How to Change Shopify Store Name and It's Affect SEO

2. Sometimes change to a storefront is needed. It is important to note that some changes may help orhinderyourShopify SEO. OnShopify, you can change yourstore name if you needto. Your business name is attached to your overall existing brand image, so branded searches willnolongerberelevanttoyourbusinesswithoutpropercoursesofaction. Thisquickguidewill beabletohighlight toyou: WhyyoumayneedtochangeyournameonShopify HowtochangeyourShopifyname IfchangingyourDomainnamehurtsyourShopifySEO AndafewothertipsandtricksforShopify ● ● ● ●

3. Why you may want to change your name on Shopify An SEO based decision should not be the driving force to making a name change for your brand. Before you go forward and change your name and kick-starting the deep process of regaining and recoveringtraffic,youneedtoknowwhyyouwanttomakethechange. Changingyournametotrytogetanedgeontargetkeywordsmaynotendupinyourfavorifusers startusingdifferentphrasestofindyouandyourcompetition. The following examples show some of the top reasons businesses have for changing their name withvalidreason:

4. Moving onward and upward A business expansion provides avalid reason for aname change. These include businesses that start as one entity and add onto themselves. Small businesses often do this. They start with what they can affordtostartup,thenaddontoservicesandproductstosell. An example could be a health food store (Vitamin Shack, for example), and then the store owner decides to begin offering deli items made in-house and got the clearance to sell groceries and produce. They could rename themselves to Health Shack, Vittles and Vitamin Shack, or any other combination. Thischangereflectsthatthereisnowmoreofferedthanjustvitaminsnow. Location changes If a single shop ends up having to relocate AND has the location as a part of the name, this could allow foragreatreasontoswitchuptheirname…especiallyiftheoriginallocationwillnolongerbestanding. Let’s say the owner of Glasgow Fine Finds (an antique shop) ends up having to move to Brighton. She may thenwant to rename hersite toBrighton Fine Finds to be able to reflect therelocation (alongwith updatingalllocallistings)tobeabletoshowthatsheisasingularlocationtiedtoacity.

5. Company mergers A merger is a typical example in bigger businesses when changing a name. These are pretty straightforward in reasoning. Company A joins Company B and now makes Company A+B. The new companyneedstoreflectbothnames. A great example of a merger is with Disney. Disney merged with Pixar, so now movies produced show they are made by Disney Pixar. The names are combined to show the unison, and then an internal changeisneededtobeabletoreflectthistousers. Pivoting Pivoting occurs when a business changes its approach and what it is selling or providing. A pivot is a waytobothsavethecompanyandattemptnottotakeahugelossiftheoriginalproductlineisfailing. A possible example would be a company that uses farmed hides for leather products. If there is a steep drop in sales, they may want to change to vegan sourced materials to try to appeal to a different demographic to keep the company afloat. There would probably be a name change attached to this to reflectthenewapproachandproductlinebetter.

6. How to change your Shopify name Changing your name on Shopify is a fairly simple process. This can be done in the back end of your admindashboardonyourShopifysite. Log into youradmin dashboard on Shopify → Goto settings → Go to General → Go to Store details →Changeitandclick save. From this admin panel, you can change the name of your Shopify site. Here, to know more about howtochangeShopifystorename. Thisonlyallowsthenameofthesitetobechangedthough.Ifyouwishtochangetheoveralldomain name, you will have to check if it is available and then begin a different process for a site migration alongwithensuringyourkeywordsgetadjustedtomatchthenewdomain.

7. How changes affect your SEO ChangingyournameordomainwillhaveanimpactonyourSEOoverall. Whenyouchangethese,yourSEOisessentiallywipedclean. This means all of your efforts will need to be restarted to be able to both maintain and improve yourrankings…becauseadropintrafficisinevitable.A dropintraffictoyoursitecaneasilyoccur fora6to12monthperiod. Thisshould be expected, nomatter what methodsand choices youmake. Achange that seems as simple as flipping the name has massive impacts. Google has recognized your site and all information as something attached to a specific domain name. Changing the name changes the URLs,andthatmeanschangesinthesearchenginesintheoppositedirection.

