We had a prospective client come to us explaining that they were not getting any inquiries and their traffic had dried up suddenly. When asked what changed, they said they hired an SEO. (a person to do Search Engine Optimization). After exploring the many things that had been done, we discovered that this person recommended that the business change their domain name to “a better one” – one that seemed better than simply the name of the person running the business, but whose name had become the brand.

I asked how long had they been using the “old” domain name? “11 years” they said. So after spending 11 years building a successful business that depended on the websites rank in search engines for its source of leads, they switched to a brand new domain name that had no search rank (called “Authority Score”. the long the domain name is around the better the Authority Score, and therefore the better it might rank in search).

They changed the domain name and the business disappeared from search. People who knew the business by name or word-of-mouth, could not find them online.

We recommended to switch back ASAP. The recovery was not immediate.

Chalk this up to one of those Stupid Things that costs!