Today, we are going to share some important reasons for rebranding and how to reduce its impact on SEO. Rebranding is a common marketing strategy in which a brand, a company or an organization is given a new identity that is completely different from which is fixed in the mind of clients, investors, competitors, stakeholders and social media followers.
It includes a total change in name, logo, symbol, design, color palettes, visual language, photographic style and the overall combination. The main 7 reasons responsible for a rebranding process can be any or more from the below:
7 Reasons Responsible for a Rebranding Process
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Mergers, acquisitions, and demergers
All these results in the change in ownership of the company, so the immediate rebranding is a must here. These changes are not just for informing the parties about the changes, but also to meet the legal obligations.
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Internationalization
In many cases, the companies adopt the rebranding so that their brand can be used internationally. It is because their brand name has the specific national identity and it needed to be converted so that could be matched with the aspects of international trade and clients. Though there are some companies who trade in different countries with a different brand name, the trend is changing and instead of dealing with too many identities, the organizations prefer a solo identity for their universal market.
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Changing markets
There could be some marketing threats or the unsuitable business environment due to which the company has to change its existing markets and look for a new one. In order to reinvent their business, the companies require rebranding.
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Bad reputation
Sometimes when a brand is suffering from a bad reputation and it is harming its operational results, rebranding is the only option to change the negative opinion. Here the changes are not only the exterior (name, logo, color, and symbol) but also in the interior structure of the organization (marketing strategy, ingredients or components, HR structure, advertisement campaigns and others).
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Conflict with stakeholders
The stakeholders also play a determining role in making a decision about continuing with the existing brand or adapting a rebranding process.
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Outdated image
Modernization is the call of the time, and in order to come across the old-fashioned image, the companies choose the rebranding option.
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Further development of the corporate identity
Much older and long established brands were developed as a compound of a logo, typography, and primary color palette. And, the other important brand elements like visual language, photographic style, and secondary color palette. So, it was essential to adapt the rebranding process so that the missing components could be filled up.
Whatever the reasons responsible for rebranding procedure, it gives a complete makeover to the image and structure of an organization. Though it is essential in certain situations, but can damage the SEO ranking earned through the great efforts and time invested.
Must Read:
How to improve your brand online-Case study.
The Beginner’s guide to online marketing
Following are the 5 tips suggested for webmasters to take care while rebranding and to ensure the minimal loss to your ranking or gaining it in a remarkably short period of time.
5 Tips suggested for webmasters to take care while rebranding process
1. Make a pre-plan
Of course, the rebranding results in a new fancy layout, but this facelift is just a beginning. It is not just setting a new name and logo on the company’s stationary, but actually is about updating everything relating to the company; both online and offline. The company’s official website, URLs, Social Media layouts, navigation bars and much more is needed to be amended and upgrade. It is essential to make a wider plan to update each and every component thoroughly and properly.
2. Have a redirect plan in place
If you cannot avoid the change in domain, you must have a sound redirection plan in place, so that you may lose the minimal traffic. Before moving to a new domain, it is good to set up 301 redirects. It will work as a connector to the inbound links and lessen your fear of losing the SEO credibility.
3. Update your name everywhere
It begins with updating the website that reflects your changed name. You can mail all your related clients about this upgrading. On the home page of your website, you can add a welcome message with the recommendations to follow must be published. Now, update each and every place where the name is needed to be updated. All the pages, headers, footers and other points should be covered with it.
Not only your own website, you need to continue the process to the revisiting links from the other sites, the bloggers’ sites, directories and all the inbound links that are concerning to you. You can send the message to the website owners asking about making these updates.
4. Social media profiles
While performing the rebranding process, you cannot afford to deny the importance of social media. If you manage to keep your followers engaged with you, your SEO will easily overcome the possible/negative impact of rebranding. You should go to each and every channel where your brand has a presence and visibility. It may take a long time, but you will have to update it with your name, logo, URL, About Me, contact information and everything that presents the previous brand. Before making these updates, you need to put down a message on your portal with the information to the followers about the changes.
5. Don’t forget your customers
While making these tremendous changes, you need to give the special consideration to the people who visit your website, buy your products and services. They must be informed about the entire procedure. Actually, they needed to be aware that what are the reasons behind the rebranding, what are the plans, when and how it is going to be performed and many other issues related to rebranding. You can email them or keep informed on your social media profile. It is also essential to know their point of view; they like it or not, it will also be monitored through their feedbacks. If they are not accepting your intentions behind the rebranding procedures, you can start an additional awareness and promotional campaign to make them realize the reality and co-operate you.
Above are the reasons and tips suggested for webmasters to take care while rebranding. If you have any suggestions then please share with us.
Hi Arpit,
I had been in such precarious situation. One of the client had hired us for reputation management few months back. Competitors hurt their reputation by providing fake reviews. Later we ended up rebranding to gain customer’s trust. I am glad that I got more information on it now.
How would you deal with such situation?
Nice information in this article. Thanks for sharing us.