In episode #661, Eric and Neil discuss whether you should ever change your company’s name. Tune in to find out if they think this is a fatal error or a smart move.

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:

• [00:27] Today’s Topic: Should You Ever Change Your Company Name?
• [00:35] Moz was formally SEOMoz, but they went through a process where they had to change domains.
• [00:57] When you change domains, you lose 5-10% of your link juice.
• [01:10] Moz wrote a blog post about their name change and how it affected the company.
• [01:20] If you are going to make the change, make sure that you have your SEO bases covered.
• [01:28] You could potentially lose traffic and revenue.
• [01:31] If you change the name of your company/domain, you will need a 301 Redirect for the homepage and all the internal pages.
• [01:50] The main reason to change your name is if the name keeps you pigeon-holed.
• [02:06] If you have a ton of negative press you can’t fix, it’s a good idea to change your company’s name.
• [02:10] Comcast had a lot of bad press that was unavoidable.
• [02:33] They changed their cable product to Xfinity and tried to rebrand.
• [02:56] It helped to bury the negative press.
• [03:27] From a reputation management standpoint, a name change makes sense.
• [03:44] Eric knows a person who was sued by the SEC. His name was so tainted by this, that he had to legally change his name to avoid the stink.
• [04:01] TechCrunch had MobileCrunch, but eventually dropped it to be under one name.
• [04:26] If you have a strong brand, consider reputation management before you scrap your name.
• [04:33] When Eric first took over Singlegrain, he didn’t change the name because there was no equity in the website.
• [05:15] That’s all for today!
• [05:19] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway!

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