Consequences of changing a domain name

[justme]

Our marketing guru recommended our company change our domain name to something more in line with the market we serve. I'd like to understand the benefits and drawbacks on such a change. If it was in our best interest to do this, what is the best way to make such a change. FYI, our domain name was registered in 1996.

Thanks in advance.

[bwnbwn]

justme that is tough question to answer for several reasons. there are advantages and disadvantages to the changes.
Advantages can be better "Branding"
Easy to remember/type the domain in browser.
Easier to market a domain that does sound like it is in the same market.
Disadvantages are loss of traffic serp positions to an extended period of time. Loss of links that point to the old domain. A ton of extra work that will need to be done if you ever plain on ranking the site. old site has 14 years worth of history so your really going to be starting out in 2010.

Done right with the proper amount of work 301 the site to the correct url's will reduce the loss and speed up recovery but as I said you will tank in the serps.

Tough choice but it has been done many many times and something that will always come up as a company moves forward.

Let us know what your company does and how things go.

[artek]

Your company can add good keyword or keyword phrase domain to its assets and test it as the company store front, company PR or info page, company blog, products info page, industry forum, etc.

But that again, as bwnbwn said, it will depend what your company is after.