What is it that sets you apart from others? Or what is the first thing that people think of when they wish to connect with you? Of course, it’s your name that helps them recognize the person you are.

Everyone wishes to have a unique name that’s not only meaningful but matches their personality as well. There are many instances when people grow up and change the names given by their parents for several reasons. They seek names that are more likeable, easy to pronounce, describe their personality and are accurate spelling wise too, to get more acceptance in the society and among peers.

The same story is true for domain names for businesses.

Many big industry giants have changed their business and/or domain names as in an online scenario, consumers can get easily confused by similar spelling/sounding names and this can lead to significant implications for a business.

Facebook was originally thefacebook dot com, PayPal was originally X dot com, Google originally registered google dot stanford dot edu. and later changed to Google dot com.

Less than two minutes guide of reasons to change your domain name –

Why consider a domain name change for your startup?

Change is vital for excellence and high performance. May be when you started out, or launched your business, things were not the same and have turned out differently than expected. Your business has changed overtime and it isn’t the same entity it was back then.

Your customers are not exactly who you thought would be. Or, maybe you realize that you now need to pivot /head in a new direction. Or, you need to change domain name for your website to match your company’s new name.

The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change. –Bill Clinton

Today, web is the marketplace where your customers find you. Day by day, expectations of the online users are changing. They want to find exactly what they want with minimum efforts and this has made the web a competitive marketplace.

Here, your domain name plays a big part. That’s why, if it’s not fetching you the desired traffic, may be, it’s time you consider changing it.

Of course, it can be a scary prospect, but sometimes it’s necessary to move your website to a new domain. Moreover, now you have a plethora of options up for grabs as the world has moved beyond .COM – there are thousands of business specific domain names available now.

Common questions which many people ask us:

• Should I change my domain name?

For answer, walk through this section in the post “Top 5 reasons to consider a domain name change for your startup”.

• Is it possible to change domain name of my website? Can we change the domain name once we register?

No, it is not possible to change your domain name after registration, you need to delete the existing domain name and buy a new domain name.

• Will changing my domain name affect my SEO?

Google gives equal weightage to all the domain names, so modifying your domain name will not affect your SEO.

• How do I change the domain name for my new website without losing SEO?

In order to know how to change your website’s domain name without losing Google rankings, read these 7 simple steps to changing domain name with SEO impact negligible.

• Is it necessary to change my domain name if I want to change my niche?

Not necessarily, unless there are certain factors that necessitate changing your domain name, as mentioned below.

Top 5 reasons to consider a domain name change for your startup

1. You have changed your business and you want your domain name to reflect this

It is always wise to choose a domain name that describes your business – products and services. So, if you have changed your business or its name and your existing domain name does not align with it, then depending on what services or products you provide or sell, register a new domain name.

Like if your domain name is buyshoes.com but now you wish to sell fashion accessories, you should buy a new domain name.

Changing domain name of a newly established business or a startup can make a significant difference in its branding. Thus, consider changing your domain name if you have a new audience, new solutions, new keywords, new positioning, etc.

2. You need to increase web traffic

Too often, small business owners assume that higher rankings equal to more customers, but that’s not always the case as higher rankings not always translate to paying customers.

However, change your domain name if it does not reverberate with your brand and is not driving enough traffic for you or if people get your name confused with that of a competitor’s. You should choose a domain name that is meaningful and has perfect branding potential.

This will help you drive more traffic to your site, and will boost your search result rankings.

You should also concentrate on building a quality website to impress your visitors.

3. You want to reduce your online marketing costs

The advertising or marketing spend of an online business is often, huge. Businesses spend heavily on search marketing, display advertising, online video, and email marketing. No doubt, it is an investment to build a business but it is also a cost to the business.

As per a research, the average firm was expected to allocate 41% of their marketing budget to online in 2018, and this rate is expected to grow to 45% by 2020.

But when you change your website domain to a more memorable and meaningful one, it will drive web traffic to your site organically and thus, you will be able to save costs on paid marketing, expensive search engine placements and other advertisings done online.

4.You want to build more user-friendly URL

Your existing domain name is too long and you just want to shorten it, so that your customers don’t find it difficult to remember it. Moreover, short domain names are easier to share, hence will help you spread your brand name.

The pool of domain name extension has widened. Today there are 1226 new gTLDs available for different business requirements, and that give you a great choice to secure an amazing one for your business.

Take some time to research everything available. If you are short of time, consult with the best domain name provider per your research to understand how to change domain name and register the exact match domain for your business.

5. You want one domain name for your multiple similar domains

If you have several sites that are essentially delivering the same type of content to a similar audience, you may want to consider amalgamating your domains. You can bring your multiple personal and professional sites under one roof.

We recommend that you should be careful while changing your domain name. Evaluate whether changing over to a new domain is worth the work as changing your domain is not an activity which one should perform more than once.

So be certain before making the change. Good luck!

Do let us know if you have any queries in the comments section

Originally Published in ZNetLive