Aligning Your Rebranding & Digital Marketing Strategies

Rebranding is an exciting opportunity for a business to refresh their identity, capture new audiences, and modernise their image. If implemented successfully, it can also have positive effects on a businesses’ digital marketing efforts. However, without proper planning and execution, a rebrand and/or website migration can harm your SEO and digital marketing strategies. 

This guide will help you understand the potential impacts on your SEO and digital marketing campaigns, and provide practical steps to ensure your transition is smooth while maintaining your online visibility. 

Rebranding typically involves changes to your business’s visual identity and messaging, such as:

• Changing your business name across all digital platforms, from your website to your social media accounts
• Updating your website domain name to reflect your new brand identity
• Refreshing your website content to align with your new brand name and message
• Redesigning your logo and modernising other visual branding
• Modifying all digital marketing materials and campaigns

A rebrand touches many areas of your online presence. Here’s how it can influence key components:

SEO

• Impact on existing on-page optimisations and schema markup: A rebrand and domain name change requires updates to SEO optimisations such as content, meta data, internal linking, schema markup and more.
• Loss of backlinks: Changing domain names can result in losing valuable inbound links if not redirected properly.
• Keyword misalignment: A shift in branding focus may unintentionally move away from existing high-performing keywords.
• Drop in rankings: Any disruption in site structure or content may impact how search engines view your site.

Google Business Profile (GBP) & Directories

• Outdated business details: If directories aren’t updated before GBP changes, search engines may flag discrepancies.
• Loss of local SEO benefits: Inconsistent information across platforms can lower your local search rankings.

Google Ads & Social Media Campaigns

• Name changes in campaigns: Ads referencing your old brand name can confuse audiences.
• Broken URLs: Campaign links need to align with updated domain structures.
• Brand voice consistency: A misalignment in tone or visuals can reduce campaign effectiveness.

SEO

• Create a comprehensive 301 redirect plan for all affected URLs – map all old URLs to their new URLs
• Update your XML sitemaps and re-submit them to Google Search Console (GSC)
• Check and update all internal links across your website
• Audit backlinks and request updates to backlinks to reflect the new domain
• Update your content with your new business name and or brand offering – ensure this is implemented across all pages to avoid discrepancies
• Review and update meta titles, descriptions as well as image file names and alt texts, where necessary
• Update your schema markup, especially elements such as business names, website URL, image URLs, descriptions etc. within schema
• Update your Google Business Profile (GBP) and directory listings with the new information
• Closely monitor your rankings and site performance during the transition

Google Ads

• Update all ad copy with your new business name and branding offering
• Review and modify landing pages
• Update business information in your Google Ads account
• Check conversion tracking setup to ensure any updated URLs work with Google Ads conversion tracking
• Review audience targeting settings
• Update remarketing tags if necessary

Social Ads

• Create a timeline for updating all social profiles
• Prepare new branded visual assets
• Update all ad campaign materials
• Review and update audience targeting
• Check tracking pixels and conversion setup
• Update automated messages and chatbots

To maintain consistency across the web, follow these steps when updating your business name and details:

1. Directory Updates:
   • Create a list of all directories and platforms where your business is listed
   • Update your business information in major directories first (eg. Yellow Pages, Yelp, True Local, etc., and important directories in your industry)
   • Keep track of all updated listings
   • Allow 2-3 weeks for changes to take effect
2. Google Business Profile (GBP) Updates:
   • Wait until major directory updates are complete before changing your details in GBP
   • Submit your business name change, and any changes to contact details
   • Update your website URL
   • Update your business categories if needed
   • Review and update business hours
   • Upload new photos with proper branding
   • Respond to any reviews under your new name
3. Monitor changes:
   • Track your local search rankings
   • Watch for duplicate listings
   • Check for incorrect business information
   • Monitor customer reviews
   • Update any outdated information promptly

Remember that rebranding takes time, and maintaining your digital marketing performance requires careful planning and attention to detail. Start preparations early (before the rebrand gets implemented) and work through each step to protect your online presence during the transition. 

If you require help with your rebrand, site migration or SEO and Ads campaigns in general, don’t hesitate to contact our Digital Marketing specialists at Edge Marketing.