Is Changing A Website the Same as Changing Firm Name?

Changing a website is not the same as changing your law firm's name. One can change the printed materials, business cards and the name outside the office with relative ease and over time, but switching out domain names is almost as bad as starting with a different website. Also, search engines give credibility to websites that have not changed over time. This way they can respect that the site really is what it says it is. The search engines to not want to see a law firm one day only to crawl the website and discover that it is an aromatherapy spa site or pet therapy website. If you have a generic name for your legal practice such as franchisingandfranchiselaw if you are a franchise lawyer, or Arizonatrademark if you are an intellectual property lawyer saves you having to start a new website.

Your Domain Name is Your Online Brand

Google has made several announcements recently confirming the importance of branding in search engine results. If you need to change your website because of a change in the firm practice, you need to consider the impact of changing your domain name or URL. In some respects, it can be like starting over and have negative affects on your Search Engine Rankings. The time and money you have spent building your online brand with the search engines, could all be out the window with a domain name change. This is something lawyers have to consider from a marketing perspective. One way of dealing with this is to make sure you have a generic keyword URL to begin with. Many of our clients are resistent to this at first because they think of the URL the same as the name of the firm. Whereas one can change the name of the firm with some degree of control, it is difficult to make the same adjustments online.

Changing Firms and Urls

Lawyers know more than most that changing from job to job can wreck havoc on a career. Move too many times and you could kill your career. Changing your domain name could have the same effect in terms of search engine rankings, but sometimes both situations collide when a lawyer must change practice area or the firm and then decide on how that might affect his or her Internet presence.

There are a number of things to consider if you must change your domain name. As we emphasize often here, your website is way more than a business card. At least it should be if you are using it effectively. It is also your online brand. Remember, changing your url is like changing your brand.