Should I change my domain/brand name?

[Jon_Gibb]

Hello everyone,

Thanks for stopping by to check out my problem and to help shed light on it for myself and hopefully others in a similar boat!

As Ive gotten more into this process of SEO and my online business (with the great help of many community members here, many thanks everyone!) I have begun building a wordpress site in prep of canceling my squarespace site (Im a Kauai based wedding photographer) for more SEO value, faster page load time, and more data and plugins to the site.

During this time however Ive noticed that my business www.balihaiphoto.com has a lot of confusion/search results and content I think may be leading potential clients in other directions, or even google down the wrong track of what my business is.

The reason I suspect this is a restaurant that hosts a lot of weddings, and in turn, wedding photographers blogging about the location (the venue is called Bali Hai and its not located in Hawaii) as well as a reality group here and that Im getting occasional hits on my site for "Bali Wedding photographer" when I'd like to be known/indexed and ranked for "Kauai wedding photographer" and am working on a lot of long tail content to add to the site once its finished up.

I feel like Im answering my own question slightly as I feel that I need to change the domain and name to something new, unique, and not attached to anything other than Kauai and Hawaii, but dont know exactly why that may be the best thing to do, or, if it even is the best thing to do?

I greatly appreciate any help or elaboration as to why or why not a domain and brand name change would be helpful or not.

Many thanks everyone and Aloha! -Jon Gibb

[Jon_Gibb]

Aloha Robert!

Wow great help and response!! This is hugely valuable and I will be sure to be switching up the domain and brand name with many thanks to you Robert.

One more quick question concerning Garden Island, we have a newpaper and a few brands here that have Garden Island incorparated to their companies and domain's, would the specificty of www.gardenislandweddingphotographer.com or www.gardenislandweddingphoto.com (Kauai im hoping that engines would indetify or associate garden island to) be enough to have an impact/correlation for "Kauai Wedding Photographer" through engines?

I will be sure to give you a shout if anything comes up, and even if everything goes smoothly I will be sure to send a smugmug link where you can download for print a few Kauai scenery photos as a very big thank you for the help!

Many thanks again Robert!

Aloha,

Jon Gibb

[RobertFisher]

Jon,

Given the issue you are having: Brand Confusion, I would consider changing the domain. If KauaiWeddingPhotographer or is not available, I am sure you can come up with a good domain name using variants on that. In fact if all else fails try GardenIslandWeddingPhotos or try a domain using hyphens. The closer you get to an exact match domain will not hurt you and I won't bother with arguing whether or not it helps. 
When you get the domain you simply need to follow the rules with handling the page to page 301 redirects, but if you have issues or questions, ask them here or PM me and I will assist gratis. (HI is a massively cool place to dive and I have done a bit there.)

Aloha,

[aarongray]

Hi Jon,

the best way I look at it is if its not hurting you in the way of money or time than I wouldn't worry about it. I have had clients change domains or business names and it can cost a lot of time and money. Where the traffic isn't costing you anything.

If lots of people were contacting you and wasting time than yes maybe look at it but to change everything seems like a lot of work.

Just my input.

Thanks, Aaron