Is a new domain necessary for rebranding?

[Kay]

Here's the dilemma, I hope you guys will have some interesting things to say about it. What do you do when the technology changes and the niche you're promoting becomes obsolete and you want to change tack? Will it really be necessary to change the domain to effect the rebranding or could you persevere with a domain that's out of date but on a long-established website?

It's easier to explain if I give an example.

Let's say I've owned MyPetCat .com for the last ten years. This is a large and successful site which had great traffic and made a nice bit of income every month.

However, things change on the Internet and MyPetCat is getting a bit elderly now. Although there is still a vast amount of info on the site about my cat, people aren't quite so interested any more because every man and his dog have FB pages or blogs about their pet cats. The days of My Pet Cat are numbered.

As I see it, I have several options:

- sell the site before it tanks (jump before I'm pushed)

- let it decline (it was good while it lasted)

- change direction (keep all the old content for interest whilst it becomes less profitable, and concentrate on providing new content in a related niche on the same site)

The third is my preferred option, so now I want to move into dog training, selling pet food, fashion accessories for pets, etc. The problem is that My Pet Cat isn't a good name for such an endeavour. So, what do I do? Start a new website for my dog stuff? But then I'd be starting from scratch instead of building on an old established website.

Can you think of any examples of businesses who've persevered with an obsolete domain name?

How can I rebrand the site without changing the domain?

So far, I've thought of doing a gradual shift so it's not immediately apparent that the direction has changed substantially. People tend not to like massive changes which happen overnight.

The current domain isn't exactly the best EMD, but it definitely does tell you what the site is about. Anyway, if I'm also trying to move away from depending on SE traffic, how important is the domain?

Any suggestions, comments, ideas?

Thanks.

[akirk]

Can you not set up a new site alongside under the mypetdog domain and use the history / value of mypetcat to shift people across - then as mypetdog grows - ditch the cat?

Alasdair

[Kay]

Yeah, but my pet cat is ten years old and my pet dog would be new tomorrow. I don't want to ditch the old domain/site if I can possibly avoid it.

[ClaytonL]

I don't like the idea of providing broader services for pets under the MyPetCat.com domain name. I think you'd have a harder time getting people to click through to your site as well as hurt your sales conversion rate. People would think anything you try to sell outside of cat services is just an afterthought to you.

You'll know best, but I'd probably hang on to MyPetCat.com. It's a highly relevant property you could use to drive traffic to the cat section of your new site. Also, you won't have to go through the hassle of selling it. I'd use MyPetCat.com to drive traffic to the new site as well as give me it's last bits of profit.

[crabfoot]

How I'd do it, if I had but passion to match my skill -

Set up PetBeastie. com, lots of new info running on dog.petbeastie .com subdomain, PetBeastie. com/index page 302 redirected to dog.petbeastie .com/index .

Inform gargyl that myPetCat is being migrated to cat.PetBeastie. com - gives you 6 months in which to avoid duplicate content issues. Put all myPetCat stuff on cat.petBeastie . com immediately, as duplicate.

After migration ,use 301 redirect on myPetCat.com to point at cat.petbeastie.com/index page, which also has links to dog.PetBeastie.com and PetBeastie. com index pages in large flashing type, above the fold.

Take out 302, expand site, so general stuff starts at PetBeastie .com index, with very obvious links above fold to cat.petBeastie. com/index and dog.petbeastie. com/index . Make sure to retain "look and feel" of all historic sites associated with process - familiarity breeds comfort, not contempt, when we're talking websites.

Go on to develop python.petBeastie .com, elephant.petBeastie .com, and DaveMcM.wildBeastie .com as desired ...

[Kay]

People would think anything you try to sell outside of cat services is just an afterthought to you.

And that would be true. It's an afterthought ten years after the original concept of the site.

The consensus seems to be to go for a new site for the new type of content.

Inform gargyl that myPetCat is being migrated to cat.PetBeastie. com - gives you 6 months in which to avoid duplicate content issues.

Dupe content was one of the things that was bothering me if I went for the migration option. I didn't know that G would give you six months to do it in. Very handy.

Make sure to retain "look and feel" of all historic sites associated with process - familiarity breeds comfort, not contempt, when we're talking websites.

Tell me about it. When we make any changes they are usually met with howls of protest. However, we could revamp the cat site and run it for a couple of months with the new design, then start the beastie site with the same design, and then later start the migration.

And now for the next problem - how to monetise it - but that's a problem for another day...

[monty]

change direction (keep all the old content for interest whilst it becomes less profitable, and concentrate on providing new content in a related niche on the same site)

Some ideas :
How about keeping the old site going and using it as a source of authority backlinks to your new content ? If its related content, links from a ten year old authority site will be really beneficial to the new site in ranking terms.

You could also use any unused ad space on the existing site to run your "ads" for the new site for branding purposes.

Using your example, if the content is as related as cats and dogs , you can assess which of your current users/customers/advertisers and so on would benefit from the new site and get in touch with them and give the new site a boost.

[Kay]

I like your ideas, Monty. Thanks. Yes, the original is an "authority" site with some fairly good IBLs. It would be a shame to lose all that's been built up

Whether I decide to migrate the content or not, it became obvious from discussions here that I need to put the new content onto a new domain/site. I searched for days for something suitable. No joy. I used all kinds of suggestion tools and tried to think outside the box, but everything was already gone. Part of the problem was that getting both the .com and the .co.uk were essential criteria.

Then I had a brainwave - use my own name. If Craig can do it with CraigsList, then I can do it with Kays "PetStore". I'm glad I have a nice short name.