Rebranding for Local SEO
-
I'm preparing to begin a rebranding project for a client who is changing their brand name, logo and primary domain name. They have dozens of locations (some that accept walk-in customers, and some that don't).
What's the best place to get started? Once their rebranded website is published, should third-party sources like Acxiom & Localeze be addressed first, then move to Google+ Local, Bing Places, Yahoo Local, etc.? Is using schema for local business and the new company logo on their website a must-do action item?
Just trying to be proactive & figure out the best process in order to maximize cost and time efficiency.
Thank you.
-
Hi Bob,
Yes, I think your suggested order of operations would be fine. You'll have to keep double-checking the Google listing to be sure it isn't reverting to old data or getting duplicated while you work on cleaning up the other citations. Good that you are setting the client's expectations correctly from the get-go. So important. Good luck!
-
Hi Miriam,
The articles you shared are very helpful. Do you think it's best to start with Google & Bing Places first, then move on to the big 4 data aggregators from David Mihm's post?
There's no doubt that this rebranding project will be a big production requiring a lot of time & effort. We have already begun managing the client's expectations on what it will take to make the switch.
Thank you,
Bob
-
Hi Bob,
Andrew Shotland wrote a good piece on this topic a couple of years ago:
http://searchengineland.com/the-smb-guide-to-changing-business-names-seo-128939
Basically, any local business that rebrands itself is in for a mountain of work (hence, Andrew's warning to just not do it!) and as your client has dozens of locations, the amount of work involved is going to be enormous. You are going to need to perform citation cleanup for each of the locations. I would start with the biggies in the local search ecosystem:
http://moz.com/blog/2013-local-search-ecosystems
Once you've tackled the big 4 outlined there, move on to cleanup all other citations. At the very least, you have some months of work ahead of you, and hopefully your client understands this. Rebranding is definitely a huge task, and it will only be when you've corrected every single listing for all of the dozens of locations that you can begin to feel like you're back on the safe side - letting the new data pulse through the ecosystem rather than being hampered by the bad data that will necessarily be everywhere the moment the business rebrands. Good luck!
-
Thank you for the feedback, SoleGraphics.
My concern with updating their Google Places listings first is that Google often changes company names after verification, when they see other data sources using their other names. Since this is a new brand name being adopted, and with it taking several months for the data to propagate out, do you still believe Google Places is the best place to start?
-
Moz has tons of info on local SEO, https://getlisted.org/ is a good place to start. Also this whole rebrand may take 6 months before all the listings are up to date and all the data with the aggregators is cleaned up.
I'd say Google Places would be your best bet to start with, because of the immediate results and then start cleaning up everything else.
As for schema we use it in or website and it hasn't correlated closely to rankings. Google webmaster tools shows the schema snippets but doesn't say that they use it.
Domain name changes will rock your clients results like crazy, make sure to read up what the best way to handle a new domain as to avoid losing any juice.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Rebranding & Responsive design. What first? Or do both at the same time?
We are planning a rebranding in January 2017. For us this means: redirects from root domain A.com to B.com on all our pages. Besides that we are planning to restyle our website to a responsive design in the beginning of November 2016. Now we a desktop website and a separate mobile website. So from our mobile website every URL will be redirected to a non-mobile variant. Both strategies will have impact on SEO, but should be positive on the long term. Now, what would YOU do: start with responsive design in November and do a new 'redirect session' after 2 months for the rebranding? Or do both at the same time?
Branding | | Maxaro.nl0 -
Yahoo Newspaper Consortium... What can my local newspaper offer me that Yahoo Ads won't?
Hi Everyone 🙂 I was recently approached by the Vancouver Sun and the Province (our major newspapers in BC), and they said they had an "exclusive partnership" with Yahoo. I can't seem to find much information on it... what is the "Yahoo Newspaper Consortium" and is there any benefit for me going with what the newspapers offer rather than doing our own thing with Yahoo Ads? Any resources or info is appreciated 🙂
Branding | | jhinchcliffe0 -
Rebranding: How Can We Continue to Be Found by Searching the Old Name?
Our company was acquired and we are working toward an entire re-brand, including name change and new url. We plan to appropriately 301 redirect the old site to the correct pages on the news site, etc. The question is, if users continue to search the old company name on search engines, will it appear in SERPs for the new site? I'm guessing that our company name is associated to the old url and will that pass along the branded company name to the new url? My thoughts are to include the old company name in the sitemap.htm file and in the About Us section, particularly in the news release when the change occurs. Aside from that idea is to include social posts on G+, LinkedIn, our Blog, and Twitter as appropriate talking about the name change, all linking to the new website. Any input would be most appreciated!
Branding | | Prospector-Plastics0 -
Doing two Google Local Listings for the Same Business
So I have a question. I'm working on an auto dealer's website and we're trying to gear their service center toward the general public (rather than just one brand - IE Honda, GMC, Buick). We have created a subdomain for the service page, and I was wondering if we could create a unique Google Plus page for it, in an effort to help its rank. Since the auto service center is on site at the dealership, I did not know if this would hurt us. Does anyone have experience dealing with this issue? Thank you!
Branding | | OOMDODigital0 -
Rebranding & Minimizing SEO impact
Hello everyone, One of my clients is undergoing a major rebrand, which will require some substantial changes to their domain / URL structure. Primarily, we're going to: Move from a high-ish DA site to a low DA site Change the subdomain URL structure (more on that below) Update the content (copy, design, structure) on www. site to match the new brand The content on the subdomains should remain the same 301 redirect all pages from old site to new site where applicable The current site architecture makes great use of subdomains, which are also going to be changing in terms of name. So, we're moving from oldsubdomain.olddomain.com to newsubdomain.newdomain.com (and not oldsubdomian.olddomain.com to oldsubdomain.olddomain.com). The content / structure of these pages is going to change minimally. We understand that we're going to take an SEO hit overall, but are there things we can do to minimize this hit? Anyway we can 'estimate' the hit? Anyway we can educate our client to as to what to expect beyond (it is going to be bad…). Please let me know. Thanks!
Branding | | 10SL0 -
Google +1's and Google+ Local
Hi fellow Mozers, I manage 5 brands at the national level, each with their own Google+ profile and then under each brand, there are several hundred physical locations, each with their own Google+ Local page. My question is, should we be encouraging visitors of each location's Google+ Local profile page to +1 the page? Does it have an influence on local rankings and overall SERP results? Our goal is to ultimately get our local websites to rank better than our less targeted brand sites and have our Google+ Local pages show in search results as much as possible. Our local businesses convert to leads, where our brand sites are one step out from that and are used to feed into a "find a location" result that takes the visitor to the local site.
Branding | | dsinger0 -
Can anyone advice us on how we can improve on our SEO ranking?
Hi, We are the leading home cleaning and maintenance company in Singapore. We are trying our best to go online to expand our business. The thing is we are weak in internet marketing and we need to get some traffic to our website. Can expert advice us on how we can improve on our Google ranking? Our site:
Branding | | chanel27
http://www.absolutesolutions.com.sg0 -
Trying to de-mystify Google Places, Google Local & Google Plus
There is a lot of online 'noise' regarding the changes / merging and making the best out of Googles' Places / Local & Google Plus. Any tips, ideas, experiences or just plain revelations regarding all or any of the above services and how they will work & come together in the future?
Branding | | ScotSEO0