8. Tips for making a name migration Although a drop is inevitable, there are a few tips and tricksthat can help have a lessened impact on yoursite’sperformance.Youwantto ensurethis process runssmoothlyand efficientlyto help yourShopifysitemakeafullandimprovedrecovery. Time the change to the time of year Because there will be an inevitable drop in site traffic, you want to be sure a change of this magnitude has the least impact on your shop as possible. You do not want to change the name of yourshopand domainduring yourbusiest timeof the season. Time this process based on the cycles of your shop. If spring is slowest based on your product, start the official process late winter, so the heaviesthitsoccurwhenyoursiteistheslowest. If you time this during your busy season, you willhave both the predictedloss of sales plusmiss out on abuffer from the busy season. This means invest in gaining extratraffic during your busy season to bulk up sales and invest in a little extra ads or boosting your SEO for during the transition to attempttoslowandlessentheoveralldropintraffictoyoursite.

9. Prepare for the inevitable Get your new Domain ready No matter what you do and how great your team is…there will be a drop and slow in traffic to your site. This is simply because of the way Google and other search engines work. Changing your Shopify name is not something to do last minute or without aplan for. When you know you want to change your name for your Shopify site and have the domain name bought andsecuredmakesureanythingneededforthesiteis ready. One quick plan that can begin to help reap more benefitsisregistering thedomainonShopifyoncethe domain is bought. This allows the domain name to begin ageing some, so it isn’t so new. A simple HTML landing page that links back to your existing site can suffice until it is time for the official name change and migrationofyoursite. When preparing for this, make a plan well beforethechangeoccurs. I.e.When tomake the change, what thename will be, bringing in an agency before the change occurs, having a promotional plan in place before and after the name gets changed, get your adjusted. Youwanttobegingainingthosebrandedsearchesfor your new name and be able to showcase the move. With proper redirects and new landing pages, existing clients will be able to prepare for the change, and those currently searching for the original name will know what to expect when the new name launches. new domain name

10. Bring on an agency that is anything but a lemon Bringing a consultant…or even better…an experienced team on board can help make your name migration process much easier to perform and understand. An agency… ah-hem Pearl Lemon … canbethekeytoensuringsuccessduringalargechange. When choosing an agency to involve, it is important to choose someone that offers more than just front end SEO services. There is a lot more involvement during a process like this. Your chosen helpshouldalsohaveexperienceandprovenknowledgeintechnicalSEOas well. This type of move has much more technical SEO involvement. This type of project requires proper redirects, not making immediate content changes, and more. An agency like Pearl Lemon has proven experience and case studies that can be provided to show that this process can be done andallowforcontinualsuccess.

11. What if I want to change the theme AND the name Like many other CMS systems, you are able to choose a theme at the startof yoursite creation and change it later. Changing the site theme doesusuallycome with a warningon the site itself thatthe adjustmentcanaffectlayoutsofcontentandpagesandsomeformsthough. Due to this, changing your theme can have an impact on SEO to a similar tune that changing the name does. Just like with adjusting a name, you need to prepare and look at possible unintended consequencestothesiteifthethemeischanged.

12. Changesmaybepositiveornegative,depending onthethemechosen. I.e. a change of theme could either increase or decrease loading time for the site….and a slow site canoftenfrustrateanddetervisitors. There are some plug-ins available on Shopify…and other CMS options…that can help buffer and easetheSEOimpactofathemechange. A theme change can also affect your headings through your site. If you have headings that are hyperlinked and varied throughout the pages of your website, there could be some legitimate concernswiththisbecausesomethemechangeswillnotpreservethis. Lookingfor helpwithyour Shopify SEO?Let PearlLemon helpyoumake an easier transition. Book a call today with our team to discuss your SEO plan and if you need to change your site name or domainforyourShopifysite!