If you search for it you’ll come up w/class action lawsuit blah, blah, and that it went out of business.
But that was 5 years ago.
Still, I can see potential clients doing a search and not realizing that we’re not the same company.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Do you think that is too much to overcome?
Thanks in advance
Does the company forever intend to explain "Oh, no, we're not that company and have no relationshipo to them."
I think the company is off to a bad start, by virtue of the domain name's history, which creates a fault line the company's online identity.
If you are going after a generic domain name, here are some thoughts to offset any negative association to the prior owner. Perhaps you could add a page that says something about the site. Include the date that you started the site, to make it clear that you are not affiliated with the former entity, without having to mention the prior company. If possible, create an association between the site and your existing company, to give it credibility. Include a copyright date at the bottom of your pages starting with © 2005 to the current year. Add a comments section, saying that this is a new site and that you are seeking feedback to improve usability. Down the road, you could say something along the lines of "happily serving widget customers since 2005".
If you are going after a branded domain name, the negativity may be much harder to dispel.
Keep in mind that the above are generalizations and all depend on the specifics of your situation. Just how bad was the former owner's reputation and how widely was the domain name tarnished? Is it something like Enron or Worldcom where it was featured on every news portal on the planet or something more obscure?
