Renaming Your Business: The Online Rebrand Checklist

Short answer: A business rename touches far more than the website: the name itself has to be cleared, then the domain and email, your Google Business Profile, social handles, directory listings, app store pages, invoices, legal pages and every customer touchpoint need to change in a planned order. Work in three phases: before launch (checks and preparation), launch day (switch everything at once), and the first 90 days (clean-up and monitoring). The order matters most for Google Business Profile, where a major name change can mean closing the old profile and creating a new one.

Phase 1: Before launch

Clear the name

Trademarks. Search the trademark register in each country where you trade. WIPO's Global Brand Database lets you search international trademarks under the Madrid System and trademarks from participating national offices in one place; follow up with your national office's own search. For anything beyond a quick screen, a trademark attorney is money well spent.
Company registers. Check that the name is available, or registrable as a trading name, where your company is registered.
Search results. Google the name with your city and industry. If a similar business ranks for it, you'll fight confusion for years.
Pronunciation and spelling. Say it over the phone to five people and ask them to type it. If they can't, customers and voice assistants won't either.

Secure the digital assets

[ ] Register the main domain plus obvious variants and typos you'd want to protect.
[ ] Reserve social handles on every platform you use, even ones you'll activate later.
[ ] Decide email addresses and set up the new mail domain with proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) before sending from it.
[ ] Keep the old domain. Google's Change of Address documentation recommends paying for the old domain "for at least a year" to stop others buying it for malicious purposes; for a rebrand, keeping it longer is cheap insurance.

Prepare the list

Build one spreadsheet of every place the old name appears. Typical rows:

Area	Examples
Web	Website, booking system, online shop, help center, forms
Google	Business Profile, Search Console, Analytics, Ads, Merchant Center
Social	Profiles, bios, usernames, link-in-bio pages, pinned posts
Listings	Industry directories, review sites, chamber of commerce, map apps
Apps	App Store and Google Play names, developer name, in-app text
Money	Invoices, quotes, payment provider statement descriptor, bank account name
Legal	Terms, privacy policy, imprint or legal notice, contracts, licenses
Physical	Signage, vehicles, uniforms, packaging, business cards
Comms	Email signatures, phone greeting, voicemail, chatbot or phone agent scripts

Assign each row an owner and a date. Most rebrands that go wrong do so because of a forgotten row.

Phase 2: Launch day

Website and domain

Launch the site on the new domain with permanent (301) redirects from old URLs. Google's site-move guide says permanent redirects "don't cause a loss in PageRank," but the mapping has to be complete.
In Search Console, verify the new property and use the Change of Address tool. Google's help page sets out the order: redirects first, then the tool, which forwards signals to the new site for 180 days. You must own both properties with the same Google account. Keep redirects for at least 180 days, longer if traffic still arrives.

That's the whole search-technical part. Everything else is about people finding the same business under a new name.

Google Business Profile

This is the step most likely to surprise you. Google's guidelines say a profile can be rebranded (renamed in place) only for a minor change, where "the proper nouns and services described in the business name remain unchanged and the business category remains unchanged," or for multi-location businesses changing name. Otherwise it's treated as a new business: "You must mark the existing Business Profile as closed and then create a new Business Profile with your new business name."

What this means in practice:

Read the guideline against your new name before launch day.
If you qualify, edit the name to match your new signage exactly. Google says that if you change the name after verification "you might need to verify your business again," so expect a short delay.
If you don't qualify, plan for a new profile and new verification. Put the new signage up first, because the name must reflect "your business's real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery."

Social, apps and payments

Change display names and bios, then usernames where the platform allows it. Pin a post explaining the change.
On the App Store, the app's name is editable when you submit a new version, according to Apple's App Store Connect help, and it's limited to 30 characters. Change the developer or seller name through your account, and do the same on Google Play.
Update your payment provider's statement descriptor so customers don't dispute charges from a name they don't recognize.

Tell customers

Email existing customers: what's changing, what isn't (people, prices, service), the new web address and email, and when old addresses stop working.
Add a short banner on the site: "We're now [new name], same team, same service."
Update your phone greeting and any chatbot or AI phone agent script the same day.

Phase 3: The first 90 days

[ ] Directories and citations. Work through the listings in your spreadsheet. Consistent name, address and phone everywhere helps customers and search engines connect old and new.
[ ] Reviews. Old reviews stay with a renamed profile. If you had to create a new one, ask happy customers to review the new profile, and mention the change in replies on the old platforms where possible.
[ ] Search Console. Watch indexing of the new site and redirect errors on the old one.
[ ] Branded search. Search the old name every couple of weeks to see what still ranks and fix it.
[ ] Email forwarding. Keep the old addresses forwarding for at least a year; suppliers and long-tail customers will use them.
[ ] Legal and finance. Contracts, invoices, quote templates, bank details and insurance updated, including any registered trading name.
[ ] Physical items. Replace signage, vehicles and printed materials on a schedule rather than all at once if budget is tight, but keep them consistent with the profile name.

FAQ

Should I keep the old name anywhere on the website?

Yes, for a while. A line such as "formerly known as…" on the About page helps people searching the old name land in the right place and reassures them it's the same business.

Do I lose my Google reviews when I rename?

Not if the profile qualifies for rebranding and is edited in place. If Google's rules require a new profile, the reviews stay on the closed one, so plan to rebuild them.

How long should the old domain redirect?

Google says to keep redirects for at least 180 days and to keep paying for the old domain for at least a year. For a small business, keeping both for several years costs little and protects your old links.

What's the most common mistake in a rebrand?

Changing the name on the website weeks before the signage and Business Profile, or the other way round. Customers and search engines then see two names for one business.

If you'd like help sequencing the switch so the website, profiles and listings change together, send us your list of places the old name appears.