From a purely technical perspective, it is possible to rebrand your website (using redirects) without it dropping like a stone on the SERPs, provided the content and core focus is similar, which seems to be the case here.

Vera, well done on your new initiative, doubling your clientele in such a short space of time certainly is an awesome achievement, here’s to reaching even greater heights in the year ahead!

As far as I can tell, you haven’t actually rebranded anything yet. You created a totally new website. Maybe it has the same back end article writing provider as the original, and you probably plan to rebrand the original site eventually. In any event the new site is FAR superior to the old one in many many ways, so a big congrats on that!

There are differences between rebranding a business and rebranding a website. Since your business is web based, it’s a VERY important point to stress to your readers.

To rebrand a brick and mortar business, you send out fliers to locals, put up signs, have a grand re-opening, etc. It’s about informing people of the change and creating excitement around the change to generate new business.

You can do the same for the web site EXCEPT for the search engines. Search enginers see rebranding and redirects as generally bad things. Article Mojo has traffic, it has Page Rank, it has Alexa Rank, it has backlinks, etc. All the things you need to have your site rise in the search engine rankings.

Suddently flipping a switch and pointing Article Mojo with a redirect to a totally new site may make Search Engines drop your ranking like a rock. It will look like a spam redirect if you do it incorrectly. Until the day you’re willing to shut off the Article Mojo website (because the traffic is so low compared to your new “brand), you’ll want to keep it partially as or it will be in effect shutting it down. Leave it with mostly the same layout on the front page and slowly rebrand it over the course of months. Add rebranding ads around it (Article Mojo has merged with Get Content Results to serve you better!) and change the order pages to the new type, etc. Give Google enough time to catch up and keep yp with your changes and you’ll not only keep your organic search traffic, but augment it by making Google think your site is dynamic and updating.

As soon as you do a full redirect to the new site, be prepared to lose all the organic search traffic you get from Article Mojo. Avoid it if at all possible.

It was a hard decision considering the site was getting alot of exposure from the well known marketers too. What I did was show them exactly the service that I wanted to give them and my clients were even cheering me on for the decision.

As for AM, I will be redirecting it all over to the new site, I only left it up so people could check it out and see the before and after.

In the end I’m so happy that I went for it and I think because I’m so happy with it that it shows to all of my clients.

I know that holding off from a rebrand when you first purchased Article Mojo was the right decision. You were making a LOT of transitions in business at the time and things really needed to mellow a bit.

Article Mojo was getting excellent referrals based on the personal recommendations of many well known marketers – so the value was very much in the brand name. A sudden brand change would have been detrimental at the time.

Fast forward several months to the present – you are settled in your new business and you’re working to develop a variety of services under a new brand. At this point it makes perfect sense to bring Article Mojo into the fold both as a new brand for your existing clients and for you to be able to cross promote the different services you plan to provide.

I notice that Article Mojo still exists as a brand – are you planning to merge it in completely or let it stand? (I thought from reading the above that you already had.)

A great buy, I must say – congratulations.

Ghostwriting services is booming, as unique contents are more and more important today.

I understand that you wouldn’t disclose any numbers regarding the biz price tag, but could you suggest a hint or two, to inspire us?

Cheers!

Ed – I didn’t entirely change the focus of the site, but wanted it to match my personality and business ideas. The reason I was given is that Article Mojo is pretty well known and has it’s own brand for a few years. I was concerned about upsetting any current clients but realized that it really didn’t matter to them as long as I was taking care of their needs.

Allan – Yes, I think people can expect change. I compared it to my offline business. I purchased another store location that was from a competitor. When I took over, of course I didn’t leave their sign still hanging, I changed it. It just made sense to me.

Katie – Welcome to the blog and thanks for posting! I believe it was the best decision for me that’s for sure. And it shows when I increased my client load very quickly.

New reader here. Thanks for your post. I agree, rebranding a recently acquired business is always a little nerve-wracking–but you did a great job thinking it through and making sure your brand reflects your business’ intentions.

Congratulations on your recent success!
Katie Langston

You obviously put a lot of thought into the decision to re-brand. I think most clients expect a degree of change when someone else buys the business. I’m sure if you can demonstrate the value in the new offer, they’ll happily stay with you.

Based on your recent results it looks like the change has been succesful. Well done.

It sounds as though you are planning to change the focus. If that’s the case, then re-branding makes sense. What was the rational for not re-branding from the consultants?
I would agree with them if the existing focus was on target with you and you only wanted to expand on it’s scope of services. Then it’s just a new marketing campaign.

You know – NEW name, NEW focus, NEW personality – sounds like a re-brand is the smart move to me.

Great information and great job on going with your gut.

Angela