward to change the name of your page but it is very important that you understand that you are only allowed to change your business page’s unique URL once. So be very wary of changing the name if you know you have already updated your URL.
- Google +. If you have already been allocated your unique URL you will not be able to change your URL, so you have to consider whether you are happy restarting your Google + account from scratch.
Companies House
- Also don’t forget to check the business name is available at Companies House if you wish to register as a Ltd company. Your business name should not be the same as or similar to a name being used by another business.
When you have considered all of the above then you can work through a check list ensuring everything is done swiftly. Also post on social media or write a blog post explaining the name change.
There is a lot to consider when changing your small business name so do get in touch with us if you would like to discuss any of these issues further.