5 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
5 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Should I change my domain name or not?

by srini28
4 replies
Hi there,

I have a website that I recently acquired - let's say brandname.net

It's a product brand that has a niche clientele, domain has been up for 10+ years and is PR 3 with 400+ links in yahoo. But the domain is a .NET and VERY difficult to spell. The .com domain and all mis-spelled domains (which are at least 5 combinations) are also taken by other people and not available for me to register. None of these sites are competitors to my product though.

My main keyword and close combinations have 100,000+ searches monthly on Google which we are not ranking for at all - mainly because the site is not optimized at all.
mymainkeyword4u.com is available.

I am planning to launch a completely new, fully optimized site but i am debating whether to do that under a new SEO-friendly domain or stick with the brand name domain???

I've been scratching my head on this for days now going back and forth. Your opinions and ideas are highly appreciated.

Thanks,
Srini
#change #domain
  • Profile picture of the author dre94114
    I guess it depends on how valuable the brand name is to you. Is the brand name very important for sales, it it well known in the niche? If so then it is probably worth keeping. However if it's not well known and the brand name doesn't get any searches itself then probably you'd do better to just change the domain.
    Signature

    Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.
    -Napolean Hill


    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1567750].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Lee MacRae
      I would suggest to get the new name and see if an "optimized site" really does better. If it does you can always have the old domain redirected to your new one and you may retain some of the power of those backlinks to your new site.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1567983].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author srini28
    The domain has been up for 10 years and the brand is known only to its niche clientele. has 100-200 searches a month on the brand name compared to the 100,000 searches for the niche that it caters to.

    I am leaning towards keeping the main domain as the brand name domain mainly because it's 10 years old and I think it will respond better to marketing just based on that..
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1567972].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author srini28
    Decided to stay with the brand name for now and perhaps starting a blog that directs traffic to the brand name on the SEO friendly domain.

    Another option is to have a separate site with products from this brand and others in the seo-friendly domain name since the phrase covers other products that I might be able to acquire in that niche.

    Thanks for your opinions!
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1568144].message }}

Trending Topics